tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90448301396624283932024-03-13T22:06:22.697-07:00The Mission of Elder BatesMadagascar, Antaninarivo Mission August 2011-August 2013Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.comBlogger119125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-9020874861530297292013-08-05T09:28:00.000-07:002013-08-05T09:28:08.437-07:00August 5, 2013<br />
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*So I know the counter on the right side says that Elder Bates has 5 days left out in the field, but the truth is he will be home in 3, I just never switched the date after we found out his travel itinerary. We are so excited for him to come home and have lots planned so people can come catch up with him. All events are up on on Facebook but if you haven't heard about them and would like to know the details shot me an email at lyndihamon@gmail.com. </div>
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Dear Friends and Family,</div>
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i have spent to years in full time service of my god. a loving caring knowledgable god who knew exactly what i needed. no matter how hard headed i am or how slow to act i am he is patient and understnands my struggles. i carried the name elder. to some that might just mean i pretended to be an old man for two years but to me and so many others it is a sacred calling to bring the truth to all the world. it ment i represented god as an elite force. nota life taking force but a life saving force. and it has refined not only those i taught but my very being. and now i am force to take off that badge and live life again. but i say i already lived it. there is no better life than a life of service. and that is what i plan to do for all of eternity. it will be hard and many may say that its impossible. to much work. but work is what we should be founded on.<br /></div>
i now have countless friends and family not only in edmonton and area but here in madagascar. and other people from all over the work that i have met. who i will never forget. all those i baptised here. all those i taught. i never did it for a number. wether it was one or many it was still salvation to some soul. and what a wounderful thing thatis. and god has blessed for that fact for it was not a few. but it was many who did enter the waters of baptism. those people shall forever be a witnes that god and jesus christ live. seprate beings one in perpose. to bring to pass the eternal life of man. and it is my honor to work along side my savior in that cause. all should know that there is life beyond death. it doesnt just go dark. and it is our responsability to get there. through giving our hearts to christ. that is all he asks. that is what i have learned throughout these two years in madagascar. i loved my mission. it was fullfilling in every sense of the word. it was rewarding. it was one of the only things that merits any true importance in my life as of now. and i dont plan on it ending. i will always work to share the gospel. i will always strive to serve my god. and i will always stand as a testimony that he is, that he was, and that he always will be perfect. patiently waitning for us to return to him. if you dont know how to do that there are people who can help you find it. he is always calling to us. i know it to be true. i know that there is power in god that he has given unto men to do his work here on earth. and through that power a simple man from simple upbringins restored the fullness of the truth. all things that we need to find true happiness are here on earth. there is a living prophet this day governing that work. there is a real presence of god in our lives. we justhave to stop and look. i know these things to be true. and i thank god for my oportunity to show them to the world.<br /><br />be fitiavnana mandrakizay</div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">elder bates</span>Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-24160603113299348872013-07-29T14:32:00.000-07:002013-07-29T14:32:48.868-07:00July 29, 2013<br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">dear dad.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><br />
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haha i didn sit on any of the crocadiles but we fed them chickens and they were jumping up and everything. it was cool. i mean these crocadiles were over 3 meters in length. huge dinasours! and wewere litterally a foot from them hand feeding them chickens. it was cool. then i did some cool tricks with a snake for the vermilions and the other missionaries hahaha. and my brownies are freakin good.. i cook them from scratch. ya my momma taught me a thing or two.. not like you tryin to kill me with raw chicken! but your french toast is good.... so that makes up for it. and the egg mcmuffins. haha. the house sounds like its pretty much finished. you say it will look pretty much the same but i cant really imagine. the new flooring the carpet and the new paint is going to make a difference. but thats fine! im sure its better than the rustick look it had before the mission. haha. im excited to see it. i just cant wait to build that shop! its going to be pretty awesome. have you gotten the back yard leveled yet.?i guess i will see soon enough haha. those pictures you sent me from your mission were great! and ya you were pretty dang skinny hahaha. thank you for them.<br /></div>
me. i am doing good.like you i dont know what much to say. my comânion was sick thrusday and friday so it was a slower week. i ripped out his ingrown townail for him as well as it was starting to bother him and he didnt want to go to the doctor and get it ripped out a 3rd time. so he went to doctor bates :D hahah it went over flawlessly. no tears. he took it like a man. we got it down right to the root. and he went out to work the next day. haha. its good because we pulled it out before it got infected. the infection is what causes the incomfortability for so long. our tools though i must say were slightly primitive. but my multitool and some siccors got the job done. hahaha.we did get to go out to a place called nosizato for a mormon helping hands project saturday morning and give a bunch of rice to parentless children. then play a little basketball with them. that was way fun. and then saturday afternoon was the baptism. it went great. tsilavina's whole family came to the baptism. and now wish to learn with us. his father is a drunk. but has shown desire to quite drinkning and one day get baptised. so that was a great blessing. however stilavina was late to church yesterday and could not get comfirmed haha. so he will haveto wait until next week. wich is a little worrying but not to bad. he'll be fine. this is my last week here. its getting real now haha. i got a departure email from the mission office... i gotta start figuring out my baggage and stuff... i will try and send you a little email next week. but itprobably wont be very long. haha. i will see you all next week. pretty crazy huh!? love you!<br /></div>
be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-75684945185746454702013-07-22T20:09:00.000-07:002013-07-22T20:09:30.510-07:00July 22, 2013<br />
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dear dad!</div>
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<br />lyndis suprise sounds amazing!! haha she should have done there here... in madagascar. i cant imagine what it would be like if i randomly saw one of my family members seeking around my yard here.... haha soon enough i will be able to have that again though.<br /></div>
the basement sounds amazing!!! as i said in moms email i cant wait to see my new basement sweet!!! :P hahahhaa seriously though.. no rent right? lyndi told me the flooring was pretty hard to put in but that after some sore fingers it got done. i feel like its gunna feel like a different house when i get home!! its exciting! you left a place for me to hang up my antlers right??? haha. ive been thinking a little bit about what the first things i am going to do when i get home are... i thing cabelas is pretty up there on the list..... finding out i got a draw this year is pretty exciting.<br /></div>
thats just how it always is huh? captial region has the best timing! haha nothing nothing nothing. BAM! right when you have no time for it . lol oh well its a good thing you have a good work ethic. you know how hard that acctually is to find in some people!? i am glad that you taught me a thing or to about it. i am excited to start school in september. a little nervous but it feels like its time haha. although it has been 3 years since i have done any type of formal learning other than the mtc.... so we will hope for the best right!?<br /></div>
that is a gerat lesson that you got to teach in priesthood!!! what a true thing that is. i talk to mom a little bit about how people these days set there hearts on "right now" the focus on it. and thats all they worry about. there toys and things taht will make them instantly happy. but what is so hard to do is to set our hearts on heaven. to do the lords will and give our whole selfs to the service of our fellow man. then we shall have nothing to be sorrowfull for. but if we dont do so then we find ourselfs in a depressed and broken state needing to call unto heavenly father repentance. but that is this world and i haev realized that through my work here. how many men go to play soccer sunday morning instead of worshiping there heavenly father. not taking that leap of faith. and just acting on that feeling that comes deep inside of us. "go to church" or as a missionary "talk to him." "take that shovel from him" but once we act what true happiness we find through giving of ourselves. and that is something not only the richman in the story needs to ponder a little more but each and every one of us.<br /></div>
haha i remember us going over there and riding the sheep as little kids. or colter taking me and dallin over there and letting us watch him try and catch them. great memories. thank you for the picture. kasper seems so big now. especially his head! that kids got a brain and a half in there! haha. (he doesnt actually have a large head lyndi just the brain part. i am sure the camera just makes it look out of portion.... haha) <br /></div>
i am sure those sister missionaries heads are both just exploding right now! hahaha. not being out very long and having to train and not getting along. trials are a wonderful thing! after the fact hahaha. i hope they can find a grove in the work of the lord that brings success in sherwood park. but i will be meeting them soon and maybe even be able to find some clients for them haha.<br /><br /> i am doing good. trying to work hard. i am trying to let elder smithson make most all the desicions lately wich is kinda hard for me. i always asked his opinion before and tryed to work together but now its all him and he does things a little differently than i might. haha. but i need to trust that the lord will encourage him to work hard and prioritize his time. this past saturday we put on a missionary fireside. it was not very organized due somewhat to our ward mission leader not being very on the ball. but it turned out ok. 25 people showed up. we focused on the missionary work in the ward. it was the first one the ward had ever had so of course there is going to be some loose ends but i believe it is a start to a great thing. i made 5 pans of brownies for it! i got up at 4 oclock that morning to start cooking.... blech! and elder smithson didnt give me any help with anything..... oh well. what can ya do right?? hahaha. we have a baptism saturday of a boy named tsilavina . he is 15. he will be a great missionary one day. he is already preaching to some of his friends. that will be my last baptism before i go home. only 2 more weeks. how crazy is that huh? i think i will only email you one more time after this on the 29th... but we will see if i have time the monday before i leave... this monday we went to a park here called croc farm. its a ways away and so i went early in the morning and didnt get to email till now... haha sorry. i met some people from vermillian out there though!! small world hey?? the croc farm was fun. it has something like 150 crocodiles in it and we fed them chickens... hahaha pretty cool. they also have lemuers and snakes and things you can play with. i love you so much and cant wait to see you. 2 weeks is nothin. its to short.......<br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakziay </div>
elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-85876452315117011802013-07-15T13:36:00.000-07:002013-07-15T13:36:12.059-07:00July 15, 2013<br />
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dad!<br /><div>
<br />ya. i would love in ways to go out and teach like crazy my last few weeks and not worry about my companion and how he wil ldo once i am gone but that is just not right. honestly this is more his area than mine now. everybody everywhere all they can talk about is how i am going home soon. some ask me what they will do when i am gone. it scares me that they dont have as much confidence in my companion as they should. but now they are getting it. they are getting a tast of me not being there and how amazing elder smithson really is. i just hope it sticks. the sick elder is now all healthy and i can go back out to teaching people again!! haha. definatly very exciting. its hard though because i am not sleeping well at night. haha i guess i have other things on my mind... but what can you do right?? <br /></div>
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i am glad your weeks are busy! not busy is boring!! and im impressed you can still lift all the "big logs" into the trailer ahhaha. not going to lie i am really excited to get back to working.. with my hands and my mind instead of just one of the two.. before my mission it was alot with my hands.. on my mission its mostly all mind. and now going home i can apply both and become as the lord excpects me to be. hahaha you think that blue tractor will still run??? i guess youve got it running every other time. but its pretty rusty now aint it? if you do get it running i can think of a few fun things to do with it. :D haha. i cant believe you let julia drive a truck and trailer her first day!! hahaha was it just around the yard? or like on the big open pony trail....<br /></div>
