Transfers

Howdy

Well, transfers came late last night andddddd.....yeah Im getting transferred. Babb and I had expected it and I have already had chances to say goodbye to people. BUT, I am getting transferred to FIANARANTSOA. It is three hours south of Ambositra. (my first area) SOOOOO I got a 10 hour bus ride ahead of me on Wednesday. Yippee haha. Im pumped though. When I served in Ambositra, there were only 4 missionaries in Fianarantsoa. Now, there are 8! The work is flying and it was just recently made a Zone here a couple transfers ago. Ambositra is also a part of the Zone. I will be Zone Leader with Elder Fisher. So, I GET TO GO ON SPLITS IN AMBOSITRA!! Going back to the birthplace. Way pumped. 

So Fianarantsoa is a pretty big city. One of the biggest in Mada. It is a very spread out city. Not like Tana, which is so condensed. It is very countryside ish and pretty much a bigger version of Ambositra. Lots of mountains, lots of valleys, and lots of farmland. There are two branches in Fianarantsoa right now, and I heard they are struggling a tad. The work is flying, but the Branches are having some problems. I am excited for the opportunity!! 

Elder Fisher is a baller. He actually worked with Elder Gaul (my father) here in Ambohimanarina!! He and Gaul were the first to teach Norbert and fam. He has been to Fort Dauphin as well, so we have seen a lot of the same things!! BUT, he goes home in 6 weeks. So we will only have a short time together. I hope I can learn a lot from him. 

I am actually replacing my best friend on the mission, Elder Rigby. And, he is replacing me!! HAHA so he is coming here and working with Babb. Im real sad to leave Babb. Weve had a lot fun together and been through a lot together. Christmas, New Years, Bithdays, New house, Baptism, etc. Tons of stuff has happened and Im grateful we worked together. 

So a couple heartbreaking things this past week.

Firstly, we got a text from the Branch President on Thursday saying it is official. They are moving to the new church on the 22nd of March.....Literally the week after Im gone. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I have been here 24 weeks and nothing!! One more week. One more week. God has a sense of humor I guess. haha

Secondly, all the invitations for Norbert's baptism are all sent. His whole family will be baptized on the 4th of April. We are working with the Public Affairs couple to get this thing ready. It will be a great day. BUT, he pulled me aside personally and asked me to do his baptism...He knew I was leaving, but insists. He has in the past mentioned Elder Hamilton of The Seventy or President Adams to perform the ordinance. And thats what surprised me so much. He says he will personally talk with Pres Adams and see if me and Elder Fisher can come up. Hahah. We will see what happens!! Even if it doesnt work, Im just thankful I had the opportunity to teach him and his family. Incredible people. They have already done so much for the church here in this country and they arent even members yet. Plus, on the invitations, it has two pages. One describing the baptism. And then one page with the date of their temple trip in a years time. They will be sealed as a family in the Salt Lake City Temple in April of 2016. I will definitely be there for that!! 

Transfers are aways rough. I was ready for a new area and a new change, but it is hard saying goodbye to investigators and members. You really dont understand how much you mean to them until you say goodbye. But most importantly, you come to find out how much they mean to YOU. One bad thing about serving a mission here is this: contact with these people after the mission is very limited, if none at all. It is different if you serve in the States or Europe. This is third world, 12000 miles away where they dont have phones. Where they dont have addresses. About 99 percent of the time, you are saying goodbye till the next life! It is pretty tough, but life moves on. We all take a stab at this thing called life and learn and grow from each other. That is what Ive taken from these people. I have learned so much. So much that I couldnt have learned in Plano, Texas. So much that I cant learn in Provo, Utah. God has a plan and I am supposed to be here. 

