March 7, 2016

This week was crazy. We had the Elders from Tulear fly in. An Elder had an emergency surgery and had to be flown to Tana. He had an appendicitis, but he's doing very well now. It was seriously a miracle that we got him on the flight though. It was the last one for like 3 days, which obviously would have been too late. We found out at 2 o'clock and he left at 3:50ish. They almost didn't let him on the plane. After that we had zone conference, and finally today, there's time to slow down a little bit - haha. Life, it goes too fast. Zone Conference was with Elder Hamilton of the Seventy. I got to translate, which was pretty fun. It made it hard to focus sometimes on what was actually being talked about. I've gotten pretty decent at translating on my mission. You just have to learn how to hear something while saying one sentence behind. So you hear, translate, and speak - three different thoughts. Once you get into a groove, though, it's really fun, But then comes a weird word or phrase that doesn't translate or you forget the word in Malgasy or English, and then you get off of the rhythm - haha. I was also able to translate for President Foote. It was great to see them. They're awesome!

This week we are going to be teaching the plan of salvation a lot. I love teaching the plan of salvation because I think it makes everything very clear. That is if you understand why you are here and everything, it all fits into place. It's why we have to act the way we act during this life. It explains our goals and where we are going, and you realize that change and perfection are required to be better. I really love that. and it helps me understand why overcoming challenges now will be a blessing later in life or in eternity. It is very empowering - the idea that we can make differences and push ourselves to be better.

I love being a missionary and I love you all very much. Have a great week.

Elder Ahlstrom