January 11, 2016

It took us forever to find a cyber today. We ran all over, and now we don't have a ton of time. Sorry, but I'll have to be quick. Ft. Dauphin is very different than the rest of Madagascar. It's much smaller and much, much cleaner than anywhere I've been. It is one of the smallest missionary areas with only six Elders. I'm serving with Elder Bassett from Katy, which is apparently about 30 minutes from where you live. He's been serving for 7 months, so he's a little newer missionary. He works super hard, which I like, and he is perfectly obedient, which is pretty much the best compliment you can give a missionary. It's absolutely beautiful here. I don't want to plug my camera into this cyber. I've known too many missionaries that lost everything that way, so you'll have to wait to see pictures. Essentially it's a large peninsula that forms a bowl of bright blue water on one side and continues straight along the edge of the coast on the other side. Directly north is a massive mountain range that comes up to the coast. It's stunning, absolutely amazing. It's the prettiest place I've been in my life. It is also the most jungle and exotic part of Madagascar. I've already been served a whole fish head. Although I shied away from the head, I've eaten fresh lobster that we bought off the guy that caught it. The work is fun here, but it's hot! The branch is doing well. The church is very well established here and the branch presidency is endowed, which is really nice. They also speak English because all of the church leadership here works with mining companies. They are very successful for Malagasies. Our apartment sucks. It's nasty, not dirty, but little and drafty and run down. But it overlooks the beach and I go to sleep to the sound of the ocean crashing, so I can't complain about that.

Elder Ahlstrom