Another week full of adventure...

Well, I won't get anyone's hope up, no pictures this week, again. Computers here stink. No question mark or exclamation either ha, total piece.

But we had an interesting week. Always do it seems. I know I have mentioned it 200 times, but we get so much rain here. I am permanently wet around the ankles, paths are just so bad. And its not just mud, its human waste and garbage too, we love it..

Anyway, I get a few bad puddle stumbles every day, but I had a way bad one on Wednesday. Up to my knee in sludge, then I jumped out and got my whole arm covered. Luckily I had some homies at a little shop wash me down with some pump water. Then we taught our last few times of the night and called it good. Needless to say, I was a wreck that night. A Malagasy dirt trail is a piece of work.. It can't be compared to anything back home.

No mountains in the new area. Analamahitsy was in the outskirts, so it was all hills, but we are smack in the city now, its flat. We walk a ton, nonstop all day. We stick close to home, but its still walking 24-7. I go to bed at like 9:30 every night. It makes time go by fast though.

I did splits a few times this week. Worthen is a ZL, so he does it a lot. I worked with Elder Horne on Tuesday and Elder Bates (the new kid) on Sunday. We did work. Except for a few overly heated bible bashers who say we dont follow Jesus, everything was way good.

A few weeks ago, we tracted into a family from Toliara (down south) and we started teaching them. Sickest people ever. They always go berzerk about how much they love the times. They asked for a baptismal date in our second lesson. Last night on splits their daughters were telling me how much they love it. They said "We know for sure that this is the true church, because you guys teach so clear. No pastor in all of Toliara ever taught as clearly, they always preach and no one can understand what they mean. But you missionaries make sense." I love that family. We will see how things go with them for the next while.

We are supposed to have 3 baptisms this coming weekend. We will see if they all go through, I am pretty sure about 2 of them. We might have to push another back.

All the missionaries talk to the health people, they know when things are serious or not. Don't worry, if I have problems they'll get taken care of. It's just the fact that we live in a less than third world country in the dirtiest areas in the mission. I am honestly fine overall, my stomach is just used to lighter Malagasy food, so heavy American food throws it off sometimes. But I still like a good American meal every now and then.

As far as Easter, its just a big weekend of drinking. Things are gonna get wild. We will probably just chill with oher missionaries. To be honest, Malagasies love any excuse for a party, so a wild weekend isn't too unheard of. Just the usual drunks roaming the streets and wreaking havoc.

Conference will be in English. Saturday sessions in English, then Sunday in Malagasy at the church. Only outside of Tana is it always in Malagasy only.

It's a short one, but I dont want to bore you guys with a long email and no pictures ha.

Taylor

Mada = Boring? Not!!

So ever since I got to Ampefiloha, we've been getting up at 5:45 AM every day and going to the gym. It's a way nice gym, for Madagascar anyway. I'd explain it as.. a junior high gym. Not too big, but they have freeweights and machines and junk. I love going there, we kill ourselves every morning.

Anyway, funny story from that. We were walking through the dirt alley where everyone was setting up their fruit stands for the day, when two drunk guys came stumbling out and started cussing us out. Screaming and yelling and flipping us off, it was nice. Only in Madagascar are people drunk and roaming the streets before the sun is even fully risen.

Tattoo's are way easy to get here too I guess. We were crossing "crap river" (Our nickname for the infamous dirty river that runs through our area) and I heard what I thought was an electric toothbrush. I looked down and saw a guy running his needle into a guys arm and drawing. Street side "crap river" tattoo stand, sounds legit. I've never seen him sterilize that thing..

My stomach cannot handle food with substance anymore, at all. Everything makes me sick now. I still take all my meds that should balance me all out, but my stomach can't hold anything but rice anymore. At Zone Conference, Sisters Adams and Cornelius made us amazing sloppy joes. It didn't take long for my insides to end up outside. And last night, some members made us a cake with ice cream. By the time I got home and was puking so much. I don't feel sick, I just can't hold it down anymore. It's pathetic.

We've been visiting way cool people lately. We have one investigator, Felix, who spent 7 years in Russia learning how to take aerial photos, back in the early 90's. He's married now. He has such cool stories from traveling all around Europe. We visit them like once a week. It was actually pretty funny, because last week we had that run in with those thieves, and the other day, Felix's wife was like "You know, if you guys walk around in white shirts and are holding out a phone flashlight then you're gonna get mugged." Ha we were just like "No way, really?" We didn't bother telling her it had already happened.

