Austin's Madagascar Mission: 6 Months...

It's so weird that I've already been out 6 months... Elder Rigby told me that the period of time from 6 months to a year just flies by. I'm not excited for that that's for sure.

Well last Monday, it was raining hard like I said last week. To make it better, our times stood us up and me ended up just being soaked in the short time we were outside. The rain here is like nothing I have ever seen. You can be sitting inside somewhere and you'll hear something that sounds like a rushing river slowly get louder and louder. Then, it will hit you and if you are inside a house you can't hear yourself think and if you're outside, well you're soaked in seconds.

Tuesday, we walked to our area and there is this huge retaining wall that just fell into the middle of the road. The thing was at least 10-12 feet tall and the rain throughout the night had just worn it down enough somewhere I guess so it all came crashing down. Our favorite Jehovah's witness lives just across the street and he said he thought it was an earthquake. Speaking of him, he's still reading the Book of Mormon I gave him. He was in 1 Ne 4 when we talked to him that day.We had Francois with us today and just contacted pretty much the whole day. We found this guy that works at Tsara Guest House; a cook. He knew Francois through his dad somehow. Super Random. We taught Sandra, Orion and Fanasina later. Sandra is finally understanding that God and Jesus Christ are not the same person. The Catholics really drill that into their brains. They are by far the hardest to teach. But you can definitely can tell that Fanasina has the Gift of the Holy Ghost now. We are going deeper with her on things that she had a hard time understanding the first time around but gets it no problem. She's reading everyday, going to seminary, and helping her sister learn. She's a stud.

Wednesday, we did a practice interview with Tahina and Alicia. They are scheduled for baptism on the 17th and they did super well in the practice. They are so ready I think. Our program pretty much flopped over and died after that. We tried to go see Tina though but he was asleep. So we thought we might as well contact the house above his. So I go climbing up the stairs and there are these two little girls up there. They were quite startled I might add, to see a white guy coming up their stairs. They were sisters obviously and one had like this thin layer of cloth wrapped around her. Well the older sister just grabs it and opens it to show me the little girl's chest. And holy crap it was the nastiest thing I have ever seen. It was this big black thing that stretched from a little under her right shoulder to her lower ribs on the left side. It looked like a giant burn. It wasn't a burn though but that's the best way I can describe that. We taught Tina after that when he woke up and the rest of the day was just more contacting.

Thursday was the worst day of the week by far. I woke up and felt like I had been hit by a truck. We went out on the mountain but that whole program fell through so that doesn't exist anymore. We taught this inactive guy on our way back into town, Raymond (Everybody loves him, obviously). He's such a stud. We taught about Captain Moroni. He'd never heard the story and liked it a lot. He's been kinda depressed lately because there is lots of gossip about him right now and that's why he hasn't been coming. The new branch president set up an interview with him and we encouraged him to go and told him how awesome the new branch president is. When he said the closing prayer of the lesson he started crying. I didn't quite catch what he said in the prayer but I felt super bad for him. The rest of the day was just poop. I had a huge headache and a fever and just felt like crap the whole day. It was a struggle for sure.

Friday, started off how Thursday ended. Contacting. We couldn't find anyone and all our times and backups fell through. We went to one backup and she said we could come back in an hour so we did some more contacting by her house and found a way awesome family. I can see them going far. Then we went to Ludovic with the Branch President and his wife and did a big spiritual thought trying to help him come to church and get him baptized. After that we did more contacting and found this lady that goes to this church where they have to wear all white. When we asked to start the time with a prayer she had to grab her white scarf and take off all her rings before she could. Super weird.

Saturday, the day of the interview. Elder Rigby and Elder Johnson came to our house to do the interview. Elder Johnson and I went on a split and Elder Connault and Elder Rigby. Tahina and Alicia are part of the Brady Bunch and so they live basically at our house haha. Well they passed! It's super awesome! It's way cool that I got to be there when they started to learn and go through the end of the lessons with them. They've changed so much and they are so ready. They haven't missed a single day of church in almost 3 months. Elder Johnson thought they were already members. I went with Elder Johnson into his area and it was a way fun day. We went into the MTC together so it was way fun just the two of us. We did contacting but it was way fun. We taught one of their investigators later who asks the most ridiculous questions. He argued with us for 40 minutes about how we can't baptize him tomorrow (Sunday) because he doesn't even have a testimony. He told us we are the doctors and he is a sick person and he needs it right now. So ridiculous. How often do you argue with a guy and tell him he can't be baptized the next day? Later, Elder Connault told me Tahina and ALicia changed their minds and want us to baptize them. Tahina wants me to do hers and Alicia wants Elder Connault. It'll be way awesome. Hopefully they don't change their minds again haha.

Sunday was normal. Went to church, taught Tahina and Alicia after and dealt with more drama from that infamous big party. It's seriously like dealing with children. Mom, Dad, I know how you feel now. We taught a couple of way cool people on Sunday but nothing really too exciting and I'm getting lazy now to write anymore.

Well, we stopped having running water at our house starting Saturday night and it still hasn't come back on. It does this quite often so we thought it would come back on soon like normal but it still hasn't. I had to shower this morning out of a bowl from the kitchen, filled with water from our water storage, heated up on the stove, and used a cup to pour it over me as I washed. Never thought that would happen on my mission for sure.

It's weird to be at 6 months already and to be 19... I feel super old now haha. Actually I really don't feel any different. Just living the dream...

Alright well that's this week.

Elder Coleman