Today is a great day. I hope that you have all had the opportunity to take a minute just to think about how great our lives really are. I sit here tonight on the beach. Literally, I am in Tamatave with my mission president sitting on the Indian Ocean talking about how great it is to have the gospel in our lives. I am so grateful for you and your love for me.
That Being said, this week was WAY hectic.
President was gone most of the week visiting missionaries in fort dauphin. We did a couple of things to pass the time... Hahaha. We went on a split with the zone leaders, elder Yeagley and elder Coleman! Two wonderful missionaries. I went out with elder yeagley and reminisced on old fort dauphin times. We taught some great lessons and I found out that the woman that I taught and baptized in his area is doing great and has a calling now. Nothing better for a missionary to hear than that. That was a great day. After that started the crazy hectickness.
On Wednesday we went to help move houses for a couple of the elders. They were moving from one house to the other which meant that three houses were involved because the one that they were moving out of, someone else moved into. So we started taking things down, and moving things from one house to the other. Almost an hour into it, the landlord of the new house called and told us that we could not move in... She wanted to the money in her hands before we moved in. We payed it through the bank. Of course. Soo we moved the elders to.... our house. This took us allll day long. Literally we finished up at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. By that time we had got stuck in traffic and had a little incident. Just a really long day for Elder Herrin and Elder Covey. It seemed like the night was never going to end. We ended up taking the six elders that were living with us to pick up food because they didnt have any (of course) and then back to our house. All while trying to keep things up in the office.
The next day was great. We got up and ran a couple of errands. We picked up a backpack for an elder, bought a mirror for one that we may or may have knocked off, and then got back to the office for a district meeting. I am just going to say that district meetings are the best. Every time I get the chance to attend one it just lifts me. Elder Morse, one of the district leaders in the South Zone gave a great lesson about goal setting. He talked about what type of goals we should be making and how we need to be keeping track of them. As I kind of challenged you all last week to make some goals, this meeting just was a testament to me that I need to make some goals. We walked downstairs to the office only to find my favorite sister woolley with a black eye. Turns out, earlier that morning she had her phone stolen by some random guy. He reached into her pocket as she was walking to her field where she does exercises and thought he was just going to grab an elderly womans phone and leave. He thought wrong. As he reached in, so did sister woolley. She didnt let go of the phone. As he realized that he was going to get a little resistance, he got close to her and shoved her to the ground. As the two hit the concrete steps, sister woolley did the only thing any good fighter would do. She bit his ear. "I bit him good" she told us. Right at the top of the ear, just like our friend Mike Tyson. Unfortunately, Elder Woolley was a tad too late, but that didnt stop him from trying to get the kid. Elder Woolley chased him until he too fell. Both great efforts, but the phone is gone. Soo later that evening we picked up President... he asked us if we held the fort together...
We kind of spent New Years Eve with he and sister Foote. It was a nice evening of chatting and talking about how great the mission is. A day later we took off to Tamatave.
We drove up early Saturday morning and showed up at noon. President did interviews with the missionaries the rest of the day. He is long winded... hahahah. Church was great the next day. We were able to attend two branches and then have a great meeting with all the leaders after. We talked about the growth of Tamatave and how we want it to become a stake. We talked about numbers and ideas and member work. I translated for president, not the easiest thing to do. After the meeting we went to pres. Pauls for dinner. We got to ear rice and laoka with pres and sis foote. What a fun night. For some reason, it seems like the fun always turns to a crazy thing here in Mada. We got back to our beds that night and got a call from president foote telling us that one of the missionaries needed to go to the hospital. We threw our clothes back on and got marcellin (the driver) to pick us and the sickly up. Got him to the hospital at 11 oclock and they didnt know anything. They asked him some questions and suggested some medicines that we pick up...oh malagasys. I stayed with the sick missionary that night while my comp went to the missionary house. While on thier way home, they hit a posy posy driver with two people in the posy posy. The people went flying and the posy posy went to pieces... they spent another hour plus taking people to the hospital (that we just came from) dealing with the drunken police and trying to make a deal with the posy posy driver on how much money we owed him. What a night.
The next day we got up and waited for Marcellin to deal with the police before we went up to a place called foul point. A beatiful beach that has white sand. We had a zone activity planned. We played beach volleyball and beach soccer. Way fun day.
Tonight, I sat on the beach of the Indian Ocean and talked about what the future holds and how confident my mission president is in my companion and I. He knows that if we live the gospel, if we continue to make great choices that no matter what we choose to do with our life, we will be successful. Nice to know that someone has that much confidence in me. I love being here on the mission. It is the greatest blessing in my life. I love being a missionary!
All my love
Elder Herrin
 |
| Elder covey and a cute kid |
 |
| The tamatave zone |
