December 15, 2014

Good morning family!

Well it is really starting to heat up now! I am fighting the sweat right now as I type this e-mail haha. It's insane that in one part of the world it can be so cold, and in the same time in another part of the world, be so so hot. 37 years already??  (This week Mark and I will celebrate 37 years of marriage!) You guys are getting old! That is insane... Time goes by so dang fast. Yesterday, we had a Christmas devotional and its not that far away to Matola, but it takes about 2 hours to get there. So we have lots of time to talk and what not. And yesterday Elder Stubbs and I were talking about how weird it is that for him in less than two months, he will be a returned missionary but how we don't feel like we are old enough for that to be possible. And we really really don't feel old enough that we'll have to start thinking about dating to find a wife haha. That is just weird. Time really does go by fast. 

In regards to Christmas, I haven't gotten my package yet, most likely I'll get it tomorrow at zone conference. And with skype we'll be skyping on the 24th, so next wednesday. My alotted time will be from 7:00pm-7:40pm. I'm not sure what time that will be back home right now. I think that is about 10:00 am but you'll want to make sure. 

Once again, it doesn't really feel like Christmas time. Its really hot and there are no real signs, like they don't put up lights or anything so its just normal time. But honestly I like it better like that. If it was cold and all decorated, it would be hard to stay focussed all day so I think for missionaries, this is a lot better. Umm so we had two families preparing for next week, but when we went to open the marriage processes, only one family was able to open the process. The other family got there, and we found out that the wife lost one of her documents, so it looks like they will have to wait a little bit more until we can get that document back unfortunately. But we are still extremely happy that we will have one family next week! 

Well I hope you all have a great week! I Love you all so much and we'll talk more next week!

Love, 

Elder Lynn

December 8, 2014

Bom dia Familia! 

Well I think this week I can truly say that I feel like Ammon in chapter 26 of Alma. This week we were so incredibly blessed that I just want to truly rejoice and praise the Lord for His goodness. He really has opened ways for His work to keep on going. Something extremely interesting that I learned last week, comes from a talk by David A. Bednar that he gave in the most recent mission president training meeting. In it, he makes it very clear that this is the Lord's work and that He will hasten it. Now we play a very important role in helping, but we do not decide when or how. If we want the work to be hastened we must do it when and how the Lord wants. It makes perfect sense. He knows His children much better than we do. So we must trust in Him and do it His way. He also makes it very clear in the Book of Mormon that He can do this work on His own. The reason that He allows us to participate is because He knows how much we will grow from it and that it is for our benefit. With this being said, can we deny this great blessing that He is giving to us? No! We need to magnify our callings as members of the church and spread the gospel. Another thing that we have talked about a lot recently just at home with the other missionaries is qualifying for the highest degree of the Celestial Kingdom. And then this morning after reading the talk by Quentin L. Cook, Elder Ence and I were talking a bit about it also. And I was reminded of the tak by Dallin H. Oaks, Good, Better, Best. We can look at it this way, good choices, will lead us to a good place. The terrestrial kingdom is a good place. Better choices will get us to a better place, the lower two degrees of the celestial kingdom are better places. But to get the best place (the highest degree of the celestial kingdom) we must make the best choices. This includes magnifying our callings. Often times we as members become to lackadaisical in our callings in the church. But President Kretly taught us a very important principle this last week, he said, "Responsibility is not a burden, it is a privilege." What a powerful statement! I really thought that was awesome. I just pray that I can magnify my callings in the church so that I can one day enter into the highest degree of glory, exaltation. 

Well on with the blessings of this week. We were so incredibly blessed this week to find new investigators. But not because of our own work, because of the members. This week they stepped it up a lot, and gave us so many awesome references. We didn't have to spend time looking, we were able to teach! It was really awesome. On top of that, our two families Bernardo and Mercia, and Joao and Julia, were able to finish all of their papers and tomorrow and wednesday, we will be going to the register to open up the marriage processes so that they can be married and baptized on the 24th. Unfortunately, the husband of that one family is still having quite a few problems, and we aren't quite sure why. We just keep praying that the Lord will work with him. 

