2007 Dec 31--Born in 'Dead Tuesday' Die in 'The Easy Place'

Lovely to hear from you.

Transfers have happened again. And now, after having lived in the Analamahitsy Ward for 8 months, I have moved out. I'm a bit sad to leave to be honest - I really grew to love that place. I felt at home there. But I feel blessed that I was able to stay as long as I did. So, after a great transfer with Elder W, I am now privileged to be working with his 'Empty Sea' companion, Elder PJ S. ( do you remember him?) in what appears to be my dying area, Antanimora, which means roughly, "the easy place." I'm trying to find the connection; I was born in Talamaty which means, "Dead Tuesday." So I was born in Dead Tuesday, and will die in The Easy Place. I guess we'll see just how "easy" it is to die here.

Elder PJ S is from West Valley UT, and is the former companion of my Empty Sea companion, Elder Svr, of Birmingham, England. He is a very enthusiastic person, and thus far a pleasure to work with. In his first transfer with Svr of Birmingham, I helped him order a custom acoustic bass guitar from the same place I got my guitar. It turned out very nicely. I don't know how it worked out, but I couldn't think of a better companion to have right now. We've definitely taken advantage of the guitar and bass combo and have a good wind-down jam session when we get home from working. It feels good to jam with someone again, even if it's limited. We've even written a few "door-approach" songs--maybe we'll try 'em out if it stops raining;-). Speaking of rain, to say "it's pouring" down here in Madagascar is a gross understatement. On Friday, Elder PJ S and I made off like crazy people trudging up past our knees through rivers of muddy-red water that are the streets and paths of Madagascar while everyone else was waving and honking at us from their water-logged cars. It was fun.

I'm excited to work in this new area. It's beautiful here, and the people are wonderful. My companion and I have made a lot of goals for this transfer, so I'm excited to attack those and make some more improvements before I get home. Among the goals is learning some Malagasy Sign Language. We have a member in this ward who is deaf, his name is Jules. We translate for him during sacrament meeting. PJ S is already pretty good at it. Jules said that he was "astonished" ( at least that's what we think he said. I've only just started learning this Sunday.) at how fast we learned what we did ( but Jules is very polite). He gave me a really cool sign name too, but it's impossible to write it to you unfortunately (but all of the other missionaries were jealous cuz mine was the coolest ;-)

Anyway, I love you all. I'm sorry that I didn't really get a chance to talk to Mom and Dad, but I am happy that I got to hear your voices all the same. You all sound great. I'm excited to see you all again. Until then, Mazotoa! dia Veloma!

Elder Draper