Week 3 of Training Elder Anderson

Howdy folks

Not too much new this week. Incredible experience I will share later, but we are doing a lot of tracting. A lot of door to door, a lot of street contacting. Before my mission I dreaded that. But I can honestly say I love it. We are still rebuildiung our program and meeting new people each and every day. So I am having a blast. 

Elder Anderson is doing great. He is frustrated with how slow his Malagasy is coming along, but all of us were there back when we first got here. It is kinda funny how exhausted he is everyday. Missionary work is hard work!!!! So he pretty much goes to sleep immediately after we get home and plan for the next day. Haha. I just sit up by myself haha. 

Well the story of all stories:

So you remember that big crowd we preached to last week?? One of the people in the crowd is a pastor at his small church. We taught him this week. By the end of it he was teaching me about the Priesthood and Restoration and using scriptures to prove its truthfullness.....yeah. I was shocked. I just sat there and didnt know what to do. But it gets better.........

He then proceeded to ask me and Elder Anderson if we could come to his church on Saturday morning and preach this message to his members.....yeah you read that right. So basically we are on the verge, with a few things pending, on baptizing a whole congregation. I doubt it will be that easy but I will just let The Spirit do what it does: testify of truth. 

Crazy crazy stuff. I will give yall the update on the lesson next week!! 

God bless, 

Elder Hein 

Preaching from the Wagon

Howdy yall

The training continues and I havent scared away my trainee just yet!  Although we still have ten weeks, so we will have to wait and see. He even wakes up early and goes running with me. I dont know how much he loves it, but I love him for it. Its not like he has much of a choice to disobey my command. Hahaha oh the joys of being a trainer. 

Well Tuesday started off with interviews with President. I love having interviews with him. I just feel how much he cares about the work here. He is up there in years, but you cant tell at all. Just a solid rock in life, work, and of course, in the Gospel. I can tell he is guided by the Spirit, and I love having the chance to work under him.

Elder Anderson and I decided to start and build a fresh new teaching program. I LOVE DOING THIS. Its hard to tell some investigators we wont return, unless they progress, but its good to start fresh. Tons of contacting. Everyday. Door to door, on the street, asking for names from members, etc.  I love it and for some reason the Lord blessed us big time this week. So many people were coming up to us asking to learn it was insane. Blessings come after the work is put in! I am so grateful for this mission, the people, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

The Ward here is struggling. The attendance keeps going down and the Bishop blames it on people going on vacation....Nah I dont think so. Just people being lazy. Elder Anderson and I have had to threaten some people with whips which is never good. Its sad when people dont understand the importance of coming to church, reading the scriptures, or just coming to church. If only they could see the blessings that will come after the trial of their faith. MIBEBAHA IANAREO

I was completely joking about the whips. Think spiritual whips haha.

Coolest experience this week was contacting on a street. I was talking to three guys who were sitting on a wagon. We just did a little small talk for a while and then they asked us to teach them. We sat down on the wagon with them and began to teach. People started gathering around us and we just kept teaching. More and more people gathered. I was reading in the Bible to them and as I finished the scripture, I looked up and saw 50 plus people all listening to us.....Yeah it was LEGENDARY. What a cool experience and we got tons of contacts from it. People were asking how they can learn more and me and Anderson were happy to answer!! We felt like missionaries in olden times preaching the faith. So awesome!

Next thing I wanna do is stand up on a busy street and teach on a box. Ive always wanted to do that. hahaha

Alrighty, hope yall have a good week wherever you are!! "Be thou an example of the believers!"

God bless,

Elder Hein

PS Sorry no pics. I just had a video of two chickens fighting each other for no reason. It was too long to send haha. 

Elder Hein is Training!!

Howdy, 

Well, another awesome week here. I think I say that every week. Sorry about that. 

Elder Ralaivao left on Wednesday morning to go down to Antsirabe. He was super excited but it was sad to see him go. I have been sad eveytime my companion leaves. Ive truly been blessed with great companions. 

My new companion and the 6 other missionaries got into country on Wednesday and we met them all on Wednesday night. They looked like deer in the headlights. All really quiet, tired, confused looking, asking themselves "What am I doing on the other side of the world in Madagascar?" Really really funny to see and it brought back memories to my first night a few months ago. 

Thursday morning we ate with President and his wife and kind of scouted out the trainees. Hahaha i felt like it was the NFL Draft missionary style. All of them looked awesome and I really didnt care who I got. Thursday afternoon, the fun begins. We have a meeting where the trainees open a letter from President that tells them where they are going and who they will be working with. First missionary, Elder Anderson, stands up, reads the letter that says he will be working in TANJOMBATO WITH ELDER HEIN!! I was so pumped!! I actually talked with Elder Anderson on the phone when I was home. He is from Boise, Idaho and is in my Aunt's ward there!!! Really cool stuff. 

The rest of the week doesnt hold a candle in excitement to that so there wasnt much else. It is a really cool experience training. It shows how far youve truly come in the language and as a servant of The Lord. I was really nervous, but Elder Anderson is awesome and we are going to have a great time together these next 11 weeks. Im so excited. 

