Wednesday, January 7, 2015

We are so close to Christmas!

Hello all,

First, I am healthy! Yay! So no need to worry. Yes the Bubonic Plague does break out every year in Madagascar and there are about 800 cases or something. But no I do not have it nor am I likely to ever catch it. We have preventitive medicine that they make us take every single day so don't fret. 

This was a pretty rough week again...drama with the sisters. This time I simply don't want to go into it. I'm hoping that Christmas and the spirit of Christ will bring love and harmony into our home. Things with Solo and Sylvie have also taken a turn for the worst because Sylvie started drinking again. Also the process to get them legally married is going to be really tricky because Sylvie doesn't have any form of birth certificate. She also can't remember/doesn't know the full name of her two parents - which is the typical way that they look up to find a birth certificate. So...it is going to be a process.

In other news, this family we have been teaching just shot off like a rocket. This couple Andrea and Meldaze have three daughters and we have been teaching them for 3 or 4 lessons. The husband Meldaze has been super sick because he had surgery on his liver and still is undergoing treatment for that. During most of this time he hasn't been able to leave his bed and even simple actions like zipping up his jacket are a struggle. Most of the lessons he just sits there not really participating or moving. But the other week when we taught about Joseph Smith, we asked them "Would it be important to have a living prophet?" The wife was like um, I don't know. But then all of a sudden, Meldaze looked up and was like "That would be so important! We really need prophets and that would be a really big deal!" And then he added some more stuff about how essential prophets are. Sr Amoussouga and I were flabbergasted - we didn't even realize he was listening! And then ever since then, they have gotten really serious about our teachings. They listen intently and do their homework - read the verses or chapters we leave them. This week, we offered to have some members give Meldaze a blessing because he is still really sick. Then Andrea came to a baptism on Saturday. And the whole family came to church on Sunday - Meldaze included!! Because now he is healthy enough to leave the house. And at then end they were asking what they needed to do to be baptized and how long before they could! They were asking members and US that question! When normally it's us asking our investigators! It is so amazing! Because you can see how they have tuned in to the message of the gospel. At the beginning they were passively listening but now they are hungering for the knowledge and light themselves! What an incredible blessing. They have set a date for the 7th of March.

As for skyping! I believe that the time difference is now 11 hours right? Because I am in Mada, I will just be skyping from a cyber cafe...so it might be interesting aka noisy or bad connection. I think most likely I will need to skype you in the morning your time because 7pm your time is 6am my time - which is too early for me and anything later than that will be too late for you. Does that make sense? Unless if it works with you, we could skype 9pm your time and 8am my time. So tell me if you want to do it the morning of the 24th or 25th and I can probably make it work either days. Probably around 7am your time or 6pm my time. I know morning isn't super convenient but I figure it is better than 9 in the evening your time. Let me know what you want to do next week because that is the last week before Christmas!
Love you all,
Sr Stewart

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