Week 21 in Ambohimanarina

Another great letter indicating that Michael really gets it as a missionary.  Michael is still learning about working with a different companion—not a bad thing, he’s learning that every companion is different.  How you work with them is different.  What a great learning experience!

Subject:  "Just be glad I didn't go with that who "automobile" idea. Yeah, like that's going to make a lot of money."

Well, I didn't think this out too well. Usually I'll just go through my planner and share a couple things that happened from this last week, but today marks a new missionary planner (#5 to be exact), so I have none of the details I had planned to use. But I'll do my best.

First of all, I just remembered all the meetings and things we were going to have with our branch president. A couple weeks ago we had a zone meeting where President Adams gave us a bunch of stuff about how to work with the ward (or branch). Awesome. The Sunday after that, we had a stake meeting, so no branch council. The Wednesday after that, President Fetra cancelled the Priesthood meeting, so nothing there. The Sunday after THAT, he cancelled the branch council again (see the pattern here?). Honestly, I'm getting kind of sick of him being a total bum, so I just told him that there WILL be a meeting this Wednesday, and he IS going to come early to it so Elder Eppich and I can teach him how to run a meeting. We're supposed to just let him lead everything and not overstep our bounds here, but he isn't helping the missionary work at all. Which will hopefully change. Find out more in the coming emails.

Other than that, the work still isn't quite going as well as we would like it to. This last week we've had about nine or ten lessons planned for each day, and usually come home with only three or four actually taught. It's pretty depressing. But it gives us a lot of time to do some contacting, which is never a bad thing. Still, we would prefer to teach.

On Saturday we had planned to teach four people in this one area. So we go and check on one to see if they can learn. No, but later should be good. We go to the next one. They'll be ready in an hour. The next one, was ready to learn then and there. The fourth one the husband was gone, so we couldn't go in. Still, it's already been an hour, and the husband should be back soon. So we go to teach #2. Still no good. #1, left their house. #4 again, the husband still wasn't there. So we just ping-ponged around there for a while trying to catch one of them at home. To make a long story short, only that one person had been able to learn out of all four of those.

That's been pretty much our last few weeks. Which is saddening. But I've been getting better at contacting people. I don't know if I said this before, but President Adams has given us a challenge to place 20 invitations to church each day. This challenge could offer rather a challenging challenge. Challenging-ly.

And all those thoughts of being shy or thinking it would be awkward to talk to somebody are just getting thrown under the bus. I've always known this, but I'm finally willing to act on the facts that: 1) it could be the Spirit that is prompting me to talk to them. B) worst case scenario, it helps me get better at the language. *three*) VERY worst situation, if I totally embarrass myself, I'll probably never see that person again. So there's really no harm done. Just throw yourself out there and start gospel talking. Even though some people just walk away without a single word to you, you're putting forth the effort. (The more you try, the more you fly. And that's what really counts!)

Effort. Effort. My companion. I have to say, teaching with Elder Eppich is a whole new ball game. For one, Elder Landon where at a point (after four months, mind you) where we could figure out how to switch off really well, and I would say we did a pretty good job of teaching in unity. With Elder Eppich... He's different. I feel like I'm talking a lot more than I should, but even if I stop for a minute or two to let him take over he'll still just kind of sit there. He still teaches, it's just not nearly as smooth as it could be. But we talk about it sometimes, and he's getting better. Good stuff.

Another thing I'm starting to see better is my own train of thought of teaching. If that makes any sense. When I first came here I was all over the place, just trying to make my mouth say things to take up time. The longer I'm here though, the better I'm getting at seeing the end-game, what I really want the investigator to understand, and how to get them there. Which is really helping get the people more involved in the lessons, so they'll feel the Spirit more and have a greater desire to seek the Spirit on their own time.

Dramatic subject change. When Elder Landon left, he had about four months left of his mission. In that same transfer Elder Hansen, who is from the same group as Elder Landon, came to the house that I live in. So I'm now living with a missionary who is two months older than me (in mission time - Elder Eppich) and one who is going home in just over three months. Suffice it to say, it is his pride and joy to make us trunkie. It's rough.

And that's pretty much that. It sounds like everyone is having a pretty great time back at home, with babies popping out right and left, leaving Julie as the last "man" standing. Good luck, time bomb. All the babies so far appear to be of an abnormally cute nature, with adorable levels flying off the charts.

