Pictures (:

mada . . .

Ok,

So I don't really know where to start. It's crazy here. So so so so third world. Ok so to respond to some basic questions...  I am serving in Antananarivo, the capital, specifically the Betongolo sector. For the first time I am serving in a ward and even bigger than that a stake! I am in the Ivandry stake, and there are two total in Tana.

My companion is Sr Johnson. She is originally from Haiti but was adopted when she was 11 and has grown up in Boise, Idaho ever since. This is her last transfer so she only has 6 weeks left and she speaks Malagasy VERY well. Thank goodness! Because the language is very difficult. Mostly it is just the vocabulary because the words are 14 letters long! Mainly filled with f, p and a. For instance the word for gospel is filazantsara (try saying that 10 times fast) and the word for family is fianakaviana. So it is coming along slowly and I need to have more patience. It's awkward though when people come up to me to ask me if I am "gasy" (from Mada) and I just stare at them not sure if I should nod yes or no and look to sister johnson. Once I nodded yes to something I didn't know and accidently told someone I was already married...whoops!

The food...I avoid eating because basically everything here will make you sick. Well will make me sick because I'm new and not used to it. Elder Hamilton (of the 70) when he was touring here called Madagascar the Mexico of the 80s... So picture that. Hopefully I will be able to send pictures soon but I'm having problems with my camera and am terrified of corrupting the rest of my pictures with a virus from one of these sketchy cybers. Oh and yes I have already gotten sick, even though I have avoided the food and anything not prepared by me and only drink filtered water. Go figure. But hopefully I will be many pounds lighter when I come home! (lots of missionaries will lose around 30 pounds)

So I got here on Wednesday. Which means I havent' yet been here a week. I'll admit, this week has been pretty rough. Mostly it's hard not being able to understand anyone and being separated from the missionaries on Reunion (Sr Gardiner) oh and the food. So how is the work different? Well there are no cars for the missionaries here. We take these 15 passenger vans called "taxi be" and walk everywhere. We typically leave at 11 in the morning and don't get home till 8 or 9 at night, which means we bring everything we need for the day with us in our bags. Luckily after this monday I have food to pack so I won't need to subsist off of crackers and snacks haha. We mostly walk up and down this one street built on a hill and then work in the alleyways that branch off of it. It is fairly hot but a little less than La Reunion so I'm happy about that. It is about to be the rainy season though and I got my first taste of that the other day. During our Sunday meetings all of a sudden we heard the rain start falling - hard. Then it seemed to start raining even harder when we went outside. And I mean so hard! I kept reading about people in South America and how they could get soaked in a matter of seconds and I didn't understand but now I do. My sperry's got soaked all the way through and the parts of my skirt that stuck out of my coat were dripping when we got home. I can't emphasize enough how hard the rain was falling and how much of it there was. And then the streets started to turn into rivers and we had to step into them with our drenched shoes. Luckily we were going home and didn't have any apointments to go to because here they work in that rain!

As for the package address, I will get that to you next week, but the mailing address for letters and things is the very first one I got that goes to Mada. The one that we put on my little missionary cards.

Well I love you all! And I am extra praying for you because family is one of the few words I know in this crazy language! Pray for me extra too please, because this is definitely going to be one of the most difficult parts of my mission.

Love,

Sr Stewart

P.S. I almost got bit by a dog and nearly get hit about 5 times a day by some sort of automobile, be it bus or car. But I am still safe! Thank goodness I have the Lord's protection around me.

One More Day

Kome i le!

So everyone here it is: my final few days on La Reunion. I actually leave this Wednesday so tomorrow (Tuesday) is my last full day on the island. It's so surreal. This sunday the branch president asked me to go up and announce my transfer and then bear my testimony. I thought that maybe at the end after my little testimony I might get a little emotional because of my time here and my love for the members. Nope, turns out I started crying after the second sentence. And I mean big-fat-crocodile-tears-rolling-down-my-cheeks-and-the-need-to-hold-my-breath-so-as-not-to-sob-sort-of-crying. It was pretty bad. All of a sudden getting up in front of those members and looking out it just really hit me that I was never going to see them again. Or at least not for many many years. Because I will be leaving my mission from Madagascar so I will not come back to La Reunion and because it is really far from the United States I don't see myself making the trip in the next couple of years. These members and this island have been such a huge part of my life - during a really crucial part in my life. It has not always been easy, that is for sure, but looking back it has always been worth it. I feel like a mission is best summed up in a quote by President Gordon B Hinckley "You will realize that what right now seems like a large sacrifice will turn out being the greatest investment you ever made" And it is true. A mission is a huge investment in the gospel and an even bigger investment in yourself and your personal character.

