July 16, 2012

hey! so you may or may not get pictures this week becaues i need to go in about 10 minutes. haha so i will just tell you about my week and such and then be off. but i may get another chance to email today and send pictires! ok so this week was interesting. tusday night one of the APs had an emergency apendoptamy (appendectomy) so we had to go to the hospitle. and then that took up our hole week. because it was an AP president was going to tomatave about 7 hours away on thursday but the one AP couldnt go with him so my cpompanion elder barkclay took his place and went to tamatave all week while i stayed here and hung out at the hospital till friday then with the sick elder all the way till sunday. so i didnt really do much haha. just took care of elder cusick. wich is alright. its amazing how the lord blesses you. even though our area didnt get much attention this week there were 10 investigators who came to church instead of the 2 we had the previous week. so those are definate blessings from the lord!! so that was way cool! so that was my week! hahaha not much special. all though i did get a chance to watch the movie 17 miricals while the sick one was sleeping! i HIGHLY recomend that movie to everybody in the world! it brought the water a couple times... hahaha definatly one of my favorites ever.

so it sounds like you guys are having a fairly quite life! whoda thunk right? but im sure its nice! not much about work this week so i am sure it is going good. im glad none of the girls got hurt on the trail ride! thats always a good thing. if they are going to have a business like that trail ride they should really take time to clear the trail of any dead fall and such and check for bees nests so that they dont have that broblem of horses getting spooked. but i think those trail horses are pretty good horses anyways. just follow in a line. not to much to jump around about. haha and emily dont be scared about driving to regina! itll be a good experience! just drive safe! and youll have a ton of fun with lyndi! and kasper! i hear that kid is freakin awesome! but i gotta go so i love you all a ton and always look to the lord!

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates!

July 9, 2012

hey!! so how you all doing!? 

i am doing good here. just workin hard! haha sounds like you all hare having a good time back at home what with work and what not! so the computer i am on will not send pictures!! sorry!! but youll have to wait till next week to get those!!!  sounds like you guys have been having a blast back at home with hesston! it was nice seeing my dirtbike again in those pictures!! hahaha i miss that thing. i coulda used it in my last area as well. oh well! just like 13 months left. tomorrow.... hahaha no i am really not counting but its hard not to remember that your mission started on the tenth... lol and i do love it here. and dad mom told me hesston had shot like 6 and you got 2....... so i dont know all this i shot 6 dead before i even woulded one stuff is...... you dont have to lie about killing stuff... i know you used to be a good shot... hahahahahah just kidding. i wanna go shoot some gophers so bad right now haha. it would be fun. and its amazing how things always seem to work out when it comes to work and stuff. but when are you going to fire this james guy. jail, 2 in the morning texts.... its about time he split hahahha. im sure he already has. and if melony and jamie wanna know how its like so bad over here tell them to get there butts down here and visit me!!! haha they are close enough. they just have to fly straight down....... pretty much haha. freak brady i home now to!! thats crazy........ hard for me to believe really. you gunna recroute hime to work as well haha. you should.... but i think i remember that he is gunna jump right into byu i. thatll be good for him. 

but in the office i am pretty much just the arron (errand)  boy.... i do alll sort of hospital runs with sick missionaries, airport runs. anything that the office couple cant do we do for them... wich is pretty interesting to say the least hahaha it just puts a little more on our plate... we dont get to travel around the country like the APs... we do all the little managerial stuff... hahaha and i learn alot from it. its just a challange jugling our schedual because we have a ward and a branch in our area so we have to work with both of them while working in the office as well haha. its heckic!!!! its funny though. we went to the airport to pick someone up that went to south africa. it wasnt a missionary it was a malagasy getting his endownments out. so i was driving him to whereever he needed to go and because of his wonderful direction giving skills i got pulled over....... by a malagasy policeman. and the police force over here is very dirty. they take bribes and get money like its there job!!!! hahahahaha so he starts yelling at me and stuff telling me i have to go get my licence back from such and such place at this and that time on a certain day and pay a fine to get it back and as he was writing the ticket i asked him if we new what we did for work.. in a very sturn voice he said "what is your work" several times... then calmly i told him we are missionaries from the church bringing eternal life... then he said "what church!" and i gave hime the whole ny fiangonan' i jesoa kristy ho an' olomasin'ny andro farany speel and then he excitedly asked me to pray for him and handed me back my information and i went on my way hahahahah so the church is true people. hahaha it was quite comical. so the mission office is right in my area. like its part of my area. so thats cool. and the new mission president is very diffrent but still a very good man. he is old haha. and very serious most of the time. not as enthusiastic as president donnelly but still a very inspired man ment to be here hahaha. and i love him. so ya my life is always going here in madagascar now with a hospital visit or something. hahaha or trying to re arrange our program 20 times a week hahaha. i love it. i love the lords tender mercies like softening the heart of a police officer. and i love the lord. he is everything i look forword to. he is my ultamite goal. and he will always forgive those his children. as long as we love him and keep his commandments. 

