January 31, 2014 Photos from Zone Conference

 

President Kretly and Elder Hamilton visit the apartment

where Elder Lynn and five other elders live.

 

 

A zone conference with Elder and Sister Hamilton.  Elder Hamilton is

from the Quorum of the Seventy.  Also there with the elders is President

and Sister Kretly and Elder and Sister Snelson.Elder and Sister Snelson

are the senior couple who take care of the "northern missionaries".  Justin

loves them and we love that they are there to watch over our missionary!

January 27,2014

Hey mom,

Wow seeing the pictures of the girls in the kitchen was a blast from the past! I was like whoa!! when i saw the kitchen again haha. Elder Shachterle called me when he got down to maputo and was saying he feels like he walked into america cause it is so much bigger and more civilized then the Beira area.... and that is saying something cause Maputo was a culture shock when we first got here. I am gonna have a culture shock going back home haha. Also those plants look super cool! I hope they just keep growing! They make the room look cool!!! So District conference is just like stake conference but we arenºt a stake yet. So we had a member from the quorum of the 70 here so he was the presiding authority. His name was Elder Hamilton. and he is actually coming to my house today so we need to do a deep cleaning before he gets there!!! haha. But the conference was super good. On saturday we had a training with all of the auxillary leaders of the branches and then a good meeting after. It was mainly about hastening the work. It was extremely good. I really needed it. At times as missionaries, especially when I have been in the same branch for 6 months now, we lose sight of the true meaning of missionary work. Missionaries get wrapped up in numbers and wanting to turn in good numbers so that leaders dont get mad. But the reason we are doing missionary work, is to help our Heavenly Father. The second coming is close... maybe not in my life but its close and the lord is in a hurry. He wants as many children back as he can. It really rejuvinated me again. Then on sunday the place was packed!!! It was extremely hot too because the energy was going out about every 5 minutes and then would come back on for a bit and then would leave. So also I didnºt hear a lot cause I was in the back and the mic didnºt work. But the main idea he spoke about was members and missionaries joining forces together so it was super good. Zone conference will be tomorrow so Elder Hamilton will also be there for that too!

So first week back in the area. It started raining last tuesday again and has not stopped since! So its been one of those weeks again of rain unfortunately. Our plan was to go and visit all the investigators that were left in the area book and try and get a feel for which ones are really committed to baptism and which ones werent, work with the ones who are and in the mean time really get to work on finding new investigators. So between the saturday and sunday being taken away because of district conference, we really did do some good work even if we werenºt in our area super long. Tercia was at her aunts house in the city until like yesterday or something so I havenºt seen her yet haha. But I did see a ton of the people that I already knew. Since I am still in the same branch the members are the same, its just like Iºll be working with some members more. By the time I am done with this transfer, I will have been in the same branch my whole mission which will be almost 8 months haha. Super crazy! My feet are doing good, my legs are just tired cause we had to wear irrigation boots every single day last week. And then last night we were only gonna be out for like 3 hours and the weather seemed alright so I left my umbrella at home.... but then we were only like twenty minutes away from home and the rain came pouring down and I was left completely soaked hahaha. But such is life. I wish I could say thats the first time thats happened but it wasnºt and it looks like I still hadnºt learned my lesson. Well I better keep getting the others emailed too but I attached some pictures of my favorite little girls. These are the daughters of the couple that I baptized recently. The one that I got a close up on is named augusta but she doesnºt like that name. She likes to be called menino which actually means little boy but she likes it cause thats her dads nick name and they look exactly alike haha. She is so funny. She loves us and she hates us at the same time. Well I love you so so much. I miss you tons too! I hope you have a great week!

Love,
Justin

January 20, 2014

Wow you will have to excuse my crazy email but we had something crazy just happen. Because of zone conference and other crazy things that are happening, transfers came a week early!!! So I dont have my last week with Elder Galland but we are still both in the same district because he stayed in our area and I got transferred back to my old area... Ya I am getting transferred back to my old area that I was in for the first two transfers. I cant believe it. I guess I will have lots of work to do. My new companion is a guy named Elder Allen. He is actually Tchaeºs cousin. When Tchae and I went on our trip to Utah we stopped and visited his Aunt and Uncle and they were like oh my goodness we have a son in Mozambique, and now that is my new companion. I am pretty baffled right now. I really hope we can do some good work! I hope when you guys come you can come to Manga because well this seems like its where I am gonna be forever haha. Not forever but its where the majority of my mission feels like its gonna be. I am super super surprised that I am going back to my old area. Yaaa..... crazy. Well thats enough of that stuff haha.