Well, it is a little weird. Im headed to my last area. Never saw this day coming. I have two transfers left. TWO TRANSFERS. Thats nothing. Thats 12 more blog letters. June 10th Ill be headed home. I honestly can say, I am not missing home at all. (Sorry family) I love it here. Never want it to end. But, the finish line is closing in. I just hope I can go 110 percent all the way to the line. But not just to the line, but through all of life experiences that await me on the other side. This mission has changed me, and I still got 12 more weeks of change. I cant wait to see the rest of it. I ask for your prayers for the people of Mada, the Church and it's growth, and also all the missionaries around the world. This is Christ's church. No one can tell me other wise. 

Have a great week and God bless. 

Elder Hein

In the streets

Elder Babb with the kids that thought our arm hair was gross!  Ha Ha

Madagascar can be ugly and…..

Madagascar can be beautiful!!

Ugly

Beautiful!

Norbert and I

Norbert and family

Zone Conference - late post

Howdy, 

Started the week off with a Zone Conference!! It was great. The main overriding theme was integrity. I LOVE INTEGRITY haha. President quoted a talk from Tad R Callister which is one of my favorites of all time. I actually gave a Zone Meeting on that talk in December . So many different aspects of integrity, especially in missionary work. People may think integrity with stats, but when I think about it, I think about integrity to the badge, the calling, and The Lord. Integrity is the basis of all Christlike attributes. It is our foundation. If we dont have integrity, we can never become better, we can never change. 

We also got to watch a movie which was something new. TERMINATOR!!! Hahaha no. MEET THE MORMONS. Awesome movie. Just awesome. I thought the way they filmed it and everything was perfect. Great people, great stories. But it made me miss home a little bit...hahaha. Elder Babb was dying when they had the story with the Navy football coach. It was just really well done. Great missionary tool. USE IT!!

Rest of the week was kinda slow. Babb got sick for a couple days. But we found some new investigators and had some good contacts! Went on a split with an Elder who got here 2 and a half months ago. It is kinda weird being as old as I am in the mission. All these young missionaries all the time ask me for advice like I'm an old Grandpa or something. I still feel like I just got here and just trying to settle myself in! The mission is just a constant growing process. I love it. 

Bad news, Hanta and Flavien got their ID!! BUT its wrong again. They miss copied the number on

to the new one….

Good news, BABB COMMITTED TO BYU!! Rise and shout the Cougars are out!! We all knew he would make the right decision. 

Lastly; at Zone Conference we also talked about the Law of Consecration and what it means to be a "discple of Christ." You have to give EVERYTHING. Christ said it himself. 

Luke 14:33 So likewise, whosever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

The Famous Rock Wall

Mazava be. (Very clear) Are we willing to gove up EVERYTHING? Do we give up everything? Dig down and ask yourselves. I am definitely not there yet, but Im trying. It is an eternal principle that we need to start learning now. Remember, only our best is good enough for The Lord. 

God bless, 

Elder Hein

PS Transfers are next week...

Saying goodbye to the old house

We all lived here.

My new bedroom in the new house.

Cleaning!

Howdy.

Sometimes on the mission you aren't the guy carrying your scriptures and name badge around 24/7. That was one of those weeks. We worked one full day this week. One. Haha. So not too much progress in the field, but we had a BUSY week.

Monday we were notified we would be moving to a new house the next morning. Our house had ten years of missionary filth that needed to be cleaned....we were up till 3am packing and getting everything ready.

Tuesday it took us 8 hours to move. So much stuff. We had a couple guys from the office that brought a van to help us. We had to take a bunch of trips and the people werent even moved out yet!! Haha. The guys told us that we didnt have to clean too much because the office hired two people to come clean. So we didnt. A few hours later we get a call from the office couples telling us we needed to clean the old house....

Wednesday we cleaned. All day. Im talking 10 hours of cleaning. We dumped water on the walls and went to work. We made a literal flood in the house but it was needed. We cleaned that thing beautifully. Got home late and then we had to clean our new house...

Thursday we worked for a couple hours and then had to do some bap interviews in another area. Well it took us three hours to get home due to traffic....They are having a real problem here in Mada with the roads. There is too much water and the roads are suffering from it. Im talking pot holes that delve straight "into the depths of hell." These things are massive and every road here in Tana is a two way road....You can imagine the chaos.