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your talk was great! i loved reading it. it kinda brought out how old you are with all that history of the church in sherwood park stuf haha but it was great. i like how you talked about more spiritual side of it rather than ust manual labor service. brings a new light that many dont think about on a regular basis. and that is really what i will try to do with my talk. it goes along great with my topic of charity. i know that all people are going to want to here about is my mission and i have provided stories about it. but i am going to talk about what i was asked to talk about... do you think the bishop is going to want me to bare my testimony in my mission language?? what do you think about that. because i feel it is kinda pointless. it is for growth of myself if we read in korinthians... but the spirit of prophesy is for growth of the churhc. i would rather bare my testimony in a language all can understand. but i would like your oppinion on it. haha</div>
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i have complete trust in the lord with all concerning my family. it is all i can do. he knows best how and what to do and it is my job to be a tool. thats all. they way of becoming that tool is humility and submissiveness to his will. and that is what i will always try to do. </div>
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YA I GOT A DRAW!!! hahaha thats the first draw i have ever gotten. and i love going mule deer hunting after that big guy i snagged the year before i left. itll be enjoyable. definatly an answer to prayer hahah. and it will be awesome to be able to go with my dad and brothers! and i am glad to hear that at least my dirt bike made it through the 2 years!! less than i can say for my truck... no im not crying. i just have alergies.....<br /></div>
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haha so my week was full off!! waiting on a sick man yet again!! hahha but it was enjoyable. i finshished my homecoming talk rough draft and got lots of my book of mormon read and things. got to spend more time with elder naef. i have lived with him ever since he got in coutnry minus 2 months. haha it will be over 10 months by the time i leave. he is a great guy from organ with a big heart. i was in the mtc with his older brother who went to mongolia. they are a great family. my investigators are doing great. they all have fantastic questions and have grown a real love for the teachings. the only problem is getting them to churhc hahaha. malala is always busy with something on sundays and then you ave tovo an niaina who have no real excuse other than they go play soccer... i lothe that sport... haha. but we are trying very hard to help them progress in the right way. our next baptism should be on the 27th. its a 15 year old boy named tsilavina. the only problem is he has been put in a very okward situation. his aunts were the ones who introduced is to him and he started taking the lessons. then his best friend found out. his friend is a jehovah's wittness and ever since then has been trying to convince hom that there church is the one he should start praying there. so he is having a hard time desiding. but i tryed to encourage him to pray and ask god. not his aunts and not his friends, but god which was the right and true church. we will see what his answer was. he did not come to church sunday so i pray he makes the right one. i love you and am so excited to get to see you again. all of you. i am just working hard till iget there.<br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-70269914353715002972013-07-08T08:40:00.002-07:002013-07-08T08:40:45.216-07:00July 8, 2013<br />
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dad!<br /></div>
yes just one more month. 30 days until i get on a plain and make my way home. haha no matte rwhat you said about me coming home its already passed through my mind. i am very anxious at the moment to get home and see all of you! i miss all of you so much and so i am homesick no matter what. just trying to patiantly what for that day.<br /><br />all the renovations getting done sounds so exciting and fun! haha i can wait to help out with them! i am especially excited to build a shop out back! its gunna be a good time. haha its exciting hereing that you are getting everything leveled out and ready. and finishing the basement!!? haha i am sure thats a huge monkey of your back! its a boring day when there is nothing to do! doesnt sound like you have had many of those this past week! i can just see emily and moms faces as they looked at there watches and saw it was already 345 and you were just picking up a brush! lol its good that they buckled down and helped you get it finished! who wants to go stand and walk the a wedding reception line anyways!! blech. the food is whats worth it ahahha.<br /></div>
work and everything all sounds so good and i am so happy about that. that run karmyn and emily did sounds so fun!! did they raise money for it? emiuly is workin the rootbeer stand huh!? i remember when all my highschool friends signed that contract hahaha. i would go to the festivals and stuff and go see them at work... lol suckers... haha butit was a pay check!! and it payed for there cellphone bills. so i guess it was worth it for them. i hope emily enjoys it. the rootbeer really is good.<br /></div>
i am doing good. working and keeping my mind on work and the lord. i haev had to spend 3 days at home however with an elder who got a nasty incgrown toe nail. he went and got it ripped out and lives in our house so his companion and my companion both take ward members with them all day and we wait at home till he is healed. i would like to be out working but i feel it is better for my companion to start to get a grasp on the area and running it himself.... cause i do most of the things and he needs to start. he still doesnt keep track of any of the weekly status numbers... hahaha its a work in progress.. so i have finsihed my homecoming talk somewhat in that time. i am srue i will still make revisions in the next coming weeks but its a rough copy so far. finished to the end. haha. we also through a birthday party for a son of a resent convert of ours. mamy. they dont have much at the moment but his son turned 14 so we brought a little soda and a cake and celebrated a little with them. they really appreciated it. love you so much and thank you for your email. noro did not go to church. her family just took in 5 homless children to take care of becaues there mother just got sent to jail so they are a little strechted at the moment and couldnt get to churhc. but they are still progressing. hse needs a little encouragemynt to read and things but i feel she will still progress to baptism.<br /><br />be fitavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-16415083229386686852013-07-03T18:53:00.002-07:002013-07-03T18:53:29.541-07:00July 1, 2013<br />
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hey dad!!<br /></div>
playing in the mud is good to do. if putting a little bit on your face takes a year or so off imagine how many years you just gained back ;) haha.<br /></div>
noro is doing good. coming ot church is a challenge for her. she feels like she is being a bother to those who take her and pay for her to go. (cause the are extremely poor) buti told her that they want to do that to serve her. that it is there calling as members of christs churhc and that helped her. but she couldnt go this past sunday because they went to there sisters wedding. but tshe is going next sunday for sure.<br /><br />thank you so much for your great letter! i love reading all about everything happening. i am soo excited to read your talk! it looks great from the little skim i did. and i am so incredibly appreciative of brother cyper and his incredible spirit and prayers for me. little did he know, but god new i would need that amazing prayer. friday we had a very challanging experience of some of a couple we teach fara and solofo fighting and god put ME right in the middle of it... hahaha why? because i could bring his spritit to his children who are very important to him. it was all very dramatic and things. but god i am so greatfull for god and all he has prepared me for and all that HE makes me. for if it was me i would be nothing. we counciled and talked and they came to church together as a family. they are working to eternity. much as i witnessed in our family asa young boy. my memory serves me well and i can brong back experiences that serve me now. i am so greatful for god and for brother cypher and his special prayer offered just for me in such a time of need. the hand of the lord is truely in our lives and i see that as clearly today as the brother of jared saw 6000 years ago.<br /></div>
president hendersons words are so very tue. i feel i can to nothing but give glory and thanks unto my lord for all that HE gave ME. not what i gave him. he could have done it without me. but he was generous enough to grant me the opportunity to learn and grow in the the spirit and in knowlage. it is a very special and important experience in my life i will never give up. i had a saying painted on my guitar "nosiko tsy foiko" it means "the island i will never give up" that is not for the beautiful senory of the tropic or the unique wildlife. but the things i have gained he have changed my life forever. and i can asked nothing of the lord in return for what i have done because he has already given it so freely. he gives everything freely as we give our heart.<br /></div>
mendenhalls looks great! i remember us landscaping that the summer before i left. just me you and dallin. its was a great time full of laughter. cooporation. and it looked great afterwards. the sidewalk adds a nice touch. its cool that julia started working for you. i did laugh though thinkin about how it would be for mitch... lol he'll handle it though! haha.<br /></div>
thank you for your letter. i love you so much and wait anxiously to see you and the family again. i am excited to work with you all august haha. get my hands dirty again. mom told me colter got my draws in! :D haha he knows what to do. lol he listens to the spirit. hahahahaha. you told me how much a make you proud and blessed. and that brings me much joy. but i cant take the credit for the blessings my family has recieved in these 2 years. they are from god and god allown. and he would give them no matter the situation as long as faith is present. we must remember that as i get back from my mission and get back into the grove of life. god will allway bless us. we must only have faith to do as he asks. </div>
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be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-46403282670908074012013-06-25T08:47:00.000-07:002013-06-25T08:47:26.670-07:00June 24, 2013<br />
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hey dad!!<br /></div>
sounds like you guys had some fun visiting with all the family down in idaho! thats great! and you and mom got a little vacation well i was going to say alone but i think with emily graduated you now have quite a bit of alone time. hahha. how does that feel?? from once6 screaming crazy children to dead silence. its nice to here about the family and thankful for all the prayers. im the only one out on a mission now huh? haha thats weird. but i am very greatful for all the love i do feel from all our family out here.<br /></div>
dallin bought a motor home huh!? hahaha thats pretty cool!!definatly a dallin thing! fits him perfectly . and i am glad you has desided to wokr steady for a while. and i know colter is being good to him haha. i cant wait to see them.<br /></div>
so your doing more work on the mendenhalls yard?? thats great. i did hear that carly is marying the corey boy! good for her! starting a family! haha. tell the mendenhalls i say hey! and am excited to see them again.<br /></div>
so some of the spiritual experiences are hard to describe as they are of things spiritual haha. which is more of a feeling than it is words. but we haev been teaching 2 brothers. tovo and aina and there families. they are amazing men. love god and there families. and we taught them of the restoration. and the spirit there was felt through the flow of the lesson. i dont feel i have ever taught so clearly and smoothly. and i know that it wasnt me. there was a certain warmth in the room that was sentalizing. it was incredible. and then then next time we had with tovo he told us he felt joseph smith was a true prophet and came to church with us this past sunday. it was an incredible blessing i will never forget. i pray tovo will continue to have comfermation to his prays all throughout his lfie and that he will learn to serve his god. then we had a zone confrence that was based on thje atonement. it was incredible and i got was the translater into malagasy. i have been asked to translate quite often and because of that my notes are slim and non excistant hahahaha but i feel i get so much out of it and god blesses me to remember amm that was taught as i reiterize it to my fellow brethereen. watch a talk by brad wilcox called " his graceis sufficient" its amazing. i loev this gospel and this life. i will do all i can.<br /></div>
be fitiavana mandrakizay<br /></div>
elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-50075344173555412952013-06-19T19:00:00.003-07:002013-06-19T19:00:58.303-07:00June 17, 2013<br />
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hey dad.<br /></div>
thank you for the encouragement. i do know that when i get home it will be a different world full of termoil and a lot more work to stay close to the spirit. but it is possible to do such a thing haha. i just have to try. and always put god first; then he shall bless me in my journeys path.<br /></div>
my mission has in no scene been easy or a breeze. i have had challanges that fall under many catagories and have learned to overcome. our missions sound very simular. the experiences we encounter and things we learned. and i am so greatful for that. there so no one else i would rather share so many experiences with than you.i really appreciate you dad and really missed you yesterday as it was fathers day. i felt pretty far from you and the family and just felt it was time to go back hahah. i love you so much and cant wait to see you again. but i am focusing on my mission and my investigators. you can talk about me all you want in your talk on the 30th haha. enjoy. give me a good introduction.<br /></div>
you gotta be excited about not going to any more awards nights for a while!! but your not quite out of the weather yet tehre . you still got tons of grandchildren who are gunna want dada be bates there. haha. sorry. it never really truely ends. but enjoy the illusion while it lasts. its exciting for emily that she got an award. i also go most valuable forward. it just sits there on my wall. haha. i might put it on a resume i will never need hahahhaa. but its nice in the moment and she learned something of disipline from the sport i hope. and much of integrety. our family is now really old. no more children in the main line. they are all pretty much classifided adults. by the law anyways. hahaha.<br /></div>
