Here are some more pictures Adam sent me. I do enjoy the burger place....the logo looks like Burger King! He is having a great time! Hope he will want to come home!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Yeah, the people here do live in really really poor conditions, and it really sucks! I taught a lesson kneeling on the ground because the person didn"t even have enough money for a bed! So I just knelt on the ground and we taught a lesson. She sat on a pile of blankets.It was really humbling. well just being here is the most humbling thing in the world when we get an entire year's salary for them each month.
Time still flies by for me and I am really happy here. The Days have yet to have been easy, but I keep working hard. Everynight I am freaking tired, but It's all worth it. I just love being here in Madagascar!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
This weeks email is not that informative. There were tranfers and he has a new companion named Elder Cryer. No pictures until Adam buys a Whatchmacallit...I also still don't know what that big crowd was or if that building is just the church building..I asked he didn't answer.
So we didn't do too much this last week just because of transfers. One thing, Elder El-bakri and I went on splits fri and sat. we had a lot of fun. He was in the group ahead of me so it was interesting to see two not mahay people go out and teach. we did a good job for our skill levels.
The weird things that happened... there were kids that were climbing me like a jungle gym so that was awkward and stuff. I just didn'tknow what to do so I tried staying on the ground.... that wasn't any better than standing. my arms were bright red! Then when we went on a walk to get them away (literally 25 kids were following us) they followed still. SO I asked them if they were good at running... so they said yes and I told them to run as fast as they could. El-Bakri turned to me and said now is the time where we run the other way... so we did and everyone was laughing... but it worked! so that was funny!
The other funny thing from this past week was when I was with El-Bakri on friday night... we convinced one family that I wad training El-Bakri and he had just got there the night before. They finally believed us and he was playing perfectly, just pretending not to know andto ask me everything. We just went on with this for a bit and it was pretty funny! Finally after the lesson they were talking to El-Bakri about things he had tried and hadn't tried so far here in Madagascar. so they asked if he had tried Mangahazo. He told them yes, and they asked where... he said Antsirabe... a place quite a ways from Tana... so yeah... they were NOT happy with me at all! It was funny though! You should have seen their faces and all that! Oh geez! as they say here, Oadray!
Oh, my new favorite word of forever is oa. Forever and a day!
So there will be pictures next week and a memory card going home with a tour of the apartment and other videos. Just let me know of anything else you want me to send home!
Love,
Elder Nash
So we didn't do too much this last week just because of transfers. One thing, Elder El-bakri and I went on splits fri and sat. we had a lot of fun. He was in the group ahead of me so it was interesting to see two not mahay people go out and teach. we did a good job for our skill levels.
The weird things that happened... there were kids that were climbing me like a jungle gym so that was awkward and stuff. I just didn'tknow what to do so I tried staying on the ground.... that wasn't any better than standing. my arms were bright red! Then when we went on a walk to get them away (literally 25 kids were following us) they followed still. SO I asked them if they were good at running... so they said yes and I told them to run as fast as they could. El-Bakri turned to me and said now is the time where we run the other way... so we did and everyone was laughing... but it worked! so that was funny!
The other funny thing from this past week was when I was with El-Bakri on friday night... we convinced one family that I wad training El-Bakri and he had just got there the night before. They finally believed us and he was playing perfectly, just pretending not to know andto ask me everything. We just went on with this for a bit and it was pretty funny! Finally after the lesson they were talking to El-Bakri about things he had tried and hadn't tried so far here in Madagascar. so they asked if he had tried Mangahazo. He told them yes, and they asked where... he said Antsirabe... a place quite a ways from Tana... so yeah... they were NOT happy with me at all! It was funny though! You should have seen their faces and all that! Oh geez! as they say here, Oadray!
Oh, my new favorite word of forever is oa. Forever and a day!
So there will be pictures next week and a memory card going home with a tour of the apartment and other videos. Just let me know of anything else you want me to send home!
Love,
Elder Nash
Monday, March 7, 2011
Well guess what! We had another baptism this last saturday which was good. I baptized one person named Sylvie. It was pretty cool because that entire family has such a strong testimony of the gospel! You should have heard the kids. You know how everyone says I know the church is true? Well the kids said the entire name of the church, which is really good for a 9 and 11 year old! I had no idea some kids even knez the full name of the church! Sometimes I think the kids are smarter than the adults... since whenever I explain prayer or something, the adults grab onto one thing and only say that over and over like I didn't say there were four steps to prayer! what the heck! It gets frustrating as heck since they don't try to understand sometimes.
Well, there is a funny story from yesterday I'll tell you and save the rest for a letter! Yesterday we were walking around akorondrano (because we live in andravoangy abony) and some kids started following us! they seriously followed us for like 30 minutes! We don't even know why! We just had a parade of kids following us so that was fun I guess! We had 5 kids at the height of our parade walking by a river down to a member's house so they could help us teach an investigator!
One last thing before I go, Next Pday is Tuesday because we are having a zone conference with a 70 this next monday. I will let you know how that goes!
Everything else is fine here, just a lot of flea bites!
Love,
Elder Nash
I found out that the large crowd of people is a soccer game!
Saturday, March 5, 2011
First letter from Madagascar!
It only took 4 weeks but, finally a letter!!
Dear Family,
It's my first P-day here in Madagascar. So far I love it here. The best I could describe it is it's like a poorer version of Peru. Some people live in a house the size of Mom & Dad's walk in closet and they have 3 kids. The most severe thing I saw was a house just double the size of the last one with 8 kids. It's intensely poor here, it makes me feel bad but there isn't much I can do about it right now.