Friday we worked!!! Beautiful.

Saturday we had Stake Conference. An Area Seventy presided and it was a great session. Due to traffic we got home way late and no work was done.

Sunday was more Stake Conference and more traffic!! Plus Babb was a little sick so we only got one lesson in!!

I felt like we did so much this week but looking at the stat book we did nothing haha. Lets just say I'm pumped for another week!!

The new house is awesome!!

The Seventy had a great point in Stake Conference. I felt bad for the members because the translator had it wrong. He got a little angry and questioned why Church members say it is so hard being  a member. He said Christ's yoke is easy, His burden is light. Obviously quoting the scripture in Matio 11. But the he compared it to the devil's yoke. He said Satan's yoke is the heaviest thing you will ever put around your neck. It will drag you down so fast you wont have time to think. We shouldnt complain. It is the best way and the lightest yoke.

Have a great week. 

Elder Hein

Baptism!!

Howdy!

Not too much time today. Just a couple things:

THE BAPTISM WENT GREAT. Saturday rolled around and the rain was coming down. The font is upstairs on the balcony so we were gunna have a nice rainy baptism! Well, we go up to do the service, and the rain stops. Baptism was finished and then the rain started coming down again!! Little tender mercies from The Lord. It was a great service and The Spirit was in abundance. 

Desire is a changed man. Incredible to see his journey. String and I tracted into him. I was a part of all the lessons, and I had the chance to baptize him. Never had that experience on my mission till now. Awesome. Just awesome. 

Desire on his baptismal day.

He bore his testimony about the first time String and I came to his house. I didnt know it that day, but I see now, how The Lord guided us that day. 

We saw some people working in the fields and we went over and helped them. Dug in the mud and got some rice fields ready to be planted. Well, String and I finished, and we decided to go up the mountain back to the main road. Pretty steep mountain. Well, the whole time we were down there, Desire was watching us from his house and was amazed at us in our white shirts and ties, helping people in the fields. He was touched and when we knocked on his door, he immediately let us in. I never knew that, or put the pieces together then, but now, seeing the whole story, I see how The Lord works in mysterious ways. 

Elder Babb with us.

On a spiritual note, I have a quote I came across that I love. Its from Marianne Williamson. 

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Sometimes, especially in this country, people are scared of their potential. They are fine of what they have now, and dont want to become better. Little do they know, thats what the Gospel is all about. Reaching your goals, becoming the best you can be, etc. We were born with an unlimited potential. We place limits on our potential when we are lazy, blame others, disobedient to God's commandments, etc. There are no limits on what we can acheive. When we reach our goals, we become examples to those around us. "Let your light so shine." 

God bless, 

Elder Hein

Turkeys are the ugliest creatures in the world!

This was a family that was baptized the same day as Desire.

Howdy!!

Howdy!! 

Things are popping here!! 18 investigators at church yesterday. A few of them new ones!! We would have gotten over 20 yesterday, but it was raining cats and dogs all morning and its tough for some people to walk an hour in that. Well the new building is, the new building....Still has little minorthings. I hope I get to see it open. 

Well, the government lost Flavien's ID so.....he has to go 16 hours away and do it again. He leaves tonight and will come back with it completed on Wednesday. MIVAVAHA(thats me commanding yall to pray)

BUT, Desire passed the baptismal interview and he will be baptized this Saturday!! I am so excited. It has been a while since I have seen a baptism. Baptism is about a change in life. A change in direction. A change in the way someone looks at life. Ive seen that change in him and he is super anxious for Saturday! 

Thats all the big time news this week. Things are just going on like always. We have put a big focus on member missionary work as of late. Visiting all the members and giving them homework: one referral in two weeks. We are really excited to see the results of this. All the members seem pretty excited. We have pretty lazy members, and sometimes they just need a little waking up to get going!! Haha. DONT LET THE MISSIONARIES COME AND REMIND YOU OF YOUR DUTIES AS A MEMBER. We are all in this work, together. 