i definatly like the idea of a shope out back way better than the screen encloser. i never liked those things. i think if we worked hard and if you were serious about it we could get it put up before winter. it'd be nice for the trucks in that cold. haha. and it would make for a less clustered garage... just sayin. your the boss but i think we should do it! make a project out of it.<br /></div>
going to idaho will be nice. a nice little vacation just you and mom. or is emily going to? make sure to tell the family i say hey and to get there butts up to canada august 2013. itll be a party extravaganda they wont wanna miss hahahaha.<br /><br />charity is a great topic for my homecoming talk. i only gave 2 years to try and perfect it. i didnt even get close but i dented the surfice a little. and it gos along great with my fairwell talk wich was about sacrifice. just like yours is on the 30th. coincidence. haha. i am so happy to here that colter and dallin are doing good and still working together great. brings me so much joy.<br /> </div>
i hope the pictures i sent got to you. i am doing great. working hard trying to help the people i teach find the trueth of this life and the life to come. this week we were blessed with many spiritual times. people telling us how they have been looking for so long and hoped we could help them. this church is true above all other truths. i love it and i love you<br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakizay</div>
elder bates</div>
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(sorry about the sideways pictures, I am havin a heck of a time trying to get them to rotate on here)<br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">now im lookin like somethin worth while</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">this is by far my best picture ever taken.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">"yo smithson!"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">fanirys birthday so we made him a cake! mmmm</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">elder rahamafadrahona</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">, my comp, fairy, me and elder nuef with a delicious cake from a box.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">mmmm this is called sonjo. its a root like thing grown here. its delicious with sugar. you boil it first and it iurns out like potato</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">me again</span></div>
Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-19259958102290535552013-06-10T12:55:00.001-07:002013-06-10T12:55:09.668-07:00June 10, 2013<br />
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so. i hope i made up for the lack of pictures this past few weeks.... i sent 10! haha<br /></div>
dear dad.<br /></div>
so whenever someone is sick we try to go out with arronich priesthood. but its the school year and they are all in school. so it was just me and him. with not much to do hahahha. noro is great as ever. way excited about learning and things. she couldnt come to church this past sunday because she had some meeting at a hospital but promised to come next week. we are teaching them about the plan of salvation and they love it. they always have alot of questions. always catholic based questions. wich are sometimes fun to answer haha.<br /></div>
going to lethbridge must have been so much fun. even just for the weekend. seeing the grandkids and things. going to emilys rugby game. pretty dang fun if you ask me. also riding mary!! pretty jelous about that. me and bevan are the only guys in the family who havent gotten to drive that beauty now..... im sad to here that they didnt getthe gold at provincials. but i am way proud emily got a tri!!! and its funny to here how skinny dallin is when i havent gotten much pictures of him. haha i can only imagine. i am actually gaining a little wait again here with all the rice mamma be is feeding me every night. its like in america. where missionaries get fat. haha<br /></div>
thats cool that they had a combined ward thing at church. and iteresting that they changed the bounderies once again. its all because of all those mormons who live down by lakeland ridge. haha they are going to be tehre own ward soon. so what are the bounderies now. whatare the separating roads? i feel like when i get home i am going to know nobody in the ward beacuse of all the new people and now this boundery change haha. oh well. itll be fun.<br /></div>
im glad you got to go to sydenys fairwell. it ounds like your sunday was super busy and crazy. thats way fun though. getting to go all the way out to devan, then spend some time with friends in bonnie doon. definatly a fullfilling day huh. im glad spencer is doing so good. i wrote him a couple times since being out here but didnt get a reply. thats how it has been with all the others though as well. missionaries just get to busy to write eachother hahaha. we will all swap stories back at home. so carrissa is dating that brock guy?? thats cool. im glad she is planning on going on a mission. its crazy shes almost 19. cool. i am way happy for her.<br /></div>
i heard about robyn running over that pipe. its a good things things ended up working out well though. and that they got home safely.<br /></div>
so you bought mom a highlander huh!? thats way cool!!! what you gunna get me when i get back huh??? im a sucker for a chevy. hahahahahhaha just kidding. imma get a motor bike...... then go cruising with colter. :P <br /></div>
i am doing really good. working hard as always. we had some fun this friday doing service. we went out and dug a pool to put fish in and then when that was done we planted sonja. wich is an african plant kinda like a potato but purple spects throughout it and really bland... but you eat it with coconut or surgar and it tastse delicious!!! and we used lots of fertilizer to plant them!! hahaha they guy we were doing it with just starts diggin in with his hands and we fallowed suit. he just smilled at us and said. " its all biological my friends" hahahaha. so that was fun. another damper on the schedual is the new curfew we have until the elections are over. we now need to be in by 8 every night. silly. oh well what can you do. i guess its for the best right. other than that i am doing good. struggling to help my investigators. tired as ever. patiently waiting to go home. working till the end. haha buti am looking forward to seeing you all.<br /></div>
love ya tons<br /></div>
be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates</div>
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me and faniry and elder rahamafadrahona</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">thats the floor of the school we helped recement</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">we went and farmed a little friday. haha</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">wich ment cow poop!!!! hahahaha</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">yup. thats the poop</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">its all biological i assure</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">good day of work:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">me at a didy poatra...</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">beautiful winter sunset in madagascar</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">just a good lookin white guy.</span></div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-68280722747910902462013-06-10T12:46:00.002-07:002013-06-10T12:46:55.806-07:00June 3, 2013<br />
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haha sounds like a wirl wind for sure back there. you gotta love that though. its crazy hard when your in it but then when y ou look back there is so much to ponder on and learn from. where as if there is no wirlwind then you look back and see what? a semi blank page. thats kinda how my week felt in a sence. my companion was sick tuesday and wednesday so we didnt leave the house........ those 2 days were kinda a blank page and i did not like it. but there has to be things we learn and progress in. and ther definatly was this week.<br /></div>
the needle was definatly clean and brand new!!! and i may only have contracted a cold from the whole ordeal haha. i sneezed 14 times in a row yesterday. blech. oh well i am not someone to stay home for a minor cold..... but i do remember somewhat the story you told me of your tests in peru. but i didnt remember all of it and definatly got a laugh at your experiecne. haha its alot like it is here. the woman nurse who put my needle in stabbed me hard!!!! the bruise was there up until yesterday!!! hahaha today i can barely see it. but they are things we will charish and laugh at forever.<br /> </div>
dang provincials are going to be so dang exciting!!! filled with adreniline. with challenges. gotta love it. i am excited for emily. and seeing as the have so many stinkin points they have very very good odds of winning provs this year!! thatll be way fun. personally i think emily should go up early with you and go to the party. it might be a little more enjoyable. less alcohol..... wich thing i hate most in this world. but i am sure she will choose what she thinks is best. and its way crazy that emily is graduated!! pretty crazy to think about. and what a cool way to celebrate it by going to a performance at the winspire. lucky duck.<br /></div>
thats a pretty scary thing for nani to go through. all though she looked fairly well in the pictures you sent. big smiles. i am glad she is ok for now. its good to know that they know the problem. a leaky pipe! haha shouldnt we call a plumber or something?? just kidding i really hope we can get it fixed and fast.<br /></div>
i think what you were thinking about just going up to the vanbruggen reunion friday is a good idea. that way we can get more things in. itll be a busy time. we can go home first. and make sure to let people know my homecoming talk and stuff. i was just shooting out ideas. but whatever works best floats my boat. i am just excited to see family. especially you guys.<br /></div>
its pretty crazy kenseys got a baby now! i remember when she was first starting to date that boy and she was all smiles all the time. right before i left on my mission we went to dinner and she told me she was probably going to marry him with a big smile on her face. i am so happy for her. its such an amazing thing to be able to bring new life into this world. make sure she knows i say congradulations.<br /></div>
so i am doing really well. home is definatly on my mind alot but i am trying to get through that. its just something thats going to be there no matter what and i just have to cope with it. when im working its less present. but it didnt help that my companion said he was to sick to work tuesday and wednesday...... the days pasted slowly. hahaha i got two letters on thursday. one from mamma behr and then the other form sydney bates! they were both great letters. sydneys was way nice to get. you can tell them that i got the letters and that i am going to send replies this week. i might just send my reply to syndey to her mission adress. as letters take a while. but other than that we did get things done this week. we teach a girl named noro who is confined to a wheel chair. we have taught her 4 times now and she ahad a huge desire to go to church. so we picked her up and took her there. wich is a task here in madagascar with no car and she lives at the bottom of a big hill hahaha. but it was definatly well worth it. she enjoyed chruch and couldnt stop asking about baptism. i am excited for her. we also went out to ambohimanambola and recemented the floor of a school we volunteer at every tuesday. they people really appreciated it and we brought many members with us. it was a mormon helping hands project. it went well. and the director of the school is strongly considering baptism right now so i pray that helps him. then on a personally exciting basis there is a member woman in my ward whos name is sister nivo we stop by very often as some of her kids are not members. we went and bought her 50 kg of rice and so now whenever we dont have a dinner appointment we go to her house and she feeds us delicious malagasy food!!!! :D hahaha i hate cooking it at home cause it takes forever but she said she would do it for me till i went home. she considers me one of her kids. i really love her family. he daughter started coming to churchagain as well the past couple weeks so its really nice. but thats about it for me. just going strong trying to do the lords work. i love you and am so excited to see you all again. give emily a big hug for me. oh ya and hesston turned the big 8 yesterday huh!!? that is way exciting. i am so excited to see him get baptised!!<br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates </div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-561659651677618292013-05-27T06:56:00.000-07:002013-05-27T06:56:41.806-07:00May 27, 2013<br />
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yes we did get the flight plasns. crazy huh?? ill be in germany for like 5 hours!! haha i wish i could go look around. jump over to holland for a quick visit. i have really found an interest in my heritage since being here on the mission. </div>
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well should work out alright with the family reunion i guess. hopefully president mendenhall can just release me that day and we head straight up there. itlle be pretty cool to see the whole family. well moms side. right that first week. i remember you telling me the story of you reading the time wrong and running franticly through the airport trying to get everyone out on the tar mac. i was also flight leader when we came here and we didn really have any problems other tha nthat one elder was going to travel separate from us for some of the trip wich i didnt feel comfortable with. but we talked to so me people and they got it is so we were all together on the same flight. but that was the only problem. i remember paying some african dude a a bunch of rands to take us to the terminal we were supposed to go to in south africa cause we were pretty lost there hahahahaha. but i think i will be find going home. though i am somewhat a country boy i think ill be able to find my way throug hthe airports. itll just be weird to be alone for such a long time.... haha a whole day with no companion. might be a nice break... lol. </div>
