Monday, June 30, 2014
New Struggles
Dear Family,
So this week was kind of a whirlwind of things to do and happenings. As you already know, my first trainer and companion passed away this week. He was in a coma and never came out of it. He went brain dead and that all happened on Thursday morning.
This whole week we have been without power... so I do everything by candle light. My new companion is great! He is a Malagasy so we have been eating a lot of rice and making laoka. We buy an entire chicken and it just hangs in our house and we cook it each night with our rice... gotta love the Malagasy way! He is a very happy, smiley guy and we have a lot of fun. On Monday we kind of just walked around and got some things for the house, food, we got gas too!! This week was the first week that we could actually cook food at the house because we recieved gas! Tuesday was a good day of work, though its harder to work with elder rasoanaivo because he is just good at talking so I find myself wanting to just give him the floor to do all of the talking! But, he is a very good trainer and makes me do my best to struggle through the plan of salvation or whatever it may be. Wednesday happened to be the Independence Day for all Malagasies, BIG DAY! There was lots of lights and fireworks and music and dancing and we really couldnt teach. The next day was just about the same, parades and lots of drinking and hootin and holerin! However, since we were still out of power we had the phone charging at our land lords house and when we went to get it in the morning they were gone so we had to wait till like 3 in the afternoon for them to return. When we got the phone we had 6 missed calls, 3 texts, and a couple voicemails, all about the news with elder palmer. We only got one time on that day also. We worked on Friday and Saturday, and as the people in my town started to find out about elder palmer it got really hard for them! People cried and one mom in our branch gave me a hug because she was so sad. I kind of freaked out when she did that, I did the ole greenie missionary, throw your hands in the air and wait for her to let go! Hahahah. I dont really have a lot of time to email today, I can talk more next week! Have a great week with the family in Utah! I miss and love them all so send my love to them! The work of the Lord will continue no matter what happens, so like Coach Johnson always says, "Attitude and Effort" and things will be great! I love you so much
All my Love
Elder Herrin
So this week was kind of a whirlwind of things to do and happenings. As you already know, my first trainer and companion passed away this week. He was in a coma and never came out of it. He went brain dead and that all happened on Thursday morning.
This whole week we have been without power... so I do everything by candle light. My new companion is great! He is a Malagasy so we have been eating a lot of rice and making laoka. We buy an entire chicken and it just hangs in our house and we cook it each night with our rice... gotta love the Malagasy way! He is a very happy, smiley guy and we have a lot of fun. On Monday we kind of just walked around and got some things for the house, food, we got gas too!! This week was the first week that we could actually cook food at the house because we recieved gas! Tuesday was a good day of work, though its harder to work with elder rasoanaivo because he is just good at talking so I find myself wanting to just give him the floor to do all of the talking! But, he is a very good trainer and makes me do my best to struggle through the plan of salvation or whatever it may be. Wednesday happened to be the Independence Day for all Malagasies, BIG DAY! There was lots of lights and fireworks and music and dancing and we really couldnt teach. The next day was just about the same, parades and lots of drinking and hootin and holerin! However, since we were still out of power we had the phone charging at our land lords house and when we went to get it in the morning they were gone so we had to wait till like 3 in the afternoon for them to return. When we got the phone we had 6 missed calls, 3 texts, and a couple voicemails, all about the news with elder palmer. We only got one time on that day also. We worked on Friday and Saturday, and as the people in my town started to find out about elder palmer it got really hard for them! People cried and one mom in our branch gave me a hug because she was so sad. I kind of freaked out when she did that, I did the ole greenie missionary, throw your hands in the air and wait for her to let go! Hahahah. I dont really have a lot of time to email today, I can talk more next week! Have a great week with the family in Utah! I miss and love them all so send my love to them! The work of the Lord will continue no matter what happens, so like Coach Johnson always says, "Attitude and Effort" and things will be great! I love you so much
All my Love
Elder Herrin
Monday, June 23, 2014
Back to Ambositra... and Anjoma
Dear Family,
