Change of Plans

Dear Family,

How was the first week of school??  How is seminary?  Ohh man I get all worked up thinking about Rhet taking Maci to school.  Brings me back to the days of me and brock riding in the ole VW Jetta rollin to school with Jeffrey Rogers playing T Swift.  Good times.  How is our health doing??  Good, well I am glad to hear.

This week has just been a blur.  It is now the last week of the transfer and I cannot believe where the time has gone.  We have been so blessed here in Antsirabe to work with such amazing people and teach people that have been prepared to hear the great word of God. 

We have spent a lot of time working with our less actives.  They are just not coming back to church and havent been able to figure out what is causing it.  Well... we definitely found our answer. 

On Thursday we got calls from the AP's telling us that zone conference was on monday (thats today).  They said that we would be going on a split with the member of the 70, Elder Cook.  I was so excited cause we have some great investigators to go to.  Then on Friday we got a call that we had to move the conference to Saturday...

My companion and I were up Saturday morning making bread for the 40ish people that would be attending the conference.  We volunteered to do that.  Nothing seemed to be going right.  We showed up early and we were having to help one of the couple get a broken key out of the door that had busted... we were trying to get everyone ready and then the AP's come to me and say that I am conducting the meeting... what?? 

Elder Cook is a great guy.  He taught about true conversion and what must occur in order to have the conversion in you.  I like one quote from PMG "you cannot convert someone beyond your own conversion"  The meeting went really long, but it was great to get his insights and teachings along with our new mission president. 

Sunday we really put into practice his teachings as we talked about the atonement.  We saw and felt the difference.  Kind of a short letter this week but just know that I am great and love the mission right now.   I love you all so much. 

ALl my love,

ELder Herrin

I made a new friend

The monsterous meal I was trying to devour

bread

cute girls-1

cute girls-2

A couple more pics

a way cool picture of a chicken

and a nice picture of some girls singing and dancing down a path

Greatest Area in the World

Dear Family,

How was the first day of school??  How is the homework, back to the heat of it.  Something crazy to think about... I will be home during this school year... wow!!!!  Cant think like that though!  I hope that health is good.  I keep little Ethan in my prayers along with Briel and Gpa Herrin.  Hope theyre doin better.  My week was just great, as if they keep getting better and better.  I dont know how it happens, but it does. 

This week we found some of the coolest people to teach. 

There was this man that we talked to last week.  He is the President of the fokon tany.. I dont know how to translate that, sorry.  He is just a happy jolly guy.  The first time we talked to him, we left a pamphlet and asked him to read it and said that we would come back.  We came back and he had read the entire thing and had questions about "Joe Smiff"  hahahah.  He made sure that the entire family was there and listening.  We came back again for a second time this week.  And we started the lesson by reviewing the things that we had learned and he had his daughters answer who were no older than 10.  The man had taught his daughters from our small pamphlet!! We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited them to be baptized.  He had plenty of questions about that, but we helped him realize that we were going to give them time to learn and ask God before we put them under.  They accepted.  The wife said the closeing prayer and started to cry as she prayed.  She was filled with the spirit.  One of the coolest things on my mission yet.

We taught this other new investigator named Torix.  He is one of those classic people who is just ready to learn.  He has been asking questions to the soul.  He asked us to help him stop smoking almost 13 cigarettes a day... so he is a work in progress.  He just had to twin girls... a month old.  adorable! 

Our branch is doing great.  I just cant tell you how awesome this area is and if that wasnt enough, my zone is the bomb dot com.  Our mission pres is really pushin unity in the zones, aka zone activities.

Elder Obioma and I had a zone activity where we had a rap battle parody.  You will have to ask Luke to show you the rap battle parody on youtube, but we did just that.  It was soooo much fun and hilarious at the same time. 

I love you all so much.  Thanks for all your love and support.  I feel it from all the way across the world.

All My Love

Elder Herrin

Torix and his daughters

House dinner

I plunged the toilet with my hand... not fun

FOOD

Hamburgers

Sheep man Pie

Calzones

The Madagascar Plague

Dear Family,

First of all, I apologize for not writing last week, its not that I just decided not to write... the power went out.  When the power goes out, its kinda hard to send you all an email.  I hear that school starts this week for all of you.  GOOD LUCK!  Enjoy your time at school, what a special time that is to learn and grow.  Summer just seemed like it flew by!  I know that it did for me. 

