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