WEEK 26: 6 month mark(bump week!)-teaching the gospel-ping pong 3rd place!

Another great week! This week Elder Lake got his trainee so goodbye to the trio, but Elder Knight is way cool so its still fun! This week we had some really good lessons.

We have this one less active member named Paul. He was baptised a really long time ago and didn't come to church since 2008. Since we have started teaching him he has come to church twice but he is still skipping out some weeks. We went in to teach him and planned on sharing a spiritual thought and telling him to come to church, but once we got in there we started talking about his parents. They weren't members and that made him a little sad how they werent baptized. We changed it up and talked about temples. It's a hard thing to get to the temple because the nearest one is in South Africa and they have to get the money to travel if they want to go to the temple. But we stressed the importance of it and if they do all they can, then God will provide a way. 

All was good until we went to this one guys house. We taught him the gospel and he just wasn't ready to receive and hear it and he tried to cast us out in the name of Jesus. Nice try buddy! He kept saying there is one true church, where we agreed, but he and his wife are members of different churches. We asked him if he would pray about what we were saying and pray to know if what we were saying was true. He said he would not, because he has already received an answer. So that was a very fun lesson. After that, we went and taught this other family that we found the other day. Had a good lesson with them about prayer and then we just started talking to them. We did some Malagasy riddles with them and then started talking about food. We asked them if they have eaten all these things like dogs and cats, and then we asked them if they have eaten lemurs. They said yes and they actually have one upstairs right now. Not believing them, we called them out and they said ok come on up. We went upstairs and they had a lemur just chillin there. So yes, some Malagasies have lemurs as a pet. Not sure how legal it is... but whatever, way cool. 

So nothing too much more happened. We went on splits with the ap's this week and Elder Glazier came with Elder Knight and I. Way fun split where we pretty much tracted all day. Yes, we did find some families and went to visit some already, and now have return appointments with the others this next week. Everything is still going great here. Language is still improving but it is getting easier and easier to talk. Still loving Madagascar! 

 

This Wednesday if Bump Day which means I have been out serving on my mission for 6 month (already!) I got another package finally!!!!. Love it all, the taco seasoning, jello and stuff. Today for P-day we have the best ping pong tournament ever!  I will share the detail next week.

 

Elder Bowen 

6 month (bump) and his shirt still looks white!!!! 

 

 

 

 

WEEK 25 February 21, 2016 Elder Lake and Elder Knight-almost bump!

This past week we have been on splits with Elder Lake since his companion hasn't gotten here yet so it has been me, Elder Knight from Oklahoma and Elder Lake which is waiting for his trainee who is from South Africa but having Visa problems.  My new companion cooks like a king! I feel like a chump now as I just cook noodles. but hopefully will get better at cooking and he is way cool.  Nice to have that area of Ankorandrano.  We have been working with less actives this week in our area but have mainly been focusing on Elder Lake's area since he has a decent amount of investigators. This is a hard area but it will get better soon. 

 

  This last week was really fun and funny, just lots of things to laugh at! Mom in talking about your upcoming lesson on the pre earth life, let me think. Well of course there is plenty to learn and teach about it. I would go to preach my gospel and read over the section about it, and maybe even the whole plan of salvation because to understand one part you have to understand how it fits in with the others. We usually talk about how we were just spirits and our Father in Heaven wanted us to get bodies so we could return and live with him. Then, there is the plan of Satan and the plan chosen by us. The plan of Satan is to take away our agency and that is why it is so important to stay away from drugs and addictive substances because those choices take away our agency. We also talk about how he loved us so much that he would give us a Savior to save us and that we shouted for joy when hearing this because we knew and we know that without a Savior we wouldn't be able to return. Hence the importance of the sorompanavotana (atonement). Good luck on teaching it!

In the mornings we have a good work out.  Seems like my prayer time is much longer now and I am now trying to do every one of them in the language.

 My mission is going by so fast as I have been out almost 6 months .,.. my first bump!  I think it is going to go by even faster now.  I haven't received the other two packages but there seems to be problems with the mail. Hope you guys have a great week! love you!

Elder Bowen