What a week! The Mada adventure continues...

So, umbrellas are very nice. I realized that this past Tuesday as we were crossing the rice paddies in Ambohitrarahaba and I remembered that my umbrella was still at home. It seriously only took 2 minutes to be as drenched as I would be if I jumped into a pool. Completely soaked. I was gonna take a video, but I didn't want to bust the camera.

The road flooded immediately, but luckily we had a time, so we took refuge in an investigators house. Throughout the lesson, they had a tarp right under a hole in the roof, collecting water. Towards the end, the wife, Niriana, got up to empty it, and it caved in. The whole house got showered in water, on the inside. The mattress on the ground that the kids sleep on got drenched. The whole family started laughing so hard, ha. It reminded me of the time Lanto's bed snapped in half and she started laughing. Why do people find those experiences funny? Ha, it's pretty cool though, people here don't even worry about stuff like that.

Fanta came out with a new flavor this week (in Mada)

Leche season

My Christmas nativity (ft Taylor Swift & the Pilgrims)

Anyway, so you know, I got the packages! The freeze dried food.. oh my gosh, best way to end fast Sunday last night, you struck gold with all the candy and food. Keep it coming for sure. Speaking of candy, I brought a few warheads to English class on Wednesday, because Malagasies have never had such things. We played Simon Says in English, and the last two people each got one. So freaking funny, the first guy ate it and was freaking out, then the other girl who got one looked so terrified watching him eat it, but we refused to continue the lesson until she ate it. Oh, and I also got one of my friends in the ward to make me a way sick green and white bracelet with my name stitched into it, in exchange for a few candies. But other than that, I've eaten like all of it myself.

So, we went to Shoprite again this week, the place that is just like the Provo Mall. We met Americans there. I was literally speechless like an idiot. I was standing in an aisle looking at cartons of milk and I hear a lady behind me say, "Sorry" because she was trying to get past me with her cart. I turned around and just stared, it was so weird. There are seriously no people who speak real English here except missionaries, so I was kind of freaking out. Also, for that same reason, that no one speaks English, we are in kind of a habit of being able to make vocal observations to each other, just because no one understands. I walked like three feet away from the cart and shouted to some of the other guys that there were "people speaking English over here." The family probably felt pretty awkward.

Cool story to end the email. So we teach a guy, Herman, out in Manazary every other week, because he is a security guard and is gone every other week. He kind of randomly started  being WAY diligent lately. Learns way well, seriously talks like he's already baptized, it came out of nowhere, he wasn't like that when we first started visiting. He showed up at church yesterday and said, "Sorry, I know I said I could come to church, but I have to leave after the first hour, because I have visitors at home and I have their lunch in my bacpack." Such a stud, it's an hour walk one way to the church from his house, and he walked all the way just to come to testimony meeting then walk back.

Things are going good for us overall right now. Talk to you all soon!

Taylor


(Some more pics to enjoy!)

Some recent converts wanted to be in a picture with everyone back home.

My  homies in Ambohitrarahaba