Hey my sweet sweetnesses,

 

Thank you so much for the emails. You all are swell and made this P-day super :) I just got done playing basketball at the church with all the malagasies and I almost lost my left eye. I have never been poked in the eye like that. The guys were real chumps and would hack me everytime I got the ball because they are all 5 feet tall and they can't stop me. I thought I had over come my temper but nope, it had just been a long time since I 'd played an intense game of basketball. No worries though the only game my team lost was the game in which I had to leave and pull my contact lense out from behind my eye. Then I came back and continued to punk fools. We won 7 in a row and then we stepped down and let the chumps play against eachother. Well, now that all that is off my chest i'll calm down and tell you what happened this week. On Tuesday we a had a Zone Leader council with president. Those meetings are the coolest! We prepped and made plans for when President Adams arrives and then had a fat meal up in Presidents house. Sister Donnelly made this pasta with cheese that she brought back from Reunion and I ate so much that I almost ralphed. These last three weeks my body has been cinfused as the dickins because I'll eat garbarge all week and then have some fancy meal every once in a while. My body thinks, "Oh, hallelujah we made it and we're back to normal food and then I go back to sewer water and rice with rocks and bones in it. After lunch President briefed us on the emergency evacuation plan for possible civil unwrest here in mada. Presidential elections should be coming up this year and there are already riots and stuff in Analakely. It's the worst because Seifert and I have to drive through that city all the time to take people to places but when there are riots we have to drive for an hour to get around it. The goverment here is super corrupt because the current leader took control by force and he is not stepping down. He has oushed back the elections for 3 years now and probably will do the same thing this year. It's pretty nuts. Malagasy is coming along. I can figur out what is going on in the conversations from time to time but that's about it. The nice thing is that I'm not scared to talk to people so it is a lot easier to just try and speak and look dumb, and that way I learn faster. The mothers day call seems like it was 10 years ago. We ended up hitch hiking home afterwards because it was so late and thre were no taxi's. A soccer team in a van gave us a ride. I think I already told you that, sorry. We didn't have any baptisms this Saturday, but next week we have 5 lined up. It's sooo weird to have baptisms. I have the best mission ever. Reunion was amazing and now I get to be here and see this side of the work. Ummm yeah I think thats it. I thought that once I told you all that I could get Dearelders agin that I would have actually gotten one haha. Well I gotta go! 

 

Love Elder Barclay     

Hello

Well I'm starting to catch words in the conversations now. I'm still lost though. It's tough being a helpless moron out here. The worst is when people are like, "So how long have you been out?" and I say, "Just over a year now." Then they look at me with a confused face thinking, "Oh... I see, you're an idiot and still haven't learned the language." while they say, "Well hang in there, I'm sure you'll get it." Yep, woohoo. Lots of fun stuff is happening though and my comp and I have fun. We rode on the bumper of a taxi bay the other day and hung on for dear life. We taught some awesome lessons in the smallest little huts you have ever seen and during one of them a GIANT black widow crawled around the room staring me in the face. They are monsters here ha. We just teach all day long and then on saturday people show up to be baptized. It's weird but hey I don't mind. The lessons are simple but powerful. People just get it and accept it like Jesus himself was teaching it to them. I don't understand how, but I love it. This next week I should be getting violently ill. It usually takes about two weeks for it to hit and my time is coming...

Madagascar is a strange place. I think i'm still in shock. Life is pretty rough for these people and I can see the adversary having his way with this land. On the other hand the church is exploding. I always thought that when people would talk about the "war" between good and evil it was a load of garbage, but man I literally feel like I am there in it now. The nicest part about it all is knowing that I have complete control over the opposition, but he is really there. It creeps me out ha. Well I gotta go, sorry this was short. Have a great week evryone.

Love Jeff

Oh! You can send letters via dearelder.com now. I'm in the office so I will get them right when you send them. And...the address for letters is...

Elder Barclay

Dingana III

Andrainarivo

Antananarivo

Madagascar.

There ya go :)

Ny anarako dea Barclay,

Malagasy is nuts, learning it from scratch is rough as well. This last week was the craziest. Madagascar is the poop of the earth. It's super fun. I'll just give you a few details and stories from the week and then on sunday when we chat we can cover the rest. So my bowels have already been melted and i'm gettin used to the lifestyle quickly. As for fun stories... we  punked the drunk husband of one of our investigators because he beats her. The guy probably messed himself when he saw me and Seifert as he was trying to leave his house. It was pitch black outside and we were standing right in front of his door when he opened it to leave. Impeccable timing. Seifert is about the same size as me, and Malagasies are like 4 feet tall. I just sat there and mean mugged him while Seifert taught him. The gospel changes behavior better than anything else. We also taught our old lady investigator Bebe. She's like 80 and the last time we taught her she was wearing a shirt that she must have thought was NOT see through. It was a good experience. We also taught this super rich girl that just left for reunion and so she spoke french and when I spoke creole to her she loved it. We ran into her again at the airport as we were dropping someone off and she told me she was going to buy me presents while she is in reunion. Sick! She is sooooooo ridiculously loaded. Yeah, Mada is nuts. Lots of other crazy stuff happened but it's just too much to write about. Dead bodies in the streets, can't drink the water, poop everywhere, It's tough to breath outside. I am going to smell like DOODOO when I get home. So for the mothers day call... Sunday at 1 p.m. I will be on the computer ready to skype. Whoever wants to be there has to be at Mom and Dad's house at that time. It will be 9 p.m. here and we'll chat it up. If that doesn't work you guys will just call my cell phone and we'll talk that way. You have to buy a calling card and you are the ones who will pay. Awesome. Merci d'avance pour votre aide! Nou sa cause bonne dimanche alors, na trouve. Mi aim a ou. Veloma!  

Love Jeff

Té! Kossa zot Ï fé la?

Well this will be a short one. Last night a couple interesting things happened. First to make you laugh I'll tell you a story. T and I were starting our weekly planning and we got a text from a random number and it read, "Hello Mr. American I just wanted to let you know that you are very handsome and I wanted to see if I could text you and become your friend... and maybe a little bit more..." I was flattered and of course I instantly started thinking, "Which little hoochie mamma that I contacted last week did I give our number to?" After further research it turned out to be my pal Jean. Yes HIS name is Jean. hahaha yikes. To make this all better my chump of a companion kept texting the guy and tried to set up a rendezvous! Not a chance man. I took the phone and gently let Jean know that I wasn't interested. I never thought I would have to do something like that. Just after that Elder T and I went over to President Donnely's apartment and met with him for a short moment. We sat ourselves down in his kitchen and he informed me that I was going to Madagascar to be and office AP (I don't know what that means) and that Elder Fennell and Elder T would be the new Zone Leader/Assistants in Réunion. So I'm leaving on Tuesday with President to go to Madagascar probably for the rest of my mission. Yay Malagasy and bowel disease. I'll probably shed a few more pounds over there too. I was kind of bummed when I realized that I was going to baptize 3 people on May 12th and June 2nd in my area. Once again, just as I get my area up and running with Ami's and progress I get transferred. I'm excited for the new adventure though. I'll be comps with Cody Black's MTC companion Elder Seifert. Well I got lots to do. Everyone have a splendid week. I don't know whats going on for mothers day yet. I will find out Tuesday night in Mada and then send you an email with the plan. Most likely I will call you Sunday morning here (Saturday night chez vous) and it will be like Christmas. But I think this time you will have to call me. We'll see! I love ya.

Jeff