My testimony is doing really well. It really does grow all the time and I know it will continue to grow. There are always difficulties on the mission and always will be but as long as I always remember my heavenly father has a big plan for each and every one of us, I know that all will be well =) I am glad that you are all doing well with getting missionary experiences. Every member truly is a missionary. Our calling as full time missionaries only lasts for two years. But as members, we are members for life time. So we are truly all in this work together. Next week my email will be much better when I am not so flustered and amazed at what happened haha. I love you so much mom and I hope you have a really great week! Love you!

Love,
Justin

 

After Justin's e-mail came through I e-mailed back and forth with him a little bit.  He was really caught off guard having the transfers a week early and I think that he really thought he would be going to a different city this transfer.  He was especially surprised to be going back to his first area but I am confident that he will soon discover the reason that he has been sent back.  I am excited that he gets to be companions with Tchae's cousin!  It's fun that he has already met Elder Allen's family back home and they will have some common ground to begin with. 

January 13, 2014

Most of Justin's e-mail was either in response to things I had said or answering my questions so I have included clarifications in parenthesis.  He told Jamie when he e-mailed her that he was just really tired that day and he was having a hard time thinking of things to write.  I understand because the week goes so quickly that I am often scratching my head figuring out what to e-mail him too!

Dear family and friends,

Nice that is super exciting!! I should get them in like two weeks because we have the Beira district conference on the 25th and 26th and then on the 28th we have another zone conference! Thats super exciting! Thank you so so much! (We got a package ready to send over to him with a man from Andy's sister's ward who is going over to audit for the church) Before I forget, whenever you send the next package something I want is wash cloths. I use my wash cloth that I brought from home as a sweat wiper. But it is getting insanely gross. Like I wash it every week but it is now black.. and it used to be white haha. We always look for wash cloths here too but all of the ones I have bought dont actually pick up water, they just wipe water around. Nothing here absorbs!!! So I would love if you sent wash cloths in the next package haha. (So I'm curious. When you scare the people with your chameleon friends are they pretty good natured about your teasing? The other question I thought of today as I was listening to AJ Anderson speak (he got home on Wednesday!) was if you have had many opportunities to give Priesthood blessings while you have been there.) No the adults love it when we scare the kids. And the kids love it when we scare the adults. They are very good about making fun of us but the also take it pretty well. They just think we are crazy that we arenºt scared of chameleons haha. Ya I have actually been very surprised at how much I have been able to give priesthood blessings. I have given 3 this transfer alone. Antonio, the man I just baptized got malaria last week right after the confirmation and so we gave him a blessing. They are very willing and faithful that the priesthood will work. (My primary class is going to be fun. I really enjoy our class time, but it is a little harder during sharing time / singing time. They have a hard time staying in their seats and paying attention. Once I get it figured out how to help them sit still there we are going to do just fine. BUT, I still miss my nursery kids. And I miss being in the nursery with Sister Gann. I really enjoyed getting to know her better while we were in the nursery together.) Hahah speaking of primary. You are lucky they even stay in the room! Here, we only have like one teacher that has to try and deal with a ton of kids. like probably around 50 kids. The kids are always just running outside, in the halls, and just going crazy. And they do not like it when we step in. When we come in and have to get on the kids and make them go to class and get on them, the kids dont like it haha. I dont like having to be serious with the kids but it happens almost every sunday. But theyºll learn. They are also new in the church too. (Did you find any new people to teach this week?) Ya, we gained a couple new families, we also had to drop a couple but all is well. (Did your power come back on?) The power is a battle every single day. We always make jokes about how we dont know how they havenºt figured out how to make energy work. Like, I can remember few times in my life when the energy was out at home. Here, it goes out almost every single day. Some days its not out super long, some days its out all night. But we have no idea how they havent figured it out yet haha. Luckily we could still take bucket showers when the energy is out. It just makes sleeping pretty rough. (So you said Elder Galland's family is coming to pick him up. When does his mission end?) Ya his family is planning on it. I am surprised at how many parents do come. But he is about to his year mark. He will end in february of 2015. (Have you had a chance to get to know President and Sister Kretly very well being so far away from the mission home?) Ummm.. I have only had one interview with pres and it was like 5 minutes long haha. So no, I dont know them super well. The ones down south probably know him a little bit better but to get to know him you really have to be an office elder or the assistant. So maybe one day I will but its not a big deal to me. When you come I am sure you will get to meet them also! Well there isnºt any real big stories to report on here from this last week! I hope all is going well at home. I love you all so much and I am anxious to get the pictures!! (Tracy sent me pictures of posters they hung at the high school for Ray Bieber's 60th birthday and I forwarded them on to Justin) The pictures of biebers thing are hilarious. I love the one that shows how at one point I was wearing those jeans. I still have those jeans with me but they dont even come close to fitting me any more and the elders in my house dont believe I ever fit into them. But thats my goal is to get back to how I was. I am going to start eating healthier and working out so I can get back to the body I had before haha. Well I love you lots and lots!!!!!!

