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
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