These are the folks I study the Malagasy language with every day until we depart for Madagascar around October 28th or so.

My bed!  

The view from my classroom in the Missionary Training Center.

First Email

FIRST EMAIL HOME FROM THE MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER IN PROVO, UTAH

Manahoana (hi in malagasy)

Finally we get a P Day to write back. Thursday is the lucky day. What an incredible, exhausting, fun, spiritual, hard, tiring, overwhelming, awesome, tiring, (did i mention tiring?) week. What an unbelievable place the MTC is. It truly is led by Christ and the Holy Ghost is ever present here. 

Hope yall got my letter. Thanks for the DearElders and emails. Also, the package was great. My companion says thanks for the goodies. 

So I am living in West Campus which is Wyview. Its really open and free and has a great atmosphere. Ive been over to main campus a few times now for different things and it feels alot less fun. Tons more missionaries, but all round up into one pen. They've got us taken care of here at the MTC. The food is slightly better than average. But sometimes its hot, brown, and theres plenty of it. 

The Malagasy is coming along....the first week was so tough. The language is so foreign but the teachers help us excited to learn and we are doing alright. The language is easier in some repects to English, but also much harder in other aspects. 95% of all verbs in Malagasy start with M. So there are about a million different combinations of letters after that and it is very hard to remember. And about half the words end with -ana or -nana. Its crazy. We taught someone for the first time yesterday without notes in complete Malagasy...it was rough.

The District like i said only has 5 missionaries. 4 elders and one sister. I like it because its kinda us against the world. I like to think they send only the best to Madagascar. The few. The proud. The Malagasys. I was called to be district leader and its a great experience to serve my district by being a leader. The branch president is great and we have good meetings as zone leaders and district leaders. 

There are 7 districts in my zone. Malagasys, Malays(Singapore), Armenians, Greeks, Latvians, Lithuanians. Every district is super small like us. Average of 5 to 8 in a district. We have a lot of foreign elders and sisters in our zone which is super sweet. New Zealand, Canada, Norway, England, Scotland, Wales. We are all pretty close. There are 45 or so missionaries in my Zone. 

The Brits love me because i play soccer haha. We played for gym one time and it was really fun. A bunch of Americans getting whipped by Brits for a week...until I showed up haha. It was a good time and i got called a "proper pocket rocket" for my soccer abilities. We have gym for an hour a day which is great to get out of missionary clothes. 

This has been an incredible week and my love for my Savior Jesus Christ has only grown. Ive felt the Spirit many times this week and know that this is what im supposed to be doing. Jesus died for me and all of us, and two years of service compared to eternity is literally nothing. All he wants us to do is reach out to our friends and love and serve them. 

Love yall, (Tia anareo) 

Elder Hein 

THIS LETTER WAS WRITTEN BY HAND AND RECEIVED ON SEP. 26, 2013.

Manahoana!

I'm alive and well.  I got to the MTC yesterday and was transferred to the West Campus.  Super nice.  Way better than the old original campus.  We are in the Wyview Apartments.  Our Apartment has a living room, kitchen area, bathroom with shower, and 2 bedrooms.

My companion: his name is Elder Trujillo.  He is from Sacramento, CA.  He is 19, almost 20, and studies computer engineering.  Super cool guy.  Really relaxed, quiet but has a big testimony.  He speaks spanish, English, a good bit of French, and now Malagasy.  He plays piano and trumpet and just genuinely enjoys life.

My district: we have a booming district of 5. Haha.  2 Elder companionships and one solo sister!  The other two elders are great guys.  Elder Thompson is from Orangeville, Utah.  Really humble guy.  Easy to get along with.  His Dad fell inactive a few years back and he's hoping his letters home change that.  Really powerful stuff.  His companion's name is Elder Armando.  He is from Mozambique.  Speaks french, portuguese, some African language, some English (pretty good) and soon Malagasy!  He has already served for 5 months in Mozambique due to visa issues.  STRONG TESTIMONY.  Always humming hymns.  Sister Guilamba is by herself.  She is also from Mozambique and speaks the same languages as Elder Armando.  She's and amazing missionary already.  Great spirit about her and I think she knows more than us Elders!  We are a very tight-knit district which I like.  Us 4 elders live in the same place.

Tonight, I got called as District leader.  I heard it's basically just a glorified mailman, haha.  Hope I do well!

Malagasy is crazy hard.  So strange and they just talk nonstop in it.  We've learned how to greet, pray, and say testimony.

It's going great here.  Do't worry about me.  I will write on my next P-day which is Thursday.  We didn't have P-day this Thursday though.  It will be on email.  I will have more details.

Love y'all and remember to try and look at people through Christ's eyes.

Elder Hein