November 26, 2012

hey!

hahaha soory i forgot the pictures of the appartment again!!!! i will try to remember to take some today and then send them to you next week. and i really hope things work out for george as well!! he has been unreachable lately as university has started up again so he never has time to learn but he still comes to church haha he is way mazoto but we cant find any time to teach him! kinda sucks but we are still working on it!! haha and the shirt is definatly malagasy made! but i washed it once and it fell apart! lol. thats how i know its malagasy made...

im so glad to hear grampi is doing better and better! and i stand by my coment that he will be bouncing to the moon in no time! why havent they been using the distiller up until now?? water is way to heavy for nanni to be hauling around all by herself! its a good think you fixed that. and i am sure that light by the wheel chair lift will help alot! its crazy that that was installs since ive been out here! it feels like a long time ago. and its alright if you dont get much hunting this year.... its not like you have me there to shoot it and do all the work anyways so you might as well just wait till next year!! hahhaha

yay for snow!!! hahaha i get yet another green christmas here wich i am sure sounds like paradise to you but as the song puts it best. "i'm dreaming of a white christmas, just like the ones i used to know" hahaha and the little mini christmas tree sounds like a great little thing with not alot of work. christmas is a wounderful time of year full of love and miracles all because people focus more on the saviour and on serving one another. can you imagine if people prettented it was christmas all year long. and they kept that same spirit with them. oh how much greater this world would be. but i do look forward to this christmas season with joy and thanksgiving. how is the snow removal going?? how are your workers and stuff? i assume its good seeing as you havnt told me anything bad hahhaa. and it definatly will be good for dallin to go work at gaurdian. hopefully he will see how the world works. having a boss your not tied to in some relation. and i to hope that he will rise above his coworkers and be an example of trueth and light.

i am so glad that the play went good!!! i knew it would and i was sure that emily would sing beautifully. bev facy has sooo many lds kids in it it blows my mind hahhaa. but i am so glad that they all got the chance to be a part of such a great powerful story! and those types of venues are such a great missionary tool. to see ancient prophets and there importance. and i cant wait to watch the dvd! haha.

now my week i guess. it was the american thanksgiving this past thursday wich brought many mixed feelings among all the missionaries and holidays always do. my thanksgiving was way back in october but seeing as nobody else even knew that i to was brought to think about all the things i am thankfull for and all the thanks givings back at home. wich means i thought of grampis birthday and colters weddings.... hahah wich i forgot to say happy birthday and aniversery...! so there it is. happy birthday grampi and happy aniversery colter and karmyn! hahahah but because it was thanks giving we all got together here in tamatave and ate a nice meal last night. i think all the missionaries appreciated it. i think the malagasy missionaries were a little disapointed that it didnt come with rice haha but we made mashed potatos, roast beef, some chicken, corn, we had stuffing, jello, gravy and cheese cake! it was pretty dang good! also this week we (the missionaries) put on an afon-dasy!!!!!!!! haha its a big bonfire party. we combined with the other branch neighboring us and we planed out a nice activity for people to come to and get re-excited about missionary work. we had a lesson on how to invite your friends to learn with the misisonaries and then i set up a simple game where you have buckets an sponges and you line them up along the ocean and they race to see who can fill up there bucket the fastest. that one was most popular with the kids. then i started the fire! :D hahahaha because of the cyclone there were a ton of washed up bambo sticks all along the beach that worked great for burning and i bought a little gas for good luck and then man made fire. and while the fire was going we had a narrorator tell stories from the book of mormon while the members acted it out! hahhaa i was lehi. it turned out really well! and hopefuly we see more member help!! haha we dont want to tract any longer!! but that was pretty much my week in a bottle. it was a good week. lots of work. we also watched a video called how rare a possesion: the book of mormon. it is about the amazing stories of parly p pratt and an itallian man and there conversion stories. i highly recomemd it. it refigorated me to constantly focus on the scriptures and especially on the book of mormon. wich was brought forth only through the divinity of god to stand as a witness of the truthfullness of god and his son jesus christ and how we can all recieve forgiveness.

thank you for getting me some garments and yes i have used the mastercard somewhat and it has been working. i dont really need much of anything from home i can usually get it here... but skittles and tootsie rolls have been on my mind lately hahahaha. i love you all sooo much and thank you for all yo do for me.

befitiavana mandrakizay!

elder bates

1 .this is a running table saw.... its safe to say that safety is non existant in this country..



2. we through a big party on the beach! haha turned out great



3. i built a fire. with the help of some gasoline :D



4. juice!



