Maxixe 46th Week - June 30, 2014

P-Day was rough all of our lessons feel through. We walked a lot and contacted a lot. While contacting a white couple walked by and I said “BOM Dia” The woman stopped and said “Can I ask you something?” A bit stunned to speak to someone in English, I said “Yeah” She asked where they could catch a bus to Maptuo. I told them and they went on their merry way. I hope they made it safely.

Tuesday started out good. We had a really good lesson with Jxxxxxx and Lxxxx. Elder Jarvis hypnotized a chicken and they thought it was amazing which it was pretty cool. Sadly our next lesson fell through. We kind of expected that though today as it is “O Dia De Independencia” here in Mozambique. So there was a lot of parting, loud music and drinking. We tried a bit unsuccessfully to get some contacts. We cooked Kouve for lunch. We had an interesting lesson with a man named Lxxx and his wife Lxxxxxxxxx. He, in the end, started talking about how some churches have more power than others, and the “stronger” ones have people that can talk directly to God. This is almost correct. One church has power and a prophet who can talk to God. He however, was talking about some other stuff so we will see what happens.

Obedience is so important. We are very much needing blessings. We need to live the highest law. Not just the letter of the law, because obviously the apostles didn’t write every little detail. So if we look for a loop-hole, of course we will find one. But we need to truly live the spirit of the law. “Doing what is right because it is right” as President Thomas S. Monson said. I feel like it is the difference in the desire to be perfectly obedient or the indifference to be “obedient enough”. Really in life, and here on the mission, we need to make the best decisions. Not just good ones, or better ones, but the best ones. It is a promise from God that blessings will come with obedience.

We had a good lesson with Pxxxx and Axx. That was really good to sit with them again. It has been quite some time. Then to finish off the night, we sat with Cxxxxx and Axxxxx. They are awesome, but are having some rough times in life right now. They are still continuing faithful in those things the Lord wants them to do.

I know for this they will be very blessed. Tuesday was officially the 1^st year of missionary service. Wednesday was the anniversary of my entrance into the MTC and the start of this whole big adventure. I hope that in this time, I have improved and changed who I am. But who knows I guess we will see.

Thursday was my one year mark. It was one year ago I said bye to mom and dad and this adventure started. Thursday was certainly not a normal day because we went to Inhambine! Man it was an awesome day out there. To kick it all off, it was a beautiful boat right across the bay. The city is just so dang amazing. So clean and organized. I felt like I was in California. It was a way awesome town, super clean and nice. We had to get some documents done, the register was super nice and got the work done super fast without any problems. We had a super amazing lesson with a man named Mxxxxxx. He was taught once or twice by the sisters in Maputo. He is amazing way rich but incredibly humble. He truly is full of the true desire to find and follow the true Church of Jesus Christ. We ate an overpriced lunch and had another fantastic lesson with Bxxxx. His wife didn’t want to sit with us but I still have hope that #1 there will be a next time, and #2 she will come around. We of course got tons of awesome pictures while we were over in Inhambaine. We finished off the day with a good less-active lesson with Fxxxxx and gxxxx. Then we boated back over and came home.

Friday we had a good lesson with Lxxxx, Jxxxxxxxs wife. She showed us the Certidão de Nascrmento that Jxxxxxxx was able to get out in Massinga Thursday. Super good! They are way awesome. We went for a very needed lesson with Rxxxxxx. It has been quite some time since we have sat with him due to the situation with his daughter. But we sat with them and went over the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. They remembered it all very well. One of my favorite parts of our visit with them was that we asked Yxxxx, a girl who is approximately 10 years old, to pray. Not only was she willing to pray but she had no problems, fear or embarrassment to speak to her Father in Heaven.

Saturday was a flop. We got some contacts in the morning and then at 10H we had a lesson . It was a first lesson with a man named Sxxxxxx. He was a contact from Elder Jarvis. It wasn’t the best lesson. Something I’ve found on my mission, is how important our desire is. If we really want something it will be given to us, we will achieve it. Some lessons feel very un-effective. Like our words come out of our mouths and bounce off the force-field of the indifference that surrounds the  ears of some people. It is because they don’t want to know if our message is true. They don’t want to know if Gods one true church has been restored or not here on the earth.

