EFA DISIAMBRA VE?

wow its already december! bout to hit the five month mark...anyone miss me yet? hahaha

well i had a great week this week! many pics and maybe a video...where to start! hmmm maybe with the fact that i still do not have the plague nor do i plan to ever contract that terrible disease haha im takin my doxy...pretty usually...dont worry! how is everyone elses health? ao tsara ve? 

so how was everyones thanksgivings? thanks for the pics to like the two or three that sent me some. i love you indrindrindrindra (especially). haha its way fun to say! cause the dr is like "g" try it.

well this week was flippin awesome! it all started when we got dogged upon signing off the cyber. we called the guy and was like, "no, not today because its too late" gypsy. BUT! we were outside the cyber and me and koplins companions go back into cyber haha (they got dogged too) but this way drunk guy comes up to us and is like "hey, do yall speak english! cause i dont" (in english) and we are like "this is gonna be fun hahah" we have a hilarious conversation half in malagasy and english. i got his pic so you can see him hahaha we tried to talk about the church, but he was like, "lemme tell you why my people are not good", or something like that haha i loved it!

then on tuesday we had an average day, tuesdays are always way good, we teach most of our solid investigators then. but at the end of the day, as per usual it starts raining. it kinda let up and we were like...ndao isika! (lets go!) so we started the mile run to the main road...it started pouring. we get to the main road, traffic is a mess...so we ran at least another mile home...needless to say i was drenched and it took my shoes about two days to dry haha but it was a good time!

wednesday was even better! it was Elder Koplin's birthday! so we convinced our companions to do a split so i spent the day with him haha dont worry the real reason was because my area had three baptism interviews and Kopes comp is the District Leader, aka the interview conductor so manao'ed the split. we started it off right by gettin cokes at the local grocery store, shoprite. its two thou for a glass bottle which is a liter, but you can return the glass bottle and get 600 back so its like 1400 for a liter, which is like 50 cents. its nice. truly. so then we went to the sinoa(chinese) eating place. and the owners are inactive so we usually get deals but especially that day for Koplins birthday. then we get to our first time (this is in Kopes area btw) but hes not home so we continue through rice patty trails. and these guys are fishing in the mud (a lil bit of water) but like straight mud. we ask if they need help kinda jokingly and they said sure, so we were like why not! service and contacting! we roll up our pants right above the knees and hope in...*slurp* mid-thigh...oh well, literally five seconds in kope snags one with his hand. (its all bare hands btw) then like 10 minutes later i grab one, it was way fun!

we walk home and wash up, and this whole time we are just talkin about like everything. lemme tell you how nice it is to have an english companion...with Randry we barely talk haha soooo we go to the next lesson and we totally kill it. we taught so well together and it was flippin awesome. then we ate at a members, then again at the nicest place i have ever seen in mada. called Gastros Pizza. an amazing day, needless to say.

then thursday was Thanksgiving! average work day, but we killed it for dinner as a house. especially for four 18/19 yr olds. the pics will show but just know it might be one of my favorites of all time...sorry Mom...

and now its monday! yay! haha well i hope you all have a great week! ill leave you with my challenge and third world problem haha

your challenge this week is to read the Sacrament prayers and think about the three things you committed to do when you were baptised and the promised blessing you are guaranteed if you keep the three. write down two ways you could be a better disciple of Christ. the scriptures are found in Moroni, chapters 4 and 5, and doctrine and covenants, chapter 20, verses 77 and 79 but may i suggest reading 75-79. Hope you do it! please report!

third world prob...so today we are riding in a taksibe (bus/vans that taxi everyone around) and our van was goin along and the door bounced off the hinge and almost swung off but i caught it haha 

ratchet cars driving on ratchet roads equals a swingin time #TWP

love you all! have a great week! hope you love the pictures!

love,

Elder Schroedter

                                                         The beauties of the earth.

                                                   Grant and his fellow missionaries.

Tratra ny "Thanksgiving"‏ !!

Well hello fam and friends, how are you? im a little tezitra right now satria za manoratra ny hafatra aloha fa mijanona ny internet mandritra. #TWP ( im a little mad right now because i was writing a message before but the internet stopped during) it was long and beautiful and yes. dumb.

so how was everyones week! thank you for the emails i did receive! email me if you havent. please. i miss you.

well nothing really happened this week. just work and walking and proselyting. and taksibe riding. i love hangin out the back of those things. they dont go to fast but there is a lotta swerving and bumps in the road so i would advise two hands. but what is everyone doing for thanksgiving? i expect a lotta pics. we are havin turkey, home fed and prepared. if youd like to join us i live way close to the airport. i could come pick you up, its only like 10 min taksibe ride from my house, we'll have fresh turkey and if you left today youd make it by thursday! youd miss turkey bowl (which was this morning) and also be out a couple thousands of dollars but its nbd. stay home or where you are haha but we had some football this morning! it was way fun. the usual malagasies showed up that we usually played soccer with so they wouldnt let us play football till we played a little soccer so we did for about half an hour. we won 2-1 and i scored off a penalty. it was fun. then football with the other missionaries! it was way fun. its not the same on dirt though...

the only things that really happened this week was koplin stayed home sick, dont worry i am still healthy. stomach pains here and there but what can ya do? but i stayed home with em so our areas could still be hit. they had member help so it worked out. BUT we killed a rat in the evening...pics to come and oh the sky looked sick since it just finished raining. pics.

