What a week!

It has been an interesting week this week. Lots of ups and downs. 

Monday we tuaght this college kid that just showed up to church on Sunday. Way cool. He's really good at English too and we had a good lesson with him on the Restoration. It was raining super hard to and it was nuts! I got soaked in a matter of seconds. 

Tuesday we had an interesting day. During studies the AP's showed up at our house with the Reunion Zone Leaders. Their plane got cancelled so they were going to be here another day. So they came with us again and it was super fun and we had a way good day. Elder Nichols came with me and we went and taught some pretty cool lessons. We taught Andry first and had a good review with him about the Plan of Salvation. Elder Nichols got to help too! He would say it in English and then I would translate for him. It was a very cool lesson. After that we went to a guy named Peter. He's just looking for the right place to worship. He is good at French so Elder Nichols was able to take more part in the lesson. I still had to translate to llet him know what was going on but it went really well. THere was something really cool that happened too. Elder Nichols is speaking to this guy in French and we are talking about the introduction to the Book of Mormon and he's talking about it and gets kinda stuck. The guy isn't sure what he's talking about. So I jump in and ask a question that I felt went with the conversation that had just happened in French. He answered the question correctly and I turned to Elder Nichols and translated waht I had just asked and his answer and he said that that was exactly what he had been talking about and the question I asked was right where he left off. It was pretty cool. We did some tracting after that and taught a guy named Olivier. Pretty cool guy. THen we went and met up with teh other two at our last lesson but they weren't home so that was kinda lame. 

Wednesday we had a day of tracting. No one was home. We were able to teach Jean Kely though so that was good. We had a DMB meeting that night. and then they dropped on us suddenly a PEC meeting. So we got out kinda late. We taught Olivier again and it was good. He's leaving to Moramanga though and won't be back for a month so that's kinda lame. 

Thursday we had a great district meeting where we talked about studies. It was really good. Then Elder Hammer and Elder Andrianaivo came to our area and had a split with them. We ate at this weird place for lunch that didn't put sauce on our pizza. Kinda weird. But we had a good day with them. Elder Andrianaivo came with me and we had a good day. We taught a new investigator named Tahiana and he's a way cool guy. Very receptive. Then we had some tracting and were able to find some really cool people. We found this rich guy that actually learned English at the church before and wanted to invite the missionaries over to teach him. So we got his number. Way nice guy. We taught Tsimangiky, tracted some more, got into a French guy's house, who immediately kicked us out; fun times. WE had a soiree with Rakotomalala and it was way good. Love eating at their house. 

Friday we went on splits. I went with Elder Mack and Elder Tambula in their area. They also needed baptismal interviews so I got to kill 2 birds with one stone. They are doing so awesome. Elder Mack is doing so great. The investigators I did baptismal interviews for were way awesome and so ready for baptism. The guy I did on Friday plays for a professional soccer team in Mada and his wife was already a member. He is super cool though. 

Saturday morning I did the other Baptismal interview for a 15 year old kid. Such a stud. Way converted. I am super grateful for the opportunity I have to do baptismal interviews. I get to see the change that these people have gone through. It's awesome. We made it back to our area just in time to teach a little English and then went out to work. A lot of our times fell through so that was lame. We were able to find some people to teach though including a less active member that is married to a Jehovah's Witness. We were able to teach Ndriana as well and had a great lesson with them.

Sunday we had an interesting day. Church went well. We had Lily come but she went home early because her kid is way naughty and it embarrasses her. We had all of our times fall through basically but we were still able to catch some. We taught a bunch of new investigators and one family really wants to come to church. They already have plans to come next week. But yeah that's the week. A little short on time so sorry it's lacking on extensive explanation.

I asked Austin what he loves most about the Malagasy people and what his thoughts on reverence were........

Yes I use the cards. No I haven't got the package yet. I love that people here are so nice. I never realized how mean white people are until I came here. Americans are nice but it might just be because we are American also. I love that the people are so willing to let you in and feed you just because you are a missionary. So reverence is essential. The sacrament is a time to focus on the Atonement and on Christ and on the baptismal covenant. It's kinda hard to do that if there are distractions.