Manga 11th Week - October 28, 2013

Friends and Family,

P-day was good. At our regular food place I got the chicken with Piri-Piri on it. It turned out to be a little hot for me. My stomach hurt and my lips were on fire! We were going to go golfing but ended up not. When we got home, we rested and played some good Monopoly. Then, our power went out again (Dal I think I jinxed myself and the house by telling you the electric was fixed).

Tuesday we had to go to pay the water bill. It was a long hot walk. However, on our way back, we found a stand that was selling lichas. Lichas is a fruit about the size of a large grape. They have a spiky skin that has to be peeled off. I don’t even know how to describe the taste, but they are really good.

Mama Editor: These are pictures I found of lichas on the web. They are also known as Rambutan or Lychees.

 

Tuesday every single one of our lessons fell through. The clouds rolled in, which I normally would be overjoyed about. However, I got one of the worst headaches ever. When we got home I went directly to bed. It was really bad but I eventually fell asleep.

Wednesday, nothing crazy happened. We had some good lessons and it was really nice outside. At 1500 we had to come home because we had an electrician coming. At home we waited and waited and waited. Finally at 1700 the electrician came. Around 1745 he finished and we have electricity again. It amazes me how quickly we forget how big of a blessing having power is. We STOP being thankful after a week of electricity. I am going to try not to forget, I am going to try to thank Heavenly Father for every single tender mercy I have been given. It does make me laugh though, even on a small scale comparison, you can see the natural man forgetting how God blesses us. It is a pattern we see many times in the scriptures. Another blessing we were given on Wednesday was while we were waiting, it poured rain. We were lucky enough to be inside while it was raining. We got the rain without getting wet! Even though nothing crazy happened, it was a very good day.

Thursday was not one of my best days, a lot of lessons fell through. Something cool that happened, while walking by our house, we saw some kids with mud guitars. We had some Elders who were sick run our cameras out really quick to take some pictures. Here comes the part of “my luck”. My camera case fell and my card reader must have fallen out. The fault is mine. Looking closely you can see my card reader on the ground in one of the pictures. It had a 1GB and a 512MB card in it. So I lost those too. Luckily the cards didn’t have any pictures from Mozambique on them. They were “transfer cards” I would use to store pictures family emailed. 

 

The kids are so creative here!
They make stuff from garbage and mud all the time.

 

 

On a good note though, we had a very good lesson with V- - - - -. He really wants to be baptized. He really loves us, so at least my day finished happy.

Friday was a long day. I woke up with a really bad headache so my trainer decided it would be best to rest for the day so that I would hopefully not get sick. I slept the entire day. I felt supper bad about not working but the rest was needed. I felt so much better afterwards. We did compare journal entries. It was kind of fun to see how we viewed different day and what we chose to write about.

Saturday was a slow day. Unfortunately we did not have much scheduled due to Friday. The couple of lessons we did have scheduled fell through. A funny thing is, I found a couple of kids who may have picked up my card reader. I told them if one of them found it and could return it to me, I would pay 50MT. So I hope one of them is able to get it to me.

Sunday I was pretty tired after church but afterwards we had a really good lesson with a new investigator C-----. I think he and his parents will make it to baptisms.

This is week number 12 coming up which is the end of transfer two. How cool!

 

Love,

Elder Kanaga

 

Elder Kanaga said he made this chicken and topped it with
onions, tomato, banana, mango, bell peppers and spicy peppers.

 

Manga 10th Week - October 21, 2013

Friends and Family, 

I am making an effort to be more descriptive in my updates. I hope that all who read see an improvement and enjoy.

Last P-day was fun we didn’t do anything out of the normal. We emailed then ate at our usual eating place. After eating we went shopping and then home sweet home. It was really nice, the entire day was cloudy and overcast, it even sprinkled a little. Unfortunately, for a thirty minute time period during email, my computer cut out. During that time I had the only computer without internet. I called over a worker, she looked at it and went back to sit down. Ten minutes later I bugged her again. Then a big a man came over and fixed it back to its cold molasses speed (which is actually lightening fast to us here). I guess the “squeaky wheel gets the grease”.  We also played some UNO and Monopoly. That was probably the worst game I have ever played, I was bankrupt so fast. I have never done that bad. It was still fun. I made some awesome granola and a Reeses Peanut Butter Plate! We finally got some shelves and some awesome swivel chairs! Our room, though very small, is now complete.  