be fitiavana mandrakizay 

elder betsyleo

July 2, 2012

hey! how are yalls. dont worry about last week. i understand our technology seems more and more out of this world the longer youve been in it hahahahaha.

but seriously dont worry avbout it. im still alive here in madagascar. and havin a blast while im at it! haha. i really do love it here. me and my new companion get along great! and i just met my new mission president over this past weekend. not for very long. my first interview with him is on tuesday so im excited for that. but we did have a fireside with him sunday night and he is a really good guy. obviously called by god. they said they met uncle bob and aunt fran in the MTC. they are so lucky!!!!!!! mission presidents get to do alot of mingling and such with the 12 and the prophet. its pretty cool. wich is way cool.

so hesston just rocked it in the bmx thing huh!? i knew he would! that kid is a stud! haha wish i would have been there to see it but thats alright! sounds like dad is just having a blast with hesston lately!!! thats so fun. i bet hesston is just loving it!!!! and dad just feels like a kid again!!! oh! happy canada day!!!!!!!! hahahahahhaa they dont really celabrate that one here..... but im sure we will have some fun on july 4th lol. and im glad work is doing good! one of your employees got encarcerated today!? hahahhaha its been a long time since ive heard that word. what did he do!? i bet it didnt say that on his ressume...... lol i hope its nothin serious. oh so my pdays are on mondays perminantly! so dont worry bout it. emily decied to work for you now!? thats good! keep her busy and get her some money. hahahha shell have fun cutting up all the birch. hey make sure to save some for me emily!! haha. and does davis have his licence yet or is he just your little helper guy right now?

i am doing good. just workin hard here in madagascar. we still have a full area and proselite a tone but we just take kids to the hospital and transfers and airport runs and such. and whatever else the couple missionaries need. so that takes up some more of our time. and we get to work a little closer with the president wich is cool. so this pday we went to another zoo where you actually get to play with there animals hahaha. so i wxill send you all the pictures of me and the monkeys and the snakes and everything. it was way fun!!!! we fed the lemurs held lizards and snakes and watch a crocedile and a chicken fight!! the chicken lost... and the croc is full. my area here now betongolo is really good. lots of work that can be done. its one of the oldest wards here wich is a good and bad thing. good cause it runs itself but bad cause there are alot of less actives... so thats always fun. we have been having a hard time getting investigators to church lately but we are focusing alot on it in the next week so hopefully that makes a difference. the problem here is that we have grown a habit of teaching them and makeing baptism the goal. but that is not our goal. we always say we do not look for baptisms. we look to give eternal life. wich is so true. because really that is what we are all trying to recieve. eternal life with our heavenly father again. our focus used to be baptism but it cant be baptism it has to be life eternal with our families. thats the only way to get true success as a missionary. i love you all and am glad you are doing good! thats all i can think to write today but i am good and love the lord. stay strong and always look for oportunities to teach. and i would love to see brother lambert over here and have him take me out to some goood cookin!!!!!!! hahahahaha

