Week 2 in a new area with a new comp

Howdy, 

A great first full week here in the new area of Ambohimanarina. I love the area. I love my comp. I love Madagascar. Aint got too much too complain about!

Church was even better this week. WE HAD 20 INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH. I havent heard a word of any talk given in church the past two weeks because I have to sit outside. The room is big enough for 80 yet we had 144 come to church this week....this place is on fire. A new church building is being built in my area and it is insanely big. It will be the new Stake Center here in North Tana. It is literally double the size of an American church. And a plus is, it is literally right next to the United States Embassy. There is only one problem with the church. It is done, BUT we still dont have power and water because energy company wont do it for us...The struggles of Madagascar haha. I have no doubt it will be done soon. The Lords work cant stop. 

So where are all these investigators coming from?? They actually come from one guy by the name of Norbert. Elder Gaul actually started teaching him a few months ago, and he is one of the most golden investigators the world has ever seen haha. He used to be a politician here in Mada. He was literally in the Parliament. He literally knows every single human being in this country. It is insane. Norbert is also gunna run for President in three years....yeah. He should have been baptized all ready, BUT the church is too small for the 500 people he said are coming to his baptism. People are comùing from all over Mada, La Reunion, and Mauritius. So we have to wait for the new church to be finished so we can have everyone at the baptism. 

Incredible. I know. 

But the best thing about Norbert and his family is, they LOVE the Gospel and are sharing it with literally everyone in this country. He calls all of his friends and gets them to go to church. Not just in our area, but all around Madagascar. I get calls two or three times a week from him asking for missionaries numbers that serve in different areas in Mada, so that he can give them a friend to teach....It is unreal. Ive never seen anyone with such a desire to share this Gospel. Plain and simple, he gets it. He knows it is true, and he wants all his friends to have it. Beautiful. 

Elder Stringfellow is a legend. Already is, and will be an incredible missionary. We are having a great time. Went and saw some lemurs today and he loved it. No doubt the coolest animals in the world. 

This Gospel is true. I see it everyday. In the little thigs and the big things. It is the compass in our life to happiness and peace.  I know that is true and I am so grateful for the chance I have to bring this Gospel into people's lives. 

God bless, 

Elder Hein

Elder Anderson

Elder Morley

Elder Christiansen

Elder Stringfellow

Malagasy Construction

New Stake Center

Current Church House

Our Area

First Week in Ambohimanarina

Howdy,

Great first week here in Ambohimanarina. (I cant wait to hear how yall pronounce this name); The area is already popping. We had 17 investigators come to church just for me and my comp's side of work!! The Lord has prepared this area and the missionaries before us worked their tail's off.

So, first about my comp.......Thursday I headed to the office to pick up one of the 15 new elders. I got ELDER STRINGFELLOW!!!!! I was so pumped. I had actually seen his blog a couple weeks ago and telling Elder Anderson how I would probably want to get him!! Hahaha. He is from Bountiful, he's a head taller than me, and he is SUPER good at Malagasy. So confident and smooth. It is awesome. He played football and baseball at Bountiful High and actually just won State in Baseball!!! We get along real well and Im looking forward to these next two transfers with him!!

So more about my area. It is WAY up North. There is so much traffic to get downtown it is ridiculous. Looking at like a two hour bus ride give or take. Yeah it aint too fun. BUT, the area is beautiful. Rice paddies everywhere and its not just flat city roads. Hills and beautiful dropoffs everywhere. Way cool.

AND we live in a house with 4 other elders!! Its a literal party everynight hahaha. Right now we have three Americans, 2 Malagasies, and a Tahitian. That will change in the coming week, but I love the house. Ive been in two man houses my whole mission so it is weird to have other elders in the house besides my comp. Love it.

Pretty short on time, but the work here is on fire. Obviously our program is pretty empty right now because we are splitting the area, but we have tons of baptisms coming up. I will have more time to explain the area next week. Ive only been here 5 days. Yall know it about as well as me hahaha.

Have a great week yall!

Elder Hein

PS Elder Stringfellow has a blog. Look it up!! elderryanstringfellow.blogspot.com

Whitewashing

Howdy, 

Sorry this is a day late. Power and water are pretty much out all the time. The Government isnt paying the money they should be paying to Jirama the power and water company....So Jirama doesnt have enough money to make the power....Soo The whole country is mad hahaha. Pretty annoying, but also sad that the country doesnt even have enough money to pay the power company. Whew. 

Well, a bittersweet week here in Tanjombato. Set up a lot of goodbye meals at people's houses and made a lot of brownies. I dont know if Ive already told yall, but the name missionaries have for brownies here, is Cockroach bread...hahaha. Malagasies always get so worried. Anyways, I am kinda excited to get on to a new place. See something new. But that doesnt take away from my love of this place. Ive learned a lot here. Worked hard. Struggled. Improved. Trained. But more importantly, developed a greater love for God and the Malagasy people! 

