03/23/2015

  The week went well. I really believe that the Lord knew that I needed to work with another person who spoke and understood English and who did not cause contention, or I would lose my mind. To my great relief, Elder Stokes is my new companion. He is from Lehi, Utah. I did not know him before last week, but I am excited about our companionship; we have a similar sense of humor. He has already been out around 20 months, so his time is far spent. We really get along well together. Thank goodness it is not another push me-pull you companionship. Our companionship was definitely my tender mercy this week. Although we still speak Malagasy a lot, it is a relief to be able to speak English and be completely understood on a regular basis.

  The challenge for us this week was finding investigators who were actually at home. I don't know where everyone was, but I am not kidding when I say that almost all of them were not at home when we stopped in to see them. Out of those we did see we issued five more baptismal challenges. My favorite person this week was a man named Rado. We taught him a lesson about sincere prayer. He and his family usually attend church, but he still had questions that he had not prayed about, and was not ready to commit to baptism. We finally committed them to be baptized on the 25th of April! Our intent is to issue more baptismal challenges this week and complete at least 30 hours of proselyting. 

 The ward we attend is not functioning that well. Most of the leaders do not even attend ward council. Although we have asked the bishop to go out with us to visit the inactive members he just goes and teaches people on his own. The problem our companionship is facing is that there a lot of inactive members, and the active members are not willing to do anything to improve the already terrible situation. We hope to meet with all of the quorum and auxiliary leaders to remind them of the importance of missionary work.

  Elder Stokes and I bought groceries today, and we will be cooking, but I need some recipes, please.  We also played basketball while we were at the mission office. Later tonight we might be having a meal with the former branch president's family. I am not sick anymore, mainly because it has not rained for a while. I still have not had anything stolen, and I am grateful. Other missionaries, however, are always losing stuff or getting items taken on the bus.

   I received more cards today at the mission, but I won't open them until my birthday. Now that the box has official passed customs, I guess I will wait for its arrival. I took some cool pictures, not too far away from the office (for those who are wondering, the mission office is the building on the left). 

  P.S. My favorite readings this week was from 1 Nephi: 8 ( The Tree of Life )

  Have a great week, everyone.

  Love Elder Pinson