Sunday there were 64 people at church it was super awesome 14 of them were adult investigators. Counting children more than half of the 64 were children. We also had 4 families we were so close to having 5 but unfortunately, Cxxxxx left Dxxx at home to take care of Yxxxx who has some kind of wound on her leg. After church we passed by Lxxx and Lxxxxxxxx. Lxxx is so willing and has the desire to follow. However, sadly his wife is a different story. She actually ran away from us and our lesson. Super sad but somehow we ended up teaching him the Law of Chastity and he is pumped for marriage. Kind of a wild card but we are hoping maybe, just maybe it can get though to his wife. We will see. We also passed by Jxxxxxx and Lxxxx and Cxxxxx and Axxxx and the Rxxxxxx clan. They are all doing good and chugging along.

Maxixe 45th week - June 23, 2014

Last Sunday was great. We had 56 people at church! Woo-hoo! That is so huge! This is the first time I have heard of Maxixe getting 50 to church much less passing it. What a huge blessing. Pxxxxxx and Mxxxx came, that is another Huge-normous blessing! Out of the 56 people at church 14 of them were investigators consisting of 4 families. That is awesome.  

After church we had a great lesson with a new investigator Mxxxx. He said he use to be a professional soccer player for Moçambique, but there were salary problems so he stopped. He told us he had planned to go to the city but felt he should come home, just after he arrived home we showed up unannounced!

We also had our weekly meeting with President Chambal which was good. Then we had a Plan of Salvation lesson with Cxxxxx and Axxxxx. Cxxxxx asked about “Fantasmo” or ghostly stuff. It’s frustrating because that stuff is so deeply ingrained but I have hope he can figure it out. Wednesday we had another good lesson with them on the Word of Wisdom which they accepted. Cxxxxx is afraid he won’t be able to leave tea alone. But we will always give him encouragement and he will achieve. The following Sunday we met with them again along with Axxxxxxxx and the branch president. They are also trudging along well on getting their documents.

P-Day was great, we got some good work done and had a nice time. We made super tasty chimmussas and played soccer. Great exercise!

As we were walking around the market I found a really nice Nike dri-fit Brazil futebol jersey so I gave in and bought it.

We got some awesome news that we will be able to go, only one time, to Inhambane. I am so excited. We will be going with a member.

Tuesday we had a full day marked but all of our lessons fell through. However, the Lord blessed us with finding lessons. We were able to sit with Oxxxxxx. I am hopeful he will come back. I also hope we can help Jxxx and Axxxxx. We also visited with Oxxxxx tonight. He is a recent convert and an Aaronic Priesthood holder. He is a bit inactive at the moment but I hope that through some good friendly visits, encouragement and a lot of love, we can get him back to church as well.

We visited with Axxxxxxxx and Exxxx. They still aren't reading and it really makes me sad for them. They have some difficulties to overcome. I hope they can learn that husband and wife are equal partners in a marriage and that each partner has full responsibility together. If they just keep blaming each other for what they have done or failed to do they will never progress or obtain unity in their family.

Sometimes I feel like my life before the mission doesn't exist. The memory is still there obviously, but it almost feels more like a dream I had or a movie I watched. It is an odd sensation to feel that way. I know in one year that is how I will start feeling about my mission. Enough of that!

We had an interesting lesson with Exxxxxx. We met with Jxxxxx about how he is doing and to prepare him a bit to receive the Melkezidek Priesthood which he was interviewed for the following Sunday. Presidente Chambal, the other elders and I all think it would be awesome to have him as the 2^nd counselor in the branch presidency. This would be a blessing to me as I feel if I am in that position much longer my hair will either start falling out or turning gray. It has been a little stressful. He went with us to Cxxxxx and Axx’s with us. He taught the lesson. It went really well.

We also had a lesson marked with Rxxxxxx and his clan. Unfortunately his daughter has some heart problems and is in the hospital in Inhambane. I hope she will get better, they think they will have to send her to Maputo. We visited with Cxxxxx and Axxxxx but the rest of the family was with Rxxxxxx and his daughter which is good. They are a strong family and I truly cannont wait to see how the gospel blesses their lives.