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kensey has a baby!!?? wow. thats freakin crazy. i would not have thought she would be the first. hahaha but i love beeing proven wrong. tell her i say congradulations!!!! that is so exciting, and i am sure brother lambert is pretty excited about it. just remember back when hesston was born. you were pretty darn proud to. and its pretty crazy that emily is graduating. that is way sucky that she doesnt have a date! why doesnt she just ask matt to go to the whole thing with her!!? grad is lame anyways. haha. the parties and everything... just kinda pointless. oh well. i know its important to her. so i hope she has a good time.</div>
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well as long as you didnt actually spend the money on the thing on a sunday i think its fine that you went and took it for a test drive. no big deal. and its not liek there was anything better to do. but if you had the money sitting in your pocket or something thinking of buying it that day then you woulda got an ear full. hahahaha. </div>
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i am so sorry to hear about mom hitting that poor old woman. it is something that sounds pretty unavoidable by the sercomstances mom told me. i am glad that the woman will be ok and hope that her family can understand what happened and not be angry or try to sue or something silly like that. mom soundsed pretty shook up in her letter she sent me.... but i am sure she will be able to find peace in the matter soon. and i am so happy that the police were nice to mom... because we havent had the best experiences with the rcmp in the past. but i am glad this time was different. its one thing when the police make dallin ball but if they were to make my mom ball i think i would feel a little stronger about it. haha. </div>
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its crazy that brady got married last week. so quick after getting home. lucky guy. lol but i am srue the girl he found is fantastic. and i am happy for him. nobody even told me he was engaged hahaha. i found out he was getting married from sister leslie in her letter to me 2 weeks ago. </div>
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sorry about the pictures. this week i dont actually have any to send you... oops. but this week we have a ton of service planed and will be taking many pictures. donty worry. but this week was long and tiring and taking pictures arent the first thing on my mind anymore. think about ti. are they the first thing to come to your mind throughout the day. oh i should take pictures... haha i dont think so because your just so used to everything around you. kinda what its like wtih me. i am so sorry. i will take a bundle this weeka nd send them to you. i promise. but i am doing good. working hard. we were tricked into giving blood on wednesday wich is a funny storey. so tuesday night we stopped by a members house to say hello and naturaly i asked if he need any help.. and to my suprise he looked at me and said yes i do. he said his mother in law was sick at the hospital and they needed help the next day. natuarally i thought they wanted us to give her a blessing. wich is what usually happens. nothing new. so we go the next morning to the hospital and meet them and then all of the sudden i am in this little room with a man and he is asking me if i have diabetes...... now i have been to madagascar hospitals many times and that is not what happens when you walk into the door. so i asked why he was questioning me and he gave me a confused look and said "oh your giving blood" hahahah so i imediatly called my mission president to see if it was even aloud. where he answered. "hmmmm good question..... let me look at my book." lol then continiued to tell me to be srue they wore cloves and wiped down with alcohol and used a clean needle. so i made sure....... hahahaha and i was the first missionary in mada to ever voluntaraly give blood followed by my companion. pretty funny story. and i am still alive with no deseases. i know that by now you are probably phone in hand dailing the mission president but i assure he knows what he is taklking about when it comes to medical talk and if we would have been in any danger he would have put the red flag up imediatly. hahaha. just another day in mada. i love you so much and am excited to se you. try not to remind me to much on how little time i have less here..... hahahahah </div>
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be fitiavana mandrakizay</div>
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elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-52885551575928001432013-05-20T07:44:00.001-07:002013-05-20T07:44:20.596-07:00May 20, 2013<br />
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dear dad!<br /><div>
<br />i am so greatful that you can be greatful for the challenges in your life. for i am also truely greatful for those trials and mountains god asks us to climb in order to learn wisdom. that great hulility and submissive spirit that we must have . " for except you become as this litttle child ye shall not enter into the kindom of my father" i am so greatful for all that the lord does choose to give me in this life. how he does test me. for through that i can learn more and more. every day. and i know you feel the same way.<br /></div>
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haha i am not going to lie i had a feeling that me telling you the transfer possibilities would make you toss and turn a little. and its funny when i walked into the office and talked to sister cornilleous and she told me that she had just talked to you then told me my realese date. and i know you were wondering when she asked if you were from salt lake that if they were going to accidently send me to salt lake buti highly doubt that was the case... haha she is just an oldlder lady that forgot i was from canada. but the church knows. hahaha. kinda wierd now that there is a day. not really real in a sense still. lol but at the same time makes my days here in madagascar truely numbered. but i just think about the work. hahaha you talked to fred at frist. he is a secretary in the office.... he is sister cornilleouses right hand man. he served in south africa for his mission and is pretty good at english but the accent is hard to get used to. so i am sure it would have been fairly difficult for you to comunicate with him. i can only imagine you trying to talk to him. it makes me laugh. but it looks like i will be coming home right in the middle of the family reunion right? sorry if that s somewhat inconvinient for any of our family. but i have a feeling it might make it more convenient in some ways. i am truely blessed because i will be able to see many family members that week that might not have come the long distances they need if the family reunion was not that week. where us the family reunion anyways? is it at that lake again? i cant remember how far away it is from the house...oh welll. it will all work out.<br /></div>
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it must be nice that you finished spring cleanups!! i am sure it is a weight off your shoulders! and that you could find help. its good that you are so service minded and will do anything for the customers. that is a great quality of yours. the neilsons are very nice people as well and have been great customers for a long time. and dont worry about climbing up on that steep roof anymore. next spring i will be ther eand i still have the bravery and hard head of a young man. you can just move the tarp at the bottom. hahaha. taylor has always like doing lawn maintanence. he always looked for opportunities to work for you or do it himself. but i guess he sees something in being a machinist... wouldnt be my first pick though. has we can clearly see haha. </div>
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hahaha mom wrote me and told me not to listen to a word you said about the glasses thing. but it is funny. it made me laugh. im sure she was a little embarassed by it though.<br /></div>
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where did you guys eat with nani and grampi? it made me laugh in nanis letter where she said they had changed there diets and werent eating fast foods anymore but i guess he just cant give up that royal buffet..... sooner or later it will go too... hahaah.<br /></div>
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emily always is nice and busy this time of the year. i hope her math went well and that she will be able to graduate. i havent heard about that and am afraid it is a touchy subject.<br /></div>
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i am glad that you can have dinner with the missionaries so much. they really do appreciate it. but not only that. they appriciate it when you bring friends...... hahahahaha just sayin. it makes a missionaries day when you invite them over and have one of your wide eyed unexspecting friends sitting there in the living room.... definatly a good thing. and elder brown sounds very simular to elder bates here. i am sure that they are alot alike wich means that elder brown has a great desire and even greater heart.<br /></div>
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i am doing great and working hard. we had a great blessing this week where a man named mamy came to church this week. he is a great man with a great love for his family but has been out of work for a long time. we have been teaching him for 2 weeks. his family is already members. his wife baptised in 1997. but he never joined the church. but he started spending time with him and getting to know him through teaching him and he has committed to changing his life. it has taken him over 10 years to accept the gospel. he almost went through with it in 2009 but at the death of his daughter at birth he stopped accepting missionaries. but we went back right at the right time. he was humbled. and ready to recieve the gospel. we will bring great blessings to his family through the holy priesthood of god in these next coming years. he as a broken heart and contrite spirit. and i am truely greatful to heavenly father for blessing him with this gospel. i am still going over here trying not to think about home haha. my comp doesnt help me sometimes as home is all he thinks about but we get along great and are very honest with eachother. that is a great quality to have. honesty. i thank my heavenly father daily for this great gospe l and the opportunity i have to serve him. i will continue in this truthfullness my whole life. i am also so very greatful for you and mom. the great powerful example you have for me and you love you show me. i cant wait to work with you the rest of my life. to learn from you even more.<br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-65251369320533702152013-05-13T08:16:00.002-07:002013-05-13T08:16:49.144-07:00May 13, 2013*Mothers Day is one of Two Times a year Missionaries can call their families (the other is Christmas) and so yesterday we all got to talk to Riley! And it was so great to hear his voice, although he definitely has a different accent then when he left and talks really fast, at one point I had to ask him to slow down so that I could better understand him. I think I speak for all members of Riley's family when I say that we feel very blessed to have him in our lives. He is doing great and plans to finish his mission with as much zest and zeal as when he entered it, if not more! I know that the Malagasy people will always have a bit of his heart.<br />
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Not too much longer until he will return from his mission, the next three months are going to fly by!<br />
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And even though we just spoke to him he still sent us a letter!<br />
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dear dad. <div>
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how wonderful it was to hear and speak with you and mom and the whole family. it brought so much joy. i am so glad that everybody is doing good right now. that they all feel like they are doing what they need to. we have all been raised by the same amazing mother and father. </div>
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life sounds busy for all. and i am glad work is going good... </div>
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i as you know am doing great. just striving to do as the lord wants me to do. getting everything i can out of my mission before that dreadful day on a plain. then the day after that it is of course a wonderful day. tell everybody back home i miss and love them. i am so excited to see people. though i can wait a little longer. </div>
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be fitiavana mandrakizay </div>
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elder bates </div>
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and a little from Lyndi's letter too.<br />
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... am really doing great. working hard. trying to serve the lord. bearring strong testimony. an incredible blessing i had. it inovolves to men and the book of mormon. we tracted into both of them. there is no relation between them and they dont know eachother. but we found them both on the same day. so we have been teaching them slowly and the lesson came to the book of mormon. i went through explaining the sacred book as i had many times before. but in both these times there was a great feeling of the spirit. the to sceptical men both ended up telling me in seprate times that they have been searching a long time for the trueth much like joseph smith. they both promised me to read the book and pray if its true. they both haev troubles excepting baptism. but i nkow that these men are important to god. and that there is a conversion power in that great book. that holy ancient scripture. i pray to god that they will find what they have been searching so dilligently for in the book of mormon. i know that it can bring countless blessings unto there families. i love god and this work. i love the spirit wich i can feel so abundantly every time i bare testimony of this great gospel. </div>
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be fitiavana mandrakizay</div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">elder bates</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">service!!!! we were just walking to a time and saw two women shoveling out this canal. so we took over. they loved it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">these were the women shoveling. they loved us. we invited them and ther family to church and went on our way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">elder Smithson verse the gremlins</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">tuesday we went to a school way out in nowhere land and helped teach. it was a blast. we are going to do int every tuesday morning.</span></div>
