FIANARANTSOA WEEK 5 (November 2 2014)

This week was awesome!

 We had the zone leaders come on Wednesday night so on Thursday one of them went on a split with me and Elder Garcia. It was way nice to get to see how somebody else interacts with the people and teaches. And then Thursday night the AP's got here. On Friday Elder Weber (he says it Webber), one of the zone leaders, went on a split with us. And Friday Elder Fox, the other AP, went with us. So we had three days in a row of having another elder with us on a split. I learned so much from all of them! I really want to try to be a lot more friendly to everyone and just having a smile on my face. I'm here preaching the filazantsara (fee-luh-zon-tsah-rah) wich means gospel, but it literally translates to good news. I'm preaching the good news and that is something to be happy about. I need to teach with excitement and with a smile. 

And then on Saturday and Sunday we finally got to watch conference! It was sooooo good! I have never been so excited for conference in my entire life! Having to wait an extra month was so hard and just made the anticipation build! But it was so good to finally get to hear the voice of the prophets and apostles! I know for sure they are called of God! I felt the spirit so strongly listening to their words and I know that they are inspired and receive revelation for all of us. We need to listen to their words and apply them in our lives. It does us no good to have a living prophet if we don't give heed to his counsel. We all have things we can work on and we all have things we can learn from conference. The conference Ensign should be coming out right about now. I'd challenge you to go through and read the talks again and to pick at least one thing that you are going to change and do better because of the words that were spoken.

Our district has a baptism planned this saturday the 8th and we were super excited about it because we had 4 people we were hoping were going to get baptized. There was one couple who was just waiting for their legal marriage to go through because here it's really hard to get legally married so everyone just gets what they call "fomba gasy" (foom-ba gas) which just means they're married and they have a big party and stuff like a wedding, but they just aren't legally married. So they were supposed to be done with that last week but the papers didn't end up coming so they have to wait until the 22nd to be baptized. And then we had another couple that is a boyfriend and girlfriend that were ready, but when they did their baptismal interviews they said they wanted some more time. They had been living the law of chastity for the last month but they just wanted a little more time to feel like they had totally repented so they are waiting until the 22nd as well.  So that was good to hear that they are taking this seriously and recognize that this is a big commitment. But I was pretty disappointed about the legal marriage one because they are so ready for baptism. They both know it is true and are more than willing to live it! So we don't have any baptisms this week anymore, but we should have quite a few on the 22nd! We have quite a few investigators with the 22nd as their goal for baptism so hopefully they will continue preparing well!

That's about all that has happened this week.

 Oh, our first transfer is next week. I'll still be with Elder Garcia because I'm being trained. But our area will be splitting and we'll be moving to a new house so I'll keep you updated on that.

The word of the week this week is Mpaminany (mpaw-me-nah-nee). the "m" at the beginning is really short and quiet. It means prophet. I'm sure you can guess why I chose this as my word of the week. I just loved conference so much and I'm so grateful for the living prophet that leads the church today!

Fantatro fa marina Ny Fiangonan'i Jesoa Kristy ho an'ny Olomasin'ny Andro Farany. Fantatro fa marina Ny Bokin'i Mormona. Raha te-hahafantatra ianao ny fahamarinana azy dia tsy mainsty hangataka amin'Adriamanitra. Tsy misy ny fomba hafa afaka ahafantarantsika ny fahamarinana. Fantatro fa ny mpaminany velona i Thomas S. Monson, mila manarika ny teniny isika. Raha manao izany isika, hiverina amin'Adriamanitra. Amin'ny anaran'i Jesoa Kristy, amena.

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true. I know that The Book of Mormon is true. If you want to know the truth of it you must ask God. There is no other way we can know the truth. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet. We need to follow his words. If we do that we will return to God. In the name of Jesus Christ,   amen.