All of you keep up the good work. Study, work, ski (Steven), and live life. Being separated from life like this is super weird, and since I can't take part in it, I trust all of you will party twice as hard, for me.

Thank you all for your support,

- Elder Arrington

Here's a picture with some less-actives that we've been teaching. They are officially less-active, but Hery still reads the Book of Mormon, and holds it up when people take pictures of him. Go figure.

Week 20 in Ambohimanarina

This is one of those letters where you really feel like Michael is understanding what missionary work is really about.  His focus is there continuously in his letter.  I’m sure he has normal stuff to get done here and there, but I do like his focus!

Subject:  “You are free to eat!”

"Am I??"

"Are you!?"

People would go blind from over exposure to pure awesomeness! True story. And good movie.

My first full week with a companion other than Elder Landon. Quite an interesting change, as I believe I said before. But Elder Eppich is way cool, and we're having a great time.

The one kind of wierd thing is how many lessons we teach each week. I was looking over our weekly stats for the last couple weeks, and the week that Elder Landon left we taught almost half as many lessons as normal. Odd. Same with this week. Feel as bad about this week because we lost a bit of work time thanks to a zone meeting and stake conference, but still. Half as many lessons is quite a difference. I was pretty bummed about that.

Until I started writing about it in my journal. I had a little something of a revelation. While it's true that we're teaching far less people than normal, it's forcing us to FIND new people. And finding has been going great. Just about every door we knock on has a father lead family behind it, just waiting to hear about the gospel. Here's a couple stories for you.

We actually tracted into this lady named Charlotte a while ago, but since there were no other guys there with us we couldn't enter the house. But she had seemed way cool. So Elder Eppich and I went back to her about a week ago, and sneakily taught her a little bit about the Restoration. Rather than entering the house and breaking mission rules, you stand outside and present the Restoration pamphlet to them, explaining a little about each section. It gets them started a little into reading it, and you can kind of cheat teaching them, even if you have no other guys with you. AND she set up a time for us to come back and teach the rest of her family (except her husband who would be at work). So we went back on Friday with Leonce, who found some time to come with us, walked into the house, and found out that her husband's brother lives there and had been there the whole time. We could have taught them. Anyway, we walk in and start talking about their reading. Surprisingly, they actually HAD read. Surprisingly 2x, they pulled out the book and immediately asked what exactly an Apostasy is. After we explained that, they asked that if God had taken prophets from off the earth, are we still in an Apostasy? Fantastic question. We turned the page in the pamphlet and started into the Joseph Smith story. They loved it, and because of a challenge that President Adams has given all the missionaries to start inviting pretty much everyone to church, we invited them to church. And guess who came to church yesterday. We had two total investigators. Prinsia, who you may remember to be the most diligent 15 year old in the world, who comes to church and everything in spite of how lazy her parents are. And the other one? The brother of Charlotte's husband. This guy had just randomly sat in on the lesson, and followed the challenge to come to church. I'm way glad President gave us that challenge.

Another, shorter story, we were trying to find something to do one night, and everybody was busy. I actually made a list in my journal of all the people that we had tried to teach, and why we couldn't for that day. Finally, it was about 7 o'clock and we had to decide to either just go home early or try to teach one other lesson, by knocking on their door. And in this country, people sleep at 7 o'clock. Regardless, we stopped at a street corner and just prayed, asking where we should go. As soon as I started praying, I remembered this lady named Josiene, that we used to teach, but had to stop after she stopped coming to church. She lived nearby, so we walked down that way. Unfortunately she had already moved. That's pretty depressing. But whatever. We turned around and started knocking on doors. At the first door, there were no parents home. No good. Second house was the winner. This 17 year old kid named Tanjona opened up and let us in, listened to the lesson, and said it would be fine for us to return again. His parents had been gone at the time, but they should be back later.

Another day, we're walking around in that same area, still with nobody to teach, and Elder Eppich reminds me about that kid that we had tracted into. So we go back to him, and his parents are actually there. We start talking and find out that most of the family is Protestant, except for the dad, who is Catholic. They listened really well, and invited us back. This family could be very ready to be united under the gospel standard, if you know what I'm saying. Also, Tanjona had read from the Restoration pamphlet, which was pretty cool.

