I'm leaving Mahajanga...

Hey everybody!

Alright, transfers came again, and I'm leaving Mahajanga! I'm so sad to leave this branch. I put a lot of sweat, blood and tears into this area, including a bloody leg that received nine jimmy rig stitches; and what do I get in return? A better knowledge of eternal life. Nice. Oh, and also a cool, stingray tail present that can be used as a whip! Even nicer. But I loved this place and its people--some of them I'm really dreading having to say goodbye to. I'll miss this place so much.

I should be heading down to somewhere in the main capital (Antananarivo) to zone lead? Or not? Or hang out in a trio for a little bit? It's not clear because my would-be companion is now in South Africa getting his belly checked for worms, or at least to check why the heck he thought that in there would be a good place to start his worm farm hobby. We'll see!

I still have a couple days before I leave, so I'll be sending lots o' pictures!  I've included a bunch at the end of this letter.

Ralaibary:

I'll send a video of the famous Ralaibary. Here's a quick translation:

"To the family of Elder Soper, who is working here in Mahajanga right now and is now abandoning us but still going home to you, we are full of joy because of the service he finished here in this branch. Tell everybody about it! We were truthfully happy with him here. Handsome young man! Man of God! Thanks! See you later!

Couple Quotes from Malagasies Trying to Speak English:

"Stop sarcasm me, man!"

"So, what you think about Donald Trump?!" x100

"What's your sister's facebook?"

"I'm jealous my dad."

    "Why?"

"He don't understand my desire."

"English's not my mother-tongue, so I gotta spit it out! ... It's like that, brother."

Malagasy Morsel of the Week - Mibobobobo, Midodododo, Migogogogo & Mizozozozo:

Four wonderful words that look similar with perfectly nonsensical, different meanings to them.

1. To make the sound of gargling water

2. To do as hurried as possible

3. To wail and cry out

4. To make a whistling sound like the wind

Love you guys!

Elder Soper

Ralaibary

 First time eating this weird fruit

One of my two favorite families - Francky and Cecilia

The Priesthood Quorum

Faly and Ravo--both preparing for missions

Lala Clerc--the former branch president

Fabrice and his mom

Finishing up work

Germain's family

Mario

Blast of a week...

Hey Everybody!

This was a blast of a week, full of awesome member referrals, horrible food and skeevy French drunk guys.

Great family that is unfortunately moving to another town. Luckily, the missionaries there are ready to teach them. (Beranger's Family)

Tahiana's B-day, so we egged and floured him during the Lunydah's family soiree!

Elder Shai getting man-handled by Sandratra.

Missionary Work:

We got a referral from the Branch President's wife, a couple--Fidy and Lanto. They came to church yesterday, and Fidy came to help clean the church on Saturday! They both teach at junior high school--Fidy being a science teacher and Lanto, Physical Education.

Our investigator Germain recently, and unexpectedly, flipped the switch from being a self-proclaimed bad boy to a spiritual baller! He used to move from girl to girl and never be serious about anything. But now, he openly expresses his love to his wife all the time, cleans the church every Saturday, makes comments when church is done like, "That was done too fast!" Germain also gave us his 3rd referral on Sunday. During the lesson, I asked him to teach Apostasy. He taught it so well that I desperately wrote down all the phrases he used. Over the past 3 months, it seemed unreal to me how Germain used to fight with me about how there couldn't be a prophet again here on earth, and now, he wants all his relatives to know about Restoration. I love what the Spirit can do!

The Worst Food:

On Saturday, we had a soiree with Lunydah's family, one of the best member families in Madagascar. They were actually on vacation in my previous area (Tamatave) while I was there, and then they followed me here to Mahajanga, their hometown, so we're really close, like two overlapping fingers or something. Usually, they make delicious foods like fried chicken or spaghetti; so I was super jazzed about the soiree. But this time, they decided to apostasize and replicate an old, traditional Malagasy dish--mashed rice, eggs and flour. Somehow, it tasted like athlete's pig foot. I can't explain to you guys how bad it was. It smelt like dust; the texture was pithy, and it was impossible to swallow. Lunydah knew it was horrible, but I think I offended her when I called it 'pimple pudding.' Heh heh. That's the worst food I've had so far in my life.

