Farming fact number 2 - 2/23/15

Farming fact number 2: So we have a member that wanted us to help him get a baby pig for 40,000 ariary and then he would sell it in about 9 months for 100,000 ariary. We have learned from great study and researching the members that it is SO MUCH better to start off with 2 chickens, and within the same amount of time you could make over 230,000 ariary within a 9 month period, and you would be able to continually have that grow. Whereas if you buy the 1 pig, and sell it.....It just doesn’t make any sense. SO! Start with chickens, not pigs. :)

This week has definitely been interesting. I had a great split on Tuesday with Elder Galbreath, and we had a great time teaching some swag families, and at the end of the day we taught a guy who is a puspus puller, and had just recently had his wife leave him with his kids, and this guy was just depressed. We had a great lesson with him though where we taught him, and just tried to help him feel love. Then all of a sudden this guy told us that he had stopped drinking and chewing paraky and wanted to get baptized. We were so stoked. Then after the lesson I found out that the entire reason for the split was so that "Doctor Love could work his magic on this dear fellow." It was great. :)

We are still on course with Nirinas baptism on the 7th of march, and then we have Alberto and nety that Just need to get their vita soratra and then need to start praying with the right branch :) haha they are funny. We will need to see if it’s ok for them to pray at antsirabe or if they need to go to Ambohimena. But they are SO SWAG :)

Other then that....hmm...We had some things in the branch that we need to take care of. haha that is always fun :) Oh! We were in the bureau one day doing some MLS Stuff when all of a sudden we heard something equivalant to an earth quake come, and all of a sudden dust and dirt just filled the bureau. We were so scared! We looked outside and saw that a building had collapsed right next to us, and had covered the area around the bureau...Except destroying the bureau itself. So MIRACLE! Haha still not dead yet :)

Sorry this is going to be kind of a short email. But I love you all and thank you for your prayers.

Love Elder Lehr

(Note: When Elder Lehr says  “to pray at Antsirabe” he means to attend that branch/ward.)

The Wonders of Valentines - 2/16/15

So did any of you know that You should vaccinate a pig every 4-6 weeks when growing it so that it kills parasites and other stuff? And also with just feeding your pig the scraps of everything that you make with your rice and loaka, you could make about a 60,000 ariary profit when it grows up? Whoap! The wonderful things that you learn in Fort Dona. :) If I am not careful I am going to come out as a certified farmer, and be herding omby, ako, and kisoa. I am So excited! 

Well, the dona life is still just as sweet, just as mamy, and just as cool as it ever has been. This blasted Cold has been killing me for about a month and 3 days now, SO I have been trying to overcome that, but I did receive a diagnosis from The Nurse that I had a sinus infection. So I am on anti biotics and am now starting to heal. Hurrah! Even if I were sick for the rest of my time here it would be worth it to work in Fort Dona :)

Some crazy stuff has happened this week. We were driving to Manandona for a time on Valentines Eve, and as we pulled up by our branch presidents house, we find a HUGE Group of people just gathered around and our grefie not looking that good. So our branch president says in his wonderful english " Ive gota bad news." And pulls us into his house, and tells us that our grefie (ward clerk) had these bandits come to him who basically just wanted his wife, and started to fight him. So one of them throw a punch. He stops it and throws a sucker punch to the face, and then is like "You know what? I shouldn't be fighting because I need to show a good example to people" So the people start to beat him up and all that. How do you like that for a Valentines present? It's all good though, our grefie is a boss and we are trying to help him out with all this shmuck.

All in all I had a wonderful Valentine's week. Elder Christiansen and I went out to a really nice french restaurant with the zone leaders. It was a blast. And then we got some ice cream on the way home. I love valentines day as a missionary :)

 

Oh! Ya, our investigators Nirina, Bebe nety, lova and solo, and alberto and nety are all progressing WAY Well! Nirina is on track to be baptized this March 7th. Which is going to be SO SWAG! We will probably go river hunting this week or so just to make sure there is a river that she can be baptized in. She is SO ready though. I am way excited for her to get baptized. It's just Fort D baby :)

Well I love you all, and I thank you for all your prayers. It really does make a difference in our lives and I thank you all for doing that.

am-pitiavana

Elder Lehr

Got stuck in the dirt, but oh what a glorious time :) - 2/9/15

Elder Lehr in Besoa

Elder Christiansen teaching the children

Elder Lehr on exchange with Elder Rice and a future missionary :)

Elder Rice and Elder Christiansen

Fort Dona is just rocking, I love the dona so so much. You find just the most awesome people ever. Farmers that are just so hick, and accents that tear you to shreds, but it's Fort D! Just drinking the sweet nectar every day :) 

This week was super duper busy. We had president come down on Saturday and we had some SWAG! interviews, and it has just been an awesome week.

