An Eventful Week

Dear Family,

How are you all doing this wonderful week!?  With the end of Thanksgiving and the start of December comes lots of food and Christmas music and hopefully lots of happy people!  Here in Madagascar, no one knew what Thanksgiving was, and a select few people celebrate Christmas because no one really has the money to do anything.  But, that does not get the missionaries down!  I must start by sharing with you the wonderful week that I was blessed with!  So, I told you all that last Monday we went crocodile hunting... well we at least set the trap for the crocs to bite on...The next morning we got up at 5:30 in the morning to hike out to the place that we set the trap!  We got there and followed our member out into the swamp and trudged out to the spot where our traps were set.  Before we could see the traps, our member kind of stopped and starred at the place where the traps were because he couldnt see the fish hanging from our trap.  We were all behind him, having a slight heart attack and not knowing whether or not to run or to just stand still.  He creeps up and we follow... NOTHING.  The traps had like fallen over and no crocs were in sight.  We had a sword in hand, and were ready to wrestle, so we took some pics and walked home... still a cool story to tell my grandchildren when im old and yucky!  Then we came up to Thanksgiving day... we went all big here in Fort D.  We bought a live turkey... like we literally bought it off the streets for 40 000 ar and brought it home with us.  That night, our malagasy missionary killed him.  I have a video, but I dont want to send it home, not only is it gross and disgusting, but the sounds that I make in the video make me want to puke... so we can just wait to see that when I get home.  We worked a full day on Thanksgiving so we got home at 9:30, cooked everything and had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, yams, cider, and I made a peanut butter cups type dessert for us! It was soo good!  Saturday we had a church activity where we played musical chairs... My companion played the guitar while the little kids walked in a circle around the chairs.  Every time someone would lose, the entire room would bust out in laughter and clapping and just love the hype of musical chairs!  Malagasys are great in their way of making little things fun!  So with all of this fun and excitement that I had this week, the work went along with it.  This week we had some of our best investigators commit to a baptisimal date.  One inparticular, who my companion had said already denied 2 dates, was totally ready to be baptized on the 27th of december!  This branch hasnt had any baptisms since earlier this year, so the missionaries before me have been working really hard, and I am reaping their hard work.  To top the wonderful week of work off, we had 19 investigators at church!! That is like insane!  I also happened to be giving my first talk in country this week!  I gave a talk about the work of (it doesnt really make sense in english, sorry) the missionary work inside the family!  I talked about three main things that the family can do.  1... Pray for missionary experiences, or better yet, for the health and safety of our friends.  2...Serve our friends, and be an example to them.  3...when you get the chance, testify.  Its the most important tool missionaries have.  I did that all in malagasy... probably didnt make a lot of sense to the congregation, but i hope the spirit translated!  My week was so wonderful, and getting your emails and pictures from thanksgiving put the cherry on the cake!  Thank you so much for all of your love.  I can feel it each and everyday!  Keep the faith and know that Elder Herrin loves you all so much!

With Love

Elder Herrin