French Kiss:

We tracted into a French man who bragged he once kissed a short, American Mormon missionary a couple years back. Him saying that instantly made us friends. He continued to say that he was drunk at the time and didn't know what he was doing, which makes sense because he was also clearly struggling to stand while talking to us. But man, whoever that missionary is has a great story!

I'd Rather You Not:

Here's something I've learned. A spontaneous testimony, if shared in the right situation, can deeply inspire a another to change their ways or be a great, sincere expression of love. But, you gotta have nuance.

There's a couple odd-ducks in our ward who, on a good note, are deeply converted and have a great desire to share their testimony. But on a bad note, whether there's sunshine, rain or you're literally trying run away from them, these members need to share their most personal feelings with you no matter what. First example of this is Rakotomalala, who with deep-set eyes made huge by thick glasses, this guy looks perpetually confused or lost. And, his main hobby is preaching the gospel on the street to anybody willing or unwilling to hear.

On Sunday, before third hour, he promptly sat next to our best new investigator, Fidy. At first, I didn't think too much of it, but after a little 'where ya from, what's yer name' chit-chat, Rakotomalala decided to go off and loudly testify to Fidy about his conversion story. Rakotomalala's face began to look angry as he repeatedly jammed his finger into the Book of Mormon on Fidy's lap, spouting off about how the BoM is the key to salvation. As a terrified Fidy would lean away to get personal space, the red-hot Rakotomalala would fill it and force himself closer, eventually creating an awkward 45 degree angle between them, which I heard is not a safe preaching angle. Not wanting Fidy to be scared away from the church forever, I ran over and asked Rakotomalala if he could go get a couple extra chairs with me. He seemed conflicted, but he said to Fidy, "We'll talk later," and Rakotomalala quickly followed me. Fidy's cool, so he gave me a thumbs-up and later said thanks.

Malagasy Morsel of the Week - Makafoka:

Slang for 'lame,' or 'hungover.'

Stories for Next Week

-Personal Concert

-Cecilia

-I'd Rather You Not 2

Love you all!

Elder Soper

The fruits our work are finally starting to show...

Hey everybody!

One of our families, Felix and the gang, were supposed to get baptized yesterday. However, I didn't feel right during the baptismal interviews; so we made the decision to hold off. That was tough news, but other than that, my love for missionary work and the Malagasy language has grown a lot lately. I asked our wonderful member help, Tahiana, to help me change my accent to sound more like a native Malagasy, and I think it's working! It usually degenerates into him and I repeating a sound in different ways until we sound the same, heh.

Teaching Coco's fam.

Other good stuff, the fruits our work are finally starting to show. Though what's odd is the families we didn't expect much progress from are becoming better than our usual progressing investigators. Roger, an Catholic investigator we haven't been able to meet with for 3 weeks, read 230 pages in the BoM during that time, and his family came to church! Woot.

Devil's Got His Crosshairs on Us:

On Tuesday, we tracted into what seemed like a pleasant, prudent family--little husband with great smile wrinkles and wife who looks like she would kindly laugh at anybody's dumb joke. The perfect family to be baptized! Yet, because I accidentally woke up at 6:35 instead of 6:30 that day (against missionary standards), they were unassailably destined to wind up being as terrifying as could be. At first, we we didn't realize that, and we gave our best effort to give a high-quality lesson. But after I asked a question about prophets, the switch instantly flipped up to 11. The wife began to angrily rant about how the devil has his crosshairs on us two, about to shoot. I desperately tried to hide my terror as she confessed her sins to us saying she feels tempted around two young, handsome missionaries. When she stopped for a millisecond to catch her breath, I interupted saying we were short on time and needed to run to our next appointment. So, we asked if we could end with a prayer. The quiet, little husband quickly stood up, and he then started to whisper-shout as loud as he could--though the smallness of his body was a big hindrance on his shouting capacity--all the while whipping his arms out in random directions like a new tectonic Nazi dance. I couldn't help but be fascinated witnessing this. To add to the spectacle, during the five-minute prayer, the wife rose her hand up to the sky yelling out an impressive variety of grunts and hallelujahs. Our recent-convert member helping us that day also thought he should join in and started yelling, "Amen!" throughout. The husband finally ended the prayer, fell back onto his couch and gave us a last, wrinkly smile. I had no idea how to react, so I just kinda said, "Wow, you guys are way good at praying. Um, we'll see ya later!" 

