Another spicy week wrapped and ready to eat...

Ry Fianakaviako,

Photos from our pday outing to the zoo:

Elder Tangarasi

Him and I have clicked, maybe something having to do with our islander personalities.

Esperienses:

Translating for President Foote: On Sunday, while on member splits, I made the mistake of taking one of my investigators to the church building to show him around; his family has been too scared to come on his own. When I got there, President Foote looked kind of stressed and asked me if I could translate for the temple interviews he was doing. Angaha. His other translator didn't show up. Walking into the interview, my mind was racing; first off, my Malagasy is still a lil' infantile and second, President Foote is a very busy, important man--better not disappoint his expectations. Luckily, it all went great. The questions weren't too hard to translate and the answers were stereotypical. However, for a couple seconds, I totally blanked, so I just stared at the lady (interviewee) for a while hoping she could understand the question by telekinesis. I'm sure my face looked like my brain just shut off. In the end, it was an encouraging, discouraging, confusing and scary experience.

Pirate Treehouse: We taught a pirate named Elysie--has an eyepatch--that lives in a house supported by two trees. The entrance is preceded by a long, winding wooden incline that takes you through a jungle of vines climbing higher and higher until you get to his house (20 feet off the ground maybe). Elysie used to drive boats up in Northern Madagascar and commented that he used to hijack and steal from other boats, thus defining him as a literal pirate.

I ran out of time! Sorry! I'll do more Price Quotes and Malagasy Morsels of the Week next week!

Love you all!

Elder Soper

Another spicy week wrapped and ready to eat.

Ry Fianakaviako,

Esperienses:

Translating for President Foote: On Sunday, while on member splits, I made the mistake of taking one of my investigators to the church building to show him around; his family has been too scared to come on his own. When I got there, President Foote looked kind of stressed and asked me if I could translate for the temple interviews he was doing. Angaha. His other translator didn't show up. Walking into the interview, my mind was racing; first off, my Malagasy is still a lil' infantile and second, President Foote is a very busy, important man--better not disappoint his expectations. Luckily, it all went great. The questions weren't too hard to translate and the answers were stereotypical. However, for a couple seconds, I totally blanked, so I just stared at the lady (interviewee) for a while hoping she could understand the question by telekinesis. I'm sure my face looked like my brain just shut off. In the end, it was an encouraging, discouraging, confusing and scary experience.

Pirate Treehouse: We taught a pirate named Elysie--has an eyepatch--that lives in a house supported by two trees. The entrance is preceded by a long, winding wooden incline that takes you through a jungle of vines climbing higher and higher until you get to his house (20 feet off the ground maybe). Elysie used to drive boats up in Northern Madagascar and commented that he used to hijack and steal from other boats, thus defining him as a literal pirate.

I ran out of time! Sorry! I'll do more Price Quotes and Malagasy Morsels of the Week next week!

Love you all!

Elder Soper

Crazy week, holy mackerel...

Karakory Ma!

I can't believe I've finished a fourth of my mission. It's a weird effect how each week seems so long, but these last 6 months have flown past. This mission is a gigantic privilege, and I've made a goal to not waste my time here. I've been lazy dude for too much of my life. Here I go! 