While I still have 5 months of my mission left I feel like in many ways I am leaving my mission right now. Because La Reunion HAS been MY mission for the past 13 months and I am saying goodbye to this period of time with the missionaries here and the members and this island and the food and the culture and the language for perhaps the rest of my life - because even if I come back, it will never be the same as when I was a missionary. And while that makes me sad (and many more tears will be shed when I have to say goodbye to my companions and this island) I also move forward knowing that it is with a purpose and that the Lord has a plan for me. I also have so many more adventures ahead! Hey, the future is as bright as your faith right? Yes, I'm nervous to learn the language, yes I'm nervous about the culture and the complete lack of 1st world bathrooms and getting sick every day - but I know the Lord will provide. I have such a testimony of this gospel and this work. Next time you hear from me I will be in Madagascar with the lemurs trying desperately to communicate in a language that is 100% different from French. And I will be loving the opportunity the Lord gave me!

Love you all! Never pass up making sacrifices for the Lord because they will turn out to be the best investements!

Soeur Stewart 

Good Week

Manoana!

We had a really great week this week! I don't know exactly why but we suddenly had lots of great great lessons! I think part of the reason might be due to our new goal for this week. During the big meeting we had in Madagascar, the mission leaders all decided that as a mission we should set a baseline of 28 hours of proselyting per week - which might not sound like tons but it really stretches us. Most weeks Sr Gardiner and I get 20 to 22 because proselyting doesn't include our studies, our church meetings, activities, eating with members or other missionary meetings or even when we are driving in the car. The time of proselyting is solely the amount of time we spend preaching the good word. So this week we set the goal that we were going to do all we could to push ourselves and meet the 28 hours....and we came really close! This week we had to do some visa work and other activities so next week we'll hit it for sure.

So this week, we had an amazing discovery when we found our new ami Gino. As I've told you, Sr Gardiner and I have really been working on talking to everyone we see. So as we were leaving a rendez vous to get into our car this man was descending some stairs as we were just about to pass him I decided to stick out my hand and contact him. Turns out he had already met the missionaries in Madagascar and attended church twice. He didn't know the church existed over here too and he was really interested to learn more about it. We had a lesson with him Monday, gave him a tour  of the church Thursday with a member who spoke Malagasy, he came to an activity Friday and then he came to church and stayed for all three hours Sunday! He is super interested in the church and says he just felt so good like something was really important when he met us and came to the church! We are so excited and pleased at how sensitive to the spirit Gino is - it really is amazing. 

Speaking of Madagascar...I have been studying the language like CRAZY ever since President told me about the transfer because the language is super different and tricky. I have a couple of books from missionaries who are over in Mada now and studied it in the MTC. Well this week we taught two lessons with Gino, one with another amie from Madagascar and had a church activity for only Malagache people and for all of them I was able to use a couple of phrases! Both of these amis don't speak French as well and still prefer Malagasy so I was pretty pumped that I got the opportunity to practice in real life lesson. It still makes me realize how MUCH I need to learn because I know next to nothing besides "God is our loving Heavenly Father" but I can't help but feeling that the Lord is blessing us in a very specific way :)

Oh yeah, Youssouf is getting baptized this Saturday!!!! SOOOOO exciting!!!! I think I already wrote you about Youssouf. He is the guy from Mauritius (the island right next to us) who grew up Muslim and converted to Christianity when he was a teenager. He is so awesome and has the gift of faith. I could tell amazing/funny stories about him for hours. He is super super prepared and is really excited to be baptized. He has been asking us from day one when he could do it and we keep having to slow him down because we need to teach everything and make sure he understands. But I'm sure that this Saturday is going to be a beautiful event filled with the spirit. I will tell you all about it next week. 

Well that is more or less all the time that I have! I love you all and can't believe this is my last full week in Reunion! I won't come back to this island again! It'll be a sad goodby but I'm ready for the Madagascar adventure!

Love

Sr STewart