Evacuation

https://www.facebook.com/randrianirinaniarivo.herilalasitraka/videos/10222147575622155/

Madagascar Antananarivo Mission Evacuation Underway

Dear Missionary Parents:

As the world continues to experience the current crisis, we are all prayerfully doing our best to adapt to the rapidly changing environments in which we live.  This morning our mission received the order to evacuate all missionaries from Madagascar, and later we were directed to include the other two islands, Reunion and Mauritius.  While this is disappointing to all of our missionaries, we understand that it is important to exercise an abundance of caution to provide the level of protection that is needed. 

Here in Madagascar and Mauritius, there are no identified cases of the coronavirus at present.  Several cases have been confirmed in Reunion.  Nevertheless, because of the limited health care services and because borders are beginning to close, we need to return all of our missionaries to their countries of origin.  After their arrival at home, most missionaries will be placed in temporary assignments to continuing serving until the current circumstances are adequately resolved.  Missionaries with less than 90 days to serve on their mission will likely not be reassigned, but others will receive new temporary assignments to serve in their home country.  These decisions and details will come a little later down the road.

The Church’s Travel Division is working to find available flights to transport our missionaries at this time.  They will be properly and appropriately assigned transportation to bring them to you safely.

Of course, we are sad that we will be prematurely distanced from your missionary.  We have come to love each of them and respect the tremendous power and dignity that they represent.  They are dedicated disciples of the Lord, Jesus Christ.  Their faith is extraordinary and we will miss associating with them during this period of separation.  We know they will be somewhat discouraged because of this experience.  Please do your best to comfort and reassure them that Heavenly Father has made provision for all that is necessary, even in the face of such a tumultuous departure from our mission.

The missionary department will contact each of you with further details about your missionary’s travel and reassignment plans.    We will continue to communicate with you any additional information that becomes available to us.  Thank you for your love and support of your missionary and the awesome Madagascar Antananarivo Mission.

With all our love,

President and Sister Duckworth

Love will find the way

Hey there everyone!

I'm still alive! And healthy! Despite all of the swirling doubts and rumors with her thousand tongues about this coronavirus, Madagascar has been mercifully preserved thus far, and that is of no surprise to me. I know that the people here in Madagascar love Jesus Christ, and even though bad things happen to good people, by the tender mercy of our loving Father in Heaven, Madagascar is still up and running. However, we all know that this country is such a brittle one and something like the coronavirus could easily bring Mada's economy to its knees. As for the situation for the missionaries here in Africa, we have been advised to stop shaking hands with people and always maintain a 1 meter distance from everyone, and if we are even just a little sick, we need to stay inside. We have been advised to start a 2 week emergency food-essentials supply just in caése we cannot leave our homes anymore. Missionaries from Fort Dauphin and Fianarantsoa have been moved closer to Antananarivo to provide them more access to health and food. From what it sounds like, if Madagascar gets the coronavirus (which it will eventually), then chances are that all missionaries get evacuated if it gets to a very bad situation, and in this case, it is a very slippery situation for us, but we hope for the best :)

In the meantime, no church! Omby Masina (Holy Cow)! It was way awkward to go to our investigators homes and say that there's no more church for the time being. We still have 9 people on baptismal date, and those will probably be the last 9 for a while. It was really interesting to do sacrament meeting in the itaosy elder's house. My companion and I blessed the sacrament in malagasy. and yet I still felt that I had renewed my covenants with my savior.

Other than that, not much to report on here in Madagascar. Same experience! I wish all of you could be here to see what I see, but I know that one day you'll all be able to see:)

Love you all!

Elder Johnson

U.S. Embassy in Madagascar and Comoros

COVID-19 Information

• Country-Specific Information:
  Madagascar has not confirmed cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
  Comoros has not confirmed cases of COVID-19 within its borders.
  As of Feb 10, Air Madagascar flights to and from China are temporarily suspended.
• Entry and Exit Requirements :
  Madagascar: WHO officials shared that screening procedures at key ports of entry are in place to screen for potential 2019-nCoV cases.
• Quarantine Information:
  – Madagascar: For passengers arriving from or having transited through China quarantine is mandatory for a period of 14 days; Authorities have asked airlines not to bring in passengers who have been in Italy, South Korea, or Iran within the past 14 days. Should such passengers arrive, they may face a 14 day quarantine.
  – Comoros:  Passengers arriving from or having transited through China or Japan face entry travel restrictions or quarantine.  Travelers from counties with confirmed cases of COVID-19 may be required to have spent a period a period of 14 days in quarantine in a country that is free from COVID-19.
• Other Links
  COVID-19 crisis page on travel.state.gov
  CDC page on COVID-19 
  Coronavirus Diseas 2019 on state.gov

I hope they call me on a mission

From Rice patties to Mermaid graves (true story)

Salama aby!

