October 20, 2014
Manakory aby ("Hello you all" in Betsimisaraka, the Tamatave dialect),It's been good to hear from you all! Thank you for your prayers and your uplifting comments, they have really helped me and lifted me when I needed it most. Also, mom, I finally got your letter and I believe your package is at the mission home. Problem is, here in Tamatave, we don't get mail until someone comes out for a conference or interviews or something. Which is like every other month or so. So.....we don't get mail a lot out here.
But anywho, first of all, I'll start out by answering my mom's questions. I am feeling better, yes. My bowels are not acting according to the writings located in Jeremiah 4:19-21 anymore (please read that scripture, or you won't understand what I'm getting at). Also, I cleaned the bathroom this morning, and I would like to say that I did an excellent job. Anyway, as for putting names into the temple, the full names are VERY long, so I hope just first names will suffice: the primary people would be Jean Pierre, Patrick and Herisoa, Narciss and Teksina, Aleksandara and Sesina, and Ricardo, as those are the people who are--at this time--most critical in our minds. As far as tender mercies, there's been a few, most involving us having a super hard day but then ending up finding a really awesome person near the end of it. I'll tell one of these stories later in the email.
Anyway, this past week has been a roller coaster. To start off, our bikes have been acting up, with the chains falling off and teeth on the gear wheel have been breaking off. So we'll see how well they continue to work. Also, it's getting hotter everyday. It's about ninety degrees by the middle of the day, and with the one hundred percent humidity mixed in makes for a cocktail of drenched clothes (but not with water) and BO. So that's been fun. Also, with that in mind, the power has been going off in the mornings and evenings as of late. And seeing as our shower is on the second floor of the building, and needs to have water pumped up to it (by a pump that uses electricity) there have been a few instances that I have gone without showers for a few days straight. Not sanitary, I know, but also not possible to avoid. So hopefully the power straightens up in the future. So yes, things have been hard here, but nothing impossible to overcome. I've been working on looking at the humor of the situations and just laughing at how crazy this all is. It makes it a lot easier.
Anyway, two stories to tell this week, both from last night (Sunday evening), one which is humorous and the other that is more spiritually up-lifting. So anyway, Sundays are always hard here. We go to church--which in and of itself is interesting, as the Malagasies like to focus on the questions they have rather than the doctrines they need to learn, and end up talking for like an hour about forcing people to fast and other such topics--and then after church we have to go and get back to working hard. So it's a little rough getting back into the groove again. Anyway, for the spiritual one first. We had about five lessons lined up for Sunday evening, some as backups for our primary lessons. Turns out we get dogged (or stood up, played, hung out to dry, etc.) by all five of these lessons. Just a little bit of a let down. But the we go contacting people, and then decide to hit up one of our contacts from a few days back. When we get there, she isn't there with her family, but we end up talking to this guy who is in his early twenties. We talk to him for a bit and find out he's named Ricardo (yes, the same one I mentioned as one of the names that should be put into the temple). He takes us around back to his "house," which consists of a room about ten feet by ten feet with two beds and a table for "cooking." Anyway, turns out he's already a member, but is recently inactive. But then we come to find out that he wants to be reactivated and actually expressed a sincere desire to serve a mission as soon as he could. We were blown away. I know that God's hand was in that. It was by complete chance that we found him, so I know God had prepared him for us. Plus it was a good end to an overall rough day, which I feel was God's way of saying "Don't worry. Do your work, and I'll do the rest." It was a real comfort to me personally, knowing that a higher power is on my side, if I "press forward" (2 Nephi 31:20) and keep my trust in my Father in Heaven.
Anyway, second story of the night. After that, we decide to go hit up one last contact. And as we go into the house, this old Malagasy man wearing a yamaka, holding a guitar, and smelling of alcohol follows us into the house. We get in there and he sits down with us, takes off his yamaka, and starts speaking in French. We have no idea what he's saying. So we tell him we only speak Malagasy, and then he starts speaking Malagasy with a lot of French mixed in. Still super hard to understand, but we got the message of what he was saying. Turns out he considers himself to be the "Malagasy Jewish philosopher of Tamatave" or something along those lines. Then he tells us that he took his yamaka off because "we are the teachers now." But then he goes off on a thirty-minute monologue about some of his "philosophies" and things he's been working on. And so Elder Christiansen and I just sit there laughing to ourselves. It was quite entertaining, especially when even his wife (our contact that we went to talk to) started laughing at him. It was probably the most interesting situation I've ever been in. It sounds like the opening line for a weird joke; "So two white American missionaries and a drunk Jewish Malagasy philosopher walk into a wooden shack..." You all can add whatever punch line feels appropriate.
