| This is Elder Bowler and I getting ready to watch the Saturday morning session of conference with our branch. Im sure you can tell how anxious our branch was to be there listening. |
Dear Family,
HOW AWESOME WAS CONFERENCE!!! Yaa I am just a couple weeks late with that one, but for those of us living in 3rd world countries, we dont get things like that in our language until now. So, I just got to listen to it. Ill get to that later. I just want you to know how much I love you. I will never get tired of telling you how much I love each and every one of you. I hope that you are all as happy as I am right now.
So, this week was just a blurr. It went by way too fast and bam, transfer gone. Another one bites the dust. This week we really focused on those Melkezedek (I dont remember the american spelling) preisthood holders who are very innactive. We visited probably 5-7 of them. We had some great experiences as we were able to visit the small homes of those who have wandered off the course.
One of these visits was to a man named Mamy. (pronounced mommy) He lives with his wife and three boys kind of on the outskirts of town. He was very active until something happened with the government and there was something that went down that I dont wanna share that made him shy to come to church because all of the members were aware of what had happened. He was afraid of what people would think of him, or say to him. This is what he told us as we met with him in his small home. My companion turned to me when it came time for the missionaries to share a VP. "Ohh gosh" I thought as I really hadnt come prepared. I turned to a scripture in Moroni 7. We read the end of this chapter that talks about faith hope and charity. I shared with him how this scripture gave me comfort when I had the same type of feelings that he had. My companion also added great thoughts as to how we can exercise our faith hope and charity as we put them to action in our life. We really werent sure what was to come about of the visit. On Sunday morning at 8 am, we were sitting in the church getting ready to start the first session of conference when Mamy and two of his boys showed up. That, in and of itself, was one of those moments as a missionary where you feel like what you are doing is making a difference and helping the work of salvation move forward. But what happened next was even more of a miracle. The branch embraced him with open arms. People got up to say hi and talk to him. He never stopped smiling.
Conference was wonderful. I have seen it all in Malagasy, still working on the watching it in English. I know that some of the stories that were told were very powerful and great lessons for us to learn. The words of the Prophet and Apostles are so valuable.
This week we also got transfers. My time with Elder Bowler has come to a stop. He is going back to Tana and I am still here recieving and elder named Trujilio. It should be fun and I look forward to serving here in Andranomadio.
I love you all so much.
Elder Herrin
