The Lemurs are Calling

Manahoana everyone!

So this week was pretty much normal. Nothing important really happened except I got my travel plans!!! I leave Monday morning and we first go to Texas then London then South Africa and then we finally head on another flight to MADAGASCAR. So in total that travel time is around 48 hours which would be hard if I wasn't a man.

Apparently it's flooding season right now in Mada so when we get there it'll probably be covered in about 2 feet of water but really I'm so excited to get out there and teach some people. At this point I'm pretty much where I'm gonna be with the language in the beginning of the field so that's a terrifying thought. The teachers say I'm doing pretty good and that we're ready so that's cool. But I don't know if I feel ready haha. I don't think I ever will.

But lately my dreams have been filled with the beautiful images of lemurs calling my name, chameleons tending to my every need, and the screams of thousand of investigators begging me to baptize them. Too bad a mission's not like that at all haha. But seriously I'm so excited to get out there and hit the ground running. I just wanna get to work.

Anyways that's about it for this week! Next time you all hear from me I'll be in MADAGASCAR!!

Kitsimpo,

Elder St John

P.S. Sorry I haven't sent picures yet here's some. ​

10 Days Left

So to kick things off, this week was pretty amazing! We had David A. Bednar come and speak to us this week for a devotional and it was awesome, the spirit in the room was amazing and it was an awesome talk about how to better learn and use the teachings of General Conference. Other than that it was a pretty normal week. We did our first skype TRC (teach real converts) yesterday and that was pretty awesome. It was funny because the lady in charge came to our classroom and said we'd be having it at 7 pm, which is weird because we thought we'd be skyping with people in Madagascar and 7 pm here is 4 am over there. Well we didn't skype people in Madagascar :(   Actually half of our disctrict didn't even get to skype at all haha. They couldn't find enough people so only 2 companionships were able to skype. Me and Elder Passey got to but the guy that we skyped was a returned missionary who lives in Provo (classic). So we were just skyping this white dude while he was driving in his car to go shop for groceries or something so the whole time we were skyping him he was just driving (please don't skype and drive with a week old baby) and in a grocery store. It was still an awesome experience.

The language is coming along pretty well. It's still hard but I'm starting to be able to get a grasp on all of the new concepts and stuff. There's three different types of verbs in Malagasy, active, passive, and circumstantial. In English we only have active so it takes a little getting used to. But class time is awesome, Brother Evans has been teaching us some cool stuff about the culture of Mada. Apparently pirates are still a problem in the south which I mean I wouldn't mind being accosted by some pirates just for the experience. They are land pirates that pretty much just rob busses on the way to a city called Fotofana which is on the very south tip. It's not a problem anymore because missionaries fly to different areas now becuase the travel took so long. If you were going from Antananarivo to one of the cities on the coast it would take about a 16 hour bus ride, and flying down there is almost as cheap as taking the bus haha. So unless the pirates figure out how to hijack planes I'm pretty safe. Another funny thing about pirates is that aparently if there's civil unrest in Mada, we all get sent to Somalia which sounds much safer.

Another fun Malagasy culture fact is that apparently black magic is a pretty common practice over there. So our teacher told us that if anyone asks to take a picture of you and you alone in a creepy way DO NOT DO IT because they're most likely trying to use the picture to cast a love spell on you so that you'll fall in love with their daughter and give their family a white baby or something. This is one of the major reasons that white sister missionaries aren't allowed over their anymore... So apparently too many sister missionaries were being cursed or something.

Hearing about all of this makes me so excited to get out there. Not only the culture but the people. Our teacher told us that on an average day missionaries have around 8-12 lessons which sounds pretty insane. He also said that an hour of street contacting or tracting will result in about 55 new investigators (that includes their families) so wish me luck. 

We get our flight plans today so I'm so excited to get into the field but I'm going to miss the MTC. It's a once in a lifetime experience being so immersed in learning not only the language but the gospel. I've been able to be immersed in the gospel day and night and it's amazing seeing how strong the spirit can influence your life. Please everybody read the Book of Mormon every day. I promise it'll bless your life. Even if you only read for like 5 min. so what harm can come from it (nothing) seriously only the promise of eternal happiness will come from reading the scriptures and discovering the truth of it, and that sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Here's a short testimony in Malagasy

Fantatro fa marina ny Bokin'i Mormona

Satria Fantatro ity, fantatro fa mpaminany marina Joseph Smith

Fantatro fa afaka mipetraka miraka ny fianakaviansika isika

Fantatro fa mitondra fifaliana ny filazantsara

Ny fomba iverinananstika amin Andriamaniatra dia amin'ny alalan'ny fivavahan sy mamaky ny Bokiní Mormon

Fantatro fa Tian' Andriamanitra Ianareo

Miss you all and love you!

Kitsim-po,

   Elder St. John

Kubb for Dayz

​​Manahoana everyone!

