July 30 - Mifoka Miafina

Ok where to start?

This week was really good, we had a baptism last Saturday and it went great. We also had Wilder the kid from english come back to church which surprised me a ton. After church we taught him the restoration, teaching him the importance of prophets and how Gods church that was established during the time of Jesus Christ was still on the earth today. He told us a story about his family and how his grandfather does not believe in God, he lives in the countryside and does not let anyone in his family pray to God and does not let any churches come into the village that he is the chief of.  Wilder also told us that he has decided to come back to God and he wants to take this church, the true church to his family. He felt the spirit as we described the story of Joseph Smith and said this is what I have been searching for. He told us he wants to come to church every week and he gave us a list of questions that he has been writing, about his life, about God and life, prophets and spiritual things. He really has been waiting for the gospel his whole life, it was way cool to be able to answer every one of his questions and give him hope and joy in this life. That was definitely the highlight from the week.

I also took some time to reflect this past week on everything I have learned this past year. It is really crazy to think that in one year time my mission will be done. At this point I really don't think I would be comfortable back at home. I miss you all very much but I love this place a ton too. I am so grateful for all that I have learned this past year. easily the most growth I have had my whole life. I can't wait for another year to be just like it. I love my mission.

Elder Wolfgramm

Jul 24th - Vao Vao (That is just)

Well this week was quite a good week.

Elder Kruger and I had a lot of time to focus on some of our investigators really getting them prepared for baptism, we are hoping to have 5 of our in investigators catch their baptismal date on the 5th of August, we will see what will happen. We are also starting to work with some of our less actives. We have been getting dogged by one of our less actives but we final caught her, and this week we are going to be able to teach her again and get her to commit to coming back to church this next Sunday.  I have got a lot of faith that she will be coming back, I know that she has felt the spirit last time we where with her. We also found another less active/part member family this week that me and Kruger are excited for. We went to a return appointment and the guy that we were going to teach just so happened to not be there, but his neighbor came out and told us to come into his house and sit down. So we did, and we learned he is a less active of 2 years, he never gave us a good reason for being less active.  We got him to commit to come to church on Sunday but he never came, we think there is a little bit more to the reason he has decided to not come to church any more, it will be exciting to work with him and see what comes from it. All in all life is going great here on the big island. Loving the work and the people.

Be safe and have fun. Trust in God and look for all the blessings there are in your life.

ILAY (THE) Elder Wolfgramm

FYI Its Walker's birthday on August 5th.

Jul 17th - Fatokiana (Confidence)

Well this week was way great, but yes very hard. We defiantly had to trust in God a lot this week. Yeah well I am not going to tell you about all the hard things that happened this week because I don't want to get to into it. But know that most trials and problems have been solved and taken care of. 

The highlights of the week are we had 2 brand new investigators come to church this week. We are really starting to build a pretty good investigator pool. They are all becoming diligent and are willing to learn. Their names are Welder and Luke. These two guys we found at English a few weeks ago and had invited them to come to church, we had taught them a small lesson about the restoration but they didn't have any time really to learn. Last Saturday they came again to English and again taught them and they told us that they would love to come see the church. And they came believe it or not! I had to give a talk so I couldn't sit with them but Elder Kruger did and they had a ton of questions. I tried to explain everything while I was giving my talk, I changed it up while I was on the stand so I could kind of answer all their questions. After sacrament we went to class and they had more great questions. 

Then we went to priesthood... and this country is still really new with the church, so they do some really weird things. In priesthood they where doing a lesson on ordinances, and they just so happened to be doing "blessing and anointing of the sick and the afflicted", and it was way bad. They just sat arguing about how it is supposed to be done, then they called this guy out and had him go up in front while about 4 different people showed 4 different ways to anoint and seal. It was actually pretty funny but we were worried that our investigators who don't really know much would get confused, so Elder Kruger and I cleared it all up.  And now we all know how to do the blessing of the sick and afflicted. Luke had a ton of questions about that. It will be funny to see what our next lesson is like. They are very interested.

I hope everyone is doing well, be safe and make wise choices!

Elder Wolfgramm

Jul 10 th - New Investigators

Well this week Elder Kruger and I had a lot of time to tract and find new investigators, it is always sad when you have to drop some people that are not quite ready to follow Christ, but it gives you a great opportunity to find those people who are going to come unto Christ. And that's exactly what happened. We went tracting on Tuesday and found a great family that came to church last Sunday, it was great, we are also progressing with a couple other families that were found this past week. Nivo is still doing great, she is loving what the gospel is giving her. And she loves what she is learning through the reading of the Book of Mormon. LAZA is still being a bum and won't come to church every week. But we still have hope with him, he will definitely progress I know it.

That's pretty much what is happening here in the best place in izao tontolo izao. (the world) Please keep reading the BOOK OF MORMON and if you are not reading it you should; you will come to know Christ more than you could ever imagine. Love this work and this place!

Elder Wolfgramm

Jul 3rd - New Transfer News

This week was a great week filled with new transfers, Zone Conference, and crazy bandys who get crossed up in basketball.
Well first off we got new transfer news it turns out that Elder Kruger will be staying with me for another transfer. I know that the ariari (Malagasy money) doesn't have as much worth as the dollar but with enough of them, you can get what you want. :-) We were both way happy to be staying together for another 6 weeks and are excited to see what we can do with this area.

We had Zone Conference this week and it was wonderful, always after Zone Conference you leave feeling like you are going to baptize the whole country and me and Elder Kruger are really going to try this transfer to get that done. I love listening to President Foote.  He is such a spiritual giant, he really has so much wisdom and when he speaks you can't deny that he is running the mission exactly how God wants him to. In Zone Conference we learned about how to have better retention and what we can do personally to accomplish goals that the mission has.

Ok about the bandy's. Bandy is the word in Malagasy to say gangster or a punk. But we teach a bandy named Laza who comes to church. If he stays active in attending church he will get baptized. He is way funny and super cool. We have been teaching him and his family, they all are progressing. They are now at the point where they can chose to accept the gospel and let it change their lives forever or reject it and let there lives continue the way it is going.

This gospel is good and God is in charge.  Be safe this week, and have tons of fun.

Elder Wolfgramm

Jun 27th - Transfers

Transfers
Well we got the transfer news and it turns out that I am staying another transfer, but I won't be with Kruger. I am going to be with Elder Rafalimanatsoa my new native companion, he is the last native companion in the mission so I am so pumped. I cant wait to really start to get good at Malagasy, Elder Rafaly is not good at English at all, so the next 6 weeks will be straight Malagasy, no English. I am so stoked I cant wait!

In all honesty I am very sad that me and Elder Kruger are getting separated, he is one of the greatest people I know and will probably the best missionary to serve in this country. He is wonderful! I learned so much from him. It sucks but I have new adventures to gain with my new companion.

The area is going great, we are just going to have to wait a couple more weeks until our next baptism when Zackatina comes back to Tana and gets way diligent again. When that happens, he will get baptized. We are also making a lot of progress with Fiddison and he will be getting baptized probably with in the next few months, hopefully. Yeah that is basically all that is new.

Love this area and this mission!

Be of good cheer, life is too good. Try to find the good. Trust in God and all will be good.

Elder Wolfgramm