Awesome week. Sunday was NUTS. After church we drove up to the top of this area called faravohitra to teach a guy. As soon as we left the church it started to pour. When we got to the top of the hill the cobblestone road had become a river and lighting was striking everywhere around us. The thunder was so loud that it would shake my chest. So we got out of the car and ran to the guys house and running was useless because within 3 seconds of being in the rain we were soaked. Working in the rain is always a good look because people are like, "Are you nuts?" We taught the guy and then descended the mountain and walked our way into one of the lower parts of our area where a lake had formed. We started down the path to our investigators house and before we knew it we were wading through knee deep sewage. Yay... The canals and pooh rivers that we always walk along had all over flown and the rivers had risen up above the bridges that cross them. So we didn't know where the bridges were to cross the canals. Luckily a ton of little kids ran to us and helped us across. One false step and I would have been completely submerged in a raging river of poop. It was a leap of faith walking across those bridges. When we got to the family's house they were all outside sweeping the water away from their houses so we grabbed some brooms and helped. It was a party. When it stopped raining we went inside and taught one of the best lessons of the week. The whole family was keeping up with dispensations and authority. They were all way fun to teach and be around. When night rolled around it got way cold. We taught Andrena and we just talked about her Book of Mormon reading. She has finished 1st Nephi and is eating it up. She told us that she feels the power of the book when she reads and she tells us all about the stories she has read during the week. We had a Zone Leader council on Tuesday and we had the Reunion and Tamatave zone leaders with us on webex. It was really cool, we made history! I conducted and the meeting went well. All the zone leaders are studs and Elders Twitchell and Long in Reunion brought a lot to the meeting. President Adams ended the council with some teaching from the scriptures about the gathering of Israel. The spirit was strong and I felt recharged. I love that stuff. Well that's about all I got. Have a great week. Skype is a go for Christmas so plan on Christmas eve your time. Have a great week! I love you all.

 

Elder Barclay     

 

 

Hey my sweet sweet treasures. Another week has blown by and people love to tell me how many weekly planning sessions or p-days or Sundays I have left. It's getting old. It's hard enough to stay focused without all that ha. We had some good lessons as well as some frustrating lessons. One of our families dogged us twice over the last two weeks and whenever we would stop by they wouldn't come out to the gate. So finally we caught them and they had us come in. The father was buzzed and everyone else was being loud and dumb. We sit down and pray and then ask how their Book of Mormon reading is going. They pulled the book off the shelf and blew off the dust and then giggled. We started to calmly talk about the importance of reading and they said they don't have time blah blah blah and then the wife said, "So if I got to your church I can't drink coffee or alcohol or smoke or anything?" Elder Tregeagle said, "Yes you get to live the commandments when you join God's church." Then I explained that we weren't asking them to turn their lives upside down and change everything right this instant. Their less active sister must have told them about the word of wisdom and other commandments because we haven't taught them any of that. Then I told them, "All we ask you to do right now is read this book and pray about it." 20 minutes later we finished testifying of the blessings that would come from doing so and told them to read the book every day. I wanted to scream at them haha but I refrained. People just don't get it. That could be our fault, but now it should be pretty clear in their minds. We have been stopping by an excommunicated member's house and the two visits have been awesome. I have never felt so much compassion and love for someone. She is working harder than anyone could to repent and get back to where she was and during the lessons God's love for her almost makes my chest explode. I'm on the verge of tears every time we go and it's like I just can't find words to really express what her Father in Heaven feels for her. Every time we leave I thank Heavenly Father for letting me be a part of those visits. I didn't really realize how much I love these people out here but now that I have been really reflecting I see that I would stay here forever with them if I had to. After the first couple of months of my mission in Reunion I was reading about Ammon in the Book of Mormon when he tell the king he would labor among his people until the day he died and I wrote next to that verse, "Reunion till I die?" At that time I thought YEAH RIGHT. It's crazy how much that has changed. It's good stuff. Well no crazy stories, I was walking down the street and some American guy leaned out the window of his taxi and said, "Hey elders!" Way weird haha Well gotta go Love you all, have a great week.

