06 July 10--Mormon Choir

Ny fianakaviako,

Sorry about not letting you know that I did, in fact, receive your e-mails. I also got Sascha's. It's great to hear from you. It's amazing, it seems like you guys are keeping pretty busy.


This week was fun. I got to know the new president and his wife a little bit better. We drove into town almost everyday this week, which completely depleted our taxi fund. The drive from Talatamaty (or "Dead Tuesday" where I live) to Antananarivo is about a 45 minute to an hour and a half drive. This week we had P-day, Independence Day, Island Conference, and our individual interviews with the new president, all on different days. So, consequently, we didn't get to spend as much time with our investigators as we would have liked. But It was a good week.

Recently, my companion and I have been focusing on reactivating some of the less-active members. Among them is a guy named Frere Parfai. Parfai is a cool guy. He was actually the World Champion Kick-boxer twice in a row. (I'm not kidding.) His house is interesting. He lives in what we would consider to be a shack next to a dirt road, but in this house, he has brand new leather couches, a nice TV, and system to go with it, and a whole wall dedicated to his Trophies. Interesting guy--I'm kind of scared to "Chew him out" about not coming to church, though. But not to worry, I think he'll come to,(now that the missionaries are visiting his house, I think he knows that he's now on the "inactive" list, and that we won't leave.)

President Gaya is wonderful. I think he will do some great things for this mission. He wants us to focus on bringing inactive members back to church, and to strengthen the members in our branches, by having them participate in the lessons, and in fellowshipping. I have thought of the same thing since I've been here. My companion told me that he has been frustrated that he hasn't seen that many baptisms on his mission, and knows that lots of other elders are baptizing a lot. I told him that I would rather baptize 2 people that were going to remain strong in the church, than 10 who would just go inactive. (Of course, you can only do so much to make sure, but it's important that people understand what they're doing BEFORE they're baptized, and I'm not sure all the missionaries here are doing that.) But when President Gaya came and said exactly what I had been thinking, I knew that it was a good thing that we have been so careful about making sure our investigators really understand the importance of the Gospel, before they're baptized. President Gaya wants us to build up the branches with the existing members first. (We still have lots of investigators, but we'll focus more on this.) He said that statistically, it might not be as satisfying, but if we had all of our members coming to church, we would have THREE stakes in Antananarivo alone. I think that's important too. If we strengthened the members first, then the new converts would have something strong to come into, and they would have a strong support system, and so on and so forth... I'm excited for the future.

This morning was a sad morning for elder Prouteau, as he found out that France lost to Italy in the Final game in the World Cup, in other news. (We couldn't talk to him for a while there, but he's doing alright now.)

I love this Place. I find something new everyday. There is beautiful sunsets every single day, like, if not surpassing Florida's. I walk through rice patties every day and I still have to stop sometimes, just to look at everything. This is changing my life. On the fourth of July, we went to the Hilton Hotel to sing for the American Embassy. (It said on the program, "Mormon Choir"--I think they were a little disappointed that we weren't the Mormon "Tabernacle" choir, but oh well.)

There were a lot of "important" rich people there. Ambassadors, The Vice President of this country, Representatives from every Major Religion, and Big Business in Madagascar. Lots of French, lots of Americans, lots of Affluent Malagasy People. From the moment I walked in, I felt out of place. There were too many white people. Nobody said, "bonjour vahaza," or "Manahoana." They said, "How ya doin' guys!" and we didn't know what to say. Everything was so Nice--there was an ice Statue of Liberty, and a buffet table (so good,) and lot's of political speeches, that, while very passionate, were almost pointless, and very political. Everyone was given champagne (we all refused of course,) and they made a toast. It was nice, and we met some nice people, but in the end, it was an elaborate, expensive, NOTHING when compared to what is really important. That night, we taught Seor Bertine in a grass hut, and I felt more comfortable there. We were doing something important. This meeting was far from pointless, in fact, we taught THE Point. It's hard for me to describe this feeling, but I'm so glad I'm here. I can't think of anything right now that would be more important.

Elder Draper