Bonjourrra 'nareo

Great week. I baptized Revenaldo on Saturday and then we had a fat party at his neighbor’s house. Way good food and tons of friends, it was a good time. I had the younger kids teach me some Malagasy dances and that was a party haha. Sunday at church I had to introduce myself and bear my testimony which is never fun because everyone is on the edge of their seats waiting to see if you're good at Malagasy or not. In priesthood I translated for our deaf friend Jewls. It was way tough ha but I learned a ton of new words in his sign language. I actually surprised myself by how well I did. Jewls was pumped and gave me a big hug afterwards haha I love that guy! As far as teaching we didn't get much done. Tons of meetings and garbage. We actually picked up 4 new missionaries on Wednesday. They are all studs. Two of them graduated from high school in 2012. Are you freaking serious? I have been out here a while ha. One of them threw up twice on the way home from the airport haha. Poor guy. So all Wednesday we had orientation stuff and dinner and Thursday we had training for the trainers and the new elders. Oh and a fat lunch in President's apartment yum :) It was way fun to see the culture shock and drive them through town. It was also funny to hear their sarcasm and stupid jokes. It's crazy how quick we get humbled and have that garbage slapped out of us here. I can't believe how much I have grown up. But at the same time some people don't grow up haha. On Saturday morning we had a bunch of missionaries calling us and one was even crying all because of people spreading rumors about one missionary. Haha I was literally in awe. I thought my 21st birthday was coming up but I guess not. Apparently we're all still in Junior High and all mixed up in the drama and gossip. So we calmed some troubled elders and made it all better :) haha when it was all happening I was lit but now looking back it's pretty funny. Well that's about it. I'll send pictures tonight when we're at the office doing stats. Have a great week! Happy birthday Mom! I love you all.

Elder Barclay

Hey there,

Great week with some super awesome experiences. The first was at a member’s house. His name is Jewls and he is deaf. Elder Tregeagle has learned a bunch of Malagasy sign language and that's how we communicate with him. I'm learning it now as well. There actually is no official sign language for Malagasy, but Jewls has created his own language and is teaching all the other deaf people the language. It's called Teny Jewls (teny=language/word). He is one of the most diligent members of the church I have ever met and he knows the gospel better than most people. During our appointment with him he taught us a spiritual thought out of 3rd Nephi and the spirit was strong. I was so humbled by the experience. When we walked into his house he saw us and smiled then ran over to us and hugged us both. He won't shake our hands, only hugs. He had a deaf friend at his house when we stopped by and he did some awesome missionary work on him and it was crazy to see. Next month I get to translate his testimony from Teny Jewls into Malagasy during fast and testimony meeting, wish me luck! This morning when we took all our garbage and stuff out to the dumpster the people living behind it jumped into the dumpster and waited for us to throw our bags in so they could go through it. I have absolutely no problem whatsoever throwing anything away because I literally am giving it to those people. The new apartment is now clean and a great place to live haha. We both worked way hard this week cleaning it up. My bathroom could be in the parade of homes magazine. We saw conference this weekend and it was great. That's all I can say about it ha. It was really good. On Sunday morning all three wards that meet in our building and watched it together and the chapel was overflowing! We were running around setting up chairs in the aisles and cramming people in ha. It was so awesome to see the members and investigators from my old area again. It literally has been one week and I already miss them like crazy. It's always nice when they are excited to see you as well ha. They always make you feel bad when they say, "Why don't you come teach us anymore?" It doesn't matter how many times you explain what a transfer is, they still ask why you don't go see them. Man I love them all! Our area had a baptism last Saturday and i got to translate for President Adams and boy was that rough haha my face was all sorts of sweaty. I don't know what the speakers talked about, but I gave some pretty good discourses on Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost haha. Well Have a good week friends. That's all for me this week.

Love Jeffrey 

Kossa i dit?

