A ROUGH WEEK!!!

Hey mom!

I didn't get my goals for very depressing reasons, but everything is okay, so don't freak out when I tell you the following. First I had food poisoning for 3 days, and when I went out to work on friday (I had the food poisoning from wed to fri) I worked a part day because I didn't feel well, and on my way home I was hit by a motorcycle! I got 8 stitches, 6 in my cheeck and 2 in my chin. It's alright because I am going to be working again in a couple days, I just have to wait for the skin to heal over so sand doesn't get in and infect it. I think that is probably the only big story this week xD sorry for the bad news! It's just what happens. Here is the full story:

I just finished a not so fun day, so I was coming home from my last time at 7, because I still didn't feel 100 percent after having food poisoning for the last few days. So on my way back I tried calling the other Elders because they took my keys since there are only two full sets, and I finished trying to call them, so I put the phone back in my pocket and rode down the road towards the church, and I started turning because I didn't see anyone, there were no headlights since it was already dark by this time. So I start turning and I am going really slow, slow enough so that I have to keep the handlebars moving so I don't fall off, and I keep looking down the road and I can't see the car's headlights in the distance, or at least I can only see one. It was then that I noticed the motorcycle speeding down and I thought to myself quietly, "I'm going to be in an accident!" Not a very fun thought, it wasn't long after that a motorcycle slammed into my side, t-boning me as we slid a good 150 feet down the road. as soon as it happened a huge crowd congregated around the bike, and they started lifting the bike up while my shirt was still attached! I yelled for them to take it off, but everyone kept telling me to go to the hospital, whereas I just kept thinking to myself I just want to go home and lay down. I had no idea that I was bleeding so profusely or had such a big problem with the side of my face. So I had no idea what to do, I just told them I wanted to be in the shade or away from the rain, I don't know what the translation for the word is in english, and I sat down in a taxipouse (A bike driver who carries people in the back or his tricycle) as the crowd waved down cars to get someone to drive me to the hospital. So right after they waved someone down, I got in the car without thinking and we took off to the hospital, where I got 8 stitches without antestetics or anything, just like someone sewing my face up. It felt weird, but it's perfectly fine now. I spent the last few days laying down, so there isn't much more than that. Just weird getting stitched up without being numb. The right side of my nose is still a little numb, but the feeling has been coming back slowly so I am not too worried. That is my big  story for the week!

Oh yeah, I did go on splits with Elder Walker, we had a fun time, I liked the people, and I was his good luck charm, he got 2 dinner appointments, and extra bananas when he bought them.

Oh yeah, in the 2 days I did work I got half of my goals of 60 appointments! I was all the way up to 28! So I was fine with that. 



Love,

Elder Nash

                                                              Goat in front of the Church!

Working hard!

Hey mom!

So the first news is I am senior companion, the next news is my companion is in South Africa now, so I have to work with a branch missionary for a few weeks, till what will most likely be training a new kid! Oh well, malagasies always tell me I am really good, and ask how many years it has been, and if I am going home soon since I can speak pretty well, so that is a lot of encouragement, and it makes me want to get way better too! Why stop if I can get that much better?

So yeah, it has seemed like time has gone by fast, especially when I am working hard! This last week I got 30 appointments,  this week, my goal is 60! I will be doing my best, I don't teach for a really long time, I just get in, talk for a few minutes, teach for 10-20 minutes, then get out and go. It gives them more time to think about what I taught too, than if I were to teach a long lesson that lasts for 40 minutes, and it says in preach my gospel, never go over 45, and an average appointment should be 30, so that is what I am going for. I have had an amazing time and have enjoyed thoroughly the last two days because I have worked as hard as possible! Just as hard as I did back in Reseco because I was left to do what I felt was best, not take a whole bunch of breaks. So this week I am going to be busting my bum, and hopefully at the end of Wednesday I have around 30 appointments done so I can accomplish my goal!

So this last Sunday, yesterday I went tracting because the people weren't home, and I just started walking and the branch missionary asked where we were going, and I just said where ever God tells me to go, and we just walked down a path and I heard music, so I turned to him and said, "If there is music, there is people!" and we took off towards the house, and when I walked up to some people outside, they immediately gave us seats and wanted to learn! It was awesome! I just taught a first and I am going back there next Sunday, and hopefully I can go back twice a week now, so I can get them to church. Last week I had 20 people to church! It made me really happy! That is higher than my average in my old area! Hopefully I get a lot more this week, I have my eyes set on 40 people at church, but we will see what happens... I have really high goals, and even if I don't reach them, I may still set some records in the mission! Awesome! I am so ready to just get out and work as hard as possible to help these people here!