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me <span style="font-family: Helvetica;">and elder smithson really love doing service! we shovel dirt</span></div>
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ya. thats how much i love rice....especially when its slightly burnt and swimming in water like that. delicious!!!!!!!!! (*sorry I couldn't get the picture to rotate... just turn your head a little.)</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-79745959761729475632013-05-06T07:55:00.005-07:002013-05-06T07:55:58.537-07:00May 6, 2013<br />
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dear dad<div>
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if i didnt take the work whole heartetly and put my back into it then as president bringham young says i would go and return in vain. i have an incredible opportunity for 2 years to be completely submissive to the lord. and i need to take advantage. haha hopefully i can find a woman who will keep me on track with my desire to continue in the work of the lord once i get home from my mission just as you did. and it is very true what you say, that wealth brings people to lean less and less on god. its a sad thing. but it will make the work of a missionary that much more rewarding. </div>
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that is a really late start to spring clean ups! ythat is crazy. who is doing the other churches if you are taking care of 6 of them? i bet its nice to have mich bag working for you for the summer. shave a young back hauling all the grass hahaha. is doug still working for you as well?? i always loved coming home after spring clean ups and seeing the black wash down the drain. now i am not even doing manual labour here. well not as much and its still the same. you just watch the crime from the air wash down the drain... pretty sad hahaha. but i know itll get cleaned up soon. </div>
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hahaha i cant even imagine what quality the food is at royal buffet... but i am sure it would be anything but barf compared to the stuff i love here! but it makes me laugh that grampie loves eating there so much. its just his place. just like yours is swish chalet. lol. and him going out with there minican in the wetest part of spring is pretty comical as well hahaha. he probably just forgot to turn on the 4 wheel drive haahaha. its a good thing your such a good son to go and pull him out though. even though you got muddy. </div>
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emily sounds liek she is killing it in rugby as usual! i wish i was there to watch! and play haha. hopefully i can find time next year to go and play again. but we will see. it would definatly keep me healthy. </div>
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oh and i had a question for you. does nait have any language classes? i want to take a french class when i get home. can i go to nait and grant mac at the same time? just a question hahaha. dont know how possible any of my thoughts are but just trying to get a gage of things to plan for in three months. you guys should be getting my flight plans here in about 2 weeks. then you send them to me. thats how it works. but i am pretty sure we go home the 14th of august. that s the most logical time. so i wont make the family reunion by a hair haha. oh well. its what the lord asks. </div>
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i am doing really good here working hard as usual. people tell me every day how malagasy i am hahaha. im sure going to miss this place when i leave. but for now i am just soaking it all in. looking forward to speaking to you all in 6 days!!! taht will be pretty awesome. tis my last phone call. then time really flys by. thats what people say anyways. lol. </div>
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one incredible and humbling experience i had this week was being the tool in the hands of god to spare a life of a lost soul. sos me and elder smithson were walking from a time when we saw a tiny little woman carrying a big back of charcole on her head. not unusuall but elder smithson picked the bag off of her head and carried it for her. then we returned and got the other one where i continued to carry it about a 1 km to the final destination. but in the middle of it all. as we got to the second bag. i saw there a woman sitting on a stool writing on a small piece of paper. her name is razanany delphine. these people were very very very poor. living out of cardboard boxs litterally and getting 2 dollars each bag of charcole. not enough to lvie on. but as i talked to the woman writing i learn that she used to work for an american man before the riots of 2003. then he went home and in subsaquence to that she had no job. he kids were homeless and she was living with family in a small town called moramanga. she had found a little work for her kids in order to get them food and such. and then the money that they made from that (about 45 dollars) was all stollen from her by one of her sons. the she had no money to take back to those that gave her the work. she couldnt give her children what they and there own families needed. so she was writing a small will. a suicide note. i pleaded with her to reconcider. to pray to god and trust that he loved her and would bless her. she gave me the small note in her hand and we parted in tears. to my knowlage she did not go through with taking ehr own life. i have kept that note as a reminder of her. that we might find joy together in heaven knowing that we endured to the end. i thank god that he trusted me to help delphine. he truly does love her. she is a lazarus of this earth and i know that she will recieve celestial glory along side us in heaven. if that is the only thing i did on my mission it would be worth it. but i have done so much more. and i thank god for such an opportunity. one i will never forget and always long for again. </div>
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be fitiavana mandrakizay</div>
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elder bates</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">me carrying the charcole bag they are heavey.....</span></div>
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me and delphines daughter and 2 kids after finishing the hike with the charcole haha</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">elder smithson with delphines daughter and 2 kids. she was the one origionaly carrying the bag. wic his about 100 pounds if i would gess.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">me and sister simonette. she is a member in our ward that just god her last leg cut of... she is a wonderful woman.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">a greatful man after seeing us carry the charcole for the women</span></div>
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we were invited to a birthday party in elder smithsons old area. they were a way cool family and me and the father really got along good. he was amazeed and how good i was at malagasy.... he was just flattering me haha</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-38531368442629205172013-05-06T07:49:00.003-07:002013-05-06T07:49:20.758-07:00April 29, 2013<br />
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hey dad. <div>
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i am glad you think i look good. i hope i look pretty studdly. and i dont write certain things in my letter to you because it gos up on my blog. so i know that lyndi lets you know the good of the things i write her and that you hear about it. and i know if its not straight from the studs mouth then it isnt the same but there are just some things not needed to go onto the blog. sorrY. so my apartment is me elder smithson elder neaf from organ and elder ramafadrahona. from here. ahahha. and its a good house. i lived with elder neaf already aback in tamatave. haha he is a funny guy. we are pretty good friends. when i taught solofo it was only going to be me but i sweet talked the gaurds into letting my comp come with me. god has blessed me with a way with people here in mada. so we god a little bit of a special cercomstance. </div>
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no snow huh!? and i thought we might see snow here it is so cold. to me. i dont actually know the tempt but i am sure its like in the teeens as well and i am freezing. i slept with a big old hoody on last night. and its not even the coldest yet. thats in june or so. i am dreading it. though i was born in january i have gotten scary used to the heat. spring cleanups so so dusty. i remember getting so dirty. i miss that! haha its amazing how much you miss stuff. is mitch still dating that one girl he new back from school? if so you should see if she has friends. he can talk me up hahaah. even get one or two of them to write me. ill work my magic hahahahahaha. just kidding. kinda. but seriously he could put in a word for me ;)</div>
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me not writing lyndi was not a cruel broth trick or a joke... haha it was pure tiredness and lose of mind. thats what happens on pday. just get lost in the crap. its my least favorite day other than the letters i get. </div>
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i think i got one card from leslie a while back. when did she send it? i can look in my stack of letters. but i havent gotten a letter since january so if she sent it after that then nope. havent gotten it. hahaha. thanks for the picture of mom. truely is a gem. and i like how you used the word courting.... hahaahah old man. i jsut found out though that there is a plant here that if you mush it up and put it in your hair it will grow back!!!!!!!! i will bring much back for the both of us!!! hahaha tthen we can look young again. lol. </div>
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me and my copmp elder smithson are doing great! having a ton of fun and we get along good. we are focusing on the blessings of god. we set goals and make plans just like the council in conference. we haev investigators working towards bap dates and are constantly finding new people. working hard to get the harvest of the field. i lvoe this work with all my heart and desire to do it the rest of my life. i hope i just dont get lost in teh craziness of life to do it. thank you for all you have taught me and do for me constantly . i love you with all my heart. </div>
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be fitiavana mandrakizay</div>
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elder bates</div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> me and elder smithson in a taxi.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> me and my mada mamma. she makes good rice haha. her name is nivo. shes a member but many of her kids are not. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">solofo and fara and me. he was the one in prison</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> me </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">and a member family. although the one is not yet a member/ but getting baptised in january. oh and the sisters are also in that picture. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">the lady putting on my comps socks... hahaha</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">cool flower.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">i think dad may have used a flip chart similar to this in his mission. is old. and out of date. not saying anythign about you though dad. your still hip</span></div>
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the baptism of nana and manga. i baptised manga. nanas father baptised her. </div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-23059703407106864292013-04-23T08:53:00.001-07:002013-04-23T08:53:23.237-07:00April 22, 2013<br />
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hey dad!<br /><br />i am truely lucky! i did get a chance to read your letter you sent<br />last week just briefly but had no time to reply! as you understand<br />time is short while on a mission. but i did read it and am greatful<br />for it. i know that my email time changes but it is not usually my<br />fault. computers dont work and we are busy trying to get things done.<br />pdays are always the most heckic! lol but i am truely sorry.<br /> i did not know you taught a prisoner in peru! that is very<br />interesting. i did teach solofo while he was still in prison. it was a<br />humbling experience and one i will never forget. the prisons here are<br />just grounds where you have time to rome around. practically no<br />matinence other than what the inmates do iwth there little supplies<br />they have. your family has to suply you with food and if you have no<br />one to give youfood the prison sells you a tree root one a day..... it<br />is scary in there but most the men were very humble. searching for<br />forgiveness. solofo now has a baptism date and is working towards it<br />slowly. i hope to help him truely change his life to what god would<br />have him be. what i see him becoming.<br /> i do have an gmail account. its... feel free to<br />imput that into the registration. but if the closing date is in<br />september then i wouldnt worry about it to much. i will have a couple<br />weeks to get that figured out when i am home. it is better if i dont<br />focus on it now. but feel free to get me registered if you can! hahaha<br />i wont go on the NAIT website untile i am home but i trust you to know<br />what to do.<br /> that trip to jasper sounds like it was way fun! and the mouse story<br />is one for the ages! hahha you and brother lambert both got a new<br />friend. and he really likes you guys by the sounds of it. did he chew<br />into your bag signifigantly or just a little? haha.<br /> i do miss playing rugby quite a bit. and i hope i can find time to<br />play when i get home but it is all about prioritizing. that picture<br />you sent of emily is great!! she is a rugby star!<br /> how old is colter turning 29? i believe that is the number. either<br />that or 28 but im pretty sure its 29. all i know is he is 7 years<br />older than me. oh well. i will be sure to write him a nice letter this<br />week. be sure to put my name on the card as well if you know what i<br />mean with that present hahaha.<br />agency. what a truely simple, inginious creation. god does glory in<br />simplicity i know it. but i truly loved president uchdorfs talk on<br />the matter of agency and sins and getting back up. using the example<br />as when a todddler learns to walk and he falls down do we schould him?