5. some children.

November 19, 2012

dear dad

hahahah i really do miss the cold though!!! dallin jumpin on his snowboard looked sooo cool and fun. snow is a great thing and i miss it lol. and it is truly amazing how we can comunicate these days through the web. how we figure these kind of things out amazes me. my new goals and efforts are going well. sometimes it take a while to get results even after a trail of our faith but i know that by doing the things we are doing we will be blessed with joy and a sense of fullfillment. work has been slower lately with a lot of tracting but we have good investigators who love the gospel. for instance george. we have been teaching him for quite a while and he took to it right away. he is 21 and a student at a university here. so it is hard to find time to teach him but he loves the gospel and the book of mormon. the only problem is that once he is done school he will have to move back to his home town where there is no church and no support group for him so we are debating baptising him or not. it is a very hard thing and we are all praying to find the answer. especially george. the new president is good. making a few changes to the mission. focusing the work on three main areas in madagasar and reducing the work everywhere else in hopes to get a strong base of stakes instead of a bunch of little branches that cant really support themselfs. i think it is a good idea. i have been extremely blessed to get to know both my mission presidents because they switched right in the middle of my mission. and they are both incredible men with incredible qualities. oh and sorry dad. still no pictures of my house. its not like i just think every day to take a picture of my house. i will try and remember and send you some next week.

its so good to hear about grampi getting out of the hospital finally. i am srue that was such a relief to him. and i can see it was if by just getting home he improved night and day as nannie said in her email to me. thank you nannie for the email by the way. i am sorry i cant reply to it today but i will be srue to write you and grampi soon. and it is truely a blessing to our whole family that nanni and grampi decided to have the missionaries over again. and i am glad to be raised in the covanent where the memories i do not wish to remember are few and far between.

i am sorry that dougs father passed away even though i do not know doug. it is always a hard thing when there is death but i am so glad you took the oportunity to share your testimony with him. our testimonies are the most powerful most important things we could ever have in our lives and we must share them with everybody. missionary or not so it warms my heart that you took the opportunity.

and it is a sad thing that non of dallins job opportunities are going through. though i am very glad that he isnt going to the rigs. hahaha has he looked into maybe going to school at nait or something along those lines. or even going on a mission hahahah. education is the best thing we can get and he will fint one in both school and on a mission. my prayers are with him as he gos through his life.

know that i am healthy and working hard. loving the blessings i see from this work. my testimony ever growing. slowly i come to a complete knowlage of the trueth. and i will make it there sometime in my life. thank you for all your support and love. one more thing HAPPPY BIRTHDAY ROBYN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates

1. haha lookin good



2.a cool flower i though emily would like



3.so most every girl posses something liek this when taking a pictur here. even the 4 year olds



4. these two little girls erika and christina are the cutes girls i have ever met. (apart from my sisters.... ha)



5. a hospital in madagascar. this is a nice room.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

November 12, 2012

hahaha i am glad you liked the pictures i sent. and i will try to send a couple more today though i didnt take many this week. sorry. i am sure you are pretty stinkin tired after all that snow coming down. but it doesnt make me not miss it hahahaha. i guess i am just a northern boy at heart. bad roads are no good though. i really hope everybody drives safe and no accidents happen. that would be no fun. how are your new employees working out?? i hope everything is goin good. 

i wont lie its unfortunate that dallin is going to go work on the rigs. money is not the most important thing on this earth and the rigs are definatly not the place to go and find it. we must serve god in this life and no one else. if he works on the rigs it will take him away from church and from god. he will not be able to have a calling because of the schedual and will not be able to fullfill his duty to god wich should come first in life. i hope that he succeeds in whatever he does. but i know he will succeed in god. and we must not forget that. 

i am amazed and proud to here emily is workin on he own vehicle as much as she can!! hahaha not going to lie i was suprised to read that but proud none the less!! and what is this about a chrystler new yorker??? i had no idea we owned a chrystler new yorker or even what that car looks like hahaha. i am sure emily is pretty dang busy with her play coming up and everything. i wish i was there to go see it but while she is singing about the ancient prophets with all her majesty i am teaching about them. and i love it. i hope she knows the importances of the story portrayed in that great musical. and finds an oportunity to teach somebody through this great opportunity she has. 

ahaha the letter did not seem disjointed or at all weird. thank you so much for the pictures you sent me!! i like the little facial hair that taylor has growin for him! it makes him look nice and manly. and almost as old as dallin looks with his beardy hahaha. my week was as good as it could be. lots of elders getting sick again and things with this heat. it brings the fever, parasites and the flu with it. so i spent quite a bit of time dealing with that. we had an elder go to the hospital cause he got scared when he got a little stomach flu but he is fine and left late the next day. then that elders companion who is malagasy has been fighting a parasite for quite a while and was actually sent to tana to get it delt with there and he will soon return when he is all healed up. we met some interesting people this week that will hopefully progress and become converted to the gospel. we also had a very good meeting with our branch president where we set new goals and talked alot about wourkin with the branch wich should be good! i love you so much and look forward to your next letter and to talking to you at christmas time. christmas is fast aproching. 

