October 28, 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

Well unfortunately, because of a funeral and some other circumstances that we hadn't foreseen, we wont have a wedding this week. But we are opening up the marriage process this wednesday which means they will be married next week! But transfers are next week also so we'll see if I'm even still in Manga! Exciting! First off, I wanna thank everyone for the letters every week. I really appreciate the time I have to read everyones emails and see what is going on at home. It really is a huge blessing and if I don't respond its cause I ran out of time, but I still read them all and they are honestly so good for me! Now on to happenings of last week. So last monday we had another super fun family night where we played uno. Mozambicans and uno... They love it haha. They weren't too happy that I won!!! Haha :) And we also make banana bread or other things like that for treats and they think its the greatest thing ever haha. Tuesday, was really good, we started teaching some part member families in hopes to bring families together in the church so we started teaching sisters of two different families and their friends. Also, on tuesday we had this super powerful lesson with a family where we took Domingos (our recent baptism) to help us teach. We talked about how its time for them to act and be baptized. They need to put aside the african marriage traditions and follow the Lord (if none of you have watched the video e um milagre on youtube you should. Its about the marriages here but how the church has overcome it.) Anyway they completely accepted and so we are working hard so they will be ready for baptism the first week of december!! Wednesday unfortunately was a little bit harder day and not much happened. Thursday, the inevitable happened. I had avoided being sick my whole time here in africa so far but it finally got me last thursday so we spent thursday in the house and I slept and rested up. Friday we were back out and had a good day. We taught a new family who understood really well and was really pretty relaxed and accepted everything really well. It was a blessing! But saturday we had one of the coolest first lessons I've ever had. This guy was just so ready and prepared. The Lord prepares people in various ways and this guy was prepared to hear the gospel. He completely accepted baptism in the first five minutes of the lesson, we have a date set for him and he came to church the next day. What a blessing!!! Blessings are all around us if we will just look. Ok now for the funny stories of the week. So there was a family who was married and baptized last transfer during the collective marriage, and they wanted their kids to have nice shoes for the wedding and church so they went out and bought what they thought were these super nice shoes. Well they were really tap dance shoes haha. And unfortunately, nothing here has carpet and so our chapel is tile floor so you can imagine what it sounds like when he walks in. We just die laughing every week joking about how he just wants his true talent as a tap dancer to be discovered haha. People here are always trying to speak english to us even if it doesn't make any sense and they think they are just the funniest people in the world. We walked by a guy who was holding a bottle of alcohol and he yelled, "You want to try??" and we just said "Boa tarde" and he just started laughing crazily and said back in english, "Thank you verrrrrrryyyyy much!!!" Needless to say, he needed to rest a little before he was gonna be with it. The other funny story didn't happen to me but to other elders in our district. They said they have this guy in their area who everytime he sees them just comes running up and says the same thing everytime and then walks away. He walks up and says, "Peace half moon, peace half moon. No rans!" then smiles and walks away hahaha. They said they want to teach him the word cookies next time haha. Well I just want you all to know that I have a testimony of this church and how true it is. I have so much respect for the prophet joseph smith and everything he did for this gospel, he was an amazing man. I hope you all have a great week and don't be afraid to be missionaries! Love, Elder Lynn The pictures are, one of me and one of my investigators little boys. Don't let the smile fool ya, he's crazy hahaha. Then me holding one of our huge banana trees that we cut down from our back yard, and the other is me on top of the grand hotel. You should all go look up the grand hotel. It was once the shining hotel of africa and now its nothing close. Definitely should look up old and new pics of it. Love ya!

 

 

 

 

 

I'll send you some pics you can put on the site of me washing dishes like a mozambican. Our water and energy were out so we couldn't wash dishes or take showers so we washed them in big tubs outside. Bucket showers are pretty nice here actually. When we don't have energy or water and I don't shower for a couple days I will just finally take a bucket shower and they are actually kinda nice!

October 21, 2013

Hello friends and family!

