Aug 2, 2011

Hey fianakaviako,
It's good to hear that everyone's doing good.
How's the beach? Enjoy the water for me. I hear that although we won't ever be tanning while were missionaries in Madagascar, but because it's so hot, we don't come back with rednecks and white chests. We come back with everything red except for a tie tan line because the sun goes through are white shirts but not through our ties ha! Speaking of Madagascar, how did it look when you looked it all up?
The language is coming. It's hard, but hard things are good for you. I'm sure I'll be just like the Elder in the Best Two Years movie though. I'm excited though! I can't believe I'll be in Madagacar in a week and a day!!!!!!! It's a crazy thought. I just got to go to the temple today for the last time for the next two years. It was great.
Thanks for setting up the picture album, can't wait to get it and look at it for myself not just to show it to the Malagasy people. Which, actually makes me think about a picture that I just saw the other day from one of our branch presidency members. It showed two missionaries baptizing 45 people in one day. Insaneeeeeeee, it's like a modern day Waters of Mormon picture. I don't expect that to happen to me, but I sure wouldn't mind ha! The works gonna be amazing there because their already so humble and Christ like. I'm excited! On Saturday, we had TRC(teaching resource center), it's where we teach Malagasy people as investigators. We had to go teach a lady named ------- who is really hard to understand because she talks so fast, but we went in there believing that the Holy Ghost would be with us and with full confidence that the Gospel could answer any problems she had. And when we went in there it happened. Words came to my mind quickly and clearly and we were able to have her bear testimony to us about her testimony of how she's seen Christ's love for her and her life and how the Atonement has helped her in her life. And I didn't understand everything that she said, but I could tell that it was right and good because of the Spirit there and because she started tearing up. We then shared 2nd Nephi 31:5 with her I believe and asked her to follow Christ's example and be baptized through the authority of God. And she said yes!! It was amazing, and the Spirit was so strong there! We then shared Mosiah 2:41 with her, which talks about the joy that comes through following the commandments of God and she began to cry even more. It was so amazing. She asked for paper so she could write that scripture down for future reference.
I've realized since I've been here that the way to teach is to not splurt out everything that the church believes in and answer all the questions that they have in my own words, and to not just go in and shove the next lesson down their throat and get every single point in the lesson across, but that I have to ask thought provoking questions that can lead our discussion to where they need it to go and then if they don't know the answer to one of the questions don't just ask a different one or answer it in my own words but to use the scriptures to answer the question. I've learned that you can get a lot more out of each scripture than you're used to seeing. You can use analogies to help them understand and delve deeper into the scriptures and ask questions about each verse to help them understand what it meant. I'm learning really great stuff here, but I can't wait to apply it in a week and a day.
I love you all very much!
Eldera Rano(Waters)
God be with you till we meet again

Oh yeah, our flight schedule: we fly to dallas then to london, and then to South Africa, and then to Madagascar. In all it's gonna be about a 48 hour flight. Crazy huh?