06 December 17--Mr. SmithHat

Well hello again,

Thank you Richard Dibblee for the nice letter.

This week was eventful. I moved from Ankadindramamy to 67. My new companion is great. His name is Elder Edgley. He is 6' 4" and probably about 270 pounds. He is from Maryland and he reminds me alot of Josh Knell. We've been having a lot of fun quoting from some of our favorite comedians walking down the street i.e. Brian Regan, Bill Cosby, Steven Write, and Mitch Headburg ( he's the "Ducks eat for free at Subway" guy, hilarious) and some others. It's been fun.

67 is cool, it's the most city-like area I've worked in since I've been here. It is very flat, which is nice for the legs, but not so good for the scenery, but it's one of those, ya win some, ya lose some situations, but that's cool and my legs are happy. There's a lot more drunk people and other people engaged in less-than-wholesome activities here than in my last areas. But the Ward here is absolutely great ( yes, they have an actual ward, not a branch). I bore my testimony in church yesterday and made the mistake of saying " I'm really happy to serve with you in this "branch", and was immediately, and loudly corrected by everyone on the first row and the entire bishopric behind me, " WE'RE A WARD, NOT A BRANCH!" oops:) ( I'm just so used to saying branch is all.) Anyway, yeah, they're really great, and they sing really loud, which I love. I've already received my Malagasy name from the Bishop, "Rakotosatroka" I'm trying to think how to describe the meaning. "Rakoto" is one of the most common names in Madagascar, and they always mix it with something to describe the person. So , Rakoto, + satroka (hat) is my nickname ( in this ward at least.) Last night, they had a Christmas concert ( It still doesn't feel like Christmas, maybe it's 90 degree weather or the humidity, I don't know), and it was great. I really liked when the primary kids sang the songs I taught them in English " Dashing froo vah snow..." and " we wish you a meddy krissmas, and a happy new yeeaa!" I was really proud of them.

I'm still not completely familiar with this area, but I'm excited to get to know the people here. This week was so hectic, that I wasn't able to fulfill my goal of writing down the E-mail before I got here, so once again, I'm just rambling and I know I've forgotten to mention several things that I wanted to. But I think I do it this week. I'm more and more convinced that that is the way to do it because it's nice to write to you, but I get in a train of thought while writing and often forget what else I wanted to say, so I am going to write things as they happen this week. Well, I love you all, and I've gotta go so Merry Christmas! and Veloma!

Elder Draper

06 December 11--Third Rock from the Sun

Today (p-day) all of the missionaries played soccer. I've never seen a field in this country with grass. This was no exception, but it did have deep, muddy puddles all over it. Let me just say this; If someone wasn't covered in mud by the end of the game it's only because they weren't really playing. It was fun. My team lost of course, but I think we had more personality than the other missionary teams, i.e.: "Off sides? What does that mean?" or " This team's tricky, they're using "rules" against us, what's that all about?" Anyway, yeah, it was fun, but now I'm aching and tired and I have no idea what to write about........

Every two months, we have transfers, and that means that I am going to a new area on Thursday called Soixante-Sept (67) which is apparently the dirtiest part of town. But I'm excited because I hear the area is going well, and the branch is great (I've been there once, and I know they sing good and loud, which is not what I have found to be typical of members here.) This transfer with Elder Rock has gone great. Last week, we had 3 baptisms and confirmations, and were starting to get some great investigators as well.

We do have one crazy investigator that I'm not sure what we should do with. His name is Kelly. One of our biggest problems here is trying to get people to come to church. But the first time we met Kelly was at church, and we thought he was a member. Then we found out he wasn't and that he wanted to learn and that he was in our area. He's a really nice guy, but he was trying to do kung fu moves in the entrance of the church and may have scared some of our other investigators away.

Anyway, we set up an appointment, and he was there ( which usually doesn't happen.) We had a good discussion, and by the end we couldn't decide whether he was certifiably insane or just crazy happy, because he answered all the questions better than most people. His house, however, was a long way away, and we decided that the only way we would keep teaching was if he kept coming to church. He’s come to church every week. Now, I don’t know quite how to describe how many times we have tried to get some of our favorite investigators to come to church, and they have never, not once, come. The last thing we would think of doing would be to tell someone to STOP coming to church, but yesterday, and some other events leading up to it, confirmed our fears. Kelly, in all seriousness, told us that he is from another planet. He also said that he could speak every language fluently (however he refused to speak English) , and then started speaking gibberish—“speaking in tongues.” Then he stared and the sun for a really long time saying that on his planet he could stare at the sun all day and be just fine. We’re still trying to figure out what we should do about him.

I mention this to illustrate some of the different problems we encounter in this mission. Because this is a 3rd world country, you are more likely to meet a certifiably insane person just walking down the street here than you would in another country, because most people would get professional help in other places.

This is sometimes a problem for missionary work because, in this area alone, I know of a few inactive members that we have consistently gone to every week that need professional help. And it’s difficult to determine how to help them. Sometimes it’s difficult because it is apparent that they don’t want us there, or they tell us how they are destitute, and beg us for money.

We really do want to help, but we can't give money, in part because it's against the rules, and in part because even if we did give money, we would run out quick and what then? They more than likely wouldn't be helped. It's sad because they reject exactly what we can give them; they don't believe us when we say the gospel will help them more than money ever could.

I know it's difficult for these people. Poverty is real and terrible. I heard a statistic from a member from America that works for the Embassy here. He said if this country had a 5% increase economically every year for the next 20 years ( which is apparently completely unheard of) they would catch up to some of the poorest countries in Africa. I don't know how true that statistic is, but I've seen the living conditions for some of these people, and I don't need statistics to see that poverty is a big problem here.

