Week 20 in Tamatave...Elder Razaka and Elder String

Manahoana Daholo!

Elder Razakamandimby has arrived! I thought that I'd never see him again after my first transfer but now I'm working with him! He's one of the coolest Malagasies I've ever meet and It's so much fun working with him! We work hard but we have fun doing it! I can already tell that this transfer is going to be filled with a lot of cool experiences and Elder Razaka and I can't wait to be a part of it!

Work was slow this week mainly because of the Transfer....Razaka and the other missionaries didn't get here till Wednesday evening so our work week didn't start until Thursday! The previous 3 days consisted of me working in other areas and taking care of some really sick elders! It's rough starting a week 4 days late but we made the best of it and it sure did pay off when Sunday rolled around!

Yesterday at church, to our surprise, we had 11 investigators show up and 1 less active member! A lot of the investigators who showed up are pretty new to the church and most some of them I thought would never come! One couple that took me by surprise was Christian and Voangy!

Voangy has been coming for about 3 weeks now but yesterday she brought her husband Christian! I never ever thought that I would see Christian in the Church Building but yesterday he came and stayed for all three ours! It was truly a miracle!

The one person that totally took me by surprise was that one less active member that showed up named Ernest! I've been working with Ernest for about 2 months now and he just flat out didn't have the desire to come back to church! It was starting to look dim for him but yesterday when we first walked into church there he was sitting on a chair all dressed up in the best clothes he had! I honestly couldn't believe it! He actually decided to come back and I sure hope that he continues to! Again, another miracle!

This mission is such an amazing experience and I literally see miracles everyday! Because of that I have been keeping a miracle journal and I've been doing it for about 2 weeks now! I love writing down what I see everyday! Most of the time it's just one or two things but it amazes me every time I do write something down! I love doing it and I plan on continuing my recordings in my miracle book!

That's about it for the week! The week started off slow but took off at the end! I'm so thankful for me new companion, Elder Razakamandimby! He's a flat out baller! I love this area so much and I'm so happy that I have the opportunity to stay one more transfer here! Anyways, I love you all so much and I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Little Girls of Madagascar

A Scary Bridge to Cross

He bought a sword

 

Week 19 in Tamatave...Transfers

MANAHOANA DAHOLO!

Big news this week, TRANSFERS! I am very happy to say that I will be staying here in Ankirihiry for my fourth transfer and I will be receiving a new companion by the name of ELDER RAZAKAMANDIMBY!  I have already lived with Elder Razakamandimby in my birth place of Ambohimanarina and he is honestly my favorite Malagasy ever! He's just a straight up baller! He's already very good at English, so at least communication will be easier, but I get to continue my progression with Malagasy! Words can't describe how excited I am to work with Elder Razakamandimby!

Other than transfers, WE HAD CONFERENCE and I was able to watch all five sessions in English! I know most of you already watched it like a month ago but Saturday and Sunday were very big days for the missionaries here in Madagascar! It was incredible! The first two sessions and the Priesthood session of conference were probably my favorite! Looking back at my notes I came to the conclusion that the main theme of those sessions was FAMILIES! Honestly, almost every talk in the those sessions had to deal with families! Whether it was living the law of Chastity, eternal marriage, or the topic of fatherhood the main theme was Families! It just made me super stoked for the day when I can have a family of my own!

The last two sessions were even better mainly because they landed on the Easter Holiday! Elder Holland's talk on the Savior and his Atonement hit us all really hard! We have all seen crazy things out here and are working with a lot of people who need the Atonement in their lives but the talk that Elder Holland gave was a definite
reminder of the role that the Atonement plays in everyone's lives! On my notes it is marked as one of the "Re-Read" talks and I can't wait to study it more! All in all this conference was incredible! We are so blessed to have a living prophet and other leaders of the church to lead and guide us today! I can't even imagine where the world would be without their council!

Well, that's about it for the week! I can't believe another transfer has come and gone! I am so thankful for this last transfer and I learned a lot from it! I'm looking forward to working with this branch even more with my new companion! We'll keep this place rolling! I love you all so much and I hope that everyone has a great week!

Love
Elder Stringfellow

(PS. We had 12 investigators show up to watch conference! 12 new people had the opportunity to hear the words of the prophet!)

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Cute Little Kid

With one of the members son

KP Duty

Ryan?  making cinnamon rolls?

Preparing to Watch Conference

With the District President and his Wife

Week 18 in Tamatave...8 month mark

Manahoana Daholo!

