Goals... Not Met

Dear Family,

How are we doing this week?  Excited?  Nervous?  I know that its the last week of school, thats always a fun thing.  Maci is going into High School, Rhet is gonna be concidered an "upper classmen"... CRAZY!!  And cant forget about the big man on campus, Ty is going into Pre-School!  Hahaha, just kidding, he is almost 10 years old.  That means I am old and mom and dad are even older.  Ohh, this week was a hard one.  Just another reason to smile, right?

Tuesday, we were supposed to have MLC... we missed the memo on it getting changed to Thursday.  That morning when we found out that it got changed, the AP's told us that they had some goals for the zone here in Tamatave.  I wont explain cause it wont make much sense, but it was a lot more work for the elders, but reachable.  There was incentive though... thank goodness.  Because that Tuesday it poured raining.  Just dumped.  I told it to go to Cali... didnt really listen to me. 

Thursday... i hated Thursday.  So if you havent thanked God for where you are living right now, DO IT!  On Thursday, Jirima (the power and water company) came to our house and shut our power off... Not good.  They claimed that we had not paid our bill the last 3 months.  (This story sounds familiar) But, we HAD paid, so I got to go to the cyber, print out the bills, take them to the not so happy woman at Jirima... go BACK to the cyber to print out a bill from 2012, go BACK to Jirima and the angry woman.  Listen to the angry woman call us maditra (naughty) and then go to the house and wait for the guy to come to our house and turn our power and water back on.  Meanwhile, we got a call from the AP's telling us that one of the elders from our zone would be leaving on monday to go to La Reunion.  Meaning that one elder will not have a comp for two weeks until the transfer.  Wow.

Friday was a pretty good day of work.  We got quite a bit done to make up for Thursday's Jirima day.  We got invited to our branch presidents birthday party (on accident) and spent some time watching how a birthday party in madagascar happens.  They had the missionaries and some family over.  They got a "cake" and the little boy ate the cake with us.  He got 5 pieces of chocolate as he loves chocolate for his gift.  Then they played music and all the little kids in the neighborhood danced with the newest 3 year old in town!  Awesome!

Saturday was the epitome of bad days.  We had about 8 lessons planned, all of which I thought were going to be awesome.  We caught 1.  It was just one of those days where all the world falls in on you and you feel totally useless.  Elder Herrin needs to work on Patience. 

Sunday was really stressful as well.  We had some times that didnt help.  One time dealt with a really old member that is less active.  He was telling us how he doesnt feel like the church is normal, so he now attends the catholic church because its more organized... Ohh that just made my fists clench.  But, you know what, when it all comes down to a dot.  The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is TRUE.  I know it, I live it, I love it.  Who ever would have thought that Cole Herrin would be saying those words? 

I am so grateful to be serving here.  I know that we are all giving trials and tests to help us.  Keep the faith and pray hard.  I love you.

All my Love

Elder Herrin

This is yaa boii playin some ball with the malagasys on P day.

Me throwin an alley oop for elder razakamandimby

My dinner the other night! (name: ravitoto)

The birthday boy.. pickin his nose!

Rain Rain, Go Away

Dear Family,

What a long week.  After being able to skype you guys on Monday, it seemed as though this week was way long.  It didnt help that it rained like every single day this week making work just that much harder.  Every morning, Elder Razakamandimby would play that guitar and sing Jack Johnsons "Bananna Pancakes" and sing about how its raining and we dont need to go outside... Real hard to get out to work sometimes.  But, we always did and we were always grateful that we did. 

This week was full of surprises, as is every week here in Madagascar.  One of them being that we had Branch Conference yesterday.  That wouldnt have been that big of deal, except for the fact that my companion and I were asked to be a part of the choir.  They were in desperate need of male voices and the white guys were the ones they wanted.  So that was an interesting experienc as we sang in both Malagasy and French... My french accent is not good AT ALL... hahah.  It was quite a crack up as I had to stop after every line and ask how to read the phrase in french. 

The work is going great.  This week we were able to visit a lot of less actives, just like the last few weeks.  haa... let me tell you about one of the times that we had with a less active family.  So, the husband is like 79 and the wife is 52... yaa its a malagasy thing, dont ask.  They have one daughter who I believe is not baptized, but learned from the missionaries when the parents were baptized.  We talked to them about the importance of prayer and how to recieve answers to prayers.  They didnt really have much to say, so before I ended the lesson I asked if they would be attending church this week. The mother told me that because her daughter was attending some catholic communion or something.  And because of that, the parents cant attend church.  My companion knows kind of what was going on so he explained to me what the catholic thing was, but I, (being kind of stubborn) asked why the parents couldnt come to church.  My comp, again, tried to tell me in english why they couldnt and explain the catholic thing, but I just wanted to be a butt I guess and ask why thieir daughters  catholic church was effecting them.  They didnt have an answer other than it would be too hard to go to both... some things just bother elder herrin I guess. 