So this week has been another thrill ride! I spent last monday in Antsirabe with my other companions. We played basketball again, although the competition was not very good so we left after a short while! We then had a suaree with the branch president there and we walked into the home and you will never guess what was on the 10 inch TV... the world cup! The family all started to laugh as they saw my eyes light up... right then the branch president clicked the TV off.... yaa I should have known that was coming! I then quickly said in my broken Malagsy that our lesson needed to be quick so that we could get to the game while we ate! They all laughed... We did just that though! We had a lesson and then as we ate we watched Portugal get basically anihilated by Germany I think it was! Then on Tuesday morning we came back to Ambositra with the zone leaders! However, we got to AMbositra, ate, dropped our stuff off at the house, and then immediately went to Anjoma (also part of my area but its about a 45 minute drive) to conduct six baptisimal interviews! We split up to the interviews and while the other two elders waited to do the interview at the church, we did our interview on the side of a road... in the rain!! Gotta love Madagscar! I sent a video home I think of that day! Then the next couple of days were just hard! We tried to re-create our schedule here in Ambositra. It was not good that we were gone for like 3 weeks because people became discouraged and there were problems with that same lady gossiping and all with my Malagsy companion! Oh the joys of being back in Ambositra, no hot water for our shower, electricity...ehh... I would say half of the day and no gas right now. I will get to those fun stories later! So on Saturday we had six scheduled baptisms in Anjoma, so we got up at the crack of dawn and got a taxi brus up to Anjoma. We waited at this trail the branch president said to wait at for about 30 minutes. We waited at the trail because the baptisms were being held in the mountains... yes, in the mountains! We hiked about 30 minutes up to this crazy cold river which eventually turned into a waterfall! It was so cool to do it there because A. it was in the mountains and B. there were like 40 members that came and were singing hymns in the mountains and it was just priceless. So we all gathered together there, we changed in some rocks... and went to do the baptisms in the river. I did all of the adults because I was the "lava vaza" which is tall white person so I could help the older people! I baptized two men and one woman! It is so amazing to baptize people to know of the great joys that will come from the decision that they have made! If you get the pictures, you can tell that the family gets their smiles from their father! Hahhaahah! We then hiked back into town and caught a ride on the back of a truck into town! We ate with the branch president and then after taught someone who was at the baptism and wanted to know about our church! We then stayed the night in Anjoma in this place next to the church! I slept on a couple pieces of wood with a blanket over the top of the wood... NOT a good night sleep to say the least! The next morning was church and my greasy hair was lookin way fly at church! Ughh I felt so disgusting! Also I got my first chance to have rice for breakfast... YUMMM! It actually wasnt that bad, just plain rice with some milk from the cow! Gotta love it! We finished church and finished completing the bap record... the malagsy way and caught a ride back to ambositra from this guy who we didnt know but was willing to take us to ambositra for the same price as a taxi brus! We rode in like a station wagon type thing...? As we were arriving into Amboistra we got stopped by the police and the driver had to get out and talk to them for like 10 minutes. (This rarely happens to anyone) The reason was that I was in the car... the police was mad that the driver was bringing vaza into ambositra... I said sorry! We got back to the house and noticed that we had hot water so we quickly showered before the hot water could escape! We then planned for the week ahead and then the fun started... so I mentioned before that we had no gas... so we couldnt cook anything on the stove. However, I had some sedaap, or top ramen and decided that I was going to cook that! I tried to cook some water in the microwave but mid way though the power went out... so i took the water, put the noodles in and covered it with a towel.... I waited like an hour because I didnt want any cold air to get in... I got it all ready, in the dark, and when it was done, it was cold... so we really didnt eat last night... But hey, we got to eat this morning! I am loving my new companion, he is so cool and although he is 27 years old he still can have fun with 19 year olds! I am learning malagsy quicker because he doesnt understand english all that well... at all! Elder Palmer, my first trainer, is still in South Africa... his other surgery went well and is just waiting to recover to get back to the states! I love my time here in Madagascar! I love you all very much! I love being a missionary!
