Monday, June 2, 2014

Fianarantsoa - 6/2/14



Wow!....That's pretty much how I have to describe Fianarantsoa. It is a beautiful area that is all mountain land. There is Fianarantsoa north and south. I am in Fianarantsoa north right now. And "technically" we are supposed to use bikes but because almost all of our area is on the actual mountains....we are not able to ride the bikes, but just climb up really steep hills and landscapes. Not going to lie I have never been SO TIRED, but I love it.
Haha I guess I got a little bit ahead of myself. First I need to talk about the trip to Fianarantsoa. So on Wednesday I got a call from the APS that I needed to head over to their house that night to sleep over, and then they would drive us to the station to go to Fianarantsoa. So I went and slept the night. On the morning though...SO MANY PROBLEMS OCCURRED! One of the elders that was coming from Mahajanga to Tana came in at around 2:15 in the morning and so the office elders weren't able to take the people getting transferred to Tamatave to the bus station. That was the first of many problems. And since I don't have enough time to really go into ALL the things that happened, I will say that we were supposed to leave by 8:30 but ended up leaving at around 11:30. I went with Elder Bowler and Cartmill to Antsirabe, and then went another 200KM or so to Fianarantsoa. The driver happened to be way new, and so he went really slow as well. We ended up getting to Ambositra at around 8:30PM and then to Fianarantsoa at around 1:00AM. It was a crazy ride with probably the worst road in Madagascar. But I survived. :)
I love Fianarantsoa. The branch is so amazing and we always have members with us. There is this one specifically that never went to school, but has the kindest heart you could ever encounter. His name is Francois, and he is awesome. He can't read well at all, but he is one of my favorite people. LOVE THAT GUY! Also our branch president is way cool. He knows what he is doing and feeds us 2X a week. Their food is SO GOOD! Yesterday they fed us some hena kisoa with some tamoto lasary. (Lasary is just some veggies like carrots, cucumbers, or tomatoes that have a little bit of salt, onion and then some vinager to pickle it.) It was SO AMAZING.
Even though we don't have supermarket to go to, we still make some really good food. For the most part we will send a companionship to go to the local patisery to get some fresh donuts for breakfast. And then for lunch we will get our rice and loaka, (Kabaka). And then we will fix dinner together and either have some more rice and loake or make tocos, or eat pizza together. It's way fun to be with the other elders.
I guess next week we have to go back to Antsirabe for a zone conference which i am excited for, but then my body tells me (NO! Not that road again! It's too soon!). It's ok though, at least I won't be alone for it :)
One other quick thing. Yesterday we had way too many member missionaries come with us. We had about 7 or so come with us at one time. And so Elder Midgley and I split up. And I went with Francois and this other guy. We tried to go to this less active named Hantatra, but she wasn't there and it was getting really late. So I asked if we could go to the guy's family (the guy that was with me and Francois) and share a spiritual thought. So we went over and I got to meet his family, and they are way cool. After talking for about 10 or 15 minutes I gave my spiritual thought about turning weaknesses into strengths through the atonement and grace of Jesus Christ. The spirit was really strong in that room. And then I asked Francois if he had anything else to add. He shared a scripture in Mark 16:15 about sharing the gospel and said that he really loved this scripture and he felt the spirit really strong in seminary. Even though it had nothing to do with the spiritual thought that I gave, I was able to feel the spirit as I looked at Francois and imagined him being on a mission next year and still struggling with teaching, but because he has such a pure heart and such a wonderful spirit....people would just know that what he was saying was true. It was a way cool experience for me. I love members like that SO MUCH! :)
Anywhos I am sorry this is way long, but I will talk to you next week.
Elder Lehr

No comments:

Post a Comment