Elder Justin Bill Lynn Mozambique Maputo Mission: September 8, 2013

Hey family!!

Ok so first off Iºll say that the apostrophes arenºt working right today cause I have a portuguese keyboard. But ok Iºll do a big letter of everything that happened and then run through personal letters answering questions with my time I have left. So last monday starting off after I emailed we went and got groceries and everything and then headed back to our house. Oh to answer Christy, we have oreos here but they are way more expensive for us so I buy these other cookies that only cost like 10 metacais which is like... I donºt know, cheap haha. So anyways, we went back put our groceries away and then hung out and played games and rested until 6:00 and then went out to an investigators house named Tomás and Diana. We had a little testimony meeting with them and spiritual night and it was super fun! Then we did some street contacts and headed home for the night. Then tuesday. Tuesday we walked with the branch missionary leader named Joakin Conde. He is a 19 year old who is amazing. He takes charge of everything in the branch with missionary work and he is about to send his papers in pretty soon. So we walked with him and taught some lessons to some people with him. Then he left and we taught a lesson to a guy named José who was taught before but dropped. We talked and he has a strong testimony that he knows its true but he is embarrassed because he has a drinking problem so we are going to work with him hard to help him! Then we also taught a family whose parents are named Felizardo and Dorka. This family is such a blessing! They are progressing so well and working on marriage documents right now. They have some amazing kids too. They have a little daughter who is 8 years old and every time we walk by their house she will run up and walk with us and hold our hands cause she loves the missionaries and the church! They live about 20 minutes away from the church and last sunday the parents were out of town but she still came to church on her own cause she loves church so much! She is such a sweetie haha. Then wednesday we visited Henriquez. The one I sent the picture of. He is like 19 or 20 years old. He is super super cool. So he is scheduled to be baptized this Saturday!! Our first baptism! He is really all about doing this cause Its the will of the lord and he is really dedicated to doing this and so weºre super excited! Its fun to go to his house and we teach him underneath this huge tree every time we visit haha. Its way fun. Then while we were walking through our area, we see people ride by on a bike and all we see is him and just hear him make a goat noise and we were like, what in the world... haha. Then I looked back and he had a goat tied to the back of the bike we couldnºt see who was making the noises hahaha. So we also taught Elias. Elias is the man in the black sweatshirt and probably one of the coolest guys you will ever meet. When the missionaries first met him, he had two wives living with them and he wasnºt willing to change. Then after a while he came back to the missionaries saying he was ready. So that was like two weeks before I got here so Iºve been working with him since. He has such a strong testimony and really is intelligent. One thing about the people here is that they can be smart, but once it comes to the church, its hard for them to understand and so our conversations will be so simple. And honestly not many people can read well here. He though, is such an amazing guy. We canºt believe how much he reads and understands and every time we come back he knows more and more and right now he is in the process of making an agreement with one of the wives to leave and everything and its really big sacrifices for him. But he is so committed and he will be baptized hopefully next month!! Then the next day a cool experience, we were doing contacts and we met a guy named angelo. He came up telling us that he had prayed to have a religion and as soon as he saw us his heart started beating and he knew we were the right people for him. So we are still waiting to see how everything works with him but he is super cool and so ready!!! Also, I had a little kid tell me I am beautiful haha. But then that night we went to Tomás and Dianaºs to talk about when we can open the process with them, and Tomás never showed :( so we were super sad but luckily we talked with them last night and he had problems with his motorcycle and so we plan on opening the marriage process with them on wednesday of this week! So Friday we were talking to a guy named Armando. This guy is a crack up haha. He is so superstitious about everything though and it was hilarious lol. But we asked him to bare his testimony and he proceeded to tell a 20 minute story that was all over the place haha. But that is mozambicans for you! They absolutely love to talk haha. We also had a super fun family night on saturday with some families and what not. Saturday we taught more lessons and got quite a bit done. But the highlight of the day, we walked by the padaria on the way home and they had hot bread for 2.5 met which is like 10 cents and it is sooooo good haha. Church on sunday was good. But Iºll admit, church kinda stresses me out. Be grateful for church in America!! Its just as true here but the kids are wild and its hot and I canºt understand like half of it. So be grateful haha. But after church we ate and I watched some videos until correlation meeting. Than at correlation I was asked to give the spiritual thought and I was nervous but it went super well and Iºve been told that people think Iºve been here for over a year which is encouraging even though I still have so much to learn haha. Then that night we went and met with our other couple who will be married next week which went really well. Also last night I gave my first blessing in portuguese... scary haha. But thats my week!! We have one guy being baptized this saturday and then next saturday we are having a big collective marriage where we will have two couples being married and baptized. Some of the hard things here would be the racism here. Many people donºt like us which is really hard but I have much more respect for everyone now! Oh and I want to tell two things of advice. USE THE TEMPLES!! As missionaries not being able to go is hard on us, but the people here save for years just to be able to go once. Please use the temple!! There is nothing you could have that could be more important! Also, have family home evening! I can see how much it helps here when families actually have it here. One more funny thing. The kids here always try and speak english to us here and it was hilarious. The other day, we were walking and we hear, "Good morning afternooning!" hahahaha. Gotta love it. Ok I love you all so much and canºt wait to hear from you next week!!

Love,
Ma

Elder Lynn