This week was awesome. Sooo many spiritual experiences with people. I was feeling the love for everyone we taught and I had to thank Heavenly Father after every lesson for letting me be a part of those people’s lives. Thanksgiving was a great day. We made a FAT meal and between 8 of us we still had leftovers. Stuffing, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, rolls, two roasts, and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. It literally was the best meal I have eaten during my mission. Sister Adams, Sister Donnelly, and Sister Cornelius all couldn't compete with that meal, sorry ladies. Lots of stuff happened this week but I just don't have time to tell you because the office is crazy and everyone is looking over my shoulder reading my emails, and asking me stupid questions and well... I'm just going to call it a quits right now before I snap and do something that Jesus wouldn't do. Thank you so much for the pictures. Holy cow there are so many little kids. We are going to play hard when Uncle Jeff gets home. I love you all and I'll write a better email next week. Sorry again :(  Have a great week everyone! 

 

Love Jeff

 

Hey everyone,

Good week. We were able to teach over 20 lessons again due to few meetings which was nice :) We have three complete families that are making progress and the non-member father of a family has quit smoking and drinking coffee and has a bap date for December 29th. The work is going well! Elder Abney baptized Aubin on Saturday from my last area and we were able to stop by and see the baptism before we drove out to the airport. Now their family is set for eternity. He'll be a Melchizedek priesthood holder in a year, which is nice. The summer season has begun and the rain has come along with it. It pours haha. Yesterday was pretty bad but luckily everyone we stopped by was home and let us in. On Sunday we also had stake conference and I got to see all the people from Ankadindramamy and Betongolo. The people from Ankadindramamy were blown away because I could actually talk to them. It was a real confidence boost. During the two hours of brain melting stake conference talks in Malagasy I didn't really pay attention but rather made funny faces at all the little kids around us. I had about 20 little girlfriends by the time it was over haha. I hope president doesn't read this stuff. So it is shmelting hot every morning and then a monsoon comes and floods the land in the evening. Either way I'm uncomfortable all day everyday ha. Saturday afternoon we were leaving an appointment and had to drive up a pretty steep hill. On the way up the hill the car started to struggle and ending up dying so we started to roll back down the hill. The road was pretty narrow and well,we backed right into a wall. Tree was driving :) He's been upset about it all weekend and probably is going to be mad when he finds out that I'm telling you all this. There is literally nothing else exciting that is going on so I had to spice up this email with that story. I think he'll understand. He was so mad I didn't even crack any jokes. So life is good and In our transfer meeting this morning we had to take into account that my group would be going home in May sooo that was weird and not fun. But it happens. Well friends, I'll talk to y'all later. Have a fantastic week and think about me whenever you take a nap because I'm sleepy all the time. Mhmm, ok, gros bisous, je vous aime! Oh wait, I turned 21 on Thursday! Thanks for all the emails and pictures, the children are just precious. All the computers in this cyber crashed and then miraculously turned back on and I didn't lose what I had written because we gathered everyone together in the building and we knelt and prayed. Not haha sorry So that oughta do it!

