Herro 

We went to Antsirabe this last week for splits and zone conference. Elder Steele and I drove down on Wednesday and worked with everyone in the zone. I got eaten alive by fleas. I have bites from my head to my toes. It's miserable. I got to work in some sweet places while we were in Antsirabe. Sradroa is the name of a small valley up in the mountains of Antsirabe. We had a 30 minute hike in just to get to the place. You can't get there by car. When we got there none of the people that we were supposed to teach were home so we helped one of the member families bring in their bundles of rice from the fields. It was so hard. We had to balance a huge roll of rice on our heads and walk along the tiny mud paths between rice patties for a solid 150 yards. Little girls were doing it like it was nothing, but I was dying. Once we had gotten all the rice in we went and taught the investigators the restoration and hiked back out. It was a pretty neat experience and I can't wait to show you the pictures we took. Our zone conference went well on Saturday and on Sunday we went out to another small group out in a place called Besoa. You have to have a 4 wheel drive vehicle to get to this place. We went out there with President and Sister Adams, Elder and Sister Todd, and Elders Moore and Baker. We went out there to tell them that their group was being closed and that they now have to walk an hour and a half to a place called Manandona for church every Sunday. It was really uncomfortable and I felt so bad for them. I could only think about how happy they must have been when they built their church building out there. That is the 2nd unit that President Adams has closed since being here and it will not be the last. It's tough to see these places close, but it is awesome to know that what we're working for is 5 stakes and then a temple. I'm so thankful that I have been able to be a part of this preparation here. The work is going so well and it is only improving. Missionaries are becoming much more obedient and diligent and the unit leaders are starting to run the wards and branches like they are supposed to. We just got handbook 2 in Malagasy and the missionaries are training the leaders and members how to use it. I get so excited talking about this haha. I can't wait to come back to the temple that will be here. I'll just need Jeremy to hook a brother up with some sky miles right? :) Well I don't know If I will have time to send an email next week. I will be flying to Reunion next Monday and there we will have our exit interviews and departure dinner. It has been a quick two years. I think I'll take this last week off and treat myself for the hard work I've done. I love you all and I hope you have a great week. 

Elder Barclay

Well my friends 'twas a gooood week.  We had some funny happeninsss. First I'll tell you about sweet little ol' Elder Gaul's fahalavoana. We eat at this little pink & green restaurant everyday for lunch and on Saturday we were enjoying some juice before our food came. Out of nowhere the legs of Elder Gaul's chair bent in half and he dropped haha. On his way down he smacked the table and catapulted Elder Robinson's juice into his lap. Elder Gaul was Elder Steele's right guard in high school and is a man and a half. He looked up at me after he had fallen and said, "Are you kiddin me?" I had tears in my eyes for the next hour from laughing. The chairs were garbage. Funny happenin faha roa... We had just taught a lesson late Friday night and we were walking the member that helped us home. As we came around a corner we saw a man stumble out of a bar to the ledge of a canal and start to relieve himself into it. Then his knees buckled and he dropped onto the ledge while urinating all over himself and then fell face first off of the 4 foot high ledge into the canal of sewage. I don't know how his neck didn't break. He was too drunk to put his hands out and so he literally landed on his face. After we had dropped the member off at home we walked back past the man still in the water (he wasn't drowning) and saw his buddy who was also plastered drunk "going" into the canal right onto his friend. Classic. Luckily they won't remember any of it. Sorry if that was a bit gross. We had some good experiences teaching. Lanto is working to get off cigarettes and he is so happy to learn. I asked him a question during our lesson and he answered perfectly and I said, "Yes! Exactly!" He started to smile and then turned to his daughter, raised an eyebrow, and then shrugged his shoulders like, "Yeah.. I know what I'm talking about." haha I love seeing him get excited about the gospel. His and my favorite part of each lesson is him explaining what he has read in the Book of Mormon. He gets all sorts of pumped up and his voice raises a bit haha. We are still trying everything we can to get Alicia's family more involved in the lessons and get them to actually investigate. We took a lady from the relief society with us to our last lesson with them and Alicia's mom and the member clicked so well. Alicia is a STUD. We have taught her every lesson once and she can explain everything we have taught her. Her father is the one that we gave the blessing to not too long ago. We had that awesome experience where Alicia's mom had the dream about us giving the blessing to her husband and when we gave the blessing he was told that he would be healed. All he has to do is read the Book of Mormon. He still hasn't done it. We told them again that all he has to do is read the Book of Mormon and he will get better. So many times the spirit has moved my companions and I to promise people blessings like that and for some reason people just won’t do their part. That is definitely something that I'm thankful to have developed throughout my mission, that is, to have faith enough to follow the impressions of the spirit and believe that if the person will do their part then a miracle will come to pass in their life. Some people have done their part and the promises have been fulfilled. Its nuts how it just works. Today we played soccer against the elder’s quorum of the Tana 1st ward and beat them 6 to 4. Chumps. Life is good. I love you all, have a good week!