 

Tuesday, during one of our lessons (in a home that we normally get smothered by the kids) I had a good experience. We still got swarmed but something special happened for me. I do not know why he was different, but this one kids just touched my heart. He played with my red/white color changing arms and he pressed the buttons on my watch. Nothing out of the usual but he was different. All I could think of is “this is how it is going to be with my own son”. Anyway just a little miracle for me.

We had a surprise lesson on Wednesday. We went to visit G------ and S---’s house. We quickly found out from their neighbors that they had moved. We left to walk back down the main road. There, we ran into G------. He took us to his new house and we sat down for a lesson. He told us he wanted to be baptized here in November. That was a nice surprise. We taught and talked to them about marriage. They are going to start on documents right away. WHOOP!

We got turned down in a very American way. We saw a nice looking couple and decided to contact and talk to them. Very quickly the husband said “I am a pastor of such and such church”. Then with a huff he raised his chin and walked away. It is funny when people do that here. Back home it is totally normal.

We had an early lesson on Thursday. The children were going crazy crawling all over me and then crawling all over on a bike that looked like it was going to fall over so I was having a bit of a hard time following the lesson. Elder Galland turned to me because it was my turn to talk. I thought we were at the prophets part of the first lesson, however we weren’t. We were at the life of Jesus Christ. So this is how that bit of lesson sounded to this lady.

“What are some of the things Christ did…” (answer)

(Me) “Yeah, prophets are called of God and given his Authority. They receive and reveal inspiration to guide the world.”

Whoops, that was really embarrassing.

Later in the day we were at T--- house waiting for L---- so we could teach them. We were talking with T--- and A---. Elder Galland was talking about how he hopes his brother walks again, but no one knows. T--- grabbed his Book of Mormon. He said “Here I will see”. He slaps both sides and opens to a random page. Surprisingly, it happens to be where Alma the Younger is paralyzed after the angel appeared to him. But it says he will rise and walk again.

It was pretty crazy. Then later on we were talking that one of us is probably going to get transferred. T---- did it again. He opened to a verse that said not to worry about it – Alma 42:23.

T---- also shared a story of how he was guided by the spirit. He was going to get A--- a new ID because she changed her name when they got married. The worker got mad at him and told him that he was going to have to go get photocopies and she wasn’t going to start the paperwork until his wife came. Earlier, T---- had been prompted to buy some bananas. He didn’t know why, but now he realized. He pulled them out and gave them to the worker. She was so thankful and helpful. She made the copies and had everything done in 30 minutes. I love the way the spirit works.

Almost all of our lessons fell through on Friday. We did have a very good lesson with V------. The only problem with his lesson is that his banco (bank) is at his house so the lessons are interrupted every 10 minutes. It was still very good. His wife is far away working in a machamba in Chimoio. We are going to give her number to the elders there so they can be taught at the same time. Machamba’s are huge fields where women go to work this time of year. They are gone for months at a time and it makes it very hard to teach complete families and to get couples married.

While on our way to another lesson, a boy we talk to a lot said he needed our help. He was carrying cinder blocks. We went with him and helped him carry. They were heavy but it made me feel right at home (that’s a shout out to you Mom and Dad).

I would say one of the more interesting stories happened on our way to T---- and A---’s house. A pickup truck was driving toward us. It stopped abruptly. Kids here like to jump onto the back of moving trucks. Most drivers really don’t like it. This driver, who had already talked to the kids, decided to do something about it. So he slammed on the brakes, put the car in park, and got out to run after the kids. They all scattered. One was unlucky enough to fall. They guy stood over him and was saying, “What did I say!” He told the kid he was going to take him away. He picked him up and carried him back to his truck. The whole time the kid was screaming at the top of his lungs saying “Mommy! Mommy!” The guy started to put the kicking kid into his truck. After he thought he had learned his lesson. He set him down and talked to him some more. Then he got in his truck and sped off. I think that kid will never forget that night and the lesson he learned.

