Hey,
Man I am so happy that your getting back to scrapbooking. That is to you, what piano is to me. Dont ever quit, the pages look awesome. I hope you liked the pics. So I appologize, I have a ton of awesome pics, but the computer wont read them so I cant send any this week. I am way sorry. But It was so great to get a pic of you and kacee. And a picture of Kacee actually smilling.
Haha but congrats of the first paycheck. I hope that the texas roadhouse was as delicious as ever. Thanks also for getting people to send me some letters. That will be very exciting to get. I am also excited for the package. I dont really NEED anything;
But the last packages were awesome. So ya, feel free to use your creativity. I really did love the taco seasoning packets, and the stuffing. Also any hamburger helper would be cool. I can get hamburger for way cheap here. Basically food stuff. And lots and lots of pictures. I love the pics. So any update of the college things ? I was figuring I would have to wait anyway because I still have a metal plate in my arm that needs to be taken out when I get home. So I will probably need a week or two before I can even use that arm again. But ya. That will be fun.
It sounds like things are going good. It is always great to have friends in the mafia. Lucky. Haha and I am thrilled to hear that Kassi is liking young womens and that josh is doing so good.
Well things are going very good up here. Elder *** is sticking things through. He is starting to get some of the Malagasy down. I took him on splits this week and he was able to pray in malagast and even bear his testimony. He is doing very very good. I think that in a couple months he will be shocked at how well he is. Haha plus the branch has taken it upon themselves to teach him Malagasy, so they are always quizzing him with words. Haha he will get it.
So this week we had a little cyclone come through. It wasnt anything big to cause damage. Just a ton of rain. Holy rain. I have never seen so much rain in my life. I couldnt tell from what direction it was coming. It is normally super super hot here. But I was freezing freezing cold this entire week. I hate the cold now.
Haha so I dont know if you ever remember me talking about ***. He is an investigator that we have that is just awesome. Well the problem is, is that he cant be baptised because his wife doesnt want to go through with the vita soratra, and she wont learn with us. Other than that he is ready to be baptised. Well we have been praying that his wifes heart would be softened for about a month now. Haha and well, God answers prayers, but not how you always expect them. So he has been trying to get her to come to church and learn with us, ever since we have started learning. But it has just been making him frusterated, because she wont learn. So he has been getting mad at her. Well just yesterday we went over there to teach them, and we started talking to the wife . Normally she talks with us for a bit, and then runs off. But this time she started to open up. Haha but not how we expected. Haha So I asked the guy how he has been doing trying to get rid of the cigaretts and he said that they are not a problem anymore. Well she said, I wish you could take care of his anger though, because he is just getting worse. Then she started to say how every time he goes to church or reads the book of mormon he turns into the biggest jerk to her, and is always yelling at her so she figured that the church was bad because it was just making him an angry man. Then he started to get angry and yell at her telling her the reason he gets mad is because he knows that it is true but she wont give it a chance, and then they just both started screaming at eachother. Me and my companion just sat there stuck in the middle of it. But it was a very good thing. That anger had been building up for over a month now, and they finally let it out. Once they got done yelling and saying everything they wanted to say, then we came in and taught how important communication was in a relationship. And if you are not telling someone you have a problem with them, they will never know. We also talked about how no relationship is perfect. You have to strive for the perfection. Then we had them both think of something that they could do to make the relationship go. And the wife agreed to learn from us, and to come to church. I was so excited and happy for them. It was definately not what I was expecting but it was definately progress and the next step for not only fransis to be baptised, but for his family to be baptised. I was so happy. Plus I learned a lesson that I needed to see, and that is the importance of communication.
