Transfers!

March 3rd Letter

Hello Everybody!!

This week was another good week! The work actually went really really slow, but it was an enjoyable week.

Lets start with the best, most important stuff. We had three baptisms this past Saturday, and it was such a joy to perform the baptisms and to be a part of their conversions. There were three baptisms. Ravao, Claire, and Ithiel.

Ravao - Ravao is a bebe (the meaning being grandmother, or any old woman, its custom just to call them all bebe) of a large member family, there are a bunch of members that are all part of one large family, and she is part of it. She is really funny, and of course is a bebe. So quick funny story about her, we were once reading in the Doctrine and Covenants Section 4 where it talks about the field being ready to harvest, and it wont be funny to you all, but when reading she messed up the words, and said that dinner was ready, and we were all burst out laughing. 

Claire - She is the daughter of Ravao, all of her kids are all already members, she just had to wait a little because of a Word of Wisdom problem with Coffee. But she is now baptized and ready to take on the world.

Ithiel - He had quite an interesting story. He and his family were Seventh-day Adventists. He started learning from the missionaries and decided that he wanted to be baptized. He has been learning for over a year, because he family didnt accept the baptism, but he decided in February that he is 19 and so that he can choose for himself and he chose to be baptized, and I was so happy for him, and was so grateful for the opportunity to baptize him this last Saturday. The Lord is blessing him for his decision to follow the Savior and be baptized in the Lord's true church restored here on Earth.

I know that this church is true beyond a shadow of a doubt, and that Jesus Christ stands as the head of this church and that he is working with us in the Lord's vineyard as described in Jacob Chapter 5. I know that if this church wasnt true, then the work would not progress as it is currently progressing here in Madagascar and across the World. 

Transfers news. Nothing is changing for me, same area, same companion. But so in 6 weeks I will probably be transferred. We shall see. 

Oh and Dad, I think I know where you got some of your mechanical engineering jokes. I have know heard Elder Todd use a lot of them including thats good enough for government work!

Anyways I love you!! Keep up the hard work!! Remember who you are. You are a child of God!

Elder Weber

More Pictures from Feb 24th visit to Lake Tritriva

God's Wonderful Creations

Feb 24, 2014 Letter

"And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

I can testify to that today. This morning we arose early to go out to a wonderful Creation of our father in Heaven. We went to a common tourist place called Lake Tritriva. It is a absolutly stunning lake here near Antsirabe. All of the Elders here in Antsirabe went together this morning. It was stunning. The pictures do not do it any justice. It was so serene. It is in a little crater in the mountain. It was a good experience and we have some good pictures. The only problem is the fact that we are white. So what happened was when we got there, people started chasing our car telling us we have to pay, which is false, it is a public place so nobody owns it. We decided to pretend we didnt speak Malgasy or French or English to see if they would go away. They happened to know that we were missionaries therefore are very good at malagasy. So they finally said ok, you can pay when you leave and we said, no. But when we finally left, they were waiting for us. They "closed the gate" meaning there was a large stick that they had made into a gate blocking the road. They were being really annoying, and so we eventually just paid a little of money and left. It was annoying though, because they just scam people to try and earn some quick easy money, without actually working and doing anything. I have no problem giving money to people that work, but people who scam, its a little annoying. I bought some nice rocks today form some people that sell rocks, and I was more than happy to give them money for their work. But God's creations are great and wonderful, even when mankind intervens a little.

This week was a good working week. The numbers were down a little, but this upcoming Saturday we have 3 bpatisms that we are very excited about. We also have a tree planting acitivity, which should be fun to do with our branch.

My branch has set a goal for church attendance at 180 average attendance by the end of June. The average for January was 139. The average for Feburary however was 147. And they are committed to keep it increasing every week and every month to reach the goal. They are trying to reach it though home teaching, visiting teaching, and new investigators. We are working hard to try and help with that goal, but we will see as we continue in work.

Transfers are coming up next week with transfer news this next Sunday. You can expect an update about this next time next week. I hope that I stay in this area and work more, but you never know, and if my pattern holds true, then I will leave this transfer. But it is the Lords plan and his will that we are completing. 

Until next week.

Elder Weber

Halfway done with Feburary.

Feb 17, 2014 Letter

Another Week finished! It is weird that time here goes so fast. On Saturday my group hit our 9 month mark, meaning that we are getting old so fast. Its also interesting to note that because of the groups, by August, my group will be the second oldest group in the mission. And the group before us is only 4 people. So very soon, my group will be one of the oldest in the mission. 

This week was nothing special, just keeping on keeping on. On Monday we had a nice zone meeting where we discussed some of the things to help Antsirabe grow and become a stake. It was a great meeting with some great food provided by Sister Todd. I am sure that dad will be happy to note that Elder Todd made a joke saying, "well, your dad is an engineer." I guess I know where dad gets those jokes from. 

On Tuesday we had a first ever District Leader Council, where Elder Christiansen and I skyped into a council with President Adams and the district leaders in Tana, and also with the other district leaders across Madagascar and Reunion. We talked a lot about things for the mission and for the missionaries, nothing that I will bore you with here at this time. 

The rest of the week was working bringing souls unto Christ. There were ups and there were downs, there were good days and bad days. As it all must be. Sunday we had a good turnout with 22 investigators at church. We are going to start seeing some of the results from our work here in the next few weeks and months. We have 3 baptisms lined up for the 1st of March, with probably another 6 for the 29th of March, and then hopefully a good number (10 or so) on the 19th of April. We will see though, in relation to the prepardness of them. I feel that some of the ones on the 29th of March might have to be pushed back a little. We are having a lot of problems with Divorces and Vita Soratra right now. I think we have 5 couples that are facing those problems.

Its great to see the little miracles that happen each and every day. It is all about trying to be obedient and working hard and watching the miracles happen. 

We are hoping to have a great upcoming week. Trying to work just a little bit harder and just to see a few more miracles. This branch has set some high goals for the upcoming months, and I think it will be hard to reach a lot of them, but we are going to work hard, and to try and do the things that we can in order to acheive those goals. 

Life is going good, the work is going good, God is good. 

Elder Weber