Elder Herrin's Madagascar Adventure: Two Chefs in Training, One Goal.

Dear Family,

How are we doing this week? I hope that we are doing well, happy, and healthy. You are all constantly in my prayers for those things to come to fruition. I hope and pray for the well being of all of you. There is one thing that I can tell you, if you were eating the food that I was cooking, you would be healthier.

Elder Obioma and I have been on this massive drive to learn to cook. Do I still suck, yaa. But, am I better than when I got here, ohhh ya! I will tell you all about my week and the meals that we cooked up to keep us going.

Tuesday was not as great of a Tuesday as it was last week, in terms of the work. We only taught a couple of times and got dogged quite a few times. However, dinner was to die for. We made whats called fry-bread stew. My companion makes this really good dough, and then he fries it in oil. I make the stew. We chop up potatoes, add a can of carrots and peas and with some seasonings it turns out so so so good. With the fry bread it just is awesome. We also whipped up some fruit salad.

Wednesday was the same in terms of the week. Except, there was one lesson that was just so so cool. We taught this new family. Their names are Michel and Tina. We had taught them the Restoration and we came to their house on Wednesday to share about the Book Of Mormon. They recieved the message and the Book with open arms. Literally we asked if they had any questions, and the mother responded with "Raha te-hamaky ity boky ity, dia aiza no ividianay izany?" Which means, if we want to read this book, then where do we buy it? What every missionary wants to hear. That night was great. For dinner we made spaghetti with sauce. But the perfect touch was the chicked that we prepared that morning. We seasoned the meat and then I breaded it. It tasted like chicken from a 5 star restaraunt. You see what I did there? Hahaha.

Thursday and Friday were crazy. It was the Madagasikara National Independance Day. It consists of two days. Thursday night was fireworks and kids walking around with lights. And Friday was where the families all get together and eat rice. Well, we ate better than they did. For dinner on Thursday, we marinated the meat again and put it inside of our grilled cheese sandwiches. I mean, it was just mouth watering. It was dangerous the food that we were making cause it made me just want to focus only on cooking. Friday we made a mashed potato mix thingy. We added peas and sauce to this wonderful tasty mix of potatoes and goodness. Saturday was a funny day. I just wanna tell you how good of a companionship I have.

We got home and we had a little bit more time than usual. We did a couple of things. One, we wanted to see who was better at sports in general. I told him that there wasnt anything that he could beat me in. So, we had a duel. First game was a game of hand eye coordination. Goal was to throw a small ball and make it land on the floor of the competitors side. I won that game, of course. So, then he took me outside and said lets go. We lined up ten yards apart. Tackle. Big black man. Small white kid. Yaa he won that one... then we went inside and well, we decided to act. He would give me scene scenarios and I would get into a roll and just go with it. The best one was a gf/bf who is struggling. I was the gf (by coin flip) and he was the bf. I was trying to tell him that it would be better if we split. We were doing really well until the other two elders in the house started to bust up when ELder Obioma yelled, "I can carry us on my shoulders sweetie!" Hahahahah. We died laughing.

I am loving the work of the Lord right now! I love my companion, and I love the blessings that I get to see every day! Here are some of the pictures.

I love you all so much. I love being a missionary

Elder Herrin