So we also had a baptism this week. We had 9 people from the branch get baptised 3 were from my area. One of them was my favorite investigator from up here *****. It was so cool to see her finally get baptised. She has waited for so long. And she is so ready. It was so cool to see her make that progress. Also on the way down to the ocean, we saw a lemur !!! IT was so stinking cute. I got a ton of pics of it, so next week I will send them to you. The baptism was interesting. Due to the cyclone we were afraid the weather would not hold for the baptism. But after a ton of prayers the weather cleared up on sat. Well the skies were blue, but the ocean was still wild. There were HUGE waves. We were nervous about doing the baptism, and almost didnt do it, but the people insisted. So we started. First there was a little 9 year old boy that I baptised. I was way nervous that he would be too scared, but he came straight into the water. Well the waves were a good 6 to 7 feet tall. So we had to have 4 people sit and hold us down. Then each time we would try to do the ordinance a wave would wipe us out. We had to try 3 times to baptise him. But the kid was stinking brave. He thought it was fun. Well *** is sitting on the beach watching us get smacked to pieces and when it was her turn she came straight into the water, not even second guessing the waves. She didnt even seem to notice. It reminded me of the scripture in D&C Never fear to do good. I loved the baptism. It was very tiring though. By the time we were finished with all of them I was shaking I was so tired. Some of the people we had to baptise 5 times before it was good. Holy cow. The waves just seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. But To our suprise not a single person was scared or wanted to wait until another day. Haha I just remember the look on the face of the last girl that got baptised. She had seen 8 people before her go and struggle through the waves to get baptised, haha and when it was her turn she scrunchted up her face and literaly marched into the ocean. Haha it reminded me of the 2000 stripling warriors. No doubt, no fear . Just ready to push forward. All 8 of them came out of that water with smiling faces and beaming glows. There testimonies the next day reflected their joy and the peace that they felt inside. It was a beautiful baptism. It was tough, but oh so worth it.
I have a ton of pictures for you. I will try to send them next week though. The internet isnt working well again today.
Stay strong, press forward with faith. Dont fear the waves of the world. Also if you have time Read 2 nephi chapters 7&8 and just think about how people are angry with the churches stances today. I was shocked out how relevant the chapters were for our day. They are Issaiah Chapters but they are actually pretty clear. Dont follow your own fire, or morals, but follow the prophet. He never changes.
Love you,
Elder madsen
Monday, February 21, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Letter to Dad this week 2/14/2011
Jeff's letter:
Hey, How's it going? I watched a show on the travel channel the other night about this guy who travels all over the world to eat strange food. This one that I watched, he was in a little town just south of where you are. It was unreal to see some of the crap (and I use the word loosely) those people are eating. They were eating a fried beetle that are poisonous and sting the hell out of the people gathering them. They fried them up and ate them like potato chips. This guy said this was the only food in Madagascar that he thought was good. He said everything else was disgusting. They also showed a ceremony where this 5 year old boy was being circumsized because that is when they do it and the entire village shows up to watch and have a huge feast. The poor kid was awake through the whole thing and it took 4 men to hold him down while some old guy with a rusty knife got the job done. Then the grandpa has to eat the foreskin. They didn't fry it up in garlic butter or anything!!!!!!!!! Then they kill a zebu and cut out all the guts and only the immediate family get's to eat the guts while the rest of the village has to choke down the prime cuts off the zebu. It was funny as hell watching this poor guy eating the guts. He was telling his guide that he would rather have a hind quarter or something, but they told him only the peasants eat that gross meat.
Then they went out fishing out of Maha janga and caught a bunch of fish. instead of coming back and cooking up the fish, they gutted them and cooked all the guts for dinner and sold the rest of the fish at the market. It was hilarious to watch this poor guy. But the one guy caught a 50 pound mackarel and the whole village took turns dancing with the fish before they ate the guts. There sure isn't a lot of bra's in that country is there? I was thinking of coming over there and starting a VICTORIA'S SECRET, but I don't think it would fly real big.
So, now that I had my fun, how's things going for you? I talk to the *** every week at church. They even bring pictures of you and show me. Elder *** sure likes you. They said that he will miss you a lot when he leaves. He doesn't want to leave, but at the same time he is very excited to come home. If I had to eat the crap I saw on T.V. I would be wanted to come home. I can't to go over there some time though. I think we could have a ball. (literally) After mom watched that show I don't think she will want to go.
