I'm doing very well. It is so hot here. Two days ago we walked into a gas station. Gas stations are some of the nicest buildings in Madagascar. When I walked in, all of the sudden I felt something very cold, and it surprised me. It was air condition. It had been so long since I had felt air conditioning that I had forgotten the sensation - ha ha!

I'm healthy and happy and working hard here in Ft. Dauphin. Oh, if you could just see where I work everyday. Our area is mostly the large peninsula that juts out into the ocean. When you're in the middle of it you can see the beautiful blue ocean on three sides, the cliffs in front, and the mountains behind. At night as we walk home it looks like stars are reflecting on the ocean until you realize it's the lights of the fisherman off the coast, twinkling as they go about their work. We see it every night as we're walking home around 9pm. Every morning as we run along the beach we can see them bringing in their catch.

We are working with a lot of really wonderful people right now. I really love being able to teach all the time again. I'm also working on learning the dialect here. Missionaries are supposed to only teach in their assigned dialect and language, so I'm learning it to keep myself learning Malagasy on the side. I'm pretty sure the "dialect" here is is not related to Malagasy. There are a bunch of similarities, but even the grammar is different. It seems like a combination of several other languages. It's definitely different than what people speak over most of the island. Everyone, including Malagasies, say it's the hardest dialect and many Malagasies from up north can't understand it at all. When someone speaks straight Atandroi, i don't have a clue what they're saying - ha ha. So working on it. I doubt I'll get really good, but I hope I can learn some things.

Elder Ahlstrom