Week Two Already

This week went by so fast. It was a little bit discouraging, but we had some success. First off we are teaching a guy named Genot. He is 29 years old and is a total stud. Elder Rigby found him when he was teaching another guy. As he was teaching a few of the guys friends walked in, Genot was one of them. The ygave him there number and didn't think to much about it. The day that I arrived in Madagascar Genot called Elder Rigby and wanted to know more. He is a very smart guy and can speak english very well. This is very helpful to me. Any way, we teach him and he is eating up what we are saying. During the second lesson we are talking about the plan of salvation. He loves the plan of salvation and has tons of great questions. So towards the end of the lesson I get the impression to share Moroni 10: 4. I had him read the scripture than asked him what it meant. He said that we could ask god about the truth. I then bore my testimony to him about how I know that that is true. As I am bearing my testimony I start crying! it was so spiriual. Genot had his head down and you could tell he was feeling the spirit. Before that he wasn't sure about our church, but after I finished he told us that if he was going to join this church that he would need time to think about it. we told him that he can have as long as he wants. The best part is that we know he is doing what we commit him to do. You can just tell. So that was the end of that lesson. We taught him again a few days later about the plan of salvation again. He had so many questions that we ditched our planned lesson and followed the spirit. Towards the end of the lesson again I felt like I should ask him what he has felt when we teach him. He then related the story of how he felt like he should call us and learn more. He said he is not sure why, but he is starting to see why. I didn't say anything after that but according to Elder Rigby that question led him to committing to baptism! I have been here for just under 2 weeks and already have a baptism lined up! I love that man! He has this desire to know what the truth is. His baptism is on October 4th. We are going to work with him a lot until that day.

So that was the successful part of the week. After that everything seemed to just die down. We have on average 5 lessons lined up every day, but after that day we only get to teach 1 of them. 2 if we are lucky. A question for Justin and Devin, how many lessons did you teach each day? What was a high number of lessons? If we had all of our lessons go through we would have had 36 lessons this week. I know that we still had a lot of success, but at the same time I get bummed out about how many lessons get cancelled. I wish that all of them would follow through. We do have days like that, and they are great.

I wish I could show you the area that I am in, but I forgot to bring my camera with me. I can't remember if I already told you or not, but we have to go to places that have internet connection to write home. Oh I need to tell you about Mamabe. Directly translated that means big momma. And boy is she big. She is the best though. She is a member that takes in homeless kids and raises them. She has kids of her own I believe, but her husband has passed away. Any way, she is crazy and talks insanely fast. Even my companion has trouble understanding her. We are currently teaching one of the boys that she has taken in. His name is Domenge. He is 20 I think. He is way cool. He is set to be baptized on the 13 of this month. Elder Rigby has been teaching him for a while. We have a guy in our ward named Madisa, the a at the end is silent, that helps us teach him. Madisa is also the ward mission leader. He is awesome. He is going to go on a mission to cape town but due to the Ebola virus he is not sure when he is going to leave. The church is going to let him know when he can go.

Speaking of viruses and other medical needs. I am pretty sure that I already have a worm. I have been told that every missionary gets some and when you go home we get meds that clean us out. Supposedly the longest worm that has been "cleaned out" was 9 inches. It is nothing to worry about though. The mission nurse said that they have never had a problem come up due to the worms. I already have what bishop Hawkes calls the Hershey Squirts. I spend a good 20 minutes on the toilet each day, and yes I have come very close to pooping my pants.

Another fun thing that happened this week was that we weren't sure if we were going to have power or water this week. That goes for all of Madagascar. Apparently the president's house did not have power for a few days, so he threw 9 people from the only power and water supplier company in Madagascar in jail. To protest the company said that they were going to turn off all of the power and water in Madagascar. So President Adams had all of the missionaries stock up on food and water. We had a little bit of food storage already, but now we are ready if it does happen. They were supposed to meet today to figure it out. We will find out if it is going to happen or not by tomorrow. I don't think that it will happen. The initial threat was that they were going to do it on sunday, but thankfully that didn't happen.

Other than that this week was good. We played soccer against one of the wards here and beat them 2-1. Apparently we have beat them for the past 3 matches. It is one of the big things to do on P-day. President Adams asks about it every week. We had 18 missionaries there today. It is the real deal. We have a ref and the ward members have jerseys. We just go in what ever we are wearing. The best part is that we play on a dirt field and behind one goal is a main road, where we hit a couple of cars today. Behind the other is a poop river. When I say poop I mean poop. People go to the bathroom there all the time. One of the Elders here told me that one day when he was playing the ball went into the river, so they wiped it off in the grass that grows on the edges of the field than continued to play. When it was kicked into play this Elder headed it and got poop on his head and all down his side. He said that it smelled awful. Thankfully I did not touch the ball right after it went into the river today.

Another cool thing that happened this week was that we had a locust infestation. The people here love when it happens because locusts are a delicasy. The cloud of them was huge. There were kids running around every where smacking them out of the air with tree branches and putting them into water bottles. Elder Coleman and his companion ate at a members house after it happened and they had locusts. The members gave them a bunch to bring back to the office. So I ate one today. It tasted kind of like Grandpa Spencers venison Jerkey. They were pretty good.

I also saw my first Didi poach. I have know clue how to spell that, but that is when they circumsize the little boy. I didn't see it happen thankfully, but we were teaching a lesson and when we were getting to know them the mom got all excited and said that the little boy, he was her nephew that she was watching, just had it done and proudly showed us. I felt so sorry for the kid. It is that time of year to do them, so I should be seeing more of them. A lot of missionaries have been to the actual ceremony because it is very rude if you decline an invitation. So we shall see if I go to one or not. You can tell when it happens because all of the boys that it happens to are wearing bath robes. Most of the members do not do this tradition.

The members here are way cool. I get a long with them very well and they love the missionaries. One member gave us the names of 9 less-active members to go and teach. The only problem is finding where they live. There are no addresses here so we have to ask the members if they know where they live and have them show us. It is very frustrating. Well I hope you enjoy the long email this week. It was a fun week. Love you.

Elder Hammer