Kassi got contacts this week. She sure looks better with them than glasses. She is probably the most popular kid in school' but she sure has a lot of homework. It sure gets her frustated some days. Josh has never brought homework home and has all A's. Mom thinks he's cheating or something because the teachers all say that he is the best student they have. He is just naturally smart!! I better finish up here at work and go home. Have a good week. Love ya lots, the old man
Bug's response:
Hey,
hahaha that is funny how true that show sounds. The circumcision you saw is called a didipoatra. Haha there are some native Elders here that can remember theirs very vividally. That is the last thing on my list of malagasy traditions that I need to see. But ya everything is very true. And that isnt just the little towns they do that pretty much everywhere here. My first relief society presidents kid got it done the weekend before I got there so I missed it. Haha but they make the poor boys wear dresses for the next two weeks after the didipoatra to let it heal but I think it just scars the kids for life. There was actually a missionary that got offered to eat the forskin off the banana. Haha yumm. Also what they do is when the kid is freshly snipped they tie him to the back of his naked grandma and she does a dance completely toppless with the kid screaming and bleeding all over her. Hahaha if you could see how big off a pain in the butt that these kids are you would see that they only have it coming. Haha. That is cool about the fishing, because Mahajanga is the town that I am in right now. And holy cow do they have big fish. When you order fish here at a resturaunt it comes with the entire head staring back at you. Haha but man the fish is darn good up here. I also ate shard this last week. Oh wow that is some good stuff. They masacre the sharks and stingrays here. You see so many in the market. I saw one that was about 4 feet long the other day, but I didnt have my camera.
Things are going very good here. We have another baptism on this Sat. I am way excited for the lady that is getting baptised. She has come along ways. She used to do alot of really really bad things, but she has completely changed her life around and is a new person. It was way sad. She was in a relationship with a married man, who was paying her for the affair. Well she cut it off, but as soon as she did that her family disowned her because they found out that she was getting baptised. She was still staying positive, but then all of the tomatoes that she sells got stolen, so she had no money to buy new ones to sell, her family wouldnt support her and she cut off the guy. We didnt find out until it was later, but she went 5 days with only drinking hot water. When she told us she was in tears. It was so difficult because we are not allowed to give people money. Well I asked her if she had asked God for help. She said that she had been praying for strength every day. But when I asked if she had actually prayed to get more tomatoes she said no, she felt like she wasnt worthy. I told her that if she needed a blessing she had to ask. I promised her it would come. Well I am so glad I didnt give her money, because that night she prayed, and the next day a guy saw her and gave her an advance on some tomatoes to sell, and now her little street side stand is doing great. If I would have paid her I would have ruined that faith growing experience. Funny how things work. But I have been way impressed with her faith. She refuses to work on sunday, she keeps coming to church, even though her family is just evil to her, and the guy she left has come back to her twice offering her tons of money if she would come back. But she turned him down, this is when she had gone five days without food. I am so humbled at her faith. I cant believe it.
But ya *** goes home in like 3 weeks. He is a way cool guy. This area loved him. He is gone back to Tana now though. But ya. I hope that things are going good. Things are great here. Well I love your gutts,
Elder Madsen
Tia Ko Be
Mandrakisay Ny Fianikavianstika
Hey, How's it going? I watched a show on the travel channel the other night about this guy who travels all over the world to eat strange food. This one that I watched, he was in a little town just south of where you are. It was unreal to see some of the crap (and I use the word loosely) those people are eating. They were eating a fried beetle that are poisonous and sting the hell out of the people gathering them. They fried them up and ate them like potato chips. This guy said this was the only food in Madagascar that he thought was good. He said everything else was disgusting. They also showed a ceremony where this 5 year old boy was being circumsized because that is when they do it and the entire village shows up to watch and have a huge feast. The poor kid was awake through the whole thing and it took 4 men to hold him down while some old guy with a rusty knife got the job done. Then the grandpa has to eat the foreskin. They didn't fry it up in garlic butter or anything!!!!!!!!! Then they kill a zebu and cut out all the guts and only the immediate family get's to eat the guts while the rest of the village has to choke down the prime cuts off the zebu. It was funny as hell watching this poor guy eating the guts. He was telling his guide that he would rather have a hind quarter or something, but they told him only the peasants eat that gross meat.
