November 24, 2014

Hello family!

Well, because of the time I used to finish up my college application, I will have to be a little short today. But the week in a brief summary was good. We walked and we walked and we walked some more this week... that part was a little bit rough, but it ended up paying off. We found a couple new families finally and we are so so grateful for that. Last p day, we just went back home and relaxed for p day, cleaned up the house nice for the new elder. The new elder's name is elder Mapenda. He is from beira. SO now we have two mozambicans in our house. But elder mapenda will be leaving soon for his real mission in three weeks. He is going to south africa. So he wont be here long. but something cool is now there will be two missionaries from mozambique going to america! First is a Sister who should already be in her mission... or close to finishing up the MTC and she is going to Marshall's mission!! The other one is an Elder who is going to go to Florida. Its super amazing!! Then  saturday and sunday we had district conference.. same thing as stake conference. Both sessions were packed full and we had no room for us to even be in the building so i didn't really get to watch or hear any of it but I am sure it was super good!! No worries, there were no crazy gun stories this week! We survived with out any scratches! But just for all of your enjoyment, I attached a picture of a rat we found in a bucket of water last night at our house. ENJOY!

Love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Lynn



November 17, 2014

Good morning family and friends,

Well it was inevitable... I knew that it would eventually happen and it did yesterday. I just want you to all know that I am just fine!!! Nothing happened in the end. But this is the story. So yesterday, Elder Ence and I were walking through this little alley, when a man who had been drinking walked out of a bar, saw us and pulled out two guns on us! One pointed at Elder Ence, one pointed at me. He didn't say anything though, just sat there. So we proceeded onward. We kept walking towards him until he turned and started walking with us, guns still out. He looked elder Ence up and down, but he was somewhat a small man and so Elder Ence began to giggle. That's when he pointed the gun at Elder Ence's foot and yelled in english, "You should run if you get the CHANCE!!" But I thought to myself, "Run to where?" So we just kept walking. Then we turned down onto a main road where there were some cars and he ended up Chuck Norris roundhouse kicking one of the cars that went by and then started to act like our security guard. Then Elder Ence just turned and said thanks to him and the guy said thanks back and then walked away as if nothing had happened.... It was INSANE!!! What a way to end the transfer!

So anyways on with the rest of the week. Well the big news of today is that I am staying again! With elder ence. We are both staying for a third transfer together. This is the first companion that I have had for 3 transfers. Hopefully he doesn't die being with me for that long haha. And this is my 5th transfer here... so I will have about 7 months here by the end of this transfer! I guess the Lord wants me to learn a thing or two here. Ummm but other than that, the week was good. It got really really blazing hot and it also rained and has been a little chilly in the same week. It was crazy, on saturday it was super hot and all of a sudden like thousands of these little flying cockroaches just came out of the ground everywhere! But there was this huge toad in our yard who just sat there eating them for like 2 hours, and then when he was done, he hopped off, dug a hole in the dirt and burried himself hahahaha. But he ate so many!!!! Like he had a pretty good average of about 13 cockroaches per minute and he was there for almost two hours.. I thought he was gonna explode. But the baptism went well... It didn't go exactly how we had planned it but it went well. Unfortunately, the husband had a little relapse with his drinking the day before the baptism and so he wasn't able to be baptized yet but the wife was baptized. So the picture is of her and then elder stubbs had a family where the wife was already a member but the husband was baptized. And so we will just continue working with the husband! I know it will all work out in the end. Other than that, life continues on! I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Lynn

P.S. the toads name is Kendrick

P.S.S. They weren't real guns that we had pointed at us.. it was some crazy drunk guy pointing his hands at us like they were guns.... hahahahahahahahahaha :) Love you! 

 

 

November 10, 2014

Dear Family,

Well, its week 6, the last week of the transfer. We'll see what transfers bring us. I've been here for almost 6 months now... I am not sure how that time went by so fast. I was thinking back on my time here in Magoanine the other day... When I got here I hadn't quite hit a year on the mission... and now almost 6 months later I am quickly approaching 1 year and a half. Time is flying by. I have made countless eternal friends here in Magoanine and it has (just as the other areas) made a mark on me that will help me forever. I am not sure where this next transfer will take me, but I know that the Lord has a plan for me. This past week, was good and bad. The bad, we are having a really hard time finding new families. We have been searching and trying so incredibly hard and yet it just isn't coming. So that was frustrating. But on the bright side, our families that we already have, made a lot of progress. Pinto and Lizete are prepared for baptism and will be baptized on Saturday. Joao and Julia were able to get one document for his wife and are one step closer to marriage and baptism. Bernardo and Mercia took a giant step and she took a 10 hour trip to where they were born to be able to get their birth certificates. It was a big sacrifice but it went well. So all the families are progressing. There is always happy times and sad times. But in the end its just the happy times that we remember. On Saturday, elder ence and I did Holes 2. We went and dug another trash hole... this one was even bigger. I could hardly get out haha. And I was so tired. I am getting up at a little before 6 to work out from 6 to 7 each morning and so that day I worked out from 6 to 7 and then went and dug that hole... I was so tired after hahaha. Another funny moment from the week happened on a division. So its not like we forget english or anything but here and there we say portuguese words mixed in with english but when it comes to anything gospel, thats where I have trouble with english and we contacted a guy from like zimbabway or something that spoke english. So i proceeded to try and contact in english and the following sentence came out, "The families are blessing by this message that we have..." after leaving the contact We couldn't stop laughing at the awkwardness of what I had said haha. It was a good one. But I hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much! Today we are going to the beach to play a little!

