06 Nov 13--Birthday

WOW!

Thanks for the letters everyone! ( Mom, Dad, Jesse, Lizzie, Sascha, Mabel, Sophie, Sage, and Carrie.) That was a nice birthday present. Yesterday was great. We started off with Trix and Cocoa puffs in the morning, went to church, came back and ate a roast with mashed potatoes. After that we went back to church, and had a baptism. It was great. I was a little nervous because while I can speak the language, some of the names these people have are like tongue-twisters. Her name is RAZAFIMAHARO NIVO Navalona Yasminah ( I got really lucky with that name, because that is one of the easiest I've seen). My companion's first baptism happened two weeks into the country, and he didn't even know the kid, and didn't even see his name until he got into the water. And that name was RAHARILALAO MAHEFALAINA Joelisoa Mamy Hantenaina. Anyway, It was great, I pronounced everything correctly and she went all the way under and came all the way back up without trouble. We've been teaching Yasminah for the past 3 months and it's wonderful to see her progress, and finally be baptized. I've also got pictures from before and after the baptism. After the baptism, we went about the rest of the day's work as usual. When we got home, we invited two other elders (Elder Fowler,and Elder Jenson from my MTC group) over for German Chocolate cake, and coconut ice cream. They sang "Happy Birthday" to me while I played guitar, then I blew out two large candle sticks (citrus scented, mmm) each representing a decade. The cake was good, period. It was a good birthday. I'm 20. Time flies. Amazing.

I've taken most of my time waiting for this computer to work, and then waiting to read your E-mails, ( which, again, were wonderful, thanks) however, my time's almost up. Thanks for the Card Grandparents Draper. I'm excited, because I bought my guitar for the equivalent of 25 dollars, so the 20 dollars will be put to good use:)

This last week was another crazy week here in Madagascar. I'm anticipating an even crazier one this week, I'll see what I can do to contribute. We met an American guy who has lived here for 7 years and doesn't speak Malagasy or French. He buys the cool rocks you see at malls in America here, and sells them to malls in America for a much larger price. Interesting guy. He walked in the restaurant and saw all of us ( we had just had a district meeting, so there was about 18 of us) and exclaimed " It's the MORMONS!" , and " whoa!, it's a whole convention of Mormons! You guys are everywhere!" Nobody else knew what to say to him, because none of us are used to speaking English to other people. But I started talking to him. He said he had been studying religion since he was 20 and that "we were his favorite" (probably said to please the crowd.) But he did seem to know a lot about us, and he had the basics right. He sat down, with his young Malagasy "interpreter" ( she was ok at English) laughed and said, "no coffee for you guys!" Then I said " well, even if we did drink coffee, it's 95 degrees outside with 100% humidity, you do the math." He laughed again and he talked about how everyone here notices the white guys with ties and a black badge and how he always had to explain who we are. He said he respected what we were doing ( and told us how weird the Jehovah's Witness's were, and that ' you guys really need to get rid of them' ) He wasn't my favorite person, but I relate this experience because it made me realize how much we stand out. If missionaries are noticed walking down the street in America, they're an absolute novelty to people in Madagascar.

Lots of other things happened this week as well. But I'm out of time. I'm so grateful for all of you. I'm so grateful to be in a place where people are receptive to the Gospel. I'm grateful that I was able to baptize someone on my mission and that it probably won't be the last. Thanks again for the letters. I love you all . Veloma!
Elder Draper