January 5, 2015 - In Beira, Manga Branch
“We've been working more with the members so
they can get to know our investigators and reach out to them even before they get baptized. This week we walked with the entire elder’s quorum
presidency to the houses of our investigators and the inactive members so they
could meet them and know where they live”
Hey
Mom!
Thanks
for your letter this week. I'm glad you guys had a good New Year's. We were instructed to return to our house early, due to the partying,
drinking and fireworks, so I ended up going to bed at 9:30. For me it was nice to have more time to sleep. I cannot
believe it's now 2015.
2015 seemed
so far away at the start of my mission, and now it's already here. I must admit
that I missed home during these past couple weeks, thinking of all the Christmas
things we do at home, and all the other fun stuff, shopping, dinning out, etc. But now that the holidays are over, all there is left is just the cold weather and the icy roads. But the cold
weather would be nice, considering that it continues to be really, really, really hot here. It
rained a few days this week and we had to walk with rain boots a few times
this week because the roads turn into small rivers after it rains, but it's all
normal for this time of year.
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| A flooded road or trail after the rain |
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| Just outside an investigator's house |
Transfers
were delayed once again for the second week in a row. So for this next week at least, I'm staying here. I
think they want to move a lot of missionaries between Mozambique and Swaziland
and are having some visa delays. So we'll see what happens. I don't think I'll
leave this area, but if I did I wouldn't be too surprised considering all the
changes that are coming next week.
All our
investigators are doing really well. Because of the holidays, we
didn't make any progress on obtaining marriage documents for some of the couples that need to get married. This week we will work on that. We have two additional families that are now working on their
documents to get married; They have
a lot of faith and are excited to do all they can to get married and baptized.
They are really funny and friendly too, I love visiting these two families; they
will be very strong members. This past Sunday at church, we had 128 people in
attendance; around here, this is a high number of people attending
church and this high attendance has become a frequent thing! We've been working more
with the members so they can get to know our investigators and reach out to
them even before they get baptized. This week we walked with the entire elder’s
quorum presidency to the houses of our investigators and the inactive members
so they could meet them and know where everyone lives. It all went really well.
The
highlight of the week was zone conference on Friday. It was amazing! It took
the whole day. From the morning until late afternoon we had training from
President Kretly, with a few breaks in between, including lunch. The training
had elements of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Steven R. Covey.
President Kretly is president of Franklin Covey in Brazil and works providing
leadership training to companies. So as you can imagine, he is a great trainer.
Everything he taught applies in the mission, but also will apply in real life.
As he told us, we are not on the mission to become professional missionaries.
We are here to help others and to help ourselves become better men when we go
home, being prepared to be better students, husbands, fathers, etc. It was a great conference and I learned a lot
of great stuff. After the training we
had a nice dinner and watched that video slideshow that was sent to you guys.
Also every district had been asked to prepare a skit, so we had some sort of
talent show. It was really fun to watch the other skits and be relax with
everyone. It all ended at 9:30pm and we got home about 10:30.
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| Zone Conference in Beira with elders from my MTC district |
Also,
President Kretly came up to Beira with all the packages they had received for
the Beira elders, and sadly, there were none for me :( so, the packages you
sent me are lost, but I still thank you for thinking of me. Don't worry about sending anything else; it's not worth it at this
point. The only present I was happy to get was a cool polo shirt with a logo
that says Mozambique Maputo Mission. It's not much, but it's a nice remembrance
of the mission.
Anyway,
I'm really excited for this next week to work hard and get these final
documents done for these families and get everything set up for their baptism
on the 17th. I hope I end up staying here another transfer, but we'll see.
Either way, I will be happy with whatever happens. I am here to serve the
Lord, and the people here, regardless of where I go.
Have a
good week have fun together, as always. I love
you and thank you for everything you do for me!
Love
Josh
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