Pew Full of Fidgety Midgets...

Hey Everybody!

The work is going great!  Sorry for the short letter this week--we're super busy.

Pew Full of Fidgety Midgets

Rodrick's family came to church again! He and his wife decided to bring all the kids within a stone's throw--that being a million here in Madagascar. What we got was a pew filled to the brim with a dozen lil' kids fighting, crying and crawling under the pews and blinded by the bright side, I made the mistake of sitting between all of them. 

Honing in on my staggering knowledge about babies I gained in the Human Development class I took at BYU, I asked everybody to raise their hands if they need to go pee before church. Of course, all of them rose their hands as high as they could, so I took the congregation to go pee. After that was over and done with, church started, and of course again, one of the younger girls leaned over to me to nervously whisper, "I have to pee." In a precipitous dash, all of the kids pushed there way out and flooded into the halls, diffusing in all different directions. I desperately ran after them grabbing the stragglers hoping the others I couldn't find were at least peeing in the right place. Finally, I rounded them all up, put them in a formation and quietly marched them back to their seats. Phew.

David

Sneaky guy this David. He asked me if I could write an English essay on the environment for him, didn't matter what, but just about the environment...and in perfect English. I blackmailed him saying I would help him sin once if he came to church and repented twice, since he's already been learning from us for awhile. He accepted. Sunday came around, no David. Sneaky guy.

Malagasy Morsel of the Week - Fofom-bady

When you combine 'fofona' (smell) and 'vady' (spouse), it makes 'fofom-bady' which means 'fiancee'. "Are you guys married or just smelling it? Eh? You smelling what I'm putting down?"

Love you all!

Elder Soper

Holding aces right now...

Hey everybody!

Quick email again sorry! Work's going great! Elder Bingham and I are holding aces right now and are compatible with the way we teach and get along with each other. Love the guy!

Rodrick

Perfect combination: one smart couple that owns a brick house and a deluge of family and friends visiting from the edges of Madagascar with no church to go to! We had already been pushing Rodrick and his wife to come to church, them always leaning on the edge of yes or no; however, last lesson, after we extended the commitment of coming to church, one of their guests abruptly announced with a lot of gusto, "We're all going!" Everybody nodded.

Eleven new investigators to church, haha! Too bad 9 of them are heading out to each of their homelands again in the next couple weeks.

Caesar on Priesthood

The way we teach Caesar is different. He'd rather not listen to the whole explanation of the lessons, wasting precious time in his life he says, but now simply reads, asks and gives us homework.  Last lesson, he requested a full, tricked-out, step by step order of the Priesthood Quorums from Prophet to Deacon as well as the responsibilities of each office. He then continued to ask the organization of Relief Society, Sunday School, etc. It really tested our memories of being a CTR 8 or Valiant 10. In reality, it was almost discouraging how tough it was, and I recall mentioning a couple times to Caesar, "Heh, I'm not even a good member." Though, he got a hoot out of that; plus, my personal studies have gotten better this week.

Split in Mahamasina

I never want to work in this area again. Great views < Horrible hills (The one black and white picture was taken by another Elder)

Stories for Next Week

-Joseph and Olivia Baptized (Still No Pics)

-Helper Running Away

Work's going smooth here in Manakambahiny...

Hey everybody!

Modeste got baptized! Coolest thing about this process was Alfred--his friend and our investigator who led us to Modesta--he did the Aaronic Priesthood ordination. Work's going smooth here in Manakambahiny. It's nice to have such a strong ward because everybody new always finds a friend or at least somebody that lives near them. Better than when I was in a far away province when new investigators would criticize the leadership, whispering to us, "Have these guys ever read the Bible?"

 Elder Kruger lost his missionary tag in Malagasy on a random bus. Then, I later saw the guy wearing, but he wouldn't give it back if I didn't pay him back a ridiculous amount of money. About a week later, Elder Kruger and I both ran into him, and right as the guy saw Elder Kruger, he hurriedly pulled off the tag and handed it over. Dang, 'good at being intimidating' will not go on my resume for sure.

Awesome split w/ Elder Jackson, the adala from Utah. I tell a couple stories from the split next week.

Bocce Balls made out of crushed aluminum

Elder Kruger vs. The 1st Counselor

The 1st Counselor's name is Fenosoa Pierre which sounds a bit like Soper! Haha.

Me vs. Someone My Own Size

Dada Lava Continued:

First time we tracted into Dada Lava's house, we heard scuffling, but nobody answered, so we peered around the side and saw someone stuffing themselves into a shed in their backyard. His knees were poking out and his mousy hands fearfully held kept the door closed. The boy assumed we were there to steal his organs. His name is Mamela. But there's a story behind this. While he was in his homeland, way out in the middle of nowhere, he was riding his bike on a lone desert road. On the distance, he sees a truck bounce onto the road, speeding towards him. Having never seen a truck in his life before, he abandoned his bike and dashed into nearby brush. The truck slid up to his bike, and out came a little Malagasy guy with a gigantic Jean Van Damme-like man. Mamela described him as being 2 meters tall, long nosed, ugly, dressed as a poacher and wearing leather, military boots that climb up to his knees. The man immediately discovered where Mamela hid and chased him through the brush. Luckily, Mamela quickly got out of the sharp-nosed man's sight, but Mamela had already heard of these men that would steal the organs of the lone travelers, yet he never thought he'd encounter one. So when we first knocked on the door, that memory flooded back to him, and he thought two little white guys carrying BoM's wanted some organs. We want some organs all right! Converted ones!

