Life as an AP

Oct 6 Letter - Mom note: Sorry about the lack of paragraphs. I posted from computer at work this week and it is not working like at home. This last week has been an interesting phenomenon. It feels like an eternity because of the sheer number of things that have happened. It also feels like a really short amount of time. Let me take you through this slowly.

Last Monday we had a huge activity for all of the missionaries in Tana. We played sports. There was Basketball, volleyball, and Tennis. Then we ate lunch together and some people continued to play for a little bit. Almost all of the missionaries in Tana attended the activity, so about 40 missionaries. That evening I had one goodbye soiree with some members and then I got picked up by Elder Christiansen and Elder Fox. We went home and the next morning the fun started.

So Tuesday was a fun day. We started in the morning by having my very first office meeting. Office meeting is a weekly meeting with all of the senior couples here in the office, and the APs, and the office elders. So this weekly meeting is in order to keep everything in order. So a little update on all of the couples for you guys. We have the Adams, who are obviously the mission President and his wife. Then we have the Clowards. Elder Cloward is our financial person, and Sister Cloward is kind of the general mission secretary. Little fun fact: you know Alantis right? The huge big water park in the Bahamas. Yeah.... Elder Cloward designed it. Elder Cloward has his own design buisness for that kind of things, specializing in water. So everything in Alantis that has water, he designed. Sister Cloward helped to run the business as well. And then there are the Rositters. Sister Rositter is our mission nurse, who tries to keep us all healthy. She has a huge assignment and is hard to keep up on all of the health issues. Elder Rositter is in charge of the bikes and also translations. He has helped a lot in getting some unofficial translations of church materials that are really needed here in Mada. And then there are the Asay's. They are the humanitarian couple for the mission. They are doing a lot to try and help Madagascar as a whole. They do all sort of projects, bridges, and clean water, and immunizations, and wheelchairs, etc. etc. etc. They are absolutely wonderful and help so much. And then there is Frede. He isnt a senior couple, but he works full time for the church. He does a lot here in the office and is great! So Office meeting is a blast with them each week.

P.S. Mom/Dad - Please be on the lookout please for any senior couples in good health that may want to serve a mission. The mission is starting to get in a little bit of a rush to find new couples to replace any of these that will be going home. It is the best mission in the world and any of the couples here will testify how much fun it is. So there are also many many spots open for member support missions as well, which is getting out and helping the leaders in the church here know how to lead and how the church is supposed to run. Just let me know if you have any ideas of people who might want to do that.

And then Tuesday afternoon, we were off picking people up from taxi brusse stops. We picked up a bunch of missionaries that were coming up from Antsirabe. Traffic was really bad, but we got them safe and sound. Tuesday night, we had the farewell dinner with the two missionaries that left us this past week, and we had a wonderful testimony meeting with them as well.

Wednesday, the main big thing is the new missionaries. At about 11 o'clock, we left for the airport, and got pizza on the way. And then we got to the airport and picked up two missionaries that just came over from La Reunion. Then we waited a little bit and saw the plane come in and watched 12 brand new missionaries from the Provo MTC walk off the plane. We waited for them, met them, and then proceeded to take them and all of their stuff back to the office. They started eating their cookies and juice, and took care of paperwork, and interviews with President Adams. Meeting them there was two visa waiters. Both of these visa waiters are supposed to serve their missions in Johannesburg, but due to visa problems are starting their mission here and waiting for the visas to come. Keep track y'all, that makes 14 new missionaries. And then we ate dinner, oh wonderful new missionary dinner. That was super delicious as always. Thanks Sister Adams if you read this. :) And then we shipped the missionaries back to our apartment for the night. We hung out with them, chatted a bit, and then slept well.

 Thursday - a day full of training - So first thing in the morning was shipping all of those new people to the office for breakfast. We got them up and ready and over to the office. Sister Adams did it again with her wonderful oatmeal and muffins.(for those that have been counting, this is the third Sister Adam's meal of the week.) And then we started the training. First the training meeting for the trainers, and then the meeting for the trainers and the trainees. And then part way through the couple's training for the new missionaries, in walked our three new malagasy missionaries straight from the Ghana MTC. Yes, that makes the final total of 17 new missionaries this past week, which is also a mission record. There have never been that many new missionaries in one transfer ever before. And then we opened the assignments for the trainers and trainees. Everyone found out who they are paired with for the next twelve weeks, barring any changes or things that are out of the plans right now. Then we had lunch. Yes, that was my fourth, and final, Sister Adams meal this last week. And then when all of the food was cleaned up and done, we started taking all the missionaries to their respective bus stops to get to Antsirabe and Tamatave. When that was all finished, transfers were done. So that version of the story is actually missing a lot of details about other random things that we had to do during the week.

 Friday - We spent the whole day in the office catching up on some work that had gotten pushed back due to the transfers. So we did stats, and updated IMOS and did a bunch of other things. We had a lot of things to do.

Saturday - We went on splits in Ambohimanarina. Yes that is the area I just came from. We decided it to be best to go back and help them figure a few things out. Plus as APs we will be doing splits quite often in order to help missionaries. Afterall that is our job.

Sunday - Finally got to work in the area. Church was really good. There are now 4 missionaries working in this area. Before there were 4, and for a while it went down to two, and now it is back up to 4 again. But this time it is two elders and two sisters. It is really good because as APs, we really dont get to work to much in our own area, so it is really good to have two other missionaries in the area to help carry the load. In the evening, we did a little bit of work in the office, and then we got to teach a little, which was a relief.

And then today. You may notice that this email is coming quite a bit later than usual, and that is because we had to meet with President today, and so now is the time we have to finish writing home. Crazy Crazy is my life right now. And this next week should be as well. Well that was my week, crazy busy. I have never been more tired in my entire mission. Working hard, doing all of the right things. Until next week!! Elder Weber