Storms, kids, and investigators....yep, that's Mada!

Well, rumors were flying around all week about a cyclone hitting the island. I was so freaking stoked. But sadly, we just got a little rain (a lot compared to home) because the storm passed over the north end of the island and kept trucking. I was very sad, so was Hamm, we were ready for a massive crazy storm. But we took advantage of the rain we got one night by sliding around in the flooded yard outside the house. We were extremely muddy.

Also, I got to go on splits with Elder Wilson on Tuesday, in Ivandry. We teach English together, but that was the first time working in their area. We had a jolly good time, visiting random members on the road, and talking about college. We also visited the nicest house I've ever seen in Mada. I got a few pictures. They have a foosball table! We only got to visit for a little, but they told me that they want to set up a dinner so I can come back. They're not even members, ha, so sick. That's a Malagasy for you.

Another quality of a Malagasy. Sometimes things don't completely click.. Like in America, when someone doesn't pay rent, usually they'll get a warning right? Not here. Apparently, the Church didn't pay our power bill, and we came home and had all of our wires pulled. No warning. It took a lot of phonecalls and confusion until they got someone to come back and fix it. I won't be surprised if I come home to an empty house someday for being one day late on rent.

Anyway, as I was saying before, we didn't get the full kick in the face from the cyclone, but we got a little. Our house was fine, but we went way out behind the mountain to Manazary the other day, and we visited a member, and found out that half of their house collapsed. It's kind of a long story:

So they rent a little house from someone, who is kicking them out for not praying at the church out in Manazary (Not an LDS church), so they were in the process of building a new house, when the rain came, and destroyed it. Way sad, we're trying to set up a project to get people to help them rebuild it soon. They've been way diligent investigators for over 2 years, but they can't get baptized because of problems getting their marriage finalized.

Our investigator's house.

Happier story the next day out in Manjaka. At least for the most part. We were waiting for our investigator to get home, so we starting playing monkey in the middle with like 20 kids with a crappy soccer ball. We played by this drop off, probably 12 feet down or so, and every now and then, the ball would fall off and all 20 kids would run down the side of the hill to fight over the ball, so I decided to beat them. I straight jumped off the drop off into what I thought was a nice fluffy pile of straw. It turnted out to be a pile of bricks, lightly covered by a few strands of straw. It destroyed my bare feet. Probably shouldn't have taken off my shoes for that one. Oh well, it's healing up nicely now.

Finally, last story. The ward has been doing way good at starting to help us the past few weeks. Yesterday we had a record high amount of members come out and help us. We had 6 members come to each investigators house with us haha. We had no idea that many people were coming. Just imagine 8 people trying to cram into a way tiny house, plus the family who already lives there. We were like.. stacking people to fit. But as long as members are helping, things are going good I guess, ha. I just thought it was hilarious.

Taking home groceries.

There is a really good chance I will get to baptize the 10 year old girl (Her name is Fanirisoa) if she passes her bap interview this week. Which I am positive she will. I love that family. Her parents aren't members, they aren't too interested, but her sister is way diligent. Knows the scriptures like no other.

That's all for now. We've got a lot of cool stuff set up for the next week, so hopefully it all works out. Talk to you soon.

Taylor