Madagascar - Communications down !

Dear Mada Parents--

This is Sister Woolley for President and Sister Foote, writing from my home in Provo.  Apparently, an underwater cable has been damaged in the Indian Ocean which has taken out Telma, the phone and internet provider in Madagascar.  The consequence of this is that your missionaries will not have access to email either to receive or send until the repairs are made which may be as long as 15 days.  President Foote was afraid you would be concerned when you didn't hear from your missionaries this week, and ask me to send an explanation.

I hope I have email addresses for all the Mada parents.  Please spread the word to any I may have missed.

Madagascar is a wonderful place to serve despite some occaisional difficulties--we miss it already.

Sister Woolley

January 23

I'm sorry to hear about Bro. Ellsworth. I'm not wholly shocked, but it is sad to think he won't be there when I get home. He was a huge influence on me as I was growing up. I'm doing fine though. Death is a part of life. I teach people everyday that if we live the gospel we can be with our families forever. Bro. Ellsworth and his family live the gospel and I have no doubt they will see each other in the Celestial kingdom. Spencer Avarell talked a few weeks back in his email about a couple elders that died in his mission. He talked about his mission president as saying something like our message isn't just a lesson, its real, We don't just tell other people about it but we can use it too. (That is not even close to a direct quote, those were just my thoughts as I read what Spencer wrote.) The pain of death is swallowed up in the joy of Christ.

Well my week has been really good. We got to teach a lot of really cool people and a lot of investigators and less actives came to church! Its always wonderful when people say they will come to church and then actually come! I feel like I should be used to people saying they are coming and then not coming. It has happened a lot on my mission, but for some reason I just cant get used to it. I always have such high hopes and then Sunday comes and they don't show up. That is how Sunday started out for me. When we started the opening hymn there were only a few of the people we are teaching there, but when I looked back during the intermediate hymn I saw more that had come in a little late, It was so exciting! 

The good days are always the days you remember, the bad ones usually just kind of fade form your memory. Also this week we had an investigator pass a bap interview. She will be getting baptized this coming Saturday which is really exciting.

So as of late it has not been raining here in Tana, which is good for us as missionaries because it's much easier to talk to and teach people when its not raining. It means we don't have to walk through gross water. However, its not very good for the people here. There is a lot of talk of water being shut off if it doesn't rain soon (not just like running water because most people don't have that but also the wells where most people get their water from. Our Bishop yesterday told everyone to pray for rain. Another reason we need rain is so two of our investigators can get baptized. It is a couple and all they need to do is get legally married in order to get baptized. However that is pretty difficult because the wife was born very far from Tana and needs a copy of her birth certificate from her birth town in order to get married. Well her mom went out there to plant rice, but she needs it to rain before she can plant the rice. So basically it we need to rain so she can plant the rice, get the birth certificate and come back here so they can get legally married. Its strange, but literally they will get baptized as soon as it starts raining.

Well that's about it. I love you!! 

Word of the week is fahafatesana which means death.

January 16

Well there was an earthquake this week! It wasn't too big. I don't know of any damage that happened, but it certainly shook up a lot of Malagasies, Apparently, earthquakes aren't very common, and word on the street is that this was the biggest one ever recorded. I slept through the whole thing.

I met two girls both named Jenny this week and they said they were sisters, found that pretty interesting.

I tried something called trondron-maina; Which is this dried fish that they then make into a soup like thing and serve with rice.  Today we went out to Sabotsy Namenah (my old area) and just sort of hung out in the countryside, it was a lot of fun.

We are teaching some really cool families right now, though in general most of our investigators are struggling with regular church attendance for various reasons. Hopefully that changes soon though. One of the guys we have been teaching named Rija is trying to make it so he doesn't have to work Sundays, he could use some prayers!

This week I read Ch 5 of Alma. It is a really great chapter. In vs 45-48 Alma bears a very strong testimony of Jesus Christ. It really hit me that Alma knew that Christ would come and redeem him from his sins.

Well that's about it for this week! Love you guys! 

Word of the week is horohoron-tany which means earthquake.

So things id like in my next package Mac and cheese, refried beans (its okay if its a small can), smarties and life saver gummies.

I was also hoping Mom and Dad you could start thinking of anything you guys would like me to bring you from here and maybe ask the kids too what they want. I'm starting to to think about souvenirs so I don't have to buy them all at the end. I love you!!!

January 9

Well its been a good week. It ended with me getting to attend a baptism for two of the people that Elder Jackson and I found and taught together in Ambohipo. It was a really neat experience. They were Elder Jackson's first baptism and  he got to be there for their entire process - which doesn't happen a ton. 

Today I bought some pants because I was down to one pair. Clothes shopping here is a whole different experience than in America. I also tried looking for running shoes because another elder I live with and I are starting to run every (some) mornings, but I don't think shoes that big exist here. If they do it will take a lot of time and effort to find them.

Sunday night we were teaching a girl (who should hopefully be getting baptized in a few weeks) about tithing. Her cousin is a member and he was helping us. He shared an example from Elder Bednar. When we don't pay our tithing its not that God closes the windows of heaven and no longer lets out blessings, but in reality by not keeping commandments we put up umbrellas and refuse to let his blessings reach us. I really liked this example and yesterday I was reading in Mosiah ch 26 vs 26 which says:

"25 And it shall come to pass that when the second trump shall sound then shall they that never knew me come forth and shall stand before me.

 26 And then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, that I am their Redeemer; but they would not be redeemed."

Dad will love this picture!

The last part is what really struck me, "they would not be redeemed." Christ is waiting with open arms, he wants us to come unto him, he will never turn his back onus. However we turn our back on him, we do not let his atonement change us. The purpose of this life is to obtain Joy and we can only do that by changing. Wickedness never was happiness. In order to obtain eternal life or a fullness of joy then we must use Christs atonement to become perfect. That is our end goal, to become even as our Heavenly Father and our older brother Jesus Christ. However while this is our end goal we aren't expected to be perfect - we are expected to progress. If we aren't progressing we are digressing. Well that's just something I've learned this week. 

I love you all! I hope you have a great week and continue to come unto Christ and be perfected in him.

Word of the week is helo which means either umbrella or hell (not a bad word in Malagasy); Another way to say hell is afobe (also not a bad word) which literally translates to a lot of fire.

January 2

Well I honestly don't have a whole lot to say about this week. The rain is back again, we got drenched today. Our area tends to flood when it rains, so that is gonna be fun!

I met a return missionary that knows both Wesley and Spencer Avarell. His picture is included below. he is a pretty cool guy. 

Honestly, this week was really normal. I am struggling to think of things to tell you about. We did get to teach some neat investigators. One of the couples we teach are named Haingo and Haingo. I find it way cool. Hopefully some of them catch their baptismal dates over the next month or two.

It is weird to think it is already 2017; it doesn't feel too long ago that it just turned 2016. The weirdest thing to think though is that this time next year I'll be pretty close to being ready to go back to college. That still seems a lifetime away. I still have 9 months left here though, so I'm still not really worried about that. I hope all of you have a wonderful 2017!!! I love you.

Word of the week is afa-po which means satisfied.