I now realize that that story was actually longer, but you get the idea. Anyway, it seems that even though the work isn't exactly the same as it was before, we're finding a really good foundation of new investigators. Which I'm totally down for. It just took a little barriers for us to find them. Interesting how that works. We have barriers, and if we continue to trust in God, we'll still come out on top. Gotta love having God lead our lives.

Probably just one more story, that I'll try to keep short. We had tracted into this lady a couple weeks ago, and she seemed really interested. We came in to teach her again, and she had read some of the Restoration pamphlet. Sounds promising. But we had no men with us, so even though her husband didn't want to join us, she more or less forced him to. And pretty much all he did was argue. We asked him if there had been prophets after the time of Malachi, and he said yes. We asked him why they didn't write any scriptures. Well, he corrected himself, there WERE prophets, but they had been false prophets.

Okay, well let's just assume for a second that we're talking about something productive and helpful. But he continued arguing things like that throughout the entire lesson. Finally, I remembered what Elder Hansen (and David) had said recently. We shouldn't worry about trying to prove other people wrong. Just present the gospel as it is, straight truth from God, and bear testimony of it. With all this arguing, I figured this would be a good time to apply that.

I just stopped him, and told him "this is what we believe. God removed the prophets from the earth because the people were wicked. Gospel truths were lost. When the people were ready, God gave them prophets again to restore the truth. The people still rejected the new prophet (Christ, and after his death, Peter), so the prophets and authority were removed from the earth again. Truths were lost again. But when the people were ready, God restored the truth again the a prophet (see the pattern?), Joseph Smith. I have received an answer that Joseph Smith is a true prophet and I know that if you ask God, you can receive an answer too." Wham. Right after that, he just couldn't say a thing. Not that my goal had been to shut him up, but he just sat there and THOUGHT about what I had said, rather than trying to reject it. Thank you experienced missionaries, including brothers.

To wrap this up, I might just add that there has been an announcement from President Adams that came out this morning. Missionaries here are now allowed to email friends and priesthood leaders, as well as family members. Those friends that have been emailing me and not gotten responses, get ready to be responded. Maybe not today, since this main email has been really long, but next week.

Basically, thank you all for all your help and support,

- Elder Arrington

Week 19 in Ambohimanarina

A new companion—and he hasn’t been out very long either!  Now the comparisons begin.  And we learn what was so great about Elder Landon. 

And it’s good to hear Michael so focused on missionary work!

Subject:  "Ah, Doberman. The son I never wanted."

Well, in case you weren't aware, another week has gone by. Has time always flown by this fast?

I officially have my second companion now. My mission-mom, as they say. Elder Eppich is a good fellow. He came out on his mission only two months before me, and according to one of our members here, Elder Eppich and I are about the same in our Malagasy speaking skills. Go figure. Although it makes me feel pretty awesome. His first companion made them skip language study, so it makes sense that he would have some trouble learning. Add that to Elder Landon having been a great teacher, and I feel like I've progressed quite nicely. I have to say though, he understands far more than I. I speak decently, he listens great. We all have our areas to shine. I can get along, but we'll walk out of lessons and usually he'll bring up something that I had totally missed. It's really good to have someone who can check you on things like that.

On the other hand, since Elder Eppich just barely moved here, it's up to me to lead the area. Which is hard. Really hard. The last two or three days I've just been 100% drained when we get home. Paralyzed from the hair down. It was a simpler life before, not having to worry about where to go or what to do if something goes wrong. Just let Elder Landon do that. I could just stand around and let him pick something. But now it's just up to me if people aren't at home. Which happens far more than I would like. But I guess it's not all terrible. We ended up doing some tracting and met a really nice lady who seemed interested to learn. And she's pretty smart. Unfortunately, she lives with her brother who is a pastor for some other church, so we'll have to gird about our loins the armor of God, and prepare to do battle. In the nicest way possible, of course. David sent some interesting advice in his last email, offering that it might be better to not argue with them, but find points to agree on and bear testimony of the truth. He also mentioned a line from Preach My Gospel (and didn't cite his sources, tsk tsk) so I figure you really can't go wrong there. Advice from a brother, an RM, and Preach My Gospel. It's worth a shot.