Nana bon solei! It was a busy week with hospital visits and such. Elder Quigley from Pocatello had a giant cyst on his face and I got to see that get popped and drained. Yucky... Also Eder Tahiata from Tahiti got really sick. He drinks the pump water (unfiltered) and it finally caught up to him haha. We were still able to teach a good amount of lessons and the people we teach are so solid it's amazing. We taught 11 father led families and fixed a couple more bap dates. We have been setting the bap dates pretty far into the future so we can figure out if people are going to stick it out. So far so good! I said goodbye to Aubin on Sunday because tomorrow I get transferred. Anjanahary is the name of my new area and Elder Tregeagle is my new comp. On Thursday I got to drive my good buddy Elder Seifert to the airport because he got transferred to Réunion. He'll be comps with my boy Elder Fennell! haha I hope he likes Réunion... It kind of has to grow on you. On Thursday morning there was a Zone Leader council and boy oh boy was it awesome! We made some rule changes to tighten up the conduct and people were TRIPPIN' haha. We now have to wear shirt and tie on p-day instead of jeans and t shirts. President Adams also addressed apartment conduct and language. He said, and I quote, "If you are talking about a young woman inappropriately or using crude language and behaving like a teenage boy when you get home at night, then you are living a lie and pretending to be a missionary." YES! Haha I love it when disobedient fools get slapped in the face like that. President Adams laid down the law. Then he proceeded to rip us up with scriptures from the Book of Mormon about being diligent. I enjoyed the council thoroughly but others were not as pleased with it as I was haha. I don't know if I have ever told you guys about how this mission used to be, in Malagasy we use the word "maditra" which is like a mixture of naughty and disobedient. But that will no longer be the case! Pres Adams is making changes and people are repenting. Most of the older missionaries have already gone home. Now with the new generation we are picking the most obedient/diligent missionaries to be the trainers even if they aren't the best teachers or the best at the language. Things are great. The last six months has gone by fast and we're hitting the home stretch. I figure I have Anjanahary and then one more area after that, but one never knows. Today we parked our car and went to get some pictures printed and when we came back there was a boot on one of the front tires. So we went and found the punk cops that did it and made them take it off because we are missionaries and not creepy French guys trying to find girlfriends. I was kind of mean about it and told them not to make a mistake like that again. I felt bad so I got some restoration pamphlets and we taught them a bit and then left. I wrote a fake phone number on the back of the pamphlets for fear that they would call us and make us pay for the parking violation. Who am I kidding, not one single person has ever called me after I gave them my phone number. Elder Abney just turned to me and told me how crazy he thinks it is that he has been out for 8 months haha just you wait my friend. Well I gotta go. I love you all. Have a great week.

Love Elder Barclay     

Summer time is rolling right on into town. Holy melting my face off scorching heat. I have also come to the last hole on my smallest belt.

I have punched two new holes in my bigger belts. I actually don't even wear my own pants anymore, I have some hand-me-downs from missionaries that went home. Well some really cool stuff happened this week. On Saturday some elders in our district had a baptism so we invited our investigators to it and 6 of them showed up. The baptism was solid and every one of our investigators had a huge smile on their face. They all loved it. At church on Sunday I was sitting next to Revenaldo (investigator) during priesthood and he started to tell me about how he had been reading the Book of Mormon during the week and he knows it's true now. He got that nice slap in the face from the Holy Ghost that solidifies our testimonies. It was way cool. He got up during fast and testimony meeting and bore his testimony as well. It was AWESOME. Thank you all for the conference reports. I will see it in two weeks ha. Then next April I'll pack my bags after conference.

Yikes. I still haven't been transferred to my new area because Elder Cusick still hasn't gotten his visa for Mauritius. No complaints with that because Elder Abney have a baptism on the 20th of this month and the 17th of November. We are teaching a young unmarried couple that is actually considering getting married so they can get baptized. We taught them about the law of chastity and told them to repent. It was sick. Well that's it for this week. I'm Ron Burgundy? Cheers :)

Love Jeffrey

bonjourno mes amis,

Great week. Last Monday was a letdown; the fuzz didn't show for our battle royal. It's alright though the court was at the college here and there were plenty of Malagasies to play. Some of them were way good and could dunk ha but we won every game and had a decent size crowd watching the vahazahas (foreigners) ball. Some of the guys were playing barefoot on the asphalt court and it was nuts. I just about died later that night while we were working. I am soooooo out of shape. Tuesday we moved into our new apartment and it was one of the nastiest things I've ever seen. Elder Abney and I did work and got the place livable and actually it is now one of the nicest apartments I've lived in. We got some solid bap dates fixed thins week. One guy is named Aubin and his wife is a member already. He looks like a giant Mexican that just got out of prison way nice though. You'll see what I'm talking about when we take pictures at his baptism. The lesson with him was a classic, Joseph Smith story and, “Will you be baptized by proper authority when you know that our message is true?" It flowed perfectly! Sunday was a good day at church. We had 8 investigators show up. Joshua finally came and he brought the two little kids that live with him. I had actually dozed off and was snoozin when he showed up. I was having a football dream when Abney smacked me and said, "Look Joshua came!" Woohoo!  I forgot about Thursday morning, we took 7 departing Malagasy missionaries to the airport. It was way weird to be around them and then thinking about when I was in the same spot getting ready to go. Man it feels like just yesterday Mom and I snagged a whopper at BK and then I got dressed and we left for Provo. Other than that... work as usual. Have a great week everyone! 

Love Jeffrey