Christmas

Boas festes

That means "i want money" in mandow

                                                           

It was a phenomenal week.

To start all the missionaries in the outside areas (Kilamange, Tete etc) came to Beira for the Christmas celebration we had on Wednesday. most of them arrived between Monday night and Tuesday morning. There were so many missionaries. We had like 70 missionaries in 4 houses.

So one thing to know about  Beira is that we may or may not have power on any given day. And since our water runs on electricity, we may or may not have water on any given day. We don't know why but sometimes the city of Beira just turns off the power. So we didn't have power for like 35 hours this week which means.... bucket showers. joy of joys. We take freezing water in a bucket and use a cup to dump small amounts on our bodies and it is freezing and quite cold.

Anyway we had the missionary Christmas party on Tuesday and did a secret santa tie exchange and I had to give a tie to Elder Atkinson. nobody here can pronounce his name even more than mine. I got a tie from Elder Griffeth. It's sweet. He's a little quiet but we get along great!

In the middle of out practiced Christmas program for the presiden, the power went out so we lost our piano. It was sweet and sounded great till we got to a rest. THen every one came in on different keys. Oh well it was more time to hang out and be friends. We had a very mozambiquano lunch with rice and chicken and fries. And these fried triangle things whose name escapes me but they were really good.

We had interviews with the president on Tuesday and while we waited for our turn, we watched the other wise man, its a live action version of the fourth wise man. It was good.

Because  there were so many missionaries there, and they weren't leaving till the next day, almost everyone had an emergency split. I was with Elder Chase from Tete who only has two more transfers than me. He's super cool and super fun and speaks in a way that people can understand.

Elder Huffaker got his Christmas package at the church during our party thing, and decided things might run away if he didn't open it right then. So he opened the package. What ever. Then he opened all his presents. What the heck! It was only two days away!

Wednesday started as normally as it could. Study, and then district meeting then we got back and for some reason our ac wasn't working properly so it ended up snowing in our house Wednesday! It was awesome! On our way back from the district meeting we bought stuff to door bell ditch the missionaries who live above us and it was a secret and it was sweeet. They got kapulana ties and mirinda(best soda ever) and lays.

Wednesday night our water finally came back. It was like 12 hours after the power came back. But I got to take a real shower so that was awesome!

We accidentally broke our front door. Idk how but we did. The hinges work and the latch works but the door frame doesn't connect to the wall. So our front door doesn't shut or open. Its sweet!

We had an experience this week with our 15 min lessons. We got carried away and ended up trying to prove something instead of having our investigator go to the source. So we were there for two hours and got nowhere.I've learned as Moses that we are less than the dust of the earth. Especially as missionaries. We cannot do anything of ourselves. Everything is through our Lord.

I had a split Thursday and that was fun. Elder Moreno is from Mexico and doesn't speak English at all. So I only spoke in Portuguese that day. We had a bunch of new investigators, and on our way to one of our lessons we got lost and ended up on the other side of our area which I have never been in. So it was a 50 minute circle we walked in. We got directions from some drunk guy and that didn't work out very well.

Also I ate some bread and maybe I shouldn't have but she's a super nice investigator and we didn't want to offend her and the bread was sooooooo good.

The biggest piece of advice older missionaries give me is that  other missionaries are gonna try to break me down and make me feel bad about myself. Like 4 people have told me that. Why do missionaries do that?

CHRISTMAS DAY

Started with studies and then we rode in a chappa all the way to the other side of town and it was super long. We got to the senior couple's house and we were first to talk to our families!

My family is great and theyre doing great! Santa came and no one got coal. Also i guess my watch tan line is really bad.:)

We were gonna leave and do some work but the Castro Deus s told us to stay so we watched (with permission) National Geographic for like 4 hours.Then another mozambiquan\brazilian meal(Elder and Sister Castro Deus are from Brazil). It was also super good.

We had just finished desert and left when we witnessed a car crash. It was pretty bad. Its the first real crash ive seen. When I left everyone was alive but in bad shape, except one lady who wasn't crying about her daughter bleeding and in shock lying on the pavement she was whining about her broken car.

But that was really sobering for me. If they die their families would be devastated. The news we bring isn't just happiness in this life, it's in the life to come as well. I'm glad I have the assurance of this gospel in my life.

Malaria

     The first week youre afraid your going to die.

     the second week youre afraid your'e not going to die

          - Elder Baker

He's pretty sick but we don't think its malaria. One of our investigators is in the hospital with malaria though. We think he'll be fine.

We visited Manuel and his wife Lucia and his 3 kids and he gave us some coke and bread. This bread wasn't nearly as good. But he also had some drink that was like apple flavored cream of wheat. The first batch we tried was decent but had a terrible after taste. the second batch was good but super fizzy. We asked how to make it and I'm pretty sure we drank fermented apple juice. Like one gulp and never again.

I made the cheesy potatoe soup my mom sent me for christmas and it was delicious! Thanks Mom.

I officially finished the new testament(again) and Jesus The Christ. Ten out of ten would read again two thumbs way up!

Sunday was fun. We got to church a little early for correlation and then correlation got moved to after church so me and my comp would have time to prepare talks! Yay! It wasn't bad. I was assigned to talk about the birth of Jesus Christ. Its was pretty easy. And to make it easier the mic doesn't work and when it does the reverb make it impossible to hear, so i don't think any one could hear what I said.

Also I had to break into the church building. We didn't have keys and the hymn books and gospel principles books were locked in a back room. Luckily for some reason the room had a big window. We opened the window and bent the bars and I slithered into the room to retrieve the books. I almost didn't make it out but after removing my belt and staining my shirt i made it!

We were also asked this week to start an english class. I can't teach in Portuguese and they want to teach English!? It'll certainly be an adventure.

We had the unique opportunity to teach about morning sickness. Two young unmarried men teaching a irma who has had two kids about morning sickness. Went about as well as expected.

Leads to today. More cleaning and gator ball and we played gator ball in the rain which is super intense cause there's no grip at all on the wet floor. It looked super cool with the rain coming in the windows and stuff but I didn't take a picture cause it was raining and my camera is afraid of water.

ALSO ATTENTION MISSIONARIES. YOU ARE WELCOME TO PUT ME ON YOU MAILING LIST OR HAVE ME TAKE YOU OFF OF MINE. ARE YOU GUYS EVEN ALIVE?

Every one here recognizes us and can't lie to us. We see guys coming up to us and they drop a beer bottle on their way over to talk. we know they're drunk, but we ask them and they say they've only drank a little. We press a little more and they admit that its a lot. We ask them to stop and promise blessings and they say they will. we ficamos (idk how to translate that) with their number and call a few days later and they say they haven't drunk and then we set up a time to meet. Bam! new investigator. After all Jesus came into this world not for the saints but the sinners. It is amazing the effect the spirit has on their lives.

also everyone wants to touch my hair........

Love "yall"
Elder Lorimer