Dear Family
I'm so glad I was able to talk to all of you last week. Being able to talk you, to see you, and looking around the house made
me feel so close to home. It really doesn't feel like I've been gone all this time. I will be ready to come home when
I am released from this sacred calling, but I'm grateful for every moment I
have left until that time. I think Christmas week was the hardest week to
be away, but it went by really quickly.
I'm glad to read about your Christmas party with the rest of the family. I'm sure when I get back I will enjoy those family reunions
more because I will understand and speak Spanish a little more. I don't know if
I told you before, but I have acquired a Preach my Gospel and Book of Mormon in
Spanish. During language studies I like to read in Spanish and practice
pronunciation. when I get back I will practice Spanish with guys because I want learn to speak it fluently; at the same time, I will look for any opportunities to continue to speak Portuguese.
I’m also glad to read that it was snowing
there the night before Christmas, and that Jacob was very excited to wake up to a
white Christmas; Right now it's hard to imagine what snow feels like. Stuff like
that makes me feel that I have been gone
for a long time. Here, the heat continues to be super intense and very humid.
Relief comes when we get home in the afternoon and at the end of the day and can
turn on our air conditioner.
Transfers will be announced on Friday at zone conference. I hope to stay here, but only the Lord knows; I will be
happy with whatever happens. I know that the Lord needed me in this area during
these past 12 weeks, in order to find all these families that we are teaching now and
prepare them for baptism.
Everything with the work is going great.
This past few weeks went by super-fast and I think it is because we worked a
ton and had a lot of successes. Our goal is to find new people every day to teach and invite them to come unto Christ through baptism; I believe that the success we achieve every week is reflected in the amount of
investigators that are showing up at church every Sunday. We had 20 of them at
church this past Sunday, including 5 complete families. Almost every
investigator that we have is progressing right now. We still have 3 families
that are on track for baptism on January 17th. And two other families are showing
a great desire to join the church and follow the commandments. Recently, we
taught those two families about the importance of being married and they agreed
and will start working on getting their documents for marriage, and if everything goes
right, these two families can be baptized at the end of January. If I get to stay
here after the transfers are announced, I am sure I will see several of these families
be baptized in January.
Christmas day was a pretty normal day; we
visited a couple members and a few investigators. All of them wanted to feed
us. At night is when all the partying and fireworks started. Thankfully we were
visiting our many investigator families and didn't have to wander around
walking on the roads with no one to visit. I can't believe that it was my 2nd
Christmas here in Mozambique.
On Christmas Eve after I got done
talking to you, we got a ride home with the senior couple, Elder and Sister
Castro Deus (they're from Brazil) and we got back at about 10 pm.
I'm keeping myself hydrated these days,
always drinking water. This week we saw a lot of people sick with headaches and
weakness because of the heat. People here need to drink more water! It hasn't
rained for a few days so I'm sure it will rain a lot at some point.
As of right now, we are still rat-free at home haha. We're fighting to keep it
that way. Anyway, that was my week.
I hope you have a good New Year’s Eve celebration. I will be thinking of you as always. Again, it was
nice for me to see you and hear you this past week and to see that everyone is doing
well.
I love you, and hope you have a good week!!
Love,
Josh
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