Then they went out fishing out of Maha janga and caught a bunch of fish. instead of coming back and cooking up the fish, they gutted them and cooked all the guts for dinner and sold the rest of the fish at the market. It was hilarious to watch this poor guy. But the one guy caught a 50 pound mackarel and the whole village took turns dancing with the fish before they ate the guts. There sure isn't a lot of bra's in that country is there? I was thinking of coming over there and starting a VICTORIA'S SECRET, but I don't think it would fly real big.
So, now that I had my fun, how's things going for you? I talk to the *** every week at church. They even bring pictures of you and show me. Elder *** sure likes you. They said that he will miss you a lot when he leaves. He doesn't want to leave, but at the same time he is very excited to come home. If I had to eat the crap I saw on T.V. I would be wanted to come home. I can't to go over there some time though. I think we could have a ball. (literally) After mom watched that show I don't think she will want to go.
Kassi got contacts this week. She sure looks better with them than glasses. She is probably the most popular kid in school' but she sure has a lot of homework. It sure gets her frustated some days. Josh has never brought homework home and has all A's. Mom thinks he's cheating or something because the teachers all say that he is the best student they have. He is just naturally smart!! I better finish up here at work and go home. Have a good week. Love ya lots, the old man
Bug's response:
Hey,
hahaha that is funny how true that show sounds. The circumcision you saw is called a didipoatra. Haha there are some native Elders here that can remember theirs very vividally. That is the last thing on my list of malagasy traditions that I need to see. But ya everything is very true. And that isnt just the little towns they do that pretty much everywhere here. My first relief society presidents kid got it done the weekend before I got there so I missed it. Haha but they make the poor boys wear dresses for the next two weeks after the didipoatra to let it heal but I think it just scars the kids for life. There was actually a missionary that got offered to eat the forskin off the banana. Haha yumm. Also what they do is when the kid is freshly snipped they tie him to the back of his naked grandma and she does a dance completely toppless with the kid screaming and bleeding all over her. Hahaha if you could see how big off a pain in the butt that these kids are you would see that they only have it coming. Haha. That is cool about the fishing, because Mahajanga is the town that I am in right now. And holy cow do they have big fish. When you order fish here at a resturaunt it comes with the entire head staring back at you. Haha but man the fish is darn good up here. I also ate shard this last week. Oh wow that is some good stuff. They masacre the sharks and stingrays here. You see so many in the market. I saw one that was about 4 feet long the other day, but I didnt have my camera.
Things are going very good here. We have another baptism on this Sat. I am way excited for the lady that is getting baptised. She has come along ways. She used to do alot of really really bad things, but she has completely changed her life around and is a new person. It was way sad. She was in a relationship with a married man, who was paying her for the affair. Well she cut it off, but as soon as she did that her family disowned her because they found out that she was getting baptised. She was still staying positive, but then all of the tomatoes that she sells got stolen, so she had no money to buy new ones to sell, her family wouldnt support her and she cut off the guy. We didnt find out until it was later, but she went 5 days with only drinking hot water. When she told us she was in tears. It was so difficult because we are not allowed to give people money. Well I asked her if she had asked God for help. She said that she had been praying for strength every day. But when I asked if she had actually prayed to get more tomatoes she said no, she felt like she wasnt worthy. I told her that if she needed a blessing she had to ask. I promised her it would come. Well I am so glad I didnt give her money, because that night she prayed, and the next day a guy saw her and gave her an advance on some tomatoes to sell, and now her little street side stand is doing great. If I would have paid her I would have ruined that faith growing experience. Funny how things work. But I have been way impressed with her faith. She refuses to work on sunday, she keeps coming to church, even though her family is just evil to her, and the guy she left has come back to her twice offering her tons of money if she would come back. But she turned him down, this is when she had gone five days without food. I am so humbled at her faith. I cant believe it.