Today marks my 8 month mark as being a Missionary! WHAT!? Time is just flying by and it's starting to freak me out a little bit, haha! Anyways, we had a pretty good week this week and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

First off, I went on two different splits this week! The first split I went on was with one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Herin! I LOVE HIM! He's from Cali and played Football and Basketball in high school! He is honestly one of the nicest guys in world and is a friend to everyone! Looking at his profile it's easy to say that he and I get along very well! I thought just living with him was a ton of fun but working with him is even more fun! He's just a hard worker who enjoys his mission and I love him!

The second split I went on was with Elder Conault! He's from France and only has one more transfer left in his mission! He's fluent in French (mazava ho azy), English, and Malagasy! The split sort of started off rocky when Elder Conault was on the toilet all morining....I didn't think he'd make it out the door but he insisted we go work! Well, he got worse and we had to go to the doctor! We didn't work the rest of the day and it turns out he tested positive for worms, haha! I shouldn't laught because I'll probably end up getting them anyway but yeah that was our split, haha!

The rest of the week was just same old same old! I finally finished what I could with MLS and I'm so thankful that it's over! I found a lot of people in our MLS but there are still a lot of people who nobody knows! It's sad to see how many people are less-active here in Mada but in the end it's their choice and I have now control over it!

Anyways, that was my week! Lots and lots of great things happened this last week but I'm sure even more will happen this week! We have conference coming up this Saturday and Sunday and I can't wait! We also have transfer news this week and I really hope I stay in this area! I love this area so much and I really don't want to leave this branch! They mean the world to me! I love you all so much and I hope ya'll have a great week! Tena Tiako Ianareo!

Love

Elder Stringfellow

Week 17 in Tamatave...Helping out the Branch Leadership

Hey everyone!

I can't believe Easter has already come and gone and along with that was conference! We didn't have the opportunity to watch conference this past week but on the 26th and 27th we'll receive it all and I can't wait to watch it! I heard nothing but good things about this conference and I'm really looking forward to it!

Work this week was busy! Right now we are trying to clean up information in our branch's recording system (MLS) and that took up a lot of our time, haha! Oh well, I've actually kind of liked it because I get to work with a lot of our members!

We could see a Baptism coming up! We are teaching this girl named Tanya with some members and she is progressing very well! She's been coming to church with the member family and hopefully we get her baptized soon! Other than that we are still rebuilding our program but the area is doing alive and well! I love our branch and they help me out so much!

We also had a very good Zone Meeting this week! It lasted about 4 hrs and we talked about "How We Can Become Disciples Of Christ." It was probably my favorite Zone Meeting so far and I learned so much! The main messege that I got out of it was that I need to deny myself of everything besides the Lord and put everything else behind me! I've been trying to do that this week and let's just say I got a lot of room for improvement! However, I have already seen some small changes in my work and they way I act and it has been a true blessing in my life!

So sorry for another short letter this week! This week I'm going on two different splits and they should be a ton of fun to talk about!  I'll fill you in with all the details from this week next week and I can't wait to talk to you all again! 

Thank you so much for all the emails and words of encouragement! I love you all so much and I hope ya'll have a great week!

Love

Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Week 16 in Tamatave...Easter Monday

Hey Everyone!

I am so sorry to be sending this so late but this week was insane! Little did I know that Easter is pretty much the biggest holiday in Madagascar and everything just shuts down for 2 or 3 days! I have pictures of all of Tamatave just having an insane party on the beach and that's the main reason why no cybers were open on Monday! I honestly haven't seen so many people in my life and I'll make sure I send the pictures home!

Work this week was pretty slow due to it being the Easter Holiday but we still got a lot done! The main focus of our work right now is finding less actives and teaching recent converts! We are working a lot with our branch right now which is awesome and they are helping us find these people! Because of that we don't really have any Bap dates coming up....I could see Oliva getting baptized in a month or two but she still has a long way to go....Oh well! The work still goes on!

This week was a big learning week for me! With everything going on with Easter and all I became a little discouraged....There were a lot of things this week that just fell through and it took it's toll on me! Whether it was appointments falling through, investigators not showing up to church, or not being able to cyber on Monday it stressed me out! However, I took some time the other night to just think! For some reason I thought back to last baseball season and team quotes started flowing back into my head! The one that stood out to me the most was "Control What You Can Control!" I really thought about that quote this week and came to the realization that everything I was stressing over were things that I had no control over!