All my Love
Elder Herrin
So this week has been another thrill ride! I spent last monday in Antsirabe with my other companions. We played basketball again, although the competition was not very good so we left after a short while! We then had a suaree with the branch president there and we walked into the home and you will never guess what was on the 10 inch TV... the world cup! The family all started to laugh as they saw my eyes light up... right then the branch president clicked the TV off.... yaa I should have known that was coming! I then quickly said in my broken Malagsy that our lesson needed to be quick so that we could get to the game while we ate! They all laughed... We did just that though! We had a lesson and then as we ate we watched Portugal get basically anihilated by Germany I think it was! Then on Tuesday morning we came back to Ambositra with the zone leaders! However, we got to AMbositra, ate, dropped our stuff off at the house, and then immediately went to Anjoma (also part of my area but its about a 45 minute drive) to conduct six baptisimal interviews! We split up to the interviews and while the other two elders waited to do the interview at the church, we did our interview on the side of a road... in the rain!! Gotta love Madagscar! I sent a video home I think of that day! Then the next couple of days were just hard! We tried to re-create our schedule here in Ambositra. It was not good that we were gone for like 3 weeks because people became discouraged and there were problems with that same lady gossiping and all with my Malagsy companion! Oh the joys of being back in Ambositra, no hot water for our shower, electricity...ehh... I would say half of the day and no gas right now. I will get to those fun stories later! So on Saturday we had six scheduled baptisms in Anjoma, so we got up at the crack of dawn and got a taxi brus up to Anjoma. We waited at this trail the branch president said to wait at for about 30 minutes. We waited at the trail because the baptisms were being held in the mountains... yes, in the mountains! We hiked about 30 minutes up to this crazy cold river which eventually turned into a waterfall! It was so cool to do it there because A. it was in the mountains and B. there were like 40 members that came and were singing hymns in the mountains and it was just priceless. So we all gathered together there, we changed in some rocks... and went to do the baptisms in the river. I did all of the adults because I was the "lava vaza" which is tall white person so I could help the older people! I baptized two men and one woman! It is so amazing to baptize people to know of the great joys that will come from the decision that they have made! If you get the pictures, you can tell that the family gets their smiles from their father! Hahhaahah! We then hiked back into town and caught a ride on the back of a truck into town! We ate with the branch president and then after taught someone who was at the baptism and wanted to know about our church! We then stayed the night in Anjoma in this place next to the church! I slept on a couple pieces of wood with a blanket over the top of the wood... NOT a good night sleep to say the least! The next morning was church and my greasy hair was lookin way fly at church! Ughh I felt so disgusting! Also I got my first chance to have rice for breakfast... YUMMM! It actually wasnt that bad, just plain rice with some milk from the cow! Gotta love it! We finished church and finished completing the bap record... the malagsy way and caught a ride back to ambositra from this guy who we didnt know but was willing to take us to ambositra for the same price as a taxi brus! We rode in like a station wagon type thing...? As we were arriving into Amboistra we got stopped by the police and the driver had to get out and talk to them for like 10 minutes. (This rarely happens to anyone) The reason was that I was in the car... the police was mad that the driver was bringing vaza into ambositra... I said sorry! We got back to the house and noticed that we had hot water so we quickly showered before the hot water could escape! We then planned for the week ahead and then the fun started... so I mentioned before that we had no gas... so we couldnt cook anything on the stove. However, I had some sedaap, or top ramen and decided that I was going to cook that! I tried to cook some water in the microwave but mid way though the power went out... so i took the water, put the noodles in and covered it with a towel.... I waited like an hour because I didnt want any cold air to get in... I got it all ready, in the dark, and when it was done, it was cold... so we really didnt eat last night... But hey, we got to eat this morning! I am loving my new companion, he is so cool and although he is 27 years old he still can have fun with 19 year olds! I am learning malagsy quicker because he doesnt understand english all that well... at all! Elder Palmer, my first trainer, is still in South Africa... his other surgery went well and is just waiting to recover to get back to the states! I love my time here in Madagascar! I love you all very much! I love being a missionary!