Also, I just remembered another cool and funny thing that happened this week. We had the Area Seventy, Elder Van Reenen, come to Madagascar and talk to us and the district. He's a super cool guy, and the missionaries got to talk with him pretty much one on one and just get to know him. He's super awesome, and I loved his passion for the gospel. But also he ran a meeting with the entire district invited, as kind of a "leadership meeting." I thought it would be super cool to listen to him talk, but it turned out to be pretty funny instead. So like I said earlier, the Malagasies like to go off on tangents on things that they feel are important, rather than the actual important doctrines. For the majority of the meeting, Elder Van Reenen did a Q&A session with the audience, which I thought would be cool. As an example, he started out talking about tithing and it's importance, to open it up to questions. But then the audience just went off and started asking all these weird questions about tithing, which morphed into fasting (which I kind of already addressed earlier, as they talked about stuff such as forcing people to fast or not paying the fast offering if they didn't want to). It was weird, and I was kind of disappointed that the people didn't make the most of this awesome opportunity, but I ended up just finding it funny and inevitable that the Malagasies would end up acting like Malagasies. Figures.
Anyway, that is pretty much it for this week. It's been good, it's been bad, it's been hard, but it's never been easy. Then again, I didn't expect it to be easy. That's not God's way. He asks us to do hard things, to push ourselves, to try our best. Once we do that, and when we fall short (WHEN not IF), He steps in and with ny fahasoavany (His grace) He does what we ourselves are not able to. We are fallen, we are mortal, and we're "only human." But we have a Father who created us and this universe, and He has made us a promise. He is "bound when {we} do what {He} says, but when {we} do not what {He} says, {we} have no promise." And that promise is that when we obey Him, and when we do our best, then He will do the rest. I know that is true, because I have seen it here in Madagascar. I try my best, I work my hardest, and I do all that I can, but it's never going to be good enough. But it doesn't have to be. Because after I have done my best, worked my hardest, and done all that I can, God does the rest. He makes up the difference. He IS the difference. He has the ability to change our lives, but only if we LET Him do so. Here is my challenge of the week, for all of you and myself included: Let God help you. Do all you can, obey His words, and HE WILL HELP YOU. He will do the rest. I know He will. It may not be obvious or a big miracle in your life, but He will do what needs to be done, if you have done your part.
Anyway, I'd better get going. So, until next week! Mazotoa, tiako ianareo, ary veloma hatramin'ny amin'manaraka! (Be diligent, I love you all, and goodbye until next time!
--Elder Hyrum Snell
P.T. (It's not P.S. cuz it's Picture Time, not some other acronym)
 |
| I took this picture on P-day and decided to let out my creative side on the beach. :) |
 |
| This is one of my favorite little kids, and one of the cutest. |
 |
| A selfie with some kids chilling in the corner of the church lot next to some mo-peds (the premiere method of transportation in Tamatave, next to the pousepouse) |
 |
| This is a picture of our church, located in Mangarivetra (a faratra, or small community, in Tamatave). |
 |
| This is a picture of a meal we had at a member's house, which consisted of rice and trondro (fish). The fish actually wasn't as gross as it looks. |
 |
| This is also of the meal, but is of the head of the fish right before I ate it. One thing about Malagasies is they're very hospitable, but when they give you food to eat, you are REQUIRED to eat it. If you don't, it is extremely disrespectful. And so, I choked it all down (thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week. Wait...no...I'll be here for the next two years... Oh yeah...) |
 |
| This is of a picture I made about the Plan of Salvation, or Ny Drafitry ny Famonjena. |
 |
| "Time to take my pills..." (I hope at least some of you get that movie reference.) And no, it's not mental health pills, as may be suggested by the photo. It's doxycycline, my malaria pill that I am required to take everyday. So anyway, that's fun. It tastes like chlorine, but at least it's small and keeps me alive and healthy. |