Because of so many things happening this week, we didnt get to go out and teach too much which wasnt too fun. I just love getting out and meeting people. And teaching them about Jesus Christ. How cool of a calling I have!! Everyone should be jealous. 

Spiritually, I was hit by a talk this week by Elder Jeffrey R Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He gave it a couple of years ago in General Conference. He retells the story of a desperate father with a possessed son who rushes up to Jesus and asks Jesus to heal him. He is desperate. The family has probably suffered many things because of their sons problem. Christ sees this in the father's eyes and asks if he believes that he can heal the boy. The response is awesome, "Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief." The father acknowledges his lack of faith but only AFTER he recognizes his faith. Although his faith was small, it still was there and it, in the end, healed the boy. We all have a lack of faith in some degree or another. But we need to protect the faith we do have and nourish it. We cant back down; We have to trust in our faith., and if we do, I KNOW we can move mountains. 

Have a great week and God bless. 

Elder Hein

Saying goodbye to Elder Ralaivao

Elder Anderson

The biggest companionship with one of the smallest hahaha

First meal of rice and loaka!!!

We were teaching a lesson and I heard something behind me....yeah it was a massive turtle

THE DALLAS CYBER BABY

Big Time News and some sad news! July 7, 2014

Howdy! Hope everyone had a blessed 4th of July. I sang The Star Spangled Banner about 15 times. Living here in Mada has just given me a deeper appreciation of groing up in the US of A. 

Well this was Elder Ralaivao and I's 6th week together which means the end of the transfer was looming all week. Transfer News comes in on Sunday nights and sometimes it is hard to focus all week because you never know what can happen. Well the news came late Sunday night and....

We had a great week here in Tanjombato. (Oh, btw in Malagasy, the letter J is pronounced like a Z. So it is pronounced TanZombato) We worked really hard this week but had a tough start mentally on Tuesday. We attended a Memorial Service for our own Elder Palmer. He passed away last week due to a brain hemorrage. Luckily his parents flew into Johannesburg where he was to see him before he passed onto the next life. He was my replacement in Ambositra and it hit me, and all the missionaries hard. He was one of the best missionaries we had, and The Lord knew that as well. He needed him now to help with his cause in the life to come. I have no doubt about that. What a great blessing it is to know the God has a plan for all of us and that we can return to live with him after this life. We get to shed this mortal body, and one day our spirits, return to perfected, glorified bodies for eternity. God has so much love for all of us. I testify of that.

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to go on a split with Elder Andrianmanganoro in Itaosy. Always fun to see a new area and work with another missionary. 

Well, the transfer news came and Elder Ralaivao is headed down South to Antsirabe and Im staying here. My new comp is.....I dont know yet, because I am training!!! I am so pumped, I really wanted this. It will be awesome to help a nice green missionary with his Malagasy skills. He gets in Wednesday straight from America and I cant wait to meet him. 

Well thats the week!! 

God bless, 

Elder Hein

Elder Palmer's Memorial

The things you find on a Madagascar clothes line. - the confederate flag???

My District!

A little girl that was afraid of me - haha

Lemur Week!!!!!! June 30, 2014

Well, big time week here in the mission of Elder Hein. Got to see my first lemurs in country!! 

20 of us missionaries here in Tana all made the trek out to this lemur park outside of Tana. Tok quite a while but we rented a bus and a driver to take us all out there together and back for a pretty cheap price. Finally made it out to the area and had to hike a little bit to get to the park. All white missionaries pay 5  bucks to get in and the natives pay 50 cents...hahaha. Thats just how Mada goes! 

Get inside and tons of high trees with lemurs just chilling. They were a tad shy but if you got a banana for them, they are gunna come right for ya. You just kinda stand there and try to lure them on to ya. None of them jumped on our shoulders but it was sick. Lemurs have immediately made their way on to the top of my favorite animal list.  

Work wise! This was a slower week due to Malagasies Independence Day on the 26th. That basically means get drunk and shoot little firecrackers at each other haha. Elder Ralaivao and I had to run to get through some firework warfare hahaha. 

Been teaching a really cool family lately. Tina and Clarette. They have two kids. These people are just thirsty for the Gospel. Thirsty for the truth. They love everything we teach them. Especially, the Book of Mormon. I loved how Tina put it when talking about the Book of Mormon, "Why would God limit his revelation to one small area of the world?" I couldnt have agreed more. 

I got to go on a split with my old comp from Fort Dauphin, ELDER FOX!!!! He's still killing it and is actually my Zone Leader which is awesome. And his companion is Elder Rakotojanahary from Fort D as well!! We are just missing Elder Rice, but it is cool to be close to them again. 

I hope yall are enjoying the World Cup, vacations, and summer. But I fed lemurs today....did you?!

God bless, 

Elder Hein 

Snack Tigro. We eat here everyday. I will franchise this place when I get home.

Malagasy Bed Haul

My Companion

My reaction when I hard the U.S advanced!

Old Companions from Fort D.  We reunite in Mada!

My Home.  We live on the second floor on the left.

Lemur Park

Elders Gaul, Evans and I.