Elder Barclay

What a week! It felt like it was about one day long. President Adams was in South Africa all week so Tree and I were full time missionaries again! We taught 29 lessons. We did WORK. A lot of the people are really solid too. Joseph is an older guy probably in his late 40's and is a math teacher. We taught him for the first time on Thursday. He was really quiet and would sit and reflect for about 2 minutes after every question we asked him. Then he would give us a 2 minute long answer which would go right over my head because he was using some fancy vocabulary. Luckily Tree got it all ha. The lesson was way long but way good. We didn't have a Book of Mormon on us so he walked with us back to our car to get one and when we handed it to him he looked at it and said thanks. Then he walked away slowly looking at the book. It was a cool thing to see. It is a powerful experience when you give someone a Book of Mormon that is going to really read it . You can almost see into their future and picture them learning, getting baptized, and being an active member. We have been teaching a other young guy named Zoo. He is our age and works as a guardian for the house right next to our apartment. The thing that is cool about teaching him is that he is young and has that open minded ready to experiment attitude and so he is really interested in everything we say and he asks questions so he can really understand. It was the same experience giving him a Book of Mormon as it was with Joseph. Their lives could change so much. I'll tell you about one other family and then talk about funny stuff. We contacted a man named Etienne on the street one day and set up a time with him for Friday. When we went to his house we met his wife and kids and their little family was awesome. They have 3 little boys. John Kevin, John Kennedy, and Narovana haha. The oldest boy looks younger than his little brother because he has had some sickness from the time he was born and he was just hiding behind his mom the entire lesson. They were so humble, but also very strong and had no sense of "our life is hard". We didn't teach them much but just told them about what we do and what our purpose is and then shared a spiritual thought with them. I wanted to hug the kids so bad! This entire week was just one sobering experience after another. So the work is going great. As for other news... My stomach has been very upset with me. I don't know what I ate but my goodness... I have some funny stories about that haha. Last night was weird as well. I was cooking up some food and went to scratch the flea bites a little and when I pulled my shirt up I had huge hives all over me. I had one the size of a pancake on my right thigh and they were yellow/orange. It was way freaky haha they spread way quick and were everywhere. It wasn't too bad though, I just took some Benadryl and went to bed. This morning I only had 5 or 6 on my stomach and sides. I don't know what the heck it was but it was weird. We've had a Malagasy elder with us the last couple of days and while we were out working we found a ton of huge spiders and Malagasies aren't scared of them at all so he just went up and grabbed one off it's web and was playing with it. He acted like he was going to throw it at me and I said, "Don't." haha. Man those things are freaky! I'm going to muster up the courage one day to play with one and I'll take pictures of it on my face or something haha you guys will love it. Well have a great week :)

Love Jeffrey   

 

Woohoo!

 

Another week has blown by. So not a ton of interesting things happened this week. On Friday we had a Zone Leader council which means another fat meal provided by Sister Adams. Delicious :) We talked about how we could make Christmas more meaningful this year and we will be doing some pretty awesome service activities and really looking to bless people's lives. The spirit was very strong throughout the entire meeting and everyone is pumped for Christmas. So earlier during the week a lot of our time was spent in meetings with president and preparing the Z.L. council. Some really great news is that Tree and I continue to get YACKED out of our minds every morning at the gym. We have been going 100 MPH all day everyday and by 8 at night during our last lesson whoever is not talking is asleep or dosing off. Elder Tregeagle has literally fallen asleep during every single one of my prayers during daily planning haha. Yesterday at church we finally got a ward mission leader! He was a missionary here about 6 months ago and he is a stud. We had a meeting after church and he gathered up about 10 guys and assigned them all days to work with us. There are 2 companionships in our area as of last transfer. The ward has always struggled but it doesn't seem like that will be the case for long. The other 2 elders working here with us are studs and way fun to live with. Anjanahary is going to blow up, mark my words. I translated for our buddy Jewls again during elders quorum and once I get warmed up  I do pretty well. The only problem is that I have no idea what the teacher is saying in Malagasy so I teach my own lesson on whatever the topic is haha. Jewls loves it and smacks his fist into his hand which means "marina izany" which literally means "true that" haha. Halloween was cool. Not. We celebrated by eating a couple pieces of candy corn before we went to bed. We have doing a lot of tracting in a very wealthy area near the church and we gut SHUT DOWN. Most of them are actually French or German or Indian and don't speak Malagasy so the French has been coming in handy. We have gotten into a couple of huge houses and we have some appointments set up. It takes me back to Reunion. Speaking of which, a family Chong-Mook and I taught is finally getting baptized! The parents are getting married and then they'll be set for baptism. Super sick family that would feed us theee most deeelicious food. So that's just wonderful :) That's it for me. Have a good week everyone.

 

Elder Barclay