Rock Climbing!

Howdy! One of the best P Days I've had my whole mission.

Let me explain:

We decided we wanted to gout on a hike to this waterfall pretty far away. So we got up at 5:30 and headed out there. This thing is a good couple hours away at least. Incredible sights. Just really trying to soak in Madagascar. Beautiful cliffs, beatufil waterfall, something out of a movie. We were singing Lord of the Rings stuff the whole time haha. Well, you get to a point where there is no path, so you make your own haha. A couple slips, nothing too serious.

We get to the waterfall....so cool. One of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. This country is incredible. Especially, because most of this country hasn't even been touched. It is so far behind. I mean, it is so poor it cant even be classified as a third world country. It is a developing country. THAT IS SO COOL HAHA!!

We see another waterfall a few hundred yards away and go to it. Sheer slippery rock cliff face. So what do we do? Go down it. It gets to a point where I'm sliding down on my butt down on this rock face. I am hauling. The combo of the rock and the water was a slip and slide haha. We come to the waterfall and realize there is no way down but sliding for a good twenty yards. But luckily, all of us are eagle scouts and learned a couple things. We tied our jackets together and repelled down the cliff face. But Covey, being the last one, just had to slide and we caught him hahaha.

Almost at the bottom, and there is a last slip and slide portion. Everyone got down fine. I'm last. Im sliding down and finally get a hold. Wiscombe, Lambert, Covey are just dying laughing. Not helping me at all. Im still holding on but Im laughing so hard I let go....I slide down on my belly for a good 15 yards till I hit the bottom. It was literally like grating cheese. We must've laughed the whole 2 hour hike back. 

Hahaha now that that is out of the way.

Great week here. I feel like we are being incredibly productive right now. Some of the most productive weeks of my mission and I wanted it that way. We are doing tons of stuff that doesnt show up on the stat sheet. Visiting memebers, training members, being at activities, etc. Honestly, in  these past couple of weeks the Branch has progressed a lot.

Investigator wise- Its progressing in leaps and bounds. We had 7 show up at church. A few new ones as well. Also had some good investigator turnouts for the three activities we had on Saturday. Placed a couple baptismal dates on some teenagers that have been progressing really well. Also, had a couple great first lessons this week with some new families. I cant complain about anything.

Less Active wise- We had over ten less actives show up to church on Sunday. Thats BEAUTIFUL. Made the whole week worth it. Still have about 100 to go though haha. Elder Lambert and I, really have a great opportunity to go around and get to know these people. Get to know what made them convert. Get to know what made them go less active. It has been a great learning experience for me.

APs came down for a couple days this week for splits. Rigby and Morely. Two of my best friends. Wouldnt shut up about me going home in three weeks though haha. But it was a pretty good split and I tried stick shift for the first time. I got it into second before it died haha.

Had three activities this past Saturday. Had to be at all of them. Young Men and Young Women activity was great. Climbed a mountain here. Then the Primary activity was fabulous. Dora L'exploratrice for 2 hours. And then the YSA activity was just okay. Took up our whole work day. Wish we coulda gone out and taught, but it's just in our responsibility now. 

Man, its crazy how fast everything is flying. The work is keeping me way busy and I dont really think about it, but there is just little things throughout the day that hint at it. I mean, I set a bap date for sometime after I get home. Crazy. Just really trying to soak it all in. Really just trying to keep myself humble and open to receive everything God wants me to learn here. Sometimes I feel like Im missing something big. But I think Ive realized that the mission is just a bunch of small things. A bunch of small things every single day. And all things come together at the end. If you are truly working hard and desire to serve The Lord, I dont feel you will ever feel like you accomplished everything. I feel as if when that badge finally comes off for good, youll know. God will give you that pat on the back and thank you for the service. I pray each and everyday that everything Im doing is enough. Enough to get that big thing Ive been looking for my whole mission. Just to know that through The Lord's hand and His grace, I made a difference in this far away portion of His vineyard.

God bless,

Elder Hein