All my Love
Elder Herrin
Monday, June 16, 2014
12 Week Program Gone Wrong...
Dear Family,
So I dont know exactly how things worked back in the middle ages when my father served a mission... Hahahah, But now, when missionaries first get into the mission field, they must go through a 12 week program. This is a program that a trainer goes through with his trainee to teach him how to teach and slowly integrate him into the teaching! Usually, I repeat, USUALLY you have a trainer for the whole 12 weeks and then you move to the second companion... That is not the case with me. I lost my first one (He is doing worse by the way, continue to keep him in your prayers) and was put into a trio... I continued with the training program, Kinda, but it was hard because there was three of us and it just didnt really go well. The newest news here is that I have yet another new companion, and he is a Malagasy so he speaks very very little english... It doesnt get any better than this right? We are also headed back to the area where I started that doesnt have hot water and we have to re-do our program there, but I am way excited to go back, its like home to me! Not really, but you know what I mean!! Anyway this week was waaayy funn!! After I emailed last week guess what I got to do! yaa, I got to show Malagasys how Americans play basketball! I felt like Dante Machado playing a JV team, except I could still go coast to coast with a few in and outs and make jaws drop! It was not a real court of course, but it was closest thing we are gonna get here! And, we actually played like a team... they had "similar" shirts on and there was about 12 of them... we had 5 and that was it! My Tahitian comp is way good at ball too so of course, we DID NOT lose! Dont get me wrong, the malagasys were way better than I thought they were gonna be, they were fast and they ran the court all game long cause they had the players! But, no match for me... I mean us!! Hahahahah I have gotten way out of shape though becuase the next day was the hardest day to stand up! Wait Dad, should I stretch? Is that a good thing to do? Hahhah, then the next couple of days we worked hard and biked all over the area! I didnt have any dogs chasing me, but I still had lots of challenges riding up and down mountains, no one said I was going to be mountain biking in madagascar? This weekend we had zone conferenece and we had the other elders come up from Fianarantsoa!! Two of the biggest guys on the mission are working there and they are comps! One is Tahitian and he is way funny, the other is american but is like 6'5" and a solid 265!! He is also hilarious, and he has the same preferred walk on to BYU like me, as a linemen! The night they got here, we ordered 14 pizzas to eat for 8 of us! We ate them all because that day we fasted for elder palmer, he really isnt doing well. Then we stayed up until 12, dont tell pres. adams... and we watched the best two years and just talked! Elder Morley (the big american) has a girlfriend who is on "so you think you can dance" she is one of the last 10 girls! Saturday was zone conference and it was way good! I found out so many things! We talked about revelations and the holy ghost, two important things on a mission and then Pres. Adams talked about the Abrahamic covenant... Ya I didnt even know what that was... so it was really cool to see that that is the reason I am on a mission! Then we talked about how to study in our scriptures and although I have been doing a lot better of that and taking notes, there is still so much more I could do to better my studies because I SUCK at the scriptures... I should have payed more attention in seminary dangit! Dad, why didnt you telll me to pay attention... After that we went to get some food for Elder Hauata's birthday dinner (he is the tahitian) We bought 7 kilos of meat and 12 liters of soda! We also made like 4 kilos of rice and we ate that all!! It was way good! Tahitans know how to cook! Sunday we went to church and after sacrament we had to take the elders back to the bus stop to head back to Fianarantsoa cause it is a six hour drive back! We got 9 lessons on Sunday cause we went on splits and just taught like mad missionaries! Also, this week I noticed just how bad I was at Malagasy... before it didnt bug me that I was bad cause I didnt know I was bad, but now I know how bad I am and it really bugged me! I am determined to get better and I know that I have this new malagast comp to help! God does love me! Things are going well, I am not getting bit quite as much by the bugs and only have one LARGE zit on my chin... I love it so much... I really have enjoyed working here in Andro with elder Peters and cartmill, they were really cool and I love getting to know other missionaries! Thank you for all of the love and support! Happy Fathers day dad... Sorry that Phil didnt do very well, he will pull through in a tourney that doesnt really matter, dont worry! Hahaha. I love being a missionary
