Elder Ryan Stringfellow Madagascar Antananarivo Mission: Week 5 in Andranomanelatra

Manahoana Daholo!

Another week has come and gone! What?! Time is just flying by and I can't believe that I've been out on my mission for almost 11 months! This week was crazy and it tested my patience quite a bit!

To start off, I had the opportunity of going on a split with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Obioma! It was a very productive split and we got to do it in Andranomanelatra which was nice! We worked way hard and got a lot done! At the end of the day we had the opportunity of giving one of our Member's daughters, Clara, a blessing! Clara is around 1 yr. old and she's been pretty sick lately....We visited the family on Wednesday and decided that she need the blessing! I did the anointing and Elder Obioma gave the blessing! It was one of the most spiritual experiences on my mission so far and it's something that I will always remember!

Besides that really cool spiritual experience here's were my patience really kicked in this week! As you all know we have the opportunity of driving a car in my area! Well, sometimes the car freaks out and decides that it's going to be broken for a few days...Needless to say, I sometimes don't like having the car and would rather work without it! It seems like we have a different problem with the car every week but here is what happened this week:

We were working way out in Andranomanelatra last Thursday when all of the sudden our oil light comes on and a few seconds after that the car completely dies....I started to freak out a little bit knowing how far away we were from the main road and I thought that we could be spending the night out in Ambanivohitra! Luckily, we had a member help with us, Sitrika, and he told us that there could be a way for us to get out of there! We gave him the phone and he started making some calls! We didn't really know what was going on or what was going to happen but about an hour later we saw a little, small, white pick-up truck (much smaller than our car) headed our way! When it arrived about 8 Malagasy men hopped out and started tying up our car to their car and before you know it we were being pulled through rice patties back to the main road! We eventually made it back to t he main road but our nightmare didn't end there...

As they were pulling as back to Antsirabe the the little white truck would completely die about every 5 minutes! Every time it died the 8 Malagasies would bail out and start pushing the truck and our car in hopes of dry starting the truck! We did this until we got about half-way home when the white truck died again but this time it was because it was completely out of gas.....At this point I was like, "Are you kidding me?" In hopes of getting gas I gave 20,000 AR to one of the Malagasies as he was flagging down a bus! He eventually got a bus and came back around 45 min later with gas! We filled the truck and continued on our way home! The truck still continued to die but we eventually made it home! We ended up paying them 55,000 AR to take us home but at the end of the whole thing we didn't care how much it was!

We spent all day Friday at the "garage" trying to get it fixed but we found out that there's a piece that needs to be replaced with the oil pan that can only be found in Tana....That means that it has to be shipped down here when it's found! We are still car-less but we have found a way to get to our area everyday! Imagine a car that can only holds 8 people with 13 people crammed inside! It's not very fun to ride in but it gets us to our area everyday!

Anyways, that was my crazy week! Sometimes I wounder why things happen but in the end you have to understand that everything happens for a reason! I just hope that the car gets fixed as soon as possible to help us with our work! I love everyone of you so much and I hope that everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK