December 12

It sounds like Christmas is in full swing!! In English class on Saturday we talked about Christmas and we translated "Santa Clause is coming to town" into Malagasy. I miss Christmas music!! There are only two Malagasy Christmas hymns in our hymnbook "Silent Night" and "Far Far Away on Judeas Plains." But we haven't sung them yet in church because I'm pretty sure they are waiting to sing them on Christmas. (It looks like my new comp may be giving his first talk in Malagasy on Christmas!)

So I'm now working in Anjanahary, It is pretty close to the center of Tana and there are a lot of people, I'm used to working a little farther out closer to fresh air. Wesley came home loving the city, but I must say I still love Ambanivoatra! I loved living in the mountains. A cool part about my new ward though is that a lot of the people here knew Wesley. 3 or 4 of them actually served their missions here in Mada and knew Wes. In fact our DMP was Wesley's mission companion. To be honest though I kind of miss Ambohipo. I got way close with a lot of the members there, and really learned to like the area. Oh well, I'm sure I'll love Anjanahary too.

So we actually had a really awesome experience this week. On Saturday we stopped and were talking to a family that was selling bed frames. While we were talking to them a random guy came up and asked us if we could come to his house and teach him. So we did. He is in the midst of a very hard trial and has turned to alcohol and cigarettes (he wasn't drunk when he talked to us though). He said that he wanted to come back to Christ, and asked when church was. We told him and taught him a little about the atonement. He said he was going to come to church on Sunday. He actually came!!! ... and well, I'm really excited for him

I love you!! Word of the week is Alina Masina which means holy night in Malagasy. (It's actually night holy, but yeah.)

Elder Beeson and I found some Christmas stuff in our apt, so that is the extent of our Christmas decorations.