All my Love
Elder Herrin
So I dont know exactly how things worked back in the middle ages when my father served a mission... Hahahah, But now, when missionaries first get into the mission field, they must go through a 12 week program. This is a program that a trainer goes through with his trainee to teach him how to teach and slowly integrate him into the teaching! Usually, I repeat, USUALLY you have a trainer for the whole 12 weeks and then you move to the second companion... That is not the case with me. I lost my first one (He is doing worse by the way, continue to keep him in your prayers) and was put into a trio... I continued with the training program, Kinda, but it was hard because there was three of us and it just didnt really go well. The newest news here is that I have yet another new companion, and he is a Malagasy so he speaks very very little english... It doesnt get any better than this right? We are also headed back to the area where I started that doesnt have hot water and we have to re-do our program there, but I am way excited to go back, its like home to me! Not really, but you know what I mean!! Anyway this week was waaayy funn!! After I emailed last week guess what I got to do! yaa, I got to show Malagasys how Americans play basketball! I felt like Dante Machado playing a JV team, except I could still go coast to coast with a few in and outs and make jaws drop! It was not a real court of course, but it was closest thing we are gonna get here! And, we actually played like a team... they had "similar" shirts on and there was about 12 of them... we had 5 and that was it! My Tahitian comp is way good at ball too so of course, we DID NOT lose! Dont get me wrong, the malagasys were way better than I thought they were gonna be, they were fast and they ran the court all game long cause they had the players! But, no match for me... I mean us!! Hahahahah I have gotten way out of shape though becuase the next day was the hardest day to stand up! Wait Dad, should I stretch? Is that a good thing to do? Hahhah, then the next couple of days we worked hard and biked all over the area! I didnt have any dogs chasing me, but I still had lots of challenges riding up and down mountains, no one said I was going to be mountain biking in madagascar? This weekend we had zone conferenece and we had the other elders come up from Fianarantsoa!! Two of the biggest guys on the mission are working there and they are comps! One is Tahitian and he is way funny, the other is american but is like 6'5" and a solid 265!! He is also hilarious, and he has the same preferred walk on to BYU like me, as a linemen! The night they got here, we ordered 14 pizzas to eat for 8 of us! We ate them all because that day we fasted for elder palmer, he really isnt doing well. Then we stayed up until 12, dont tell pres. adams... and we watched the best two years and just talked! Elder Morley (the big american) has a girlfriend who is on "so you think you can dance" she is one of the last 10 girls! Saturday was zone conference and it was way good! I found out so many things! We talked about revelations and the holy ghost, two important things on a mission and then Pres. Adams talked about the Abrahamic covenant... Ya I didnt even know what that was... so it was really cool to see that that is the reason I am on a mission! Then we talked about how to study in our scriptures and although I have been doing a lot better of that and taking notes, there is still so much more I could do to better my studies because I SUCK at the scriptures... I should have payed more attention in seminary dangit! Dad, why didnt you telll me to pay attention... After that we went to get some food for Elder Hauata's birthday dinner (he is the tahitian) We bought 7 kilos of meat and 12 liters of soda! We also made like 4 kilos of rice and we ate that all!! It was way good! Tahitans know how to cook! Sunday we went to church and after sacrament we had to take the elders back to the bus stop to head back to Fianarantsoa cause it is a six hour drive back! We got 9 lessons on Sunday cause we went on splits and just taught like mad missionaries! Also, this week I noticed just how bad I was at Malagasy... before it didnt bug me that I was bad cause I didnt know I was bad, but now I know how bad I am and it really bugged me! I am determined to get better and I know that I have this new malagast comp to help! God does love me! Things are going well, I am not getting bit quite as much by the bugs and only have one LARGE zit on my chin... I love it so much... I really have enjoyed working here in Andro with elder Peters and cartmill, they were really cool and I love getting to know other missionaries! Thank you for all of the love and support! Happy Fathers day dad... Sorry that Phil didnt do very well, he will pull through in a tourney that doesnt really matter, dont worry! Hahaha. I love being a missionary
All my Love
Elder Herrin
Monday, June 9, 2014
Andranomaleletra...
