Monday, March 25, 2013


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    

Monday, March 18, 2013


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      

Tuesday, March 12, 2013


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













Monday, March 4, 2013


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