Round 2...

So yeah this week was just about another last week. Almost exactly actually. Kinda scary. But yeah. Last Monday we just had all the Elders in Antsirabe come over to our house and we just had a party so it was fun. We had a soiree with a member family that night as a kind of going away party for a Sister in our branch leaving on her mission to Cote D'Ivore. It was way fun.

Tuesday our zone got challenged by the Ap's to teach 25 lessons, 6 with a member, teach 10 father led families, drop 5 new baptismal dates and get 28 hours of proselyting time. It was a challenge for sure. Tuesday was kinda rough. We didn't get as many lessons as we would have liked or needed to reach our goal. It was basically just a day of tracting and no one let us in. 

Wednesday was a struggle too. We were able to give a baptismal date to a family that we just started teaching which happened to be exactly 5 so that worked out nicely. We were able to teach a decent amount of lessons that day and it was productive. Fun story of the week though. We finished teaching a time that was in this field behind some buildings and were making our way back to the road. We had to go through some small windy alleyways to get back to the main road and when we did, it was packed with people as usual. I started to go to the right, which was the direction of our next lesson when I hear someone yell, "Coleman!" So I turn and see 8 "cool" kids leaning up against this wall. They signaled for me to go over to them so I did. The one asks, "Are you Coleman? I want to learn from you guys." So that was cool. And I guess I'm famous because I had never seen this kid before. But while I was taking his information and setting up a time, I was also asking the other wall-leaners if they wanted to learn from us too. None of them were really interested but at that point I noticed that we had made quite a scene, two tall white guys with bikes standing in the middle of the road. Well a crowd had gathered around us and we couldn't really move. So I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and started street contacting all of them Dan Jones style (If you don't know what that is, look at the first page of the first chapter of PMG). Elder Reynolds and I contacted at least 60 people right there in the middle of the street it was awesome. And we just started handing out pamphlets like crazy. The thing about Malagasies is that they love books and as soon as we broke out those pamphlets, it was like we were handing out $1000 checks. We ran out pretty quick. 

Thursday was a very rough day. Every time we went to fell through. A very trying day. But we kept trying and trying and were able to find people to teach that have a lot of potential. We found one family that is way awesome. All of their relatives are already members but they aren't. As soon as we knocked on the door they just let us in, no questioins asked, it was awesome. We also were stopped in the road by some guy that was crying and told us that his family hated him because he drinks and they have like disowned him. We were able to share a spiritual though with him and lift his spirits a bit. He wants us to come back so hopefully that'll be good. He's super poor. You know the shed in our backyard? Yeah that's his house. But I noticed the Lord's hand in this work that day. We were just trying so hard to catch our goals the whole day and just nothing was working. We just kept trying and trying and and the very end of the day, We ended up catching them. It just goes to show that He is always there to help us and may not help us in exactly the way we think but he will help us.

Friday, Elder Reynolds was sick so we didn't work at all that day. It was very frustrating. He said that he felt better towards the end of the day so we were able to go out and teach a couple times. Yeah it wasn't a super good idea for him. He was just feeling awful so we went back home kinda early.

Saturday we taught a bunch of people actually. We had a lot of good lessons and we visited a bunch of contacts from our Dan Jones-ing experience the other day. They are actually pretty solid people. Usually when you contact, they just give you a time and then don't show up. But it turned out well and we were able to get some new investigators and good lessons in. 

Sunday was good too. It is Pentecost so there was like no one at church and like no one at home anywhere but we were somehow able to teach quite a few lessons. We were able to give another family a baptism date and I think they will progress very well. He is a pousse driver and he is very smart. He says that he knows that Joseph smith and the Book of Mormon are true and he's an awesome guy. 

So all in all we were able to have a pretty good week regardless of the trials that we faced. The Lord blessed us with our goals even when we didn't think it was going to happen. I love being a missionary and am glad to be here that's for sure. And training is hard. Very hard.