07 January 22--Guitar Lessons

Amazing. It's always nice to hear from you guys. It sounds like you guys are keeping yourselves busy, which is great. I got the package! Thank you! My companion and I are enjoying it thoroughly. I still haven't gotten the guitar *sigh*. However, it is very close to being done, and the color is good too.

As far as the work here is concerned, things are going good. From the many "contact lessons" my companion and I have taught, we are starting to see the "first fruits" as it were. Statistically, the number of lessons being taught in a week is getting higher. We had 5 new investigators this last week alone, many of whom are due to the help of the members, which is exactly what we're trying to do. We're hoping that we can just keep this up.

In other news, an investigator that I started teaching in my last area is getting baptized this weekend. His name is Jacguy, he is about 23 years old and one of those really nice and calm guys that everybody likes. I first met him walking down the street with his friends and carrying a guitar. So of course, I stopped them and asked them if I could play his guitar. He said yes, and I played and then they asked if I taught guitar lessons, then I thought about it, and said, yes. And they became my first guitar students in Madagascar. They came every single week. The funny thing was, we never brought up religion, and they really weren't interested in learning religious music either. But Jacguy was always there, and he starting going to English class too, and then he started realizing that he had a lot of friends that were members of the Church. Then one day, while me and Elder Stone (my last companion) were waiting for a member to show up to help us with a lesson, Jacguy came up to us. The conversation kind of went like this, me: " Oh hey, Jacguy, how's it goin?," Jacguy:" It's going good" me" How's the guitar treating you these days?" Jacguy: " OH it's great, I'm really making progress, and it's a lot of fun, but I have a question" me: " oh yeah? that's great, what's your question?" Jacguy:" Well, basically, I really like learning the guitar, and English, but what I really want to know is; what do I need to do to learn more about the scriptures?" (Understand, we had never brought up religion, and that was the last question I expected from him.) I had to ask him to repeat the question just to be sure. And it was true, he wanted to learn the missionary lessons. Anyway, long story short, we started teaching him that week, he started coming to church (of his own accord) and to ward activities and then I had to leave the area. But the lessons went great, and he asked very good and sincere questions and accepted the answers we gave enthusiastically. He was everything a missionary ever wanted, and now he's getting baptized. He only started learning 2 months ago. And now he wants me to give the talk on the Fanahy Masina (Holy Ghost) at his baptism. Anyway, that was a nice experience for me to see ( and I'll be honest, it's a nice example for me to show those few missionaries that "questioned my motives" about teaching guitar lessons. "Elder Draper, do you really think that teaching guitar lessons is an 'appropriate' missionary activity?" my answer: YES!)

In more other news, My companion, 2 other missionaries and I, went and helped paint a school way outside the city. The school was named Richard G. Scott. and the "principal"( or near equivalent) is a member. It was near my first area here in the mission, near Talatamaty, in the beautiful countryside of Madagascar. I was amazed how nostalgic I could get for any place other than home. My first area was full of trees, rice paddies, hills and green. This area has no trees, rice paddies, hills or green. After the 4 of us painted the school with milk..er uh.. paint, the principle fed us rice, and ... well... more rice. It was fun. This place is really beautiful, I'm excited to come back here and see the countryside, because I'm really missing it right now.

Anyway, I'm out of time. I love you all, I pray for you always. And I'm really excited to see you and talk to you after all this. Until next week's letter Veloma!
Elder Draper