Baptisms...in the Ocean

Seriously such an awesome week this week. Loved every minute of it. I love being a missionary. 

Ponderize of the week: Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. 1 Tim 4:12

I've been working being better at all of the attributes recently. I read the talk by President Monson called: "Be an Example and A Light" and I've been trying to develop those attributes and evaluating myself to see where I need improvement. It's a great talk.

So Monday we just sat on the beach all day and ate Doritos (yeah they have Doritos here! How great is that?!?). It was a chill day. It was nice. We taught Sandy and Esperant that night and had a great lesson with them. They are doing great! THey just have a few concerns about leaving their church to come to ours. But we are working with them and they are progressing nicely. And it helps a lot that their uncle is the 1st councilor in the branch presidency. Then we got to have a soiree with President Danielson and President Foote came! It was a great time and learned a lot about humility from his daughter. 

Tuesday we had an awesome day and some cool things happen. First, we were tracting and came across the house of an older man and his wife. He can't walk. I'm pretty sure he has diabetes but I'm no doctor. We comforted him and his wife and shared with them the plan of salvation. I just felt a lot of love for them. It was a great lesson and they liked it a lot. We had a member split later that night to help the members do home teaching. I went with the 1st councilor in the branch presidency to go teach the inactive 2nd councilor in the branch presidency. Well it was an awesome lesson. We got to his house and were just talking to him for a second and I asked him about his baptism. Malagasies love talking about their baptism. Their face just lights up when you ask about it. We were looking through pictures and things and the whole time I was just thinking to myself,"What Can I share with him that will help him? What does he need? I've never met him before. I need some help." Then a scripture can to my mind: 3Nephi 9:14. Well we started the lesson and Fr Odilon started us off. Well the scripure he shares is 3Nephi 9:14. We didn't prepare that. The Spirit just started to fill the room and I could feel the love Heavenly Father has for this man. It was a testimony builder to me of this greatness of this work and that God knows us and will give us exactly what we need. Elder Jensen went with the 2nd councilor in the Elder's Quorum to reactivate the 1st councilor. He wasn't there so they went to teach Helenie and Edward. They are reading the Book of Mormon every night as a family and are convinced from what they have read that it is of God and they want to be baptized. Then we had a little soiree with Odilon and his wife. They are awesome. Just so aweomse.

Wednesday we had district meeting. A very good one I might add, about the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon's purpose is to testify of Christ adn if the book is true then through it is the only way we can know the true path that we need to take. We taught Sandy and Esperant later about the Sabbath day and they said they would come to church! We had a ton of tracting time that day because we dropped most of our program. We are trying to clean it up nice so when I leave, Elder Jesen will have a nice pool of investigators. We found a way cool family that we excited to teach. The one guy has some pretty cool dredlocks and will only join the church if he doesn't have to cut his hair first haha. We taught Helisoa and Lalaina that night about the Book of Mormon and it went great! They are way awesome and I like them a lot. They are already thinking about joining the church! We are seeing some awsome things go on here in Tanambao. 

Thursday I had a split with Elder Ulrich, my grandson. He was doing a baptismal interview for Rufin. We had a pretty packed program that day full of contacts but most of them fell through. And we saw a ton of Muslims. Way cool. It's Ramadan. Way cool holiday they do. We contacted into Gerard the taxi driver. he apparently moved houses. It was his wife's birthday and they had her parents over. Her dad learned from missionaries back in the 90s in Tana and still has a Book of Mormon. We talked about the Book of Mormon with them and encouraged them to read and pray about it. We taught Naina about the Word of Wisdom and he loved it. He loved church too on Sudnay. The interview went great! He PAssed! I was talking to his cousins the whole time. They had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and it was way good. We taught Lanto and Dorote and they were supposed to get interviewed also but their birth certificates needed to be renewed or something so they still can't get marreid. It was sad but I'm still way happy that they will still get baptized! I just won't be here anymore. 

Friday we had a really good day. We tracted into 3 families and taught them and they were all awesome lessons! We taught Francisca and she is doing awesome! I was a little worried about her and her family because they say a lot of things that make her question a little bit. But she has a testimony of the truth and she isn't letting the things her family says bug her. She just asks us to explain things when we get there. Also Anjara and Marciel were supposed to get baptized but some things came up and they spent all their money that they had saved up to get married. So they are back to ground 0. 

Saturday was a pretty good day. We were able to catch 2 really good times right of the bat. One guy I taught right when I got here but he kinda dropped off the radar for a little while but we found him again adn he's awesome. He's really interested in the Book of Mormon. Then we had a baptism! Rufin got baptized! We combined it with the other branch so there were lots that got baptized. And we did it in the ocean. I got to baptize one of the kids in the other branch so I can say that i baptized on both coasts now haha. It was a way cool service and it's always awesome to hear their testimonies. We literally ran from the baptism to our nezt time because we were way late. We were supposed to teach Aina with a friend of hers that is way interested. Well we got to the house late and she had already left. We went to Naina's and taugh tthem and it was great! I love him so much. Then we went back to Aina and found out she wasn't there beacuse seh took her friends home. Turns out it's a couple that is interested. Felt way bad that we missed it but we set up another time and apologized and she said she was coming to church! 

Sunday was so awesome. We had so many people come to church. Both less actives that we visited on Tuesday came. We had 21 investigators at church. It was so great. Aina came with her kids and she loved it! Her kids had a great time in primary and she hit it off way well with Odillon's wife, becasue they are both from Fianarantsoa. She had something going on at her church that day but gave it up to come to ours. It seriously made me soo happy. I gave a talk about tithing. I was supposed to be the 2nd talk but they changed it without telling me so I ended up with the 15 minute talk. And the other tyalks went a little fast so I ended up with a lot of time. But it went well. We taught a lot after church as well. We talked with Rufin about a mission. He's way excited. We taught the dredlock family again and they are super aweosmse. They read they whole pamphlet and had a ton of questions about teh Book of Mormon! We went by Germaine and Augustine that night with teh intention of telling them that we could not come back. They just weren't progressing or anythign. Well it was a big surprise. We open with a prayer and Germaine tells us that he has decided. They are going to get baptized. They are done with being half in half out. They are going all in. He' getting the marriage taken care of this week adn is done drinking. They heard that I was leaving on Saturday in church adn they were way sad. So they decided that they are done goofing around. They thought that I came and have taught them and that if I leave and they don't get baptized then I just wasted my time. They know it's true and they are going all in now. Way cool. It was a very satisfying day. 

Great week! I leave here on saturday and go to tana. Sorry I don't have a card reader so I can't upload pictures right now. It's crazy that this is my last week. But I am way excited to push this last week. I love the Lord. I love this work.

Elder Coleman