Lizards in the bathroom, bike taxis, and a 4-yr old correcting my Portuguese "nice"

Week 9--7/15/13 Quelimane, Mozambique


"Walter and Darmin(new members), have a little boy named Mauro, about 4 years old. He loves when we come over to visit. I was talking to him and he was correcting me on my Portuguese, it was really funny!"

Dear Familia,

 Thank you sooo much for all your letters! I'm glad you all had a good week. I miss going to church in our ward. Church here is good too, but it's different.  Jacob, it sounds like you've been having a lot of fun this summer. Did you catch any snakes? I haven't seen any snakes here so far. There are a lot of lizards, though. They're pretty much everywhere. I've found lizards in the bathroom a couple times already. They're pretty small, though. Wow, I guess it's been pretty hot over there. Every day this past week has had rain on and off. Thankfully we haven't been caught walking around in pouring rain. The temperature has been nice too; it hasn't gotten too hot yet. That will change around September/October.

 

I forgot to say this last week, Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!

 

It's weird that it's already the middle of July. In fact, today's the 15th, so that makes two months that I've been on my mission! This month especially has gone by soooo fast.

 Elder Seoane, will be leaving for home in less than a month. That means that I will be getting a new companion next month. We get along well. He's been a good trainer. It's been a little hard still because I don't know the language that well. But I'm getting better each week, which is good. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but people here say "nice" a lot. You can say nice for pretty much anything.



This is what public transportation looks like

Also, here in Quelimane, they have bike taxis. They're people with bicycles and you sit on the seat behind them and they'll take you where you want to go. It's really cheap, only 5 meticals, which is less than 20 cents. There's more bicycles than cars here it seems. Only  few can afford buying cars here.

 

 

We go everywhere to contact new people but lately we have been teaching and contacting in the city, not so much on the outskirts. The reason for this is that in the city, people are more likely to already be legally married. And if they aren't, they most likely won't have a hard time paying for the necessary documents. In addition to that, most people in the city are able to read. It's difficult to teach and have investigators learn if they can't read.

 We haven't had any meals at member's houses, but sometimes they will offer some fruit or a soda or something. We can't drink water they offer us, of course. I haven't had any stomach problems so far, I've been careful. There are mosquitos everywhere, but it's not a big nuisance. Yes, I've gotten bit, but not too much. We do sleep with mosquito nets. The repellant works well. I still have quite a bit; I don't think I'll need more for quite a while. 

There is milk here, but it's not pasteurized, so it tastes a little different. But I like it; it's not too different than at home. We were contacting one day and found a lady cooking crabs. We bought some from her and had them for lunch earlier this week. We had it with tortillas that she made and some beans. They were really good!

Work this week has been good. We have a couple families that are progressing and will most likely get baptized early next month. We also visit recent convert families they are really nice too. One of these new families, a couple, Walter and Darmin, has a little boy named Mauro, about 4 years old. He loves when we come over to visit. I was talking to him and he was correcting me on my Portuguese, it was really funny! 

Thank you for your words of support, it really helps! I miss you guys too! Continue to have fun this summer. I look forward to your letters next week!

 I'm doing well here. I'm really enjoying everything! Have an amazing week!

I love you all!!

Elder Rebollo