Dia ahoana!!!

Well this week has been pretty full of fun and adventure.

 It all started on Thursday. We were out having a normal day and at our second time we were teaching a recent convert. She told us that the night before there had been a 13 year old girl kidnapped, held for ransom, and killed not very far from where we were and right in the middle of one of the missionary areas. We didn't think much of it because most of the people had already been caught, however that did explain all of the police/military we saw walking around with ak-47's. But we decided to call the Assistants to see if we should tell the elders working in that area to not go near there once it got dark. Elder Covey told me he was going to ask president and then call me back. About 1 minute later I get a call from a concerned Elder Covey that said, "Hey Glaze, we're going to need all of the missionaries in Tamatave to get into their houses and not come out the rest of today, tomorrow, and the next day you can leave in groups of 4 to 6 missionaries if you need to go out.

" Well that was not what I was expecting to hear... So Elder Glazier called all of the missionaries and told them to go home while Elder Rasmussen ended our lesson. We stayed home the rest of the day and found out from a few phone calls that there had been three other kidnappings/killings in the last couple weeks up here in the area. We just stayed home all day getting to know the missionaries we live with better. The next day we got up and acted like it was a normal day (got dressed and did studies like normal). At about 10 we called the Assistants to see what the news was about the lockdown and they told us we were allowed to leave our houses and do work like normal, but to be smart. And the the missionaries that work in the area where the kidnapping was couldn't work their area for a day so they went on splits.

 And that leads into the next crazy thing that happened.We got to take Elder Smithson with us. He is still being trained and is a great kid. But fun fact about Elder Smithson, he had open heart surgery 9 months ago... So while we were out working he started complaining that his chest hurt/ "felt funny". I didn't like the sound of that so we took his pulse after sitting for a good 20 or 30 minutes and it was about 105. That's really high for a resting pulse, so we made him call the mission nurse. She ended up calling the doctor in south africa, and a cardiologist in Salt Lake. They made Elder Smithson go get his blood tested to make sure he doesn't have an infection, and now he is on bedrest for 2 days and has to take like 20 pills a day. They think it is inflamation from the push-ups he has been doing lately, so needless to say he can't do push-ups anymore either. So it was a really exciting two days!

We'll end on a spiritual note. So last Sunday we had this random lady show up to church and she brought her son. Her son had all of these really painful looking sores all over his body and just looked like he was in terrible pain. He couldn't even wear pants so his mom had him in a little skirt (which she was kind enough to lift up so we could see how bad the infection was)... They sat through all of sacrament meeting, and afterwards asked our branch president to give her son a blessing. So we gave him a blessing along with the branch president and his first counselor. The spirit was there so strong and I just had this really peaceful feeling when the first counselor blessed him to be healed. They said they have tried everything and taken him to doctors and gotten him medicine, but they can't afford it anymore. I could see this sweet little lady's faith that these two humble Malagasy men and the two white guys could put their hands on her sons head and heal him. It was so cool! Then yesterday they came to church and all of the sores that were covering his whole body had become pink spots that were healing well. He was also wearing pants and looked like he wasn't in very much pain at all. I know that the priesthood is real and that if we will put our faith in God and do all that we can he will make up for the rest. I am also so greatful for the priesthood and the trust that God puts in us His imperfect children to hold it. I am so grateful that I was worthy to participate in this amazing miracle and I know that as we are worthy and try to magnify our callings and keep the commandments we can be an instrument in God's hands and he will work miracles in other's lives through us.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Glazier