Awesome week!

Salama Daholo!

Awesome week! We finally were able to get past sicknesses and have a full week of hard work and achieve our goal for proselyting hours.  This week has been full of new less-active families that our ward missionaries have helped us find, woot!

We have a great house right now.

Some of our investigators kids make and sell tops. These tops are round and have a nail at the bottom. You wrap a rope around it and fling it at the ground. For these tops, they literally melt any plastic they can find, and form it into a ball. The smoke definitely horrible for them, but they're the best topmakers on the block.

• Journal Writing: Writing in my journal has been my favorite fanao (daily routine task) recently. It makes my experience here in Madagascar feel like one long, sweeping story, like The Odyssey or Junie B. Jones perhaps.
• Baptism Dates: Two of our newest families accepted baptism dates! Dina (dadabe caretaker) and his wife said that they never felt like any of the churches they went to felt true, except this one! Then, Marcelo and Saholy were extremely skeptical the first lesson and almost didn't let us come back. However, after the second lesson, they totally flipped. They loved reading the BoM!
• Concert Date Request: During English class, we were doing an activity where the students had to pretend to call me to an activity. One guy invited me to a drink (milk for me), one lady invited me to a wedding, then these two 40 year-old women invited me to a Ambodrona (famous Malagasy band) concert at the coliseum near our church for next Saturday. I pretended play along for the activity, but it turned out they were serious. When I realized, I said no, but they were a wee bit tezitra. Oi, it woulda been a bit weird to go on a date with two 40 year-old women as a missionary.
• Violent Children: I've had an odd relationship with our investigators' kids this week, full of getting hit in the coin purse a little too often. First, Tendry (6) yelled, "Ataovy pass-pass!" Then, he drop kicked a soccer ball into the place from 2 feet away. Second, Joro (13) sling-shotted a lemon into the place. Third, Ordau (6) punched me in the place three times during a lesson. I'm becoming weaker; I need to think of some form of protection or defense. Any suggestions?
• Funny Confrontation: On Friday, as we going down our usual path, someone called us an extremely racist term in Malagasy. We immediately turned around to politely ask him to not say that, but he took off running. Not aware of where he was running, he ran straight into a fruitstand, knocking down dozens of bananas. The seller started screaming at him, and he ended up having to pay for all the damages. Whoops, quick karma izany.

I'm about to go to a lemur reserve today, so I'll send some pictures next week! I'm loving it here in Madagascar! 

Mandra-pihaona!

Elder Soper

Salama legume! Legume salama!

Salama legume! Legume salama!

Quick Note: Elder Hammer is feeling better, and we are back to our normal schedule! Great week, settled down a bit since Easter, but the weird experiences continue.

• Punched a Chicken in the Air: Elder Hammer and I were walking down a path full of chickens. Usually, they are polite and simply step aside. However, there was one cheeky chicken that jumped up, wall-jumped off the wooden fence beside the path and came flying at Elder Hammer. Elder Hammer ducked, so it came towards my shoulder, but I decided to punch it for some reason. I punched it in the chest; it hit the fence and tumbled into pothole. I felt oddly confident for the rest of the day. Plus, no more chickens messed with us.
• English Class: One of my passions has been teaching English each week on Saturdays. I try to make it fun with activities like telling stories (I told the story about accidentally saving that girl with my leg), dream vacations and random games. Our class has grown from 5 to about 15, a good sign I think! This last week, we did dream vacations, and one of our investigators (Arsen) got up and described how he wanted to fly to America, not land, but parachute, have Obama welcome him, exchange some small talk and a present, see all the states and finish with a bowl of ice cream. Way funny!
• Language: Malagasy seems to be coming in stages. I'm beginning to understand most of what people say, but it's the 'Malagasy thought' I still don't get. While I understand the individual words they are saying, it's still incredibly hard to discern what they intend to say. Otherwise, it's going great! I especially love talking about food, sports, places in Madagascar, Madagascar's history, and farming (ridiculously interesting).
• Ismaelle Baptism: The son of Herimael's family (who were baptized a couple weeks ago) got baptized this last Saturday. He's a math genius, and he loves Lebron James. Before the baptism, he got really nervous and said he wanted to do it next week. Then, his dad came over and said, "Ismaelle, I've waited too long for this. Don't postpone it." Woot!
• The Daily Drunk Dancer: There's a guy who sleeps on the main path in our area. Right as he wakes up, he gets drunk. I love seeing him though. Every time we see him, he always has his arms lazily lifted above his head, and he's doing a slow, two-step dance. With a gigantic smile on his face, he looks down at his feet, hums quietly and diligently salsa dances.

Sorry, didn't have to much time to write this week, and once again, I forgot my planner, so I'm sure I haven't included a few experiences. Welp, next week!

Mbola feno fankasitrahana ho ny antsoko manompo eto Madagasikara aho. Tiako mitohy mivoatra ary manatona akaiky kokoa amin'i Jesoa Kristy isan'andro isan'andro. Fantatro fa marina ity fiangonana ity!

Love,

Elder Soper

Madagascar is a wonderful place...

Salama daholo!

Tsisy vaovao ho ahy fa izaho kosa nanana tena mahafinaritra herinandro teo. Madagascar is a wonderful place, full of exotic wildlife, people, food and experiences. Each week, I experience things where I can't comprehend the spiritual uplift I feel during my interactions with investigators and members and the precious uniqueness of my surroundings: the dirty city streets, the oddly shaped houses, the precarious paths and jungles, the occasional baby holding a knife, and the outright weirdness of the occasional, inadvertent 'what-the-butt-is-that' reflex I have multiple times a day. I'm incredibly blessed to be serving in Madagascar. I hope I can continue to appreciate the fact that I'm in Madagascar during my whole mission. 

