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.

USA BEATS PORTUGAL - They Tied????

Howdy, 

Well I was misinformed about the USA Portugal game by a member here in Tanjombato. He hasnt been wrong on a single score so I definitely trust him. Atext came in at 3 am last night telling me that USA wins 2-1. Come to find out today that Portugal tied it in the 95th. He admitted to me that he had fallen asleep after USAs second goal....hahaha pretty funny but also heartbreaking. 

All I hear about the World Cup is how crazy it is....Enjoy watching!!

Had a tough week here work wise. A lot of people dogged us. But, we contacted a lot of people this past week and that will hopefully replenish our so so teaching pool at the moment. Found some cool families and I hope they will be touched by The Spirit in these next few weeks. 

Had a great opportunity to go on a split this week with Elder Hull in Ampititafika. In my District there are three areas: Tanjombato, Ampititafika, and Itaosy. 6 elders in total and all of them are cool! Every once in a while we do some splits and Friday was my split with Elder Hull from Virginia. Awesome guy. Just got to country 9 weeks ago but is picking up the language fast. The dude is a national team volleyball player with tons of D1 schools looking at him. One of them being BYU who is top 5 in the country every year. Yeah I guess you could say hes pretty good haha. Well turns out he was sick all day so we just chilled at his house while he rested haha. Still a great time. 

Been studying the Old Testament a little lately. The story of Abraham is incredible. How he even thought about obeying Gods commands to sacrifice his son is unbelievable. What faith that man had. What faith. The Lord knew he would sacrifice his son, but Abraham needed to know for himself that he would follow ALL of Gods commands. No matter what it was. 

A highlight of the week was hearing Taylor Swift in a restaurant we were eating at.....yeah i was belting it out and I didnt care who stared. 

Have a great week!!! 

Elder Hein

A Cool River in Tanjombato

Me and Elder Hull

Terrible picture but it is a cockfighting ring.  There are probably 1000 guys here around three rings betting on chickens (ha ha).

No streetlights in Tana make for the worst traffic I've ever seen.  One rule:  Just Go!

A typical street in Tanjombato.

Poo River!

Went downtown Tana today and got a nice pictue of Poo River for all of yall!! Why do they call it Poo River? Take a look at the photo. And today it was raining so the river was actually pretty clean. 

Anyways, great week. Every week is really. Wouldnt trade my mission for anything. Had a great moment this week when I knew I loved my mission. We were sitting and eating at some less active member's house and the topic of pre-mission life came up. What Ive done, schooling wise, soccer wise, and what my future holds after the mission. The wife then began to rip into me asking me why I was wasting two years of my life and opportunities I have now. It was in that moment, as I responded to her, that I realized all the blessings I have recieved in my life due to my preparation to serve The Lord. I always had it in my mind I would serve, and the blessings that have come from that are evident. 

The week flew by. Lots of hard work. Tanjombato (my area) was just recently reopened a couple months ago. So we are in the process of finding new people to teach. Which means, tons of walking, knocking on doors, and looking for service opportunities. I love just talking to people. Seeing their perspective on God and His plan for us. It really strengthens my testimony when we teach about the things God has in store for us. 

As we were walking to a lesson, a man yelled out at us and told us he wanted to learn. Well we didnt have time to teach him then, but we set up a time we could go visit him. The man's name is Jean and he is awesome. He learned from missionaries a long time ago for fifteen minutes. Remembered eveything they taught about the Restoration. He spat that all out to us at the beginning of the lesson and then proceeded to ask to get baptized. My companion and I kinda just sat there and looked at him in shock. "Is this a joke?" The guy is a legend and we will continue to teach him. (Obviously.)

I will update yall on his progress in the next few blog posts. Tena mahafinaritra izy. (He is really awesome)

Hope all is well. And I hope everyone is watching as much of the World Cup as possible with me in mind. 

Please pray for missionaries around the world, the work here in Mada, and the US in this World Cup. 

God bless, 

Elder Hein 

Poo River. It is clean today. 

Jumbo Score!! Almost like a neighborhood Walmart. A little piece of America. Beautiful. 