So that is my news for the week, I will have some spiritual things to say next week, but just stay tuned! I have lots of work ahead of me, so I will report next week!

Love
Elder Nash

Tamatave!

Not a lot happened this week Adam sent a really short email. The one exciting note is Adam will be giving a talk in Malagasy!

Transfer to Tamatave!!!

 Hey mom!

Sorry I haven't taken any pictures yet I just couldn't because of everything that has been happening, but I promise I will send you a bunch next p-day! It's not like I am being lazy about it, just the only times that I could take pictures, well I left my camera at home so it wouldn't get stolen and blah, because that is probably the best thing to leave it at home if I were going to leave it in my back pack unsupervised.

So this past week was awesome! Well since in my old area there is the Norwegian embassy I went there last week, and also the Thai embassy and there is a lot of cool things there. I also went to a place that is kinda like a Chinese version of an American fast food place and have been just doing whatever until I got here.

So yeah, I visited quite a few people before I left Ankorondrano, I love the people there. A lot of them were sad to see me go, but they wished me the best of luck here in Tamatave. It was sad to say good bye, but oh well, I may or may not see them again in the next year and a half, but it was fun, and I got a good bye book for them to write a little something and so I can keep in contact with them in the future, since Malagasies never ever change houses. So that was my good bye to them, and a few wanted to write me letters after I leave so that is what I am going to do.

So what else, well I got here on Thursday, after a long 350km bus ride... it seemed like it dragged on forever, which I guess it did because we left at 7:45 and finally got here to Tamatave at 3:45, only stopping about 30  minutes for lunch. So for a couple hundred miles, that was a long time! It is only like the distance between our house and San Francisco! Well the sad part is, I slept a lot of the ride because I had a head ache, but for the parts I was awake, I saw a lot of people living really simple lives, like in the pictures I sent you a week agoish, and a lot of other cool sites. Madagascar is a lot prettier than the valley of California for sure! There were so many things I was able to see and everything, so I was happy. I just didn't take any pictures because I had the dreaded aisle seat.

Okay, so my new companion is Elder Foster. I also live with a malagasy albaino, a scottish guy ( We both play the same guitar stuff ) Elder Wall, and Elder Galeai. That is my new house!

So yeah the place here is so much different than Tana, in Tana, everyone is poor, begs you for money, and is just disrespectful of anything that isn't themselves. Whereas here, it is awesome because everyone is so nice to everyone, and people are more open to talk to you, and actually pay attention to you when you speak Malagasy. I really love it here! I met someone named Bema, which sounds like their cheese named teama here, so I started calling him Fromage, and he started calling me Mananasy (pineapple) which comes from the French word ananas, which Bryan would know. The houses here are way different, everyone has a decent sized house, and isn't crammed into something the size of a closet, they live pretty comfortably.

So something cool, I met with the branch president here in Morarano (haha, both of my areas have been talking about water, first at the water front, Ankorondrano, then slow waters, Morarano) and guess what! HE IS THE BEST! I love it! Since people not getting married is a problem here, since it is so hard, the missionaries have a hard time baptizing couples, but he is getting the branch missionaries to help us with everything so we can get people baptized and good to go! It is awesome! And now we actually have people that help us teach, unlike in Ankorondrano where everyone saw it as a chore, people here want to help as much as possible!

Well, I think that is it for today, we well see what happens this week. I am going to go to a market today, and I will try to take pictures this week so you have something to see next time!

The weather here is pretty warm, I would say 75-85 degrees when it isn't raining... but it rains a lot.


I haven't gotten anything since the package with the Yoshi Shirt, and I won't get anything until people drive up here to drop off stuff, which will be a couple weeks. that is the only bad thing that sucks about being out here, is that I don't get anything till people come out, but I got the Journals Jamie sent so tell her thanks,and I guess that's it...

Love, Elder Nash

THE FOLLOWING IS A LETTER SENT TO ADAM'S SISTER....IT'S JUST ADAM BEING ADAM!

Whoa, there was a lot of things I had to read twice, but that is because I am just worse at english now, I really am warping into a malagasy minded person, I want to say things their way and have to focus just to say it the correct way! hahaha how funny!