<br />of course not. we pick him up and cheer him on in the right direction.<br />so it is for each one of us with god. he will always pick us up and<br />cheer us on in the right direction. so it has been through all of our<br />lives. and sooner or later that day comes where we no longer learn to<br />put one foot infront of the other. but walk smoothly along side our<br />savior. who so patiently waited by our side. how much joy i find in<br />the mercy and grace of christ. and his exalted excistence along side<br />the father. for as president eyring said, it shall be a glorious<br />homecoming where promises are fullfilled. i have had fasts and prayers<br />answered this past weekend as i listened to conference. pains and<br />worries lifted. i have put them on christ and do go serving him. that<br />is the wonder of the great sacrifice he made. and i will never turn<br />away from that.<br /> i am doing really well. working hard and finding joy along the way.<br />costantly reminded of the words of alma and his great desire to bring<br />"some soul unto repentence" in my mission i have been blessed to bring<br />more than just some. and am not through. i shall never be finished.<br />not until that great day of judgment.<br /> there was a transfer this week as missionaries go home. my malagasy<br />companion will be leaving me and i will be getting an american man<br />named elder smithson. he is about 6"4 and has a great heart. desires<br />to be obidient and servisable. and i have been blessed to get him as<br />probably my last companion. i look forward to working with him. we<br />shall learn together and find the blessings of god each and every day.<br />we have a baptism coming up on saturday of a woman named nana. her<br />husband doesnt come to church but has desire to change and follow. a<br />little seed will be planted as his wife gets baptised and leads the<br />way for exaltation for her family. she is a very humble woman who<br />serves the lord. i look forward to he baptism. as i look forward to<br />all those i teach to step closer to christ. what a great work this is.<br />something to keep us busy in this life haha.<br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">me desire and his son grabriel and his </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">daughter roseline. then one of his nephews i dont know very well</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">then the rugby one is a bunch of kids who live in one area a </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">go to alot and they love jumping on me and stuff. they are cute.</span><br />
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-13051354495657195302013-04-17T21:02:00.001-07:002013-04-17T21:02:53.828-07:00April 15, 2013*can we just put this out there that Riley's sister is a bit of a slacker lately when it comes to posting his emails. Seriously though.<br />
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dear dad.<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">so i didnt get your email this morning. i am sure your just still working on it and it will be like 3 pages long but i will look forward to reading it next week. my week was very good with lots of work. i have a man come to church straight out of prison! i had taught him and given him a book of mormon while in prison and then he was released saturday and came to church sunday. he has already read up into alma in the book of mormon. what a great blessing. he also has a family i have been teaching and the wife desires baptism but wants to be baptised alng with her husband. so we are working to teach him more. he was in prison for getting ina fight with a guy at a bar. nothing big but he was in there for 4 months and should have beena year. i have also been working hard on converting a mans wife to the gospel. she was just following her husband desire. then her son who is 18 desided to be baptised and prepare to go on a mision. now she wants all the books and asks lots of questions. she has a testimony. i explained to here how a missionary lives the law of consicration. she loved that. she was so amazed. i hope your week was good ad full of joy. sounds like it was from the other letters. love you so much and look forward to your letter next week </span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" /><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">be fitiavana mandrakizay</span><br style="font-family: Helvetica;" /><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">elder bates</span><br />
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thank you so much for your letter. i am so glad that you and dad and emily had so much fun with lyndi and the kids. that is always a great thing to hear. and lyndi wrote me on how much she enjoyed her stay there. she really appreciates ou and dad and all you did for her during the past two ad a half weeks. i remember going to that indoor playground above kinsmen and how lm much fun it was. getting a treat out of the machines. and then you would take us swimming. how i miss swimming hahaa. but i do also remember all the trips you took us on. and how dad would come and then have to leave early or not even go at all. but all of those trips. especially the palmyra one are what fill my mind. they are not just things i remember but they are the things i charish. and i hope you know how much i appreiciate you and dad and all the work you put into it. we did soo many amazing things. seeing niagra falls going to sea world. it was and will always be something i hold onto. i was so young then (9years old) and iwant to go back now as an older man to be able to truely charish all that was holy in that expirience. i remember sliding down the hil chamurah and things but what i truely reember in detail is how i could not take my eyes of that pagent for a minute. it amazed me. i wanted to be in it. i wished to experience it. oh how great it will be to understand and see all that was, all that is, and all that is to be. i truely look forward to that eternal day.<br /></div>
i am very jealous that you get to spend so much time in the temple. haha. it has been a while since i have been there and was not endowed very long before the mtc so i look forward to going to the temple. i remember singing that song and the missionary song in primary. now they have both become real. and what an amazing gift that is. i am sure your parents would have gloried in gratitude for a temple so close to there home. and i am sure they glory now in the fact that you can so freely partake of that great blessing. they do wait patiently in paradise to hear your incredibe stories and expiriences.<br /><br />i thank god every day for my opportuity to be a missionary. to serve him and give my life to him. i explained to a woman the consept of missionary service. giving your all. she was amazed. ehr son was recently baptised and excited for him to go on a mission in a year or so. i feel she will also enter the waters of baptism before i leave. i love you and thank you for the scriptures. mosia 4 is my favorite chapter i the book of mormon. i recently read it with an investigator. it is amazing words form a great king.<br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates </div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-20863973868575545762013-04-12T18:36:00.004-07:002013-04-12T18:36:53.824-07:00April 8, 2013<br />
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hey dad<br /></div>
it sounds like you are all havign such a good time with the opportunity you have to spend together. getting to play with all the grandkids and see so much family and feel so much love. i can only imagine the same thing in august. wich is coming up so soon. ive been gone for 20 months so far. so stinkin long. and hole snow batman! it will just barely be melted by the time i get home if its like that!!!!!!! i might get to go skidoing sooner than i excpected. hhaaha its starting to get cold here as well in the mornings (as in 20°C) so i know how yall are feelin hahaha. seriously though i am getting a cold. i am going to die when i get home.<br /></div>
moms new calling would be sooo great to have. she is so lucky! and it suits her so well. i miss the temple so much. i cant wait to go again. so many members have no idea what that really is. it was like me and a mission before i actually came here! haha; </div>
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thank you so much for all your support and love and prayers. i am doing well and working hard. i have seen many blessings this week. we are teaching a woman named hasina and she really desires baptism but her husband wanted nothing to do with it and they are married so she couldnt. we stopped in one day on an unplanned visit and to our suprise her husband rija was there! we taught him the restoration and we could see it really touched him. then saturday night we watched him preach to another family member of his who tried to argue our faith. it was truely a miracle from god. i love this work and would give nothing for it.<br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakizay</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-66745435908348085332013-04-12T18:36:00.001-07:002013-04-12T18:36:14.648-07:00April 1, 2013<br />
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dear dad<br /><div>
<br />so you beat lyndi out of the water this week dad. she didnt even write me one word! i am srue she is busy with children and visiting old friends though wich i understand.<br /></div>
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i am so glad that easter is your favorite time of the year. it is a very important thing that many people seem to think is all about a bunny with chocolate. but it is soo much more than that. christ has risen. he has risen! what a glorious miracle. what incredible sacrifice man has never known. and it is for all. and i am so greatful for christ and his atoning sacrafice. for if it were not for him i would have no perpose in this life. it is truely a great thing.<br /></div>
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your vacation souds like it was wonderful! that hotel sweet in the bighorn sounds huge! how much a night was that puppy. regina sounds like its life inside a popsicle. mmmm popsicle. and it did make me laugh your mentioning how you got your ear pierced. ive actually told a few people that stoy. they thought it was pretty funny. the best part was walking into the hospital and seeing the nurse try soo hard not to laugh hahaha. but lets be honest dad it really brought out your eyes. i still think you should have kept it. and i am glad that kasper had fun throughin rocks in the river and things. it would have been nice to be ther. but i am doing a much important work here. mitch is dating a girl from edmonton hey? that will be nice to have him workin for the summer. him and doug should lighten the load quite a bit for ya. oh and i will do nothing in my life if not live this gospel the best i can. and getting married to a women with the same goal is very important. but i am not to worried about that.<br /></div>
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no i have not heard anything about a locust inffestation. there are plenty of infestations in this poor sad country though so i wouldnt be suprised. but its not in the city yet. and i did get the pictures you sent last week thank you very much! and i also got some colter sent. his beard is just an april fools joke right? its clued on or somethin. thats rediculous. and i am truely sorry to tell you that my computer is again quite stubborn and will not let me send any pictures. but we did have a baptism this week. grabriel and rose. desires son and daughter. and desire said that he plans on getting baptised in june!!! so exciting. and we are laboring in the spirit to find more who are ready for this gospel. i love you so much and our wonderful family that you so willingly provide for. mothers day is just around the corner and then its home. scary thought. enjoy conference next week. i hope all will take the time to focus on the words the lord wants us to hear. modern scripture.<br /></div>
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elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-77733722555896561492013-04-12T18:35:00.000-07:002013-04-12T18:35:10.745-07:00March 25, 2013<br />
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hahahaha i am sure lyndi will laugh when you tell her this but her letter was longer than yours yet again.... sorry. but yours was still incredibly impressive!! and i am so appreciative for all the time you put into writing me in such great detail.<br /></div>
sorry you didnt get my letter till later last wek!! my schedual changes acording to what we need to do so i didnt email till the afternoon last week. but i am writing this so that it should get to you by about 1 over there hahah. sorry about last week. we went to the lemur park way early so that we could feed them and so we dodnt get to email later.<br /></div>
30 cm is a ton of snow to get in one dump!! and i am sure your hard just droped as soon as you saw that. but it never stops amazing me the blessings of the lord. just reading about all the things that happened to you during a 24 hour period or so and still getting all the work done and making it to regine the day after is sooo amazing. davis is s stud for going to help you. how tall is that kid now 7 foot!!?? those long arms and legs of his wpimd push the snow nicely i am sure. and how great of emily to go help you as well though she did tell me it was reluctently hahahaha. and then the pinched nerve was even worse i am sure. emily wrote me this week and told me i shouldnt take over the business. i take that as a sign that she didnt like it on friday lol. but funnilly enough all the snow and things going wrong do not even begin to give me cold feet. it just gets me excited to go out and experience it myself. to learn from it all. i can think of nothing else i would want to do more in my life than work outdoors along side with you. so dont worry. i am pretty tapak-hevitra. <br /></div>
that is so incredible that you got a call from a young man in peru!!! i can imagine how good that felt for you! i hope i can have that as well. to have those you stived with and loved for so long remember you and make effort to contact you is a great blessing from the lord.i know that i can recieve the same blessings if i am dilligent and endure to the end just as you have strived to do your whole life.<br /></div>