So here's a funny story that Grandpa Don would love. The other day, one of the elders decided that we should describe all of the elders in our house using one verb.... Guess what verb I received? Telling stories. hahhaha. I was dubbed as the one who always has stories. I think I must have subconsciously received that from Grandpa Don. Speaking of these stories, this week there were plenty of them! I am running out of time so I will only tell one. So last night this drunk guy stopped us and started babbling about who knows what and in the end he was trying to convince us that alcohol doesn't hurt anything and that he is perfectly fine when he drinks. So at the very end I said, "Look, I believe you are a smart man, but right now because you are drunk, you are talking a million miles an hour and it just is coming out alkjfdlkfjaskldfjsdfjdkasfklasdjfkldsjfl." At this point he just busts up laughing... like hysterically laughing and then just manages to say.... You...you...you...gotta point haha and then just walked away laughing. In the beginning I wasn't even trying to be funny but he just couldn't stop laughing haha. Good times in Malhazine! 

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Lynn 

December 1, 2014

December? DECEMBER?? Is that even really possible? Was it not December just a minute ago? The time is flying by now. I feel like there really is no stopping it now. I am glad to hear all is going well at home. It looks like you all have about 6 months to practice up on ping pong before I come home to take you all down. I also can see that the christmas decorations are starting to go up. Well they are also starting to go up in our house haha. We bought a bunch of paper and made like over a hundred snowflakes and then hung them up in our house. i will try and send more pics next week. We also put up a small christmas tree, a nativity scene, an elder got a gingerbread house, and we hung up some lights. So its not completely like home, but its a little piece of Christmas here :) We also attempted to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday. At lunch time, instead of us all eating separately, we made rice, beans, corn, meat, and some random foods together and we all ate together. It was nice to sit all together at the table and eat a little bit like a family. One thing that has been very nice about Maputo is that every single day isn't blistering hot like Manga. We get days that are hot still, like the other day it was up over 100 degrees, but there are also lots of days in the high 70's or low 80's which is a blessing! I definitely am loving that little bit of a temperature change. It hasn't rained super hard yet either. It doesn't flood too bad here so its not as big of a problem like it was in Manga. In Manga, it just always instantly flooded when it rained haha. Last P day we ended up just chillin at home. We have a few games at home so on Pdays we like to play "Risk" a lot. I now have the most wins in the house. I won last week, so next time we play i'm sure i will have the target on my back haha. This week, Elder Ence was sick for a couple of days so i had some time to listen to some different talks, make some cinnamon rolls, and call all my families that I know up in Beira. It was nice to talk to all of them. I love the Inhamizua branch president so much. I called him and when he answered he couldn't figure out who I was cause i was sick and so my voice was a little raspy, but once i said it was me he just started yelling "oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ELDER LYNN meu grande amigo!!" hahahaha. I miss him a lot. I told him that even if I never get transferred back up there, that I will be coming with my family, and he got so excited. He is very excited to meet mom and dad. He really is an amazing man. But that was nice to have time to call all my recent converts and see how they're doing. So this week was a little weird with having those couple sick days, then elder stubbs and I had a meeting on saturday, so we did a division that day. We were close to the distribution center so I used a little bit of personal money and splurged a bit... I was just so ready to hear some new music cause I have had the same music my whole mission.... so i bought a motab cd... it has been wonderful to listen to them. when i say splurge, i mean it cost 10 dollars haha. so not that much but more than i normally spend. I can't believe that Tyson Thompson is already gonna be done with his mission.. that is insane. I just am amazed by that.. Well this week should be another good week. We have a couple more big meetings, we should be opening a marriage process to have a family married and baptized on the 20th and 25th of this month.. SO the miracles and blessings keep coming. I love you all so much!!!

Love,

Elder Lynn

 

 

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