WEEK 16 Dec 13, 2015 Twenty-Seven Lessons Taught and a New Suit!

Great week this week! We got a buuuuunnnncccchhh of lessons this week. 27 to be specific and 9 new investigators!  Awesome stuff! But hey who is counting? Us because we are missionaries, easy question! So we continued to progress with our investigators and they are doing great. We found this one family and we taught them for the third time this last week and turns out it was like three families there! It was like 12 people we were teaching at once. When we were done they asked if we could teach them next time at this other place so that the rest of the family could learn. Of course we would! Awesome people. People are usually excited to hear what we have to say but they sometimes forget or don’t understand.  The problem is getting them to church though.  The church is kind of hidden so we have to just tell them where it is and hope they can find it.  We can’t pick everyone up so we just have to hope the others make it.  Language is still tricky but it’s coming. 
This week I remembered those times Dad took me out of school to a movie.  I remember my favorite movie was Star Wars III!  I remember you told me we were going to the dentist and then we showed up to the movies!  I loved it!
    So something we have been doing this week is preparing people for baptism. We are hopefully going to have three at the end of this month. One person in specific is this boy named yohan. His mom is a member but his dad isn’t and his dad doesn’t get why his son needs to get baptized. We talked with his mom and she said she wanted yohan to go to his dad and tell him he wants to get baptized and she wanted yohan tell him the reason he wanted to get baptized. We showed up the next day and yohan said that his dad said yes and he could get baptized! We went out and told his mom and she didn’t even know! She was suuuuper happy, as were we.
    We also contacted a bunch of people by telling them we teach English on Wednesdays and that it’s free! People see us and either speak French or English, well they try to speak French and English. They say they need to learn and we tell them that there is a class on Wednesday and sometimes they show up! haha great way to contact people! Glad you are getting snow there in the mountains.  People here don’t even know what snow is! 
So something funny this week was the service we did.  We helped these ladies carry these 70 lb sand bags and mine had a hole in it!  I got my shirt super dirty and sand all over myself.  We work too far away from our house so we didn’t want to travel back and waste time washing off so we went the whole day all sandy and dirty!  It was hilarious!
    Weird food of the week was this weird chalk stuff. It looked tasted and felt like chalk and then when you crunch it up in your mouth it turns to clay... nasty stuff... On the other hand, there is a picture I sent of leche which is a fruit that you can peel the outer skin and eat the middle.  Pretty good!  Also pictures of the beauty of Madagascar and of my NEW SUIT!!!  We finally got it and I really like what I picked out.  There is also a picture of our Thanksgiving feast!  And yes, the best is the heel kick picture!
    I hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Bowen

 

Sunrise

 

 New suits

Here is a picture of a leche..half peeled..they are super good! 

WEEK 15 Dec 7, 2015 Thunderstorms, Banana Bread, and a Baptizem Date for Herimael!

Another great one! This week flew by! So it started out great. We have the new guy I contacted named Tahiry. He has been super awesome and has been asking questions during lessons and reading the things we ask him to read. Our last lessons with him, Thursday, we were teaching and everything was going great and then this random guy walked in and sat down. He was quiet for about a minute and then he just went off (rude). He started calling us the anti-christ(rude). devils(very rude). and satan worshipers(super rude). He just kept going and going and Elder Schroedter said we aren’t here to fight and that’s why you are here so we have to go now. We left and Tahiry walked us to the door and he said he would like to learn this next Tuesday if it’s alright... yes that’s alright! Great guy and his wife has sat in on a couple of lessons. Then there is Herimael... baller! He is a year older than me.  He came to church again and brought his wife again! We have a baptism date with him and he said he wants to get baptized he just needs to ask God... I think it will be a yes from Him hahaha. He has been super awesome with the lessons and going to church this whole time. We have some other investigators we met with this week and they are progressing, just a little bit slower. We teach a man named Mendrika and his wife, Tsanta (santa!) they are open to the lessons but his parents forbid him from getting baptized. Hopefully things will work out though.

So something great that happened this week was we ran into these people that make this super good banana chocolate bread. We asked them if we could buy more from them and they said sure! Come get it tomorrow! We went and got three loafs and they said here is our number so you can call us for more! Soooo yea that’s what I eat now... all the time... also made some mac n cheese from the cheese Elder Bassett left us... super good! We've also been eating mashed potatoes and gravy a lot more.

Today for Pday we walked (a very long walk) to see if our suits are done.  I picked cool lining.  Well they were not done so we walked back and that took the day.  Maybe next week they will be done.  I have received any packages yet.  There are cool puzzle's here called hanayama.  Some are really heard.  They have a lot of these little store things you just walk up to and there is some food and random things you can buy.  There is this one big thing called a Shopwrite and its like a Wallmart.  Here there are lots of animals like cats and dogs, a lot of people have ducks and chickens in my area though…..saving them to eat!  I wake up really early because the sun shines into our room really bright at 5:30 am.

Other than that things have been going smooth here. The rain has started to come and the lightning is insane! We had a couple of days where it just came pouring down... rough but also felt nice! It is common to see lightning bolts every day. Elder Schroedter and I were down by the rice patties and we saw the lightning strike! And then immediate thunder. Craaaazy cool stuff. Loving it here!

Elder Bowen







 

WEEK 14 Nov 30, 2015 Thanksgiving, Splits, and Mathew 10:16

Another great one! So this week I got to go on splits with Elder Reynolds! He is from New Zealand! We went into my area so that means I got to lead the way! We had some great lessons but teaching Herimael is always my favorite. He is a champ. The next day Elder Schroedter and I went to pick up Elder Bassett! He is going up to ‘fort d’ but his flight wasn’t until Friday. The cool thing is that Elder Bassett and Elder Schroedter were best friends before the mission! Crazy how that worked out! Super fun going on splits though.

Rest of the week was great, teaching members and less actives. So this Sunday guess who showed up to church? Herimael! we were waiting for forever at this bus stop and then we got a call from the other elders that there are two new investigators they didn’t recognize. We went to church to find out it was him with his wife! Even with his walking disability he made it to church. Really, really awesome guy.

We did celebrate thanksgiving... haha not like the feast from home but it was awesome. Mashed potatoes, some gravy, corn, and a delicious boiled chicken haha.

    So scripture of the transfer is Mathew 10:16. Elder Schroedter showed it to me and I love it. We decided it is about missionaries! "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves."

Well another great p day! We got suits made and we just have to wait a little bit to pick them up! Went to the queens’ palace today but had a little trouble trying to get in so we just walked around and took pictures haha. All healthy now by the way, no longer sick! Loving it here in Madagascar!

Elder Bowen

Missionaries from Tomatave are here

Transfers (Elder Bowen...bottom right)