• That Price Thang: Elder Price may be dying (going home) in two weeks, but he is still willing to work his butt off with me. Our area is starting to go splodey and boom boom; we were able to reach 60 lessons this last week! I'm not sure if I can keep that level of lessons for the rest of my mission because everything lined up perfectly this week, just like when you get the godsent straight-line piece in Tetris right when you need it.
• Unwelcomed Hug: While walking past a group of relaxing pousse-pousse drivers, we noticed they gave money to an drunk, old and toothless beggar lady wearing poop-covered rags. She started jogging over to us while emitting an unsettling, nervous giggle. She grabbed Elder Price's hand at first. Then suddenly, she tackled me against the fence, as her amorphous, saggy arms latched on to my neck and gave me my least favorite hug I've ever received. She ran away cackling with her new 500 ariary (17 cents) from the pousse-pousse drivers who must have dared her to hug the foreigner.
• Way to Happy to Receive Us: On Tuesday, we knocked on a wood-finished house on a bank of a river. This man came out, his eyes grew wide, and he scurried back inside. A couple seconds later, the whole family of 5 came out laughing and cheering with the biggest smiles on their faces. They kept saying, "Alefan'Andriamanitra ny irakany mba hitari-dalana sy hitondra vaovao mahafaly amintsika!" or "God sent his messengers to guide the path and bring us happy news (gospel)!" For the first 2 minutes of the lesson, we just sat in their house laughing looking at each other. The lesson consisted of me saying a sentence and them responding with either, "Wow, I never realized that!" or "Ya. Ya. Yayaya." I've never come across people so excited to hear something about God. Too bad they didn't understand our message.
• Wedding: Our Branch President's daughter got married this last Saturday, and man, Malagasies know how to party. The wedding starting at 10 in the morning and ended at about 7 at night. The cool thing is that everybody at the wedding is committed to having a fun time for the whole 9 hours. There were dancers, a religious comedian who joked about awkward familial relations in Adam and Eve's family and great food. There was about 200 people in the church building. We didn't expect to have a spot, but they saved some for us right next to the speakers--Malagasies turn up their music way too loud.
• Weekly Price Quotes: "Elder Soper! My bed broke!" (Screamed in the middle of the night as his metal bed frame snapped and tipped his bed on its side)  "I had the worst dream where I was doing push-ups and sit-ups. I might need a blessing."

The beach outing for our pday last week was awesome, one of my favorite pdays in country! We spent about 4 hours there, nice way to let off steam. Those burgers were only 5 dollars too! It's definitely straight quantity over quality. I shared mine with the South African guy named Elder Keyes. Him and I are actually pretty similar, but he's actually way funny. He's in training right now. 

I think it's actually hotter in Utah right now than it is here. It is winter here, but it's still like a sauna--pretty much 1000% humidity. It rains a ton every day, the lanes flood and then evaporate because of the pure heat. It's a weird experience to get soaked and be dry within the next hour. 

• Malagasy Morsel of the Week - Bokana & Bota

Bokana means ripped/muscular. Bota means fat/chubby. Malagasies are very straightforward with their descriptions a people. If someone's got a bit of extra chubb, they aren't shy in pointing it out: "Mangingina ny boribory iny," is a common comment made to Elder Price. 'The round one is quiet.' Anyways, I probably use 'bokana' a little too much when I'm tracting I think. It's a helpful shortcut to relax the tense situation. Tracting has become one of my favorite things because it yields the craziest experiences. 

Stories for Next Week:

-Saving a Puppy (someday, sorry)

-Sinoa Be

-Culture Shock Finally Starting to Set In

Love,

Elder Soper

Awesome week of work!

Ry Fianakaviana,

I don't have very much time to email this week because we went to a beach about an hour and a half away from Tamatave this morning! Here are some pictures from the outing:

Every time we drank from the coconuts, we would say, "Man, missions are hard."

Elder Keyes from SA and Tangarasi from Vanuatu

We also had a rap battle today. Parraga, this hilarious guy from the Dominican Republic had the funniest rap. He was against Elder Price.

My rap was against Elder Band, an aspiring forestry ranger and perfect scout.

This was an awesome week of work! For some odd reason, we have a lot of investigators all about at the same stage: the enduring to the end lesson. It was an interesting process to have the chance to evaluate and refine this lesson all week. Also, we'll have some baptisms coming up these next couple weeks, so hohitantsika avakeo. I can honestly say, this is the first week, where nothing weird happened, a little unsettling, just normal, satisfying missionary work. Keep your fingers crossed that I get mugged!  Just time for a couple stories:

Price's Coconut Endeavor: Last Sunday after church, Elder Price decided to eat the coconut he bought the day before for 33 cents. He got out a knife, went over to our dining table and started whacking. After about 20 minutes, as I was eating in our study room, he started yelling at the coconut in angry Malagasy. I came out of my room and saw a cherry-red sweaty Price drinking his coconut in a victorious stance with coconut debris and carnage everywhere.

That Price Thang: Weekly Price Quotes: "When God was making me, he was like this, 'Hmm... let's add some intelligence, some strength, some passion for food and dash of sexy. Whoops!" (As he made a motion of pouring it all in)

Malagasy Morsel - Mibosesika: When teaching the Enduring to the End lesson I've found one of my favorite words in Malagasy, mibosesika. It means to press forward. We shouldn't just endure to the end, drudge our way through life's muck to the end, crawl to the end while taking a few naps a long the way or doggypaddle slowly. We should press forward to the end, run to the end, punch trials in the face and enjoy the blessings we have in life to the end.

