New Area

Salama izy io ra!

This past week was a spiritual emotional and physical roller coaster! I love madagascar with all of my heart and I love the culture so much. I have had a lot of fun in my last week in mahamasina. My new area, Itaosy, is a lot bigger and the house is wayyy better than the house of mahamasina. I am very blessed by the lord to live in such a great house.

Unfortunately, I do not have my planner with me, so this week won't be as detailed...but I will try my best to describe this week....

-I helped to build a house close to my house. It was a really fun ward project, and we got a lot of work done. I got super duper sunburned, which is ok. Nothing like a  good burn to let you know that you're alive!

-So we got transfer news on saturday night and Elders Meldrum and Allen are both going to Tamatave! Tamatave is a city a ways off from Antananarivo. It is on the coast and it looks very pretty. Elder Buthelezi is staying in mahamasina while I whitewash Itaosy 2 with elder Webb. He is a really great guy!

-I got a silver ring that I designed. It has (of course knowing me) a galaxy setting with planets and the milky way in it. It is really really cool and it was totally worth the money. Elder Allen was less than satisfied with his, but it was a really cool ring, which I wasn't going to let get wasted so I bought it from him.

I am so grateful for all the support and help and prayers that all of you have sent on my and other missionaries behalf. The lord will definitely bless you all for those prayers and thoughts. I fell compelled to bear a testimony to all in Malagasy.

tena mahafinaritra ny asa fanompoana aty an-madagasikara. Niova fo zaho, ary noho izany ahafanahy mijoro ho vavolombelona aminareo fa tsy tapaka mihitsy ny asan'ny tompo. Koa tsy afaka mihozongozona. Ny fotoana hatry fiandohan'ny misionako dia tena sarotra fa efa nahazo tanjaka ara-panahy zaho noho izany. Fantatro fa tena marina ny Fiangonan'i Jesoa Kristy Ho an'ny olomasiny andro farany. tena fantatro fa mpaminan'i Andriamanitra i Joseph Smith. Nahazo ny fanambarana lay izy mikasika ny fisoronana sy ny filazantsara. Izany no mijoroko ho vavolombelona aminareo, izay ataoko amin'ny anaran'i Jesoa Kristy, amen.

Mazotoa!

Elder Johnson

Last week of the Transfer

Salama rehe e daholo!

I hope that all of your weeks have been good and that all of you have had a relatively warm week. From what I understand everyone had a little bit of a reality check with mother nature and winter storms. Sounds scary but obviously nothing that can be done about it other than prayers. As for madagascar, it is still pretty darned hot. Humidity will always come back to bite you in the middle of the day. Gotta love the weather!

Here is the week....

Tuesday: We went out and taught Zafy again about the book of mormon. He had a very spiritual experience about change of heart and the things of the lord. I have great faith that this man will become a great saint and that he will be able to become a great member of this church. We couldn't teach sarobidy that day because she had school but this coming tuesday we should be able to teach  her.

Wednesday: On this day I went on another split with elder Williams in the manakambahiny ward. We taught a lot of lessons today and I honestly cannot recall a lot of the members names that we taught. I do remember that we taught a lot of Plan of salvation lessons.

Thursday and friday were filled with lots and lots of spiritual thoughts because practically everything fell through, but increased confidence in the lord had brought us the blessings of teaching our members.

Saturday:On this day we got to teach english class again and I sat by one of my investigators, noeline. She is on date for this coming sunday. I can't wait to see her get baptised! I can't really remember what lessons we taught that day, but we did do a lot of teaching that day.

This morning we had an unexpected visitor stop by...a pigeon. It walked into our house and the owner started chasing it around our house. I helped the owner catch his naughty bird and he left. there were lots of feathers and squacks involved :)

Well, that pretty much explains this week! I will have some pictures here from last week that I forgot to put in.

Mazotoa Daholo!!

Elder Johnson

The girl in the white is Eliza, my 2nd baptism

the man in the suit is Kevin, my 3rd baptism

annicia is the girl in the red dress

New Baptisms

Salama izy io ra!

Isn't that an interesting greeting? Its  a greeting in the antanosy (ahn tawn oo shee) dialect.

How have your weeks been? Mine has definitely been busy and very rewarding. Let me fill you in all of the things that have happened..

Tuesday: On this day we had another lesson with Sarobidy on a scripture in 3rd nephi. We could really feel the spirit testify to her about the importance of gospel living, and Fr Dada did a great job of bearing his testimony about that. That night we had a soiree with Eliza and Larissa again and talked about the law of chastity. We had a great time and we could feel the spirit pretty strongly.

