(the title of my email to him was "Barnacles, another funny word for you" ...)
a vc is there little out house like squating thing that they use to poop in. barnacles eat away at the poop and so you can use the vc for longer.... bet you didnt know that!!! hahahahahaha and yes they are very stinky and unsanatary and unenjoyable to use. but i havent missed the hole once..... hahaha
hey lyndi! i hope you liked my little educationary comment there at the beginning!! lol and i actually kinda liked my last area!! haha i was getting some really solid investigators who genuinly loved god and wanted to come closer to him. but this area is good as well! just a little harder to find solid not lazy people who will get married and get baptised..... hahaha but i do love it where ever i am.... can you believe i have been out here for a year now. seriously crazy. there are so many different feeling running through my mind about my year mark its insane!!! haha. i dont know if i like it or not. obviously i do because its all downhill... but at the same time i dont like it... at all hahaha.
its good that you had the missionaries over for dinner!!!! because i have had a very dry spout since right around may actually and i just got one dinner appointment for tonight! hahaha but its with a really cool family!! the father actually reminds me a ton of colter... they are the same personality type. any he is my favorite investigator right now.... he promised me that he would get baptised before i left!! so i am holding him to it!! lol. and its a dang good thing that the elder did your dishes!!! i would be over there in a second if he didnt! hahah but he seems like a really good guy so that is good.
yay for friends!!!! haha that is way cool!! it helps to give you something to do! makes the time fly by faster! its crazy how close you are to poping. and its weird as well. you figure out a name yet? hahaha thats funny that kasper steals food from people. he really is nothing like you.... i dont even understand how you 2 are related what soever..... lol. and that putting things on his head and running into thintgs stage might stop pretty soon... hopefully anyways haha. all though i am sure it is funny.
i hope my next week is fantastic as well! its hard getting to know a whole new group of people! and there are so many here. lots of people who are only half dilligent.... its really frustrating haha. yesterday was a very tiring day.... not only was it fast sunday but we walked to the furthest to parts of our area...... talk about dehydration... my head was pounding!! ha all i wanted to do was go home and sleep... but i kept going! wich was good. i know we will start seeing blessings out of this area we just have to work exctremely hard! which is fine with me. other than that my week was very normal. we had a baptism of 4 women. they are all very simple people..... lol. not much to them. there were two old women of about 70 years of age who are sisters that live together and they are seriously the cutest together. so funny. the one is a little deaf and so the other always just yells at her and they tease each other and stuff. its really funny. then the other two were 2 18 year old girls that the missionary prior to me taught. my companoin baptised them. i really dont know to much about them... lol but they are good people. oh! i saw fireflies for the first time in my life!! they are all over my area at night! i have a blast catching them and playing with them while walking home lol. its fun. when you hyave them in your hand they actually shock you! lol. but other than that a pretty average week. nothing much to talk about unfortunatly. oh we did have a drunk guy come to church. we had invited him earlier in the week and he ended up comeing. still kinda drunk.... hahha and he was kinda comical. but we will teach him and hopefully he will stop drinking! haha. thanks for your letter! i always look forward to it! haha hopefully throughout the next year youwill find the same amounts of time to continue to write!!
be fitiavana mandrakizay
eldre bates
(below is the letter to Dad/the Family)
haha hey!
so i held a flashlight while they changed the tire! but there is no really helping malagasies when they do things.... they are going to do it there way no matter what... lol so i just sat back and laughed. but no everybody did not have to get off the bus. they all stayed on the bus actually. except the people who had to relive themselfs... lol hey people arent chickens...... thats what you say here if you are on a bus and have to go to the bathroom. because chickens can just go on the roof without making the bus stop. but people arent chickens so when you say that the buss will stope and let you out to go. lol so there are 5 branches here in tomatave and 2 meeting houses. there are 10 missionaries and 2 house that they live in. i am in the house with 3 companionships in it. its pretty good. we get along good. although there is a problem with everybody doing there dishes... hahaha but i just do them and dont complain. its not a huge deal. sipping a coconut on the beach was pretty dang nice hahaha. relaxing. the ocean is a crazing thing to think about. it blows my mind!
so you have a week all by yourself in the house huh!? that must be weird... i bet your gunna be eating a whole lot of grilled cheese sadwiches. hahaha and of couse some delicious food from nani. woo hoo for emty houses! right? haha. thats way cool that brady and leslie are up there for a couple days visiting though! its probably nice for you for a couple of days and for nani and grampi. then he probably starts school pretty soon huh? thatll be fun for him. i cant wait to go out to grampis house and shoot some guns again. its getting close to septemper and my finger is really starting to twitch hard!!!!! hahaha. its just in my blood! you can take the boy outta the country but you cant take the country outta the boy.
haha lyndi is about to po (pretty sure he meant pop...) huh!? thats pretty crazy!! thatll be way awesome to have yet another member of this family. seriously. we gunna be huge!!!
so my week was pretty good! nothing to special to write about. i am still trying to get to know the area and the investigators and such but it is going pretty good. we jsut had a baptism of four women. they are all very simple people. nothing much. but they love the gospel. and that is all you need. the small and simple things are great things come to pass. we also have about 4 or 5 more people to be baptised in the 1st of september. then a few more after that. so the work is moving along! haha. i am loving it. it is very incredible to think that i have already been out a year. and done so many things. it has gone by so unbeliveably quickly. filled with emotion and learning. i swear that is all i do lately. is just learn new things all the time. i learn the language i learn from my companions i learn from the people i learn from the culture. i learn from my god. who has blessed my and has opened up my mind to how life is and what it should be and how we need to be in order to succeed. and i have learned what true success is. it has nothing to do with money or work or apperennce. it has everything to do with service and love and kindness. it is about following in christs footprints no matter what the cost. and giving up everything for your lord. wich is so unbelievably hard to do. but if it was easy there would be no satisfaction in the celestial kingdom. no sense of acomplishment. but i will be able to look back and say i was once on earth, and i overcame it all. there will always be another trial. another hardship. what will we do with it. we can not give up or turn away. and we must bring others with us. it is not enough to bring only ourselfs to the kingdom of god. that is why it is a priesthood duty to serve a mission. not a priesthood option. not something to do if you got a free schedual. but it is the least we can do in the service of our god. and after this we will be called to do more. it is never ending. and neither are the blessings. i look forward to my next year of serive and hope that i can be the instruments in the hands of the lord to bring some soul unto repentance. and that is my joy as it was the prophet almas. i love you all with all of my heart and have missed you this past year. but sooner than later we will see eachother again and glory in our accomplishments. please dont get lost on the way.
be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates
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