Good ole' Mada!!

I went on splits with Eppich this week. Super fun. This province is the source of like ALL the letchis on the island, so we get them SO much. Either buying them or getting them from people we teach. I'll miss letchis when I go home. It's the best fruit ever. Being here has made me realize how little fruit we have in America. This country has so much, way dope.

letchis are all over the place, super cheap

trying to smile after slicing my finger open on the bottom of the basket

Anyway, yeah we slaughtered the turkey this morning.  He's in the oven now. We're getting all the guys together to have a party tonight.

Brian

You'd think that after a year and a half on a mission, and 19 years of going to church before, I'd be used to sitting in meetings. Nope, I officially cannot focus during any meeting ever. We had a ton of meetings this weekend, Pres Adams and a member of the quorum of the 70 from Africa came to Tamatave this weekend. Meanwhile, there were other meetings going on for youth leaders, and somehow I got roped into translating. Translating is so exhausting. But all that said, they do have pretty big plans for this place.

exploring the new church being built

baptismal font

Yeah, pretty much everyone is back from the dead people celebrations, but now everyone is out in the countryside harvesting letchis, so pretty much the whole month has been a slow one. We still get an alright amount of lessons taught though.

We kind of teach whichever people will let us. We focus on getting to less actives, but if regular families are down to learn, we hit them too.

I got the packages this thursday, thanks a ton! 

Sis Rakotovao actually goes home in like 2 days. If I get transferred and stop in Tana, I'm for sure going to visit her and her family. But Jumelle is still in Utah, I don't know where though, I'll ask her family. She gets released in March.

Thanks for writing, love you guys!

Taylor

more pics for ya...

ants on the side-of-the-road donuts, super good though 

this chick is super scared of me, but i got her to take a picture

some recent converts at district conference

rakotomalala

The Unexpected in Mada...

This week went by super fast. November is the month that everyone celebrates their dead ancestors by digging up their graves and going out for big family parties, so a few people have fallen off the map for a while, but they'll be back soon enough.

The biggest event in my life right now is our prep for next p-day. We're celebrating thanksgiving on monday so we can have a whole day for it. Should be just as good as last year. Turkey slaughter with swords. That'll be next week.

I can't think of any stories from this week. Life is still the exact same. We find little things to get stoked about though. Like making lunch at home instead of eating at a hotely, or blasting an intrumental version of O Holy Night in the house. That's stuff missionaries learn to get stoked about.

Yeah I heard about the typhoon in the Philippines, way sad. We've been lucky to not have many big storms. One earlier this year, then one last year. Never in places I've been working though, usually down south.

That's way sick that Ben and Trevor are working together, ha, I gotta email those guys. I'm crossing my fingers to head down to where Lane is at in a few weeks. We'll see, it's kind of a long shot, but it'd be dope.

Hopefully I have a nice cyber for christmas. The cyber we have here is SO nice, but I'm pretty sure I'll be somewhere new.

I got a bunch of pictures up again, thanks for writing! Love you

Taylor

Livin' it up in Mada!!

Our whole house is so lazy on P-Days. I love it, because it's the one day we can be totally lazy and we don't need to feel bad. We just get up, study, email, and go straight home and sit around. It's so nice.

Mami got baptized on Saturday. He was supposed to get baptized with his wife and kid two weeks ago, but he got called in and had to go on a huge road trip for his work to pick up ballots for the election. He was WAY sad, but he's officially a member now, after 4 years of learning. They are so solid, they're more into the church than a lot of members for sure.

Mami's baptism

Pres Adams and Elder Cook (one of the 70's) came to Tamatave this week to meet about the stuff coming to Tamatave over the next few years. We only got to meet with them for a little bit, but there are pretty big changes coming here soon. It'll probably start hitting after I'm home from the mission though. We are really trying to get all the branches up and running to become wards so we can get our own temple here!

I went on splits in Ambolomadinika with Austin on Friday. Way legit, I got to visit a ton of old investigators that got lost in the whitewash, we got like 6 or 7 more families on their program now from it. Plus I got to visit some member families. It was way fun.

We bought a grill last Monday and have been doing chicken grills every couple days. SO legit.

jamming for our bbq in the front yard

grilling chicken, haha!

I know what you mean Mom, about things never really changing. But it's all good, only a few weeks til we can all talk in person, that'll be way stinking nice.

How did Grandma's operation go? Is she starting to feel better?

Thanks for writing Mom, love you

Taylor

Enjoy s'more awesome pics...

dinner with a ton of members

kids playing soccer behind the church

veronique and stefania

she accidentally took a picture of herself

More fun in Mada!!

I got some more pictures from this week. Our area is a 4 elder area, and Elder Rasoanaivo got transferred this week, so all four of us went to some goodbye dinner things. Free food, you better believe I'll make room in the schedule for that.

Dinner with Pres. Be Vahiny's family

Chilling with Meva and Faneva

I haven't talked to Marsh yet about being the new AP yet. We can't use the phones for anything but setting appointments anymore. The first year or so in the field we had unlimited minutes with the mission phone plan thing. But the government messed that up for everyone and made that illegal, so now we have like nothing, so now we just email to talk to other missionaries.

But yeah, it's pretty normal to stay in a place for like 5-6 months, maybe a little more. I'm pretty sure that if I leave next month, it'll be my last area. And I'm pretty sure I will, because I will have been in Tamatave for 7 months by then. Pretty nuts.

Forget one year straight of summer, it'll be like 2 1/2 years of summer before I see snow. I haven't seen snow since like the March before I left. I'm not too trunky for anything specific back home.. just the snow and mountains. I'm not complaining though, Mada is dope, I'll take it as long as I get it.

We do have a lot of families we are working with, we have like 20 families or so that we visit every week, and a few other people. They've all got their own story, but can we save them for when I get back? It's all gotta be in person.

Pres. Be Vahiny's family

Yes! I am so stoked for the packages. I have been craving pop tarts and quaker oatmeal. I know I didn't mention that before, but just keep that in mind for the next package sometime down the road. But the office is good about shipping mail and packages right here to Tamatave, so it always comes pretty quick after it comes to the mission home.

Have you guys got the christmas tree up yet? This is my favorite time of year back home...christmas music on the radio. Better question, will you guys have the christmas tree even taken down when I get home? Remember how it's always up for months after christmas, haha?!

Enjoy the video I put up...just a little glimpse of the cuteness I get to see everyday!!

Love you, have a good week

Taylor

Here are the other pics I promised...

Hat shopping with Dumby

Letchie's will be ripe in a few weeks.

Morley doing language study.

posiposy traffic