Elder Scott Weber's mission to Madagascar. Check back for weekly emails and pictures of Madagascar!

Alma 26:12 - Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Short Email Today (8/19/2013 email)



Todays email will be rather short, because I don't have much to say and my companion is not feeling very well so I am trying to keep things short.
I really have no ideas of what to talk about today. I think I will talk about some crazy things I have seen.
#1 - I have been in country for about 8 weeks and I have already seen 4 dead dogs in the streets. Sad I know.... People here hate dogs, people are really mean and kick dogs and throw things at them. But the also do that with most animals.
#2 - Last week I saw this man and woman start yelling at each other in the middle of the street and then they started fighting. We kinda broke it up, but we didnt have to do much.
#3 - I really cant think of too much, I am sure that there is a lot of stuff that if you saw you would be crazied about, but I cant really think of anything pretty much because I am so used to it.
This week I made Cinnamon rolls, and they were very good. I am attaching pictures and you should make sure that Sister ¨Pusey seems them. They tasted good I was very impressed.
Well that is all.
Elder Weber

Mom note: In my email to Scott, I mentioned being frustrated about trying to fill out a referral form for a woman that I met on a business trip.  His response was interesting. Also, I asked about the family they are teaching with the Dad who is having a hard time with smoking.  Here is his response to these questions and comments:





Sorry about the form on mormon.org You should be able to chat with the missionaries online and I am sure that they could help you. Their whole mission is sitting online. They do it from the MTC and most of them are handicapped so it is a good mission for them. In the MTC they told us that they lead the world in Baptisms, because of all the work and referrals that go through them.
R... has really started working on the cigarettes, he has come a long ways already and he has decided that it really is bad and that he needs to stop. His whole family is being his support system which is great! I will check on the package address for you. This next transfer I am about 95 percent sure I will be staying in the same area, which means I will be here until at least the end of October or middle of December. They are 6 weeks apart, but sometimes there is funny business too, but count on the 6 weeks. September 15th is the day that transfer calls come out and the transfers happen all week long. Then Oct 27 and then Dec 8.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Adventures of Madagascar



Hello All!!
This week was good in terms of work. We accomplished a lot and saw some improvements in our area, we are hoping for some baptisms here in a little bit. We have one planned for August 31st, and that is for a part member family and the husband will be doing the baptism, and we are hoping to give this awesome family a date in October, but.... the father currently smokes about 20 cigarettes a day, and it is going to be hard for him to quit. He loves the teachings, he loves church, and he embraces all of it, except for the Word of Wisdom, he is still hesitant, even though he has admitted that smoking is not good for him, but he is trying to rationalize it out in his head.
Today for P-Day we traveled to 67 HA (as pronounced here, Soixante Sept) and bought kravaties(ties) because they are so so so so so cheap. I purchased 7 ties today for a whole total of 3500 ariary, which is 500 ariary a piece, or 25 cents. Some of them are pretty good quality as well. See attached picture.
Here is the thing about Soixante Sept. Antananarivo is one of the dirtiest cities in the world. The number I keep hearing is the 2nd dirtiest city. I have also heard that the number one city doesn't have missionaries, making Tana the dirtiest city in which missionaries are. Soixante Sept is the dirtiest area in Tana, and therefore absolutely filthy. Attached is a picture or two of a river in 67 HA. This is not even the worst river, and the smell almost killed me. It is rather dirty. I have pretty much decided that there is nothing that will phase me when I return to the US.
Looking forward to another awesome week. Just for information, transfers came and went last week without any changes for me, which was a given, on the September transfer, we are almost 100 percent sure that my companion will be transferred and then I will stay in Ankadindramamy until either end of October of December, at which point, who knows.
Elder Weber

Monday, August 12, 2013

Monday, August 5, 2013

Pictures and letter

Mom note: Elder Weber sent pictures with comments and a few disjointed comments in between. Have fun :) This is the guidance I received:


Letter is just going to be stories about the pics. Feel free to splice them however you want together :)

Elder Weber





1) Funny story. So we have an okay apartment but the down side is that the electricity is way bad!! So we have had most of the outlets stop working, and so the church got them all fixed because our Tompo Trano (landlord) isnt on top of things and we need outlets. The fixed them all and then the other week one blew out again, this time with a fireball, and then we had another one fireball which cut the power in the washer, dryer, and water heater. And that was out from friday until just now. I had clothes in the washer and so I had to finish them malagasy style in the shower. Not very fun. 



2) We went to a croc farm today!! This is an awesome animal I forgot the name of. But isn't it cute?? :)
 Mom note:Personally, it looks kind of mean to me.



3) So the skyscraper is typical Malagasy. They started building it, ran out of money, so it was never finished and is empty and now old and decrepit. 



Here are pictures from the croc farm.

The croc farm was a lot of fun today they had croc of all sizes and other animals as well. They had fosa's, yes the fosa's that are talked about in the movie, and they are a little intimidating. Small, but fierce. 





I ate some crocodile today which was way good. On the way back from the croc farm, we hitchhiked and got a good deal cramped in the back of this little car thing. Thats the picture you see. Way bumpy and stuff, but I also got some good pictures today of some scenery; but it should probably have to wait until next week.

We went to little America today as well which is a shopping mall that could exist in the US. Way nice, all high-end stores and has a food court and way nice. 

I need to go for the week. 

Lots of love!!!

Elder Weber