Especially because I never know what to do in real teaching situations. I just don't have a solid enough background yet to really help somebody understand what I'm trying to say. One of my biggest problems is not using scriptures. Which I'm trying to work on. Elder Eppich told me of a quote from some apostle or someone like that that said if you memorize one scripture everyday for two years, by the end of that, you'll have a photographic memory. How awesome would that be? I'll give it a shot. If it works, I'll remember everything. If not, there's 730 scriptures memorized (or 731 if there's a leap year). I bring that up mostly because I've started into it, memorizing them in Malagasy, and I've already been able to use some of them when I'm teaching. Even if you can't remember the whole thing, you at least know where it is and what it's about. And it helps with the language. So there's really no downside.

Speaking of the language, with Elder Landon leaving and my new companion not having been out very long I was afraid that we would have no really skilled Malagasy speakers in the house (actually Malagasy people excluded). Fortunately, Elder Hansen replaced Elder Randall, and that kid is good. Like the smell of bacon kind of good, with regards to the language. He's way good. And way nice, and way cool. Even better, he's more than willing to help us study and learn Malagasy, and way good at explaining it. Which is really hard. Malagasy and English are just WAY different. Which is probably why Malagasies think different than Americans. It's got to have something to do with that.

I guess I've talked a lot about the language and Elders here, and not a lot about the work. Here's a little update for you all.

Mario and Santatra. We waited outside the church until sacrament meeting started, and they still hadn't shown up. Which left us a grand total of two investigators at church. Not the best week. So we went upstairs, and sat down. Then, just as the first hymn started, they walked in, trailing a cloud of glory about them. Not really, but it was fantastic to see them. So they ended up attending church again, and still had a great time.

Romen. We've taught Romen a couple times and it sounds like he could be another Mario of sorts. He's way smart, knows the scriptures, and told us that he had been trying to find the true church for a while, but just didn't see it. After a while he just got tired of hearing all the preachers and priests and everyone just tell him that their church is true. We came in contact with him, and one of the first things we told him was that he can pray and receive an answer for himself. We don't tell him to just accept what we say, like in other religions, but we ask him to pray so that he can learn for himself. He really liked that. He also asked us something about the Bible that we really weren't sure how to answer. He pulled out a verse in Matthew... 22? Something like that. Jesus asks the Pharisees "who is the father of Christ?" they respond that he is a son of David, and Christ basically says "if David is the father of the Christ, than why does he call him Lord?". Romen was confused about the timeline of that, since David had been dead long before Christ came. It also brought up a really interesting question. Is this scripture not referring to prayer? Then does that mean that David prayed to Christ? I don't know. It's confusing. That's just another reason the Book of Mormon is so important. And having a living prophet.

As for pictures this week, apparently I didn't take any. But Dad's been asking for a picture of the cyber place that we go to, so I got Elder Eppich to snap one. Welcome to the cyber world of Madagascar.

Thank you everyone for emailing, know that even if I don't have time to read long emails I still print them out to be read later, because hearing from people back home is the best thing ever.

- Elder Arrington

PS: Dad mentioned a "friend" who wants to send a package to a missionary, and asked what could be in that package. First off, some pens would be awesome. Some good old, classic Arrington pens. Dad, you know the kind. But that's more of a stocking stuffer. Other than that, I've heard that Jell-O has a cheese cake mix that tastes rather delicious, and one or two of those would be greatly appreciated. Cakes are kind of hard to make, but the cheese cake mix that Elder Landon had was super easy. Just an idea. Some M&Ms too, especially if you can find those ones that are filled with peanut butter. It's basically a bigger Reese's Piece. Basically anything prepackaged and easy to prepare. And candy. You really can't go wrong.

PPS: Stacey, just last week I got your Christmas package. While I had never been big into gummy candies, I don't think anything has ever tasted so good. And it's been far too long since I had had Nerds. Keep those rolling.

Week 18 in Ambohimanarina

And now, things change.  More baptisms, but transfer time has finally come!  Oh, not for Michael, but this week he gets a new companion!  And he’s got great investigators!  And more baptisms!

Subject:  "This tattoo will protect me from harm!"