OH and i gave the lesson in district meeting this week. it was on being Christlike. classic Schroedter lesson huh? haha but chapter six in Preach My Gospel. read it, learn it, live it. there are so many scriptures. i like Ether 12:6 (faith), or 1 Cor 11 or 13 (charity) etc, but youre challenge this week is to read that, but really to pray each day for a chance to grow in one of the attributes. and pray specifically for a different one each day. (faith, hope, charity and love, diligence, obedience, humility, virtue, knowledge, and patience) this transfer and last, my patience has been tested to its limits. we learn and grow more everyday. i also mentioned in my lesson the fact the we have the potential and ability to become Gods or be Godlike and we have been given this time here on earth "to prepare to meet God" and to repent and learn. but we arent just instantly going to become Gods, we arent going to be as God, charitable, loving, merciful, etc., unless we put that work in now. so theres your challenge, similar to past but we should all be trying to be better and more Christlike all the time, every week, every day, every thought, and every action. it all starts with your commitment to Christ. there is your challenge. tell me your experiences, please.

well thats about all i got! have an AMAZING Thanksgiving! i love you all very much and would love you more if you ALL emailed me back haha but ill get what i can. only so much i can do from half way around the world. i miss you all. i love you all. i pray for you all. 

Elder Schroedter out.

Our Motto is.....

WORK WORK WORK.

and that was our week in a nut shell. probably the hardest ive worked since being here and i cant wait to repeat it for the next 80 something weeks, whoa. 

so i was feelin a little not good monday and tuesday, just from the constant rain and everthing seemed to be flooding through my head. but then i decided, probably the Lord, to just stop that. i dont need that. i told Randry, "dude its your last transfer and i wanna kill it! i want a total of 10 hours by the end of the day. we had 3 hr and 20 min the day previous, but we MADE it. the succeeding days were just as work filled. my goal by the end of wednesday was thirty hours for the week and we hit it right on the dot. it feels so good. i cant wait to work just as hard and forget myself even more.

i learn so much out here. and so much from the emails i receive. thank you.

so a little bit about Ambohimanarina. we are the only branch in tana. and tana is the only place with wards and stakes. there are two stakes in tana. but our ward meets in a building that is four floors high and too small. i have yet to be in the actual sacrament meeting room for the meeting. too small and so many people. BUT there is a new church that has been built. and just needs the contracting of power and water so we are just waiting. its two building...ill take a pic of it sometime. its huge! its the new stake center. we have stake conference there this sunday so hopefully it will be a permanent move. to answer my mothers question, the missionaries dont really get callings, unless the branch is REALLY struggling like Manandona was/is. but all wards have at least 80 members who come to church. our branch has been averaging about 140 the weeks ive been here, idk what it was before. but the work is rolling. we had 28 lessons this week. 30 hours of proselyting time, and 9 investigators at church, the highest yet. things are looking up, but sadly bap dates have been pushed back due to vita soratra (legal marriage) problems, word of wisdom problems and the inability of some investigators to be able to meet with us as of late. but yeah we have like 10 planned and ill probably still be here to see them all! i hope. i love these people and this work.

sorry no challenge or TWP for you this week. survive. i gotta go out to work! love you all.

love,

Elder Grant Schroedter

        After having a small run in with a rice paddie.  I rocked this style for about 4 hours.

Hi there!

HEY SQUAD. 

Just a quick email for you today and I will start with my third world prob. Well it has rained every night for the last 5 days. Which means constant cuts in the power.

Taking 3 hours to get home from the office (usually an hour and 15 minutes) through traffic and only coming home and getting to the cyber to find all power cut, in our house, the local cybers, and the market. #TWP #whenitrainsitpours #patienceisavirtue

Well I will tell my week in pictures. I love you all! Thank you to those who responded to my challenge. your challenge this week is to email three missionaries away from home. (this could include me for those of you who never respond, which is aboult 3/4 my list haha) and then report back. thank you!

i love you all! i hope the pics load and you enjoy them! 

love,

ME (elder schroedter)

                                                      Grant   -   doing the Taylor wave.

                                                                            Hello!!!