Well... yowzers. These last four days have been one of the greatest experiences of my life. This place isn't real. I swear I'm dreaming. I'm in Tananarive in area 67 (the nastiest poorest area apparently.) I don't know what the others are like but I've been told that I'm in the craziest place. I wouldn't doubt it. I've been running around with a guy named elder Slater and his 16 year old malagasy mini missionary named solter. They are already two of my favorite people here. I'm sorry ha but I can't even begin to explain this place. I guess to say that is third world or worse is correct. I have fleas and bowel issues after 4 days. Walking through the crammed city which has a population of 2 million and even breathing the air and just seeing how people live is nuts. The craziest part is that everybody is super nice. Everyone is smiling and having a great time for the most part. I say hi and people flip. We climb into these giant vans (buses) and you cram 30 people into and 18 seater and you have a blast smashing up against people. I'm not being sarcastic, I love it. You literally are laughing and smiling the entire time even if it hurts or super gross and filthy. I love it! I want to hug everyone I see haha The little homeless beggar kids that come up to ask for money either want money or a fist bump. I think the fist bumps make them happier than any money. we've been teaching the entire time as well. Pictures can only describe those settings. It's literally what you see in the movies. People just in huts and accepting the good word. The language is super sick as well, It sounds like russian when we speak it but when the Malagasies talk it's nuts ha. Tons of people speak french too but they struggle. The first rendezvous we went to was awesome. As we're walking in Slater looks at me and says, "When I give you the nod say, Voonavaya towatis." It was too late for questions so I went for it. He gave me the nod towards the end of the lesson and now those 3 people are getting baptized. It was sick. It's crazy how people accept it here. To be honest I'm dreading the flight back to Réunion. Sure I feel better there as far as health and comfort, but the love you feel for people here outweighs the living circumstances. It seriously is the best. We ride around in these little car/taxi things and there isn't a single traffic law. It's an adventure. We had our leadership conference on Saturday and that was nuts. We had tons of straight formal lecture training and then later on we had some task teamwork activities that were really cool. The guys here are studs. I want to work with them so bad. They get after it and are men and not punks. These are guys I want to be associating with. So maybe if I'm super lucky they'll send me back over here. We had mental health doctor (elder Hartman) and President Donnelly running the training and it was something that Businesses would pay big money to send their employees to. I can't believe how lucky we are to be able to have this type of training and instruction for free. We learned a ton about how to interact with different personalities and how we can lead them. Well sorry this email was lame and didn't make much sense, but I'm just having a tough time wrapping my mind around everything that is happening. Mada is the best. It's the craziest ha. I love it. Take it easy and if President Adams is sneaking around on my blog, forgive me for anything dumb I've said or done and feel free to bring me back to Mada when you get here ;) but seriously :) Love you all!

Jeff