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
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