Thursday we also read with Jxxxxxx and Lxxxxx. We had another lesson with them on Friday. That morning, we talked to the Conservador about how to get Lxxxx’s Certidôes from Massinga. That went pretty well. Luckily for us, we have a good relationship with the Registro so he is helping us out. They are really chugging along well and are still really reading and praying. They only thing that is holding them back is the documents which they are working on. Jxxxxxx will be going to Massinga on Monday to pick up the Lxxxx’s Certidôes. The name I gave their twins have stuck, Jxxxxxxho and Lxxxxiho. It is awesome! I don’t know if they will legally name them that but that is what they call them Lxxxxiho is the baby with more hair if you are wondering (he didn't send a picture so I will ask for one).

It is hard when all of our marked lessons from contacts fall through. Fortunately we are still able to sit with our progressing investigators. Elder Jarvis, Elder DaSilva and I wonder if God is telling and showing us that we really need to focus on getting our progressing investigators through the process. We did get 15 contacts and went deep into our area to a place called Macupuis. I am pretty sure that for the most part, this was the first time some of these people have seen a white person much less two. We were not able to get any good contact there but a nice woman gave us some sugar cane. I hope we can start getting some more lessons.

We had a great lesson with Sxxxx. It went well. We taught on the Book of Mormon. He didn't think his wife would sit with us but she did and she participated really well. I think they will be baptized.

Maxixe 44th week - June 16, 2014

On P-Day all of our lessons fell through but on the bright side, we got twelve contacts.

We were able to pay for our Fipag or water bill. We withdrew the money and waited in the line and got the Fipag paid with the account zeroed out. No late fees, nothing, all bright and happy. We still had some 4,000 odd metecals left over for the power. Well, that is when things went a bit down-hill. The normal place we buy cred-elec was closed. Their computers were down. The only other place that exists here in Maxixe had a huge, massive, beast of a not-so-line. Technically it was a line but physically it was just a big ole’ mash-pit. We found out who was last in line and got behind them. We waited for upwards of two whole hours. The line wasn’t moving. They system was out. We called Axxx and asked him if he could go to Inhambane to buy us cred-elec.

We ate lunch and gave him the money and went all the way to market of Sujeria for a lesson that fell though. Then we walked about half way to Homoni which is pronounced Um-Weni to a barrio called Abana. It was mato mesmo! It was beautiful. We were visiting Exxxxxxx. He is here working from T-3. He came with a member, Irmão Oxxxxxx. He has been coming to church for about three months. Well I stupidly, but accidently got us a chapa to Expansão. Luckily we realized not too far in and got off, walked back to the Praca and got on the right chapa. We finally got out there and taught him. It was a super good lesson. He is really smart and appears to really have the desire to get baptized and learn more, not necessarily in that order. Then we had to get back to Maxixe. It was already 18H so that wasn’t easy. It took about another 30 minutes to get a chapa. All the cars on the road were “caixa-abertas” or open backed trucks. As missionaries, we have a rule that we cannot take those. We finally got back and headed home. On the birght side, we got to explore our area more. It is like being on an adventure. We also got to pick up our grill for grilling food. We got one member present. On the down side that was our only lesson for the day.

The next day we spent another hour waiting in cred-elec line. But this machine broke so we ended up paying some kid 20mt to buy us cred-elec on this phone through M-Pesa. That stressed me out, but it all ended up being good. Now we have energy for the house.

We got 18 contacts for Wednesday. That is a lot of contacts. As you must know by now, days with high contacts usually means low lessons. Unfortunately, that was in fact the case for Wednesday. We are getting plenty of contacts, but all of them are falling through as lessons, even some double-marked ones. I really hope we can start boosting these numbers so we can have a chance to see some baptisms. Speaking of baptisms, Jxxxxx and Lxxxx have now received all of the missionary lessons. Now it is review and hard-core document mode time. Mxxxxxx gave us permission to have Jxxxxxx do the yard at the church, so that rocks! Now he will not only have the money he needs to do documents but also to feed his wife and four children.

We visited Cxxxxx and Axxxxx Wednesday night. They too are doing well. However, they still haven’t picked up their Declarações do Bairro. So Wednesday night we really pushed how extremely important continued progress on these documents is for them. We committed Cxxxxx to go talk to the Chefe do Bairro that night mesmo so that he can pick up his documents. I really think with just a little bit of força and fé (strength and faith) we can get all three of these casais (couples) married on the 28^th. That would be so fantastic if that could happen here in Maxixe.