Man it seems like it is changing a lot out there, I am probably going to be amazed about all the things out there! And if you take me to Denios I will try to argue in Malagasy with the people... but in America they would just punch you, where as here making fun of drunk people is the way to go. There was a drunk guy that was talking to me but all I would say to him is: I don't understand in Malagasy. So no matter what he said, I said that, he told me I was good, I don't understand, he told me I understood him, I don't understand, he told me that I needed to talk to him, the people next to me said he's gonna say it!!! Then I said I don't understand... everyone was laughing but him hahaha and then I turned to some people, started talking to them in Malagasy, he talked to me and I turned back to him and just said I don't understand :D He just started saying: Too much tsy azoko!!! too mucho tsy azoko!!!! and I would just say, I don't understand, or tsy azoko. Funny stuff huh?

                                                   JUST BEING BOYS!

                                      LIFE IN THE COUNTRY....NO ELECTRICITY!

                          PUBLIC RESTROOMS YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DO!

                                                       FUN AT THE FALLS!

So sunday the deaf guy came again! So this time he taught me more signlanguage, AND I had to translate for him when he bore his testimony! I was so freaking scared! He kept telling me thank you so much, and that God helps me with it because I am a missionary. I really like him, and I wish I knew signlanguage, but really I am not that good, and malagasy signlanguage is nothing like any other kind, since malagasy isn't anything like english. It's a whole different way of thinking! crazy huh? Your son can communicate with deaf people in madagascar now, just not really really well.

At our ampefy trip (I saw a road sign and realized I spelt it wrong in the last email) we had a lot of fun. I saw that huge waterfall and some gysers. I really enjoyed it and I saw how people live without electricity! It was really cool!

The people were actually really surprised at the gysers! They had rarely if ever seen white people before, then when they saw some that spoke their language they were even more shocked! They gave me a piece of sugarcane which tastes really good by the way! It's called fary here (fah-ree but the r is flicked a little) which was really really cool!

Also, back at the water fall, I was attacked by souvenir sellers, so right before I got in the car to go to the gysers, a little girl asked me if I wanted to by one, so I started asking her prices, and this is how our conversation went:

Free!

No

10 ariary

no

20

no

30

no

50

no

100

no

200,000

no.... yes!

and I laughed because she told me that 200000 wasn't enough money for a souvenir, which was pretty funny! she was a little bitter about it, but thery sold a lot of souvenirs to other missionaries so I didn't feel too bad.

That's about all I have, there are a lot of pictures, but that's it. I will write more next week!

Elder Nash

My week was pretty uneventful too, everyone was getting ready for the independance day celebration, so we had nothing to do most of the week. I did find a really really really awesome family when I was tracting though! It was a really cool experience!

So I was on splits with Elder McIntire, my zone leader and we had nothing to do for 2 hours thanks to dropping people. I really had no idea where to tract since I've been in the area so long I have tracted pretty much the entire area, so I just started walking around not knowing where to go, and I don't really see anyone who is even going to let us in. One person told me that there weren't any people that could learn, and I asked her if she was a person, and they only laughed, no one wanted to learn... just because of the 26th and such. So we took a little break after our first hour of contacting and tracting and just talked about what was going on, how everything is and what not, then I said we were going to go because I didn't like the thought of wasting so much time sitting down and not doing anything. We took off and tried a different area we don't go to too often and well, there wasn't anyone even home! So we took off to the other side of my area, a 15 to 20 minute walk and we end up passing a store and elder McIntire gets some real american syrup that was on sale, but then we continue on. I didn't see any openings to go into places, so we walked another 5 minutes and I get a strange feeling to go into an alley way, and so we did, we jumped around a water pump on the side of the road and went down the little shady alley way, walk around a barrier and get to a huge complex of 5 houses. There were little kids trying to talk in french to us and I told them we speak malagasy and asked if their parents were home, to which they laughed and ran upstairs, got a different kid, and I repeated the same question, to which the kids just ran upstairs... So I followed them. We walk into a house and there is a couple families sitting around talking, and one man just laying under his covers. They invite us in and we just talked for a while. They were so excited just to talk to us and to know that there are white people that care and speak their language. I found out the guy laying under his covers fell off his balcony 6 years ago and couldn't walk anymore, but his wife was still with him and they were extremely happy. We taught them a bit of the first lesson, some scattered parts since they were so excited and asked so many questions. They were just so happy, and they guy wants to come to church, he just can't unless someone drives him. They were one of the most happy families, but they are in some of the worst conditions. It really inspired me to know that God prepares people like this, and the best part was at the end when i scheduled our next appointment for the following week, they were sad that we couldn't come sooner! They were that interested in our message! Madagascar is awesome!