Jeff

It was a great P-day. We played some football americaine and got some sun. I was wheelin' and dealin' at QB. The only problem was that no one could reel in the ball. Anyways, we'll start off with a tid bit from this morning. I got out of bed and started cleaning and then went back into our bedroom and Elder Steele said, "President just called and he wants us to go to the office and meet with him." I thought great there goes p day. Then he said April fools and we laughed and I picked up our phone and called President Adams and told him that we had an emergency. I said that as Elder Steele and I were coming home from our morning run a scooter hit some loose gravel and slid into Elder Steele and his leg was split open and bleeding pretty badly. He fell for it and started asking me where I was going to take him and what we were going to do. My courage ran out about there and I told him it was April Fool’s day. He laughed and said, "I'll remember this." Uhhhh... ha goood. Then I walked into Elder Robinson's room and told him to get his rear out of bed and start calling his zone because we were evacuating due to major rioting in downtown Tana. Elder Gaul had his shoes on before I could even get out of their room haha. I waited until Elder Robinson was about done telling his first district leader about the evacuation over the phone to tell them all it was a joke. Suckers :) We had some really cool things happen this week. Alicia has a bap date for April 20th. Her Dad loves what we teach but he can't leave his bed because he is so sick. Last week as we were leaving their house I felt like we should give him a blessing. The next time we went to teach them Elder Steele and I had forgotten about the prompting to give the blessing and as we were finishing the lesson Alicia's mom told us that she had a dream in which Elder Steele and I gave her husband a blessing. It was an awesome blessing. He was told that he still had work to do here on earth and for that he would be healed and able to lead his family as they joined the church. We taught Lanto on Saturday for the first time in a while because he had been out of town working. He has almost finished 2nd Nephi and it had been 4 days since he had last smoked cigarettes. We have been praying very intently for him and he is starting to make progress. We taught Helen twice this week and Bruno and her can finally get married this Saturday! So... we have a possibility of 4 baptisms the Saturday before I leave. Either way, they are all going to make it and I'm so happy. We had been in a bit of a rough patch as far as people progressing throughout March, but we're moving again. I interviewed a young lady for baptism last Sunday and she invited us to her baptism on Saturday. It was great to hear her testimony after the baptism. In the interview she told me all about her plans to go to the temple. The work is going so well here. People are being retained and we are seeing real growth. Our ward council meetings have gone from activity planning and verbal battles to a detailed discussion about investigators, less actives, recent converts, and potential Melchizedek Priesthood holders. I'm so grateful to have been able to be a part of all this and to have been able to seen the change that has taken place. Well, have a great week everyone. Make sure to so whatever the Lord needs you to do in each of your personal circumstances this week. You are all where you are for a specific reason. So don't be lazy chumps. Loves :)

Jeff

It was a good week but I can't remember what happened. Tuesday I was on splits with Elder Arrington in Ambohimanarana. We got slapped by a crazy storm. It was super hot and the sun was shining bright when I thought a flash grenade went off right in front of us. It was lightening and it was so bright that it blinded me for a second haha. Yowza! It scared us so bad. Then the black clouds rolled in from every direction and dumped on us. On Wednesday I was on splits in my area with Elder Razafimandimby. We did a lot of street contacting and no one was having it. It was refreshing to get rejected like that. It took me back to the good ol' Reunion days. Elder Fennell went home on Wednesday. He is done! I called him and said goodbye, it’s crazy how much you can love people out here. These guys will all be friends for life. On Thursday we stopped by a member's house because he was sick and had been throwing up blood. He didn't have enough money to go to the hospital and the doctor he talked to told him to eat more food. That's hard to do when you don't have money. So we gave him a blessing. His house was the dirtiest and creepiest house I've ever been in. I can't even explain it. Elder Steele and I went running this morning for the first time in a long while and woooweee I'm a tub of LARD. I almost ralphed. Yeah... have a good week everyone!