Love,
Elder Lynn

 

November 3, 2014

WOW! What a week! Again! haha. But what a week in a good way :) It was a busy week in terms of the wedding preparations, ya super busy. Normally when it comes down to the wedding week, most missionaries kinda just focus on the wedding and forget that we still have other things to do, and so we wanted to change that this week. We wanted to show that we really can do other things still. It took a lot of work and sacrifice, but we got it done! So, for every wedding, the couple needs witnesses. Here, though, the witnesses are like God parents and even though we try and explain that its just for a simple wedding, people still take it seriously. Well tuesday, the witnesses we had had planned, called and said it wouldn't work any more, so we spent all week trying to find new ones. Wednesday, we found new ones who said it would work, but then they called Friday, less than 24 hours before the wedding saying it would work anymore!!!!! So then it was a true scramble. Thank goodness there are good people in this world though and Irmao Mouzinho and his wife Irma Carina accepted to help us out, she called and got someone to work for her and then they were there on saturday to help us out. They went to the temple one week ago and were sealed together after almost exactly one year of membership in the church and they are truly faithful members who understand the importance of the gospel. They helped so much. Well, meanwhile, while all that was happening, we were trying to finish up the preparations for the couple. I learned (or taught myself) how to iron a wedding dress... hahaha. I sucessfully ironed it without burning it luckily! But then Friday came and the wife was trying to get her hair done but she had gone too late and no one would do it for her. And then what do you know, Virginia, a member came to the rescue! She came running to help and found her sister in law how knows how to do it and they ended up staying up till almost 2 in the morning doing her hair. In that same day of craziness though, I was on a division with elder thomas and we found 2 new awesome families. One family has the same story as Joseph Smith... they have been to many churches but just haven't been able to find the right one. They are an extremely intelligent family with two little boys and they loved our message. It was such a powerful lesson and then they came to church with us on sunday. We are so excited for them! Well back to the wedding. Because we had gotten the witnesses so late, we didn't know who was gonna be able to help the wife get dressed the next day because normally the witness for the wife helps.... So we were kinda freaking. And Virginia who had said she would love to help said she couldn't because she had a really important family meeting the next day. Well I just had been praying that a miracle would happen and it would all work out well. The next morning we woke up early and Virginia calls us. She told us that she had a dream that we had gone to pick her up to help with the wedding and so she took that as a sign from God that she needed to skip her family meeting and help us. And so she did.. She helped us so incredibly much. I couldn't really express my gratefulness for her sacrifice and all that she did to help us. Especially when her family was not happy with her absence. But she did it with a happy face and when I was thanking her, all she said was, " Elders, I know that one day I will need help too. Its our duty as members to serve and so this is nothing at all. Don't worry about it." What a powerful statement. It is truly our duty as members to serve! We all can learn from humble irma virginia and when the Lord calls, we can't hesitate. We must act in that moment to serve our brothers and sisters. I hope we can all learn and grow from this great example. Well Saturday, we ended up starting our day at 7:00 am to get everything ready but in the end, the wedding went well and it was a beautiful ceremony. There was a bunch of old ladies at the wedding that didn't speak portuguese so the whole ceremony was done in dialect so i didn't understand much but they did and that's what is important. It was truly a wonderful wonderful week and the Lord blessed us immensely. I love you all and hope you have a great great week!!! (If you can't tell I am pretty happy with how well this last week went :)

