Hey Everybody!
One of my favorite weeks on my mission so far! We took a drastic turn with how we're treating our program, cutting off a lot of the fat--dropping almost all of our eternigators (eternal investigators)--and instead blowing the dust of the area book in order to search for some less-actives members. The work has been more painful and slow, but it's still just as rewarding.
This lemur cleaned our hair with his tongue and his spindly hands. It really hurt for some reason.
Woops--scared this little kid.
Marcellin:
Here in Madagascar, the main problem isn't finding new investigators to teach; instead, it's finding people that are genuinely prepared for the message. Elder Kruger was telling me before the lesson that he didn't really believe in those stories where missionaries just happen upon someone so readied by God and the experiences in their life for the gospel that it simply clicks indray mipy maso. Notwithstanding, a lot of Malagasies can be gullible, but it's rare when the importance of our message really sinks deep. But Elder Kruger said this experience felt like "God's hand tampered with it a bit."
On Thursday evening, we were on our way to a less-active who lives in the boonies. I smelt something disgusting for the millionth time that day, and as a natural reaction, I turned my head to spit. But not looking, I haphazardly spit all over this guy's leg who was sleeping in the grass. He sat up like, "What the heck?" and I just looked up with a confused expression at the sky like, "Oh gosh. Did you see that bird? Where'd that come from?" So, we started talking to him, and he seemed genuinely interested in being taught.
We taught him and his wife Saturday evening, and without a hitch, he answered every question spot on alongside emphatically accepting the request to pray about the message and read the pamphlet. By the end of the lesson, he revealed that he left the Lutheran church after praying about it one night, and ever since, he's been searching for the true church and is ready and excited to do his best to learn for himself if it's really true. He warned us, however, "That doesn't mean I'm getting baptized just yet, but I felt the spirit from the first time I met you guys, so I might as well keep following it."
Identity Crisis:
I've been starting to have an strange crisis the past few weeks. I'm starting to genuinely ask myself those Plan of Salvation questions: where am I from, why am I here and am I Asian? Ever since I've come here to Mahajanga, kids will run up to me and rudely imitate how a Chinese person speaks: "Ching chong wan! Wer ting wong!" It started off as a fluke, just some kids that don't realize that some foreigners have feelings, especially this one. However, it was just an omen of the persecution to come. Every single kid I come across will yell out, "Yo Asian! Do you like noodles?" or something else barbaric and politically incorrect. I've been reduced down to screaming, "I'm not Asian!!" and kicking at the kids. But it backfires, because they then make fun of me for my spectacular karate skills. I began asking all our investigators if I look Asian; half of them testify that I look super Chinese while the other half shrugs and says, "I dunno."
Elder Kruger has repeatedly walked in on me, staring at myself in the mirror, in worried contemplation of what my real origin is. Night-time consists of stretching my eyes wide open and doing other exercises to delay my inevitable metamorphosis into Jackie Chan's brother. After church yesterday, we were walking with a recent converts' 10 year-old kid to their house, and during our conversation, I told him I don't like lychees that much. At first he acted appalled, but then he was like, "Oh yeah, that makes sense. Asians don't like lychees." It took all of my willpower to stop myself from powerslamming that kid. Man...
Malagasy Morsel of the Week - Ranomandry:
'Ice' is the meaning, but when separated it means 'sleeping water' or 'water lying down to rest.' One of the most beautiful parts of Malagasy is how many stupid, odd and unique word combinations there seem to be buried in all aspects of the language. I love experiencing the mini-revelations of the quirks and secrets of Malagasy throughout the week. I probably look crazy when I loudly say a random Malagasy word and start laughing just a little too hard. In my opinion, learning Malagasy will be uninteresting when heck freezes over. Heh.
Stories for Next Week:
-Dallyas
Love you all!
Elder Soper
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