Another funny one. It's not the first time it's happened but I don't think I've mentioned it before. Malagasies would do anything to get to America. We can't shoot the breeze and talk with anyone about America for like 5 minutes without them suggesting we take them home. Yesterday, we had a lady tell us to take her two teenage daughters home with us. At least I know that if I can't find a woman back home then I can here, ha.

We teach a Protestant pastor now too.. Not many stories from that yet. The times are stressful, to say the least, but they always go well.

Finally... We went to lemur park, again. Ha I've been so much, but it's always fun. We left way early, so we were cruising through the foggy mountains way early, rice paddies and African trees. The mornings here are way good, outside the capital anyway, it was good to get one today.

Taylor

PS- Sorry, no pics again this week...we're working on that!! And yeah! I got the packages, thanks so much, the CTR ring is way cool, I'm wearing it right now ha. Now I can trade off with my English and Malagasy one. Thanks a lot, talk to you soon!  (It's Taylor's 20th birthday this week!)

Anticipating the next adventure...

Inner city is definitely more sketchy than I am used to. You’re going to love it Mom.

We made some new friends on our path home last Thursday night. They tried robbing us. Two guys tried jacking our phone. The one guy asked what time it was and tried grabbing the phone when Worthen pulled it out. The other guy said he had a gun, but I knew for a fact he didn’t. No one does here. They were all ticked that they couldn’t grab it, luckily Worthen had a ninja grip on it: We just told them to go home and they walked away angry.

But don’t worry, if one time wasn’t enough, we ran into them again on Saturday night. We were walking towards a bridge and we saw them jogging up behind us so we sped walked across the bridge, where there are more people. Once we stepped off the bridge we looked back and they turned right around and walked away. Looks like we need a new path now, ha.

Dogs are more hostile too. I got bit, it was dope. Not bad at all, just scared me to death. Luckily, I already got all six hundred shots before the mish.

We have weird stuff happen ever day here, its ridiculous, keeps things interesting. I have more stories, but this keyboard is horrible and I have no desire to wrestle with it all day. So hopefully all that is enough ha. Sorry I havent sent pictures. No computers here seem to be able to read flash drives, so maybe I can figure that out in another place soon.

Stake conference was yesterday. So many people. 7 wards. It was like America. They said that by 2016 they plan to set up a new stake here, which is huge because there is only 2 stakes in the country.

As far as my zone, 5 of the 9 guys in my MTC group are here: Smithson, Mitchell, Jensen, Naef and myself. Its fun. And no, I'm not by Hamm anymore, I moved into a new Zone. 

As far as me growing, negative ha, I think I am the same. But who knows, I haven't measured myself or weighed myself in like 7 months.

Anyway, talk to you all later, I hate this keyboard.

Taylor

Mixed Emotions...

When I first got to Mada, I thought that Analamahitsy was a crowded, busy place.. But after a few days here in Ampefiloha, Analamahitsy seems like a peaceful retirement community out in the countryside. This inner city is so dirty. I'll learn to love it sometime soon though. Towards the end of my stay in Analamahitsy, I was dying to get transferred, it's all I thought about. But on Thursday morning as I jammed all my bags in the taxi and drove off by myself.. oh man, I lost it. I just stared around at the place I lived for the past six months. I was so sad, I started crying. Not a ton okay? I'm not a baby! But I was bummed. The taxi driver lives in Analamahitsy, too. So I just talked to him about how awesome the place is.

It's hard to get transferred to a new area. the best way I can describe it is like going to a high school for three years, then having to change schools at the beginning of senior year. Everyone at your new school loves the school, but all you can think about is how much you loved your old school. That's exactly what it feels like.

The new house is so different. The old house was two stories, had a balcony and a yard, and the new place is just one floor at the top of a flight of stairs. Two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a little dining room. No balcony or yard. It's nuts, definitely no more lounging out on the balcony at the end of the night. But like I said before, I guess I just have to give it time. 

All that aside, I can always count on members to make me feel at home right away. The ward is ginormous. We had 175 people at church yesterday. The most I've ever seen before that was 140, and that was on Christmas. We are in the massive orange church that I sent pictures of a few months ago.

As for transfers. Hamm and Mitchell are staying in their same places. Reinhard is in Anjanahary, it's not too far away, but I still haven't seen him. We're not in the same zone though, so it might be a while. Mitchell was actually supposed to train, but there were some problems, so he didn't get to, we were all so bummed for him.

Anyway, it's kind of just an update on the area this week, maybe when I have some stories here I can fill you all in. Talk to you soon.

Taylor

Enjoy yourselves some pics from Analamahitsy (my old area):

Missionaries

Mada Life

Malagasy People...I love them!!