It's Getting Close to Christmas.....

Well, it's getting close to Christmas time and you know what that means... That's right, it means really hot weather, lots of sweating, mosquitoes, tons of rain and a small chance of Malaria. Don't you just love the Christmas season? Yeah so it doesn't really feel like Christmas because it's hot and there really aren't like any decorations. I've seen maybe three Christmas trees, and two of them were the fake like plastic ones and the other one was painted on a window, very badly I might add. Anyway, on to the week. 

On Monday, I already told you everything that we did except we did teach a time that night. We taught a guy named Jean Kely, who happens to be the cousin of one of our recent converts. He is a way cool guy and would be a huge help to the branch because we are in desperate need of Melchezidek Priesthood holders. 

Tuesday, we taught this family we have dubbed the drunk family because the first time we met them they were all drunk. The mom wasn't drunk this time but the dad was super drunk and was being sooooo stupid. It was super interesting though. We pretty much just told him to his face that he needs to stop that because it's bad for him and that next time we come back he can't be drunk. We went and taught Tinah after him and we haven't taught him in a long time. We taught him about ny Drafitry ny Famonjena (or Plan of Salvation for you that don't speak this crazy language) and I honestly think we scared him. Because, well he's a smart guy and he completely understood that our church is the only way to get to the Celestial Kingdom. He's scared because he's lazy and he knows that now that he knows about it he's accountable. So he's kinda stuck in a sense. But he just needs to be not lazy and come to church and everything will be ok. We did invite him to be baptized though and he said he will accept when he comes to us and asks to be baptized. Then we went and taught Mirana and her husband part of the first lesson and that went pretty well. But after that, the rains came... So much rain... I honestly think I saw more rain this week than Kanab sees in a year. So ridiculous. We taught Fanasina about prophets as soon as the rain stopped so we could actually go anywhere. We had Mario after but he wasn't home so went home a little early because I had felt like crap all day. We got home and I just ate and went to bed and figured I'd feel better in the morning.

Well Wednesday morning rolls around but it comes a little earlier than expected. At 2:30 I wake up and feel absolutely horrible and had to run to the bathroom and lets just say it wasn't super fun but I felt so much better afterwards. The term commonly used in this mission is "double dragoned" and it happens to everyone at least once in this mission. We taught the Brady bunch first thing this morning though and we had etienne help us. He was soooo helpful too. He calmed them down and it was the first lesson where they didn't make a lot of noise. They all accepted a baptismal date too so that was way awesome. I think only about 4 of them will be ready but hey it's still 4. We got to teach Yari today too who is a friend of ours. He used to work at this restaurant that we would go to sometimes. He wanted us to teach him and he's a way smart guy. We taught Marcellan and asked him if he reached his goal since November was over. His goal was 20,000 A and he said he had raised 25,000 A! We were so excited for him and then he told us that our branch president had told him not to pay tithing to help save up towards his goal. Yeah not ok. Our soiree got cancelled so we taught Mario about giving your all to God and not doing things in front of people for praise. I just read about it in Jesus the Christ that day and it was way good. 

Thursday we had district meeting which was way good. We practiced singing this French hymn that we are singing on this upcoming Sunday. Fun fact, it's not in the English hymnbook. For our lesson we just talked about all the different things that have changed us since we've been on our missions and it made me realize that I've already changed quite a bit. It's weird. Anyway, we taught Elder Ralaivao's family about enduring to the end and I just want them to accept the gospel so bad. They know it's true but they refuse to become a part of it because they are stuck in what they are used to. It's so frustrating. Today was our day out on the mountain and it was actually kind of a poopy day. No one was there so we only got to teach like 2 lessons out there. 

Friday was a split day. I went on a split with Elder Rigby and it was such a great learning experience! He's a way good missionary and it was way fun to be with him. But our program just kind of rolled over and died. All of our times dogged us. But we got a lot of good contacting in and taught a time to one of them and it was such an awesome lesson. Elder Rigby is so good at Malagasy and we had such a spiritual lesson with this family. We shared the message of the Restoration and it was so awesome. The spirit was so strong. The only time that we got to was our last one at 7. 

Saturday I got to teach English which was way fun. I love teaching English. I taught them Baseball and it was way fun. We did some contacting after that and found a Gideon which is all kinds of weird. You know those Bibles that are in hotels in northern Utah? They are the ones that put those there. So yeah that was kind of weird. We taught that Adventist guy again about the Book of Mormon and he didn't try to Bible bash us and he just sat and listened and agreed to read it so that was awesome. We taught Etiennes family about the story of King Noah, Abinadi and Alma and applied it to them. It was a way awesome lesson. I love their family so much. They are seriously the coolest. 

Yesterday, All of our times dogged us again which was super lame. There was a crazy rainstorm too that was way cool though. We were at home eating and you could literally see a wall of rain coming toward us and it was so cool when it hit. And there was hail in it which was really weird but yeah haha. We contacted these college students that were way cool and taught them the first. After that we went back to Etienne's and taught Eric and Stephanie about the Book of Mormon. 

This week we have a zone conference and President and the AP's are coming down. President should be bringing all my packages down with him so that'll be good. Just in time for Christmas :) Well enjoy your cold weather everyone (suckers) and enjoy all you Christmas decorations because some places just don't do that I guess.

That's all for this week. Peace out

Elder Coleman