Wednesday:This day didn't really have a lot other than we visited Fr laurent and read helaman 3 with him and talked about it. He is an active member of the mahamasina ward and he gave a talk just yesterday. After that we went and did some tracting. While we were out a man stopped us and asked us for a pamphlet. we gave him one and then tried to leave but he asked us to go to his house with him to teach him because he drinks and smokes a lot. We went to his house and gave him the first lesson. He was a very genuine man, and his name is zaphy. He came to church with us yesterday and showed us that he is very willing to change.

Thursday: On this day we had a meeting with the bishop about our recent investigators and how the work was going there. We ate food with him that his wife had prepared for us. We had a great time that night. 

Friday: On this day we visited zaphy again and gave him the lesson on the plan of salvation. He wasn't drunk this time and the spirit was very prominent there. We asked him to read and study well the book that we gave hime about the plan of salvation. We also had a lesson about the restoration with one of our new investigators, Valerie.

Saturday: This day was very spiritual.

One experience I would like to share from that day was when I baptised a couple of people. the first person I baptised was a man named kevin. He is a great guy and I love him lots. I baptised him, and last second after him I got asked to baptise a little girl name Annicia. I saw her come reluctantly into the water and as she took her first step in the water she looked at me with eyes widened with terror and began to cry for fear of the frigid water. Sr beby, a leader at the baptism, tried to coax her into getting her to continue the baptism, but she hugged my knees and held onto them for dear life. As she did this, I had an impression from the holy ghost to use a talent that is mentioned in my patriarchal blessing: Friendship. I told her in malagasy, "Hey, look!" she looked up into my eyes with tears streaming down her face. "You're strong! You can do it!" As I said those words to her she willingly let herself be baptised for the remission of sins. We remain great friends to this day.

My brothers and sisters, are we not all like sweet little annicia? Do we not all at times in trouble of great uncertainty or trial fall on our knees with tears in our eyes fearing what we don't want to face? Do we not all beg for mercy in those times of darkness to our eternal king? Do we all not wish that there was an easier way around our challenges? I can garuntee that the reply in a lot of these naive yet sincere pleades for help is accompanied with the holy ghosts succoring, applied in the attitude of, "Hey, look! You're strong! You can do it!"

As we strive to press foreward with faith even in the darkest moments of our jouneys in mortality with even just a twig of faith, god will lift us up as if it were on the wings of angels, and those who prove themselves worthy shall be lifted up to the highest at the last day. Never leave a fellow brother or sister in christ who is having a hard time in distress. Do what you can, then the lord will do the rest.

Mandra-pihaona, ry namako!

Elder Johnson

March 4, 2019

Akory ka!

Before i go any further i just want to apologize for not writing an email last week! I didn't have a whole lot of time to do anything, which was ok but i still could've tried writing an email. But this week has been fantastic and the week before that also. The language is coming along well and I am pleased with the progess that I am making.

Anyways, lets get into the week!

Tuesday: So before I go any further I want to say that a crazy thing happened. The water pipe to our toilet got severed and our apartment flooded. That resulted in the whole mahamasina house sleeping in the manakambahiny house with the district leader and his companion. That wasn't very fun because I got little to no sleep 4 nights in a row and that also resulted in a sinus infection. Not fun but we had to do what we had to do. Anyways, on this day we got our toilet pipe fixed by a helper from the mission office. After that we went and taught a girl named sarobidy about the importance of sincerity. She is a very humble 16 year old girl. we had a soiree with Eliza and Larissa that night and we taught them the Plan of Salvation. We had a great time!

Wednesday:On this day Elder Buthelezi and I went out and worked a lot/ We stopped by a man named laurent. We read the scriptures with him every wednesday. He is a great guy! We also had a soiree with Sr. Pauline that night which was also really fun. I got to practice my Antandroy with one of the family members which was also really cool.

Thursday:On this day we really couldn't work a lot because I was bery tired and I had a pretty bad infection. I was running a fever but I had Elder Buthelezi to talk with. What a champ! I love that guy! We make such a good team.

Friday:This was a hard day again but I kind of had to squeeze my way through it because I still had an infection but we also had mission tour. We had elder sitati of the 70 come and teach us and instruct us. He did a great job. I loved all the instruction he gave and I continually strive to live the things he has advised.

Saturday: We had two baptismal interviews for Mira and Kevin. They both passed! Kevin is teaching me a dialect called antanosy and Mira is teaching me antandroy. Both of them are very hard but will come in handy for me when I go to fort dauphin in the future.

Well, that was pretty much my week! I hope y'alls week was better that mine! I am confident it was. I pray and love you all so much!

Mazota ry kiahe!  

Elder Johnson

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