Well I made it to the halfway point of my MTC experience which is such a relief. It's all good here but I've got a sickness... and the only cure is the sweet embrace of a lemur. I think I'm slowly starting to go crazy here cause last night we had a study and planning session for like 45 min. for a day that's already been planned out. Of course I spent that whole planning session trying to convince my district that the world is flat... I drew diagrams and did some convincing math for them, but still some of the hard of heart and close minded weren't convinced. Maybe one day their eyes will be opened. 

This place gets to you. When you are with the same eight people 24 hours a day with no real source of entertainment outside of the gospel, you'll do anything to entertain yourselves. For some reason this one elder in my district named Elder Salmond has like 30 minutes of recordings of "big foot" noises. Apparently his family hunts big foot in their spare time and the sounds attract it. So while I was convincing them that the earth was flat we were able to listen to the soothing sounds of what sounds like a 80 year old smoker yelling at the top of his lungs for 45 min. Not gonna lie though it was probably the most fun I've had all week. Well except for Kubb (kooooob). It's the game that my whole district plays every gym time, aka the viking game. Pretty much all you do is throw wood at other wood. There's little pins and you have to throw them and knock them over. It sounds stupid but really it's the best game ever. 

This week has actually been awesome.  On Sunday BYU Vocal Point came for our devotional. Conference was cool. It was weird not being home but other than that it was really cool. The talks were really inspiring and made me wanna work harder to be a better missionary. 

The language is coming along pretty well. I can finally understand a majority of what's being said which is cool. It's an awesome language. A lot more poetic than English. I think that it has to be because they have like half as many words as English so most of their words are just other words squished together. For example: the word for agency is fahafahana misafidy, which literally translates to the opportunity or freedom to choose. The word for the gospel is ny filizantsara which means the good words or good message. The words for cross is hazo fijaliana which means the tree of suffering which is pretty cool. There's a ton more like that but I can't remember any of them haha.

It's been amazing being able to see how the gift of tongues works. Like seriously I can't even remember how to say my name is elder St. John, but I'm able to give a thirty minute lesson to an investigator 100 percent in Malagasy. I don't know how much of it actually makes sense but we're able to get the message across.

I miss and love you.

Kitsim-po,

Elder St. John

PS: I'm trying to send videos but I don't know if they'll send (They're of us playing kubb.)​

 MVI_0022.MOV

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 MVI_0023.MOV

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Full On Survival Mode

Manahoana Fianakavian sy namana!

So to kick things off I just wanna say that I got a cell phone so if anyone wants to call me or something the number is 911. Just kidding but I really did get a phone cause I got called as zone leader!!!!  Which I'm terrified now haha. We have one of the biggest zones in the MTC with just about 100 Elders and Sisters. We also have 7 different languages which is pretty cool. We have Malagasy, Tongan, Samoan, Marshalese, Kirabati, Fijian, and American Sign Language (I have no idea why they're in our branch but we love them). Anyways, this week the Tongan, Samoan, Fijian, and Kiribati districts are all leaving which means we're losing about 50. On Wednesday though, 65 new missionaries are coming into the MTC which is insane. So me and Elder Passey get the opportunity to take all of these missionaries through orientation and all of the getting-to-know-you stuff so wish me luck! 

Our investigator, Jacques, turned into our teacher. His real name is Brother Evans which is a real surprise since I was convinced that he was really from Madagascar and not a 24-year-old white returned missionary. Really the whole district was shocked... but we got a new investigator who's name is Solo (o's are pronounced like oo). She's been our teacher for the last two weeks so it's kind of weird teaching our teacher but she's a way better investigator than Jacques! We never got anywhere with Jacques but after the 2nd Lesson Solo already committed to come to church with us and stuff which is awesome especially considering that we're not allowed to use any notes so our whole lesson consists of a lot of hand motions and ummmmms. 

Brother Evans got really sick this week and is in the hospital for a few days but we've had some good teachers come in and teach us. The ASL teacher came in yesterday and taught us some good stuff. He taught us how to sign "I'm stupid" and since I'm like the first person all the new missionaries meet I'm going to tell them that it means hello. It's ok because their teacher told me to do it.

I'm getting so sick of the food here but I've gotta force it down because at this point I need every pound I can get. At lunch I turn onto full-on survival mode because every pound I gain will make it so I can survive that much longer out in the harsh wild of Madagascar. I'm not planning on dying out there so I'll need as much of a fat reserve as possible... So far it's not working though cause I haven't gained weight yet... Hopefully when I leave I'll be fat and ready to take on the world. 

That's it for this week so thanks for all the packages and stuff! If you want me to survive please send me fattening foods. It's for my survival I promise...

Tiako Ianareo. 

Week 300290239409

Manahoana! 

