Farming Fact 11 - 4/27/15

Farming fact number 11: In Madagascar it is very important that if you have land from your great great ancestors, that you go to both the commune and the fokontany president to make sure that taxes were payed and other stuff so that it shows clearly that you own the land. That way you don't have some puny ridiculous masositra little uncle try to steal your land. Hypothetically of course.

Well, Tomorrow I say goodbye to my beloved companion "Elder Christiansen" and to all of our amazing adventures together, and on Wednesday say hello to one of the coolest people I know, Elder Razindrasetra. That guy is such a man stud and I am so excited to work with him.

Conference was amazing and I am so glad for the messages that we were able to listen to. I loved it lot and had a lot of answers to prayers and other things.

Bebe Nety got baptized on Friday and I also gave her the fanahy masina. So that was awesome. Then we said a lot of goodbyes. And things are just going to be crazy for the next little while.

Today we are probably going to spend our last time together with the district president's family and enjoy those moments with them. They are some of the greatest people ever (Even though they took some of our recent converts and are having them work as mpanampies - helpers.) So that will all be fun. 

Other than that we have branch conference this week, and will have President Jaquo and President Mampionona come over. That will be way fun. 

Well time is going by way to fast. I love this mission with all my heart. It really is a miracle being here, and it's a miracle to be able to be apart of this great work and see lives change, and to see growth happen and to see people understand and mandray the atonement more in their lives. I know this work is true and that the church is true.

Am-pitiavana

Elder Lehr

We get to be match makers :) - 4/20/15

Farming fact number 10: I cant believe that it has already been 10 weeks since this insatiable desire to raise chickens and farm has taken a hold of my very being, and has coursed through my blood purging all other desires in life. WELL! On to the farming fact! So it is SO Important to know the economics of farming. I believe I have already discussed this in previous farming facts, but I want to reemphasize (I have totally forgotten how to spell this word. Heck I almost forgot what an ambush was!) it. SO! During the times of October is the best time to get....What are those in English....DUCKS! Because it is right before the rainy season, and it just works out. Also you have to be careful and vaccinate all of your farm animals when doing this, because some sickness and plagues are more common in certain months of the year.

The week: Usually when we report statistics to the Zone leaders we have things like number of baptisms and lessons and families we are teaching....BUT This week we wanted to do something a little different since we usually end up having to do other things. So we sent in the number of hernia checks that happened this week: 4 number of facebooks made for investigators: 1 number of times cried in sacrament meeting: 5 number of requests for welfare to fix bikes: 5  and 1 partridge in a pear tree. 

We really had a crazy week and it was awesome to have a lot of member help when we were doing so much;..ness... But we are having a baptism THIS FRIDAY!!! WHOA!!! Yep our dear bebe nety is getting baptized on Friday because we are having general conference on Saturday and Sunday. SO THAT WILL BE AWESOME! In accordance with everything that has been going on, I was able to go on a split with the couple missionaries which was super fun! We got up way early to go to the dona, I went back with my son Elder Mack, and then they dropped me off at the Tolmans. We then had a wonderful language study and it was fun teaching them Malagasy. Afterwards we went over to get keyboards from the church and started to do piano lessons for Manandona and then Andranamanelotra. SUPER FUN TIME! Sady! We gave a blessing to one of our investigator's kids because she is kind of sick right now. Fun experience.

OH yea! So I mentioned one of our members I think in the last email or the one before that, but he is SO FUNNY! We got an order from both the mission president and the district president to get him married as fast as possible, SO we get to be MATCH MAKERS!  :) From what he says he should be married by next month. :) With a person who has as much faith as he does...I have no doubt in my mind that it will happen :)

Fort Dona is such a special place. It is a place of miracles and hardships, and chickens, pigs cows, ducks, mixed duck chicken things, and hope. Its been such a blessing to be in a wonderful area with an awesome companion. I love this work and I love being able to see the atonement not only take hold of an individual, but a hold of a group of saints. It's the best :)

am-Pitiavana

Elder Lehr

My Favorite New Zealand Malagsy - 4/13/15

Farming Fact number 9: This is going to be a short one since I have to tell about the rest of the week, but don't worry, I will make them nice and long for next time :) SO! When planting your kassava plants, make sure that you take your malagasy shovel at a diagonal slope so that it will cut into the ground easier, that way you don't waste as much energy since it stinks being in the blazing sun with no energy :) (Short and sweet)