Bought this tie today for 30 cents. How can any American turn down this tie?

Leather Scripture binding for my Bible...Pretty sweet!! Other scriptures are in the works!

Short on Time

Well, great week. Not too much new though. 

Me and my companion are getting along better and better everyday, but man it is hard to speak Malagasy all day. My brain is just exhausted by the end of the day. Ralaivao and I just come from such different cultures that sometimes I am just shocked and some of the stuff he does haha. He grew up in a house with no electricity...yeah we really come from two different worlds. 

Got to be up in downtown Tana for a Zone Conference. There are a couple streets that suprisingly remind me of Europe!! Nice jewelry shops, nice buildings, and nice cars. Also, I ate in a four star hotel and it felt so weird. Even though I was home just a couple weeks ago, it still shocked me walking in to a very nice hotel and eating very nice food haha. 

A 5 minute walk from this hotel is a river they call Poo river. Ill get a picture sometime and you can see why it is called that. Next to this river, was the poorest group of people I have ever seen. They lived in these shacks made up of the dirtiest garbage I have ever seen. Really sad. 

Spiritually, I wanna talk about God's commandments. Im pretty sure Ive talked about this before, so Ill keep it short and sweet. KEEP THEM. 

Trust me. 

Funniest moment this week was being in a bus when Enrique Inglesias' "Hero" came on. I kid you not about 20 men in the bus all started singing to it in unison. Hahah it is funny to see which songs get popular here.

Friday, I woke up and immediately went to the sink and puked everywhere haha. I dont know what I ate, but I was on the verge of death. I havent thrown up in years. I slept pretty much all day, waking up every couple of hours to throw up more. In total a puked a nice 6 times on Friday. Sickest Ive been on my mission!! I am all good now though. 

God bless, 

Elder Hein

Typical Dirty Tana

Soccer Game in Tanjombato

Soccer Game in Tanjombato

My best friend last friday.  Filled that pot up with throw-up.

Downtown Tana!

I'M BACK!!

Wow that nine weeks flew. 

Well the craziness started on Monday night as I made my way to London. As i passed through security in London, I caught up with some missionaries! There was a group of 6 of them headed to Zimbabwe. They started their missions when I did, but have been waiting on visas this whole time...Thankful that Madagascar Visas are pretty easy to get! Then I found the two new missionaries going to Madagascar. Elder Eden and Sister Kasseh! They are both awesome. It was great to talk to them about what they thought Madagascar would be like hahaha. We made the rest of the trip together and made it Wednesday afternoon. 

Side note: From Johannesburg to Mada, I was business class...Dont know why but Ill take it haha. 

Man it was great to smell Madagascar again. It isnt as pretty as when I came(it is dry season), but still awesome. Great to see President and Sister Adams and the Assistants. Had a nice ride through Tana to the office. Made sure to keep my eye on the new missionary. He told me he wouldnt be culture shocked....he didnt say a word all car ride. He was definitely a little phased haha. 

Made it out to my area Tanjombato late Wednesday night and got settled in. It is a nice little apartment and we live underneath a General in the Madagascar army. So we have guards protecting our house 24 7. I dont know what they are protecting him from, but their AK47s are always around their necks. They arent loaded but whatever haha. 

My companion is Elder Ralaivao. He is from Fianarantsoa which is 3 hours south of my first area Ambositra. He is awesome!! Really great guy. Not good at English but he is working on that. Needless to say, I have had so much Malagasy these past few days it has been crazy. Im even thinking in Malagasy whichis great. A little hard to convey everything to him, but we make it work. The area is fun and it will be good working here. We are in South Tana. There are a few supermarkets here so it makes life a little easier. Also, there are nice houses!! But then right next to it is just a shack. Thats Mada for ya. 

Update on the hand: Not too  much has changed in my thumb but my wrist is getting better!! I can continue to stretch it back more and more everyday. I can actually do dips now!! So in a few weeks my triceps will be massive haha. 

Well, that is all for this week!

God bless

Elder Hein

The Church

Tanjombato

Primary Activity at the Church

Antanarivo

My comp is on the right. The guy in the middle is a member preparing for a mission!!!