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

Split, Elder Anderson still struggling a bit, Seventy and Lemurs

Howdy!! 

Another week in the books. I cant believe I am in Madagascar....How cool is that?? Haha

Well Elder Anderson is still pushing through. He is still best friends with the toilet, but then again so are all missionaries in Mada. Just as he got over his stomach problems, here comes a fever and stuffy nose!!!! Oh the joy of being a new missionary. Today he is doing pretty well though and we should have a good week ahead of us. 

So let me clarify something about last weeks blog....I read a whole lot of the Old Testament but didnt finish it haha. I went through it witha study guiide but I was kinda joking when I said I read it all hahaha. April Fools in August I guess? 

Well it was a busy week here in the mission due to the fact that we had 8 missionaries go home and 14 come in!! I now have a brother as Elder Gaul is training again!! Also, Elder Ralaivao my last comp is training and pretty much everyone else in the mission!! The group that came in seems awesome. Literally all of them seem like straight legends and that is exactly what the mission needed right now. Also, we had a Seventy visit us and give a Zone Conference this Saturday so everyone came up to Tana. Anderson and I, had Elder Stokes working with us all week. He came to the mission 6 weeks before me and is an awesome guy. Hes serving in Toliara amongst the Baobab Trees (lucky duck). It was a great time, but he headed out to Toliara again late Saturday night. 

The Zone Conference was great. Elder Hamilton of the Seventy came and did a mission tour. He is the First Counselor in the Africa Southeast Area Presidency. Very very very spiritual man and he had a great presence about him. Answered a lot of our questions about how to be better missionaries? how to help this country? etc.... And the teaching was great. Loved it. 

He said one thing that really stuck out to me about the poverty here. He quoted an Apostle and said if the Latter Day Saints here pay their tithing, it will lift, not only the members, but the whole country out of poverty. DANG. He then discussed the success of both Brazil and Mexico and how when the church grows in an area, so does the country. 

This is God's church. I see it everyday. I cant deny it. My job is to just help people understand that and Elder Anderson and I need all the help we can get!! 

I love yall and have a great week!! 

God bless, 

Elder Hein

PS We went to the zoo and saw lemurs today. We quietly payed the guards a little money  and got to go in to the cage and have the lemurs crawl all over us!   

Lemurs

Lemurs

Elder Anderson when he was feeling well.  He is on a telephone pole.

Croc farm we visited when Elder Anderson was feeling well.

Look at all the crocs on the other side of the water.  

Turtles!

Area where I work everyday

Soccer against the members.  That's me in yellow.  As missionaries we play the members about every other week.

Soccer with the members!

It hit Elder Anderson

Well, it finally hit Elder Anderson. The world of dirty restaurants and sickness finally hit him. He was terribly sick this week and we stayed in a bunch this week. Its always the worst when you have to stay in from work, but he needed it. The toilet has become Elder Anderson's best friend this past week. He has spent a lot of sleepless nights in the bathroom haha. 

Other than that, not too much. Pretty boring week! But because of my companions sickness, I read the Old Testament. All of it. Yes I did. 

Transfer news came in last night and obviously Anderson and I are staying together for another transfer!!! Only 6 more weeks and Im on my way to another area! Crazy how time goes on the mission. 

I gave a talk in church this past week. I gave it on trusting The Lord. Our Ward has a problem with laziness. No one takes responsibility for things. No one likes to take a stand. All of us have timmes in our lives when we like to take the middle road, even though it doesnt exist. We let things happen, and then say, "Thats just life." No its not. Take a stand. Do something about it. Make a change. But dont complain when because of your lack of taking a stand, bad things come. Life is hard, but the Gospel makes it simple.  Sorry to be preachy but thats what it is. 

I love yall, and I hope yall have a good week. TAKE A STAND

God bless, 

Elder Hein