Thursday was going to be our Expansão day, but sadly all of our marked lessons fell through, so we didn’t get to go. We worked on getting lessons from house contacts. It wasn’t going super well. We did get one with a man who shall not be named. He was looking for flaws and errors in everything we said, which took away from the ability for the Holy Ghost to be present. However, we had a good lesson after that. Then we had a member present with the Branch President at Rxxxxxx’s. It was good.

Friday was good, we got up early to run and get ready to be out of the house an hour early. We went to Abana again to teach Exxxxxxx. It was totally worth it. It was an absolutely awesome lesson. He is super solid and super ready. At the end of the lesson, one of his questions was – what are, or would be some of his responsibilities as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We read the baptismal covenant with him and talked about callings and the priesthood. The only down-side to that lesson is that it turned 100.1% impossible to get a chapa on the way home. We walked for an hour to get to Scananini and another 30 to 45 minutes until home. On the way home we got a call from the office elders that District Meeting would be promptly starting. So we sat on a log, ate bread, cookies and Molina during the meeting as we were all rather hungry. Molina is a really tasty, rather genius little bar with peanuts and sugar. Finally we arrived home and had comp study. The rest of the day was a half-decent day of lessons. We had a good one with an inactive sister. Irmã Pxxxxx. It was nice. I really hope she decides to come back to church. Then we walked a very, very long time to the very farthest point of Chambone to have another lesson. It went really nice.

Saturday! Bem, hoje foi um dia interesante, mesmo (Well, today was an interesting day, even). We went to Homoine. We went to visit Pxxxxxx. Things are quite different that I was led to believe. I had been told that Pxxxxxx and his family had more or less apostatized from the church. However, Pxxxxxx and Mxxxx still have very strong testimonies. They were just treaded very badly here in the church and were offended. They shared their story with us. They both have very interesting and individual conversion stories. They were so happy to receive a visit from us. They said they would be coming back to church this week (tomorrow) I really hope Presidente Chambal and the rest of the members receive and treat them well.

We had a first lesson with Sxxxxx. His wife wasn’t there but it was an awesome lesson. This guy is awesome. He is 25 and has been legally married for three years. He is like a golden investigator. He completely understood the lesson. The whole time he was agreeing with what we were saying. It was quite a solid lesson. We also had a really good lesson with the Rxxxxxx clan. They are all nice. Rxxxxxx is still “busy to be baptized” which just mean he really wants to get baptized. He truly does have a true desire.

Maxixe 43rd - June 9th 2014

Last P-day marked the start of my eighth transfer. It was a good start. We started the day with a run then transfers. I was to stay here in Maxixe and Elder DePina headed to Motola 1D with Elder Thomas. My new companion or rather companions were to be Elder Jarvis and Elder DaSilva… a triple… I was not sure how that would work out but hoped it would be good. The office elders gave me permission to look for a new house as our current living conditions would not accommodate a triple very well.

  

We got some good lessons in on P-Day. One with Lxxx Txxxx and one with Jxxxxxx. Both went really well. The lesson we taught Lxxxx was the first or the Restoration lesson.

We had planned to teach Jxxxxxx and his wife Baptism and Confirmation, but his wife Lxxxx wasn’t home so we decided to just follow up on his reading and go from there. He skipped and read in 2 Nephi 31, where Nephi talks about why Jesus Christ was baptized. Well! If that wasn’t a screaming spiritual acknowledgement to still teach baptism and confirmation I don’t know what is. The lesson went really good too. On Saturday we (my new companions and I) taught Jxxxxx and Lxxxx about obedience and following the prophet and obeying the laws of the country. They of course accepted to live and obey God’s laws and the law of the land.

Monday afternoon, Elder DePina wanted to say goodbye to the Branch President. After that we went about our P-Day stuff. Compras, internent, just the norm. I can’t complain, I just hope that this is a super good transfer. We have some high potential here. I hope we can make it work.

Tuesday was my last day walking with Elder DePina. Sadly, it wasn’t a super productive day but we still got a lot done. Most of our lessons fell through. It didn’t help that we didn’t really have any solid plans due to not knowing prior as to exactly when Elder DePina would be headed out. We visited Axxxxxxx and Exxxx first thing in the morning so Elder DePina could say goodbye to them. While we were there, I got to hold a bunny rabbit. I do have to say, it was a cute little sucker, but it doesn’t have much of a future in this world as the landlord raises bunnies for food. I had no idea that bunnies are suppose to be held by their ears. I was rather surprised and how strong their ears are. It is really impressive.  Jxxxx had these super cool keychains made for us, He is awesome.

