Friday, August 30, 2013

August 26, 2013 Manga

After arriving in Mozambique the missionaries stayed at the mission home until Friday, receiving further training.  Then Elder Lynn was sent to his first area - Manga.  It is about 750 miles by land from the mission home in Maputo.  His companion is Elder Schacterle from Washington and has been out for about three transfers. 

Because Elder Lynn is expending much energy trying to adjust to the area and because of internet going down we don't have much to share from his e-mails, but he did send this to us this week.

Hey family,
I'm sorry that I didn't get to write a letter last week. The internet was down and so we didn't get to email much. But I'll try and fill you in on what is happening. Well we got here a couple weeks ago and that first week we had to do a lot of paper work. So the first week was spent doing paperwork and all that. The office elders and the Assistants to the president taught us how to eat and gave us some trainings and all that good stuff. Then we got our assignments on the thursday night and then headed out friday night. I ended up getting in to Manga at like midnight so pretty much saturday morning. It was pretty rough to get in that late and then we went right to work. My companion is a really good guy. His name is Elder Shachterle but we just don't have like anything in common which is really hard. But we do a lot of work. So we have quite a few families right now. The families here take quite a while to get baptized because of the marriage deal. There are so many documents they need to get married and the documents can take quite a while to get through so we usually have to set their baptism date quite a while in advance. But we have a pretty nice house comparitavely speaking. I live with 2 other sets of missionaries too which is a blessing because I definitely need other people to talk to. We live like 45 minutes away from our area though and that is really hard. We have to walk so much everyday and we don't have bikes right now so my feet are super blistered. But we do have AC and warm water in our house so that is super nice. But ya manga is pretty poor. Not the most poor area in mozambique but definitely poor. Pretty much all houses are little shacks or mud huts. And there aren't really streets anywhere, we just walk the the villages on little paths. And all we hear all day long is "branco" or "mazungo" or "china". Mazungo is dialect for white person here. They speak a lot of dialect here. In the north where I am, they speak macena. Down south in Maputo they usually speak machangana. Pretty much everyone here speaks one or two dialect languages. One hard thing about the languages is that most of the women here never go to school very far and they don't speak portuguese very well. They also usually never know how to read. So a lot of times we rely pretty heavily on the husbands to be able to help them understand and read. When we try and get the women to pray in the lessons we usually have to have them pray in dialect cause they can't or won't do it in portuguese. Food is really cheap here compared to america. So we actually eat really well. We have an elder in our house who has gained 35 pounds here in 4 months. There are so many cookies and everything around here that we eat them all the time on the street. We haven't eaten at any members houses yet so I haven't tried anything crazy. I've seen some pretty nasty things though. One thing they do is take fish and then just dry it out on the roof and then once its dry they just eat the whole thing. Its really nasty and I refuse to try it. We all have water filters in our houses so luckily we all get filtered water. We eat lots of fruits on the side of the road which is really nice. The kids here are super good but at the same time some are just crazy and hard to deal with. It can be super hard to always be singled out and all that. But the town Beira where we come to email is like an hour away. I don't know how far in distance but the public transportation is hard here so its random how long it will take. Umm we have like 3 families right now who should be married and baptized next month so that should be good! If I think of more things I will keep sending them.
Love,
Elder Lynn

August 8, 2013


Elder Lynn with President and Sister Kretly
 and all the new arriving missionaries
 

 
Elder Lynn with President and Sister Kretly


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

August 5, 2013 Arrival in Mozambique!

They made it to Mozambique and really don't look any worse for the wear. 
When we visited with Justin on Sunday he said he didn't feel like a missionary
yet so he was so excited to get to Mozambique and get to work.  He hopes his companion
only speaks Portuguese to him.  He is happy, healthy and loves serving our Heavenly Father.
 
 
This e-mail came with the picture:
 
Dear Parents-
Your Elder’s have made it safe to Mozambique! Last night we picked them up at the airport at 9:15 pm.
We are so excited to have them with us! They are all so excited to get out and work! We know they will be a blessing to our mission and be part of the many miracles that are happening here!
Elder de Oliveira, Elder Miller, and Elder Ostler
Mission Secretaries
 



Monday, August 5, 2013

Address change

Here are all the ways that Justin can currently receive mail:

Regular mail – requires a $1.10 stamp for normal size and weight

Elder Justin Bill Lynn
Mozambique Maputo Mission
Caixa Postal 1166
Correio Central
Maputo, Maputo
Mozambique

Pouch mail can be sent two ways.  First you can go to dearelder.com and type and send a letter and they take care of the rest.  Second, you can send to pouch yourself following these instructions:

Only postcards or one-page correspondences (no envelopes) written on one side of the page may be sent through the pouch.  Notebook or other light-weight paper will not process through the USPS machines.  Photographs are not acceptable. Letter folding instructions: Lay the letter blank side down.  Fold the bottom of the letter about one-third of the way up the page and crease.  Fold the top of the letter to the bottom of the first fold and crease.  Secure the long side with two pieces of tape about one inch in from each end, but do not seal the ends.  In the top left corner write your name and complete return address.  Affix first class postage in the top right corner.  In the middle write the missionary address as follows:

Elder Justin Bill Lynn
Mozambique Maputo Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Finally, you can simply e-mail him at justin.lynn@myldsmail.net  Until we hear from him in Mozambique we won’t know for sure what day of the week he will get to e-mail.  But you can still send one to him at any time. 

Packages cannot be sent using any of the above addresses.