Nothing Short of Miracles

Salama è!

My thanks to the lord for the great opportunity that I have to write again for all of you the things that have happened this last week here in this part of the world. I am truly grateful for the prayers that all of you have been sending on my behalf and many many others. I promise to all of you that I have undoubtedly felt the impact of those prayers in my life. The lord has heard all of them and because of that, you will be blessed.

I am pleased to announce that this week we had 2 baptisms done in the Tanambao brach. Fr. Johnson, the first one, is a 10 year old Antanosy kid who is very sharp and very bright in his knowledge of the gospel. I had the great privelege of baptising him. The other baptism was a 68 year old lady, Sr. Odette, who I also had the great privelege to baptise. We had to construct the font using large metal peices that go together. At the end of the construction, the baptismal font looked more like a jacuzi than a baptismal font. The hardest part, however, was water. We had no other way to get water other than to get a long plastic hose and use it as a cathader from the sacrament-water faucet in the sacrament room all the way to the yard in front of the church building. It was a long process that involved a lot of scotch tape, but we were able to fill the font and baptise those that were baptised. I guess you could say, after all, that they were baptised in sacrament water. 

This past Saturday, I had an experience similar to that of Nephi in the scriptures. We were at an investigators home when I had the impression to go and visit one last investigator. It was the end of the day and it was starting to rain. I didn't exactly know why we needed to go there, but I told my companion that we should go there and so we did. It was a long walk, around 1 kilometer. When we got there, I saw a man sitting in the house who looked like he was about to leave, but as we talked to him he sat back down in his seat. We talked more and more to him, and I had no clue what to say other than what the spirit told me to say. At certain times the spirit would tell me to talk about his family or his work. And then he asked us what we were doing there, and after a short lesson on perseverance were able to set up another time to meet up and talk about the gospel  We are visiting him today after I am done talking with my family and complying to a little promise I made, I made some brownies for the appointment as well. I hope he likes them! 

I count it a miracle that we met that man (his name is Fr. Bruno). I am so grateful that the lord is rewarding us with people to teach. It is hard to describe the feelings of sadness that I got when the announcement was made that our branch would be changing. but, from then on, I vowed to myself and to heavenly father that I would only work harder and harder to help the people know their savior better as a token of my appreciation that I have received from the lord's hand. Brothers and sisters, nothing that is done by god on ANY subject is short of a miracle. He IS a god of miracles.

I hope that you all had a good week and that this coming week (for those of you who are starting school again) can go smoothly. 

Take care,

Elder Johnson

Elder Johnson says that the sand is incredibly soft.  The missionaries love to come to the beach and play soccer, Elder Johnson likes to play the position of goal keeper in honor of his sister:) 

Stagecoach Competition

Hello everyone! 

I will have to admit, this week was a little more trial bringing than the others. We have had a lot going on and we have been working hard, but I can still definitely see the blessings and the fruits of our labors. Probably the biggest thing that happened this week happened yesterday during church. I saw that the Tanambao brach (which is the branch that I serve in) had its boundries moved for a reason that I don't know, and because of that we will be losing over 75% of our investigators and members, because they will now be going to the Ampaharihy branch from now on. Elder Randrianarison and I were seen with some tears alongside many other of the members there. I have had such an amazing time with all of these people and I haven't known them for an incredibly long amount of time, but I knkow that they have been such a great help to the church and to god's fold in the Tanambao branch. But I just want to express my gratitude for the lord and for this Stellar one in a blue moon quadrillion chance to serve here in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

This past week, we were able to get some baptismal interviews for Fr. Johnson and Sr. Oddette done, but we missed one for Fr. Parfait  since he wasn't at his house. Johnson is a really cool 11 year old boy that I will be baptising this saturday alongside the 70's aged lady Sr. Oddette. We will have to be doing a lot more tracting since our teaching pool literally got flushed out, but I count it a great honor to push the work of the lord to where no other missionary has gone before, and to trailblaze the way for those to come. I went on an exchange with Elder Brown, a zone leader, for the interviews, and that also went really well. He is a great guy and he started his Mission in the MTC with my trainer, Elder Keener. He will be going home here in a few weeks at the end of the transfer.