Transfers and baptisms! I know what it's like just reading these things at home and just thinking "that's nice", but we have been crazy busy. And I think it's messing up my brain. First off, I was telling someone about the Book of Mormon, trying to explain that it's just a different book than the Bible, about people in a different place (people have a really hard time understanding that it's not just a different translation of the Bible). So I grabbed the first two things I could find to illustrate: two glass bowls that were sitting on the table. I explained that one represents Jerusalem (where the Bible took place) and the other represents the Book of Mormon, which is the story of "the people in Madagascar". Whoops. I corrected that pretty quick while Elder Landon laughed. And then I realized that the glass bowls that I was using as "salt and pepper shakers" for the scriptures were actually ashtrays. Is it sacrilegious to use ashtrays and stand-ins for the scriptures?

Second, later that day we were walking home and I decided that I wanted to buy some potatoes and make some fries later that night. A good idea right? So we stop by the tsena (imagine a farmer's market kind of thing), I find some potatoes, walk up to the person selling the potatoes, point at the potatoes, and ask "how much for these eggs?" So that was pretty awkward. But funny.So I just switched computers with Elder Rasoloniainam because this one only seems to have an English keyboard on it, and he only knows the French one. Which leaves me trying to figure out the English one again. This is really hard.

In other news, we had another baptism! Monja, Tinahy, and Sambalihy are now the newest members of the Ambohimanarina Branch. And they're super cool. Tinahy told us that she had been super nervous that she would forget everything right before the baptism interview (and rightfully so. She's not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, but she believes the church is true), so she prayed for help remembering. And Elder Randall, who interviewed her, said she did great. We were pretty happy about that. She needed help, and turned to God. Way to be kid. Samba was super funny to watch get baptized. After Elder Landon finished the prayer, Samba DOVE back into the water. Just a super excited little kid.

We have also started teaching this super cool couple named Mario and Santatra. We taught them once, and gave them a First pamphlet for them to read. When we came back, they pulled out the pamphlet, which had been marked up like crazy, and asked about the Melchizedek Priesthood. They told us that they understood the general idea of priesthood and the Aaronic, but they weren't sure why there was a higher priesthood. Fantastic question. We explained it, and they got it. Even cooler, when we started talking about the Restoration, Elder Landon asked Santatra what she remembered about it. And she told him the story of Joseph Smith, EXACTLY as it happened. In 1820, there were a bunch of churches. Joseph Smith wanted to find the truth, so he read in the Bible and learned that he should pray. He prayed, and God AND Jesus Christ appeared to him and told him that none of the churches were true, and because of the Apostasy the truth was lost. But Joseph Smith was called to be a new prophet, to restore the true church and God's authority, the priesthood, back to the earth. She had it all. In Elder Landon's words, it takes some people YEARS to understand that. She (and her husband) got it in a week, because they actually READ the dang pamphlet. After that, we invited them to come to church. Just a nice thought, maybe they'll come eventually. Saturday night they called us to ask what time church starts. Which nobody does. On Sunday, we were standing outside the church, greeting people, and I turned to Elder Landon and said "wouldn't it be weird if Mario and Santatra actually came today?" and right when we laughed about that, who do you think walked up the stairs to our church and said hello to us? The coolest investigators ever. Mario and Santatra. They said that Mario's parents are members, and now these two want to investigate the church because they've seen the blessings that the parents have gotten. And, most importantly, they are willing to put in the work to receive those same blessings. Get ready to hear about them getting baptized.

Another couple we started teaching a while ago is starting to look super cool too. They are the ones that thought all the churches are true. But recently, they seem to have been changing. They're far more open to what we teach, and they've started reading the Book of Mormon. Interesting connection. Even more interesting, they passed the First pamphlet that we had given them off to their neighbor, who also wants to learn, and has been sitting in on the lessons. And now that lady has passed the pamphlet off to another neighbor, who also wants to learn. I don't know if it's the people or the pamphlet that's working this magic, but it's fantastic. These people have really been prepared by God.

Sadly, it appears that this little group of neighbors is doing more missionary work than our members, but hey, we're not complaining.

Another rather interesting note, Elder Landon is officially getting transferred. Goodbye to my trainer. When we got the transfer news, I learned that my new companion's name is Elder Eppich. It sounds like we could have a pretty "epic" time. Haha. Humorous.

