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

The Church is Changing Peoples Lives

Hello,

It is going good here in Tamatava. The days have gone by so fast here. We have to push our baptism back one or two weeks so we can finish all of the lessons with him first. The Investigators here are way cool because they all do the work themselves. They come to church and read the Book of Mormon. It is the greatest thing when the people convert themselves.

We have a couple of way awesome families that we love right now. One is a really old man named Setapierre and his daughter Jaselle. They are some of the happiest people I have ever met and they make me smile every time we go teach them. Setapierre is always smiling when he sees us because he is so taken away that we speak his language. But he can't say much because when he talks his teeth almost fall out of his mouth. So he just smiles and laughs. His daughter is the same way but she can talk and usually talks for him.

The other family is way mazotoa. But because Elder Wilson and I are awful with names we just call them the Catholic Cats. They used to be Catholic and their house is full of cats... They come to church every week together and the wife even goes to the activities at the church on Saturdays. The lessons with them are great.

Funny Story: In one of the lessons with the Catholic Cats a chicken jumped onto my shoulder and just took a seat. The wife took it off and threw it outside, but within about one minute that same chicken came up behind me and jumped onto my shoulder again. After that, the wife just grabbed it and held it under the table. At the end of that lesson the husband said something and pointed at Elder Wilson's pants. We told him we did not understand so he put his finger on the zipper of Elder Wilson's pants. That made him sweat a little bit until he realized his fly was just down. He thought he was trying to get a little frisky with him.

The work here is going good. The church is changing peoples lives. I am grateful to be a part of it.
Love,
Elder Allen

A Sweet Message of Gratitude

"The accomplishment of my baptism is a pure moment of great joy to my Heavenly Father and to me.  Today, I thank you all for your support and your effective and lovely attendance during that precious moment. I don't forget to give thanks to Elder Allen, Elder Keyes, Elder Smith, Elder Tambula and especially Elder Choulamani who performed my baptism of water..."Great will be your rewards in heaven guys."  My dearest brethren Nambinina who honorably and worthily conferred me the Holy Ghost.  But above all those, I'm so grateful to my husband and my two children who have been supporting and praying for me from the beginning. "I LOVE YOU."  Finally, my greatest thanks is addressed to the GREAT ELOHIM and His son JESUS CHRIST for their Love and blessings."

The Gospel is Not a Bunch of Rules, It is a Life Style

Hello,

This week was good. We fixed the bed bug situation. My companion and I decided to not use bed frames anymore. We have our two mattresses on the floor. That seemed to fix the problem, except, the other day I woke up to a giant cock roach crawling on my neck. I slapped it instinctively as it woke me up.

The missionary work here is going great. The members in our branch are awesome and our investigators are very humble. We should have a baptism coming on the first of April.

The picture of the Scorpion was taken in our house. That was right next to one of the missionary's desks in our home.


Funny Story: The other day after English class we all walked home and found that everyone had forgotten their keys. There is a big barbed wired wall that surrounds our whole house except for one spiky metal door in front. We all thought we were screwed. But then I pulled myself up, did a front flip over the door, and then ran around back where there was an unlocked door for me to get in. It was funny because my belt got stuck on one of the spikes, so it forced me to just swing my feet over my head and do a front flip. Everyone was laughing during it because they thought I was going to do a face plant on the other side. Madagascar is also a crowded place so there were lots of Malagasies outside watching a Vazaha trying to break into a house like a gymnast.

I also heard that 2 investigators that I found and taught are getting baptized back in my last area. I am very grateful when I find and teach some one that is willing to listen and act upon our message. Every time they do, I can see how it changes their life and brings them joy and blessings. The Gospel is Not a Bunch of Rules, It is a Life Style that God has told us to live because he knows it will bring us the most happiness in our lives.

Sincerely,
Elder Allen

breakfast burritos with homemade tortillas

Riding in a Pous Pous after Cyclone Enawo hit.