Sunday, March 16th Mom and I attended a Stake Conference in Antananarivo. The meeting was held at the local Antananarivo University auditorium.  This is picture of the Saints arriving. Most walked.

Serving in the Madagascar Mission is another Elder and Sister Shupe. She is a nurse and is responsible for missionary health. Elder Shupe is the Mission mechanic. That means he does it all.  Whatever needs to be taken care of, he does it. From housing to car repairs, he has it all covered. We have a common ancestor: James Wright Shupe (of Company C of the Mormon Battalion) was our great-great grandfather.  Somehow, it appears that all the height in the family went his direction.

Part of the large congregation for Stake Conference.

A happy Malagasy girl.  Amazingly, she's still smiling after a 2 hour meeting.

Lots of young people were in attendance.

This guy wasn't too sure about me. Many of the young boys wear straw hats.

This little fellow was even less sure about me and my camera. What do you think, would Sennet or George like a small straw hat from Madagascar?

This LDS chapel in Antananarivo also houses the Mission office and the Mission President's Home.

Sunday evening we had dinner in the Mission President's home. Starting on left is Area 70 Colin Bricknell, Sister Adams and President Adams, Madagascar Mission President. Nearly hidden is Elder Dale Renlund, Africa Southeast Area President. At back on right is Elder and Sister Cloward from Provo, Utah.  

President and Sister Adams. Their son married Ally Passmore, David's daughter.

Lots of wagons being pulled by men in Madagascar. With traffic being as bad as it is in Antananarivo, these guys run nearly as fast as most cars.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Malagasy language.

Monday after some legal work, Mom, Jeff Clayton and I went out to a Lemur reserve.

Lemurs are only found in Madagascar. They're a primate and reminded me of monkeys but with a rat face.  There are many different varieties of Lemurs. This is a brown lemur.

Mom got pretty close to these guys.  They were pretty friendly but it was amazing how fast they could move.

Unlike a monkey, a lemur's tail is not used for gripping or hanging. 

Cute little fellow.

We also ran across this turtle at the reserve.

This is the ring-tail lemur. Disney with the movie Madagascar, made him very popular. There are always 14 black strips and 14 white stripes on the ring-tail lemur's tail.

Very inquisitive.

These guys came down from the trees to pay us a visit.

I'm not sure what we have here, but this vendor is selling some meat. Note the cow feet hanging in upper left of photo. Lots of good things to eat at this shop. I passed!

You see this often. A heavy load on someone's head.

Photo looking back into town from the Queen's Palace. The large building on left is the Carlton Hotel.

This is the King's Palace in Antananarivo. It was never completed and is basically a shell today.

We visited an amazing little factory where they build to scale, wooden boats. This lady is doing the rigging. 

A close up of the workmanship. Note the cannons and windows.

Some of the finished products.