Stories for Next Week:

-Saving a Puppy (I'm just going to abridge it; it's too long, haha. It's definitely a story that needs to be told in person.)

Love you all so much!

Elder Soper

I'm loving my mission right now...

Ry Fianakaviako,

I've got a great companion; I'm in a great area; Tamatave is filled to the brim with amazing people; and, I haven't gotten stabbed. Every day is blazing hot, and it feels like I'm in a hot tub when it's raining! Also, The work is going way quick, a ton of success, much different than in Antsirabe definitely. Elder Price is going home soon, and it's clear he doesn't want to die lazy; we're working like there's no tomorrow. I'm outta gas today and dog-tired today, but this last week has been very satisfying. It's a weird experience waking up each day excited to work--good feeling I want to keep for the rest of my mission.

• Baptisms: Last Saturday, we had 5 baptisms, which was awesome because I just barely got here to Tamatave. Elder Price baptized a rich, genius kid named Chantony (I'll probably write a story about him later), an awesome family. This is one of the most converted families I've met here in Madagascar. Giovanny, the oldest son (17 years-old), was in a bad place before he met the missionaries. Involved in everything you can imagine, he said that he hit rock bottom the day before the missionaries knocked on his door. When they first taught him, he's never done any of the stuff he did since, crazy, 180 degree turn. I already love him like a... cousin maybe. Since Elder Price did their baptisms, they asked me to do their confirmations for the Holy Ghost during sacrament meeting. Angaha! Initially, I was sweating bullets beforehand, but it went smoothly, and I think it's definitely my number 1 experience so far. The spirit pretty dang palpable. Afterwards, Giovanny gave an amazing testimony on the power of repentance. My eyes got a bit sweaty.
• Whoops: On Wednesday, we tracted in a very rich area. Normally, tracting in the wealthy areas yields a lot of creepy French guys, but we found one Malagasy guy who owned a luxury Porsche sports car. He gave us 5 minutes to 'impress' him, but he just talked the whole time about how to get rich here in Madagascar selling emeralds. Whatevs. Next, we tracted into a rich Malagasy grandma. No matter how many times we told her we spoke Malagasy and not French, she would not stop babbling in French. I think she said she was interested, but we said we couldn't enter unless her husband was there. She said, "Il est la," or "He's there," and then pointed across this street at little condo complex looking thingy. We walked inside looking around for him. But, little by little, as a series of obvious, awkward hints occurred, it dawned on us that we were in a brothel. Immediately, we sprinted out, through the group of nice women with not-so-good standards, back onto the main path. The French-speaking lady was doubled over laughing and said, "Whoops."
• That Price Thang: Elder Price has a severely duck-footed gait, almost as if his legs are sideways sweeping forwards as walks. To add on, he rolled his ankle on Thursday, so for the past few days, he's been walking around like a literal zombie. Every once in a while, he lift his arms up and forward, and he walks towards kids making zombie noises. He then gives the most satisfied sounding chuckle when the kids run away.

Weekly Price Quotes:

"Rolling in, in a Lambo, looking fresh, like a pig...yo."

"When somebody's angry with me, I combat it by just raising my eyebrow and laughing. Then, I feel really bad because they're mad with me."

• Malagasy Morself of the Week - Mihomehy/Mimohy

Mihomehy (Merina--Official) and mimohy (Betsimisaraka--Tamatave) mean 'to laugh.' One of my favorite parts of Madagascar is how anybody will trust you as soon as you can make them laugh. As missionaries, we don't have time to bring the gospel to everybody we see obviously; however, saying hello and making jokes with people on the side of the road is something I love doing. Laughing just makes people happier, and it gives them a good opinion of the white foreigners wearing fancy clothes. 

Stories for Next Week:

-Saving a Puppy (still not done, sorry, heh)

-The Betsimisaraka Tribe

-Price's Coconut Endeavor

-Price's Girlfriend

Love you all so much! Have a great week!

Elder Soper