On a spiritual note, we talked about trials yesterday in Elders Quorum. I loved it. One of the questions asked by the teacher was, "How should we act as we go through trials?" I immediately thought of Job and Paul. One of my favorite scriptures is Job 23:10. 

10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. 

I also love Paul's glorying in tribulation, 

 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for mystrength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may restupon me.

 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Trials are a part of life. The second we realize that and understand that we NEED trials, we will learn to glory in trials like Paul did. It is a time for us to show God our love and faith. It is a part of the process of becoming a Celestial being. We cant get to that point, if we dont go through the trials. When a trial comes, be happy. Pray for strength. Overcome it. Thank God. And come through as gold. 

God bless, 

Elder Hein

Investigators!!

Howdy!

This week was great!! Nothing too exciting. Yesterday was amazing. We had 15 investigators and 2 less-actives come(who are completely active now!!). So the work is going great! There wasn't any super amazing cool story this week unfortunately, so I was thinking I just might tell y'all about some of our investigators. 

Desire: Ive never mentioned this guy before. He is turning out to be one my top 5 favorite investigators of all time. He's 35, not married, but lives with his family. He is kind of a loner. Stringfellow and I tracted into him one day. Taught him and I wont lie, I thought, "This guy wont ever progress." But, he liked the teachings and so we kept going back. He kept reading The Book of Mormon and the small fire began to grow within. We had been teaching him for about 8 weeks and he still hadnt come to church. Just a nervous shy guy. Well, he came once. Just once. Like 6 weeks ago. We werent there(due to Babb being sick) and the Elder's Quorum President took him under his wing. He hasnt missed a week since and is on absolute fire. Havent ever seen an investigator so pumped about us coming over haha. He will be baptized on the 21st. He will be the first investigator I tracted into, taught all the lessons, and see the baptism!! I love this guy. 

Tanjona: Well this guy is probably my favorite investigator of all time. I have talked about him before. He is the house builder that yelled to us from the roof. HE IS A LEGEND. Hes 25 and now married(in Malagasy standards, which he knows isnt enough.) This guy has had one trial after another. I have never seen an investigator have to deal with so much. I have also never seen an investigator with as much faith. God pulls through for him at the last second every time, purely on his faith. He was getting married on Sunday two weeks ago and needed 150,000 AR. (A lot of money.) He came begging to us for money saying that he would pay us back the next week. His boss didnt have the money but would the next week. Well....that cant happen. We just counseled him to pray. At 1 PM on Saturday afternoon, his boss called and said he had 200,000 AR for Tanjona. Literally 15 hours before the wedding.....thats called cutting it close haha. The Lord has pulled through for him many times and Tanjona knows that. He will be baptized in March. 

Hanta and Flavien: They are struggling with the papers still. BUT THEY ARE FINISHED. For good this time. They are just sitting in Tamatave and will be put on a bus today to come here to Tana. It's been over 2.5 years of trying, but this is it. I feel it. We have them scheduled for the 21st along with their adopted niece and their neighbor!! PRAYERS FOR THEM WOULD BE GREAT!!

Norbert and fam: Just pure legends. Isabel(his wife) will be General Relief Society President one day. Trust me. Always bringing new investigators to us!! Just awesome. Waiting on new building....whats new? But the consturction company has completely left the building. Everything is set up, etc. Soooooo Im thinking this week! But dont quote me on that. 

Thats just a few! I'll live yall some more next week. 

I read this talk called "The Fourth Missionary" this week by Lawrence Corbridge. Unbelievable. Incredible. I cant stop raving about it. EVERY SINGLE FUTURE MISSIONARY NEEDS TO READ THIS. The talk was given when he was a mission president. He is now a Seventy. He talks a lot about desires and our wills. It completely applies to our lives as well. If we follow the commandments with exactness, but dont do it with good intentions, IT PROFITS US NOTHING. God wont judge us purely on what we've done. He will judge us based on HOW we did it. We need to have a desire to do The Lord's will. Don't go to church just because that is a commandment. Go because you want to. It will profit you nothing if you just go. We cant have that constant battle in our minds. "I dont wanna do it, but that's what God wants." We cant do it grudingly. We have to DESIRE it. Very difficult to do, but we can do it. That's why we are here. To prepare, to learn, to change, to BECOME. To become like our Father in Heaven. If you want to do that, we need to WANT to do His will. 