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates































- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Madagascar

June 25, 2012

hey yall! so i didnt get any emails from you this week! all i got was the pictures. i will just send you these pictures and tell you houw i am doing!
i am doing good! haha work here is great. being back in tana is pretty dang dirt and stinky cause its the 3rd dirtiest city in the whole wide workd. right? so thats no fun sometimes buit i am learning alot. i got here thursday and have been working my butt off. me and elder barkclay are having a really good time figureing things out. cause he has already been on a mission for over a year but was origionally called to reunion wich is french speaking so he is WAY good at french. but the problem is nobody really speaks french over here......... hahahah so he is struggleing to learn malagasy as fast as he can but he has only been over here for a month and a half now or something. not a long time. so i do most all the talking and the teaching. which is tiring. he also doesnt know the area the best right now cause his old companoin didnt really tell him much of anything. so he just kinda gets me to the investigators house and we figure it out hahahahha. way fun. and a huge learning experience! so i am trying my best to do the work of the lord. there is an older women in my area who just got very burnt by hot water. so we are going to be going to give her a blessing tonight if you could all keep her in your prayers. i would apreciate it. its malagasy canada day tomorrow so things over here are pretty crazy. fire works and explosives all over the place! i had a kid through one at mle and it blew up in my face!! not the funnest hahahaha. oh well. so we probably wont be able to work very much tomorrow. a nother oh well haha. my new calling as an office missionary is interesting. i am now incharge of like all the travel in the mission other than the mission presidents travel. and all the hospital trips and airport trips. its way fun hahahaha. kinda a head ache on top of a full area but hey whats life if its not hard!! congrats to hesston for winning provincials!!! thats way freakin cool!! im so proud of him! and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DALLIN! write me a letter you punk! i gotta go though we are going to go to the fosa park today for pday.... woo hoo!!!!!! hahahaha lobe you all tons. write me an actuall email next week lol
be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates

























- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Madagascar

June 18, 2012

HEY!!!! hahaha
i know i look good dad. i am your son. you had to give the good looks to someone right. and lets face it. colter and dallin just arent the ones who got it.... hahahahahahahahahahaha just kidding! do they still both have there trucker mustaches hahaha. that would be funny. and by the way. the good looking comment was my fathers day present to you... yup. so dont get used to it hahahah. but HAPPY FATHERS DAY! youve been a father for 28 years now.... thats a long time. how your still so young at heart confounds me........................... hhahaha. so mom asked me about the fathers here in madagascar. unfortunatly there are few and far between. every once and a while you find a responsible hard working man but usually they are ether drunks or non existant. its hard to find a solid one... but we work on it. most of them just run away though.

beven and robyn are riding 200 km in 2 days!? maybe i should send back those bike shorts so bevan can use them hahahahahaha. trust me bro. your gunna want em. and that way cool that robyn road her bike out to our house! and thats pretty good time! seriously. you know i dont wanna brag or anything but i can ride 20 km in half an hour......... wich sucks!!!!! i dont ever recomend it! but its needed if you wanna get to church ontime. hahahhaha. but seriously i will be cheerin for you both! im sure your thighs are rock hard by now. bikes do that to ya.

somebody recked those stupid weeds in endicotts driveway again!!!!! those things are like a freakin curse!!!!!! just put a huge sign up that says john deer not welcome here right infront of those things. hahaha. did you tell mitch its comming out of his paycheck!? lol you think the women would stop planting them. but good for mom for fixing it. the customer is always right! how the heck is she going to have a wedding in that little back yard!? freak haha. good luck to her. i hope she appriciates all the work mom is puutting in to fix it all. haha we cant go one year without someone wacking those things down. seriously. the sign. run it past her.

sounds like life back at home is pretty exciting! im so excited for spencer finally getting out there!!!! holy cow that is exciting. im sure is parents are pretty frantic about the hole thing. its so good of you guys to pick up carrisa and take here to the airport. her and spencer are so close it would be sad for her to miss him. if it were me i would scip the test all together..... but shows how much i cared for my education before the mission unfortunatly. haha. oh well! seriously moms right. if there is anyone more prepared to go on a mission it is spencer. that guy is a stud. and good for the bennetts getting called as a temple president!! holy cow! but now thats one less driveway to plow.... DANGIT! haha. im sure they are pretty excited. can you imangine beeing called to spent every day all day watching over the house of the lord! pretty dang cool if you ask me.

and you will have to send me pictures of hesstons provicials and stuff!! send me lots of pictures and stuff!!! and it is on dallins birthday!! is he coming up for that!?