So big event of the week: We Got Jean Louis back from New Zealand!  What a stud and.....Also probably the weirdest guy I have ever met in my life. SO he has completely forgotten malagasy, and we had to translate for him to his family. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life! He is way good at english and has literally nothing. People stole his farm land, and his tools, and only his really extended family live in Besoa and all of his immediate family live in Mahajanga. But he wants to live here because he loves farming and he wants to help the branch. WHAT A STUD! Haha when we went to Besoa and we had to go through the river, he looked at the river and was just like "ELDER! I love you so much, You don't mind if I ride on your back across the river so that my shoes don't get dirty?" It was the funniest thing ever, just to see this farm boy go on to my back because he is afraid of the mud. I don't know maybe it is just funny to me and everyone else in Besoa.....Ya :)

Also this week we had some great meetings, and had some councils, and things went well. We have one of our recent converts maybe moving to the ambohimena branch so that is crazy, but we had some member help from ambohimena because they wanted to befriend her. AWESOME!

umm...... actually this letter might be a lot shorter then I thought....awkward haha,  fa tsy maninona! Everything is going well, and I am excited for this upcoming week, of teaching and having a blast in Fort Dona. (Haha President Adams now calls it Fort Dona so I feel we have accomplished something).

Anyway talk to you next week

Love Elder Lehr

A double Rainbow.....Lit up by Moonlight 4/6/15

Farming Fact Number 8: Haha you all thought that I was going to forget a farming fact huh! Well HERE IT IS! So, In raising pigs. It is very important to see how much your income is and what type of pig will be most beneficial for you in your circumstance. FOR INSTANCE! We have a kisoa Gasy, or malagasy pig which will get up to about 100,000- 150,000 ariary max, just because you can feed and feed it but it will never grow fat. It just sucks all your food and there is no growth in it, but they can get like 6-12 piglets per litter and you feed them about 2 kilos a day. Then you have the Large White pig usually found in North America and Europe that Eats about 3-4 Kilos of feed a day, and will mitombo tsara and they are usually 300,000- 500,000 ariary depending on if you are giving them Blood, Dried fish and corn in their diet so that they can get big and strong and get enough otrikain and the other stuff that they need. also they have about 8-14 piglets per litter. SO! Remember that depending on what you can put forth in terms of feed. (If you can afford it) Then that will determine the pig that is right for YOU!

Yesterday we were getting out of our last time with Soure Aime and Elliena when we saw it. The most incredible thing made by God that I have ever seen. We saw in the sky....a rainbow....at night....Lit up by the moonlight. I was trippen and just like HOLY SHMUCK! This is SO SWAG! We tried to take a picture........But having it be night time.....kind of made the picture look just black if you know what I mean. But it was one of the coolest things of all time by far!

Well things are going great here in the Dona. Just living and loving life, and we have been very busy. We had a great Pasque and had a wonderful district activity where they showed the bible videos in malagasy which was SUPER POWERFUL! And then the missionaries all got up and sang "I Believe in Christ" which we had translated into malagasy. It was way awesome and a very special experience, being able to sing with my son (Elder Mack) and grand daughter (Elder Gariki) and all (good ole mission lingo), and then we also got to sing with the district. It was a very special and powerful experience to have been able to see people think and ponder on what the Savior has done for them. 

Along with the wonderful, spiritually moving flow of easter time...Comes the madagascar....Fety be... And Mother if you remember last easter......Well Antsirabe is known to be the easter party headquarters of Madagascar. It was Bouncing and crazy here! But it was also really cool.

Nothing much really happening here. We had some dope zone meetings and are just hitting things strong. We are determined to not have my companion die hard but to go forward to the end. And Izay Ilay izy!

Am-pitiavana 

Elder Lehr