God bless, 

Elder Hein

Suits!

Howdy. 

Transfers were exciting...NOT. Nothing happened haha. Babb and I are together for another transfer here in Ambohimanarina. Ive never spent more than three transfers in an area, so it will be exciting to see how it ends up. 

Which means....I should definitely see the baptisms of Norbert and fam, Yanta and Flavien, and some others that are progressing. Also, I should see the grand opening of the new church.....fingers crossed. I dont wanna promise anything, because I have for 4 months haha. Last time I went by it, everything was set up, and they were just putting up paintings. Soooooo, we should be in there pretty soon. 

About Norbert....so Im an a split on Thursday night in another area and I get a call from Norbert saying he is surprising his wife on Friday morning and getting married(officially, on paper) They were going to do it the day of their baptism, but he wanted to make it a surprise. So we showed up at the governent place in the morning and helped take part in the surprise. She walked in and just died laughing. Norbert was so happy. He shared a scripture out of 3 Nephi and started telling the Area Mayor about the temple. The man is a legend. It was just Babb, me, one of the APs, Norbert, his wife, and three witnesses. It was awesome. Only in Mada can you surprise your spouse with a wedding HAHAHA. Then that night we were invited to a party he trew for close family. At an insanely niceretaurant. There were 5 courses and then cake haha. Best fish and shrimp Ive had in a loooooong time. 

The work this week didnt progress too much. Our house we are living in now has some problems so we are trying to find a new one. So whenever we arent teaching, we are looking for a new house. Kinda reminds me of my first area when Gaul and I looked for a church building. Had a Zone Meeting this week where Babb and I taught out of a talk from Gordon B Hinckley called "Dont Drop the Ball." A MUST READ. Talks about our reputations as individuals and how people often remember one small dumb thing we did in our lives. It completely applies to missionaries. Its crazy how everyone in this mission knows so much about everybody. We want to leave great legacies and because of that we cant drop the ball. Not even for a second. 

Got a call yesterday morning from President saying they needed one of us to translate for Elder Von Reenan, a Seventy....so I had to go on a split and translate for him and President at another Ward's meeting. It wasnt too bad. But he got up to bear his testimony....He started out saying, "I am grateful to bear my testimony today. My cup truly runneth over." I kinda looked at him like, "You think I cant translate that?" Haha. The rest of it was fine. Just a little nerve racking. 

Not too many exciting things this week, but Ill share a small experience that I had yesterday on a split:

We had just walked over 15 minutes through rice fields to teach this one family. Pouring rain, slippery paths, i fell in, the whole nine yards. Start teaching this famiy and they just obviusly arent too interested today. The lesson was coming to a close and I hadnt said anything yet. We were teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, my favorite lesson. Elder Razazarohavana looked at me for some last words and I just felt prompted to go off. I had thoughts run into my mind of Christ suffering for them in the Garden. I had thoughts of Him on the cross for them. I had thoughts of Christ overcoming death for them. I couldnt let it just be. The power of the Holy Spirit came upon the room as I talked of the atonement. I spoke some of the best Malagasy I have ever spoken. The words I spoke did not come from me. The words were straight from The Spirit. It was an incredible experience. When we just go with the revelation that comes in our lives and let the Spirit guide, we see how powerful God truly is. We cant be afraid to act on promptings. We cant be afraid to teach the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We cannot be"ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ." 

God bless. 

Elder Hein

Norbert's Party

New Suits - with traditional Malagasy cloth inside.  I got a light and dark (both blue) suit now.

Elder Babb and I showing our new duds.