Well hi,
Sorry I didn't get a chance to write you yesterday, it was a pretty full day. But it's ok because all of our morning appointments are done and the rest of them ended up not being home. So this will be eating into our lunch hour, but neither my companion or I feel like eating really because in our last appointment, we were fed boiled cow head, and I unfortunately examined it before and asked what it was. Big Mistake. It apparently was the meal they had the night before, and it was nice and lukewarm by the time we got to it. I looked at it at picked off what I thought may have been an eyelash, but then quickly realized that there was about 50 more "eyelashes" in the the spoonful I had just eaten. Thankfully, neither of us threw up, and after the appointment we went in search of a Coke to kill whatever might be/ definitely is in our stomachs. Unfortunately again, today is Labor Day here, and the little shops that were open on Christmas Sunday decided to take the day off, so our search went on a little longer than expected.
Anyway, yes, I have been transferred to the Beautiful Alarobia ( meaning "Wednesday" in Malagasy), working with Elder Wangsgard. It reminds me allot of my first Area in Talatamaty (which means " Dead Tuesday" in Malagasy oddly enough). Elder Wangsgard is great. He is from Layton UT and was already a friend of mine in the mission before I became companions with him. This mission is probably a little bit different from a lot of other missions in that all 46 missionaries know each other pretty well, even if they never get the chance to work together. For instance, there is no need to wonder if I will meet any other missionary coming here or know any missionary who is already here, because I know all of the missionaries serving here by name, who they are companions with, what part of Antananarivo they are serving in, and probably a couple of stories about each of them. I have ended up having several connections with people here, for example; there is quite a few members here who knew and some who were even taught by Sister Nibley. And then within the mission, Elder Melzer's older brother married an Iranian girl and Mom ended up doing the wedding video for them, Elders Broadhead and Thompson, went to my same high school and I knew them before, My Trainer ( also Elder Melzer's trainer) Elder Kofoed, went to the same swing dance club (the MAC) at the same time as me, but we never saw eachother. A Senior missionary couple, The Armours, lived in California when an Elder Jack Stringham from Holladay went on a mission there speaking Cambodian, and ended up being there favorite missionary there ( they consider him an "adopted son") ( Jack Stringham, by the way, was my mission prep teacher). I could go on, but I'll spare you guys. But I just wanted to make the point that this mission is pretty small. It's kind of like a tight-knit sub-community of white Malagasy speakers, in basically one small city in the middle of Madagascar (Population: 46 and shrinking right now, and frankly 2 of the missionaries are actually natives here, so it's more like 44). There are also 8 missionaries in 2 outlying provinces ( 4 in Antsirabe, and 4 in Toamasina which are included in the 44) but all of them have worked in Antananarivo, and I know all of them pretty well. In fact, I will probably be sent to province before the mission's done and have to learn a slightly different dialect of Malagasy. We'll see.
Anyway, for now, life is great, I'm excited. In this last transfer, I think I experienced an inordinate amount of stress and consequently have not slept very well of late, and yes, my hair-line has receded slightly since then (*sigh*). I am a little sad about that. I don't feel like I'm good looking enough to go bald, especially since I've been on my mission. Oh well. Izay Le Izy, na dia somary mahakivy kely aza izany.
Anyway, I'm excited to be in this new area. The house I'm in right now is wonderful, probably one of the best in the mission. And coming from the two worst houses in the mission has made it that much better. My companion is awesome, and optimistic, which is a breath of fresh air . I'm excited to work with him. This area, again, is beautiful. It's full of rice paddies and grass huts. There is Palm trees and, wait... there's trees period. Actually, I'll go further than that: there's green, period. There's hills and the kid's don't throw rocks at you ( at least not yet, but I've got the feeling that they won't). There's not really any cars, mostly because there's not really too many paved roads, but I like it better that way. I'll see if I can give you better description next week, because I've only been here a few days.
Also, about pictures, I'm having Elder S make me a CD of all of the pictures he has on his camera. I've also made a deal with my new companion about pictures in this transfer. I'll see what I can do about sending you some in this next little bit.
Ah yes, this last weekend, General Conference finally got to us. Amazing. It was just what I needed. It was also great to have something concrete about the living prophets and apostles to show to our investigators.
Well, I'm happy to hear from all of you. I'm sorry this last transfer has brought some "rough" letters, but I hope I can say that I've learned something from it all. This place is on literally the opposite side of the world, and at times on my mission it has felt that way. But it happens so gradually that I never see it coming, but I've really started to love this place, and it seems like it's only going to keep moving in that direction. Actually, I'm afraid that all the the times that I've felt like I was on the "wrong" side of the world and asked myself, "what am I doing here?" - I'm afraid that when I finally come home, I'm going to get the same feeling all over again. I don't know, I guess you're never really allowed to get used to anything. I don't if that makes any sense, or if I have the skill in writing to adequately express what I want to say. But it's kind of a bittersweet thought - that one day this all has to end, and I have to go home, but in the mean time this place has become my home, and it happened so gradually, and yet it happened so fast, just 2 years. I walked down the street this morning and took a picture in my mind, which included what I was seeing and what I was feeling. I walked into the house of the family the fed me boiled cow head this morning and felt like I already knew them. I walked past some people arguing in the street and understood what they were arguing about. I don't know how much this mission has changed me, but I'm sure if I had a conversation with me at the MTC right now I would see something different ( besides the receding hair-line;).
Ok then, well it looks like I'm out of time. I love you. have a nice week. Veloma!
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