July 28. 2014

Wild week in Magoanine!!!!

So first of all, I called the AP's and they said that they will be going to pick up packages tomorrow, so we'll have to wait one more week to see whether or not it got here... sorry. So second of all... here is the story of the crazy week. So all was going normal right... we had our family home evening... which I sent a picture. It was super fun and we had a good time. Then tuesday, was also normal. Then wednesday. SO we were walking on the road when all of a sudden BOOM!!! something exploded and it is getting close to presidential elections and so my first thought was "oh no, war" but then nothing was weird, no one acted weird so we just kept going. Then elder barroso and I were sitting outside of a house waiting for the husband to get home when President Kretly called us.. ANd so at this point my heart is racing cause I am like, oh no it really is war and he is calling us to tell us to go to our houses. But then he was like elders, how is the day going and everything and then he was like, elders i have news for you. Two new brazilian missionaries just arrived and the Lord as called you both to be their new trainers. You will both continue being zone leaders but elder barroso will work in the city of maputo and elder lynn will continue in magoanine. He then gave some further instruction but explained that on thursday we would be getting our new companions! So as of thursday night, my new companion is Elder De Souza. He is from the same city as elder barroso. He served for 6 weeks in brazil waiting for his visa but now he is here so I will finish training him and then we'll see what happens. Elder barroso is training a missionary named elder Carvalho. He is working in the branch of Maputo 1. We will continue being zone leaders together so it will just take a little bit harder work on our part. At least once a week we have to get together and do a mini division to discuss how the zone is going and plan things out. And then almost every night we have to call each other and see how everything is going. So we wont have as much time in our areas now, but we will just have to make the best out of the time that we have! Our families are doing well, we are just having lots of problems with our families being really poor. For example, two of our families need to get their birth certificate which costs 50 meticais, or $1.80 and they don't have that money even. So, we are trying to find ways for them to make a little bit of money. Its truly incredible to see how they want so badly to get married and just don't have money that we often times don't even think about. $2.00 is almost nothing for most families yet here, they just can't afford it. So pray for them. They need all the prayers they can get. The weather is starting to get a little bit warmer now. In the mornings and at night it still gets a little cool but during the day time it gets warmer. I was able to call lots of the people up in Inhamizua lately and it sounds like they are all doing well. I just need to call Antonio and Saquina from manga cause I haven't talked to them in a few weeks. But they actually moved to Tete so they are no longer in Manga. But all is well here in mozambique. We are all happy and healthy and working hard! I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

Love,

Justin

 

 

Family Home Evening

 



 

Saying goodbye to his companion

 

 

July 21, 2014

The family history stuff has helped a ton!!!! Seriously! and I loved the pics of the weddings! I didn't know dad had so much style back in the day!!! I haven't gotten my package yet... not sure if it got stolen... we'll just have to wait and see. I am so sad to hear that coach stringer passed away... that would be so hard for the family being so young... That is pretty cool about the new family in the ward thathas a missionary in brazil. We'll get home around thesame time then. Ya its interesting... I truly believe that if we have righteous desires and then invoke the help of the lord, anything is possible. Before President Kretly got here, the missionaries and truly no one believed it was possible to baptize here. The branches all had around 25 people or less. WHen he got here, the missionaries literally told him, its impossible to baptize here. And then he said, no, the Lord has called us to serve here and so we know its possible.He had righteous desires and then he did all he could, we are doing all we can, and recognizing thatthe Lord will be theonly one who will truly baptize here. And since he has been here,the mission has baptized more than 370 complete families. Its not because its easier to baptize someone here. Its because the Lord needs these people for his work to go forward and we have an incredible mission president who understands that we can't do anything without the Lord, but with the Lord, miracles will happen. The only reason miracles wont happen, is if we don't have faith. But God is a God of miracles andif we have faith, miracles will always happen! All the missionaries are doing super well. Its interesting having missionaries from four different countries in theworld. America, brazil, mozambique, and south africa. Its great to learn from themand learn different cultures. Elder Juma from mozambique is always the life of the house haha. The missionary from south africa is new new. No, i still am horrible with the dialect here... some funny things from this week... this really shouldn't be funny but for some reasoni couldn't stop laughing. we were out doing contacts and we stopped a guy and went to shakehis hand, but he wouldn't shake our hand, and then we asked what his name is and he just looks at us with a dead serious face and says, "if its about church, i don't want it" and just walks away. Ithad to do with how he said it and just theway he was... I couldn't stop laughing haha.We had a new member ofthe 70here in our branch. His name is elder cumbulani or somehting like that. He is from south africa. He asked where I was from and I said wyomingand he laughed and said with his south african accent, wooo the wild west! apparently he has been to wyoming twice! Haha. He was really awesome to meet! Well i willsendpics and stuff next!I love you all lots and hope you have agreat week!

Love,

Justin

 

Some pictures of their apartment and where they meet for church

 

 

July 14, 2014 Staying in Magoanine

Well transfers have come and gone, and I am staying with Elder Barroso. Nothing will be changing for us. Some of the elders in our house are changing but we will be staying the same. Unfortunately Elder Mason is leaving our house, he was my best friend in the house, he is going to Beira. But Elder Juma will be staying and I like him a lot, he is hilarious and so that is good at least. Elder Shachterle, my trainer, is going to Swaziland! That is pretty crazy. Elder Galland will stay where he is at and the work will continue forward!