just chillin at lyndis huh??? hahah you talk with emily to much huh dad. pickin up the slang lol. i am truely jelous that you are just chillen at yackity lyndis. though she wasnt so talkative this week..... ya your letter was much longer than hers... haha im funny right. but she did make it a point that she did it on purpose so that you could win once.... and you might cry when i tell you this next part. but the computer i am on is refusing to let me send pictures..... im sorrY. youll have to wait till next week. but i am truely jealous of your free time to go and cisit all of the family! though you definatly deserve it i wish i was with yall! haha even with screamin kids in the car for 6 hours. i dont even think the people here have heard of a car seat. those who do have cars just let the kids run around and hold the little babies in their arms and nurse them the whole time so that they do not cry.<br /></div>
church sounded very enjoyable. the lesson on improveing ourselfs every day sounds great. we had a combine relief society priesthood thing and a couple missionaries came and taught about temple work. it was a great lesson and many many gained from it. all of our investigators that were there were so excited to go to the temple its a wonderful thing.the temple truely is sooo important. andi hope that all can one day convienietly benifit from a temple. we are almost there. just gotta gett into the very corners.<br /></div>
ya s oabout the rat.... i am not sure if i was the source of its death or not but all i know is i was contacting a man on the sidewalk and we sat down to talk to him and i leaned into the gras sand got up and the malagasy helping us was all like. whats that on your arm??? and i was like, i dont know. and then he pointed at the dead rat in the grass and the puzzle pieced itself together. i went and bought a waterbottle and washed my arm and then thourouly washed with hand sanitizer. you seem to think that we arent very sanitary here. the country may not be sanitary.... but we try to be. and i have been very healthy throughout my mission sickness wise. the last thing i want is a serious desease that will affect me for the rest of my life. and i ma glad that your hand has cleared up!.<br /></div>
so my week has been very very good. again full of gods blessings. it is hard to have a bad week when you really start lookin and watching. we have had mpre less active members come back to church and investigartors are progressing toward baptism. we have 2 people getting baptised on saturday. gabriel and rose. you ahve seen them in my pictures. the are desirees kids. desire is very dilligent but his wifes family has denied him marrying her because they are already finished the malagasy way. but that was another blessing we have seen. we talked to the family and have been teaching them and they really really like the lessons and because of that i feel like desirees baptism will be coming shortly wich fill my heart with such joy. we have also been teachinga man named jerry who has really been putting me through the ringer hahaha. he is a 20 year old very educated man and prays with the jehovahs witnesses. he is semmingly very curious about his chuch and i have had incredible desire to help him find the fullness of truth. i fell desire for all those i teach but for some reason my soul has been vexed as i have struggled to teach jerry. this week we talked to him about how our spirits do not die when our bodies die wich is exactly opposite of what he has learned. but he went through the bible and malagasy is a great language but it doesnt have many descriptive words.for example. soul and spirit are one ward in malagasy. but in french and english and hebrew they are 2 very different words. and jerry likes to read in french so we explained how the scriptures he showed us were about the sould dieing. wich is your body and spirit combined. and then we told him that we agree that our sould dies at death and awaits the reserection. it seemed to really gett him thinking and i am so incredibly greatful for god that he prepared me throughout the week for that. we also got a call from one of our old recent converts. because our area was very big it got spil and half of it went to the sisters. so a member who lives in a fairly remote area of the sisters area called us saying her brother in law was very sick and needed to be tended to. so we called the sisters and headed out there. the man said he had a pain in his abdamin that would climb up into his chest and make him cough and shake uncontrolably. it was aparent that something was causing this man great pain. his name was modeste. so we taough about faith and athority and offered to give hima blessing if he had faith enough to be healed. he humbly said that he had the faith and we continued with the blessing. the power of god is an incredible gift given to us and can bless those if we are worthy. there were many in the house and i was so greatful for the spirit as we gave him a blessing because here there are so many horribly wrong ideas about casting out devils that there is always bound to be something wrong or weird happen. but this time there was nothing but the feeling of the spirit. and modeste was healed. straight after the blessing the pain left him. that will stand as a testimony to many and will bring many unto this gospel. god knows his sheep. and they are counted everyone. i love this work with all my heart and though i long to be home i know that i have more to do here to bless the lives of these people wich i lvoe so much. i pray you will be sage and find so much joy in your vacation this week. i dont know if i will ever beable to show the gratitude i feel towards you and mom for all you have done for me. know that i am doing my best here and walking along side the angels of god.<br /><br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakizay</div>
elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-32002529906239606472013-03-18T18:39:00.001-07:002013-03-18T18:39:24.692-07:00March 18, 2013dear dad. oh how i do miss the snow........<br /><br />sounds like march came in like a lion for sure. but you have to be thankfull for that because that means you can drive around the western side of t he country with the coming of the lamb. ( double meanings as it is easter) haha and mom sounds equaly as busy as you are. wich is always good to here. working on sundays is a hard one. and i know that its completely justifiable in our business. but iwont lie i see it ruin the spirituality of so many here. so i am scared of it. though i know that it is something that needs to be done. if not then who would have plowed the north steak center. you plow the fort sask hospital now??? good memories there huh? hahaha that was probably one of the times in my life where i laughed the hardest in my life when they shot that stuff in my arm....... your a funny guy dad. and i realiwed that the change from winter to somer is an incredible thing that lifts our spirits. but if its just hot all the time or just cold then there is no real variety and no real seasonal uplifting. i dont know if you felt the same in peru but 2 years of summer is tiring. and really its three years for me because i left at the end. so the summer before my mission and the summer now intercolide. hahaa lots of my sweat has watered the grounds of madagascar. lol<br /><br />mom told me all about the ysa conference and then i asked her if she put in a good word for me with any of the ladies there hahaha. im sure she did alot of bragging about her son in madagascar ;) but i sure do miss those crousont sandwiches she makes and is so delicious! haha i am sure the whole confnrence was a blast and that the people really enoyed mom and nats food! im jealous for sure! and my mouth is watering. all though today we went and ait at this american food place that was just build and its like fast food and i dont think my tummy has hurt so much since i was first in country!!! i am going to have a hard time when i go back home i am thinking hahaha. i am just used to rice. <br /><br />be carefull when you drive eh!!!!! going of the road like that hahaha. that must have been scary pulling onto the road to such a close call. i am truely happy that the lord does hear my prayers as i ask him constantly throughout the day to protect my family. although that inffection in your hand sounds fun... i hope that heals up soon. haha and dad you might have to start really hinkin hard about things to write to get lyndi bet...... she has got the long letters to a T. hahaha and i will be sure to ask elder bates faharoa if he knows his razambe. aza manahy! it would be cool if we were related! <br /><br />i am doing really really well. working hard and looking for blessings. wo blessings we had this week were 2 priesthood holders that were inactive both returned to church this past week. what a blessing that is. in this area we have two things we do. we tract and we work with less actives hahaha. and i love it. the two best things to do. find new people and make the old new again. we should have some baptisms on the 30th but people are having a really hard time leaving sigars and stuff. it sucks but we are working very hard with them. and i love it. this will probabyl be my last area on my mission and i will probably hae one more companion and i am so excited to see what the future has. thank you so much for your letter. i cant wait to here from you next week. enjoy the pictures! love you! <br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates<br /><br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/18/2500.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/18/s_2500.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='158' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />more lemurs!<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/18/2501.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/18/s_2501.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='158' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />these two are my hommies! <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/18/2502.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/18/s_2502.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='158' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /> stare down<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/18/2503.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/18/s_2503.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='158' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /> nobody beats me in a stare down<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/18/2504.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/18/s_2504.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='158' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />you cant see me<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/18/2505.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/18/s_2505.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='158' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />whats that red stuff on your arm???<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/18/2506.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/18/s_2506.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='158' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />does that answer the question......<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/03/18/2507.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/03/18/s_2507.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='158' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /> pretty flower.<br /><br /><br />Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-55327305892756347042013-03-11T07:10:00.000-07:002013-03-11T07:10:24.225-07:00March 11, 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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so 8 pictures have been sent for you seeing pleasure! i hope you like it!!! paiges talk sounds soo good! i am so glad she decided to go on a mission! she will work miricles for the lord. all who go on a mission will. i am glad that you can find comfort in the talks from the ensign. the last liahona we got was november haha so by the time this months gets here i might be home already but that talk sounds ver inspirational fro the quote you gave me. i am glad. i pray every day for all those in our family who have stepped of the path to have a desire to return to the gospel. the cat doesnt think about how hard it is to climb up the tree. though straining on his muscles he still climbs for the fun of it. then finaly reaching the branch he saw he realizes how he cant get back down and starts calling for help. so are we as humans. where we dont think of the consiquences of our decisions untill we cant get down from that tree of sin on our own. then we must all call to the lord for help. every knew shall bow and talk shall confess. we shall all call for help one day. but how great our reward in heaven if we call now.. christ stands fully prepared to catch us and hep us.<br /></div>
mom and you both talked about how much deep cleaning you have been doing lately! that is pretty nice i am sure! and having the office upstairs will be a pleasure! the basement shall be all mine!!!!! mwahahaha. how exciting i am for that! mom told me she was very suprised when she found you deep cleaning the garage! whatch as you are gunna need something next week that you just chucked hahahaha. then youll laugh. you gotta hate those monkeys on your back though. i find the best way to get a monkey of your back is to show him a banana and through it really far. itll keep him occupied for a while.<br /></div>
i dont think i will really overcome the homesickness bug till i am home. but thats alright. i can work with it. i just miss my family. i have realized through this experience how important the family truely is in our lives and how eternal it can be. and i wanna go back to that hahaa. but i love this work more and that is why i stay. and for that god will bless my family. and that is what i pray for. this week has been full of blessings as we continue to tract and hunt down the chosen of isreal. we invite all to come unto christ. as we have started tracting we have been blessed. the very first day of tracting the very first house let us in. and not only let us in but listened so intently to the leson. and then as we visited they had more family over to hear our message. they also comitted to prepare for baptism and came to church. it is a true miracle from god that i will never forget. i have been reading the talks from november general confrence and president monsens talk about counting the blessings. its so great to see all the lord does for us. i shall always serve god over anything else. and i thank you for teaching me to do that. i love you.<br /></div>