so now the news with me. i got transfered! yes i am no longer in the dona. i have been called back to tana with a new calling. i am not a district leader, or a zone leader. i am working in the office. not as an AP its like a step down from them. i do all the grunt work kinda thing. i take people to the hospital and drive back and forth from the airport picking people up and dropping them off. paper work stuff like that. i deal with letters and stuff. its the arron stuff that needs to get done to keep the mission organized. im pretty nervous and didnt see it coming at all. not going to lie i never expected any kind of leadership on my mission other than maybe being a senior comp. but i have went from being a zoneleader to workin in the office. i dont get it. but i trust the lord and he knows what is best for me... haha. so i will do my best. but because i work in the office my p day is now on saturday. meaning you will have to start writing me befor then..... sorry if it is inconvinient for yall. but that is how it is. the good news is that i will get to email you twice this week!!! hahahahahhaha so thats pretty cool. i will send pictures and stuff saturday. but thats about ti. this past weekend was fun. got to go down to ambositra to do some bap interviews out in the middle of nowhere hahahahahaha. litterally middle of nowhere town called anjoma. and so me and the elder down there elder steele went out there and were supposed to spend the night. but turns out the baptism didnt go through and we didnt want to spend the night in a malagasy house. cause we delt with flees enough as it is haha. so we started waithing for a bus. a bus that never came. so we looked at eachother and decided to walk the 20 km to the mane road and catch a bus from there. little did we know it would take us about 3 hours to walk 20 km through the mountains of madagascar. but we got picked up from some very nice prodestents in a truck at the main road and got back to civilization about 930 that night. right on time for cerfew! so that was fun. and an adventure for sure. but dont worry i am safe. my new companions name is elder barkclay. he is from utah but origionally got call to the reunion part of the mission wich is french speaking and just recently got called over here to the big island and still doesnt speak malagasy hahahah. so itll be fun. i love you alll and i love this work the work of the lord. ill talk to you again saturday.

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Madagascar

June 11, 2012

hello hello!! 

sounds like a fun week back at home! emily wrote me an email and told me all about her rugby!!!! that is way stinkin exciting! and what i tihnk is funny is that i got three diffrent scores on the final game she played.... one from emily, one from dad and one from lyndi hahahaha but i am going to go with emilys score. so that is way cool! and scouts are checkin her out!!! dang! haha thats way exciting. she should talk to kelsey willobee for tips and stuff hahahaha but thats crazy

im sure the rain was fun. haha we havent had rain here in like 2 weeks. its a cold dry winter. and when i say cold i mean we wake up in the morning and it is 15°C outside. wich is freezing. i can see my breath! and its not even at its worst yet hahaha. but thats alright. and its good that work is going good and movong along. i hope mitch is doin good. and is getting acostumed alright. 

so i am doing good. i had a really busy week. we had a baptism on saturday of an old lady and her fifteen year old son. and when i say old i mean she was born in 54 wich would make her like 58... but she looks like she is like 70 some............... because she has had 10 kids hahhaha. but it was a good baptism. other than that the week was filled  with lots of zoneleader stuff to do. and not a ton of teaching. but thats what happens. so i will lay it out for you. started off the week as normal. just going out and teaching. we climbed a little power tower ontuesday because my companion was a little truncky. and we had a farely open schedual. so we just sat up there and talked about the military because he is on the military and it helps to talk about stuff you like when you are trunky.... i learned alot. and its been on my mind to join if nothing else works out for me back at home. then wednesday we were preparing our half hour instruction we had to give in zoneleader confrence. wich turned out really good and president donnelly said he really liked it. then thursday we had a ton of stuff to do. work/help other missionaries with all kinds of little things. then friday was the zone confrence wich ended up going for about 3 hours! haha long confrence. and i was asked to give a musical number so i wrote a song about my president and missionary work and stuff because he is leaving at the end of the month so i hope he liked that. then saturday i got to take elder steele to the hospital to get an ingrown toenail removed!! and that was funny all on its owne!! this hospital is sketchtown central. we go in and somebody tells us where to go and then we go there and it is the section for like ultra sounds and futernity stuff hahahaha so those doctors took us to the correct doctor who is this way goofy malagasy and this hospital just smells of death and the doctor is just funny and its all really crazy because it was a third world hospital and you could tell hahahahaahaha. so we go see this doctor and he tells us to go by all this medicine and stuff from the pharmacy and that only cost us about 4 bucks american but it was freezing stuff and iodine and everything and so elder steele was tripping big time. he didnt want any needles or anything. cause of aids and what not. but we go back to the doctor and he ends up taking us into a suprizingly starrel room and a nurse comes in and they freeze his toe anbd i made sure it was a brand new needle and such. so that was a good old time. and the doctor tryed to freeze it but it wasnt working so he was movin the needle around in all sorts of directions and forcing it all sorts of places that it shouldnt be. it was comical. but it ended up working out great and the nail is out and he is healing fine. and so that was probably the funniest part of my week. then after that anstirabe through a big going away party for president donnellly so that was fun. and that was pretty much my week. and then yesderday!!!! i saw a guy wearing a edmonton oilers jersey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! here in madagascar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and i asked him if i could take a picture but the guy was a huge jerk and wouldnt let me!!!! RUDE!!!! so i tryed to snag one out the window and i just managed to catch it hahahha. shows him.  but ya other than that i am good. we get news for a transfer next week so i will know if i am leaving or not by next monday 

