06 September 25--"Tovo"

Hello again,

Well, another week has come and gone, and I don't know where the time went. I've had lots of time to think about some of the more ironic things in life lately, for instance: Despite that I am now in a 3rd world country, I have never had to eat more in my entire life (lots of rice.) And I'm still trying to figure out why the women here sweep the dirt roads, or why the taxi-drivers don't believe us when we tell them that it does NOT save gas to turn your car OFF whenever your not moving or descending a hill (that's what neutral is for.) This place is full of things like that, and I could probably spend this entire e-mail writing about all of the odd things that happen here,(at least the ones that I still consider "odd,") so I'll stop there.

Anyway, this week has been great. The other week, we tracted into a Catholic Malagasy named "Tovo." He invited us in and we taught a good 1st lesson, and arranged to come back in two days. He didn't bring up any Bible-bashing scriptures or anything like that as has come to be expected lately; he just asked, "How do I know that this is really God?" pointing to the picture of Joseph's first vision. We told him he could only know through prayer. The next visit, we gave Him a Book of Mormon and he agreed to read and pray about it. We came back two days ago to follow-up on his reading, and to our surprise, he had actually read. (Bear in mind that it usually takes us coming back a couple of times before most people realize that we're serious.) "So, how is your reading coming?...You actually read?! No no--that's good, good, wonderful,... OK so did you pray about the Book of Mormon and to know if Joseph Smith is a true Prophet? You did?! (Wow) OK, great...so what was the answer? You believe that Joseph Smith is a true Prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true?...Really?... OK, well uh... great. Any questions? No? OK, then..." We were caught off guard a little bit, and my companion and I kept looking at each other like, "Did he just say what I thought he just said?" This is not to say that it is surprising that the Book of Mormon is true or the prophet Joseph Smith, we were just not expecting someone to be so receptive after a week of the most angry Bible-bashers in our area (actually, one didn't believe in the bible, but anyway...) It's wonderful to see that if someone is sincere, they will feel the truth of what we're saying.

Well, I love hearing from you guys back home. I've written some letters that should be sent this week. I'm on splits with an elder who doesn't like to e-mail while my companion is taking a trip into the jungle today. Fun. So I've gotta go.

Veloma!
Elder Draper.