I did get the pictures you emailed last week and all the music, thanks for that. I really don't have much else to tell you today, sorry!

Oh yeah, next emails are coming on tuesday, I am going to ampify for the 4th of july! sorry!

Hope you enjoy the story!

Elder Nash

Hey mom!

Well first I can tell you about my birthday, then I will try to remember things from a rather less exciting week.

So yesterday, when I woke up I went to use the bathroom, and Elder Cryer went to take a shower... But there is a window you can open from the shower into the room with just a toilet... so while I was sitting on the toilet Elder Cryer sang to me whilst in the shower naked... kinda funny, but not something you want to put on the blog!


After that we went home and I made lunch, and washed all the dishes so we could eat :) isn't that a great present? The food I made was malagasy, and it tastes really really really good, I became a master malagasy chef in 2 meals, so then I made sunday's, which was potatoes. I had to peel the potatoes with just a knife... so I know your pain when you have to! and being here made me less lazy when it comes to cooking and cleaning (at least dishes) and I try to clean my room at least once a week. That is nice! So after I spent about an hour making food, I got to lay down then we continued our normal schedule after that.

So this past week, the most notable things are just teaching english and really other than that zone conference and I had an interview with president Donnelly and we got to talking about some things I feel that need to happen for my growth as a person and as a missionary.

So first, english class is always fun. I teach it with Elder McIntire, our zone leader who is really cool. I really like talking to him and teaching with him. We go a little wild and just have fun doing what we are doing. We always try to make sure that people understand, but sometimes we have fun and litterally translate things for people and it gets a bit confusing for them and then we tell them what it really means xD It is really fun to do it, and I was happy that I got to teach... In some classes I teach it is boring because we only talk in english and that bores me to death! I really don't like to just talk and help people when they already speak english... But I would rather take the challenge of helping people that aren't as good and make them better. That is what I like the most so I am probably going to continue doing that, then this next transfer I will probably go somewhere (President Donnelly said I wasn't going to be here for much longer, but that can always mean 2 months...)

At Zone conference we learned better ways to teach and contact people, which I have been trying to do the best I could! I really hope it has been making a difference. I feel like people are more receptive when we talk to them and ask questions before telling them that we can just teach them exactly how the gospel is, but we actually talk to them about their lives and also testify about the importance of it then asking if they would be interested. I had a lot more people intersted in what I was saying and listen to me rather than blow me off because I am white. It really helped. I actually used this when I went on splits with Elder Collins (Elder McIntire's companion) this last friday. Here we go!

So first our first appointment during the day was cancelled because he was off somewhere working till later that day, and our program gets really squished at night and we can't really teach much more than we already do when it comes to night time. So because of that I called our 5 o'clock appointment to see where we could meet since we didn't know the location of the house yet. When she didn't answer, I asked Elder Collins if we should tract now, or we ould get a soda or water since his stomach wasn't being nice to him. He just said now so we could do that in a little bit, so we walked into the path we had just emereged from and started the walk. After walking past a coupled of locked openings, after I passed one I had the impression to go back. I stepped back and walked through the enterance and looked for a door to tract. All of them were locked, so I just looked harder. There was one door open with two people playing cards. I then tracted that door since it was the only one open. We ended up getting in after applying what I had learned just the day before and we taught the first lesson. After I recited the story of Joseph Smith to them, the wife told me that she knew it was true, and she wanted us to come back as soon as we could to teach her more! It was a really cool experience, and I got to practice the new words I had been learning to make my teaching more understandable and less of using everything I have, but giving myself more of an aresenal or words in a saying. It was really cool, and I told them they needed to pray about what they had learned because right then the Holy Ghost was really strong, but it was likely after we leave that it would go away, I then commited them to pray about the prophet Joseph Smith and see how they felt, and I promised that they would receive an answer. It was a really really cool experience! We are going to check up on them this thursday or friday depending on our schedule.


That is my update for the week, I will send a lot more next week, but that will probably be this next tuesday, but send emails sunday night just in case, it's independance day next sunday, so monday will be a holiday. Lots of  Drunk people in the future!

Love,
Elder Nash