2007 September 25--Dark Secrets

Hi,

I baptized RAKOTONDRASOA Jean Eddy on Sunday. Elder S baptized Eddy's sister, RASOANOTAHIANJANAHARY Feno Claudine. In all, we baptized 7 people on Sunday, all of whom, I had the opportunity to teach ( 5 of them were from Alarobia, my last area). As a district, we're hoping to baptize 30 more people by the end of the year. The baptism was a nice way to end a discouraging week.

How do I put this? - It is a sad thing to discover the dark secrets of the people you teach. And this week was full of discovery. I won't go into too much detail, but among the things we discovered this week about a few of our investigators were; adultery, abortion, drugs, unethical and illegal business dealings, and manslaughter. Apart from the manslaughter, all of these remain unresolved, and I have not listed every "discovery" of ours above. The weird thing is, we did nothing to "extract" the information from them, they just opened up and told us, much to our dismay. It was almost as if they felt the need to confess to someone, and they all coincidentally chose this week to confess, and us to confess to. I wish I didn't know these things, or at least that they didn't all come out at once. I can't help but feeling that it's really none of my business, except that it was they who decided to "let me in" on things, and have asked for my help. I'm still trying to figure out how much I can really do about any of it and how much I should do. I think I can help a little bit, but it always depends on the what they decide to do in the end. I'd love to think that they would all know what to do and more importantly, do it. But the realist inside me tells me they won't all decide to change, and it sucks because I care. Oh well, I don't know if any of this makes sense, but this has been weighing on my mind lately so I couldn't think of something else to write.

I'm sorry I didn't write yesterday. P-day this week was changed to Tuesday due to the elections, and we weren't allowed to leave the house and work for fear of angry rioting Malagasy's. but it was all for nought. Nothing happened - just as we predicted nothing would. And here we are now. Thanks for the E-mail. I received the package. My district would like to thank you for the Beef Jerky - it was delicious. I hope that everything goes well for you guys this week. I'll be praying for you. Ok then, I love you.


Veloma!

Elder Draper