But ya *** goes home in like 3 weeks. He is a way cool guy. This area loved him. He is gone back to Tana now though. But ya. I hope that things are going good. Things are great here. Well I love your gutts,
Elder Madsen
Tia Ko Be
Mandrakisay Ny Fianikavianstika
Update for Bug
I haven't been sharing the last few months letters with the blog because of some personal family issues that we have been dealing with and felt it was inappropriate to post them here as the attention has been focused alot on it during the letters.
This week I asked Bug to share some things to post here and will continue to do so for the rest of his mission.
First thing I asked for was a list of the companions, areas and time of where he has been and have posted that on the side menu here along with an address to send letters and packages. Send anything to the mission home address and then they deliver them to him about once a month in his area of Mahajanga.
Most of you ask about his arm and the surgery and bone graph and how it is healing. His words now are to quit worrying, he just got an upgrade. He is doing great and the arm is healing just fine.
He loves his area and seems really enjoying the tranquility of Mahajanga. When I asked what he has learned he says there is way to much for words in an email, but, I can tell you that he has learned how strong he is, how much he loves the gospel and charity. He has learned the other side of racism and is more determined than ever to help stop racism in the world. People are God's children, all of us.
One of the hardest things that he has learned is free agency. Though it is an amazing thing it is also one of the hardest things for us to accept others have when we want to share what we think is truth. We can only plant the seed, and show by example and stand by what we believe in.
His favorite food in Madagascar is called Ravitoto. It is mashed up leaves. haha. Or a food that is called vorvorkena. It is the sack in a cow where the cud goes.
So far this is what he has to say about the areas that have been his most memorable:
I would say that Ankorondrano has been the most memorable, because it is where I saw so much success that came from obedience. It is where I have felt the best about myself, and where I have connected the most with members. Or I would say Mahajanga, because the work is also going very well, and it is absolutely beautiful up here. There is so much to see, and to eat... if you like rice.
and then..here is more of questions I asked:
A typical schedual is wake up at 6 30 and then go out to work from 8 until 12 eat study and go back out to work at 3 until 9 30 bed by 10 30 and then repeat. We normally go tracting but only for like an hour right now we are teaching too many people to go tracting.
I miss the food the most at home. And how easy it is to get milk. and bathtubs.
Hahaha I cant name just one thing that I have learned so far. Way too much.
Sneaky question number eight is, dont worry all my clothes are fine you dont need to send anything.
Right now we are teaching about 30 people. 24 of them came to church last sunday. 25 of them have a bap date. and 114 people came to church yesterday.
This area has only been open for a year. THe amount of people has quadrupled since AUG.
The churches are not quite the same as what you have back home. We pray in an old apartment where the walls have been knocked out. It is the upstairs only. We dont have enough room in the building anymore for all the people so we are currently looking for another church.
Pdays we normally email, and then look around the little street stands for cool pointless stuff, and then eat and sometimes go to the beach. Then in the evenings we have a FHE with someone and then when that is done we get shishkabobs by the beach. Haha nice right?
For a package I would like any nice food stuff. More taco seasonings, fake potatos MORE STUFFING, and like just add water meals. They are very nice for sundays when I have forgotten to buy something the night before. Plus the koolade things are very good that you have sent. Ya pretty much food. That will be good. I love food. Also if you can a shaving razor. Just a hand one will work. The way the mail works in my area is they hold it for me in tana until someone comes up, and then they just send it up with them. So ya just send it when you can, and I will get it just fine.
We have another baptism coming up on this Sat. I sent dad a story about one of the girls getting baptised. Due to lack of time I will just have you read that one. Haha thanks for the song. hahaha I loved it. Listened to it like five times in a row. So heard you saw a special on malagasy food. Haha you excited to try some of my cooking??? ahaha. (I will post the letter to his dad in another post)
Thanks for keeping up with him, for your constant prayers and love.