Tuesday we also went to help Axxxxxxx, President Chambals wife, a bit to know what her talk subject will be. It’s going to be on the law of chastity, which should be really good. Axxx was there, he was harassing some poor cat. I hate cats but I felt for cat. It was sleeping and Axxx stepped on its tail. The cat tried attacking Axxx’s foot and leg, but it turns out jeans and shoes are cat proof. Then Axxx told a story. The night before he was with some friends. They ended up talking about Americans. The friends said Americans are super smart and can go to any country and master their language. One friend said “yeah, those in the white shirts that walk around two by two, there are a bunch of them in Maputo, they learn our language way fast.” Axxx said he just laughed to himself when he realized they were talking about missionaries.

Elder DePina got on a bus Wednesday morning, so I stayed with Axxx for a bit afterwards. We walked around the city looking for a house to rent. No luck, but soon enough it was time to wait for the bus that was to bring Elder Jarvis and DaSilva. They arrived safe and sound but dead tired. We hauled all of their luggage back to the house, and went to buy another mattress. Once we bought the mattress we walked it back to the house, carrying it on top of our heads. 

In the afternoon we did some contacts. Elder Jarvis is huge on contacts, big time! He loves knocking on gates so we did a lot of that. Hopefully some of the contacts we made will go though. That night we had to figure out how to hang a third mosquito net. It proved difficult but para-cord came to save the day.
“No” they said, “You won’t need para-cord in Africa”. They said “That’s dumb”. If I didn’t have that para-cord, we wouldn’t have been able to hang the net. I had to tie it to an electrical junction and to another cord and Walla! A mosquito net ready to use.

Thursday was good and interesting. We started out the day with a good lesson and a lot of contacts. I have been really enjoying Elder DaSilva and Elder Jarvis, they are friends. We talk about random stuff throughout the day and weekly planning feels like a completely different experience. It is awesome. I had thought I wouldn’t like walking in a triple but the truth is I am actually quite surprised how much I like it. Teaching is quite a different experience. Having three people teaching with different styles of teaching makes a fairly good mix. However, Elder DaSilva and Elder Jarvis are killing my healthy eating! I plan to continue exercising and not to go off the deep end. I think we will have fun P-Days with fut-sol, beach bask and grilling. It’s gonna rock. I really feel like this is a transfer with a lot of purpose. I like my companions and feel like we can help each other be more obedient, diligent and happy.

On Thursday, we had another lesson with Rxxxxxx, he brought in another family member. I can’t believe house sound he is! It really amazes me. Saturday we met with them again. That day, we taught them about O.L.A. or Oror, Ler, Assistir (Pray, read, and come to church). They seem to understand the importance of all of them. Rxxxxxx makes me laugh. When we invited him to do those things, he said I’m in front, I’m number one. He also bore his testimony that he truly knows that this is the true church. I honestly think he is amazing. He has so much faith. I can’t wait to see him baptized. He will help the church grow a lot.

Friday I bought some peri-peri sauce off the road. I think it gave me food poisoning. It didn’t help that it rained and we were soaked. After lunch I was freezing. All of my bones ached mesmo  (even). My stomach hurt really bad and my head was exploding. Needless to say I don’t remember terribly much about the day. We had a couple of lessons and one with a guy from Zion’s church. Not a single word we said entered into his head. We left him with a pamphlet and went on with our day. Later, I was feeling like a zombie. We sat for a bit and as we were resting, a group of drunk jovens (youth) came up. I lectured one for drinking because he himself said it was against God. Then I taught him the first lesson. I wasn’t really in my head though, so I don’t remember what happened I just know he didn’t accept it. We were headed back to home base so I could get some sleep and get better. I literally went insane, I was in intense pain and going crazy. I have no idea how to explain what was going on inside of my head, I just know it wasn’t a good thing. I never want that to happen again.

