Email from 3/29/2010

So first off they dont have an American keyboard here so wow this is difficult hahaha. But ya I am here and I love it!!! My trainers name is****** and my area is called mahamasina. It is like the center of antananarivo. I love the area, the ward, and mostly the people. It is so humbling here to see the people and to teach them. The majority of people that I teach, 90% live in little shacks that are about 8 feet by 8 feet. I have tons of pictures but I am still trying to figure out how to put them on the computer I will figure it out though. Haha ok there is so much to tell you I am not quite sure where to start. uummm lets see my compainion is a stud!! he is a native from Tamatava, and he is super smart! things that i have learned about madagascar so far is that it is not for the germafobe. haha there are cockroaches the size of mice, mice the size of kittens, and spiders as big as the palm of my hand. we do have a chameleon that lives in our flower bed!!! I have named him howey and i see him every once in a while when I leave in the mornings. So the language is very difficult to understand because they speak it very fast: Everyone here says that I am Mahay Be at the language though haha Which means very capable haha but I can only understand about 3% of what they say. But luckily they are able to understand me most of the time. So already we had a baptism last sat his name is ****. It was wonderful to watch him. Our church looks like an apartment building and so it was very different at first, but it was very cool because even though the building was different the message was just the same and the spirit was just as strong if not even stronger. So tell kc that she should be very jealous because there are tons of cute kids here, and they see the white guy and come swarming; hahaha they all want to duna pound it haha and always say bonjour vazaha haha vazaha means foriegner and i hear it about 50 times a day at least; so let me tell you about some of my investigators I am so humbled by this people their faith is so strong!! There is a family the dads name is ***** and the moms name is *****. they want to be baptized so bad and will be in 2 months but they have to wait to get vita soratra. which means they have to wait to get the papers to become legaly wed. so they are saving up to throw a little party. I love them so much!! there is another lady in our ward named Tolise. She had been saving up money for 4 years so that her and her husband could go through the temple, and be sealed together. Well the tragic thing is, is that her husband died 8 months ago. But she knew that she still needed to goso that she could get her endowments done, and so she was able to go last week! she said that she could feel her husband by her side the whole time!! Man the people here are awesome they are so humbling! I am so ashamed at how selfish I have been in the past. The people here are so amazing even though they have nothing, and live in a tiny house that is the size of a little shed, they are still happy!! They have eachother ane that is all that matters, so people have asked me if I have had culture shock, and I say no have not had culture shock I have had culture awakening! I have come to see what really matters in this life, and the faith that people have, and the amount of work people go through. Our church is a very good distance away from our area, about 5 miles, but people take the walk each sunday and are there in spotless clothes. It is so cool too the people want to hear the message we share so badly; we had 3 different people co,e up and ask us if we could teach them all within less than 4 minutes! We have so many investigators right now we dont have enough time to teach them all. Also there are families that give us all that they have to feed us. I am so touched by their love and compassion the relief society presidents name is **** and she cooked the best food ever. It was noodles and some green peppers in them. The food is actually really good here, there is a TON of rice like every single meal, but it is very good. And they have tons of crazy fruits here. I forget the name but there is one that looks like an artichoke and the inside is filled with a yogurt looking like thing. It is crazy good! Well I am out of time, I will try to figure out the pics for next time because they are very cool, if not I zill just make a cd and mail them to you! Realkl quick haha so a member was putting extensions in the other day all she was doing was braiding it in!
*well love your guts gotta go out of ti,e*love you*
elder madsen