 

be fitiavana mandrakizay

elder bates

November 5, 2012

hi dad,

i am glad you enjoy reading my letters! haha i wont lie sometimes i lack motivation to write them because my weeks all seem the same hahah but it makes me feel better that you all enjoy them. and i truely have learned more here on my mission than i could have even imagined. and i stull have 9 months to learn so much more. it has been a truely humbling expirience. its crazy that i only have 9 months left. that feels like such a short time to me. this life just seems shorter and shorter every day. i can imagine how granpi feels after having such a dramatic surgery. needing to relay on other people for the first time in his life. that would be sooo hard. but i am glad to hear that his surgery went successfull from the sounds of it. zaka and his family are doing alright. they keep asking us for money and havent come to chircher but we arent giving up on them yet. haha and ya it is way hot here. i think its like 40 degrees with like 80 percent humitity or something. i dont really know to much though. i dont really watch the news.. hhaha. and i will try to sent you pictures of my house and church sometime.

i never thought i would miss winter so much with all this heat allt he time haha. i wouldnt mind going out and shoveling a little snow right now or goin for a ride on the snowmobile. haha dallin the nomad hahaha doesnt like to stay in one place for to long. but its good that dallin moved back home for a little while. hopefully he gets itertwined with the great ysa program up there. and thanks so much for sendin me those pictures of the moose!!!!! that is a good lookin animal! hahaha not gunna lie i am pretty jealous right now. i still having been on a good moose hunt really. hahah but there is plenty of time to do that when i get home right!? lol

i am glad that grampis surgery went well as i said earlier. it was on my mind quite a bit all week. and its good to here he is doing good. all though mom says he is a little stubborn hahahhaahah i am glad that he is recovering. and i hope his recovery gos as quicky and smooth as possible. its such a blessing to have family that will take so much time to take care of each other and watch over eachother. and its good to here that your over that bronchitis phnumonia thing you had goin on. that didnt sound fun. neither did that story you told me. but that story had me busting a gut pretty freakin hard hahahahhaha my companion kept asking me why i was laughing..... it was hard for me not to tell him.

so i sent you some pictures this week sorry it took me so long!! the computers here can be a little picky. forgive me! also i am doing really good. nothin really new. we are doing alot of tracting lately wich is way fun!!! haha my companion is still getting used to it a little bit but thats alright. i love it. lookin for those people who are ready. trying to get a solid program. haha. the rainy season has come in to full affect this past week and so we have been getting pretty wet lots of the time even takin of our shoes and just walking through what seems to be an endless puddle hahaha. but when we do that we have to check our feet every night for fleas tht go under your skin and lay eggs. they are fun to deal with. you pop them like a zit and hope they the eggs havent hatched hahahha. i also have a feeling i will be transfered sooner than later. most likely by the end of november if not sooner. as the training program comes to an end it is time for elder ludwig to see someone else hahaha. but i loved training so much and elder ludwig is a stud. though i am sure he is sick of me. the only thing i worry about when i leave is if he will be able to get around..... cause his sense of direction is somewhat lacking. ok so its really lacking hahahaha. but thats alright cause the lord blesses us emensly out here on the mission in madagascar! oh and if you could maybe send me some new razer blades for a gillete proglide razar that would be awesome cause i have realized i am running really low. and maybe some new underwear if that is possible hahaha. other than that just some candy like skittles and tootsi rolls!!!! lots of totsi rolls!!!!!!! hahhaha i love you so much and look forward to talkin to you at christmas!

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates


1. the waters were ruthless and we washed to shore



2. before going out to sea. we were going to look for moby.



3. beach front restaurant. pretty nice.



4. the debri washed up from the cyclone



5. another one of them spiders. i think this one is prego



6.its close to thanks giving in america. my mouth was watering



7.lindy and jazz. some of the two cutest girls...



8. jazz and me. hangin out