* The spelling throughout this email is a little off. When he puts a "z" it should be a "w" but I'm not going to go through it all and change it, so good luck. -Lyndi
hey hey ehy so first of the key boards are different here and its really throughing me off hahah. lets see what do i tell you first... ummm i am serving in the amboimanarina/amboibao/ankazo be area!! my traiiner is elder wilson and he has only been in country 4 months. he is already way mahay at malagasy but we are still learning alot of things together. our area is one of the hardest baptism wise in the mission right now. we feel like we dont really know what to do but god put us here together for a reason. life here is like a total 180. its ast and very very very poor. we teach a family that has 6 kids and they all sleep on one bed smaller thn a queen. and there houses are pretty much the size of our downstairs bathroom. its dirty sticky wet everything is uphill and i dont fit anywhere hahaha but i woudnt tradethis for anyhting: i absolutely love it. seriously though when i saay i dont fit anywhere it maen it haha. everythink is made for a 5 foot malagasy. everywhere i go i get looks and i hear geza be vaza! haha which means thats a huge whiite guy! lol but the peole are really amazing.
today was the first day i didnt feel tired all the time. which means im pretty much acustomed to the time which is awesome. i still cant understand a word aid to me but i am trying really hard to just talk to people. it getss easier and easier every day. one problem though is that malagasy girls seem to like big guys. especially big white guys. they go gaga for white guys. i get the thirsty eyes all the time! haha but i aint no thing haha. oh ya! so remember when we were at aunt leslies and mckelle (sorry bout the spelling) talked about elder goff!? well i am living with him. he is a really cool guy. way mahay at malagasy. he will live with me for a month then hes goin home. hes a fun guy. we have lots of fun in the house haha. so ive dropped 2 bap dates so far and they both said yes! way awesome right? they may not go through but at least they accepted haha. oh and the only place you can send mail is to the mission office. thats where packages go and everything. and dear elders work here so feel free to send me those!! haha tell everyone who wants to write me to send me a dear elder. i can^pick them up from the office every week. seriously the key oboqrds here are stupid haha. that is so cool that jordan got his call!!! tell him i sent a ton of congrats. chille will be so awesome. and tell spencer i say cograts as well! i cant wait to here where he is going! seriously missions are the bomb. its a ton of work but im still on an mtc high i guess haha. so how is life at home feel free to tell me everything! i am half way around the world remember. it would take a long time for the grape vine to get here from canada. speaking of canada...... everybody here thinks canada is french speaking..... so the all think that cause im from canada that i should speak freanch... and i dont hahaha.... i barely speak malagasy but i have gotten really good at saying i dont speak french.. they think all white guys speak french till you tell them you dont then they are dumb founded.
so the house i live in is the tolatamaty house which is haunted haha. its a nice enough house but it is definatly weird. oh and i think i already have some flees. its very normaly here though. you get used to them. hahaha. gotta love thise country. oh and if you send me packages zith anything expencive in it you better be very very good at hiding it. lots of problems with theft in the postal service. always send american candy with it or something to through them off. and if its electrongic put it in something metal hahaha. they customs guys have xray machines..this country is crazy but im still alive and doing very well. i am adapting very quickly. i actually kina like it here haha. god new i would. thats why he sent me. oh i figured out why the key boqrd is so silly.. its cquse its french. they do things wierd haha. oh! has karmyn poped yet??? ha i hear that should be pretty soon. so ill tell you a little about my area. its awesome. i still dnt knoz my way around very xell but that will change. we have alot of countryside. like we cross rice paties ands stuff. that is sketchy enough as it is. garunteed i will fall into one sooner or later haha. but it is cool. there are alot of builings every where and a ton more people but the are friendly enough. they loveit zwhen white guys speak malagasy. they will talk to you just because of that. but then probably wont show up to church. and every body and there dog asks you for money wich is really sad. alots of people let us in cause they think we will give tem money. xe tell them xe have soething better but to them nothing is better than money... its tough to deal with. but i love the people enough to get past that and i just want to help them in any way i can, except give them money... haha that wont help anything. they need to learn to work and actually build up there country.
so this past weekend was general confrience so i got to watch it twice. i had to watch one session in malagasy so i just read my scriptrues hahha. next weekend is what we call island confrence. we never have these anymore but elder nelson is coming to the is island so he will talk to us all and that will be really sweet. every missionary on the island will be in tana which is crazy!! haha. so people are very blunt here sometimes wich is really funny cause they will straight up be like you suck at malagasy and you just have to laugh it off cause they dont mean anything by it. they are great people. just miss led. imma do my best to change that. hmmmm lets see what else i can tell you. there are a ton of hills in our area and my feet have some pretty narly blisters hahha but they are starting to calace over wich is awesome! cause then i will be able to cruise! haha:
oh i can tell you about taxi be's and stuff. so there are taxis, taxi be's, and taxi bruises. taxis are really expensive but nice cause you dont have to sit shoulder to shoulder zith 100 other peope haha. taxi be's are like there bus system.... they are really cheap, like 200 ariary. wich is like 6 cents. but i barely fit on one bench and they sit 2 to a bench and zhen it gets really full they put a board across the half a fot lane and expect you to squeeze your butt in there..... its a little squeeze for malagasy's imagine me hahaha. and we take those all the time because our area is a long ways from our house and its to expencive to take a taxi every day and not efficient at all to walk haha. we walk home alot because there is no night life here. people drink during the afternoon cause if you drink at night you are like a witch or something... no joke haha. andit gets dark at like - so ze take flashlights everywhere with us.. one cause most people dont have power so we are the power wich is candels or our flqshlight. most of the time both though and a malagasy will take the flashlight from your hand cause they like to use it lol. they are a funny people. but i can see zhy im here. its a long way from home but god really does knoz everyone of us. how cool is that. hahahaha so they pronounce my name really funny here.... they say there t's like a ch and so its sounds a hech of alot like the B word....... its funny. you gotta love it!
well tiako ianareo batsika you are all in my prayers
Elder Riley Bates
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