ELDER JAXSON BOWEN : WEEK 76: tapaka ny jiro (additional) Internet returned!

INTERNET HAS RETURNED!!! So yea the internet has been down for a while for us but now it is back. I guess there were some areas with working computers and working internet but we couldn't find any in our area. But whatevs. Oh and last Monday I was emailing and the power cut out! So that is why this one is coming in late. But things have been great in the new area! Lots of success so far!

So over the past month we have had 7 people get baptised, two families. One I didn't really help with too much since I had just arrived but the other one was awesome! We had this investigator named Salim, he is a Muslim, or was a Muslim. When I first got here we were about to drop him because I guess he hadn't been to church in a while and hadn't learned for a while. We tried going to his house and he wasn't there. I didn't really think anything of it since I was new and had never met the guy. As we were walking he found us on the path and turns out he was helping with a funeral of a member that recently passed away. That started his acts of service. From that day on he was one of the most dilligent investigators I have ever seen. He was helping with church functions by donating his time and donating his car to help out with things. I guess the reason he didn't come to church was because his wife was sick and he was helping her out. But then she got all better and they came to church. We went and taught him the first time and he said ok she is all healthy now, we are working on our marriage and we want a baptismal date. So, yea, he basically just jumped into the water without us doing anything. We went and witnessed his wedding on Thursday and then that Saturday, he and his wife were baptized. He plans on getting the priesthood to baptize his daughter in a little bit.

Elder Lingani and I also have another awesome family of investigators that we tracted into my first week. We have been teaching them with a recent convert who has been a huge help. When we started teaching the wife was pretty interested and the husband just kind of sat there. Now they are both actively engaged in the lessons and they are giving us referrals to teach. It was great giving them a bapt date because we asked if they found out that the church was true would they get baptized and the husband replied well obviously we would if its true. Then last week we challenged them to come to church and they said sure if we would come to theirs the next week. We kind of hesitated with our answer but said maybe just so we wouldn't totally deny the kind offer. They came to church with our recent converts family and seemed like they had a good time. Then we visited them last night and they said it was awesome and they are coming this Sunday again. haha so we kind of got saved from that one.

Yesterday we had an Mission Leader Conference with President Foote talking about the conference that just happened. Mission Leader Conference is a meeting with all the zone leaders in the mission. we talked about the conference and the changes happening and how we can improve the mission with all the council from the leaders in the church. It has been quite a good change so far as the focus is truly on the investigators now. No more counting lessons or anything like that but there are only four stats that we count now and they are all reflecting the investigators and their progression. Awesome changes and we will hopefully see the big improvement in these next couple of months.

So we had a couple of fun p days these last couple of weeks. We went to the croc farm and to another zoo called Tsimbazaza. So before the croc farm we bought some live chickens and had a contest to see whose chicken could stay alive the longest... sadly ours went first lasting a whole 2 seconds. But then while we were there we all rode the giant turtle in the exhibit, saw some cool lizards, and of course, pet lemurs. Then at Tsimbazaza we had a zone activity. It's a bigger park but its a little more organized so you can't really go into the exhibits as freely as the other ones. But we asked a worker if we could see the lemurs and he said yeah, follow me. So he took us to the cages and he said ok don't tell anyone about this, only missionaries get to do it. Then he took us into the lemur cages hahaha. They smeared bananas on us and the lemurs licked them off, it was way awesome. But you'll see it in the pictures.

That is about it. Lots of good work going on these past couple weeks. Seeing this work grow continues to strengthen my testimony. I love getting to witness people start to realize the truthfulness of this gospel and start to see the blessings inside as they follow the commandments. Salim continued to pay us compliments and to thank us for our service as this gospel has changed and will continue to change his life.

Here are some pics from the past couple of weeks!