thats about all of my life though. im doing good. i love you all tons. thanks for the scriptures mom! 

be fitiavana mandrakizay

elder bates

June 4, 2012 - pictures!

so i sent you your pictures! happy! hahaha ill send more for sure but thats all for now i think. 

so sounds like life is normal as ever back there. emily killing it in rugby dad searching for workers and getting lucky haha people leaving on missions. it all sounds like tons of fun.

im glad mitch desided to start working for you. now you dont have to worry to much about workers. is he living with you guys as well? how is he doing being back? dont worry i plan on starting work as soon as i get back. i dont think i could stand just sitting around. i gotta keep moving. its hard for me to stop working even when i am sick hahha. all though it gets easier the longer i am in this area! hahhaahaha but i am still going strong. i think. i have just kinda hit a brick wall. im sick of seeing people get rebaptised into other churches. its definatly a learning expierience though. 

im so jealous i didnt get to go watch emily play rugby at the city champ game! but im glad they won!!! and if emily has a chance she should definatly try out for alberta. i would strongly recomend it anyways. but i understand that there are alot of things to think about and that it is not an easy decision. nothing in life is an easy decision. if you have pictures of the game you should definatly send them to me. id like to see them. 

its way cool that spencer finally gets to go out on his mission. and that he still gets to go to bulgaria! hes going to work miracles. and he will be nice and close to uncle bob and aunt fran! haha our  new mission president comes in on june 30th there will be a fireside and stuff in antananarivo. but i most likely wont be there for it. our last zone confrence with president donnelly is this friday. its the last time we will see him. so that will be interesting. me and my companion have to give a 30 minute instruction on something out of pmg (Preach My Gospel) then donnelly also asked me to do a musical number. so i wrote a song about him and stuff. hopefully he likes it. its nothin special. the other elders in the zone helped with it as well so its from all of us to him. itll be weird to have a new mission president but ive always said change is good and i believe it one hundred percent. lots of missionaries probably wont like the new president beause the mission will probably get strict but its what it needs. so im excited. 

me im doing good. not much new. just trying to search out less actives and people who are acctually dilligent hahahah. tryin to keep going. in our district we had a talent show to try and strengthen people and the missionaries set it up and everything and at the end we did a dance and stuff. everybody absolutly loved it. mostly cause i shook my butt for them.... alot hahahahahahahah. but that is the way we dance here. you shake your booooooootay. we did a mix of "american" style dancing and "malagasy" style dancing hahahahahaha it was pretty funny. i have a video of it. but thats about all. i love you all and hope you are all healthy and well.. the gospel is true. we can never lose track of the TRUE meaning of life. its not money, its not friends, its not image, its eternity and returning to our heavenly father. so many people get caught up in the small things that dont matter. we seem to focus on things that arent really important. pray to god. not to anyhting else. cause we will see in the end who is truely faithfull. and i pray that we all can stand to gether at that last day

be fitiavana mandrakizay