April 8, 2013

hey dad

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.

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; 

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.

be fitiavana mandrakizay

elder bates

April 1, 2013

dear dad

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.

 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.

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.

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.

be fitiavana mandrakizay

elder bates

March 25, 2013

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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!.

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.


be fitiavana mandrakizay

elder bates

March 18, 2013

dear dad. oh how i do miss the snow........

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

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.

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!

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!

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates




more lemurs!



these two are my hommies!



stare down



nobody beats me in a stare down



you cant see me



whats that red stuff on your arm???



does that answer the question......



pretty flower.

March 11, 2013

hey dad! 

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.

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.

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.

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates 

 

me  

 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. 

 sitting waiting for someone and got bombarded by kids. way cute

 i promised them i would send the picture over the seas haha. for all the world to see. they liked that 

 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. 

 mmm rice

these are members who gave us food. they are really nice people

me hard at work. 

March 4, 2013

dear dad.

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!
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.

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.

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.

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.

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates

February 25, 2013

hey dad!

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.

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.

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.

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.

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates