This is My comp Elder Stringfellow and me.
The MTC is AMAZING!!! I have learned so much in the last week! It is really really hard, and a little bit stressful because we are so busy. We're in our classroom for 8-12 hours a day studying the language and the gospel! We taught our first investigator in Malagasy the second day we were here and have taught him everyday since except for sunday and today. (we found out on monday that he's really our teacher) His name is Rakoto Jean (ra-koo-too John) as an investigator. Starting this week we weren't allowed to take any notes with us which is insane and a little bit intimidating, but it makes us rely a lot on ny fanahy masina (fan- I mos-een-a) (the Holy Ghost) which is great! I feel the spirit so strongly when we prepare to teach him and pray about him. And when we teach him I know that we were inspired. Also, since we have stopped using notes and starting relying on ny fanahy masina more we understand a lot more of what Rakoto is telling us and what his needs are and we are able to communicate back with him. I know for a fact that the gift of tongues is real. There is absolutely no other way we could have learned what we have learned in a single week. We challenged him to be baptized yesterday and he accepted our invitation!!!! We were freaking out!!! We are the only ones in the district that have gotten him to accept the invitation.
I had elder Stringfellow email me the pics of our district so here they are. It goes left to right: Liao, Nelson, Kelsh, Kooley, Evans, Snell, Mac, Price, Godfrey, Me, Stringfellow, Tiu. You can ignore elder stringfellows nametag... I don't know how to take it off. haha and then there is me and Elder stringfellow in front of the temple on our sunday temple walk.
The MTC is AMAZING!!! I have learned so much in the last week! It is really really hard, and a little bit stressful because we are so busy. We're in our classroom for 8-12 hours a day studying the language and the gospel! We taught our first investigator in Malagasy the second day we were here and have taught him everyday since except for sunday and today. (we found out on monday that he's really our teacher) His name is Rakoto Jean (ra-koo-too John) as an investigator. Starting this week we weren't allowed to take any notes with us which is insane and a little bit intimidating, but it makes us rely a lot on ny fanahy masina (fan- I mos-een-a) (the Holy Ghost) which is great! I feel the spirit so strongly when we prepare to teach him and pray about him. And when we teach him I know that we were inspired. Also, since we have stopped using notes and starting relying on ny fanahy masina more we understand a lot more of what Rakoto is telling us and what his needs are and we are able to communicate back with him. I know for a fact that the gift of tongues is real. There is absolutely no other way we could have learned what we have learned in a single week. We challenged him to be baptized yesterday and he accepted our invitation!!!! We were freaking out!!! We are the only ones in the district that have gotten him to accept the invitation.
The food here is okay. I don't know why everyone says it's so good. It just seems like it's all mass produced (which it is). But that's okay, it's definitely not bad. I haven't really gained any weight. I weighed myself yesterday and I was still 158 so that's good.
My companion is Elder Stringfellow and I know that God picked him as my companion. We get along perfectly! We are both picking up on the language pretty well and we work really well together. A lot of the other elders in our district (12 missionaries going to Madagascar) have a hard time staying focused on studying when the teachers are gone, but Elder Stringfellow and I both want to study and learn when it's time to do that so that makes it really nice. I really like all of the guys in my district though. Our district leader is Elder Mac and he is so nice! He is half Hawaiian but he doesn't really have the hawaiian build. He is the nicest kid you could ever meet though and everyone likes him. He is super good at Malagasy and he's super spiritual too.
The Malagasy is coming along pretty well. I feel like whoever invented the language tried to keep it really simple as far as grammar rules go. It's still learning a new language so there is lots of memorizing, but the rules all just seem to make sense for the most part. The one thing that took a little bit of getting used to and that is going to confuse me for a little while is that the sentence structure is Verb-Object-Subject. So instead of saying I know The Book of Mormon is true you would say Know true The Book of Mormon I. So that takes some getting used to. haha and when i speak it I kind of feel like I'm just saying mananamamaoomanaka. haha
I've been working a lot on faith this week. When we first got here I was relying a lot on myself and my own abilities and the learning was coming okay, and our lessons were a little dry. So I started focusing a lot on faith and just trusting in God. As I have had greater faith I have also started to understand the language a lot better and I feel like I have made leaps and bounds in my teaching abilities. We spend a lot of time in language study which doesn't leave a lot of time for gospel study which is kind of a bummer. I'm super grateful that I went to mission prep and learned about missionary work and knew about the gospel before I got here because I would really be struggling if I hadn't.
Well, I'm about out of time on the computer, so I'll end with a testimony.
Fantatro fa marina ny Bokin'i Mormona. Fantatro fa mpaminany marina i Joseph smith. Fantatro fa mpaminany velona i Thomas S. Monson. Fantatro fa ny mpamonjy i Jesoa Kristy. Fantatro fa marina ny filazantsara. Amin'ny anarani Jesoa Kristy, Amena.
I know that The Book of Mormon is true. I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior. I know that the gospel is true. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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