Well week four of the transfer is done! I'm in an internet cafe where I cant send pictures so no pics this week but hopefully next week! So last monday. Oh man. We had a family night at a members house and brought investigators and it was one of the funnest nights I have ever had here! Hahahah. We taught them how to play uno and they were just going crazy! When they get excited they will speak in dialect so we dont know what they are saying haha. But there was a returned missionary there who spoke a little english so he would turn and just say hilarious things to us in english. Mozambicans are honestly so funny especially when it comes to games! So that was so fun. Then on wednesday I had a division with the newest elder in the district so that was really fun. I was in a close area for once and it was weird not having to walk 45 minutes to get to my area. I can't believe I ever drove before! hahah. I think another one of the coolest things happened thursday. We walked with a member who is 20 years old, he was baptized last month and he walked with us to teach lessons for like 4 hours. So him and I just talked the whole time and it was so amazing to think, we are from two different countries, before four months ago I couldn't speak his language and yet here we were talking like friends. The world is a lot smaller than everyone thinks! And then my cool thought from friday was, as I was ironing my shirt I was singing "God be with you till we meet again" in portugues and here the people sing hymns with their own notes sometimes and kinda "africanize" the hymns and so I am now doing it too haha. But I was singing it like them and just thinking, wow, I actually feel like I belong here now and I really do love these people. I think it was really one of the first times that i felt i belonged and that i wanted to be here more than I wanted to be home. It was a wonderful feeling to feel like i really belonged. Then, saturday and sunday was general conference! In portugues! That was most definitely the hardest I've ever had to try and listen before but it was so worth it! I'll be honest though, I am only 18 still so it was kinda hard to pay so close attention for so long so i kinda lost out on the last couple talks but everything I heard was amazing! Ok I'm sorry today everything is so short, we are kinda rushed today and unfortunately thats how it is sometimes. But next week will be better! I love you all and I love this gospel!

Love,

Elder Lynn

October 14, 2013

Hello Family and Friends!
 

Well first off, I wanna say I'm sorry cause this week there won't be any cool pictures. I didn't take any more cool pics this week haha. Secondly, guess what!? I get to watch general conference this week! Saturday at 14h we get to watch the saturday session and then sunday at 8 we get to see the sunday session. I can't really express how giddy I am right now haha. Ok anyways on to the happenings of the week! So I forgot to tell you something pretty cool/funny. So Luiza the lady who I baptized. She goes by luiza but when I baptized her and had to say her full name we found out her real name in total is Njeruza Chanigua Chinai Sande hahah. So when I baptized her I had quite the mouthful to say! Last week was a pretty hard week I guess. We had lots of good things happen though too. So we made it a focus to try and find people who could be leaders of the church, and we really feel like last week we were blessed to find 3 families where they really could be. We had some amazing lessons with all of them and it was a good week in that sense! But then none of them showed up to church. That was really sad. It was tough to not have many investigators at church. But I still have hope for them. I sent this part in a letter to mom but I'll share it with everyone. We have this little family who I started teaching about the third week or second week of last transfer. At first we weren't so sure about them, but now they are just the biggest blessing in my life. Their names are Felizardo and Dorca. They are like my little parents here. We walk by their house quite often and so Dorca is always checking up on us making sure we aren't sick and just seeing if we're having a good day :) And Felizardo is just this cool, slick dressed man haha. But they both have such strong testimonies of Joseph Smith and prayer. It is just one of my favorite things to get to go to their house! Now for some funny stories of the week! We have a family that we visit and they have a neighbor boy who is like 3 years old. And here the kids just all run out and just spout out whatever english they know. Its normally like "good morning teacher" or "i'm fine tanks and you?" or good afternono." But this little kid runs out everyday just telling "Good morning tooter!!" He is trying to say teacher but its just the funniest thing ever haha. Also, I don't know if I have told you, but here no one has addresses cause there aren't roads just little paths with houses scattered everywhere. So you have to have a phone pretty much for us to contact them and find their house. Well we street contacted a guy and he didn't have a phone but he says, "Don't worry, I can give good directions to my house." They never can but we listened anyways. So he says, " first, go to the market of pequeno brasil. Then head on the path towards the church. " Keep in mind there are about 3 churches right next to that market. "You are going to head to the road by escola 25 but you wont get there. You will see a house that was being constructed but isn't anymore and doesn't have paint." Also keep in mind, no houses have paint here and every house was being constructed at one time haha. "Then turn right at that house. Go in two houses on the left and ask them if they know Hage. My name is Hage. They will know me. If not, they will know my son, he is very preffered in our village." Well, the next day we went, and actually managed to find the place he was talking about and went in, and asked if anyone knew hage. Little to our suprise, no one knew hage haha. So we never taught him! Haha but mozambicans. They think their directions are so specific lol. Well family and friends, I don't have much more time but just wanted to let you know, this life is a journey not a race. Take it day by day and enjoy the little things. "Adam fell that men might be. Men are that they might have joy." I never understood this scripture until now. We are on this earth so we can have joy. Our Heavenly Father loves us so much he has given us this precious time to love, grow the gospel, and have joy. We need to work everyday to enjoy the journey and have joy. I love you all so much and want you all to know that I know this church is true! I love you and hope you have a grand week!