Generally things are looking way up back here. We still have plenty of disappointments, particularly with investigators, but as Harvey Dent said it, "the night is darkest just before the dawn. But I promise, the dawn is coming". And so it is. Thanks Harvey. I believe in Harvey Dent.

And it sounds like things are going great with all of you. Moving houses, having babies, Dad getting into this work at the Hillsboro Arts and Cultural thing, and Adam being back from his mission. Someone give that kid a high five from me.

Same thing goes for Steven. I salute you on your choice of wearing jeans. The pants of kings.

Everyone keep up the good work, don't forget your missionary out here in the field, and keep doing God's work. The church is true.

- Elder Arrington

PS: This weeks pictures include baptism shots of Monja, Tinahy, and Samba, and the other girl in there is named Sr. Tsabao Marie. We call her Jambon Marie. There's also a picture of me with Elders Rasoloniaina and Randall. Elder Rasoloniaina has a real tattoo, and you can get these press-on tattoos from a certain kind of gum here. I have Mulan. And there's a picture of Fr. Remy's family. They're all members, and super cool people. We like them. Enjoy!

Week 17 in Ambohimanarina

Subject:  “He didn’t fall?  Inconceivable!”

What a week. Rain, rain, and a good deal of rain.

I don't know if I've already mentioned this, but it rained here. For the last four days we've been having some pretty awesome floods. Fortunately we have rain jackets (thank you Mom) though we usually try to hide under some shelter if we can and wait it out. That's one of the really weird things about the rain here. It rains like four inches of water in half an hour. Just pouring like crazy. But it's pretty fun. You can always dry off when you get home.

The work here... what to say. We've finally gotten a some baptisms, and just yesterday another family, passed their interviews, so they are officially ready for this Saturday. Congratulations to Monja, Tinahy, and Sambalihy! So on the baptism and success front, we're doing pretty well. It seems that there is a lot of opposition though. Just as things are looking up, with baptisms and diligent recent converts and investigators, the negatives are flying off the charts. One family that we had taught a couple of times, who seemed really interested, slammed the door on us the other day, saying that they didn't want to learn any more. Out of NOWHERE. That got us pretty sad. Add to that all the time we have to waste just wandering around and searching for something to do, and you've got a couple of fairly unhappy missionaries. Especially when your back-up plan for your back-up plan fall through.

But by far, the most frustrating thing that we've done out here is teaching this one new family that we just found. We've taught them twice, and this last time they told us that they believe all religions are true. ALL OF THEM. I don't want to sound negative, but that is just a retarded idea. In the Bible, Christ says that there is ONE Lord, ONE faith, and ONE baptism. (Ephesians) How many? ONE. But they explained that that just means that any religion is okay, and you can't go wrong. As long as you want to follow God, any religion will get the job done. So Elder Landon brought out an example for them. The Apocolipsy church said that the world would end in 2012. And yet we're still alive. So is their church true? The investigators answered no, but people just need to receive a personal answer about whether or not something is true, and that answer comes through God. Which is true. So I asked them if they believe God has a body, to which they said they do. So, if they received that answer from God, than any church that teaches otherwise (i.e. God does NOT have a body) must be false. They just sat there and tried to figure out what that means. Well, it means that NOT ALL churches are true. We ended the lesson after that, giving them a pamphlet on the Restoration to read as homework. Hopefully they'll read and pray about it. It seemed that they were starting to understand our point, and right now we're just trying to figure out how to continue to teach them with patience. We have to take it slowly and just help them see the truth. "That's what we do. Save souls." - Madagascar Missionaries Inc.

But generally, I think things are looking up. We have some recent converts and people to be baptized soon, and it they're all solid in the faith. There should be none going inactive. We've been working hard, and it's paying off.

Side note, we were teaching the family that was baptized last week, and there was this little kid there. And he randomly ripped his shirt off. And continued by wrapping himself up in some toga looking thing, and decided he's a superstar. Elder Landon got a picture of him, which you should be able to see here.

As for the family, it sounds like everyone is doing well, based on the reports I got from Mom and Dad. Although a good deal of you got pretty sick from the sound of it, which is never fun.