Dear family,
So, as you know.. I am now in a new area. With this new area there are new parts of my life that are both fun and annoying and scary!! So to help you understand, I live in the big city of Antsirabe...however, I work in the small city of Andranomaneletra which is about 20 kilometers north of Antsirabe. This means that we have a car to get us to Andrano (YAYYYY) I now drive on these crazy streets. We drive a baby blue citreon van thing, probably not how you spell it... I am driving already because my trainer is... lets just say not good at stick shift. Anyway, so this week I only worked in MY area for two days. There was one day that my zone leader, elder lee, said that I needed to be with him all day and that he couldnt tell us the reason... I personally think that in the near future I am going to have some sort of position of responsibility because all that he could talk about that day was becoming better at the language and how i deal with meetings. As a zone leader in a province, all you do is go to meetings, there isnt a whole lot of time to teach because you have so much to do for your area as a representative! Anyways, that day we just did meetings and he translated for our senior couple. On Friday, I got to go down to Ambositra with the zone leaders and make a program for Fridays so that once a week we can go down and teach the investigators that we still had and that were progressing! Its a nice two hour drive there and back, but I really like Ambositra and the people there so I will really like Fridays! Saturday was my first day of working in Adrano... OHH BOYY! I HATE BIKES, yes we bike in our area because it is basically the Tejon ranch but only 30 kilometers long and we teach people throughout the whole area! We park at the church and then use bikes from there! The first house we went to, there was a huge hill that we had to bike down, I let everyone go first so that I could be last. (I am very glad that I did that) Of course this hill isnt pavement or smooth or anything nice, its dirt with holes with rocks with cracks, so of course I ate dirt on the way down. It doesnt help that my bike doesnt have breaks too! Yes I am trying to make excuses for falling because I am an athlete and thats not what athletes do!! Later that day we went to teach a group of 40 PEOPLE!!! can you believe that? They just kept coming and coming! Anyways, on the way there we were passing a house and both of my companions had already passed, but of course as I pass a HUGE black dog comes screaming out of the backyard barking at me. Now, Bishop Brown has a distinct memory of me running from a small white dog about the size of a loaf of bread... Envision that, but on a bike. I was pedaling as hard as I could, but that dog was FAST, it bit my shoe and pulled my peg stand down! I peddled for about 200 meters while this thing bit at my ankles before it just for some reason stopped... That was just what I wanted to happen! The bikes are so nice that I have callaces on my hands and on both butt cheecks because the seat is just so soft! Then on Sunday, I got to bear my testimony, again, in my new branch! They are way cool people too! After church, we went to teach and we were teaching this family in thier house. Everytime someone took a step, the floor board creeped down. I was scared, then as I was walking out, you have to walk down their steps made of bricks... I broke the bricks... I am fat now!! I felt really bad though!! Also that day it rained, so we got to ride our bikes in the rain! What can I say, I love the work here in Madagascar! No where else in the world will I be able to have experiences like this! Oh, quick update on my last comp! He is doing miraculously better. The annorism healed itself somehow and he is just resting in south africa. President called and told me this and that there is now a chance that he might come back to work? I hope he does! In other news the language still sucks, I still love the work, and my comps are great! Oh, another quick thing I had to make another dopbox account because the other one ran out of free space so ill send my parents the info! Hope that all is well back home! I love you so much and appreciate all of your love and support. I love being a misisonary!
