Transfers again!

Another 6 weeks have flown by again, and it is transfer season again. 

"Its beginning to look a lot like Transfers, everywhere I go, there are trainers left and right, one in the park as well, and taxi-brusses and travels everywhere!!!"

That was my poor attempt at writing a song for the season. It probably didn't work too well. But transfer news is out and let me tell my story of this last week.

So last monday was a good day, after the cyber, we went with some members and had a nice soiree. And then on Tuesday we worked hard. We taught 7 times on Tuesday and it was very very good. But on Tuesday, Elder Christiansen called a different person in our house and asked him a lot of questions. So I was already thinking that my area could split and the awkward phone call made me believe more so that. Later in the day, I get another phone call from Elder Cloward following up on the earlier phone call. But this time he talked directly to me about what other things we needed in our house to accommodate two extra missionaries. So this made it extremely obvious what was happening. And then Wednesday we had the APs go on splits with us. Elder Christiansen went with my companionship and Elder Fox went with the Ambohibao Elders. And Elder Christiansen found out that I knew our area was going to split and so we talked a lot about the split and the things that were going to happen. So I thought it was pretty clear that my companion and I would both stay here and split the area. So Elder Christiansen let us believe that, and so Wednesday we worked hard, and Thursday was a pretty good day as well.

So Friday comes along, and Friday I have a meeting with President Adams and the Stake President. We were waiting for the meeting, and the Stake President never showed up. So we talked about the area and everything involved. When we were finished we ended up back at the office with President Adams. No one else had showed up yet. So we get back there and President invites me into his office, alone. I sit down and he said. "Elder Weber, you're getting transferred. You are coming into the office." At this point I was pretty shocked, because my thoughts went to me becoming an office elder. But that was weird because they shouldnt have changed this transfer. And then he continues, "You will be Elder Fox's new companion." And then it all made sense, I was being transferred to being an AP. Mom note: AP stands for Assistant to the President (as in the mission president over all of the missionaries in Madagascar.)

So and then after that I started saying goodbyes to people and things like that through Sunday.

Also this Saturday was a really good day. We had two baptisms. Patrick, the 15 year old, and Zafimahay, a 9 year old kid. Both of which asked me to do the baptism. It was a really good experience for all of us. They are awesome and are really ready. It was kinda hard though saying goodbye to all the really great people in this branch. The work is going so well and it was really hard to say goodbye. 

I will be transferring over to Anjanahary tonight to start the work as an AP. We have 17 new missionaries coming on Wednesday that need to be taken care of. So that all has to get done in the next few days. There is a lot of work to get done and little time. We will see what happens. 

So I am happy but also sad. It will be a fun experience, and there are some perks. First of all, I will be driving. Watch out Madagascar here I Come!!! But also with that, the APs do not get to teach very often, because they are busing doing all sorts of other things. Lots of meetings. Transfer meetings, MLC, OLC, Office Meeting, and who knows what else. But it will be a fun time. Elder Fox is an absolutely awesome person and I am excited to work with him. 

The pictures are of a cute kid, the two recent converts, and Norberts family, when I said goodbye. 

So I am sure this next week I will have some adventures to write you guys about. Including I think 3 meals with Sister Adams cooking this week, talk about being spoiled. 

HAPPY OCTOBER EVERYONE!!

Elder Weber 

Another week

Letter from 9/22/2014

Hello Everybody!!

First of all, happy birthday to my older sister. You are getting old. :)

It has been another good week. We are working hard and really seeing the area progress. We had another 23 investigators show up to church.

This Saturday we will be having a baptism. Hopefully 4 of them. We will see because we are waiting to see if some of them can get legally married before Saturday. But it will be very good. 

Since we are talking about baptisms, this Saturday we have an investigator that is going to attend. He currently goes to the Seventh Day Adventist church. We have been teaching him for a long while and he is very interesting in learning about the church. We have gotten into very deep conversations with him about the gospel. Being an Adventist, he has ultimately brought up the sabbath day debate, but we have handled that. He is beginning to really feel of the truthfulness of the message we bring for him and his family. He has felt that there are questions he has that we can answer. He is so surprised that we have all the answers. Our doctrine answers everything, in his words "complete". And he has started to realize that in a lot of other places he cannot get that. And so he has agreed to come see the baptism on Saturday and we will see what happens from there. He is in no rush to make a decision, but wants to really understand EVERYTHING before he makes a decision. 

Today I went and bought lamba for my suit. Lamba meaning cloth. So I have the materials and I think it will be a pretty incredibly nice suit.

Malagasy culture - some malagasies marry WAY young. The couple we are waiting on for the soratra for the baptism, the guy is 19 and the girl is only 18. There is another set of investigators that is a very young married couple. The guy is my zandry. (my younger) 

But I love Madagascar. Let me send a few pics. The new church building, the US embassy (I might get arrested for taking a picture. Norbert. Some members. Patrick (getting baptized on Saturday) and maybe some others. 

But it is hard to write. I never know what to say anymore. Time is flying. I feel like this past week didnt even exist. And transfers are already next week again. 17 missionaries coming next week. 2 leaving. That will be an adventure. 

Elder Weber 

Life as a missionary in Mada

Letter from 9/1/2014
Mom Note:  I didn't make a lot of fixes to this one.  I wanted to leave the sentence structure. The order of his words is kind of mixed up in a couple of the sentences.  

So it may have been an interesting week.

1) Locust invasion

Yes, this is the second locust invasion during my mission, but this one was worth noting. It descended on Tana, which hasnt happened in a while. It has also been very hot here, which is what they are saying brought it here. It happened on Thursday and only lasted a few hours before they moved on. But the farmers had to all run to their fields and burn things to drive away the locusts. They burned anything they could find, and then they tried to swat away the rest of the locusts. So it was sad to see that, but I think that they did not lose very much crop.

2) Jirama.

So the power and water company is threatening to strike. The reason why is because the president of Mada put some of their people in jail, because he was mad at them, and so now they are threatening to possibly cut all the power and water to the country. So we will see how that turns out. It looks like it might not be any thing big, the president might calm down, but the missionaries are prepared, just in case. We all saved up water, bought a bunch of food, candles, matches, etc. to prepare. So hopefully nothing happens, but ill let you know.

Other than that it was a pretty normal week, nothing major any direction. We had a very good week of teaching, but the investigators that showed up were a little few, but we will rebound. We are going to have a very very good week and destroy everything.

Oh, btw, I ate a locust today. Pretty good, boiled and then deepfried.

Also I do not know where August flew, because its already September. Pretty soon it will be my birthday, and then Christmas, and then I dont even want to think about it.

I went and bought 15 ties today. And guess how much they were. A whole 7,500 AR. I know right? I payed way to much for them. hahaha jk That is each tie is a quarter. Not expensive at all. And some of them are pretty nice. I also went shopping for suit materials. (that is window shopping, just browsing) But question, what color suit should I get? Send me ideas and pictures of things you think will look good. I was thinking gray or like a really light tan color. But I am open for suggestions.

I love the work, but time is flying by too fast. At the office today, I realized that my picture is almost to the top. We have a board with all the pictures of the current missionaries, and as they go home the ones from the top are removed and the missionaries keep moving up. My group started on the 5th line I believe, and we are getting close to the top line. Top line is not normally a good thing, it means you are old. Speaking of which, people are so amazed at how young I am, but how large I am. Although I have been losing some weight. Im at just under 160 pounds.

Well thats life, and I have to go make some dessert for a soiree tonight!

Elder Weber