Week 64 – Another week in Matola

Dear Family,

This week was good and it was normal in comparison to last week, which was nice. We didn't have any wedding or baptism, so we had a lot of time to just focus on working and finding new families to teach and helping the ones we currently are teaching and are who are showing great progress. And we had a lot of success!  Because we found 5 new families to teach this week, which is really great, and we were happy that all of them came to church yesterday.

On Friday we had a training given by our zone leaders and we were reminded of a lot of good things.  We should work to find those who are truly interested in hearing our message, and if they aren't, we should move on. We need to find those who are ready to hear and accept the Gospel now and there aren't very many of them out there; this is why we have to talk to as many people as we can each week. I really like the Matola zone (T3 included), I have been serving in this zone since November (Maybe longer than any other missionary in it right now) and I've seen the growth that has happened and continues to happen. 

As district leader, I have to do a division with each of the missionaries in my district. On Wednesday, I walked with Elder Thomas in his area. It was pretty cool to be his companion again for a day. As you remember, we got along super well in the MTC and it was great to catch up a bit and also teach together. He is a really good missionary. We had a good day walking the streets in his area, we taught a lot of lessons. The other days of the week were filled with more contacting and teaching appointments, many of which fell through, but that's just part of the work, it's normal.  My companion and I continue to get along and I feel that the Spirit of The Lord is with us. The branch here is doing really well too. We had 185 people at church yesterday. I attended a meeting of priesthood executive committee on Saturday and there the branch president, President Aires, mentioned plans for the division of the Matola branches, which is planned for this November. Right now there is Matola 1 and Matola 2. In November a 3rd one will branch out. It is really exciting to see the growth of the Church down here!  They have talked about division for the Matola branches since I arrived in the country, and now it's about to happen.   This city has so much potential, so many people live here and still It's not easy to find a good family that will easily accept the gospel,  that’s  why we're here to help the people overcome the obstacles  that keep them from coming unto Christ, This is what the Lord wants us to do

Anyway, I'm excited for this coming week and hope you guys also have a good week.

Love, Josh