All my Love
Elder Herrin
So, as you know.. I am now in a new area. With this new area there are new parts of my life that are both fun and annoying and scary!! So to help you understand, I live in the big city of Antsirabe...however, I work in the small city of Andranomaneletra which is about 20 kilometers north of Antsirabe. This means that we have a car to get us to Andrano (YAYYYY) I now drive on these crazy streets. We drive a baby blue citreon van thing, probably not how you spell it... I am driving already because my trainer is... lets just say not good at stick shift. Anyway, so this week I only worked in MY area for two days. There was one day that my zone leader, elder lee, said that I needed to be with him all day and that he couldnt tell us the reason... I personally think that in the near future I am going to have some sort of position of responsibility because all that he could talk about that day was becoming better at the language and how i deal with meetings. As a zone leader in a province, all you do is go to meetings, there isnt a whole lot of time to teach because you have so much to do for your area as a representative! Anyways, that day we just did meetings and he translated for our senior couple. On Friday, I got to go down to Ambositra with the zone leaders and make a program for Fridays so that once a week we can go down and teach the investigators that we still had and that were progressing! Its a nice two hour drive there and back, but I really like Ambositra and the people there so I will really like Fridays! Saturday was my first day of working in Adrano... OHH BOYY! I HATE BIKES, yes we bike in our area because it is basically the Tejon ranch but only 30 kilometers long and we teach people throughout the whole area! We park at the church and then use bikes from there! The first house we went to, there was a huge hill that we had to bike down, I let everyone go first so that I could be last. (I am very glad that I did that) Of course this hill isnt pavement or smooth or anything nice, its dirt with holes with rocks with cracks, so of course I ate dirt on the way down. It doesnt help that my bike doesnt have breaks too! Yes I am trying to make excuses for falling because I am an athlete and thats not what athletes do!! Later that day we went to teach a group of 40 PEOPLE!!! can you believe that? They just kept coming and coming! Anyways, on the way there we were passing a house and both of my companions had already passed, but of course as I pass a HUGE black dog comes screaming out of the backyard barking at me. Now, Bishop Brown has a distinct memory of me running from a small white dog about the size of a loaf of bread... Envision that, but on a bike. I was pedaling as hard as I could, but that dog was FAST, it bit my shoe and pulled my peg stand down! I peddled for about 200 meters while this thing bit at my ankles before it just for some reason stopped... That was just what I wanted to happen! The bikes are so nice that I have callaces on my hands and on both butt cheecks because the seat is just so soft! Then on Sunday, I got to bear my testimony, again, in my new branch! They are way cool people too! After church, we went to teach and we were teaching this family in thier house. Everytime someone took a step, the floor board creeped down. I was scared, then as I was walking out, you have to walk down their steps made of bricks... I broke the bricks... I am fat now!! I felt really bad though!! Also that day it rained, so we got to ride our bikes in the rain! What can I say, I love the work here in Madagascar! No where else in the world will I be able to have experiences like this! Oh, quick update on my last comp! He is doing miraculously better. The annorism healed itself somehow and he is just resting in south africa. President called and told me this and that there is now a chance that he might come back to work? I hope he does! In other news the language still sucks, I still love the work, and my comps are great! Oh, another quick thing I had to make another dopbox account because the other one ran out of free space so ill send my parents the info! Hope that all is well back home! I love you so much and appreciate all of your love and support. I love being a misisonary!
All my Love
Elder Herrin
Wednesday, June 4, 2014
CHICAGO!!! GRADUATION!!! MADA!!!
Dear Family,
I am so stoked for Luke to be going on a mission!! Like I just started clapping in here because I was so excited!! Its so awesome that he and Brock can travel together and speak the same language!! SO JEALOUS!! So, Im sorry that I am emailing today, however, there has been some serious happenings here... Not good ones either. Last week, Elder Palmer started to get a headache and it progressively got worse and worse until it got so bad that he started seeing double vision and he couldnt move very quickly... So, we went to Antsirabe because in Ambositra... we dont have doctors. So we sat at the doctors for like three hours while they did tests on him and could find no cause of why his head was in so much pain! The next three nights I became a nurse... I was up every two hours on the hour giving elder palmer pain medication... he was on five different medications. Codeine was one of them. He was throwing up and it was not getting any better, so bad that we even missed church... you know its bad when we miss church. So, the next step was to get him to Tana. So there I was, in a truck driving