Love,

Elder Lynn

October 7, 2013

Hello Family and friends!
 

Well the theme of last week was RAIN! The rain came a bit early this year and really had the mozambicans confused haha. It started last monday and would rain for about half of the day each day of the week. It would drizzle at some points and then it would just open the skies of heaven and rain was pouring! I have never seen rain come down so hard before. This also made us very wet. Haha because despite this, we still have to be missionaries and go out and preach the gospel. So we put on our irrigation boots so we could get through the flooded areas and we just wrapped our scriptures up in plastic bags and went out. The only problem is that, Mozambicans hate rain. So the minute it rains the streets clear and everyone is gone and no one wants to meet with us haha. But we still thankfully had quite a few lessons anyways. Its pretty hilarious to see them running as fast as they can to get out of the rain and we are just out getting absolutely soaked haha. We also had an amazing lightning storm one night. It was crazy! Besides the weather though, last week was a fairly rough week with investigators. We had to drop four families for cause of the fact that they weren't progressing and then we had one family who was ready to be baptized and they moved. So we lost five families last week that was really hard. So we are kinda starting new again. But we had an amazing zone conference last week where we kinda learned more of what we are focussing on. So, right now the church is still very young here and so while no one is excluded from the church, right now we are trying to find those who can be leaders. Because the church is like a house, every single part of the house is important, but you cant put the roof up before you have the foundation. So right now we are building the foundation. And here, it is very common for people not to be able to read, and if they can they almost never understand when they read. So we have to teach so extremely simple so they can understand. But there are people who understand! These are those who will be the leaders. We need them right now so that the church can have a strong foundation to build upon. So my companion and I have started a new process of looking for those who understand well, progress well, and can be the leaders of the church! Luckily, those families who are left, are going to be leaders. We have Elias. He is the smartest person I have met here. I may have already mentioned it but he has already read the whole book of mormon and is now starting in on d&c while continuing the B.O.M. They other night he told us that he didn't read much since our last visit and we asked what he did read, he then went on to give us a description of mosiah chapter 16 and how he learned that because of the atonement of christ the law of moses was fulfilled and then started cross referencing to D&C to back up his scrips and then he also read and knows the background of both priesthoods and why they are what they are and how they function. And he said he didn't read much. He is honestly going to be such a strong leader. We also have about two other really strong families right now who we are very happy with. So this week we will be starting fresh and beginning again to try and build our area while looking for those who will be leaders of the church. I wanna send more pics so I'll end this early and send descriptions of the pics! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Lynn

I think he forgot to send his descriptions, except for

the last two photosStill fun to see the pictures!

 



Elder greenman and I wearing our irrigation boots together haha

We started making some super good food, Elder Galland and I did and so one is a meal that we made. We made homemade tortillas, then some rice, beans and then shredded chicken and I made our homemade bbq sauce to put on it. We have been making awesome food and I'm glad I know how to cook haha!

Sept. 30, 2013

Hello family!!