Get Him Good, Then Repent

(Talking about repentance with one of our best investigators, Francis--a former professional Malagasy boxer)

Me: "We can't just confess to God and assume the sin is erased. We also need to restore those relationships that we may have damaged. If I kick Bingham in the face, what should I do?" 

Francis: "Give him a punch on the other side and then he'll be nice and dizzy! Then, say sorry."

Malagasy Morsel of the Week - Drafo

All the cows here have humps, and they're called 'zebu'. So, 'drafo' means 'hump'. Yah.

Love you all!

Elder Soper

Work's still going great!

Hey Everybody!

Sorry! I don't have much time to write today. Work's still going great! Every Tuesday, Elder Bingham and I both abandon our area and pop into another to split it so there's 4 missionaries in one area. It kind of causes our program to take a hit, but it's been way helpful to bump up the prospects for the other elders.

Rafalimanana Alfred got baptized! Next week, a guy he taught is getting baptized as well!

The elders in another apartment are trying to cure meat by hanging steaks in a laundry bag then drying it with a fan going 24/7. They call it biltong in South Africa. I tried a piece, and it threw me back to my days traveling the Swiss Alps with Anthony Bourdain.

 Went on a great split with Elder Futter, the nicest kid from South Africa.

A few punk teenagers hid a speaker in the grass, and as people passed by, they would play a loud soundbite of someone screaming swear words or threats. It surprised me so bad that I involuntarily ducked haha.

Investigator Vision:

Faly! An investigator who promised he would kill or beat us up if we try to knock on his house again at 7 o' clock at night. Great guy. The lessons always degenerate into long odd tangents and discussions about inessential doctrines, and we could never figure out how to get it back on track.

However, he had a vision, and a hilarious one at that--a vision where he was standing on a hill in Jerusalem. As he looked down into the valley, he beheld two men in robes slowly hiking up. When Faly described this part, he paused a very long time, and waiting until Elder Bingham and I raised our eyebrows, he blurted out excitedly, "Those two men were prophets of old!" Moses and Abraham, apparently, in their long robes, solemnly approached Faly, flicked the cigarette out of his mouth and told him to listen to those missionaries. Then, he woke up! You would have thought his attitude would flip upside down after a vision like that, but not really. He still likes to argue.

Malagasy Morsel of the Week - Bobongolo:

Moldy. Great word. The "o's" are pronounced like 'oo'.

Stories for Next Week

-Fomba Gasy

I love my mission! Love you all too!

Elder Soper

I'm loving the work!

Dear Fambly,

Work is going great! It's alien to me how many part-member families there are in our ward, so most of our program is solely focused on those random people that didn't happen to get baptized back in the day. Also, our zone is starting to pick up stats-wise, and I think it's going to help that a lot of the areas in our zone should be splitting this next transfer. I'm loving the work!

Joseph and Olivia got married!

Fun split with Elder Beeson! An elder from Missouri, who likes rap and rugby. 

These stinkers threw a stem of thorns on me.

Dada Lava

About a third of Madagascar is referred to as the 'red zones' stained by deadly skirmishes between various unforgiving bandit clans called the Dahalo. Bara is the strongest Dahalo tribe, and they specialize in stealing cows and are well-armed with AK-47's--who knows how they got them. Dada Lava, an investigator with 2 sons that come to church, was born into the Bara tribe. He explained how the leaders of the Dahalo tribes preached about God's will guiding their quest; those that are opposed to God's will deserve punishment. That was their cause. Dada Lava spent most of his teenagehood in oblivion, assuming his work was righteous work. 

The Dahalo's strategy was very methodical. Dada Lava explained how he would set up camp next to a cow farmer and pretend to raise bees, alongside occasionally visiting him to gain trust, bringing honey as a gift. Later, in broad daylight, Dada Lava's relatives would come marching in openly carrying their AK-47's and escort dozens of zebus (Malagasy humpbacked cows) back to their village.

More about him next week!

Oscar John

Last Sunday, as we entered Vista's house, we beheld many bottles of beer scattered around outside. Vista had invited his brother over from the countryside, and we got the privelege to see how unproductive conversations are when drunk. Vista slurred his words and his reflex was a couple seconds behind while Oscar John was speaking a mile a minute. Vista tried to explain who we are and what we're doing, but Oscar John kept getting distracted because he wanted to impress us with what ever English phrase came to his head. Here are some of the things he said:

"The champ is here."

"Attention. I am talking now."

(While pointing at Vista's baby boy crying) "Be quiet please little girl."

The cool part was Vista bore his testimony to us about the Restoration. Too bad it was mostly unintelligible.

Blaze

On the way to church, a drunk guy kindly asked us if we could come teach his kids. Instead, Elder Bingham just grabbed and told him he should come to church right now. Though surprised, he was drunk, so he barely hesitated. During our bishop's talk, he kept nodding his head, and told Elder Bingham that he wanted to be baptized. He gave us his number, and we showed up to his house. That's when we figured out he lived in a tiny plywood shack. Darn. But, he really understood the message, and he came to our soccer activity we had today too. Turns out, he's also way good at soccer, so all the members in the Elders Quorum love him now. His name is Blaise, but Blaze is a cooler name.

Malagasy Morsel of the Week - Miaraka:

The root starts off as 'araka' which means 'according to'. Adding a 'mi' to a root makes the basic verb. 'Miaraka' means 'together'. Makes sense!

Story for Next Week

-Investigator Vision

Love you all!

Elder Soper