Lindsay, I imagine moving houses wasn't fun. It never is. Moving around heavy boxes and things. Not to mention you got that baby in your stomach which is like a permanent box that you never get to put down. An extra weight. But it should all be worth it in the end.

Steven, good choice on skipping baseball. Obviously playing it would have been awesome, but people seem to lose sight of the importance of choosing good friends. Elder Randall has just been telling us about a member they had just baptized in their ward, who has started drinking again. Why? That's what her friends did, so she just joined them. Always choose your friends wisely. But also try to find some way to keep playing baseball. America's pastime. *Salute*

Also, everyone, if you have not read the November general conference version of the Ensign (or Liahona), READ IT. I just got if from the mission office, and it is AWESOME. Crazy good stuff in there. I had never been one for reading magazines, but it's fantastic.

Generally, keep up the good work everyone!

- Elder Arrington

Week 16 in Ambohimanarina

Wow, week 16 in the same place and still going strong!  And good thing, too.  This was baptism week.  Quite a few, actually.  What a great experience for Michael!  And look at the pictures—he’s clearly the tall one in town.

Subject:  “If I stare at the lock really hard, it will burst into flame and melt.”

Baptism. Booyah. So we officially have five new members of the Ambohimanarina Branch. Noel and Lily, their kids Tsiry and Lova, and the ever awesome Hery.

A few details for y'all: First off, the "font" broke again before the meeting even started,  so we had to plug up a hole in the bottom  with a rag that somebody had found, which meant one of the people there had to strip down and plug it. Which worked out just fine.

Second, there was some kind of party going on on the roof across the street so there's these songs blasting at us while we're trying to baptize people and give them an awesome spiritual experience. So much for that. But they all still enjoyed it.

Third, apparently the two kids asked that I baptize them, so Tsiry and Lova are officially my first baptizees. Awkwardly enough, I didn't quite get Tsiry under the water on the first attempt, so the second time I just shoved him down. Hard. But it got the job done.

And fourth, after Elder Landon baptized Noel (the old guy), Noel jumped out of the water and said "Amen!" It was pretty funny.

All in all, the baptism was good, although it could have been held a little more sacred to the members. But it got done.

And yesterday, Hery, who just got baptized, referred us to his mom as a person that we could start teaching. The first referral we've been given in probably a week. We started teaching her, who is a pretty solid Catholic, and six other women joined, ready to learn. So we'll see where that goes.

Generally the work here has been improving. I don't want to jinx it or anything, but we have some really cool investigators and we're working hard to help them progress. Most amazingly, they are working too.

Other than that, this week has been pretty uneventful. Just teaching and preaching. And working and sweating. A lot. So it's all good. We had a zone meeting this last week, where the zone leader pulled out the progress records that everyone in the zone had made, and laughed at them. People just leaving spaces blank, writing information that doesn't help, and stuff like that. Then he pulled out one and said, "this one was actually really good". Who made that one? Oh yes. Elder Landon and I. I had pretty much just assumed that everybody filled out records completely, but apparently that's a real problem here. So I'm really glad my trainer has been teaching me well.

Including the language. I've been getting a couple messages from those among you who think that my Malagasy must be getting better, since my English is getting worse. I, in my righteous indignation, went back to see if my English really is suffering. And it is. Big time. And it's the same thing in my journal too. So that's pretty sad. On the bright side though, my Malagasy IS getting better, so I'm pretty happy about that. It's a fair trade-off.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much all I can think of to write right now. We've basically just been working a lot, studying hard, and seeing some progress. It's interesting how much WORK is involved in this missionary WORK. Who'd of thought it?

For pictures this week, we of course have all the baptism pictures you could ask for, as well as me holding a couple of baby ducks. One of the less active members that we teach (who is actually starting to become active again) had a bunch of ducks just sitting in some bucket in her house. Which was pretty cool.

It sounds like everyone is still doing pretty well back at home. Steven is going to battle against the sons of unrighteousness, all the sisters are preparing for/raising their new babies, and dad is fixing the washing machine. Good man.

David, let it be known that I say this: Happy Birthday! I admit I didn't get you anything, but it's the thought that counts, right?