Well today was kinda an annoying day cause I couldn演 get on my account for forty five minutes!! So I apologize for the shortness of all the letters this week. I also apologize to all those who I haven演 answered to recently because of the internet here. Also unfortunately, my emails to dad and jamie wont send this week so sorry about that! Ugh! The problems that we can have sometimes haha. But I槌l try and pack as much into this letter as I can and I槌l send some other pictures too! The first pictures in this email are just some fun pictures I took and the one of the little black boy is from the wedding haha. The one with all the kids was at the wedding too when we waited for it to start. So lets see, transfers came and went like I said last week so this week we had some good things happen! So I槌l start out with some funny stories for the week hahaha. So holidays here are more of just a day for everyone and there cat to get drunk. So we can have problems on holidays. So we were just about to get home last week when it was a holiday and some drunk guys stopped us and started talking to us. We were advising them that drinking isn演 good and especially not when they have kids! They told us they knew but they couldn演 help it and while we were giving them some advice this little old grandma who was probably like 4 foot 6 inches tall walks up to us and just starts doing crazy hand signals haha. She was very out of it. She didn演 say words she was just going crazy with her hands waving everywhere. Then she started going off on us in dialect which isn演 unusual for the grandmas to do to us here but she was just hahaha... I can演 really explain how out of it she was. And then when we finally walked away, she proceeded to shake our hands and bow down to us and I was just laughing crazy lol. Now for some cool stories of the week! So Elias, the man who has two wives is probably one of the smartest people here I漓e met and the strongest in the gospel i漓e met. And we made a breakthrough! He said that he finally got the woman to agree to leave which means he will only have one wife!! So in lessons with him, he always tells us these scriptures he knows and he is just insanely smart! Especially cause most people here can hardly read and honestly not many understand the restoration at all. So to have someone understand things is such a blessing. But anyway we were at his house and we told him how smart he really is and he said well ya, I understand the scriptures because before I read them everyday I pray for help to understand them! We hadn演 even taught him to do that! Then he said the reason he knows so many scriptures is because he has already read the WHOLE book of mormon! We were blown away. So we got him a doctrine and covenants and pearl of great price to start reading along with the book of mormon cause he just eats it all up. He is one of the smartest people I have ever met! So then he sent us a text one night that just made our night. He said, A vossa dupla e otima. voces tem muita fe, esperan蓷 e caridade. a minha vida esta mudando bastante por cause de vossa ajuda e ensinamentos, na verdade, digo que ja encontrei a verdadeira igreja. This translated means, your couple (missionary couple) is awesome! You both have much faith, hope and charity. My life is changing so much because of your help and teachings. Actually, I say that I have found the true church. He is just one of the most amazing people I have ever met and I know he will be a leader in the church one day soon! So aside from that, the lord humbled me a bit this week. We taught a new family named matteus and Celeste. A humble little family that just like most mozambicans, wasn演 understanding the restoration or anything no matter how simple we put it. And i was just getting really frustrated. So I was at home comlaining about how I didn演 wanna go back cause he couldn演 remember how to pray and he didn演 even remember what he was supposed to pray about blah blah blah. So we get there for the second lesson to ask about his prayer and introduce the book of mormon. And goes on to pray perfectly for us and then tells us that he prayed to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and he already knows he is and then went on to understand the Book of Mormon and now he has prayed and knows its true too. The Lord truly showed me that everyone has potential here and we aren演 the ones to judge! So that new family was such a blessing and now come to find out, they are the newphew and niece of our couple who was baptized and married last week! How crazy! haha. We also found another new family last week who is also understanding and progressing well. So this week we plan on introuducing the Law of Chastity and asking them if they will make the sacrifice to be married legaly! So then on sunday we had a district meeting and we made a cool goal. We decided we all want to make the goal to have a family ready for marriage on October 25, baptism the 26th. We are wanting to do this and invite President Kretly to oversee the marriage and then the next day, we want to have a big fireside to get new investigators and invite president to speak at it! So we are trying really hard for it! We are hoping to have three families at the marriage!! It will be a huge blessing if we can. Well That is all for this week! I榦 really sorry once again for not responding to everyone better because of the internet but I promise next week will be better! I will also send more pictures in other emails! I love you all so much!! Oh mom, if you haven演 sent the package yet, here are some things I would like. Some more ties, some socks, talks that you all like, and I would love if I had a little home made travelsize calendar! Also don演 forget to send me general conference news next week!!! I love you all!!

