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