Elder Barclay    

It was a quick week. We hand Manakambahiny zone conference on Tuesday and then we taught the rest of the week. We were able to work a ton with the members. We visited tons of less active families with our bishop and other members and it was so sick! We flat out told people to repent and come back to church.  Our investigators have all kind of hit brick walls. Helen can't get married because she is underage and has to wait until July and Lanto has been out of town working and still has word of wisdom probloems that he isn't doing very well with. Alicia's family is starting to come around though. We gave her a bap date for the 20th of May to try and get her family jumpstarted and it's kind of working, we'll see. Our ward is doing so well. We had a ward council yesterday and the progress record that we had given to our bishop Thursday night was the main focus throughout the meeting. He talked about every investigator, every recent convert, and every less active that we had on the paper. They followed up on last week’s visiting assignments and everyone had done what they said they would do. Now as we go around town we see our members out visiting people and we even run into members at our appointments. I want to throw a fat fist pump and shout hoorah for Israel. Stuff is getting done! I love it so much. Thats about it for this week. Je vous aime!

Elder Barclay      

Hey errbody. It was a fast week. I'm tired and we have an office meeting in a couple minutes.... so.... this will be quick, I'm sorry. We had stake conference yesterday with Elder Cook and his wife. It was AWESOME. It was packed and we got there 2 hours early to get the good seats. Lanto and his daughter came and also Hanitra, Lalaina, and Anita came. They all got to meet Elder Cook. The speakers gave great talks and the Cooks spoke to all the investigators and recent converts after the meeting. It was so sick! We had a sweet P day at the beach last Monday and a safe trip home to Tana. Another busy week coming up!

Elder Barclay

Awesome week my dudes. We sent elders Fryer, Wilson, Walker, and Maua'i home on Wednesday and welcomed 6 new elders right after the departing group went through security. On Thursday Elder Steele managed the training and orientation for the new elders while I was out with Elder Bergera (new office elder) taking care of transfers. All but maybe 6 companionships were moved. It was the biggest transfer I've seen. I don't know how bigger missions do it. Elder Bergera attended "Barclay's Auto Ecole" Wednesday night and all day Thursday haha. Boy was that a rodeo! I almost wet my pants numerous times because I was laughing so hard. He's getting the hang of it now. I actually am very impressed that he was able to learn to drive a manual so quickly, let alone do it in Madagascar. He must have had a ballin instructor. Thursday morning we Elder Steele and I packed our bags and drove to Tamatave. We had Elder horman and Elder Rasoanaivo with us who were getting transferred to Tamatave. The trip was an adventure, and... we'll leave it at that for Mom's sake. We slid halfway off the road at one point what...??? Moving on! Elder Rasoanaivo was not enjoying the ride haha. He is from Besoa which is a little village about 8 billion miles off the beaten path. He ralphed his guts out 3 times throughout the drive. One of those times he almost didn't make it out of the car. He tapped Elder Horman on the shoulder and let him know what was about to happen so Elder Steele slammed on the brakes as Rasonaivo's cheeks bulged. The force of the car stopping made it impossible for the sliding door to be opened so finally when we had come to a complete stop Rasoanaivo ripped the door open and spewed across the two lane highway that we were on hahaha. Poor guy... That was probably the most intense ride of his life. So now we have been in Tamatave since Friday and we are heading back to Tana on Wednesday. It is bloody hot here. I love it, it reminds me of Reunion. We have been on splits everyday and it has been a party. I love these guys out here, I've never had this much fun. The only problem is... It's so hot that no one wears clothes. Wooh! So today we're going to take a walk on the beach in our flip flops and drink the milk of coconuts through bendy straws. Before I close I'll share a proselyting experience. Elder West and I were on splits on Saturday night and had finished teaching a lady and were headed to the car to go to our next lesson. I saw a man come out of a gate and thought well, we should go talk to him. He was just the guardian and after talking to him he finally went to get the owner of the house. A woman came out and she said, "I have a cousin who is Mormon." We talked more and her cousin was the wife of my ward's bishop who just recently passed away. I told her that I was at the funeral and that I was very close friends with that family. It turns out that the lady that I was talking to lives in my area in Tana and is married with kids and has a beautiful family. We got her information and will contact her next week. It was a miracle. I know that we were guided to that house to meet her that night. Have a good week I love you all! 

Elder Barclay