Love,

Elder Lynn

October 27, 2014

Wow... What a week! This was one of the more interesting weeks on my mission! So, last tuesday, we were supposed to have a meeting with Elder Clayton from the presidency of the seventy, Elder Ellis from the seventy, and President Kretly. Well they had a meeting in Beira on Monday and then all of sudden their planes got cancelled and lots of stuff happened. Well what ended up happening? Tuesday, or meetings got delayed and only Elder Ellis was able to make it. He came because he knows how to speak portuguese. But the meeting in the end went super well and even though it was quick, it was super awesome! I really loved the meeting! It was awesome! Then we went back and worked what we could that night. Wednesday, we woke up, got going a little bit, and then Elder Ence got sick, so he went to bed and slept. Well, I had a lot of time on my hands, so I decided to clean the whole house first. So I did a deep clean on the whole house, everyone's rooms... everything. Haha it took about 4 hours or so. Then I decided to make some banana bread, so I listened to some talks while I made banana bread for everyone. Then I just relaxed and listened to talks until everyone got home. It was so weird trying to find stuff to do.. I'm not used to not working every day! Haha. Then thursday was normal, friday I had a division with elder Gage and that went really well. It was fun to do a division with him and meet some of the families that they are teaching. Saturday, we got done doing some contacts in the morning and we were about home at about 11:00 a.m. when we got a text from the assistants saying that there was a blood drive going on at the maputo 2 chapel and that if we wanted it was a good chance to serve and we could if we wanted.. We all talked about it and realized, how many chances will we have to donate blood in africa and have it be a safe experience, so we ditched what we were doing and went to the city. When we got there they were so happy because not many people had showed up. So we weighed in... took down info.. all that good stuff. Then one elder started. He got his bag put in and started. Well another Elder saw the needle and blood and apparently didn't like it and he passed out... So they were taking him inside the chapel to recooperate while the rest of us were going. Elder Thomas, Elder Stubbs, and I were all donating at the same time. My bag was about full and then Tualufo, the mission secretary was there and he was like hey your bag is all full you're all done. Well just about that time i started to get a little light headed and I said, to everyone, "I am feeling a little dizzy, oh oh I'm going..." and then I passed out! Haha! I guess because I hadn't eaten dinner the night before and only a little bit of breakfast, the blood loss got to me and then i was out. When I came back to, the district president's wife was standing over me saying, You ressurected! And then everyone was laughing at the fact that I had told them that I was about to pass out. They all thought I was joking until I was out haha. They just couldn't get over that though. They just kept saying, man who knows when they are going to pass out... and who tells everyone like that?? They thought it was hilarious. haha. But that took a little bit out of us. So we went home and rested for a little while and tried to regain some strenghth again and then at about 5:30 pm we went back out and worked that night. Haha so that was quite the day. Now I can say I have donated blood in Africa! Anyways, on another note, the preparations are being made for the wedding this saturday and all is going well. But I think we are gonna hold off a couple weeks with the baptism... We just wanna make sure that they are completely ready and ya.. so the wedding will be this weekend but we'll hold off a little with the baptism. But we are still super excited!!!! The transfer is half over and so we gotta keep working hard! I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Lynn


I have two pictures to post but am having trouble getting them to load.  Will try again later!

October 20, 2014

Well this week was a pretty good week. Last P day we went bowling with the zone again and that was super fun. Elder Ence and I got there a little early so we played a little bit of pool. I was a little bit rusty but I acutally didn't do too bad! Then that night we finally found a new family! We have been struggling a lot to find new families and so it was a big blessing to find them! THen Tuesday we opened the marriage process for Pinto and Lizete! We went and picked up their last document and then opened the process. We wanted October 25th, this weekend, but the workers there created some problems and so we eneded up agreeing on the 1st of November. I really love this family a lot and I am so so excited for their marriage and baptism. On sunday they were getting super integrated into the branch and that was really awesome to see. Its just really incredible to think that 2 months earlier, this family didn't know anything about this gospel and now, they are about to enter into the waaters of baptism and change their lives! Then on Wednesday, we actually didn't have to stay in, we just had to go home a little early. So at 5:00 pm is when we had to be in so we just listened to some talks and what not, it was a nice little rest. Then on Friday I went on a division with elder stubbs. It was a super awesome day. We went to a leadership meeting in the morning and then came back and we worked the rest of the day together. At lunch we went to buy some chicken and i asked if we could get the 2 piece with fries and they were like oh sorry we only sell the 3 piece now.. the 2 isn't possible anymore.. and i was like huh? just only put two pieces in and charge me less and she just couldn't wrap her mind around that so i ended up getting a 3 piece haha. Also, that day elder ence was on a division with another elder and they got hit by a truck!!! He said they both got sent flying through a barb wire fence, and yet nothing happened to them... Angels really do protect us as missionaries. He is completely fine... doesn't even have a scratch and he got sent flying through a barb wire fence... that is a miracle! Then saturday and sunday we had general conference and it was super super good. We have a neighbor that only comes to our church on the week of general conference because he loves the motab choir and loves the director. He has been talking to us about it for like 3 months and sure enough he was there and he loved the choir just as always hahahahaha. Elder Ence and I are doing well. We are just struggling to find new famliies... But I think the Lord just wants us to learn something... So that is the challenge, figure out what the Lord wants us to learn. Bring our will in line with His. I love this work! There is no greater calling than to be a missionary of the true and living God and know that you are on the winning team... Its incredible. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! 

October 13, 2014

Hello!

This week was a good week. Last p-day we downloaded general conference onto my memory card and then went home and did a deep clean on our house while listening to parts of general conference! It was actually a really relaxing pday. THen on thursday we had quite the day. We needed to do some documents for a family so they can get married on the 25th and the workers didn't want to help at all. In the end it took a lot of patience and time, but we were able to get the documents completed. So it looks like we are going to have a marriage and baptism on the 25th of this month! We are super excited! I really love this family a lot! Today I am super short on time! Sorry! We are going bowling today and ya we are just kinda behind. But i Love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Lynn