I'm still getting use to the language, it's a bit of a challenge but, everything is going just fine. People won't stop telling me "Mahay be ny teny gasy" It's such a lie to say I'm really good, but hey whatever floats their boat.
I've got a couple of good stories so far, first is about one of our earlier teaching appointments.
So, we were going to teach a family whose bebe (grandma) is going to get baptized. So when we walk in, Elder Ortiz goes first since he knows what's going on. When he walks in, he immediately turns to his right and runs into the room and sticks his head out the window. I hear him yelling and I realize the husband climbed out the window to escape us! What the heck! Odd stuff going on there! The next story is just later in the house.
So, we're about to start a lesson and an alarm starts going off. No one does anything and they told Elder Ortiz ''Oh that just goes off every once in a while for a few minutes.'' So after a couple of seconds of no one doing anything I grabbed it and flipped the switch to off and everyone was so impressed. It's like really? You didn't know how to move a switch? but, oh well.
Well, a couple more things. First a nine year old girl reads the Book Of Mormon. I asked her what her favorite book is and she tells me the Doctrine & Covenants. What kind of kid knows what that is? She's like the smartest 9 year old ever!
So, that's those stories. Besides that, people tell me I'm amazing at Malagasy and they've never seen a person fresh out of the MTC talk like I do. Crazy. God just blessed me a lot. Whenever I'm teaching everything is clear and I can understand the people, but if I'm not it's a lot of hard work.
Last funny story then I'll send the letter. So, I ate at a member's house last night. So she brings out a bowl with as least a pound if not more of rice. It's literally ridiculous, like how much rice we got in Peru the last day, or more. So on the rice, they put something called loaka (pronounced lok with a short o). so I start eating, and about halfway through I slow down, it's really weighing me down. My spoon isn't completely clear when it comes out of my mouth. So she starts asking if the food's bad, telling me to add more loaka so it tastes good, she's freaking out because she thinks I don't like it. You could see the stress in her eyes, but I still have a bit to go. The she asks ''Tsy mazoto ny sakafo? Tsy mazoto mihinera?'' I have no idea how to translate that, but I just tell her the food's good. I'm just a slow eater.
So, finally my last bite. I feel my body almost throw up, so I ask Elder Ortiz ''Did I eat enough?'' I'm going to throw up if I take another bite.'' And he says yeah, I pretty much finished. My stomach feels like it's going to burst, and I think the woman was depressed cause of me. Anyways, It's P-day and I'm going to email now. Enjoy the letter!
Elder Nash
I looked up what laoka is
(laoka [ˈlokə̥]). Laoka may be vegetarian or include animal proteins typically cooked in a sauce often flavored with ginger, onion, garlic, vanilla, curry powder or occasionally other spices
Dear Family,
It's my first P-day here in Madagascar. So far I love it here. The best I could describe it is it's like a poorer version of Peru. Some people live in a house the size of Mom & Dad's walk in closet and they have 3 kids. The most severe thing I saw was a house just double the size of the last one with 8 kids. It's intensely poor here, it makes me feel bad but there isn't much I can do about it right now.
I'm still getting use to the language, it's a bit of a challenge but, everything is going just fine. People won't stop telling me "Mahay be ny teny gasy" It's such a lie to say I'm really good, but hey whatever floats their boat.
I've got a couple of good stories so far, first is about one of our earlier teaching appointments.
So, we were going to teach a family whose bebe (grandma) is going to get baptized. So when we walk in, Elder Ortiz goes first since he knows what's going on. When he walks in, he immediately turns to his right and runs into the room and sticks his head out the window. I hear him yelling and I realize the husband climbed out the window to escape us! What the heck! Odd stuff going on there! The next story is just later in the house.
So, we're about to start a lesson and an alarm starts going off. No one does anything and they told Elder Ortiz ''Oh that just goes off every once in a while for a few minutes.'' So after a couple of seconds of no one doing anything I grabbed it and flipped the switch to off and everyone was so impressed. It's like really? You didn't know how to move a switch? but, oh well.
Well, a couple more things. First a nine year old girl reads the Book Of Mormon. I asked her what her favorite book is and she tells me the Doctrine & Covenants. What kind of kid knows what that is? She's like the smartest 9 year old ever!
So, that's those stories. Besides that, people tell me I'm amazing at Malagasy and they've never seen a person fresh out of the MTC talk like I do. Crazy. God just blessed me a lot. Whenever I'm teaching everything is clear and I can understand the people, but if I'm not it's a lot of hard work.
Last funny story then I'll send the letter. So, I ate at a member's house last night. So she brings out a bowl with as least a pound if not more of rice. It's literally ridiculous, like how much rice we got in Peru the last day, or more. So on the rice, they put something called loaka (pronounced lok with a short o). so I start eating, and about halfway through I slow down, it's really weighing me down. My spoon isn't completely clear when it comes out of my mouth. So she starts asking if the food's bad, telling me to add more loaka so it tastes good, she's freaking out because she thinks I don't like it. You could see the stress in her eyes, but I still have a bit to go. The she asks ''Tsy mazoto ny sakafo? Tsy mazoto mihinera?'' I have no idea how to translate that, but I just tell her the food's good. I'm just a slow eater.
So, finally my last bite. I feel my body almost throw up, so I ask Elder Ortiz ''Did I eat enough?'' I'm going to throw up if I take another bite.'' And he says yeah, I pretty much finished. My stomach feels like it's going to burst, and I think the woman was depressed cause of me. Anyways, It's P-day and I'm going to email now. Enjoy the letter!
Elder Nash
I looked up what laoka is
(laoka [ˈlokə̥]). Laoka may be vegetarian or include animal proteins typically cooked in a sauce often flavored with ginger, onion, garlic, vanilla, curry powder or occasionally other spices
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