Saturday I was a bit off in the morning. I slept a little and got up. I tried to eat and was feeling really bad so I slept another hour. After that I felt more or less good. We went out and contacted.  Sadly, most of our lessons fell though but we were needing more contacts and Saturday we got 13 contacts! Woo! We also taught the temple preparation class. I felt like it went pretty well. I am still really new to teaching big groups of people, like in classes. It is quite a different thing than teaching a lesson to an investigator family. After the temple preparation class I had my first Branch Presidency meeting (Elder Kanaga is the 2^nd counselor in the branch presidency. He said “I won't lie that is pretty scary for me. I hope I can be able to help the branch here or at least not hurt it”), it was scary. I hope I can be of help in the branch. I really feel like this branch is going to see lift-off this transfer.

Sunday church was nice and we had a frequency of 48. We had an awesome sacrament meeting. Afterwards, we had a lot of contacts and a super good meeting with the Branch President. We are now able to proselyte in Expansão and  Chicoque and other places.

Maxixe 42nd week - June 2, 2014

"Every person here on earth is a child of God and chose to come here to make choices and to progress. Everyone has divine potential".

I think the saying “time flies" is a very big understatement, this Monday marked eleven months on the mission for me. It hardly feels like I have been out for two months. I still feel (and quite honestly, am) very new. But alas time just keeps ticking on. 

Elder Kanaga is on his 8th transfer

Last P-Day Elder DePina got food poisoning or something. We called the mission Doctor who told us what medications to buy. We went to the pharmacy and bought the medication and returned home. He took some and slept for a couple of hours. Then we went shopping, and returned home. He slept for a while longer. He got up for a bit, then slept for more or less the rest of the day.

I made pizza again. I've decided that the “P” in P-Day represents pizza. Therefore, P-Day means pizza day. Logic! It was really good pizza! Not much happened on P-day as we were more or less house locked because of Elder DePina being sick. But I will say this, as I spent a good 30 or 45 minutes chopping and dicing vegetables for the pizza the thought crossed my mind, multiple times, of how nice it would be to be the Wolverine from X-Men :-). This week I also bought and cooked (after playing with) a crab. I put it in my stir-fry. It is good, however way too much work. Boneless skinless chicken breast is so much easier.

"Give me back my name tag"

Tuesday Elder DePina was better and when we went out for the morning there was quite beautiful fog that had set down over Maxixe. Sadly the harsh sun burnt it off so I was not able to get a picture. Hopefully, it will happen again so I can snap a photo. Later in the day as we were walking, I saw an older lady walking around with a Game Stop Resell fabric shopping bag. Oh the things we see in Mozambique.

We had a great lesson with Jxxxxxx & Lxxxx on Tuesday. They are awesome! They are actually reading and praying together daily! That is so awesome and what's more they are slowly but surely working on getting their documents for marriage so they can be baptized! So that was a nice. Thursday, we had another good lesson with them. They are solid! They are still reading, praying, and slowly getting documents. Jxxxxxx told us how most people go fishing for crabs. They walk in neck deep into the water barefoot. When they step on a crab, they go under and grab the crab with bare hands. Uggh! Not a thing I even want to do. He says sometimes you get pinched and cut but, you get used to it. It made me think about the story of the three truck drivers applying for a job. The first two bragged about how close to the edge of a cliff they could drive the truck, however, the third wisely said, "I drive as far away from the edge as I can." Putting our hands down in murky water knowing there is something that can hurt us is like driving too close to the edge. Let us spiritually keep our trucks far from the edge, and keep our spirits in safe places. Let us never place ourselves anywhere close to spiritual or physical danger or temptation. As they say “The best cure is prevention".

One day, as we were out contacting, a lady stopped us and asked "Is it true, you are Interpol?" I didn't know what that meant so I asked. It means International Police. We chuckled a bit and I said, "I am a 19-year-old kid, I am not part of the International Police" and that cleared that up. If we were Interpol I certainly would not tell and I would have a good cover identity. Missionary work has 50% people with real interest and 50% without, but Brett Favre is all real that's $200.

Pxxxx asked if he could bring the book of Mormon with him to work. He is a guard and as such has a lot of down time to read so of course we said yes. It is always nice to have people show real interest. Later in the week, we started off the morning on Thursday with a good lesson with him. His wife Axx is currently sick. He is great, we taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is trying little by little to get his wife's documents so that they can be married and baptized.

We contacted a good family on Wednesday. Ixxxx and Sxxxxx. We had a really nice first lesson with them. Both of them paid attention and understood well our message. We re-marked for Friday. So hopefully we will see them progress well.

