July 27 letter

So first of all I'd like to start by saying that today was the first transfers that president Koch has sent out. I didn't get any changes at all. I'm super happy with it though because I'm loving my time in Chimoio with Elder McAllister and this transfer we should just have a baptismal flood.

We haven't had water for a week or so now so I haven't taken a shower in two days, I feel terrible. Today we are going to the water place to complain and try and get something done so we'll see what happens with that.

This week our investigators made fabulous progress. We have specific dates set for next transfer including all document plans and family preparations for 3 marriages so it should go super well. Two of those families actually are just planning on signing the papers and then having a real marriage party a little while later. With one of them, their family lives in Beira so they will wait and do the party there. With another, they have an expensive dowry to pay so they will just sign the papers and then pay the dowry with the party and stuff in a few months.

I really cannot express how pleased I am with my mission up until this point. The areas and companions that I've had have been way nice and pretty close to ideal. Seriously couldn't be happier with the mission right now.

July 20 letter

This week on Thursday we got a bus over to Beira and that night were able to visit all of my old families in the Maraza area. It was super awesome and I was able to have a great time hanging out with them. Then, on Friday, we were able to have the zone conference. President Koch talked about some things, no big changes or anything yet, but it was really good. Then we had our interviews which were nice and that was about it. He is different than President Kretly for sure, one of the senior couples put it best when she said he is a minister not an administer like president Kretly.

This week we had just an amazing week at church with well over 20 investigators there. The work is certainly accelerating here in Chimoio and next transfer we should have many baptisms including several families. We were able to have some great visits with our favorite families and find some new ones. Others came out of the woodwork from being almost dropped to coming to church. All in all, a really good week.

I have decided to focus on two of the piano students that I have. One is that rich investigator that we have because he already took piano lessons and has really good potential and the other is young woman in the ward who also has really good potential. I gave the extra piano of the church to that young woman to practice and Fulgencio (our investigator) already has a piano. I also teach others randomly just because they beg me but I focus mainly on these other two.

This week we also took up a bunch of 8 to 15 year old kids because they have been coming to church for a long time without being baptized so we have them come to our house every morning to be taught and in a couple weeks we'll baptize all of them. 

July 13 letters

With the loss of the phone we just used our guard's phone and I had my previous areas phone numbers memorized so it wasn't that bad to get in contact with the mission office. Migration work is a id that you have to get once a year in order to be legal in Mozambique, it's called a DIRE. It costs a ton of money and is one of the reasons why Mozambique is the third most expensive mission in the world.

No I'm not a member of the Beira nor the Manga Zone but yes, I will be there. The outside areas are their own zone and several are going to the Beira Zone conference while others are going to the zone conference in Maputo [to meet the new mission president]. 

In this branch since I've gotten here we haven't been able to walk with too many members. Fortunately, this week we were able to sit with several members and young single adults and therefore gain there confidence. The work that we will be able to do with members should definitely improve as we move along into the coming weeks so that is something fairly exciting about this week.

 The trip that we had to Beira this week was actually really nice and productive. Also, the year mark was nice, we went out to a really nice restaurant in the city. Unfortunately, it was not as good as it should have been for the price but, nevertheless, it was a pretty good meal. Then, we got many visits in with our favorite families. My relationship with this area is growing and I'm meeting and learning to love new people everyday, I hope that one day, it can be as nice as my previous area in Maraza. 

The weather is certainly different here in Chimoio. It's less humid and quite a bit colder. It's actually fabulous weather and I just love that aspect of Chimoio. It's never too hot or too cold, it really reminds me of a slightly colder San Diego. The sweet family is going super well. He wasn't able to make it to church though because of a work thing but she came and he came to our English and Piano classes yesterday. Yeah, haha, by the way, my companion teaches English and I teach Piano every Saturday. It's pretty fun. I don't have any callings but I did have to give a talk in church last week. The branch is actually run pretty well and none of the organizations really needs too much help from us as the missionaries so we just sit in with our investigators and help them out. It's actually really nice. 

July 6 letters

We were in a small house and we are now renting a bigger one (for the church). So we moved all of our things from the old church to the new one and then set it all up. The new and old chapels are super close to each other so the move didn't take that much work or time because many members were there to help in the work. Also, we rented some carts and stuff to help carry the stuff over. The new chapel is super nice and the attendance shot up this week because of it. We're really excited because of how well the branch is doing.

We are currently in Beira to do some migration work for Elder McAllister and to get our phone, which we actually currently have and are very excited about. Also, I had left some things here in Beira that I was able to grab which has been really nice as well. We will be going back to Chimoio tomorrow.

This week we had a super cool experience with one of the families that we are teaching. So These guys were actually found before I got here but up until this Sunday we had never visited them because we didn't have the phone and they live far away. Also, the wife actually works in Beira so she was never there. Then, this Sunday they both came to church which was super nice. We decided to go and visit them that night and just saw a miracle. They had both decided that they really badly wanted to be members of our church and stay forever. It was the best music to the ears of a missionary ever. They said they want to be members quickly, need to be good members not just ordinary members. They talked about how being on time always is important and they were going to do that. They said that they really need to get married as well and still don't know that that is what we do or that they need to do that before baptism. With such a rich family we expected them to talk about how they needed to get married but a large wedding and party takes money and time to prepare. We asked them if that was what they were waiting on and they said no and that they could do all of that later. The reasons they gave were because for her to get transferred to Chimoio (she's a teacher) she would need to get married and that they want more unity in their relationship. Basically every amazing thing that an investigator could say, they said it and should be married and baptized fairly soon. 

The new mission president got here last week but he has yet to enter Mozambique he has only been in Swaziland but, there will apperently be a zone conference on the 17th in beira where I think the outside areas will be sent to. That should be an exciting time to see the changes and meet the new mission president

Here are some interior pictures of our house. I'll get you some more next week of the house and of the chapel. One is my bathroom, the varanda and our bedroom which has Elder McAllister's bathroom in it.