Wowwwwwwwwww!!! Mahajanga is amazing! Yes, I am on the coast now, and I actually played basketball on a court by the ocean this morning! Pretty cool experience because I actually felt like I was playing basketball on that famous basketball court on long beach just because I could see the beach as I was playin ball haha! And there's more than that that makes mahajanga awesome...the branch is awesome, anddd they have the "best pizza place in madagascar", and you better believe that the first night I was here I got a pizza from there. It was delicious. But the only problem is the chef of that restaurant is going out of town on vacation at the end of this month and not coming back till march, BUT I think that I will also be staying here for a while because right now there are only 2 missionaries here, but president said that he is going to be sending 4 missionaries up here very soon, so then I'll have to train them on the area and who knows maybe stay here for at least 5 months. Which means...lots more of the most amazing pizza in madagascar!!! And the downside...lots of seafood. My very first meal in Mahajanga was fish and leaves on top of rice at a member's house. It wasn't too bad though, but they said that that wasn't that good of a representation for the seafood here so they invited us over for another soiree(dinner/lesson with the misssionaries) tonight, so they can cook some more seafood for me haha! I'm half excited and the other part nervous.
So answers to your questions: Yes, it was a very long trip from fianarantsoa to here. It was a 10 hour bus trip to tana, and then a 12 hour bus trip to here. I stayed in Tana overnight though and got to go to a zone conference the next morning and then I left at 5:30. So I got to go on an overnight 12 hour bus trip. And during that bus trip, it was raining, pitch black, and foggy, and there are not really lines on the road to help keep you going on the road, so I was pretty nervous for a little bit, but it seems that those driver's experience after driving that road everday for the last 10 years payed off and maybe some help from God as well ha because we were flying down that road and had no problems. I ended up arriving in Mahajanga at 5:30 Saturday morning. Found a taxi and finally made it to my house at like 6:15. I got to the house and I soon found out the reason that the Mahajanga missionary house is known to be the worst one in the mission. As soon as I walked in the gate and then the front door I was ducking under doors, under walkways, tripping as I walked up the stairs, taking 10 minutes to fry up eggs and still undercooking them, and not getting any water pressure from the shower haha. But other than that it's basically what I was expecting the housing situation to be like when I got my call to come to madagascar, but just a little bit better than that. You just see palm trees all over the place and the beach and really darkskinned black people, because thats what happen when they get sunburned I guess, who speak in a weird really cool accent, and really fast. So that's my description of my new area, the people, and the house, and the trip up here. But other than that, the only other thing that is an important point to share with you all in order to describe mahajanga completely, which I've already briefly mentioned, is that.... it's burning hot here always!!! I'm actually sweating right now as I write this. Things actually usually shut down here from 12-4 so that everyone can get out of the heat. So because of that, we actually don't do our studies in the morning here; we work from 8-12 and then come in from 12-4 and then go back out and work from 4-9. So that's all the really good and just the little bit of bad(I've only hit my head 6 times so far in the house, and bit my tongue once during those head bumpings ha) about mahajanga, my new area. My companion Elder -------- is great! He only has 4 months left on his mission, but I plan on working him hard to the end and he said he's devoted to do the same. He is the one from the picture at the restaurant in Fianarantsoa. He's from utah and nevada. He and I were friends from the day I got to madagascar so our companionship should be pretty great! Elder Lunt did stay in Fianarantsoa. And I actually replaced his cousin here, who is also called Elder Lunt. Pretty funny to me, and I met a new investigator yesterday who's name is lunt.
Other news and stuff about my mish, is I forgot to tell you in the last email but I actually got into some poison ivy/oak/I don't know but it was poisonous, when I was back in fianarantsoa and I had to deal with that throughout the day until I got home that night. Also, my mission president is amazing! He's actually coming up here this saturday, hopefully to pick out a new house haha! That's actually what he's supposed to be doing when he comes up here, so we will see if we can find a better one than the one we are in right now. I guess I'll get to move into a new house again, just like we did in the last area. But other than that, the last thing is that I need a debit card for personal fund if I ever want to get souveniers while I'm here because the food is actually more expensive here and it would be nice to be able to keep some meat on my bones while I'm here haha! I don't need a lot of money each month, but I do need some for souveneirs and food. So if you guys could send a debit card soon, that would be great, because it is much needed. Oh and I did get my package when I went through tana on the trip up here! It was amazing!!! I love it all, and my companion and the AP's in Tana have enjoyed some of the candy. Were planning on making the cooking probably today or tomorrow. It was all great. And I'm actually using that book for language study now as well, by reading the scriptures that it brings up in my malagasy Book of Mormon first and comparing my understanding to the english version.
But that's about all that is going on here in Madagascar in the mission of Elder Waters. It was good to hear from you guys, and I hope you keep staying healthy and have a great week!
I love you all for eternity,
Elder Waters, Mahajanga
God be with you till we meet again
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