To me if you look at the religion in deep, I don’t really see a difference [between Malagasy culture and LDS culture]. The traditions were introduced by our ancestors. In the LDS church, there is a blessing ordinance of the home through prayers. The Malagasy way, you go to a medium. If you are religious, the scriptures say that even if you drink poison and you have faith, it will not kill you. The problem is that the church is still young in Madagascar; people still hold their traditions. They love the religion, but they don’t want to leave their tradition. If they truly follow the religion, they should give up their tradition. For us, we use “Famadihana” [a funerary tradition in Madagascar that involves exhuming dead relatives, rewrapping them, and dancing with their corpses] to get names for temple ordinances and to complete family history. We don’t practice “Famadihana.” I have let my life in God’s hands. He leads our lives.
How I draw people to get interested is to use family history and temple work. “Who we are and where did we come from?” Often before Malagasy people get married, they inquire of who the family is, their origins. I do this and then it leads to letting them know slowly about the LDS church.
…I had a feeling, more like a whisper that I would be called to be the Director of the Family History Center in 2011. At the time, I needed to meet with the Stake President about something so I spoke to his secretary (this brother has passed on). He told me that the Stake President might have availability on Tuesday. I said that will work. He then wanted to look at the schedule and said that I had already been on the schedule to meet with President Roger that Tuesday at 5:30 at the chapel in Tsaralalana. I went to the appointment and they interviewed me. He asked me if I had time and I said I do. He called me to the Director of the Family History Center.