Well hi.
Here we are again. Another Week, and another Email.
Thanks for the email, it was nice. No, do not send me another camera. I apologize for sending an unintended message there, I'll have to be more careful in the future. You never have to "read between the lines" if you think I'm trying to ask for something. I will make it simple. In the future, if I would like something, I will make a request ( IE: Arabic week days ( thanks dad) or suggesting that you get and read " A History of Madagascar" by Mervyn Brown.) Otherwise, you can be sure that I don't really need anything. This place does have the essentials, so you don't need to worry about me all that much. The only request I can think of is more letters from all of you. I'm not saying I deserve it, or that I've ever been good at correspondence in writing (quite the contrary in fact) but I'll just put that out there for some of you to think about possibly considering maybe writing a short letter every so often if you get the chance (if it's not too much trouble or a hindrance ;).
In the mean time (or nice time--whichever) I'll see what I can do to start adjusting my schedule to accommodate more time to actually write letters to all of you (and after I find the time, I'm almost positive I will eventually use this newly acquired time (probably on Sundays) to actually write the letters :) ( I like parenthesis)
Earlier in the week, W and I were at a gas station in our area buying some bread. After we paid for the bread, a woman came in the store and bought some stuff as well, and I noticed that she spoke Malagasy with a sort of odd accent. Immediately, we suspected that she just might be an American ( I don't know why, but it's always exciting to talk to Americans here) --but how were we going to find out? I realized that it is the easiest thing in the world for me to strike up a conversation out of thin air.... with a Malagasy, but for some reason, my mind kind of goes blank when I try to talk to a stranger in English. Weird. But we were determined to find out if she was American before she left, so we needed to say something... but what do we say? So, just before she was about to leave, we kind of panicked and fumbled for something to say so she'd stay a little longer. It was kind of funny--in our minds we were thinking, "Oh no! There she goes! Say something! Quick--OK go!" "HEY!.... UM.... UH... ARE YOU AMERICAN?"...Kind of an awkward start, but it was a sigh of relief when she smiled and said, "Yeah, I'm American." After that, we had a nice conversation. Her name was Elaine, she was 26, from Florida, and was working for the Peace Corps. (There's a lot of Peace Corps here, we just don't really talk to them all that often.) She ended up being the first Black American woman we've talked to in this country. It was cool. I've known a few missionaries that have already gone home and it took them a little while before they didn't have to say, " Manahoan.... er uh, hey, how are ya?" to every black person they saw, (which doesn't happen all that often in Utah.) That's gonna be weird.
In other news this week, W and I had to stop a drunk person from beating his wife. We had taught a quick spiritual thought to some members. The one adult male there, as we soon realized, was very drunk( nonmember) and kept speaking unintelligible French to us. So we ended the lesson pretty quick, and left the house. Then a lady came up after us and said that the drunk guy was going crazy. So we came back to find the drunk guy outside of the house holding his wife by the arms and slamming her pretty hard against the wall. So we, of course, quickly grabbed him. W broke his watch in the process, and I almost had to break the guy's hand just so he'd let go of his wife. We dragged him into his house and threw him on his bed and told him to go to sleep. Then it was a matter of convincing the women to either leave for a few hours, or to lock him out of the house. They wouldn't do either, and kept insisting that it was "OK" and that we could go and they would be fine. This wonderful mentality led to about 4 more instances where we had to get the guy off of his wife. It was frustrating to say the least...............at this point the computer died............
Anyway, it made me realize how much I really hate alcohol. And when you mix Alcohol with an extremely poor, ignorant, uneducated, and unemployed Malagasy who has a wife and kids, then the problems start to stack up. I can only imagine the problems Jesse had to deal with in Russia as a result of alcohol. It actually makes me sick to think of the business people in some first world country who are making a profit off of these people AND think that they're doing them a favor. That is all I will say on the subject.
Well, here I am again. Thank you for the E-mails. I just thought of something else you guys could send that would be great: Pictures. I would love to see some more pictures of you.
