T-3 28th week - February 24. 2014

Family night this week was good fun and we had correlation meeting afterwards. The miracle on Monday was part of one of the hymns we sung in family night "En Proclamarie Com Amor" or "I will Proclaim with Love". I like that, I need to love more WHILE I proclaim regardless of if I am tired or whatever.

Tuesday we had a lot of good contacts the little miracle for Tuesday was how infinitely loyal and loving dogs are. We were the members home. Their dog Trying to come up on the porch. They kept hitting her with the flip-flop. She just kept wagging her tail, longingly and lovingly looking at them. Just wanting their approval.

Wednesday was a day marked full of lessons, half of them fell through. It was sill a miracle that we got as many as we did. We had the surprise of members being present for some of the lessons. Crazy good miracle! We were sitting waiting at the church for the people we had an appointment to teach. Three joven's that were baptized two weeks ago, and who were recently called as branch missionaries, showed up and taught with us. These recent coverts give up a lot of time to teach with the missionaries. Amazing!

This week, while walking around trying to get contacts, We ran into a girl who has been a member for four years. she just moved back here from South Africa. I hope we can help her  because right now she's a little inactive. We had zone meeting this week. Afterwards, as we were waiting for a chapa, a car pulled up. It was a member, he went out of his way to take us to the T-3 Meeting house. It was for sure a miracle. I was on division with Elder Barroso one day this week, we walked his area We had some really good lessons. I really enjoyed doing divisions. Miracles.

Saturday was a wedding and baptism day for 2 couples. One couple from Elder Barroso and Herd's area and one couple from elder Rebolllo and Reed's area. Before one of the baptisms, Elder Rebollo said "Elder Kanaga, we need your help" He told me that the baptismal font was too full. The son of one of the couples would quite literally be "in over his head" so we bucket emptied some of the water and it worked out fine. It is a miracle to see these people take the steps to get married so they can make their first covenant of baptism

Sunday was crazy. Elder Rebollo and I got selected to help in the nursery...  it was wild! It ended up that we spent just 10 minutes getting quite literally pelted with hard plastic balls. Then the Nursery workers showed up. 

We had lots of investigators at church and the miracle of 195 frequency! I pray that J---- and M---- will feel the importance of getting married and that they will start that process. They are amazing and haven't missed church since we met them.

T-3 27th week - February 17, 2014

On P-Day we went to Maputo with Elder Rebollo and Elder Reed. They needed to buy a ring for their investigator that will be getting married. My companion, Elder NDala wanted to by the speaker. It was really weird to go into the city. Almost a little culture-shocky" for me. We drove on the freeway with a lot of cars, it felt strange. The city was fun but we had the worst bus ride or any kind of ride for that matter, of my life. We were packed in super tight like sardines. The driver wasn't smooth at all, a lot of quick starts and stops, and a lot of fast jerky turns. We went shopping then home to rest. Before family night, Elder NDala needed a haircut so we did that. At family night, missionaries, members and investigators alike had a good time.

Tuesday was one of the saddest days of my mission. We got a phone call from one of our investigators J---. His wife, O-----, left him, again. The last time she left she took all of his money. But she came back and he forgave her. They were working towards marriage, they were at family night together Monday happy and acted normal. On Tuesday she packed up everything she could from their home and left without notice. We went over and talked with him. He of course was heartbroken. He loves her and has been doing everything he can for her. It was so sad, he was crying as I would expect of anyone. We shared some scriptures with him, and gave him a blessing of comfort. I just felt that he was a good man trying to do what is right and I had hope that he would hold strong. Later in the week after being disappointed from a lot of drop lessons, we went for our lesson with J---. He was acting very odd. I thought I saw someone that looked like his wife, O-----. During the lesson we heard a noise inside the house. At the end of the lesson, the TV (view-able from the window) had a menu on it that hadn't been changed up until the end when it started to change what was selected. Later Elder NDala and I talked. We confirmed each other's thoughts and we both felt like the wife was in fact at the home and that J--- was lying to us. I can't imagine why they would. except to escape the responsibility of getting married. It's so sad but I felt the gift of discernment. It's hard to explain but I just knew. It must be how it is with moms, my mama always knew when I was lying!

This week, I realized something about myself, some days I'm really bad about living in the moment. I am so ready for the next day, hour, lesson,  or whatever. I don't want to miss "the now" when it's "tomorrow". I've decided to look for, identify, and write down at least one miracle each day. I know some days it will be hard in some easy. But I know it will give me heightened appreciation for each and every day. I will see the good in each moment, I know I will enjoy every day more. 

The miracle for Wednesday, took place in our first lesson of the day. It was with A---------, a young single adult we are teaching. He is super prepared. He told us about a dream he had a couple of days before. He said in the dream his father wanted him to come to visit his old church, so he agreed. Once at the church he didn't feel comfortable and finally got to the point where he left. In his dream his family didn't want him to come to the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints because it makes him strong. But he stood up for and defended the church. Later he told his aunt about the dream. She told him to tell his parents. He said he felt apprehensive but decided it would be best to tell his parents the dream. He did. He said his family was super accepting even supportive of his choice. It was really neat.