I'm sorry that this email is less exciting than the other ones you guys have been getting, and I have come to realize that carrying personal weapons probably isn't the best idea, so no more crazy Mesa (knives). I have found that the best way to find protection is not by looking for it outside of where it is provided, but rather where it can be. What I mean is that you can't look for safety on a cliff by jumping off the edge...well, I guess you could, but then you wouldn't really find what you were looking for. *Where did the safety goooooo!?" *splat* What I'm trying to say is that when you look for safety riding the highway on a cliff, you want to be as far away from the edge as possible. My father once told me an analogy that would help le get my grades up when I was still in highschool. He told me, "Son, getting certain grades in school is like stagecoaches and their riders in a competition. One said to the two, "I can get so close to the edge of a cliff that I can see the river at the bottom!" and the second said ,"Oh really? I can get one wheel off the edge of the cliff without falling off!" and the thrid said, "I stay away from the edge as far as possible"". He was referring to when we strive to get good grades it means staying away from the temptation of procrastination. Brothers and sisters, stay away from procrastination, and be like the third Stagecoach rider. I promise that as you work dilligently, blessings of your own work will come into play.

This morning I had the chance to go with my whole zone (8 elders) into the Taolagnaro Rainforest and handfeed ringed-tailed lemurs. I had a blast. Enjoy some pictures!

Homba anareo anie ny Fitiavana mandrakariva,

Elder Johnson

Elder Johnson loves the children in Mada. He talks a lot about how they remind him of Lucy.

Hello safety zone!  Elder Johnson is riding in a trunk on his way to a nature preserve, but his comps socks are so cool!  #sock goals

A grumpy investi-gator. 

Apparently Elder Johnson's companion is absolutely the best.  I mean he is from Mada, so he has to be awesome!

Elder Johnson said that he brought some bananas to feed to the lemurs, but he found out later he wasn't supposed to do that.  Oops!  I guess that's why they mobbed him.

Hello banana!

 

A llama in my pajamas in my library and it was true!

Joe captioned this one...another inside joke.

We affectionately call this guy, "fat daddy" because 1.) he looks so fat and 2.) It's an inside joke referring to a Ben and Jerry's ice cream flavor that's really called "chubby hubby"

I have been waiting A LONG TIME to get a picture of these trees.  I've seen pictures of them online, but I was waiting for Mr. Daver to capture one on his own.

Fighting the Battle of the Lord

Talilio kahy é!

That is how you say hello to people in Fort Dauphin. Isn't that a little different?

I hope that all of your weeks have gone for the better this past week, as for myself I can say that it has been blessing rich and running o'er with my gratitude for the many tender mercies of the lord that I see every day. As I have been reading over these past few emails, I have noticed that I haven't really included very much information about the work here in Taolagnaro. Let me try to fill you all in on the work and progress in this branch. 

The work has been going very, very well. Surprisingly well. We have about 5 people on date which is really nice, but probably the biggest thing that I will love to tell you all about is the fact that about 18 of our investigators overall came to church yesterday and have been for the past few months. The average attendance in this branch is around the 80's, which means that about 25% of our attendance at church is the investigators that we are teaching. To me, that is just a treadmark in the work done here in Fort Dauphin. It's amazing. We have found 4 new people this week by tracting into them and I feel so satisfied with the work I do afterwards. Overall, the province culture here is going really well and the people are super friendly.

However, there are a few downsides.

Over the last few months, my area (and all of madagascar) has had a surprising rate of Dahalo gang activity rise. I have been hearing fights and sometimes guns at night and more reports of bad things happening. Needless to say, please know that I am in god's hands and that there is nothing to fear. I am fighting the lords battle. I am not being reckless, but i am being very cautious about this. the mission has asked that me and my companion start heading into our living quarters at around 8 at night instead of 9 due to security purposes. I know that the lord's power can easily stunt the growth of a puny island gang. 