Later we had a bit of a different lesson with another couple. The wife was with it, and understood, but the husband would not act for himself. Every time we asked him a question, he would look over at his wife. It is great to consult together as a couple, but he needed to just be his own self and answer how he felt. But they were both really nice, and aside from a couple of "hiccups" from him, the lesson went well, so we marked to visit them again on Friday.

When speaking of Thursday, sadly, the first thing I have to do is rather angrily, complain. I do this because starting at 3 hours 30 or 3:30AM, the rooster next-door thought it would be a good idea to start cock-a-doodle-freaking-doo-ing *eye-twitch*. I truly honestly almost, got up to go "silence" him. Instead I got some ear plugs and happily stuffed them in thinking, "Ha! Dumb flightless bird! I don't have to listen to you!" Then soon after those baby foam pillows expanded in my ears, he went off again and I could still hear him. I mean when I go to air shows (Go Thunderbirds!) the earplugs help quiet the sound of F-16s almost breaking the sound barrier. Do they work for this this dumb rooster? No… Finally, when it was time to (very tiredly) get up, only then did he stop *eye-twitch*.

After our lesson with Pxxxx, a bit of the sad thing happened, we had to drop Vxxxxx. He has stopped coming to church, and started turning off his phone when we try to contact him. He has been hiding from us when we pass by his house. Honestly it is heartbreaking, but, everyone has agency. We, as missionaries, are here to give them the chance, not force them, so he has chosen for now.

Friday was a pretty good day, a lot fell through, but we still got a lot done, and I for sure still want to kill a rooster, just one though. Friday morning he started up at 1 hour 30.  Somehow, through a tender mercy I managed to get decent sleep.

While we were walking on Friday, I thought about my Nana, who knows why, but I did. The memory of my last time seeing her came strongly to my mind. The last things she spoke to me in this life were about always being worthy of the priesthood. Sadly, I do not remember her exact words; however, it left a very strong impression on me. How amazingly important it is, so important that my dear Nana chose it to be her last counsel to me. As a young man often the thought of Nan, watching over me has influenced my decisions “What would Nana think of this?” and things like that. It was a nice remembrance for me and a strong lesson to always be worthy of the priesthood.

 Also on Friday, we had a really good lesson with Cxxxx and Axxxxxx. Axxxxxx is super sound! She read about Joseph Smith receiving the golden plates. She remembered all the details and discussed it with us. She is going to really help the church here in Maxixe. Then on Sunday, We had another good lesson with this very same couple. I love them. She is so awesome. During our lesson, his cell phone started to go off. She instantly said "Desliga, poi no silencio" or "reject the call, silence your phone." It made me smile. They are awesome.

Mama Editor: Elder Kanaga takes notes and snaps pictures of his notes. He emails them to me so I can transcribe them for his blog updates. Unfortunately the paragraph that goes here was too light to decipher. It sounded like it was about a new couple they were teaching. At the very end of the paragraph was something about hope J

We taught the Temple preparation class to all the members with one year or more as a member. The lesson went really well but made me miss going to the temple. A lot! Afterwards everything fell through. Our plans, our backup plans, and the backup plans for our backup plans. That was a bit discouraging but there is nothing I could do about it. Literally, I mean literally everything fell through.

At lunch time I bought a papaya, now this was not my first papaya. I had papaya in my first transfer and didn't like it at all. This time around I loved it! Papaya are the greatest.

Sunday was fast and testimony sacrament meeting. I was a little scared because of how it went last month. However, this time around I was kind of surprised. It went very well. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Afterwards, I was taught a good lesson not to judge (in a natural man way):

A man we are teaching has really latched onto the gospel. He is inviting family and friends. We've had two lessons with him. He has read and re-read the restoration packet we left with him. He now will be starting his exciting journey through the book of Mormon. When we sat with him the first time, I very imperfectly judged him as a deadbeat that wouldn't go anywhere. Well Elder Kanaga, slap to the face! I needed (and need) to look at people with an eternal perspective. The way God sees them, not in my very limited, earthly perspective. Every person here on earth is a child of God and chose to come here to make choices and to progress. Everyone has divine potential.

Sunday was June 1st here in Mozambique, which is a holiday, Dia das Crianças, or Children’s Day. It is probably the first holiday everyone didn't go drinking what a blessing. I am not, however excited for the 25th, National Independence Day.