Well, it's great to hear from you, My goal this week is to take Dad's suggestion about writing the E-mail during the week and that way my thoughts will be more clear and articulate ( maybe:) and if not that, at least they'll be longer.

OK. Well, I love you all, Merry Christmas by the way ( I got to teach all the primary kids "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" in English yesterday at church, it was fun, and a bit of a challenge because they can't for the life of them pronounce " TH" or the English "R" so I ended up singing with them " ..... jingle all vu way" ) OK Veloma! for reals this time.

Elder Draper

06 December 3--Manahoana

(Original email title: Manahoana! "mana- 'one' (making the 1 sound like "own" as in; " I own a 25$ guitar") just in case you were wondering how to pronounce that.)

Well hi there,

Wow, it's nice to hear about everything. I didn't get an E-mail last week, so I was able to read both of them this week and I don't know where to begin. You guys are certainly keeping yourselves busy. It's been a fairly uneventful week comparatively speaking. And at this point, I don't know what to even consider "eventful" anymore, because I'm used to all of the things I used to consider "odd". It's not strange to me anymore that as I walk down the street, everybody's staring. Before, I used to wonder what they were staring at, and sometimes I would look to see if there was something on my shirt, or on my face, " did I miss a spot shaving?" " Is my zipper down?" . Now, If I see a white person, I'm almost temped to shout " Jereo! eo misy Vazaha!" ( look! there's a white guy) It's funny how things work. I can truthfully say that the word " vazaha!" does not bother me anymore, which is nice. It's amazing to me how completely racial barriers are destroyed when you really get to know somebody.

I'm in a nice Internet cafe right now listening to Christmas music in French, it's really hot outside and somebody's staring at me as I'm writing this- somehow I am not reminded of Christmas, but I don't think Christmas will ever be like this again after the mission, so I'm enjoying whatever version of Christmas I can get.

Yesterday were elections and we weren't allowed to leave the house except for church in the morning. Last time there was elections, the guy who lost kind of went crazy and blew up some bridges and caused some riots ( I guess demanding a "recount" just wasn't dramatic enough) and they pulled the missionaries out of the country. So this time, they've had the American Government looking over things just in case. But I don't think anything like that will happen again because everybody likes the president now, and he doesn't seem the dictator type. And if he loses, everybody got a free T-shirt from him (me too) so he'll still have lots of people wearing his shirts and that should make him feel better. Anyway, during our confinement to the house, we had Teriyaki Chicken and rice, which was really good, and I rediscovered that I really like to read. My companion decided that he would go insane if we ever had to stay inside for a week. I still don't know who won the elections, but we were given the OK to leave the house this morning and everything seems to be going fine.

Well once again I'm out of time because I 've spent most of it waiting for the computer to work, but it's been really nice to hear from you. I'm amazed at all of the things going on in your lives, the marriages, the mission calls, the babies etc.... I'm sad to miss all of it, but I'm truly grateful to be here. I'm realizing more and more that it doesn't matter where you are on your mission that it can be the best thing for you. It is certainly not the easiest thing I've ever done, in fact it's quite the opposite but I sometimes I can feel what it's doing to me, what it's doing for the people here, and that's what makes me want to do more. I think....I think I think too much, and for some reason I can't articulate any of it right now. Oh well, I should probably be going anyway. Well, it's been nice writing to you, I love you all, and I pray for you everyday. Veloma!

Elder Draper

06 November 26--Still Small Rain

Well,

Our first appointment this week was good. It was with a fairly recent investigator named Padoue ( we contacted him while trying to see who could get more rejections). Padoue is skeptical of religion in general, and it's obvious he's been to lots of other churches before, and has received missionaries from lots of different churches before. So consequently, he likes to argue. Sometime during our first discussion, I stopped the lesson and basically told him that if he wanted to argue with us, he wasn't going to get anywhere, and that we had better things to do with our time. He listened much better after that, however every so often, he would start up again and dispute a passage of scripture that I'm pretty sure he hadn't even read before we presented it to him. Any way, somehow through it all, we've managed to get him to read the Book of Mormon, and during our last appointment, he had some legitimate questions. We answered them and proceeded to testify about the Book of Mormom and that if he read it , he could know for himself whether it was true or not and had him read Moroni 10:3 - 5. He was silent for a moment , and then said, " you can say that and it's great, but...." and just then the rain came. Now, I've been in this country awhile, and I've seen some rain storms, but this was ridiculous. This rain storm came instantly, with no warning and it came hard, and we were in a house with a tin roof. The rain hit the tin roof hard, and it was like being in the middle of a crowded stadium, I couldn't even hear my companion who was right next to me yelling in English. So, all Padoue could do was sit and read and wait for the rain to stop (and it didn't stop, in fact, it got worse). In the end, he stood up and told us to come back later because he wanted to learn more, but I think the rain helped. He was about to argue again, and was silenced by the rain. We got up and were about to go, this surprised him that we were about to go out into the storm, we told him we had another appointment to go to, and I think this surprised him even more. I think we left him with the impression that we're here for a reason and that we believe in what we're doing. We'll see if that comes to anything.

I don't have much time, this computer has been crashing the whole time. Thanksgiving was nice. after Thanksgiving was not so nice ( I've been pretty sick for the past 3 days because of it ;) but I'm doin' good now. Efa Salama Aho!

Well, nice to hear from you. Until next time Veloma!

Elder Draper