Malagasy Morsel of the Week - Unpronounceable Names:

Madagascar is the island of long names, . If you don't know Malagasy, trying to pronounce a Malagasy name is like having your mouth filled with marbles. Give it a try on a few:

• Safidiniarivoharijaona = thousand clear choices of John

• Razafindrandriatsimaniry = grandson of the noble who envies noone

• Andrianampoinimerinatompokoindrindra = prince who was given birth by a Merina (main Malagasy tribe) who is my real/highest lord

The last one was a 19th century king and the ideal father figure of modern Malagasies. That's gotta be the longest name ever. Also, I'm pretty sure Madagascar's president has the longest name of any leader in the world, Hery Martial Rakotoarimanana Rajaonarimampianina, coming in at 44 letters.

Love you all!

Elder Soper

The work goes on in Mahajanga...

Hello everyone,

The internet is still mind-numbingly slow here, so I can't send pictures as of now. Work is going great! We watched the Missionary Broadcast 2017, and they no longer care about how many lessons we teach, or what time we do our studies. Missionaries are more free to shape their program how they want, helping us to focus on quality of lessons rather than quantity, something I myself got caught up in earlier. And I think they're great changes!

 Egged and floured for my birthday. Funny thing is I made sure Elder Shai never had the chance to buy eggs. Every time he would try to buy one, I would wrestle it away or hit it out of his hands. So, he sent Fabrice and Sandratra, and they got me while I was trying to fix the leak in the sink. They promised to tar and feather me for the next haha!

Treated myself to fancy $4.50 pizza. Nice place!

Elder Shai Can Talk:

Anyhoo, I've been loving Elder Shai; he always wants to brainstorm about new ways we can inspire our investigators and members. But man... Elder Shai talks a lot. So much so that I know every little drama about Elder Shai, as well as the life plans of Elder Shai's friends and the breeds of Elder Shai's friends' moms' dogs. I'm serious. As I listen to Elder Shai, sometimes I catch myself slipping into this weird meditation/zone out mode where my mouth drops down, my eyes cross, and my arms stop working. But I trained my body to continue to emit periodical grunts of interest to show Elder Shai I'm still listening.

Ralaibary:

Ralaibary is a beast. Coming in at 70 years-old, 90 pounds and slow, forceful gait, he's not someone to mess with. Elder Shai put his arm over Ralaibary's shoulder, and I said, "Whoa, careful Elder Shai. Don't fllirt too much with Bro. Ralaibary. He'll hit ya." "Oay, tandremo Elder Shai. Aza mikotikoty mafy an'i Rahalahy Ralaibary. Hovangoiny ianao."  Smiling, Ralaibary nodded at me then suddenly jabbed his elbow into Elder Shai's stomach with a loud, "Whackah!" I laughed so hard as Elder Shai protected himself from Ralaibary's proceeding attacks.

Another thing about Ralaibary are his teeth. When there's a tooth missing on bottom, there's still one remaining on top to fill that empty space. Then, if there's two missing on top, there's two on bottom to slide right in there. His teeth look like natural gears that lock together. No teeth hit against each other, but all are cohesive.

Lova's Testimony:

One of our investigators bore his testimony on sacrifice yesterday. He confessed, "My greatest joy in life is cycling. When Soper first invited me to church, I refused because I cycle with my friends for 50km every Sunday. So, 'no' was my answer for the next three weeks. However, I learned recently how to sacrifice smoking, which though that is hard, it couldn't compare to the pain of sacrificing cycling. Like smoking, cycling too much blocked my spiritual progression. Little by little, I stopped cycling so much and now, with work and church, I have no time to cycle throughout the week. I know this church is true. I give that testimony in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

Malagasy Morsel of the Week - Ohabolana:

Malagasies love their proverbs, or 'ohabolana.' Adding a proverb into a lesson has many wonderful effects, like the following: clarifying an unclear concept, when I share the proverb, they'll be like, "Holy. Now it makes so much sense;" or for the power of convincing, if a proverb relates to the concept, it has to be true according to Malagasies; and last, it makes any sleepy old lady perk up. Here's a good example: "Arahabarabaho tsara izay mandalo fa tsy hainao izay ho rafozana," which means, "Greet those kindly that pass by because you don't know who will be your parent-in-laws."

Stories for Next Week

-Pastor and Member Help

-Amborovy Bike Disaster

Love you all!

Elder Soper