WEEK 45 July 11, 2016 Elaine, Teaching lots of kids, love the members!

Manahoana dahole! 

So this was another great week. highlight of the week was dinner with the africans... so on my way up here I was talking to some elders that had served here in Fianarantsoa before. They said that they used to have dinner with a family from south africa (white people). Sadly the missionaries had lost contact with them for a while but last Monday as I was walking out of a store I heard someone say "excuse me! are you the mormons?" and it was them! So we arranged to have dinner which was last nights meal and ohhh, it was so good. But Elaine is the mother's name and she said she loves and feeds the missionaries because we remind her of her son. She says that if she takes care of us here, then some mom will take care of her son in Thailand. Way cool and she has been doing this for 8 years! Awesome family.

So besides that, lessons were great this week. We visited Adonice, our recent convert, and we gave him his copy of the Book of Mormon with the other standard works. He was wayyy happy and couldnt stop flipping through the pages and smelling it. He received the priesthood this last Sunday and he is as happy as ever.

So star investigators of the week are Roje and Ganette. We started teaching Roje about two weeks ago and he hasn't missed a week of church. when we came for our lesson last Friday we saw him with the Book of Mormon out and the panphlet and he was studying. we came in and he is just full of questions but he accepts the answers and he does his homework. I don't know how he could get any better! Ganette is a lady that we started teaching a couple of weeks ago also. Whenever we go we teach around 7 people and usually there are 3 that are new. We go to teach and kids just start coming in and when the room is full they stop. And speaking another language in front of a bunch of little kids is hard... they are so intimidating!  But when we went over it was Ganette, one of the usual guys, and a bunch of kids. The time before when we met we shared the story of Joseph Smith. We gave them the panphlet and asked them to read it as homework  and they read it and had questions for us when we showed up! Seriously the best.

The branch here continues to grow and get stronger. This lest week we went out with our Branch President Naina and we taught him/helped him give some blessings to people. The members in this branch are very faithful and they love this church. I love being here in Fianarantsoa with these awesome members. The youth should have a trip coming up here as they sold sandwiches this last week as a fund raiser to take a trip to what im guessing is a nearby natural forest. But things here are all good. Madagascar is great and i love my mission. President Foote should be coming up here this week so look out for pictures! 

Fantatro fa Marina Ny Fiangonana! 

Elder Bowen 

WEEK 44 July 4, 2016 Baby it's COLD outside!(transfered to Fianarantsoa)

Transfers are now over for me! So I have made it to Fianarantsoa and yes it is very hot here... sike its freezing! So a little about the trip. So we left last Sunday after church to drive to Tana. Mahajanga to Tana was around 10 hours. It was way fun getting to travel with the Footes talking about movies and things before our missions. So we arrived at night and the streets were way crowded due to the national holiday. Then Monday i just chilled with the Aps at the office. Then Tuesday morning the journey began. So we got picked up around 6am tuesday morning. they had a driver from the mission come and get us since there were three of us. So it was me, this one elder coming home from his mission, and a sister with the driver. He drove us about three hours down to Antsirabe, where we went to drop off the sister. Sadly she got sick during the ride and we had to pull over a couple of times... but we went and he dropped me and the elder off in Antsirabe where we were to get on a bus to Fianarantsoa. So we got everything all set and tickets bought by around 10. then we waited. 11 rolled around and we got into our bus, which was basically a mini van with too many seats thrown in there. Nice and cozy! Then we started driving and the driver pulled over and stopped. We ended up waiting an hour for some other people that missed the bus... so then they got on and we started going. We drove for quite a while and then pulled over to get some food. Then the long part of the drive came. So the road to Fianarantsoa is infamous for being the worst road in Madagascar, and it lived up to that reputation. It was a long time of curves and pot holes where we had to slow down to almost a stop to get through. Then to top it off we had a young child that got sick... so yeah that happened a lot and we had to pull over a lot and after hours of that I arrived in the freezing Fianarantsoa at around 8:30pm. So if we do the math for how long Elder Bowen was traveling your answer will be a very very long time. But I arrived and things are great here. Elder Nelson is great and he saved me with making me dinner the night i arrived. Way nice. The apartment is nice and there are four of us in it.  By the way, this is a bike area so now I will be riding a bikes all over these hills.  The bikes are currently broken so we are waiting for them to get fixed. Should be way fun biking.

But besides that the work is good here. The members are awesome. There are just two branches here right now but there is a lot of potential. There were 80 people at church the first Sunday I was here.  There are a lot of recent converts here so that has been a large chunk of our lessons this past week.

So this week Elder Nelson and I have been studying about true conversion, and mainly the story in the Book of Mormon about Ammon and King Lamoni. We continue to study Ammon's great example of faith and missionary work but also King Lamoni's faith and how he had a true conversion. Then coming with that he went to share what he had learned with others to bring that light into their lives. So that is a spiritual thought we have been focusing on this past week. 

So even though I was way sad to leave my old area I am happy and exited to be at this new one. I love my mission and it seems like i just get to keep moving around from area to area but it is just many opportunities to meet many great people. I hope that everyone has a great week! 

Elder Bowen

WEEK 43 Baptisms!!! Ate Bat - Being transferred to Fianarantsoa

Alright, so this week I am being transferred to Fianarantsoa which is a 24 hour ride away.  . I am currently in the office right now in Tana and running into a couple of Elders here at the office that I knew.   Yesterday we took a long 11 1/2 plus hour drive from Mahajanga to Tana with President Foote. The streets were crazy as yesterday was the Independence Day here. So it was a longer drive going through Tana. Tomorrow I am so lucky to get to go on a taxi be like a bus thing they cram everyone in for the road down to Fianarantsoa where there are 4 Elders total! The best road in Madagascar! The first half I will ride with a sister, then the second half I am on my own with my suitcases! So I'll have a total of about 24 driving hours by the time I am done but then I will be in the great land of Fianarantsoa with my new companion Elder Nelson who has been waiting for me all week.

 

The last times in Mahajanga were great. On Saturday we had three baptisms, Elder Mack and Olsen, and we should have baptismal Saturdays for the next couple of weeks in Mahajanga. Then Sunday we left right after sacrament meeting and started for home mission office in Tana. But as of right now I don't have a lot of news to send home. Yes, I am alive and didn't die from the grenade that was thrown in the stadium. Actually wasn't near it and all the missionaries here are ok. All missionaries now have a 6 pm curfew until things settle down. 

 

Currently, re-packing my suitcases because I am going from the hottest area in the mission, to one of the coldest so I'll have a little change in apparel. But good times to come!

 

I had bat to eat and it was interesting! Where I am going the language should be a little different then where I was as they had a dialect called sakalava.  In this new place I am headed the dialect will be betsimasarika if I'm not wrong.  All the missionaries speak a dialect called merina.  This just means there are some new words and accents with each dialect. Way crazy though!  I loved working with Elder Cooley and am exited to work with Elder Nelson!

 

Love you all and hope that everyone has a great week! 

 

Elder Bowen

Baptism with Son



Special day for Son

Bonfire and marshmallows



Fidelicia kid pre gum



Bat that was killed and eaten for dinner!



Elders at Mahajanga

Zone conference lunch with my soda!!!

The Beach

Love Pday and volleyball on the BEACH!



President and Sister Foote with our zone

Parting is so hard!!!



My last sunset in Mahajanga...that is me!