OK, where do I start? Here's something--Do you guys remember the story about the inactive member named Randry? At the beginning of my transfer with W, he was the guy who was only making about about $25 a month and then lost his job entirely. At the time, he had been inactive in the church for years. We had tried to visit him a number of times at the beginning of the transfer, but he was never home, and W had been visiting him for 4 months before that and hadn't really gone anywhere with him. So, one of the first times I saw Randry, he was in a pretty bleak situation. His wife Natalie, and his two kids, Abdala (2 yrs old) and Rosette ( new born) were eating rice with nothing else on it ( he wasn't even eating) because he couldn't afford anything else. So we set up a time for him to see the bishop to get some help. We had to reassure him that he could get help from the church, even though he was inactive. So, later on in the week, I went back to his house on splits with a member missionary to find that he had gone to see the bishop earlier that day, but the bishop had missed the appointment. Furthermore, his situation had declined because he had also lost his job AND his wife had just fallen ill. I remember feeling too inadequate and too inexperienced to give any sort of comfort, let alone council or advice, but somehow I was able to tell him exactly what he needed to do if he wanted things to improve. And the amazing thing is, it worked. I don't know why or how it did, but it worked. He was humble enough to listen to a 20-year-old white guy, which is impressive, cuz I probably wouldn't even do that. Maybe he recognized that it wasn't really from me; but here's the rest of the story. I set up another appointment with the bishop for early the next morning, along with some other "assignments" on things that he needed to figure out spiritually. Well, the bishop came though( great guy) and helped them with some food, then Randry came to church for the first time in who knows how long. Later that same Sunday, by coincidence, we ( the missionaries) were eating at a member home ( the K's, who are an American family from Arizona. They have 5 kids--newborn to 17.) The dad works for the US Embassy. Amazing food. Somewhere in the conversation, the dad mentioned that he had spent an entire Saturday trimming the hedges in his yard and hadn't made a dent. (The hedges are huge and completely surround the yard which is also huge.) Then he asked if we knew of anyone who needed work who could come and trim the hedges for him. Yes we did.
Anyway, long story short, we were able to get Randry the job, which he accepted humbly and thankfully, and he ended up doing a great job, so great in fact, that the K's decided to keep him full time, (at the Embassy's expense, which was a new and pleasant discovery of the K's, that the Embassy provides a gardener.)
I've seen a complete transformation in Randry and it's wonderful. We bought him the newly translated Triple recently and have caught him reading several times when we have "dropped by" to say, "manahoana." He comes to church every week, he has given us referrals and takes us to their houses. And most of all, his wife, Natalie, who is not a member, has begun learning the missionary lessons at Randry's insistence. She is progressing wonderfully. He comes to the little family home evenings that we set up with the members in in his neighborhood and contributes to the lessons. Once, while I was on member splits again at his house, he told me that his greatest desire was to be with his family forever and that he had lost sight of that before. He thanked us for our persistence in visiting him and said that so many missionaries had come and gone with seemingly no effect, but now his wife is learning the gospel and they've both asked about when she can be baptized.
It's nice to see someone who was so discouraged and sad before be so happy now. The whole family has been affected. They laugh, they smile, they talk. It was so dark and quiet before. You can't see something like that happen and say that missionary work is a waste of time.
I like this place.
I could go off on something else I'm sure, but it would take me a long time to adequately elaborate on it before I felt satisfied with the result. I sort of envy the missionaries that can ramble on about any and everything in their letters home and type pages and pages of, "I ate rice this morning, it was good. Then we went working. We taught the word of wisdom. He drinks coffee, but he says he'll stop soon.......blah blah blah.." I just can't write like that, so I apologize if my letters seem a little short sometimes. (This one is a little longer yes, but really only because it's a combination of two letters.)
Alright then, requests again: Pictures and Letters from you guys. A Camera? NO. (I kind of feel guilty about having you send me a camera before only to have it stolen, to be honest.) Other than that, I'm good. My companion's great. I've made lots of great friends here, both missionary and Malagasy. I'm excited to meet up with some of these guys after the mission. We'll see. I actually just got an E-mail from a missionary who's been home for months now, thanking me for introducing him to Elliott Smith and other good music via guitar. I miss Elliott Smith,*sigh* but it's a comforting thought that this whole "Approved" music thing is for a time only :-)
OK Love ya, Veloma! ( pronounced "Veh LOOM ah" in case you were wondering.)
Elder Draper
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