Now, for some miracles that has made  my testimony of miracles grow!

There is a Sister that we are teaching that has been having some issues with finding an answer to her prayers. She is a super sweet lady with a 1 year old son. When we came over to her house to give her a blessing, we found out that her son was suffering from a bad fever, so we decided to give him a blessing too. When we were about to leave her little one-room house, I felt an unmistakable impression of the holy ghost constrain me to rebuke the child's fever. Esteeming it as one of my own feelings, I brushed off the impression. The feeling swiftly came back a second time, this time with just a little more spiritual punch as a sign that I needed to rebuke the disease. I obeyed. I approached the child and said under my breath (so that I would not draw attention to myself) "In the name of Jesus Christ, I command your fever to leave your body". The child looked at me for a few seconds and he continued to pant and sweat. I felt a little discouraged, but I felt that I had done the right thing. I left her house and returned the next day, only to find that her child was in perfectly good health! I asked his mother, "When did he get better?" and she answered, "as soon as you stepped out of my house" I have had about 2 similar accounts of this same scenario happen to other people that I have helped heal, and they were healed. I have a stronger testimony now that with faith, nothing is impossible, all according to god's will. as the scripture states in Luke 1," Fa aman'Andrianagnahare le tsy misy ze tsy lefe (for with god nothing shall be impossible(antandroy))"

I pray for you all each night and i am hoping that the grass is still greener on the flipp side of the blue marble :) 

Love you all,

Elder Johnson

Enjoy some beach pictures, taken this morning on p-day

The food is called Ravitoto, aka you better hope it's cooked right or else you won't be leaving the bathroom for a while that night XD

the currency of madagascar is called Ariary. The bills come in different colors and sizes, and with different types of animals and scenes on the bills. My personal favorite in the 1000 (the purple one)

The small room with a few chairs in the middle is the sacrament room. I play a keyboard that doesn't have the pedal for each meeting

Blue bag (my bag) has my physical protection (knife) and my spiritual protection (Book of mormon and bible in malagasy)

Fire and Ice

In a land over 10,000 miles away from the rocky mountains, the Taolagnaro mountains stands in the midst of one of the most tropical parts of the planet: Fort Dauphin. It is home to around 60,000 people at around the size of cheyenne, Wyoming. 50% of the people come from Antandroy descent, while the other 50% comes from the Antanosy Tribe.  The Antandroy are very close related to fire and earth rituals, whereas the Antanosy people are more associated with the ocean and water, making a literal fire and ice cultural combination. Pretty neat, right?

I am so privileged to serve amongst this great people here in Taolagnaro, Madagascar. The plane ride here was pretty smooth, but everything sounded like everything was going through a fan. I was sitting right next to one of the propellors of the plane. It scared me just to sit by it, because it was spinning at over 200 mph. One wrong move, and I would be a man without legs. The scenery was beautiful! I saw the ocean come into iew long before we landed. We acutally flew over the indian ocean before we landed. When we landed, I took a few first steps off of the plane, and I began to sweat...hard XD It has been settling at around 80% Humidity all this week.

I met my companion elder randrianarison right as I got off of the plane. He is a very kind and loving soul. He is a malagasy, so we don't really talk in english to each other. But, I noticed that the dialect here is very different...that is, the 2 different dialects that are spoken here. I am learning the Antandroy dialect. It is a very difficult dialect to learn, but I have already seen the gifts of tongues come to me multiple times.

Yesterday I bore my testimony in church. After my testimony, a man got up to bear his testimony, and right in the middle of his testimony, he offered a prayer, but it was really unanticipated since he started giving it without warning.

This morning, I went and played soccer at the beach. This morning was the first time in my life that I have visited the beach. I was very excited, but I forgot my dang camera...:(

I have taken so many pictures this week and I hope that you enjoy them all!

Tiako Iareo! (Tandroy for I love you all!)

Elder Johnson