Saturday was good and it killed me. It started of with a good lesson with S---- and L----. I didn’t do any talking during any of it but I felt impressed to share my testimony. When the lesson ended, Elder Galland said he was going to pray. Right before he started he said, “Actually Elder Kanaga will pray”. Before I did, I said, “I would like to leave my testimony with you.” In very simple Portuguese (because that is still all that I have). I bore testimony. Then I prayed. I know I felt the spirit and I hope it could use my words to touch their hearts. We will see. I hope they make it to baptism.

I started re-reading the Book of Mormon last transfer and finished it on October 19^th. It felt really good. Now I am going to read D&C, the Pearl of Great Price, Our Heritage, and Jesus the Christ. I am so excited to read them.

We were able to watch General Conference on Saturday. It killed me, I couldn’t understand anything but from what I did catch it was good. We watched again on Sunday and it killed me all over again. The spirit was there but I couldn’t understand because the translators spoke very fast Portuguese in a Brazilian accent, using words I haven’t ever heard.  The killer is that the songs were in English and there was a time lapse before the translator started on talks so I got just a teaser of the speaker’s real voices before it voiced over. It made me forget it was in a different language every time.

We stopped by S---- and talked to L----. She brought up her prayer, she said she felt a really good feeling in her heart and knew it was God talking with her. She says she knows our church is true! Hearing that is one of the best feelings ever.

I love you guys,
Elder Kanaga

 

 

 

Sintia

 

Manga 9th Week - October 14, 2013

Family and Friends,

Sorry for not sending a Family and Friends letter last week

 Last week rained a lot and hard.

 

 We wore rain boots. Mine had holes, oh yay! We had to run through puddles that were up to our knees, very gross water.

 

The main highlight of last week was Zone conference. President Kretly knows how to bring the spirit. He is so amazing!

 

Zone Conference picture taken from President Kretly's site

Sunday was fast Sunday, and we had a family power hour!  There is a very special family. They were one of the families baptized on September 20th (I had the privilege of baptizing the mother and the son). I consider this family my here in MOZ. They are so fun and happy. Four of the five members of this very special family that were baptized on September 20th, got up to bear their testimonies! It was so good they were naturals!

This week we had interviews with president! He came to Manga to do them. He gave us really good advice and guidance. After he left, we had one of the best days of my mission. It just went so good.

I also played tic-tac-toe in the dirt with some of the local kids. They honestly are really good at it. I got beat once and I know the secret to it! We had a good time. The kids here are so amazing they are just always happy.

This week I had an interesting coincidental thought.

Last October my Father asked me, "Where will you be in one year"

It was just after the announcement in conference about earlier mission age. Dad and I thought that a year from that time I could be any where in the world.

Now I am in Africa serving the Lord. I could hear my dads voice in my head this week ask me, "Where will you be in one year"

I know a year from now I will be here in Mozambique. I have no idea where.

Next October, I will ask myself "Where will I be in one year"

Two years from now, I know I will be home. I don’t know what I will be doing or a lot of things. Time is interesting and it is important to live in the moment while still planning for the future.

This Sunday the father of the special family (that bore their testimonies last Sunday) gave a talk on faith. He did so good. It was really funny, he was assigned five minutes, but he talked 10 minutes. In his talk he said, "Maybe next time they will give me ten." He is a natural leader!

Dad’s quote was right

 

Mom Editor: (The quote he is talking about is something his dad passed on from a speaker in Mesa 30th ward on Sunday 10/13. The speaker said: “2013 will be a significant year in Church History. It will be remembered as the year that the work throughout the world was hastened”)

 

Missionaries are a force to be reckoned with. We are literally God’s army. It always amazes me. I love how many people drop everything in their lives to go share the restored gospel with people they don’t know. I am here in Africa, the farthest I can be, walking around talking to everyone. Seeing if they want to come unto Christ and receive His gospel. That is something that no other organization could achieve.

WHY?

Because this is the true restored gospel of Jesus Christ

 

Love,
Elder Kanaga

 

Manga 8th Week - October 7, 2013

No letter this week but he sent some pictures

The Grand Hotel.

How the Grand Hotel looked in the late 1960's

Online movie about the Grand Hotel