July 15, 2013

dad!

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?? 

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....

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

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. 

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.....

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.

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates

July 8, 2013

dad!

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.

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.

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.

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.

be fitavana mandrakizay
elder bates

July 1, 2013

hey dad!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates

June 24, 2013

hey dad!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

be fitiavana mandrakizay

elder bates

June 17, 2013

hey dad.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.
 

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

be fitiavana mandrakizay

elder bates

(sorry about the sideways pictures, I am havin a heck of a time trying to get them to rotate on here)

 now im lookin like somethin worth while

 this is by far my best picture ever taken.

 "yo smithson!"

 fanirys birthday so we made him a cake! mmmm

 elder rahamafadrahona, my comp, fairy, me and elder nuef with a delicious cake from a box.

 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

 me again

June 10, 2013

so. i hope i made up for the lack of pictures this past few weeks.... i sent 10! haha

dear dad.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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 

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.

love ya tons

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates

me and faniry and elder rahamafadrahona

 thats the floor of the school we helped recement

 we went and farmed a little friday. haha

 wich ment cow poop!!!! hahahaha

 yup. thats the poop

 its all biological i assure

 good day of work:

 me at a didy poatra... 

 beautiful winter sunset in madagascar

 just a good lookin white guy.

June 3, 2013

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.

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.
 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

be fitiavana mandrakizay
elder bates