President Adams came to our church on Sunday morning and I translated for him and his wife. President is such a spiritual man. I wanna get to that point. President also loves revealing transfers....so he let us know before we got the transfer news, what was happening with us. He told Elder Anderson he was getting Elder Trujillo! Elder Trujillo was my companion in the MTC!!! They will be perfect together. Personalities just match well. Then President revealed that I will be a Zone Leader and whitewash training in Ambohimanarina!!! (Whitewash is when 2 new missionaries replace two missionaries in a given area - meaning the slate is washed clean of the old and new are brought in.  Training means I will be training a new missionary again.)  I will be opening up the second area in that branch. It is still here in Tana, just way up North. There are already 2 missionaries there and me and my trainee will make it 4. Obviously the work is going well enough to split the area!! Im super excited. Elder Gaul worked there when he left from Ambositra and is super excited for me!!! Ive always wanted to whitewash. I am a little nervous to whitewash train, but I know my new trainee and me are gonna work incredibly hard to get the new area cooking! I will pick up my new comp on Thursday just like I did with Anderson! 

It is gunna be sad saying bye to Elder Anderson! We have had a really good time together and learned a lot from each other. I have no doubt he is ready to lead the area and get out from under the wing of his Papa, Elder Hein haha!

The church is true. I know it is. 

Love y'all. 

Elder Hein 

See the pics of some great people below:

You know I like my fried chicken!!

Howdy! 

Got over the year mark this past Thursday!! Cant tell ya I felt any wiser or older, but it's kinda crazy to think how long Ive been out here. We celebrated with Colonel Anderson's Fried Chicken!! And Colonel Anderson's chocolate pie!! Hahah It was a great meal and a great day. 

Weird to see how far Ive come. You dont see the daily progression, but when you look back in big chunks of time you get to see how much better you have become. As a person, missionary, at Malagasy, everything. I have learned so much from these people and from all the missionaries I have served with. My testimony grows everyday. Do I have things to work on? Hahaha yessir. But that is what life is for! We get to fall on our faces sometimes, but we come up stronger. Becoming a disciple of Christ is a lifelong process and cant be done in one day. If we had to do it one day, none of us would make it. Im so thankful for the Atonement of Jeus Christ and the grace He gives me. I have come to understand grace better and better on my mission. Does grace mean we do nothing and Christ covers it all? No. Does it mean grace kicks in after we have done everything we can do?? No. Grace is Christ with us, every single day in this journey. He is not waiting for us to get to his level. Grace is Him, helping us to get to the level and the potential that He sees us at! I love My Savior Jesus Christ. I know He lives. I know He died for each and every single one of us. It is His love that keeps me going. 

Have a great week! 

God bless. 

Elder Hein

PS Go look up "His Grace is Sufficient-Brad Wilcox"

Malagasy George Straight.  King George is in Mada!!

Malagasy Chess!  I'm bringing it to America.

Year Mark Week!

Howdy! 

Mission keeps flying by! 2 more weeks and ill be getting out of Tanjombato. Crazy crazy crazy. 

Kinda had a rough week here, but fortunately it wasnt Anderson's bowels with the problem...hahaha. He is doing great and starting to find his place in the mission. Ive figured thats pretty much what trainers do. They kinda babysit a little bit and let the kid dip his feet into the mission water. He is doing great and it will be tough leaving him in a couple weeks!! 

Hope everyone had a good September 11th. I hope everyone got a chance to listen to "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue." I was 6 at the time of the attacks, but I still remember that day. God bless the USA

Had a fun Ward Activity this past Saturday. Our Bishop gave a great lesson on loving each other. Made a great point, "If you dont love your neighbor, you dont love God." Pretty true. We are all siblings that come from the same God. LOVE! Anyways, I got to do the game for all the kids. The kids loved it so much, the parents and adults started playing. It was the Malagasy version of Simon Says. "Rakoto Milaza hoe..." It was a great time. I had a blast. 

Had a slow week work wise with investigators and I got a little down. I just wanna feel like I have made a difference in this area. I feel I have, but I got two weeks to make it better! I began to count the blessings I have received from working here, and there was too many to count. Ive learned so much from this area and Im thankful for that.

I feel people are just too down all the time. Always complaining, worrying about something, stressed out, etc. COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS. There are too many to count. I promise. You start thinking of other people more and you realize just how good you have it. Ive noticed that when I do work for myself, or the stats, THE WORK IS TOUGH. But when I have my mind on helping people, I start to see more happiness, better progression, and an overall better outlook on life. If we constantly think and worry about our progression, it doesnt go. We start thinking about others, we progress. Its simple. We grow through service to others. I guess what im trying to say is, SERVE! 

God bless. 

Elder Hein

PS My year mark is on Thursday!!

Baptism!!

Having fun taking selfies!!  Check out the kids!!

Elder Anderson found a friend!!

Fried Chicken!!

Another Week!

Howdy

Awesome week here in Tanjombato!! Nothing too crazy happened, but we had a baptism!! 

Elder Anderson came in clutch again this week, adding to his cooking skills. Tuesday he had a big craving for some fried chicken, and I cant say I was mad haha. We bought a nice chicken off the side of the street and headed back to the house where I cut it up and he fried it until it was perfect golden brown. For a split second I thought I was in America....Momma Anderson, you taught him well. 

This morning we climbed the mountain in our area that has the name "ANDOHARANOFOTSY" on it. Pretty easy hike, but a pretty tall mountain, and we got a great view of Tana. This place is massive. It just goes on and on. The hike brought me to the good old days of Ambositra climbing the mountains there with Gaul and Dickson. 

Exciting stuff this week was the baptism! Super great day. I was honored to baptize Vololona in the freezing cold water and The Spirit was definitely there testifying of God's love for her. Francya, the little girl, was baptized by her father as he was able to get off work for the baptism. They both received the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday and I couldnt wipe the smile off my face. Great day!

I am so thankful for the fulness of the Gospel. The baptism by water, and the baptism of fire by the laying on of hands is exactly what was done in Jesus' time. It is the way he set it up. He gave authority to his Apostles and set up his church. That authority to work in his name was lost, but has been restored again through a prohphet in these latter days. I know that is true and THAT IS WHY I AM HERE. I get to witness miracles here in Madagascar through this sacred authority given to man, once again to perform the Lord's work here on Earth. My life is the best!

Have a good week. God bless. 

Elder Hein

My Son!!

My son bakes bread!

Locust Apocolypse!!

Howdy! I heard college football is back and on fire. Watch all you can for me! 

Great great week. Work went well, baptisms on the way, and Elder Anderson made banana bread. 

First off, two strange events that happened this past week in the beautiful island of Madagascar. So, here in Madagascar there is one power company that covers water and electricity. Its one of the worst companies in the world, but us missionaries live with it. Supposedly, the President of Madagascar doesnt. His power went out the other night, he got mad, and proceeded to throw the whole Board of Execs into jail from the power company. So this company, Jirama, has no leadership and is threatening a strike....oh boy! Dont worry we have already bought tons of food and stuff, but I kinda want something to happen hahaha. Nothing has happened yet, and Im guessing it will all blow over. 

Secondly, on Thursday I went on a split with a new elder, Elder Johnson. We had just walked out of a time when I get a call from Elder Rice who works in the downtown city. (I lived with Rice in Fort Dauphin) I pick it up and I hear yelling and screaming in the background and Rice screams into the phone, "ARE YOU SEEING THIS?! LOOK AT THE MOUNTAIN. THE LOCUSTS ARE TAKING OVER." I looked at the mountain in the distance and saw this black cloud going around the mountain. It was massive. Im talking, the locusts in the time of Moses in Egypt. Let my people go!! A massive horde of locusts, millions, took over the mountain of Tana on Thursday. Crazy haha. People then collected the locusts and put them on their rice that night....YUMMY

Two videos on this news link to show you what it is like with the locusts:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/08/locust-swarm-like-the-plagues-of-egypt-descends-upon-madagascars-capital/ 

I'm pumped for this week because Vololona passed her baptismal interview and the baptism is still on for Saturday!! I was also approached by someone in church who's daughter is getting baptized on Saturday as well. She asked me to baptize her daughter and I was honored!!! Im so excited and it is just awesome to see people change and become new creatures in Christ. 

Now we have another baptism planned for the 27th for a man named Frederique. Hes awesome. Super diligent, always has been, but he has just had one problem: He is living in the sam house as his "wife." This is a MAJOR problem here in Mdagascar. It is kinda new culture to go get legally married. Well he has been learning from missionaries for a while and finally realized that baptism and salvation is pretty important so he moved out last week!! He is now livings somewhere else and is super excited for his baptism. Him and his "wife" will get married down the line, Im sure. But, she has to get divorced from her first husband first....Kinda complicated but awesome because I get to see people lining up their will's with God's, and the blessings are flowing. 

Other than that, we played soccer today and won again. Us missionaries are on a roll. Hearing how bad Manchester United has started off the season, I bet we could beat them. 

Have a good week yall!!! 

God bless, 

Elder Hein