Family,

This week I can honestly say that I miss all of you. I miss spending the holidays with you, but I'm so excited about all that's going on here. It's the kind of "missing you" that makes me want to work harder, not less.

This week has been a little bit of a whirlwind.I'll start with the most exciting news! It's a boy! Okay, pardon the mission lingo, but I'm training. On that front there's so much to say. We found out last night. The AP's wait for all the zone leaders to call in their stats. Then in the order that the stats were received they respond to each zone. We found out around 10:10pm, which was good because I was super tired. Although I had no intentions of going to bed util I had heard the news. I leave Wednesday morning to pick up my trainee. I don't know yet if I'm going to be training an American or a Malagasy. Those decisions will be made by President Adams when he has all the trainers and trainees together. One of the best parts is that means I will get to have Sister Adams' cooking, which I'm very excited for. Hopefully you'll get lots of pictures next week when I meet this new Elder.

Oh, here's a funny story. I actually can't take credit for this one. It comes from Elder Wooten and Elder Christiansen in my zone. A few days ago they were working together when they tracted into someone rather strange. At first he seemed like just a nice old man, but then they got talking. It turns out that he has some interesting... beliefs... More specifically he told them that Malagasies are extra terrestrials, but the vahzas (white people) cut off the Malagasies communication with the aliens, and that our church was a tool of white enslavement and separation from their alien forefathers. I love Madagascar! I don't think many people have the opportunity to work with such exciting people. On the other hand we have some really great investigators coming along right now. Don't get the impression that everything is so crazy, but it's certainly not a "normal" experience!

Speaking of Madagascar as not being a normal experience, most of the sheer craziness has worn off. Today a man ran through the busiest road in Tomatov because his hat had blown off. He nearly caused a pile up, causing pusses, tuc tucs, and semis to swerve everywhere. I didn't think anything of it. When I saw someone with an entire butchered cow on the back of his bicycle (you'll have to trust me on this; it was a whole cow!), I thought nothing of it. I will say, however, that I was taken back on Sunday. I was on the third floor of our church, zoning out in our Gospel Principles class (don't judge me - ha ha), when lo and behold the palm tree out the window started shaking. All of the sudden a Malagasy ran up it. He was harvesting coconuts. He just walked right up it paying not mind to the fact that he was 40 feet in the air. Regrettably, my camera was out of batteries because the power has been out almost all week. Needless to say it was a very funny and surprising sight.

I'm doing really well, though. I'm happy and loving the work. I'm also excited because in no time at all it will be Christmas, and you know what that means... (phone calls!) I'm really focused and can honestly say that I'm happy with the work that I have put in thus far. Things are just starting to get hard now. I need to be the senior companion now and step it up!

Elder Ahlstrom