Monday, March 17, 2014

Week 44 - Called To Be A Trainer

 
Week 44 – 3/16/2014  T3


Hi guys,
Those pictures that you sent me of the family get-together are great; it looks like it was tons of fun. Seeing the pictures and hearing about the food that dad cooked on the grill makes me miss home so much! But not in a bad way, I'm happy to be here of course. But there really is no place like home. Speaking of which, when I talk to you guys in two months for Mother's day, I will have 1 year on the mission! Time always flies by, but I've never seen it fly by faster than on the mission.
Things here are going well.  That's nice that President Kretly sent that email to you guys telling you about my calling as trainer.  I gave you some wrong information last week about my new companion; I think it was a miscommunication thing or whatever. But here is the correct information: my new companion is a Mozambican, from Beira. His name is Elder Alfredo. He started his mission in December, went to the Brazil MTC, spent a couple months in the Sao Paulo mission, and is now back here to serve. His assigned mission is the Angola Luanda mission. So he will only be here in Mozambique until he gets his visa to Angola, which he will most likely get next month. So he will only be my companion for this transfer. He's a nice guy. I will be doing the training program for new missionaries with him this transfer. We will both be helping each other out, me helping him with missionary work, he helping me perfect my Portuguese. He is my first non-English speaking companion.
It's a lot different now, talking Portuguese most of the day, I really like that. Our district now has 4 native Portuguese speakers: Elder Alfredo, Elder Ndala (Angola), Elder Matezo (also from Beira), and Elder Barroso (Brazil). The only Americans are me and Elder Dustin, a new missionary. He, just like me, went to the U of U and lived in the honors students housing also. So I probably saw him before the mission, even though I don't remember. Anyway, my companion didn't arrive from Brazil until Wednesday night, and then had to stay at the mission office to take care of immigration stuff. So he didn't arrive at our house until Thursday night. In the meantime while I was waiting, I tripled up with Elder Barroso and Elder Dustin. It was nice walking with them and meeting their investigators.
Since me and Elder Alfredo only had Friday-Sunday this week in our area, we didn't get a lot done, but it was still a good week. We had 2 families come to church yesterday. They are the families that are making the most progress right now and we are going to try to help them get married and baptized next month. We are also teaching other families that have potential to be baptized either next month or in May. The work in this area continues to be blessed. This is my 4th transfer here, so it's very possible I'll get transferred out next month, so I'm enjoying the time I still have here to help these families.
The weather has been fine. Once again we got a nice soaking on Wednesday. As we were walking home the power went out in the neighborhood so the only light we had was the lightning, and there was a ton of it! It was a pretty cool storm. But since Wednesday, it hasn't rained again. And I hope it stays that way for the next little while.  Mom, to answer your questions: Yes the rain boots are rubber, like fishing boots. We have a washer, no dryer. Each elder has his day to do laundry during the week, my day is Tuesday.
I’m glad Jacob always is hanging out with his friends. That's nice that he always has someone his age to spend time with. I'm sure he had fun at the family reunion as well. Why didn't you set aside any of the food to save for me? Haha.
Anyway, I'm so glad to hear that you guys are happy and spending time together as a family. Even though work can be draining, it's nice to let go of all that and spend time together, that is what's most important.
I love you all very much and pray for you guys every night and every morning. I hope you have another great week!!

Love,
Josh
A short video from one of the weddings
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

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