Love,
Justin

January 6, 2014

2013 was a full year! Its hard to believe that all of that happened in one year haha. (This was in respnse to the following from me:  You went to Costa Rica, graduated from High School, entered the MTC in Provo and then off to Mozambique! Amidst all that you also went to the cabin with your friends and played flipit or whatever that thing was that you were flipping into targets. And then you and Tchae also took your trip to Utah. What an amazing year you have had! 2015 will hold many good things for you as you serve our Heavenly Father and the people of Mozambique.)  I was thinking about how when I was a freshman, I was in washington d.c. for my birthday, when i was a sophomore, i was in utah visiting darcee.When I was a junior, I was in Hawaii with you guys, when I was a senior, I was in Costa Rica and this year and next year I will be in Moçambique! Pretty crazy! Another crazy thing is that when this transfer ends, it will only be 5 days away from February. The transfer after that will take me almost to my birthday and the one after that takes me to the end of April. Only two more transfers pretty much and we will be talking again! Time is really gonna fly! Iºm so glad that you guys got that done!!  (Our passport applications sent in)   An elder is leaving for home in three weeks and his parents are also coming to get him. Oh so I had an idea that you could think about. So here, one of the battles is having wedding dresses for all the brides. We get them donated and use them. But we are always needing more. Elder Tanner, was the AP when I got here and he has now gone home, but when he went home, his parents also came to get him and they brought dresses with them to donate. I was thinking that you guys could start like a dress drive in Powell, in preparation for coming. And when you come you could bring wedding dresses. I know its something that would take some planning to do but I know that the people here would be forever grateful to you. Just an idea. 

 

I also feel that for the first time in my life, I really got a response from my fast yesterday. As missionaries we definitely arenºt perfect and we still have a lot to learn. I learned how to use the scriptures on the mission. I learned really how to pray on the mission. I learned how to have faith and I learned how to work. All things I should have known before the mission but things that most missionaries learn while theyºre out. We are all still young just trying our best to serve the Lord and be who he wants us to be. We all mess up but it matters how we bounce back, not that we fell down.

 

Zone Conference was really fun. The main theme was really on the fact that the mission is only two years long and that the mission is preparing us for so much more than just being a missionary. It talked about living worthy to have our investigators trust even after the mission and always remembering them. It was a really uplifting training, just reminding us that we are missionaries right now, but more importantly one day we will be husbands and dads. I really really enjoyed it. Then we got back super late to our house to have the energy be out at our house and fireworks going all over the place so it was quite hard to sleep that night in the heat with out AC. So we all woke up the next morning just dead tired. Also, it rained every single day last week so that just added to the fact the it was hot and we were tired. But to make a long story short, we found some amazing new families. We took a family who really didnºt know who God was, and now they are some of the strongest investigators that we have. We also had the baptism of two teenagers. One is a deaf girl who really has touched the lives of so many. And she doesnºt even know it. The other is a young boy who has been in the church for forever and we thought he was a member so when we found out he wasnºt we got him taught and baptized. And then another missionary companionship in our branch had a marriage and baptism of a family of four so then on sunday we had that family, the two teenagers, and my couple to confirm so we had 8 confirmations! It was a good week! Last night though, we ran out of energy at like 11:30 p.m. at our house and so we had no AC last night. So I was dying and trying to figure out what to do to be able to sleep in the hot hot house. So I got up and sprayed myself down with mosquito spray, then I went out into our main room where we had an extra mattress and then I took those cool neck things from sister Barruss and filled them up and then just put them on my head and body and went to sleep like that haha. I like poured cold water on my self and slept like that. I probably got like 3 or 4 hours of sleep so I am pretty tired right now. We all are haha. But thats life! I think that is about all the baptisms weºll have for this transfer but if I stay in this area next transfer I have a feeling we will have a lot of success and a lot of marriages! I really wish I could send everything we do into an email but its literally impossible haha. The other picture was of a chameleon we found. We were at the church waiting for the wedding to start and they were late so Elder Cummings and I went on a chameleon hunt in the church garden haha. Then we were letting it crawl around on us and letting it scare the people haha. Its so so funny! Well I hope you have a great week!  I love you!!!

Love,

Justin