Love,

Elder Lynn

 

 

Our happy couple Domingos and Luiza! I漓e never ever ever seen Luiza so happy!!! It was such an amazing day. Probably one of my favorite days on the mission so far!

 

More pictures of the happy couple!! But I just found out something extremely sad! Some how my pictures of their baptism got deleted :( so next week I榦 gonna have to ask some people to send me the pictures!

 

I found the baptism pics!!! And a picture of me and elder galland haha. That night we were cleaning the chapel for like 4 hours so we took our ties off so they wouldn演 get filthy!

September 23, 2013

Dear Family,

Wow another week down and I have completed my first transfer! So there was not really any big transfer news for me. There were a lot of big changes but as for me, I'm staying in the same area with the same companion. My house actually is only losing one person so luckily for me the other Elder who is like my best friend is staying too! I might go crazy in that house without him! Well just to tell a little about the week. We really ended up spending like the whole week really trying to prepare for the wedding and what not. The couple couldn't afford rings so we had them make us these things called chamoosas and we would buy them in exchange for their service. Chamoosas are pretty much potatoes fried in this little tortilla and just covered in pure grease haha. We have been on a little frying run lately in our house. We have been frying anything and everything hahaha. We fried bananas, onions, we made scones, we hard boiled eggs then breaded them and then fried them haha, we make fries and then we had chamoosas! So anyways back to the week. We had one of our investigators tell us that he has a smoking problem that he would like help with. Well the next day his wife was walking with us and she just tells us this super long story about how she has been praying for like two weeks straight that he would tell us and how she has a testimony that prayer really works and that she knows how true the church is and it was really quite the testimony! So we went back and had the most spiritual lesson I've ever had with him and I really can't explain everything that went on but it was just truly amazing! I've never felt the spirit so strong in my life! Then we had a little tender mercy with a new family. We were having FHE at a families house and this lady came who was invited and we thought she was a member but it turns out that she has been coming for a year now but isn't baptized because her husband has a drinking problem but when missionaries were transferred out the area book wasn't updated and they ended up getting dropped and he stopped getting help. So we are back at their house helping them and they are really a awesome strong family! So then the day before the wedding we were setting up and we had a lesson with Elias, the man with two wives and we met with President Bueno who is the second counselor in the mission presidency. And Elias said that the other woman has finally decided to move out and we believe the problem will be resolved in like two weeks! So right now we have about four more families on track to be married and baptized this next month in October!!! So then we had the collective marriage saturday! It was so fun! I've never seen our investigators (Domingos and Luiza) so happy! And african weddings are fun! They sing the coolest songs and its just a blast! We ended up having six couples from manga and Dondo get married. Then the next day after church was the baptism and Domingos and Luiza asked me to baptize them so I had my first baptism! It was really an amazing and cool experience for me. After I was talking with Luiza about how I might get transferred and she was like no we would miss you! So it was sweet to know that the people actually do like me here. Luckily for that reason, I am not being transferred right now! So that was the happenings of the week. I really want to send pictures of the wedding and baptism so I will try and find a computer to send them on this week. If not they will have to wait till next so I will try! Oh about letters. I have been getting the dearelders. They come about every four weeks or so. They come as soon as someone comes up north from maputo. And I got Derrick's letter super fast which was awesome and I got Darcee's. But I know there are more I didn't get. But I definitely love the hand written ones. THey are worth more than gold so keep trying! I'm trying to think if there are any funny stories from this week. I heard good eveninging this week! Haha but I'm running out of time. So one more week down! Until next week!

Love you all so so so much!!!

