I had a meeting with President Foote today. I feel like I spend a lot of time in meeting, but because of my new responsibilities I don't always have a choice. First off, I love all of you very much. This week has been good. My new assignment is really difficult, but it's causing me to grow a lot. There are quite a few difficult things here that I need to help with. Also, being in a leadership position means you have to correct people sometimes and do things that people won't necessarily like, but because it's the right thing. Today we had our personal interviews with the mission president. That is really a blessing of being in a small mission. We talked a lot about what is going on here and how we can help it grow.

So, things going on here in Fianarantsoa... there is a huge Catholic convention. Approximately 50,000 youth from all over Madagascar are converging on this little city. The largest gathering place is right across the hill from here. It's a little bit crazy with lots of people coming in.

Answers to questions from mom:
How is your new area? It's nice. It's really pretty. I love being out of the big city. It's much cleaner here, also the people are nice. There's one young man whose uncle I trained who now calls me Grandpa. It makes me laugh.

Is the flora and fauna different from the other areas you served? Yeah, its really different. Fianar is right on the line between grassland and jungle. It's not rain forest like in Toamasina, but dense jungle. This is where most of the wild lemurs are found. It's really pretty here. There are a lot of rice paddies. It's also high in elevation. The city is practically a mountain. which is difficult on bikes - lots of hills.

You previously mentioned that part of the area is sketchy. What's sketchy about it? It's the end of the world and sometimes it can get pretty dangerous. Nothing to worry about. Sometimes there are rebels that come down from the mountains and fight with the military in the city.

I heard from a missionary that served in that area a year ago that Fianar has some decent restaurants. Is that true for your area? Yeah, they're pretty good I guess. They're not bad - ha ha.

I then asked Alex what he would like for Christmas because I will need to mail his Christmas package in approximately two weeks. His only request was a Mt. Dew! I have no idea how I could safely mail a soda to Madagascar.