Everyone, just keep working and studying them scriptures. There's some REALLY awesome stuff in there, if you put in the effort to find it. That seems to be a really common theme in the gospel. You have to put in the effort, and THEN you'll get the blessings for it. Effort = blessings. Hence people like the pioneers having so many miracles (at least 17 miracles, if I recall correctly. Good movie).

Thank you all for your support!

- Elder Arrington

Week 15 in Ambohimanarina

Great email again this week.  And some fun pictures!

Subject:  “Great Scott!”  “I know, this is heavy.”

So apparently there is a mall that just got built near us, and we're going to meet up with some other elders and check it out. Should be fun. Mada-mall. What will they think of next.

The work here this last week has been going quick good. Quite good indeed. You all may remember that we have a baptism coming up this Saturday, and just yesterday, everybody passed their interviews for it. In weather man/airplane pilot terms, it's looking like clear skies ahead. Hery is doing awesome, and Noel and Lily and their kids, Tsiry and Lova, are all great, know the gospel, and are just plain ready.

A couple fun stories happened becuase of the interviews, mainly because we had to go on splits to get them done. I ended up going to a different ward with Elder Rasoloniaina, while Elders Landon and Randall went to my branch to do the interviews. However, since nobody had told the ward that I was attending about the splits, they thought I was Elder Rasoloniaina's new companion. So I'm sitting there in Sacrament meeting, and the testimonies are about to start, when the bishop stands up and says "and now we're going to hear a testimony from the new missionary". Wait, what? So I got up there and rocked that podium like a star. Good times.

After church, since Elder Randall, as the district leader here, has to go on splits with everyone anyway, Elder Randall and I teamed up to take on Ambohimanarina. Which was awesome, but kind of rough. For one, he decided that he just wanted to listen to me teach, so he only helped teach in one of the lessons. But it was really rough just listening to him speaking Malagasy. He has a hard time with the language, but insists that he doesn't need to work on it because he is, in his own words, "good enough". No offense kid, but I've been here 10 months less than you, and I'm probably better at the language. I don't want to sound all prideful or anything, but it's true. But I avoided correcting him at all today, and took his advice with the grace of a gazelle frolicking through a meadow on a clear and sunny day. Frolicking.

Rain. It's rained here pretty hard for the last couple of days, and through some of the nights. I bring this up  because I woke up a couple nights ago to find it raining on my head. Apparently the rain had squeezed through the rough and decided to leak, right on my bed. So, being a tired, Madagascar missionary, I moved my bed and went back to sleep. I could fix it in the morning. I still haven't fixed it. But it stopped leaking, so I'll count the problem as solved anyway.

And that's pretty much a week in Madagascar. I loved getting all of your emails today. Mom, you asked about the Plan of Salvation. Try reading around Alma 32-34. I think that's the area. There's a lot of good stuff in there. And of course Preach My Gospel. It's kind of ridiculous how helpful that book is. I would recommend using it when you teach, and challenging your... people that you teach to read it as well. I've found that when I follow Preach My Gospel when I teach, people seem to understand it better, not to mention it structures the lesson. I also just read a talk today by Robert D. Hales from General Conference in 2010, I think from October, where he talks about the importance of our agency. That might be another small help.

Thank you all of those that have offered explanations for "whitely-clad guy" in Lehi's dream. I suppose anything other than reading from the dream itself is just speculation, but it was interesting to here some of your ideas. Especially Dad's. He talked about how the Man in White could be just anyone who works to help others find their way to the Tree of Life. In essence, any diligent member. An interesting thought.

Picture update: since I went on splits, I decided to get a picture with Elder Randall. He's the really tall guy. Also, I figured a picture with Leonce couldn't hurt, so we gathered up a bunch of random kids that happened to be near there and snapped a snap shot. And the church in Ambohibao has a guard (the church I attended, not my usual place), so I got a picture with him. He's pretty cool. Notice his jacket says something about the Marines. That should help illustrate how awesome Madagascar is.

And that pretty much wraps up this week. I'll try to be a little more organized next week, and to keep the pictures coming. Everyone, know that we are working hard out here as missionaries, and I hope you all are doing the same. There's a quote I read a few days ago that goes something like "after all that has been said, the most important thing for us to do is missionary work." I think that's in Preach My Gospel somewhere. Suffice it to say, missionary work is really important.

Thank you all for your support,

- Elder Arrington