Elder Lynn

September 16, 2013

Hello family,

Well we made it through another week! The week actually went pretty fast but it was super crazy!!! So we had the baptism on saturday and it went super well but then he didn't show up to sacrament to be confirmed :( He said he got stuck in Beira with chapa problems... But he'll be confirmed next week. Then the craziness though. So we have a big collective marriage coming up this saturday right? Well one family couldn't get the money in time to open the process of marriage :( but they will still be married and baptized in a couple weeks. The other family who is ready well the wife isn't 21 so the dad has to sign for her and they are just making all sorts of hoops to jumpt through. So we tried more than once to get all the documents and they wouldn't give them to us and we got down to the last day and we couldn't open the process which was super depressing. But we just kept praying that we could have a miracle and someway be able to get this done and accomplished and everything. Well with the help of the lord we got the marriage process opened the next day when we were past the deadline and they will be married this saturday!! They are so so excited and whew! WHat a miracle. I will try and send pictures today of everything cause I have a lot to send but we're at a cafe that cant send them so we'll try and go to another one in a little to send the pics. Oh so here's a crazy experience for you all. So last tuesday our water pump stopped working so I just didn't take showers. But then by thursday I was pretty gross since I sweat and ya haha. So I took my first bucket shower! THen the pump got fixed later. Then on saturday our energy went out haha. So now we have no AC, no water, no light nothing. So its been back to more bucket showers and wrinkled clothes. Also nights are extremely hot with no AC. Well the whole day is but I notice it more when I'm trying to sleep at night haha. I'm hoping we get that fixed today! But I can testify that running water and AC is a blessing!!! Oh another thing that sounds weird but i miss alot.... carpet haha. Like I haven't seen carpet in forever now and i miss it so much! So be thankful for carpet. So this is the last week of this transfer. Which just means I could trade comps, I could go to another city, or I could stay exactly the same! No one knows haha. We still have the normal difficulties. The people don't see it as racism here to make fun of us and so I try not to take it bad, but I'll be honest, Its just hard sometimes with people constantly making fun of you for being white as if I don't already stick out enough. But with all that set aside, there are so many people here who are so glad that we are here and so happy to see us everyday and they are the people who make it so worth it! Oh ya! Last week after we emailed we went and played soccer with the africans! It was one of the coolest experiences to play soccer with them all out on a dirt field and ya... I have pictures to send as soon as I can!!! I think I had one of the coolest experiences of my mission so far last night though. We were walking with some members to a lesson and Elder Shachterle was walking with a couple and I was back walking with one and talkin with him. He got back from his mission a year and a half ago but he knew the tolmann kid from burlington! But anyways we were just walking and talking and sharing stuff about our lives and I realized, wow. I am talking with and an african in portuguese and like it was so amazing to see the hand of the lord helping me. There is no way I should be able to just walk and talk with people in this crazy foreign language but I can. All because of the Lord. But ya just a super cool experience. I wish I could describe africa with words or show it with pictures but it just doesn't get all of africa. Its this whole new experience on its own. I love you all so much and I can't wait to once again hear from you next week! I can't tell you how much I love mondays!!!

Love,

Elder Lynn

 

Pictures of soccer! The one of me and the other guy is Joakin. He is the branch mission leader and the gospel principles teacher. He is sending in his mission papers soon! Then the other one is of me and Elder Galland haha. We are like best friends and that night I was being super man! Can't you see the resemblance between me and clark kent? Just to tell you a little about Elder Galland. We get a long so well. I don't know what I would have done this transfer with out him. He really got me through all the hard times and he is just the funniest and happiest guy I know. We hang out when we are at the house and make food together everyday cause we both love food haha. Joakin is one of the most faithful members here. He is going to be such an amazing missionary and I can't wait to see if he gets to stay and serve here in mozambique. I hope I get to serve with him one day!

 

 

 

Here we have the african sunrise, a huge banana spider we had in our house and also a picture of one of my favorite families! The little girl in blue in front absolutely loves the church and loves us haha. She is so dang cute :) After church yesterday she came and held my hand and we walked together for like fifteen minutes as we went to my house and then she decided she had to go home haha so she left after. But she can't wait until she can be baptized. And every chance she gets she finds us and shakes our hands haha. The mom is the tallest one of them but she is still short haha. The dad was still in the church. And one of those girls isn't actually in the family, but they love taking pictures here so she jumped in the picture hahaha.

 

 

Here we have a picture of me and my comp with Henriquez and then a picture of everyone who was baptized that day! 21 were baptized that day! It was super super cool. The other picture is one we took this morning when we went out and took some fun pictures at fields and what not! Just for information, this week with the collective marriage there are going to be so many people getting married it will be awesome! If I am still here next transfer I am guessing we'll have about four families ready to be married as long as they can get the money.