Monday, August 11, 2014

Addresses in Madagascar

Ny Namako!!

Well we had a great week here. Lots of walking and walking and walking. Ill explain a tad more later. 

Elder Anderson is still sticking around and still making me pie. Oh how I love him. He improved in his Malagasy a ton this week and it is just a reminder to me of how The Lord helps us learn this crazy language so fast. Plus he turned the big 20 this past Saturday and we had a mini party. By mini I mean really small. Just me and him at the house hahha. I made brownies and that was as close as I could do for a cake. 

WE CANT FIND THE PASTOR GUY ANYWHERE. It is really a bummer. The guy was set and he loved our message. He felt the truthfulness of it. And it doesnt help that the other Pastor is mad at him and wont help us find the house. Great guy...Ill leave it at that. Its so hard to find houses in Mada, which brings me to my next thought:

We are having a really tough time with investigators here. We will tract, teach lessons, visit people, but no one progresses. Its really frustrating. Really frustrating. So Elder Anderson had the idea of focusing on Less Active Members. We went all in this week and it payed off. We have 600 people on the Member list and only 130 come to church on Sunday....yeah we got a lot of work to do. So we got the list and headed out. Most people dont have an address on the list. Sometimes it just says "Antananarivo" hahahah. So we went after the people with an address. Thats pretty much impossible as well. Let me explain. In America you have a nice street with houses on it that all have addresses. The addresses go 8208, 8212, 8216, etc. Here in Mada the number is based on when it was built. So you could have be at one house that was the 50th house built in the area and you are looking for the 51st. But it is clear on the other side of town because thats how they built it chronologically hahaha. Just a crazy crazy system. So that makes for asking tons of people and getting help from members. I have truly seen on my mission how Missionary Work goes the best, when the members are involved. This church is just a massive family and I love it. 

But investigator wise we had a great experience, We have been teaching this part member family. Everyone is a member besides the Mom. Missionaries for the past two years have taught her, but she just always says she isnt ready. We taught her this past week and at the end of the lesson she said boldly, "Im ready. It has taken me a while but I got my witness. I want to be baptized September 6." I just kinda sat there a little taken back and then replied....YES MA'AM. Awesome stuff. We cant force the gospel on anyone. It comes in the Lord's time. In this womans case, 2 years!! 

I love this place. I love the work. I love my companion. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. 

God bless, 


Elder Hein  

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