Stories I Missed Last Week

-Easter Fiasco: Elder Hammer was especially tired, fell asleep on a taxibe, didn't notice I got off, woke up in an unfamiliar place, flipped out, found out he had entered an area where no missionaries serve (not way too far from Ivandry though) and found a person that could guide him back to Ivandry. Meanwhile, I assumed Elder Hammer followed me off the taxibe, and I started walking towards our next appointment. I then realized, “Where the flip is Elder Hammer?!” Confused, I went to an investigator’s house that we always stop by to say hi, and luckily, they had Elder Hammer’s number. Eventually, he found his way back, and we reunited, phew.

-Dina: Lemme tell you about this baller. This guy takes care of his 92 year-old dadabe and his 83 year-old mamabe. He clothes them, feeds them and washes them. He ran away from home because his mom abused him, and she fed him poison in small amounts so he wouldn't progress, and thus be dependable on her his whole life. He found a job as a taxibe caller, but somehow, he worked days and nights 24/7. Once he got enough money, he bought a small episcerie shop where he would give food to the poor for free. Now, he still is a little slow, but he has a wife, raises chickens and kids, and he wants to be baptized. Rare guy who wants to help everyone he sees.

This Week

• Soccer: Today, we missionaries played a game against a bunch of Malagasy members. The game turned out to be way official. There was a paid referee, and the Malagasies had matching orange jerseys. The game started off with a goal from a Malagasy bishop. As he celebrated, he ran to the side of the field and basically ripped off his shirt. That was when I realized the importance of the game. We kicked it up a notch and finally scored an ugly, scrappy goal. Our passing was horrible, but our counterattack went great. At one point, I became really selfish, took the ball and dribbled the ball all the way up to the field. The elders on the sideline started screaming because I accidentally made a couple of flashy moves. I made it to the goal and tapped it into the right corner--way exhilirating. I then made a fool out of myself with a couple really dumb plays, but whatever. After about 2 hours, we lost about 5-3...
• Elder Hammer's sickness: Elder Hammer's sickness reached a point where he hasn't been able to get out bed, and he called President Foote because he wanted a blessing. President Foote, being the amazing guy he is, came over as quick as he could. It was a great experience, but please pray for Elder Hammer.
• General Conference: I said this to Haley, "This is the first conference that wasn't boring for me. I'm changing 🤔." General Conference was amazing. All the missionaries in Tana congregated to watch it at the mission office. My favorite talk was Elder Uchtdorf's during the Priesthood Session. He really knows how to relate to everyone, and somehow, his talks always feel revolutionary or feel like watching the world turn a little faster. I'll share some of my thoughts about General Conference next week because we still haven't seen the Sunday session.

I forgot my planner again, adoy, and I literally can't remember another great experience from this week, so next time, haha!

  

Mandra-pihaona! 

Love,

Elder Soper

Salama Daholo!

Salama Daholo!

Inona miresaka? Ah, tsisy miresaka. It's been a pretty good week with a couple of ridiculous experiences. Easter is still going strong, which is partially the reason we have an early curfew of 8 this week, heh. 

                            This kid is really good at English, better than most of the adult students.

• Member Split: We doubled up our area on Wednesday. Elder Hammer went with Elder Knight (still hadn't received his new companion), and I went with Rija (recent convert). This was a great confidence booster. He and I got put with the job of tracting. We were able to tract into a couple lessons, and I was finally able to teach the BoM lesson (tough lesson for me) without it being awkward or out of order. When we left, Rija said, while the lesson was still going, "That's how it's done." I still have so much to learn about the language. Right now, an accurate description would be that I talk like a Malagasy kid does. Nevertheless, it's nice to have a successful day like that.
• Ny Klin T-Shirt Sarobidy: I saw this shirt when I first got here, and it's been my goal to get it since. I've been on the look-out on P-Days, but up until to today, tsy misy. Finally, I saw a guy walking out of Shoprite (small grocery store) with the Klin shirt on, in decent condition! I gave my bag to Elder Hammer and sprinted towards him. I told him I would buy it off him right there. He instead opted for a trade for my purple Adidas shirt because he didn't want to be shirtless. 
  
• Caution! (Awkward): During English class, I was trying to explain the difference between 'in' and 'at'. I drew a map of an area near Ivandry called Analakely, but I made the mistake of abbreviating it as Anal. All the students already knew what that means, way embarrassing, but a good laugh.
• Families: We tracted into a few less-active families this week. This is a huge problem in Madagascar. Many missionaries did whatever they could to baptize as many people as they could without really helping to convert. In our area, there's about 120 active members (decently sized ward), but about 450 less-actives. So, Elder Hammer and I are hoping to work better with the ward missionaries and find these less-active families. There's already a lot of work done by missionaries before us, we just need to take advantage of it. Plus, 2 Nephi 31:14, yikes. Two of my favorite families we've met so far is M. and S., then D.'s fam. I'll tell you their stories next week.
• Easter Fiasco - Story I need to tell next week!
  
  
  
  
• This guy asked me to take a picture of him before he dies so that there's a record of him that lives on after he dies, pretty sweet. He was kind of joking, but hopefully I can print this picture off for him.

I love sharing the Gospel every day! Being able to share my testimony with so many people is a great blessing! Fantatro fa mahafinaritra ny filizantsaran'i Jesoa Kristy! Amin'ny manaraka indray!

Love you all!

Elder Soper