I was grateful that Thursday most of our lessons were scheduled at the church. It made me grateful for indoor plumbing. I had apparently eaten spoiled meat for lunch. I was very sick and since none of the people we were suppose to meet for lesson showed up and I was finally feeling bad enough that we headed home. I wasn't able to keep food in my stomach on the way home and continued to be sick once we arrived. I slept for a couple of hours then woke up. It hurt to lay down so I sat for a bit then went to bed. 

The super awesome miracle that happened that day was letters. Elder Barrasso brought them from his leader training meeting. Also it was sprinkling which gave me three more miracles cooler weather shady clouds and more packed less dusty paths and roads. Also when I was sitting feeling sick at the church I had the most random thought of how I miss family time. Not like scheduled stuff but things like yard work or Home Depot runs with Dad and shopping or car rides with Mom. It is cool and the miracle how the mission can really show you what's important in life. I hope I never forget it.

Friday I kept a solid food down. That for sure was a miracle.  This weekend was District Conference and it was really good. President and Sister Kretly rock! The miracle for Saturday and Sunday was District Conference, getting get to hear a lot a very good experience.

T-3 26th week - February 10, 2014

One great thing about P-Day being moved to Tuesday last week was that we ate at Mimmos. It's a pizza place where they have a Tuesday deal 2 for 1 pizzas. It was really good but it is way too expensive to eat pizza there any day but Tuesday. That evening, after P-Day ended we had a good lesson with M----- and O-----. Two of the four joven's that will be getting baptized on Saturday came with us, it was an awesome lesson. Even though it came a day late, it was an awesome P-Day.

Roma! That translates into English as "pomegranate" a fruit that I haven't seen seven months. I didn't think I would see another pomegranate until I got home. However, there is a member in our area that has  a tree. She is more than happy to share the fruit! I love pomegranate!

My glasses broke. They're not broken super bad, but I don't know if I will be able to get them fixed. The screw that holds the frame together (clapping in the lens) broke in half half of it all the way in the threads. They were my favorite glasses because they are lighter and don't slide down my as much. Luckily I do have my other pair. 

Thursday we found a miracle family, literally. We saw family and decided to contact them. They said "what a coincidence, we have been looking for you guys." The wife's uncle is a leader in the church Beira. They went to church a couple of times when they lived there. When they moved here, they didn't know where our meeting house was. They live in a different area, not ours. I hope we see them at church. 

So something strange happened this week when I tried to contact a guy. Tried… I saw a man walking toward me so I said, "Good evening" and put out my hand to shake. He walked past saying he was in a hurry. Then he reached back at the last moment and slapped my extended hand. I was just being nice. He slapped my hand…

Friday in preparation for baptisms on Saturday, we went to the church to clean out the baptismal font. We used buckets to empty some of the water. We had a hose and I tried to get a siphon going. I got water out one end, which wasn't easy because I was the siphon pump but I think since there wasn't a lot of water and the font, there wasn't enough pressure to get the siphon going. The next morning we had baptisms then a full day of lessons in the afternoon and evening. 

Elder Kanaga says "These young men are amazing!"

Sunday at church we found out Sister Hobson made us a cake! It was so good. She is awesome. Sadly, the rest of the day literally everything fell through. 

Overall, it was a good week, we have some "golden" families. One is J---- and M----. They are definitely prepared! 

T-3 25th week - February 4, 2014

Our P-day was switched to Tuesday this week because Monday was a national holiday. It was strange but we kept busy with lessons and contacting. Our branch family night had about 35 people in attendance. For refreshments, a member made really good chocolate cake and banana bread. It is so funny how much I love banana bread now, because I didn't love it before the mission. Last night I got a phone call from Elder Lynn. He wanted to see how I was doing. He told me Manga has not had power since last Tuesday. It was really nice of him to call and it made my day.

Last Monday was so different from P-Day in Manga, it was a great day and in the evening, the branch has a collective family night it was good and fun.

We had some good lessons and lots of contacts. I am trying to learn the area, but I'm having a really hard time doing so. It's funny I would've thought I would've already headed down due to the fact that it is a grid system. I'm getting it little by little. It's a great area though. We had a special zone conference. It was super cool to have a zone conference with Elder okay Hamilton of the seventy. He's really a nice cool guy he gave us advice and training. It was a really neat experience.

Picture from President Kretly's blog

00ps! Friday was one of "those days" almost everything that could go wrong did. We had about seven lessons marked (with backup plans) but every single thing we had fell through. Contacting people wasn't so hot either. We were getting rejected left and right, but we had a good solid finish to the week. During sacrament meeting something pretty cool happened I was sitting next to a young girl probably no older than eight or nine. She was caring for her baby sister. When the sacrament got past her she took a piece of bread, ripped it in half and gave it to her sister so she could partake of the sacrament too. It was cute.

There have been a couple of jet planes flying. They're super loud. It's funny because I am surprised to see planes in the air. It is been a long time since I have. Now it is weird to me where as at home it happened almost every day.

This is the kitchen in the T-3 house!

I thought this was funny! It says "Beer is sold" (arrow pointing to the ground) "Here".