Give him your love for me

Hello,

My heart is so full this week! It is my Brother's Birthday this Wednesday. I cannot even express how much I love that man. Give him your love for me.

The work here has been going great. Just this last Sunday, I was looking around the church at all the crazy, weird and funny members here in Tamatave, Madagascar. God has changed the lives of so many great families here in the Branch of Ambolomadinika. We have our first baptisms here on the 6th of May. That is the final set date. We are just waiting on some people to get married and others to come to church more often.

Funny Story: The other day we walked to an investigator's house named Benesque. Here in Province you can just walk into peoples homes if you know them, so we did. He was sleeping, passed out on his bed so we didn't want to wake him up. But we needed to leave him a note. So without waking him up, we wrote a note telling him to come to church and placed it right by his bed on his desk. He woke up that day finding a note in his house from the Missionaries. He thought it was funny that we walked around in his house without waking him up. (Homes in Madagascar are one room Huts).

I do not have much to say this week. But I am so very grateful for the gospel and how much wisdom and knowledge comes from it. I know that all the answers are accessible to us if we just read the scriptures and pray to our Heavenly Father. I hopeIi never forget how much God has an effect on my life when I am back home. I know he can help us when it comes to anything, not just spiritual church stuff.

Sincerely,
Elder Allen

Life in Madagascar.

Hello,

I do not have much time today in the cyber I am at so I cannot write a lot. That is life in Madagascar. But this past week was great. We have 3 new guys in the house. Elder Mccormick from my MTC group, Elder Olrich, and Elder Meshweshwe. They are all great guys.

This last Easter Sunday was good, not a lot of people showed up to church because of the holiday but that is okay. Elder Wilson and I had to teach the Gospel Principles class and we decided to talk about the power of the light of Christ and how to have it in our lives. It was a good lesson and everyone participated.

Our Investigators are doing great right now. We have baptisms. coming up on the 29th of April and should have more on the 6th of May. The only concern is getting people legally married before their baptisms. But I am pretty confident in them because they are pretty committed people and very diligent in the gospel. Tamatave is a great place.  It is a blessing to be able to live here and share the gospel with people everyday. The ability to study the gospel everyday has been a great blessing on its own. There is so much more to the gospel then most people think and it effects more aspects of our lives then we could even understand. The scriptures are surely an amazing tool for us in this life.

Sincerely,
Elder Allen

"The Bible stands for: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth."

Hello,

Transfers are officially over. I am staying in Ambolomadinka with Elder Wilson. This next Transfer is going to be great. We should definitely have baptisms this transfer. I do not dare say how many because that number might change. But I am really excited about what is to come.

Just this last week a missionary in my house, who only had about a month and a half left, had to go home early, because he fell back in his chair and broke his toe doing so.  He has to have surgery.

We got to watch General Conference this last weekend, it was a really great message to the world. I am so thankful for the gift Apostles and Prophets are to us. There is a a lot of guidance for us in this life if we know where to find it.  As the Love Guru would say, "Lets look at the BIBLE for a second, the Bible stands for: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth."  I am confident that God has given us all the tools and help we need to have complete joy in this life and the direction to return return back to him. The thing is, we need to be able to recognize his gifts and tools here in our lives. The key to receiving personal revelation about something is to first work for it, ask for it, and be worthy of it. Then you can know the truth of all things through the power of the Holy Ghost. Everything good comes from our Heavenly Father.

Have a good week.
Sincerely,
Elder Allen

 With Elder and Sister Ellis from the Seventy

Sticking Around

Hello,

This is the last week of the transfer here for us. I assume I am staying where I am. We are not sure if Wilson is being moved or not but hopefully he stays for one more tramsfer.  We wont have a baptism this transfer but next transfer should be full of them.

The work up here and the people we have met have definitey been prepared. I love to see all of our investigators at church every Sunday. Just this last Sunday the Gospel Principles teacher could not come, so Elder Wilson and I were asked to teach it for the second hour of church. It was no problem because they were all of our investigators and recent converts anyways. We taught about obedience. Everyone participated so it was great.

Weird Story: The other day during English class the kid sitting next to me asked me a really weird question. His question was about his friend. He told me that in the past he made a deal with the Devil that if he would become rich he would give the Devil a cow. But he now follows Christ and does not make deals with the Devil anymore. His question for me was, "If my friend becomes rich, does he still have to give the Devil a cow?"  I just told him that if his friend becomes rich it is not because of the Devil. And that as long as he continues to follow Christ, has repented for making deals with the devil, and never goes back to doing that sort of thing. Then he does not have to worry about it.

Funny Story: While we were cooking lunch one afternoon Elder Wilson noticed that we were low on eggs for the meal we were cooking. But then he found some really old eggs back in the pantry, so he decided to use those. When he cracked the first one it instantly exploded all over him. It was a rotten egg that had built up a bunch of pressure and smelled way bad. It ruined all of the food in the pan and we had to go out and buy new ingredients.

Have a good week.
Love,
Elder Allen

Elder Wilson

Elder Tainter