Austin's Madagascar Mission: So Many Splits....

What a hectic week this week.Just so many things happened that it's just ridiculous but it was a way good week.

On Tuesday we taught one of our investigators, Jeremy, who is just an absolute stud. He's only 10. We were teaching him about tithing and it was a little difficult because he just wasn't getting it. But the real cool part of the lesson was like halfway through, his younger brother fell asleep. Jeremy left the room right in the middle of the lesson to get a blanket and put it on his brother. What a stud. Like for real.

We taught Fanasina, another of our 10 year old investigators, about the Word of Wisdom and it went way well. She totally got it and we taught them this fun way to remember what not to eat or drink.

We taught Mario's family that day too and oh my goodness is this guy a stud beyond all belief. He's the guy that reminds me of Braxton. But he is a recent convert and his best friend, Etienne, is also a recent convert and they consistently study the scriptures together. They also will take their scriptures and go out and visit members and share spiritual thoughts with them. So ballin'. Anyway, we taught Mario about the Book of Mormon and used the introduction and like the picture of the map of the world in the back of our Triples. It was a way good lesson. They learned a lot and it was way fun to teach. When I told them that I had Native American blood in me they like freaked out and thought it was the coolest thing ever. I don't know how to tell them that it's not exactly a lot but it's whatevs. Whatever strengthens their testimony of the Book of Mormon.

We went to the dentist again.Elder Connault bit another rock and broke the part that got fixed last time. But it was way quick this time. We took a bus and the dentist didn't charge us. We got back to the house and the Zone Leaders came. They came to do splits with all the areas and we got Elder Arrieus. He's from French Canada but he was Elder Rice's favorite companion and they are very similar so it was like being with Elder Rice again for a day it was way fun. We climbed this mountain in our area to get to some investigators and it was so cool. There was this random big school out in the middle of the jungle and they had a volleyball game going on and it look so fun. We walked all the way out there and our investigator dogged us so that was lame but it was a nice hike haha.

We had a soiree with our ex-branch president that night too. It was way good food! I really don't know what it was but it honestly looked so nasty. It was like this green paste stuff with bones in it. And it's rude to not eat everything so I had to swallow some bones. Yeah super fun. While we were at the soiree, the AP's had come down and were just chillin at our house. They were going to do splits the next day and the day after.

Since the zone leaders and the AP's were doing splits at the same time that was 4 people for three companionships. So me and Elder Connault did an actual split where he went with Elder Arrieus (again) and I got..... Elder Fox! It was so sweet! We went out onto the mountain to teach all our investigators out there and it was way fun. All we taught that day were first lessons. Elder Fox is seriously so good at Malagasy and teaching and just being a missionary in general. I felt so inadequate teaching with him honestly. But it was so fun and I learned a ton.

Before we did our split though we had district meeting and we just followed a scripture chain for our lesson about hw the Holy Ghost will help us. Elder Fox commented about how when we are put into a compnaionship where we know more Malagasy then our companion is when we learn the most. When we are put into hot water and have to float, that is when we really recognize how much God is helping us. It made me think of that split last week with Elder Mack where I was the one that had to do the talking and no one could really bail me out. My understanding and speaking improved so much in just that one day and I now recognize how much He has helpe me learn this language. It's rediculous.

The next day we got dogged by tons of our investigators and so we were just trying to go visit those that had dogged us earlier in the week to see if they were home and could learn. We happened to be near a member whose husband wants to learn from the missionaries but everytime we go to an appointment with him he isn't there. But, she informed us this time that he was home at the moment and that he could learn. SO we went and taught him a quick spiritual thought about faith and got to know him a little bit. I guess he had learned from the missionaries before and had gone through all the lessons but he worked on SUnday. He talked to his boss and got to have the morning off but he still had to work a night shift. The missionaries at that time told him that he couldn't be baptized because he still worked on Sunday. SO naturally he was ticked because he had done what he could. SO we told him we would talk to our leaders and see what we could do. I don't know the right answer but I think he should be allowed to be baptized.

Right after that lesson we went to the house next door and taught this super stud named Fabrice. He's a young dad who really wants to have God in his life. we taught him about the Book of Mormon and gave him one and invited him to pray about it. We also invited him to attend conference but he said he wouldn't do it until he had prayed and received an answer whether it was true or not. This guy has some potential.

We reviewed the bap interview questions with Jeremy just to make sure he's got it all down. He wants to get baptized so bad and we are trying to get him done by the end of this month. Elder Connault made me do the review while he took a nap but it went well.

And finally we got to watch conference! It was such a good conference too! I'll just pick one talk from each session that I liked. Sat morn, Uchtdorfs talk. I just loved it because it's Uchtdorf for one and for another thing it showed that picture of those stars and it was so nice! I miss the stars so much. You can see them better here then in Tana. Anyway I just like how we can receive any knowledge we want if we follow four simple steps: 1 Search the word of God, 2 Consider, Ponder, be thankful to God, etc. 3 Ask in the name of Christ 4 Know and Live the doctrine. We have to use the right instrument to know spiritual truth just like we need a telescope to see all the stars. one quote I liked from it was "If you do your part, it will come... and it will be glorious"

Sat after: I liked Jorg Klebingat's talk mostly becasue of his name. No but really it was just way good. Those 6 steps he gave to highten your spiritual receptiveness and spiritual well-being were so sweet. 1Take responsibility for your spirituality 2 Take responsibility for your physical well being 3 Embrace obedience sincerely 4 Get good at repenting thoroughly and quickly 5 get good at forgiving 6accept trials as part of the mortal experience

Priesthood: Uchtdorf, "Lord is it I?" enough said on that one. That ones pretty straight forward. We need to self evaluate and realize if we are the problem or if we have problems we need to take care of. Sun Morn: Monson, "ponder the path of thy feet" that one's pretty self explanatory.

Sun After: Carlos A Godoy, I really enjoyed this one and felt like it applied to me too. It had a good self evaluation question too; "If I continue on this path will the promised blessings in my Patriarchal Blessing be fulfilled?" And it was all about making like big long term decisions which I will need to start making pretty soon. I liked the 3 dingana (steps) he proposed: 1 Ponder choices with the end in mind. 2 We need to be prepared for the challenges that will come. 3 we need to share our vision with those we love. THey will help us and those kinds of decisions always affect our loved ones.

Ok one last thing and I'll end this ridiculously long email. After conference on Sunday we went to teach people but we got dogged yet again. SO we decided we would go visit Jean and Florine. We taught them the 1st last time so we went with the Book of Mormon. As we taught their whole demeanor changed. They went from, "We are Catholic and we don't want to listen to you" to genuine interest. As we taught they became interested and understood exactly what we needed them to. We gave them one and asked them to pray about it and to not trust us. Then Jean told us that this is exactly what he was looking for. He said they had let the Jehovah's Witnesses in and they just spouted their beliefs at them and didn't really leave them anything. But we gave them proof of our message and had asked for them to find out for themselves. SO instead of a "i guess you could come back sometime but we are always working and never know when we'll be here" it was a "yes come back on this day after we have prayed about it". I can testify of the power of the Book of Mormon. It was serious so sweet! and during the lesson Elder Connault was talking about Jesus and couldn't remember the scripture for "other sheep I have... etc." but right when he turned to me to ask if I knew where it was it just popped into the forefront of my mind. The Spirit was helping us out immensely in that lesson, and by helped i mean he was teaching.

Well that's it for this week and we've got more splits to come this week with the district leader so that never ends I guess. Sorry for the novel but yeah I'm not actually sorry.

Peace out!

Elder Coleman