A behind-the-scenes look at Evan's two-year mission in Madagascar for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Monday, June 29, 2015

6/29/2015

   Hello All!  Things are going well today. We haven't done much today, my companion will be getting a haircut shortly, but that's about all there is to do today.  It has certainly quieted down a lot since the weekend.There was much going on, with the Madagascar independence day on Friday. There was a relatively great amount of celebrating happening then. They shot some fireworks on Thursday from the military base, so Me and the other missionaries here watched them, and then we, along with the branch president, went to a member's house to have dinner. 
    My companion, Elder Rasmussen and I, work really well together. It seems to make a difference that we served together at the MTC, none of that preliminary awkwardness. We already liked each other. He is a hard worker and he can be very funny sometimes!  We only had a disappointing 26 hours proselyting this week, but most of that was due to the holiday. Many of our investigators were not at home or  they were with family or somewhere else. When church first began on Sunday there were only 12 investigators at church. We were sort of sad because not too many investigators attended church last week, and we were afraid that we were being ineffective missionaries. From that point on, 15 more investigators made it to church. We had 27 investigators at church yesterday, so that was good!  To answer the question about if we teach English class here, we are teaching English on Saturdays at the other Elders'church building. 
   Many of our investigators are progressing. Great news! The family of 5, whose paperwork we have been waiting on, will finally be baptized this weekend! I also heard from Ampitatafika that 8 of the 10 people that we working towards baptism with, have been baptized! Sure wish I could have been there! We have. one investigator, E, who has been struggling with smoking. Not only that, he was not attending church much. We began to wonder if we should continue teaching him (the rest of his family attends church fairly often). Luckily, he attended church, this past Sunday and we are probably going to invite him to be baptized and see if that causes him to work to accomplish the goal to quit smoking.  
   President Adams leaves and President Foote arrives on Wednesday. There are so many changes occuring in the mission office and the field, that I will probably not recognize many missionaries when I return to Antananarivo. Such is Life!!
  This scripture was part of my reading this week. It explains that we are all given weaknesses so we can overcome them and draw closer to Jesus. We will receive grace after we do all we can to keep His commandments.  "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weaknessMost gladly therefore will rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
 I hope that everyone has a good week. This week should be a cool one, with an investigator family plus one being baptized. Life is good!!!  I have had the opportunity to take part in helping someone convert to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 It really is great to be a missionary!!!
 
Love y'all!
Elder 
Pinson

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