This week was just crazy!  On Monday night we went to our favorite investigators house and did a Family Home Evening with them.  We had a wonderful lesson about Jesus Christ and the influence he has on our lives if we apply the atonement.  The funniest parts of the night were the game that we played and the treats we brought.  We played whats called ankamantatra.  Which means riddles in Malagasy.  We all shared riddles, and Elder Obioma shared this "riddle"/game that stumped our investigators.  He put pieces of paper down and in no particular order said that because of the way the papers were, that meant 2.  Then he switched them and said, 3.  He switched them again to another pose and said, 2.  We were all dumbfounded.  He told the wife the secret, which gave it away for me as I watched her eyes.  He would move the papers around, but his fingers on the table were the indicartion of the number that he was trying to get at.  Michel, the husband, just could not figure it out to save his life and he studied the paper for about five minutes before Obioma told him what the secret was.  We all laughed.  Then we brought the cockroach bread (brownies)  We explained to them how we put the cockroaches in the bread and mixed it up.  Michel kind of did what all normal men would do and say, "are you serious?"  And Tina replied with "I am not eating that..."  Hahaha.  We had michel try a bite and he liked it, so he said, "are you not going to eat with us?"  Obioma quickly said, "we dont like cockroaches!"  hahahaha.  The wife gave some to her son and as he had it halfway in his mouth, she told him that there was cockroaches in it.  His eyes got big as he stopped all motion.  He then broke the piece of bread in half to search for the bug.  I was laughing so hard at this time and had to tell them that there was nothing in the bread. 

Work went real well this week.  I got to go on a split with an elder who has been here in Mada for about 6 months.  Stud at the language, thats for sure. 

We had some really cool experiences tracting this week.  We found people who either already knew about Joseph Smith and wanted to know more, or that had the question in thier head "how do I know what church is right?"  Just some awesome experiences.  Towards the end of the week, Elder Obioma started to come down with a real bad cold and cough.  He, of course, wouldnt let that stop him from working, so it sounded like his nose was plugged, which it was, the entirety of Fridaty and Saturday.  Sunday, we woke up to find that Elder Becker, the elder being trained in the house, was up all night with a 102 fever.  I took that opportunity to tell obioma to stay home and I went to work with stringfellow!  We had a great day until 6 when Becker texted us saying that it was getting worse and he needed a blessing.  His fever shot to 105 and we were at the hospital before you knew it.  He is doing better now.  Not good by any means.  Just helps me realize how fortunate I am to be in good health. 

I love this mission and I love the people that I am coming in contact with.   You are all in my prayers and just know that I love you so much. 

All my Love

Elder Herrin

Baptism!!

This is the game that Elder Obioma and I made for a member family.  We played it at a lesson we had with them and had the FUNNEST time.

The family and elder Obioma

Greatest Area in the World

Dear Family,

How was the first day of school??  How is the homework, back to the heat of it.  Something crazy to think about... I will be home during this school year... wow!!!!  Cant think like that though!  I hope that health is good.  I keep little Ethan in my prayers along with Briel and Gpa Herrin.  Hope theyre doin better.  My week was just great, as if they keep getting better and better.  I dont know how it happens, but it does. 

This week we found some of the coolest people to teach. 

There was this man that we talked to last week.  He is the President of the fokon tany.. I dont know how to translate that, sorry.  He is just a happy jolly guy.  The first time we talked to him, we left a pamphlet and asked him to read it and said that we would come back.  We came back and he had read the entire thing and had questions about "Joe Smiff"  hahahah.  He made sure that the entire family was there and listening.  We came back again for a second time this week.  And we started the lesson by reviewing the things that we had learned and he had his daughters answer who were no older than 10.  The man had taught his daughters from our small pamphlet!! We gave him a Book of Mormon and invited them to be baptized.  He had plenty of questions about that, but we helped him realize that we were going to give them time to learn and ask God before we put them under.  They accepted.  The wife said the closeing prayer and started to cry as she prayed.  She was filled with the spirit.  One of the coolest things on my mission yet.

We taught this other new investigator named Torix.  He is one of those classic people who is just ready to learn.  He has been asking questions to the soul.  He asked us to help him stop smoking almost 13 cigarettes a day... so he is a work in progress.  He just had to twin girls... a month old.  adorable! 

Our branch is doing great.  I just cant tell you how awesome this area is and if that wasnt enough, my zone is the bomb dot com.  Our mission pres is really pushin unity in the zones, aka zone activities.

Elder Obioma and I had a zone activity where we had a rap battle parody.  You will have to ask Luke to show you the rap battle parody on youtube, but we did just that.  It was soooo much fun and hilarious at the same time. 

I love you all so much.  Thanks for all your love and support.  I feel it from all the way across the world.

All My Love

Elder Herrin

Mud House

So the other day we went to build a house... out of mud that is.  Here are a couple of pictures that were taken.  We had to smash the mud with our feet first  (cold and painful cause there were rocks in the mud) then throw the mud up to the people piling it on... it was fun to say the least!  More to come!