There are a lot of things in this life that we can't control and a lot of the time they are really hard to deal with! However, all we need to do is focus on the things in our lives that we can control! I know it's not always easy to realize that which we can control but I know that if we focus on those things everything will come around in the end! All in all, find what you can control, work hard, and make it count! That's my little piece of advice for ya'll going into this week!

Again I am so sorry for being so late to send this email! Next week we'll be able to cyber on Monday and I'll be looking forward to that! Thank you so much for all your encouraging emails that you all send me! They really do mean a lot! I love you all so much and I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,

Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Elder Stringfellow's Favorite Family so Far

Washing his clothes by hand...He knew he would have to do it sometime

The chairs from the church...cleaned by the missionaries

Elder Herin and Elder Price

Carrying the chairs

Elder Bowler and Elder Stringfellow

Elder Razafimandimby!

Crazy Easter Monday Part 1

Our Branch Mission Leader

Some guy wanted his picture taken

Another Crazy Easter Monday Picture

Still Another Crazy Easter Monday Picture

Week 15 in Tamatave...Hard at Work

Manahoana Daholo!

We had an amazing work week this week! We had 32 lessons! 32! Such an incredible blessing we received from the Lord and we look to keep it rolling! That's really all I got to talk about for our work this week! 
We just go, go, go!

This week I also finished the Book of Mormon again! I love reading it so much and I always find something new every time I read! It's such an incredible book and I high advise everyone to start reading it everyday for at least 10 min! With that being said! I'm now trying to read it in Malagasy! I've already started and let me tell ya it's hard! Haha, oh well! I'll just grind through it! I've also been reading the New Testament and I'm already through Mark! I love the scriptures so much and I can't wait to continue my reading in Malagasy!

On Thursday we had a Zone Meeting and we decided to do the entire thing in Malagasy! I was actually surprised with how much I understood! I can honestly say that I understood almost the entire lesson! My understanding is getting better it's just trying to speak the language! Sometimes it's hard trying to find the right word to say or making a sentence structure that makes sense but I know it will come in time! Anyways, We talked about "Fahamarinanan Toetra" in our Zone Meeting! "Fahamarinana Toetra" means integrity in English and it was an awesome meeting! I really did take a lot from it!

President Adams also came out this week to do interviews! He and I had a great interview and he helped me figure out some questions I had! It was my last interview with him before he goes home and he sure did help me out a lot! I'm sad he's leaving this July but he's done a lot for this mission and his time has been well served!

Well, that's it for the week! Sorry if it seemed boring but that's all that really happened! I love you all so much and I can't wait to write to ya'll again next week! Tiako ianareo!

Love,
Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Elder Stringfellow's Companion talking with someone on the street

Elder Stringfellow tried to get this girl to smile

Elder Stringfellow's Companion

So, far, the biggest Banana Spider that Ryan has seen in Mada

Working on his selfie

More Selfie action

Week 14 in Tamatave...New Companion

Manahoana Daholo!

Another crazy week! My new companion came on Wednesday and he's a pretty cool guy! Let's just say he loves to work and we just go, go ,go! We're always doing something and it's awesome to see how quickly the work progresses!

I don't really have any news about any of our "progressing" investigators, other than they're doing great, but I have one crazy story about two of our "new" investigators! About two weeks ago Elder Nohaingoinaina and I tracted into two brothers in an area called Valpinsons! They let us into a pretty nice house and said that we could share our message! They first thing we said was that the message we share with people is about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! They freaked out, in a good way, and said that they have been looking for a restoration of some type of church! For missionaries to hear that is just.....I don't even know how to describe it other than awesome!

 

We were thinking that these two guys were two golden investigators up until this past week....We visited them and they said that they wanted to show us a religious clip! We let them start the clip and it was all about how some weird white dude that started a church in Washington D.C. back in 1946! It was weird! Plus the whole time the two guys are singing this weird song in broken English while the clip was playing! Just flat out weird! Haha, oh well! We'll work with them and see if they want to accept our message!

Nothing else really did happen this week! We worked way hard and didn't stop for anything! Let's just say I'm feeling the affects from it, haha! I did hit my seven month mark of being a missionary this past week though! I just can't believe it! Time needs to slow down!

Tamatave is still Tamatave! It's always hot unless it's raining cats and dogs, haha! I love it! Anyways, I hope everyone has a great week and I can't wait to talk to ya'll again next week!

Love,

Elder Stringfellow

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK

Elder Stringfellow's Area from the Roof Top

Elder Stringfellow and Elder Godfrey saying goodbye

Recent Baptism

Just before the Recent Baptism
(Yes they turned the camera off during the ordinance)