P day last week was super super fun. We went bowling, i well send pics and I think i bowled the best game of my life, as you can see on the score where is says L and then my score :) The bowling place is literally insane, cause its like an american mall. We went there and it was like walking into a whole new world. I didn't feel like I was in Mozambique haha. But it was really really fun. Unfortunately we didn't plan anything fun for today because of transfers and not knowing what exactly would happen. So today will be just a normal day I am guessing. We also had a family home evening last monday night. I will send pics of that. We had 20 people in total and it was super super fun. This last week was a really really succesful week for us. We got a couple new families and one family has accepted marriage and everything so we are super excited about that.

We didn't do any divisions this week. We'll start doing divisions again now that its a new transfer. We'll plan out our trainings and all that good stuff. This next transfer will go until the end of august... I can't believe that at the end of this transfer I will only have like 9 and a half months left. Time truly is always running and before we know it, the transfer will be ending again.

On Saturday we visited a super wealthy family that the house had a tile floor and they were doing a Saturday morning cleaning and it smelled like and reminded me tons of Saturday cleaning at home and it just made me appreciate the little calm summer days at home!

I am super jealous that you all got to watch all the fireworks. I don't think about all the stuff at home much anymore, in terms of missing it all. But there are still a few things I miss and fireworks is one of them haha. But I am glad you are all having a fun time! I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Justin

 

P.S.  I forgot to say also that yesterday the magoanine branch exploded!!! We had 278 people!!! There wasn't even enough space for the missionaries, we had to sit outside haha. It was incredible!

 

 

 

July 7, 2014

Ok so the internet is really bad today, it keeps on falling so I will write as fast as I can to try and get a letter off haha. I will also try and answer some questions i saw in the other emails just because of this internet thing, i will try and send all the answers in one email. We didn't do anything too special for the 4th of July... two people in our house aren't even from the U.S. so it was just a normal day haha. As far as I know, they use the same programs for the youth teaching in the church (in response to Jamie's question). For food we buy food at the grocery store, and then we have one hour to cook, eat, and clean.(p.s. i have become like a clean freak. not like weird but I love having a clean house so I make sure that all the dishes are done now and make sure everything in the house is clean before we leave to work and before we all sleep. Thanks mom for teaching me. I may not have done it before but  your example wasn't in vain!)But with our limited time, I normally just make rice and beans haha. The way you do it here for rice is super good. You take and cover the bottom of the pan in oil, then chop up onions and tomatoes. Not chop the tomatoes a lot just into pieces. Throw all that in there and then let it all cook for a while. Smash the tomatoes until it all turns into a soup almost. then when all the tomatoe has turned into liquid, add the water you will use, add salt, or whatever seasonings, and then add the rice, mix it well, but the lid on, and then leave it untill all the water is about gone, remove the lid and then put it on low untill the water is completely gone. Its just one of the ways to make better rice. Its the best softest rice ever. Zone conference went really well. Unfortunately here in Maputo we don't get fed as well as we do in beira so it was just a normal lunch with a little bit of rice and chicken. It started at 10 a.m. and went until like 7 p.m. and by the end of the day i was very tired of translating but I enjoyed it. It was a good experience and it helped the elders from swaziland. The main focus was hmmm... I would say the main focus was being an extaordinary missionary. What we need to do to be extraordinary missionaries, how to be succesful people and how we can be succesful after the mission also. It was super awesome and everyone loved it. As we come down to this last week of the transfer, its hard to believe that by next monday it will already be the middle of July. I am loving the mission and I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. We were able to find some new families this last week. It is always good finding new families but sad seeing other families just not really understand and not fulfill their commitments. I personally, have gained a whole new vision on life being on the mission. I realize how much time I wasted and how many dumb things I did before. If I could put it into a little phrase i would say the biggest thing I have learned so far would really be Moses 1:39 that this is the glory of God, to bring to pass the imortality and eternal life of man. The plan of God was for every single one of His children to be able to have the same blessings that He enjoys and he doesn't want just a few of His children back, or just the good looking ones, or anything like that. He loves every single one of His children and he wants every single one of them back. He trusted us as members of the church to do the work to bring our brothers and sisters home with us. If we don't labor all the days of our lives to really become more Christ like and help others come home, we didn't do our duty in this world. I love the savior Jesus Christ. He truly is our master. I am really striving to pattern my life after Him now and I am trying my best to start now, planning to have a life and home and family centered on Christ after the mission. There is no other way to be happy in this life than to follow all the teachings of the master, even the simple things. Christ is our savior and our redeemer. He loves every one of us. Recently I have also made the goal to memorize one scripture a day to really always focus my thoughts toward Christ. To "let virtue garnish my thoughts unceassingly." I memorize one scripture a day in portuguese and english and I have been seeing a huge change in just my thoughts, what i think about. Because if we can truly always have our thoughts centered on Christ, our actions will also be christlike actions. I really like the scripture in moroni 9:6 that says we have a short period of time to really work in this tabernacle of clay. We can not waste this time, it will only happen once, but if we will truly labor all the days of our life to bring as many brothers and sisters home with us, we will have a great and joyful rest in the world to come. I know that Christ will come again. His coming is not far away either. We were chosen to be here at this time to prepare the world for his second coming and i think if we can all understand this a little better and really see that we are here to prepare the world for his second coming, we will all work a little harder, to be a little better, sacrifice a little more, and spread the gospel a little more. I know God loves every single one of us and that is my testimony. I may not have always had this as my testimony, but because of the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter, as long as we repent and change our lives today, He will always welcome us with open arms. I hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much! Today, we are gonna go bowling cause they have a bowling alley close to where we use the internet. Should be fun!! 

Love,

Justin