Rocks the socks

I'm so excited for the holiday season! Halloween is fast approaching and you better believe that even in Madagascar we are preparing for our Halloween celebration. Last night me and Elder Riding carved a pumpkin that I bought from one of my recent converts. Then, we got everyone out of bed at 11:30 at night, dressed up in cheesy sweaters and jeans, made a fire, and took our house Halloween picture. You'll be receiving one in the coming weeks. There is also going to be a Halloween party, a Thanksgiving picture, and a Christmas picture. There will be lots of costumes and live animals involved.

So, as you might have guessed, Antsirabe rocks the socks right now. Me, Riding, and Peatross stay up late every night talking and creating things. Sometimes our activities may or may not take us past 10:30, but as soon as we realize the time we head straight to bed. The best part of all our fun is that we are still working way hard. Unlike many whose idea of fun is directly related to laziness and disobedience, I feel like it has only driven us to work harder and more effectively. Our Antsirabe Zone has pretty much twice weekly parties and get togethers, so it is just making life awesome. On Sunday night we have a Family Home Evening/Pot-Luck were we play games and just get to know each other better.

In other news, my bike is the most miserable creation of metal and tires the world has been cursed enough to behold. On that note, Elder Peatross's bike is right behind it in levels of dreadfulness. These bikes break constantly. I personally feel that this is a personal attack from the Enemy himself, Satan. He knows that we are a rockin force of scriptures, Malagasy, and the Spirit, so he's obivously trying to hold us back. But we'll throw those bikes in the ditch and run to our times if we have to.

Work is getting quite chaotic and packed. Referals are coming in; old investigators from the Sisters are coming out of the wood-works; and the work is just on the whole erupting. We are supposed to get about 9 baptisms at the end of this month to add on to the 3 that are coming up this Saturday. I'm a little bit nervous about the whole affair. I feel like people just aren't getting the time and attention that they
deserve. We're slowly converting our whole schedule to thirty minute times only, because there is too much work for everyone. Personally, I love hour long times because you really get to know your investigator and build a foundation of trust and love. But, duty calls and the war against darkness is mounting further every moment.

I feel like this situation can directly be related to faith. In order for faith to grow, we must experiment upon that which we have and exercise it constantly to see progression. There is no such thing as a 'plateau' level where you can just relax and cruise. As one of the Apostles said, (possibly M. Russel Ballard, or Uchtdorf...I can't rememeber),"There is no growth in the comfort zone." I know that
to be true for I have seen the positive and negative effects of the dynamic principle of faith in my own life.

I miss you guys and can't wait to chat at Christmas. Love, Elder Cryer