I'll just start with the crazy stuff today. For our p-day activity, we went to a kung fu temple, and we went with our entire zone. it was really fun! The most interesting part was when we got to a really sacred malagasy part of the mountain we were hiking up. As we were walking, two malagasies stopped us and asked us to take off our shoes, so we did and they also asked that we take no pictures, for it is a sacred site. In respect to that, we didn't take any pictures. But (I kid you not), we saw sacrifice altars, graves for midgets (vazimba in malagasy), famous people, and mermaids.  One grave was covered in black cloth, and we were warned that if we were to do anything  to harm it, it would immediately kill us (which was hard for me to believe, but I didn't take any chances). We also saw a really sketchy tiny house where apparently people talk to spirits. Didn't have too good of a feeling about that place, but it was cool to soak in a bit of the culture! We also got a killer view of the big city.

Work wise, Ampitatafika is going really great. We had 10 people come to church this past Sunday and 9 of them are on baptismal date. I am really grateful for this chance that I have to work here in Madagascar. Seeing the rice patties and the long horned cows and the kids playing marbles has me thinking in an interesting way every time I see it that I am supposed to be here right now.

I don't have a whole lot of time left here in Madagascar, so I am willing to answer questions about anything anyone has. If there are any questions, it would be better if there were asked while I am here so that I can get the pure answer from the malagasies :)

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Johnson 

See that missionary squatting to take a picture? That's Elder Whener. Right behind the hill in the background are the mermaid graves. I saw a couple from a distance.

Also I got waaaay sunburned...Nothing new to me XD

And I love apples

The Work is Progressing!

Hey there everyone! To start things off, I absolutely cannot go without saying first and foremost that countless prayers have been answered. The work here in our area is booming. This past week, we put 7 people on baptismal date, and just yesterday we had 15 investigators come to church. It was an enormous answer not only to my own prayers, but hopefully to all of yours as well! Out of the 4 months that I have been working here, we never really had more than 1 or 2 come during the first few months. But, I didn't consider giving up as an option. We kept on going to inactive's houses. We kept asking for referrals. We had faith in our investigators. Little by Little, I saw the fruits of our labor. More and more people started coming to church, more people wanted to learn, more and more people were becoming serious, and more people became happier in the long run (including me). A place that we proselyte in is called Anjanamaitso (Land of the Green Children). It is mainly composed of brick houses, trees, snakes, and people. The houses aren't just made out of any type of brick...they're made out of clay bricks, and if you know anything about clay bricks, they break like crazy. You could punch a hole in the brick wall. In this place, we are teaching a woman named Angeline, a single mother who makes bread and warm milk as her job. She lives a very humble life. The first time we met her, she shouted to us from a ways away that she wanted to learn the gospel. We started teaching her, and I was sort of skeptical about her. But sure enough, a few weeks later, she came to church. And yesterday, she didn't just bring her little son; She brought her entire family of sisters and cousins. I was deeply impressed with her and how much she had sacrificed to come to church. I am so grateful for the chance that I have had to share the gospel with her! Another really cool thing that happened a while back was when my old companion Elder Stepan and I went to go teach some older investigators, when we found a little friend they had. His name is Jimmie, and He's from another part of Africa. He doesn't speak Malagasy, but He speaks french, arabic, and a couple others. Of course, it was so nice to be able to use french with him after 3 years of french class in junior high and high school. To this day, I enjoy sharing the gospel for him and speaking with him in Arabic and french! Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts you send every day! Love, Elder Johnson I'm also really sorry but no pictures this week...the computers here in Madagascar aren't very fast ReplyReply allForward