Faith, Hope, and Charity

Well hello everyone! how are you all? i am great thanks haha

so the pics are pretty rad huh? i love those dogs. the guys house we were waiting at never came...dumb. classic manandona but you cant really blame em. they work all day in the fields, which they live off of, so they usually arent home. happens. a lot. 

so the food here is pretty good and sketchy haha a lot of rice! breakfast is usually cereal and yogurt. or moof balls. and lunch is usually at the hotely. then dinner is either noodles or we eat out at this french resteraunt that is way good. called chez billy's. we are lazy haha

so lemme tell you about the VC... "vay-say" they are great. they are little shacks about as tall as i am. the door is about neck height or smaller and pretty slim. some dont have doors...ya...thats a problem sometimes. but basically it is a little shack built over a giant hole with the floor leaving a whole in the middle to use...remember there is no running water or electricity. and lemme tell ya, its a little smelly and stuffy in there. id love to wait to get home to go but the food you eat doesnt often allow that...haha its quite the experience, i will say that my thighs are gettin more toned. from walkin around everywhere too haha yeah one time...naw ill tell that story after the mish, kinda embarrassing..

Salama Tompo

so! if you noticed mom and dad i pulled out some presonal fund money. everything is way cheap here. i had to buy a bible for 15 thou and pitched in for a soccer ball which was 5 thou. (you can do the math if you want haha) but suits are way cheap and this cool shirt they make is cheap. you buy the lamba (material) then take it to a tailor and the suit is only like 80 bucks american? maybe cheaper. depends on how you bargain. i bought some ray bans for like a dollar and a half and you can by beats by dre for like 7 and a half dollars haha

life here is still same old same old. mothers whipping out feeding substance for their babies randomly. in church. middle of lessons. walking down the road. just gotta get use to it haha i see a lotta animals. starting with insects- there are a lotta fleas, LOTS of flies, wasps, bees, etc. there are tons of cattle chickens ducks "dokitra" (the mix of a duck and chicken) dogs cats and others too haha

something WAY sick this week. i got to go on a companionship exchange with Elder Covey. my closest friend from the MTC. so here we have two terrible malagasy speaking missionaries takin on THE manandona haha we actually had a way good day planned but of course those times fell through. so we went contacting and actually had a way good way for manandona. taught 5 times and got two contacts. which is way good for the dona haha elder bowler (district leader) had to take care of baptismal interviews in andranomanelatra(coveys area). which has a lotta baptisms comin up.

another great experience yesterday! i commited someone to be baptised (they said theyd think about it) but it was way good. we talked in alma 32, a WAY good chapter about faith, and the spirit was so strong. highlight of the day for sure.

Conference talks for you to read this week:

"Hope Ya Know I'm Having a Hard Time" -Quinton L. Cook (i think thats the title) its way good, and theres a mormon message on it too. if youre having a hard time watch that mormon message and "Mountains to Climb" (Mormon messages found in mormon.org or through lds.org) and listen to the actual talk of Mountains to Climb by President Uchtdorf. WAY inspiring.

Well i finished Fotopampianarana sy Fanekempihavanana or the Doctrine and Covenants. way good stuff in there. my favorite chapters are probably 121 and 122. where Joseph Smith is in Liberty Jail (what kind of name is that for a jail?) and he just opens up. Verses 1-25 in section 121 and all of section 122 are a huge testimony builder and comfort. very humbling.

section 124 was actually givin on dads birthday...but like 119 years previous...do the math if you wanna know how old Dad is! haha oh and section 135 is on Calebs birthday, for a sad reason im sure a lot of you know. but it is...just 158 years previous. We have little DVD players here and my comp has a few tallks that we can listen to through them and its been amazing. one was a six disc set of 8 lectures truman g. madsen gave on the prophet joseph smith. we would listen to them on our rides out to manandona. i love the prophet joseph smith. i love the song praise to the man. i love section 135. the section where his martyrdom was announced. his testimony will live on forever. Love was his motivation. Just as it was Christ's.

Youre challenge this week is to study love. I dont know what aspects but here are some ideas. how can we love others more? (family, friends, strangers) how can we love ourselves more? (a weird one but it applies) how can we love our faith more? how can we love Christ more? how can we love more?

Faith, Hope, Charity, and Love are my favorite.

If we have love for God and our fellow man, following all the commandments (not just the 10 from Moses) will be a breeze. If we have faith we have not the need to fear. "Faith is the antidote for fear" (in one of the talks i read, maybe nelson?). If we have hope, a chain reaction will go down to the other three. Charity is the pure love of Christ.

I love you all! You are in my prayers. Stay safe. Stay fresh. Stay classy San Diego (im on a mission and a shouldnt quote that movie hahaha).

love,

Elder Schroedter