up to Tana while my comp is hooked up to an IV in the car.... The driver was new to driving stick shift which made it all that much better! There, we got to the office and I got out and before I could ask if I could accompany my comp to the hospital, he was off. I was spending the next six hours with the office elders... (this was monday) I had no idea how he was doing or what was happening. We went out to teach and while we were teaching I got a call and found out that there was a vein in his brain that had popped or he had an annorism... (spelling) so he was being flown to South Africa for surgery... he left on Tuesday morning... Soooooo.... what happens with me? I sat and asked myself the same thing until Pres. Adams called me in Tuesday evening and told me I am in a trio down in Antsirabe in a place called Andranomanelatra.... Yep. So I went back, spent the night with the zone leaders last night, got up this morning, went back to ambositra, cleaned the house, got elder palmers stuff together, got my stuff together, and came back up to Antsirabe. Elder Palmer will sadly be going home, Pres. said that this was pretty serious. Ohh... quick btw the Saturday before we left ambositra, we had two baptisms and I did one of them! Tell Adam Wood that I am on the road to 20 bap. a year!! The place I am working now is a really well working area so I have high hopes. The language is coming, slowly but surely... kinda! Since its a Wednesday night I dont have that much time to cyber... Please pray for elder palmer! Oh quickly, my new comps are elder Peters from Tahiti and elder cartmill from North Dakota. Peters is a baller and Cartmill is sad to say but a nerd, but he has a poppin attitude and he thinks that everything is just happy go lucky so I cant complain. I love you all and just want to congradulate my little big brother for graduating, I know it was hard for you.. the school part... hahhaha. Sucks that you didnt win an ipad mini or anything... Anyway, I had a lot of emails today so this one is kind of vague and short, but Im doing great, as good as I can anyway! Thanks for all of the love and support!
All my Love
Elder Herrin
I am so stoked for Luke to be going on a mission!! Like I just started clapping in here because I was so excited!! Its so awesome that he and Brock can travel together and speak the same language!! SO JEALOUS!! So, Im sorry that I am emailing today, however, there has been some serious happenings here... Not good ones either. Last week, Elder Palmer started to get a headache and it progressively got worse and worse until it got so bad that he started seeing double vision and he couldnt move very quickly... So, we went to Antsirabe because in Ambositra... we dont have doctors. So we sat at the doctors for like three hours while they did tests on him and could find no cause of why his head was in so much pain! The next three nights I became a nurse... I was up every two hours on the hour giving elder palmer pain medication... he was on five different medications. Codeine was one of them. He was throwing up and it was not getting any better, so bad that we even missed church... you know its bad when we miss church. So, the next step was to get him to Tana. So there I was, in a truck driving up to Tana while my comp is hooked up to an IV in the car.... The driver was new to driving stick shift which made it all that much better! There, we got to the office and I got out and before I could ask if I could accompany my comp to the hospital, he was off. I was spending the next six hours with the office elders... (this was monday) I had no idea how he was doing or what was happening. We went out to teach and while we were teaching I got a call and found out that there was a vein in his brain that had popped or he had an annorism... (spelling) so he was being flown to South Africa for surgery... he left on Tuesday morning... Soooooo.... what happens with me? I sat and asked myself the same thing until Pres. Adams called me in Tuesday evening and told me I am in a trio down in Antsirabe in a place called Andranomanelatra.... Yep. So I went back, spent the night with the zone leaders last night, got up this morning, went back to ambositra, cleaned the house, got elder palmers stuff together, got my stuff together, and came back up to Antsirabe. Elder Palmer will sadly be going home, Pres. said that this was pretty serious. Ohh... quick btw the Saturday before we left ambositra, we had two baptisms and I did one of them! Tell Adam Wood that I am on the road to 20 bap. a year!! The place I am working now is a really well working area so I have high hopes. The language is coming, slowly but surely... kinda! Since its a Wednesday night I dont have that much time to cyber... Please pray for elder palmer! Oh quickly, my new comps are elder Peters from Tahiti and elder cartmill from North Dakota. Peters is a baller and Cartmill is sad to say but a nerd, but he has a poppin attitude and he thinks that everything is just happy go lucky so I cant complain. I love you all and just want to congradulate my little big brother for graduating, I know it was hard for you.. the school part... hahhaha. Sucks that you didnt win an ipad mini or anything... Anyway, I had a lot of emails today so this one is kind of vague and short, but Im doing great, as good as I can anyway! Thanks for all of the love and support!
All my Love
Elder Herrin
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