Another great week!

Letters from 6/2/2014

So this has been a really interesting week. So on Wednesday one of the other missionaries from the other companionship went back to Tana and we received another missionary. And then on Wednesday we had a fun experience.

Elder Rice, the other American, had an ingrown toenail. So we ended up at a medical center here in Fort Dauphin that has a Doctor from South Africa. Dr. Jane. His toe was all infected and gross. So she ended up removing half of the toenail, and I served as surgical assistant. She knew that I had plans to be a doctor, and so she invited me in, and she explained what she was planning on doing, how, and why. And then I assisted a little in opening sterile packets for her once the work started. It was way good, but we had to try and turn a little clinic into a suitable place to do the "surgery" as she called it. She is now going to be our go-to doctor here in Fort D. She is the doctor for the peace corps and most of the tourists and others that live here. But she also does a bunch of humanitarian work and free clinics for the Malagasy people. So that was an interesting time on Wednesday. 

On Friday I went on a split to do some bap interviews, they did not go so well. A lot of them ended up not being ready for baptism yet. 

Other than that we did a lot of work, always working hard. We hit an all time high for church attendance since our coming here. We hit 91. But before they were at 120 so we are still working to improve. 

Another side comment. My camera has recently stopped working. I believe the cause to be sand particles caught in the lens extension. It was working fine and I didnt drop it or anything and then it stopped working. I believe this to be because of sand getting into the barrel. It doesnt seem to be that there is any one here in Fort Dauphin that knows anything about camera repair so I might wait to get back to Tana where there are good repairmen. If I had a condensed air can I would try to blow out the sand or whatever is in it, but I dont. If you try to turn on the camera, the lens like convulses and tries to open but doesnt or only partway. 

This week I also got to have a gospel discussion about salvation with some Southern Baptists. They are down here visiting and sharing their gospel and one asked to speak with us and so we did.
His beliefs were very different from ours, once you accept Christ as your personal savior then you are saved. And then he declared how he believes that our doctrine is false. We let him say what he wanted and we tried to help him understand our beliefs, but he was all about trapping us in our words.
We, on the other hand, teach our doctrine and share our message and then we invite them to exercise their free agency, if they want to be baptized and join the church, great! If not, no hard feelings. 

Anyways that is all for this week. Until again;

Elder Weber 

Mom Note: In my letter, I mentioned about going to graduation parties.  He had this response:

Graduation party time, oh what a time. People here take the BAC in August and so in September or October find out if they passed, and if they passed then they are graduated.

 

I dont remember what time I sent the letters last week. But the cyber is open about 8-12 and 2-5 only. Here in Fort D they take a siesta for lunch. I have no clue why but everything is closed for lunch.