Elder Ence's take on the blood donation

Elder Ence wrote about the blood donation as well and I really got a kick out of his description of Daniel's fainting.  Here it is:

So this week we donated blood. It was a little sketchy because they only had 2 needles that they used between us 8 missionaries, but we got it done. It was super cool to be able to serve and save someone's life. Elder Heald and Elder Lynn both passed out. Elder Heald passed out before they even took his blood pressure. He was sitting in the chair waiting, then all of the sudden he was out, and he totally bashed his face on the ground! Elder Lynn passed out while he was giving his blood. I successfully did it w/o passing out, and I officially donated blood for my first time. In AFRICA!!!

At the end of Elder Ence's letter, he said this:

p.s. I was just kidding about the only having 2 needles thing. We all had our own and it was all good, haha. Don't worry about me;)

Pictures of Africa

Oct 27 letter

The reason that we did internet this late this week (sorry for that) is because we were on an excursion to find wild hippos and see the wild side of Africa. I'll send you a lot of pictures this week. Unfortunately we weren't able to find any hippos but we did see a ton of beautiful and cool stuff. 

  

Only one of the seventies ended up coming because of a flight delay and he spoke to the members and us combined because he was too late to speak to just the missionaries so that was kind of a bummer. We did get to play some b-ball while waiting which was awesome because we never get to do that. 

My investigators are doing great. On the fifteenth we will have a baptism and a wedding which will be my first so it is super exciting. We have found quite a few new families that are super awesome so I'm really excited for the future of Laulane and Hulene B. 

We went to give blood on Friday but I wasn't able to because when I saw the needle go into another missionary, I just passed out. I passed out like four consecutive times after coming to, haha. I guess my body was just having none of that. Another Elder passed out, too. We weren't able to work that day because of these incidents. It was all right though; this week was super awesome! 

Elder Ence and I did get blasted by a truck and we also blasted through a fence but had no marks from it so that was a miracle. Also the truck should have landed on us but didn't because truly the Lord was protecting us.  We weren't hurt at all except Elder Ence's ankle was a little sore and my thigh was a little sore.

Quick explanation from Mom

 I stayed up late (SO, SO late) waiting for Daniel to email us so I could real time email Daniel about the accident last week.  I ended up giving up at about 5:00 a.m.  He ended up not getting to the computer until about 7:00 in the morning Utah time, so I should have just done my normal sleeping and I would have been able to do the chat then, but it didn't work out. :( Daniel had a good reason for not telling us the story of getting hit by the truck, so I guess I'll forgive him.

WHAT THE HECK?!?!

So, we got a letter from Daniel today that said, "On Friday I went on a division with Elder Ence and it was really nice; we had a lot of success."  My friend in California recently joined a missionary mom facebook group and came across this entry on that group's page this morning from Elder Ence's mom, who, as it turns out, is also in that group:

This is a mothers worst nightmare to wake up and read. I  know for a fact Elder Ence and companion were being watched  over. But I just love the ending result. 

So the biggest  Miracle ever happened this week. My comp (Elder Lynn) and  Elder Stubbs are the Zone leaders of our zone and they had a  zone meeting in Matola on Friday, so Elder Heald and I were  on a split all day that day. I was super pumped because  Elder Heald is like one of my best friends out here. So that  night while we were out contacting we were on this little  side road in Heald's area that connects to the big main  road that is asphalt. So we were nearing the end of this  little dirt road and there was this dude on the right side  of the road by this Barbed-wire fence just standing there  eating peanuts. Heald and I went up to him and started  talking with him.... just the usual contact. He was an older  gentleman, and was actually pretty weird he kept saying the  same things over and over. So we were nearing the end of our  conversation, just about to get his number, when all of the  sudden he like grabbed Elder Heald and tried to pull him to  the other side of him saying "Look out". All of  the sudden I just get smashed by something and I was flying  through the air. While in mid air, I had the opportunity to  glance over my left shoulder to see Elder Heald landing on  the ground, and this white truck about to land right on top  of him...and on me. So as soon as I hit the ground I just  started rolling as hard and fast as I could to the right  hoping that I would not get landed on. Fortunately I was  safe. I quickly looked over to see if my temporary companion  was dead or not. Elder Heald was laying there in a big pill  of bricks...just inches in front of the truck. We both got  up, covered in mud ( cause it has been raining the past few  days on and off) and started brushing off our pants and  shirts, wondering what the heck just went down. Instantly,  like 20 or 30 people were surrounding us and just going off  on the driver and the lady that was in the passenger seat  next to him. They were all shouting in Dialect and it was  pretty dang intense. Then the dude we were talking to just  like appeared outta nowhere and was asking us if we were ok.  I guess he was able to dodge the truck and was only nicked  on the ankle and it was bleeding a little, but not too bad.  So while all this chaos was happening, Elder Heald, this guy, and I just like climbed up out of the yard that we got  hit into (because it was like a foot or 2 lower than the road) and noticed that we were actually launched a good 10  or so feet, haha. While climbing out, we saw the Barbed-wire  fence that we had sailed through. I have no idea how we  didn't get tangled up in the fence....or how were  didn't get hurt at all. I know for a fact that the Lord  protects his missionaries, that's for sure. The good new  is that we walked with this guy around the corner and  finished contacting him and got his phone number:D  Success!!!!!