In other news, things are going great here in Tamatave.  It is starting to cool down, only at night though.  I love working here.  I love the mission.  I love you more.  Sorry the letter is kinda short this week.  Just know that I love you all.  Keep the faith. 

All my love

Elder Herrin

This is a picture of that dog i was telling you guys about. My comp is about 5'9... and the dog is still on its way up.

Thats the new church

This week's pics

Mother's Day skype with the family

Small boat that was sitting on the beach.  Gotta love it

This is the best golfing pose that I could come up with

Le Tour de Andranomadio

Dear Family,

Wow, after talking to you all today, it seems that things are going great!  It seems as if people are happy and healthy and living it up!  SMILE!  Hahah, I love receiving emails from you all and hearing about your lives and what you are doing.  It makes me happy to hear how well all of you are doing.  "Because i'm happy!"

So, this week was up and down and biking this way and that way.  On Tuesday morning we sent away 5 of the 10 elders here in Tamatave.  On that same day, one of the elders in the house got sick, so we had to stay home all day... dikan' izany hoe, CLEAN!! I cleaned the house.  I swept, mopped, did the dishes, and the tsisy.  It was a great day of getting things done around the house.  Then on Wednesday, we received 5 new missionaries, what an addition.

In my house we have 3 americans, a mexican, a malagasy, and a tahitian.  It is a party... well for the malagasy and the tahitian it is, but im pretty mellow, so I dont really party. But they are singing and playin the guitar, playing cards, and just having a great time.  Its fun to have them in the house.  My new companion's name is Elder Trujillo, he is the mexican if you didnt catch the name.  He is almost done with his mission, he has about 4 months left.  He is such an awesome elder who knows the bible like way well.  He is kinda quiet though, so I am gonna have to get him talkin a little more! 

The work this week was kinda slow. We were literally on our bikes for hours upon hours this week.  Riding this way and that, trying to find all of our less actives to teach.  I would get home and my shirt would be brown because of all the sweat and sand that came from my face.   I felt bad that I put my comp through all that on his first week here, but thats just missionary work baby.  How does it go Lloyd?  "SUCK IT UP!"  Hahaha.  We had 3 baptisms this week.  2 of them were member baptisms, so it was really cool to see a father baptize is child.  Well, only one kid had a father there, so I did the other member baptism.  Our investigator should have been (key word SHOULD) a member baptism, but his family waited till he was 10 before they told us (the missionaries) that he needed to be taught.  Uhh #misisonaryprobs.  It was a great day and a great baptism none the less.  I do have one story to share this week.  I think I finally understand my purpose as a missionary.

So after the baptism, we had a time that night with a family of 5.  A father and a mother and thier 3 sons.  They have been learning, only once a week, for about 2 months.  On saturday night, we planned to teach about the Plan of Salvation.  They are a fun family, always having fun, crazy questions to answer.  As we taught about our life before this one, things started to get out of control.  Like, I got the question by one son, do animals get saved?  And we had questions about life after death... lots of questions.  The mother, understanding what we were teaching, looked distressed and almost as if she were about to cry.  She softly said that she would never be able to make it heaven because she couldnt get baptized.  I was shocked when I heard that.  Obviously, so was her "husband" cause he asked why.  The mother responded abruptly and almost in a yelling manner with "satria tsy vita mariajy isika, ok!" or in english "because we arent married ok!"  Then she turned to us missionaries and held up her ring finger to show us that there wasnt a ring.  That quickly changed the mood and setting of the lesson.  Long story short, the father realized that they couldnt get baptized unless they were legally married and it kind of boggled his mind.  He asked what our purpose was in coming to madagascar.  For one of the first time in my mission, I felt the stong impression and power of the Holy Ghost testify through me.  I told the wife that we were there to share a message about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, and then to help the people that we share that message with, understand and accept it.  But our main goal is to help them live the gospel in thier lives so that they can one day live together in the Celestial Kindgom with thier family and God.  Man, it was crazy awesome saying all that in malagasy and with the spirit of God helping me out. I know that what I do and what I teach is true. 

I cant wait to be together with you all in the Celestial Kingdom.  I love you all so much.  I cant wait to skype next week, I love you.

Elder Herrin

 This the member baptism that happened.. love that family

Me with the two kids I baptized