Manahoana!! Week one at the MTC

Manahoana!!

That means hello for those who don't speak Malagasy as well as I do. haha It is pronounced Mana-wana with all of those a's sounding like ah. I can't belive that I have been here 3 days already. It is so crazy. Well I don't have too much time today so here goes the crammed version of everthing.

My companion is Elder Jake Roush from Syracruse, Utah. He is 18 turning 19 in August. He is a really awesome guy, and you may have gotten an email yesterday from my friend that works at the MTC with a picture of us. We are getting along great , which is wonderful!  There are 4 people in my room and there are a total of 13 people that are here to learn Malagasy and go to the Madagasacar Antananarivo (Ahn-Tahn-ahn-arr(little roll of the r)-ee-vu) We have 11 elders and 2 sisters and these two sisters are the first sisters who will be going to Madagascar in like the last 10 years. Pretty crazy. The other guys in my room are Elder Lee(our new DL for the first few weeks) and Elder Fisher. They are both really good too. Elder Lee speaks 8 languages already so he is already a pro at learning Malagasy. Everyone here is great! It is going to be such a great experience. 

BIG NEWS! I'm getting transferred! haha My branch is going to be one of the very first branches to go to Raintree here in a few weeks. I'm not quite sure how that is going to go, but it will work. I will give you more information as I get it. It will be a lot of fun I'm sure.

Malagasy is so fun! But so Hard!! It kinds has a nice rhythm, like fianakaviana which means family. We have learned a whole ton of new words. I don't even know what to write about because there is just so much.

The spirit is so strong here and we have learned a lot. The first night we were here we had a great experience where we got to sit down with a bunch of investigators and hear their stories and talk to them. It was really cool, because although these aren't real investigators, they have real stories and they stay in character and you really are teaching them and you are feeling the spirit.

We got our first malagasy investigator. His name is Jean-Jaques and he doesn't speak any english. To make it better, we taught him our first lesson this morning. You do the math, we got here Wednesday afternoon and we taught a lesson entirely in Malagasy Friday morning. It was rough, not going to lie, but we made it through. We get to do another one tomorrow.

Our P-day is going to be on Thursday while we are here at the MTC, but who knows it could change when we get to Raintree. So expect emails then, today is just an exception.

I am trying to think of what else to say, and I am going crazy. Life is great here, our teachers are amazing, they tell us cool stories about Madagascar, the Spirit is so strong, the people are great, my companion is great, and Life is just so so good!!

Since I have a few more minutes I'll teach you a little more Malagasy.

Ny anarako dia Elder Weber.

Ny Fiangoanan' i Jesoa Kristy Ho An' Ny Olomansin' ny Andro Farany - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

One of the hardest sounds for Americans to make in their language is the ts sound. Think of opening a can of soda and making that sound. That is what we get to do.

Ehhh, thats enough for now I think. I am doing well, I love you guys, and I cannot get over how strong the Spirit is.

Love you all,  (tia anao aho - I love you, literally love you I)

Scott Weber