What the heck!?!?  

Oct 20 letter

This week was really nice. My new companion and I found a few really nice families and worked with our current families. The work is really going great. I'm super excited to see how much work we can accomplish together. We taught a bunch of people and just worked super hard this week. It was absolutely crazy. I was super tired. On Friday I went on a division with Elder Ence and it was really nice; we had a lot of success. This Tuesday, we will have a conference with two seventies, one of which is from the presidency of the seventy. I think it will be something to do with stakes and training and stuff, but who knows. 

I miss all the fun family stuff that we did at home which is kind of weird because we didn't actually do much but I totally miss family parties, seeing Gina, Kelton and the rest of the family. That package was really nice. The American candy, nice letter and other goodies were super nice. 

The other day we had to come home early because it was election day and I guess it's kind of dangerous but it was super fun. We played risk and flew around my comp's remote control helicopter that he got for Christmas last year but didn't actually receive until he came to Maputo the other week. Risk got way heated and it was super funny. Our house is super nice and we all get along great. We joke around a lot but at the same time stay focused and work hard. 

Oct 13 Letter

My new Companion is Elder Stubbs; he's a super awesome missionary and he's from Tooele. They lived right next to Middle Canyon Elem. He is an interesting dude but he and I will get a lot of work done together and have a lot of fun doing it. He's zone leader so we get to keep the nice room, fortunately. Things in our house definitely changed, but I really like the dynamic of our house now. It's really fun and at the same time more spiritual, I think.

This week I had to stay in the house all day because my companion was sick. That was an interesting experience. I can't even believe how much cleaning I got done. Our house is actually super clean. We all work together to keep things clean and are just a really good district in my opinion. 

Our families are still coming along really nice and we've done a lot of work with finding new families. I think in the next week or so, we'll have a lot of new families that I can talk about. We're teaching a family that the wife is from Zimbábwe and doesn't speak Portugues and the husband doesn't speak English so we have to teach in both at the same time. It is an interesting experience for sure. They communicate through speaking dialect. 

We visit several members often. One guy speaks English and I really like him. His name is Elias and he is a super cool guy. We have some other really nice member families in our area that will be really fun to continue working with. I'm still in my area so they are the same families that I have already known for the past 6 weeks but I feel like my relationship with them has really increased recently.

Portuguese is coming along nicely; there is no way that dad could be better than me at Portuguese now haha. You better get working so that when I get home you can communicate with me.

I was able to hear conference in English this past week which was really nice. When we go and do the Portuguese one it will kind of suck though because I've already heard it in English so there won't be much point in straining myself and attempting to understand the Brazilian accent and difficult vocabulary of the talks. I still will though just for a good language training. 

BTW I still haven't gotten the package yet but it should be here very soon. Apparently it takes 1 month to 1 month and a half. I can't wait for it to get here, though! 

Oct 6 letters

So this week was really awesome. We have two families now because one of them moved to another area. They're still going good but they're just not our family anymore. The others will be baptized at the beginning of next month which will be super nice, I can't wait for the weddings/baptisms. This week we taught a lot of lessons and I have learned a lot about being a better missionary and stuff. I went on a division with Elder Ence this week which was interesting because we are both new but we got by perfectly fine and even had a couple of really good lessons. 

Today is transfers and my companion is leaving and I'm getting a new companion so that should be interesting. I don't know for sure what will happen but it will be good, I'm excited. It was a good week all in all. My house didn't change in transfers other than my companion so that is nice. 

I made this flipping good meal this week, which was nice. Unfortunately, we don't really experience the exotic food too much so I don't have any stories there. 

People are interesting and kinda weird here in Mozambique but I love it. 

We won't get general conference for a few weeks and when we do it will be in Portuguese only. We just go with members I think and watch with everyone.