Tia Ko Be
Mandrakisay Ny Fianikavianstika
This week I asked Bug to share some things to post here and will continue to do so for the rest of his mission.
First thing I asked for was a list of the companions, areas and time of where he has been and have posted that on the side menu here along with an address to send letters and packages. Send anything to the mission home address and then they deliver them to him about once a month in his area of Mahajanga.
Most of you ask about his arm and the surgery and bone graph and how it is healing. His words now are to quit worrying, he just got an upgrade. He is doing great and the arm is healing just fine.
He loves his area and seems really enjoying the tranquility of Mahajanga. When I asked what he has learned he says there is way to much for words in an email, but, I can tell you that he has learned how strong he is, how much he loves the gospel and charity. He has learned the other side of racism and is more determined than ever to help stop racism in the world. People are God's children, all of us.
One of the hardest things that he has learned is free agency. Though it is an amazing thing it is also one of the hardest things for us to accept others have when we want to share what we think is truth. We can only plant the seed, and show by example and stand by what we believe in.
His favorite food in Madagascar is called Ravitoto. It is mashed up leaves. haha. Or a food that is called vorvorkena. It is the sack in a cow where the cud goes.
So far this is what he has to say about the areas that have been his most memorable:
I would say that Ankorondrano has been the most memorable, because it is where I saw so much success that came from obedience. It is where I have felt the best about myself, and where I have connected the most with members. Or I would say Mahajanga, because the work is also going very well, and it is absolutely beautiful up here. There is so much to see, and to eat... if you like rice.
and then..here is more of questions I asked:
A typical schedual is wake up at 6 30 and then go out to work from 8 until 12 eat study and go back out to work at 3 until 9 30 bed by 10 30 and then repeat. We normally go tracting but only for like an hour right now we are teaching too many people to go tracting.
I miss the food the most at home. And how easy it is to get milk. and bathtubs.
Hahaha I cant name just one thing that I have learned so far. Way too much.
Sneaky question number eight is, dont worry all my clothes are fine you dont need to send anything.
Right now we are teaching about 30 people. 24 of them came to church last sunday. 25 of them have a bap date. and 114 people came to church yesterday.
This area has only been open for a year. THe amount of people has quadrupled since AUG.
The churches are not quite the same as what you have back home. We pray in an old apartment where the walls have been knocked out. It is the upstairs only. We dont have enough room in the building anymore for all the people so we are currently looking for another church.
Pdays we normally email, and then look around the little street stands for cool pointless stuff, and then eat and sometimes go to the beach. Then in the evenings we have a FHE with someone and then when that is done we get shishkabobs by the beach. Haha nice right?
For a package I would like any nice food stuff. More taco seasonings, fake potatos MORE STUFFING, and like just add water meals. They are very nice for sundays when I have forgotten to buy something the night before. Plus the koolade things are very good that you have sent. Ya pretty much food. That will be good. I love food. Also if you can a shaving razor. Just a hand one will work. The way the mail works in my area is they hold it for me in tana until someone comes up, and then they just send it up with them. So ya just send it when you can, and I will get it just fine.
We have another baptism coming up on this Sat. I sent dad a story about one of the girls getting baptised. Due to lack of time I will just have you read that one. Haha thanks for the song. hahaha I loved it. Listened to it like five times in a row. So heard you saw a special on malagasy food. Haha you excited to try some of my cooking??? ahaha. (I will post the letter to his dad in another post)
Thanks for keeping up with him, for your constant prayers and love.
Tia Ko Be
Mandrakisay Ny Fianikavianstika
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Trying to update
I am trying to get caught up here on Bug's blog, so might be quite a bit of activity the next couple of weeks getting everything on there. I have added a slide show with some photos and will update them more with all that we have this week as well.
Enjoy and thanks for supporting Bug!
Tia Ko Be
Mandrakisay Ny Fianikavianstika
Enjoy and thanks for supporting Bug!
Tia Ko Be
Mandrakisay Ny Fianikavianstika
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