This last week was probably one of my favorite on the mission...

Dear Family and Friends,

Great week! Work-wise? Superlative success! Studying the gospel? 100% satisfaction! This last week was probably one of my favorite on the mission--running from appointment to appointment, planning out the lessons thoroughly, rhapsodizing over about our favorite investigators and the concrete success we saw as our investigators read the BoM and came to church. It felt like the work went just how it's supposed to, with an occasional hiccup of course.

(Taylor's dad here: Elder Soper's camera still isn't working, so I've included a few pictures of the lifesize two dimensional version of Elder Soper that will represent him at Devin's and Rachel's wedding open house in Orem this friday.)

Paraky

On Friday, I went on a split with Elder Dlokova, who just got out of training. He took me to a place called Paraky. Paraky means 'tobacco'. And that's exactly what the area was like--dirty, poopy and dirty. It literally looked like a tobacco in a old gma's toothless mouth. However bad the area was though, their program was great! We ended up with about 9 lessons with wonderful families and referrals so ready to change and learn. It was such an odd feeling coming out of a Spirit-filled house into poop-filled path. I loved the area honestly.

Singing Solo

I did my first singing solo of all time (not in Malagasy funny enough) yesterday in our ward conference. Look up "One by One" lyrics by David Bednar on YouTube. I don't know if they expected me to do a solo as amazing as the punk on the video; I transposed some the high parts to which my untrained voice said a pathetic, squeaky 'no'. In the end, it was nerve wracking, but I remembered that a voice that is mediocre (mine) in America, is straight platinum here in Madagascar. It went great!

(Taylor's dad here again--including the link to the youtube version):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0SVPjHc8C0

the "punk on the video" (Elder Soper's words)

Malagasy Morsel of the Week - Tanety Mitomandavana

A rolling horizon. It means the horizon is lots of mountains rolling into each other, or simply, "rolling hills." Someone used this word to describe how their in-laws make a mountain out of a molehill, haha!

Stories for Next Week

-Vincent

-Ulrich

-Fr. Dada

-Dona Kely

Love you all!

Elder Soper