Another week has passed and brought many new experiences. This week has been more difficult. It's been raining. It isn't the rainy season so when it rains it's not constant, but it still comes down quite hard. The rain is cool, though, as long as you don't get stuck in it. It cleans everything off. And it is cool to see the palm trees whipping in the wind.

My companion is a zone leader and this week is leadership training in Antananarivo, so I'll be on splits in Tana for two days. I'm excited to see another part of the mission.

This week one of our investigator families is getting married so that they can be baptized. Another couple is being baptized on Saturday. In Mada it's not easy to get baptized. The leadership is so young that President Adams has added extra questions to the baptism interview to help ensure that anyone we baptize won't become inactive. It's because the branches and wards can't give new members the support they typically receive. The church is growing, though. We have 28 baptismal dates set. If they all work out it will really strengthen the branch.

I was able to go to a Mada beach for the first time this week. Obviously, I didn't go in the water, and I was in a shirt and tie, but it was still really fun to see the Indian Ocean for the first time. While we were at the beach I noticed a man walk over to me and get really close. Then he started looking at his friend. I realized that he was trying to get a picture with the 6'4" white guy wearing a tie and button down shirt at the beach. Of course I obliged to being in the picture. I can happily say that I'm on someone's Facebook page out there. I also went to the big street bazaar. It's so crazy. It's called Bazaar Kely, which means the little bazaar. But it is actually much larger than the Bazaar Be, which means the great bazaar. I've heard the one in Tana is even better. There are many exotic fruits and vegetables, meat and animals. It's very unusual. Every week we go to the District President's house for dinner. He makes the best Malagasy food. One of the best parts is that he always has these exotic juices. They're really unusual and hard to describe, but they taste great. I already know that I'm going to crave them for the rest of my life. Also, it's almost lychee season in Mada. Apparently they're really good and really cheap. It's also the beginning of mango season. It's weird to think that spring is just starting here, especially because it's already been so hot.

I went on a split with the other Elder Ahlstrom this week. People were very surprised to hear that we weren't related. We were teaching a family and it was raining incredibly hard, the way it can only rain in really tropical places. And we were in a house with a tin roof, which you can imagine amplifies the whole affect. We were teaching a lesson by lamp light trying to read the Book of Mormon. I looked around and there were people, chickens, and a dog all crammed into this little tiny hut that wasn't much larger than my bathroom back home. I thought to myself, man this is so weird! It was wonderful to teach them. They were very sincere, and even though I can't speak well, they seemed to understand the message. It was amazing to think that God cares enough that His spirit was present in a tiny shack just outside Tomatov, Madagascar, just as it can be present anywhere else in the world. Also there's something deeply moving about reading scriptures by lamp or candle light. Our power was off last night and I was reading the Book of Mormon by candlelight. It was a very strange, intimate experience.

Love,
Elder Ahlstrom