So it's only been a week and a half but it feels like I've been here forever! The MTC's been pretty good to me. it's been tough but I'll get over it. This last week we really started to crack down on the whole language learning thing. It's pretty crazy trying to cram all of this info into your head in such a short amount of time. The language is coming though. 

We teach an investigator named Jacques every day and he's the most difficult investigator ever. He's a Catholic pastor from Madagascar. AKA a 25-year-old white dude who probably went on his mission there. But he just makes the discussions so hard! For example, the first few lessons went pretty well and he seemed to like the idea of eternal families and stuff but when we got into the restoration of the preisthood and the whole idea of three distinct beings in the Godhead, he started throwing scripture refrences and trying to disprove our preisthood line of authority saying that the priesthood line was never lost and that the priesthood power never left the earth. 

Now this wouldn't necessarily be a problem if, 1. we knew how to talk about all of that stuff in Malagasy; 2. If we could actually understand and address his concerns. And to make matters worse when we start talking about the Word of Wisdom, of course he drinks and isn't willing to give it up. He also won't come to church because he has to teach his own congregation on Sunday. But I think he'll come around. He's just giving us a tough time and trying to help us deal with stuff we're going to encounter all the time out there in the field. Funny story is that the first time we taught him he asked me if I was married, but I thought that he said how many other kids are in my family so I said 3. Turns out I may have just fueled the whole Mormon polygamist thing haha. 

The actual language itself is coming along pretty well. I'm starting to understand and respond to the teacher while she's teaching which is cool. Everyone in my district makes fun of me because I have so many flash cards to memorize the vocab, but we'll see who's laughing when Jacques commits to baptism. The language itself is pretty simple but the words are insane. One word can have 2 or 3 meanings based on where the accent is placed so the word lalana can mean path or law and the word Masina can mean holy or salty, which is funny cause the teacher didn't tell us that we were putting the accent in the wrong place so this whole time all of us have been asking Jacques if he's felt the Salty Ghost touch his heart. The language just takes a lot of practice and a lot of listening. Because a word can be spelled one way and sound completely different. In a lot of words you just drop off the whole last syllable or two. A tr makes a tch sound and a dr makes a dch sound and a j makes a dz sound so that's a little odd. 

The teacher is hilarious though.  She's from Madagascar I think but she speaks French, Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Malagasy. One day we were talking about what it'll be like on Madagascar and she starts joking around with this pretty heavy kid in my distract saying how when he gets back he'll be skinny or "Kelly" which is small in Malagasy. Then she looks at this pretty buff kid and says he'll lose all his muscle. Then she gets completely serious and looks at this super skinny kid and stares him directly in the eye and says, "You'll be dead." It was the funniest thing in the world cause it was the first time any of us had ever heard her speak English. She just really wanted to make sure that we all understood it or something hahaha. 

But anyways that's pretty much it for this week! I'm gonna start writing my testimony a little in Malagasy at the end of my letters so that you guys can see what the language looks like and how I'm progressing!

Fantatro Fa marina ny Bokin'i Mormona

Fantatro fa velonampaminany Thomas S. Monson

Tsapako fa Tia Andriamantra Aho

Tsara ny filazantsara

Fantatro Fa velona Andriamantra sy Jesoa Kristy

Veloma! Tiako Ianareo!

Aman-kitsimpo

Elder St. John

First Couple Days in the MTC

I'm doing way good! My companion's name is Elder Passey, he's from Bear Lake, Idaho. If you wanna know what he looks like just imagine an 18 year old Spock from Star Trek. He's a cool guy but he's way quiet which has its perks. He's starting to open up a little bit.

We've got eight missionaries in our district. They're all guys cause I don't think that they have any Malagasy speaking sisters. I have a roomate who's this huge guy and he snores way loud but at this point it's starting to be comforting. Kind of like white noise or something. We never really get any quiet around here cause we're on the same floor as all of the island missionaries so we've got a lot of Polynesians singing and playing their ukes. It could be worse haha. But the other elders in my district are awesome. They're all solid guys with good testimonies who are willing to work hard on the language which is awesome.

The language is insane. The teacher only speaks in Malagasy which can be a little overwhelming when you don't understand much of it. It's coming along though. We've only had two lessons and we have to teach our first investigator all in Malagasy. I'm pretty pumped to make a fool of myself but you never learn if you don't try. The language sounds really cool. Its' got a lot of influence from island languages, but it also sounds a little French and somtimes middle eastern haha. 

A little language info is that all verbs start with M which is awesome until you start realizing that every single verb sounds the same. If you wanna change it to past tense all you've gotta do is change the M for an N and if you wanna make it future switch it to an H. Other than that everything's going awesome! 

I decided missionaries are the weirdest people on earth and it'll take a little while to get used to all of it but it's starting to grow on me. We still haven't really even started a normal schedule yet so I'm sure when all of this orientation and introduction stuff is over things'll feel a little more normal.

Love,
Elder St. John