be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates </div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">this is desiree and his family. one of the coolest guys i know. desiree is the one to my left. feno is to my right.</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> sitting waiting for someone and got bombarded by kids. way cute</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">i promised them i would send the picture over the seas haha. for all the world to see. they liked that</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">this is a new elder in the mission. his name is elder bates.......... haha no joke. he is from soda springs utah. we might want to see if we have relatives there. </span><br />
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<span style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica; text-align: -webkit-auto;">mmm rice</span></div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-84868115270157342922013-03-06T06:20:00.000-08:002013-03-06T06:20:03.991-08:00March 4, 2013<br />
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dear dad.<br /></div>
the camera is a little bit of a bummer but not to distapointing. i have over a thousand pictures saved on cds from my first year and a bit. so that is a blessing. and i sent many home from tamatave. and i already have a new little fuji film thing that works great. i will send some pictures next week. and the tracting is going good! i am also very adiment about asking for refferals so we are getting blessings. we have return apointments for this upcoming week and we will see how they go! :) but our schedual is still very open for door knocking. which i acctiually really enjoy!<br />feno is a great guy haha. he comes with us every day! and now even teaches with us. i cant ly though he reminds me alot of dallin. so i love being around him.<br /><br /></div>
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that must be nice that there was no real snow fall for you guys up in edmonton but that capital reagion keeps you busy! those gravel spreders sound like a task! its a good thing oyur so handy though. people in the mission tell me i am handy. i guess you rubbed off on me! hahaha poor colter though with the big dump he got... hahaha that sucks! nice thought of you though to go down and help him. to bad the roads are closed off.<br /></div>
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i bet going and listening to kokapelli was joyus! they sing such nice music and i am very jealous. and i cant imagine the party at the church with out laughing. a bunch of 40 blus dancing to a live band. kinda spells highschool reunion. but i am sure it was way fun to visit.<br /></div>
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i love that quote from president snow so much that i wrote it in my planner. that is awesome. i have found that i have also learned that concept through out my mission. the lord will make all the experiences in our life good unto us if we have the right intent and try with all our hearts. what a great blessing that is. i am doing great and working hard. a little home sick lately wich is hard but everything will come with time i just have to focus on doing the best i can at what i am doing now. wich is the most important work in the world. i remember you telling me while we were working together once that you wish to serve a mission with mom again. that was a while ago. but i am so glad that you still have that desire. because ever since that day you told me that right before i left on my mission i have wanted to help you to do that. so i hope that you seriously plan on it and know that i am willing to do anything to help you make it a reality when i get home. its better to do it while you are younger than when your older. you might want to start looking into it. it truely is the best thing in the world. i love you and am so incredibley greatful for all the principles you have taught me in this life. i love this gospel and will for the rest of my life.<br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-35652496247249480142013-02-25T07:00:00.000-08:002013-02-25T07:00:46.072-08:00February 25, 2013<br />
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hey dad!<br /></div>
great email this week! they are all good but i seemed to really enjoy this one. i loved your comments and opinion on the small gate on the wall of the cities. and i have heard that before but weather it is real or not it is a great example for all of us. and as dallin h oaks says in preach my gospel. "we invite all to come unto christ" not just a select few. and that is something we are trying to focus hard on here in madagascar. because the lazaruses in this life willingly and readily accept because they see the many blessings but the rich men are a little more hessitant because of all the blessings they already have. so missionaries tend to focus on the lazaruses and dont even try for the others. and that is the problem. we NEED better leadership here in madagascar. and there is only one way to find that. tracting! dun dun dun! hahaha a lost consept here for most. but now its a push. we are being told to tract. weird right. usually that is the last resort in preach my gospel. but it has been neglected and now it must be reserrected. and i to believe that with god all things are possible. that is what i live for. for if it were not for that god i would have no future in eternity. we to are learning from the teachings of lorenzo snow in priesthood. unfortunatly all the books are in french and not malagasy so i dont get that much out of it sometimes but i try. my french is picking up as well. i think i will study it when i get home. but i promise you that i in no way turn away those less fortunate in this life. but that i also make an effort to find the one man who can lead those who need him. this gospel message truely is for EVERYBODY. and WE must share it with them so that they might have the opportunity to recieve it. there is no one else coming to there door. its us. now. we cant be affraid to bear testimony and invite others to find that testimony.<br /></div>
thankyou so much for the pictures! they were great! and i find it funny that both you and colter fell of the ski doo and in karmyns picture she is the highest in the air and doesnt fall once! hahaha but i wont lie i cant wait to drive a ski doo again. lol especially if it will float through the snow now and not stop dead! and colter getting stuck sounds pretty humorous although unfortunate he got his knee hurt i would like to see him try and crawl out and then try and hold onto the winch hahahaha. and i like the way mom discribes the happenings. she is a funny women. i hope your shoulder feels better ;) ha. but i cant wait to be back with you all and enjoy the presence of family. i dont plan on going far away from the fam after this is all done. haha i love y'all to much.<br /><div>
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so my but cheek is all heeled up! haha and no infection thanks for asking lol. and you will actually find out my actually release date first and then you tell me. that is how the mission does it. as soon as they have set flight plans they send you and email of those flight plans. but doing the math (as lyndi so kindly asked) my excit date here in madagascar should be the 3rd of august. one week before the day. so yall can plan on that. and my and elder rakotonjanahary are still together having a blast but our area just got split this week because it is so big! haha so now we will have sisters working with us here in manakambahiny. that will be interesting seeing as there are only 4 sisters in mada and i haveonly talked to them like twice.... hahhaa sister missionaries. a rarity here. but i am excited to be able to focus more on an area of regular size. big areas are hard to work and most all of mine have been big so far so it will be a nice change. and about the pictures..... you might be a little upset about this next news. but as you say things are things and they all have an end. hahaha last monday we were in the market place because my companion needed a scribbler. so as we were looking i took some pictures and then put my camera into my backpack. then what most likely happened was some hard off boys followed my and opened my backpack in a crowed place and stole my camera. it is sad but i did get to send many many home before this and i will buy a cheep camera here that will last the rest of the 5 months but for now nothin. but my comp took some so i will send you those. i am sorry but its done and nothing can be done about it. the really sad part is they cant take advantage of there choices because i have the charger. so nobody wins hahaha. well i kinda win because i am not that upset about it. haha. its just a thing. but on p days we clean the house study a little and then go email. after that we usually find a nice place to eat and go to the jumbo where we buy clean food and then by that time its about 4 oclock so we head home and then go eat dinner at a members house at about 7. we always squeeze a time in before that dinner appointment. and that is my mondays. cool right.<br /></div>
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so other than that i am doing incredibly well. tired but well haha. its funny because as tired as i am at night i wake up and feel exactly the same as when i fell asleep. but always seems to go out and work my hardest serving god. promises fullfilled. though that king sized bed will be a nice brake from the 6x6 i have been sleeping on for so long haha. the baptisms havent happened yet. sorry if i wasnt clear but they are on the 9th of march. and we are working hard. there is one guy who is really cool who i will tell you about. his name is feno. one day we were walking along those railroad tracts in the pictures i sent you and we walked passed a young man about 19 years old. my companion motored by but i felt like i should talk to him. and so i did. not for long because as soon as i talked to him he acted like he was high on something. but i invited him to change his life through the fullness of the gospel and come to church. not really excpecting much we went to church on sunday and to our suprise there was feno. in a nice white shirt. so we started to teach him. now he works with us everyday so that he can get away from the friends that dont influence him to do good and is almost quite sigaretts. he wants to serve a mission and change his life. he is amazing. god does know us and what we need. even a 19 year old boy who was lost in life. god blessed him and the difference is extraordinary. i know god lives and that he restored the keys of heaven here on earth through the prophet joseph smith. wich keys are they greatest blessing anyone could ever possibly have. i will strive my whole life to give that to all.<br /><br />be fitiavana mandrakizay<br />elder bates</div>
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Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044830139662428393.post-62971149425434150842013-02-18T08:34:00.001-08:002013-02-18T08:34:40.585-08:00February 18, 2013hey dad<br />how are you doing. no letter this week but i have a feeling it snowed really hard or something and you being short on employees you are workin pretty stinckin hard wich i really do understand. but i definatly will write you a little letter. i already sent pictures but this week has been really good. we are working hard with investigators to get them ready for t here baptism on the 9th of march. there are about 9 people with a goal for the ninth and we will see how many are ready by then. hopefully all of them! haha they are mostly all refferals from other members and so they are all very impoverished. those seem to be the only kind of referals we get. but but there has been a real push for missionaries here to do more tracting of wealthier houses lately. because we are being taught that those are the poeple we need right now in madagascar and also we must remember that it is harder for a rich man to enter into the kindom of heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. so they need missionaries more than anybody. so we are really focusing on that. there is a transfer coming up this week wich will be exciting. it should be a pretty big one as many many missionaries have been in there areas for an extended amount of time. so i should get a new companion but we will see. there are also 10 new missionaries comeing in this week. one with the name of bates from cardston alberta!! do we have relatives in cardtson from the bates side that i dont know about. because one is on his way here. i know that orville bates is from there if i am not mistaken. who knows maybe ill get to serve with him. funny story for ya. yesterday night we got a taxi home and while getting into it i sat down and got a nice nail right into my bum! haha right through my new underwear! luckely i got the blood out of them and i can sew up the hole if needed but i have a pierced right cheek at the moment. haha always fun and keepin busy here. i hope your hanging in there in the cold! love ya!<br />be fitiavana mandrakizay <br />elder bates<br /><br />1. this is charline. she is washing my pants and shirt. why? because i fell in the mud and got really dirty. thank you charline. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/18/956.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/18/s_956.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />2. miraculously they had a shirt from a past missionary anda fairly big pair of pants that they let me where home<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/18/957.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/18/s_957.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />3. a "slightly" drunk women bought me flowers! and just 2 days late of valentines day. im still counting it<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/18/958.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/18/s_958.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />4.madagascar transportation. theres a seat for everybody and even if theres not. we'll take ya.<br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/18/959.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/18/s_959.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br />5.so this man walked up with this beautiful french book of mormon from 1965! he tried to sell it to me. i told him it was priceless and to keep it and read it. he didnt really like my answer. <br /><br /><br /><center><a href='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/show_photo.php?p=13/02/18/960.jpg'><img src='http://photo.blogpressapp.com/photos/13/02/18/s_960.jpg' border='0' width='281' height='210' style='margin:5px'></a></center><br /><br />Lyndihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16931858980111345356noreply@blogger.com0