On Monday, we played probably the most intense game of American Football that I have ever played. 3 Solid hours of sweat breaking labor through the torrential rain. All the while letting lose our despair at the sea hawks losing the super bowl. It was SO FUN! There were so many times we would be slipping and diving that it just turned into mud football at the end. Haha The wonders of Africa :)

After all that we went to teach Charles and we were so proud of him! He has officially understood that a tree did not appear to Joseph Smith but that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to him "Next to the tree"! I love that guy! Now we are teaching him about the Book of Mormon and hopefully will start teaching him how to read. Such a swag son of a gun. After that we went to Souer Gorret and her family for a soire and had a great time answering their questions. Then as we were descending through the rice patties of oh so much steepness, we fell into the little creeks and then continued on our way. Always an adventure out in the dona.

Tuesday in Besoa, was awesome but I was just sick out of my mind. I basically tried to offer whatever I could but ended up sleeping in the lessons instead of contributing. Way good though. We got to see an old missionaries family and see his kid which was way cute, and then figured out some more of the home teaching and visiting teaching with Jonny (Elder Randrianantenaina).

Wednesday we had English, and all of our times fell through, but as we were going to a super far away time, Marsaline from Tana calls us and tells us we need to go to Antsirabe to fix the car. So we went back to Antsirabe and it killed the rest of our program.

Thursday: We went to restaurant and they were projecting the 6 nations rugby game of France VS Scotland. SO SWAG! Also we were teaching a very very special family. Dadanaivo and his family are so rocking. They all want to go to the temple and be sealed and I think are willing to do whatever they need to in order to get there. It was an awesome lesson and the spirit was super strong.

For Friday, Saturday and Sunday it was all just a blur. We had interviews, translated and drove all the way to Maharivo in order to get some paper work done for a missionary and we taught some incredible lessons. Yesterday we went to Rapena and Nivo who are usually very against us coming over. But they invited us in. And Elder Christiansen did an awesome lesson about the atonement. As we were asking questions and what not, they expressed their desire to receive of the light of the gospel again. And they want to feel the arms of fellowship again. It was an incredible time and they said that were coming to church next week :)

Well the gospel really is true. It's been so fun to be here in Madagascar and I am glad I still have a long time to serve here.

Love Elder Lehr

The GRIPA!!!!! - 2/2/15

The Gripa in Malagasy is a horrible intoxicating disease known in English as the Common Cold. It takes a hold of your ability to breathe through the nose and makes life miserable. And Low and behold....For the Past little while Elder Christiansen and I have caught....THE GRIPA! It's been an adventure and a half being in Fort Dona with this blasted son of a gidru cold.

But! All is well in the garden of Eden! We had a crazy miracle of having exactly a 100 people at church on Sunday! WAHOO!!!!! And it's not even Easter :) We had some less actives come for the 2nd time in a row and I am just on cloud 9 right now.......until the Gripa strikes back!

Less actives: Dez has come to church 2X in a row and it's been awesome. Kind of a standoffish guy, but it's ok. We then had this recent convert named Stephanie come to church which was awesome since we haven't been able to catch her. Then we had a bunch of dadabes and bebes come, except for Dadabe Mitchell and his wife because they have the Gripa.

So This week has really just been focusing on organizing the classes that we have, translating manuals for seminary and institute, and teaching English, and then the few other lessons that we have had. We did give Lova and bebe Nety some baptism dates so that was awesome, OH! And yesterday for fast and testimony meeting our investigator Nirina gave the sweetest little testimony that I have ever heard. She is so ready to accept this gospel :)

My mind is kind of fuzzy right now due to the fact that this Gripa is strangling me right now....So I don't really know what else to type except that I am pretty excited for President to come down this Saturday to do some interviews. That will be fun, and then we are just planning on working as hard as we can this week. And we will try to do some farming and learn more about planting beans and rice.

The Dona is the best, I really do love it a lot. We are starting to really love the people and I am excited to see what happens for the month of February :)

Love Elder Lehr

Ps. Miary Soa Ho any isika aby!