Munhava 60th week - October 6, 2014

We had divisions this week and it was the most solid day I have had on my mission. I was with Elder Olsen who is from my MTC group. We had lessons every hour from 14H to 20H. It was a really nice full day.

We also taught the Plan of Salvation to Vxxxx and Dxxxxxxx. Vxxxx is the first person I have taught who told us he had given thought as to where he came from, why we are here and where we are going. Needless to say it was a very nice lesson. Thursday, we had another amazing lesson with them. In fact, it was the best part of my day. As always before we started our lesson, we asked if they had any questions. As always, Elder Borne and I were blown away by the level of their questions. For example, Vxxxx said, “So the Book of Mormon is made up of four plates. The plates of Nephi, the brass plates, The plates of Either, and the plates of Mormon. What exactly are the plates of Mormon?” We answered, then he said, “Mormon, he passed the plates on to his son, Moroni and gave him tasks, what were his tasks?” It was amazing. I do believe that Vxxxx and Dxxxxxxx will be super strong members of the church. We met with them again on Saturday afternoon, We had a really great lesson, again. Vxxxx and Dxxxxxxx asked some real awesome questions. I love teaching them.

Tuesday Elder Dille came to help clean the opening in my incision. It was pretty painful. Two days later I was having a lot of pain. When I changed the bandage I discovered blisters all around the open part of my incision. It turns out that I had a not so great allergic reaction to the “wound cleaner” spray. Oops and ouch.

Zxxx and Axxxxx are great. We had such a great lesson with them this week.

In district meeting Elder Olsen gave a good lesson on following the spirit in the “Maze of Missionary Work”. It was a really last district meeting for the transfer. Afterwards we had a bunch of good lessons.

We had a nice first lesson with a man and his wife, Rxxxxxxxx and Axx. They were accepting and so smart.

We also had a good lesson with Rxxxxxx and Axx. They are still diligent and working on documents so that they can get married.

We visited Rxxxxxx and Lxxx. They seem like they will progress. We also had another first lesson with Fxxxxxx and Mxxxxxx.

Saturday we had a baptism. Some other branches had weddings and baptisms as well. All together, 24 people were baptized at the service. The weddings and baptisms took the majority of our day.

Afterwards, our district went to lunch. On our way we got stuck behind a Frelimo political party parade.  But it was a beautiful day and it was overcast and breezy.

I am sorry to say that Elder Borne and I saw a sad (but unusual) thing one day while walking. There was a dead cat on the side of the road. It had been dead long enough that it had started going through rigor mortis. It reminded me of the way Harley (Elder Kanaga’s dog at here at home) twitches while she is dreaming. There were a couple of times that the cat would be pretty still, then right as someone was passing by, it would twitch (muscle-spasm) which scared the person passing by.

Elder Kanaga has eleven transfers under his belt!

Munhava 59th week - September 29, 2014

Email, it is such a huge blessing – miracle - mercy to be able to communicate over 12,000 miles more-or-less instantly. I love that on p-day I get to email! On P-day, we had a first lesson with Mxxx. His wife wasn’t home but it went good and we re-marked for Wednesday.

Tuesday was my birthday. Para-bens para mim, para-bens para mim. Para bens neste dia feliz Para-bens para mim. I am 20, I’m old.  One of the elders in the house made Frango Escondidio or “hidden chicken”. I am definitely making that for my family when I get home. 

This week we had lessons and contacting but not a full “normal day”. We had some lessons with Vxxxx and Dxxxxxxx. On Tuesday a member was present. The member is Mxxxxx, he shared his conversion story and most of the restoration, plan of salvation, gospel, law of chastity and a couple of other things. Vxxx and Dxxxxxxx seemed to become more interested as he shared. They came to church on Sunday and I think they will progress well.

False advertising! The poster says "Free English classes. The classes have an enrollment fee of 1000mt.
Our classes are advertised as and actually are 100% Free!

We cleaned the chapel for Zone conference which took an entire morning. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as it was “Armed Forces Day” (a national holiday) and 95% of people were “celebrating”. After cleaning the church, we gave Dxxxxxxx the last lesson and went to teach the English class. We did contacting and went home 2 hours early per President Kretly’s orders. He wanted us to be super well rested and attentive for Zone Conference. He asked that every missionary be home and in bed two hours early.

Elder Kanaga with Elder and Sister Snelson at Zone Conference.

Zone Conference was so good. Of course there was a lot of missionary camaraderie and catching up while we waited for President Kretly to arrive. President went over the first three of “7 habits of highly effective people”. He taught us to
 #1 Be proactive.
 #2 Start with the objective in mind.
 #3 Focus on first things first.
President Kretly’s teachings and trainings are always awesome.

Elder Conde was a young man who walked  and taught with Elder Kanaga and
his companion as a member when they were in Manga. Right now, he is serving
in Mozambique. Very soon he will be leaving to complete his mission in Angola! 

The next day, we had interviews with President Kretly. I am so grateful for the biggest miracle that happened on the way to interviews. As we were walking past TPM (the public bus transit company), I heard a whistle, I turned to find my dear Txxxx Lxxx Dxxxx He is looking very good. He looks so much younger. He looks youthful! It was such a happy experience to see him. It was literally a miracle.

Mama Editor: This was Elder Kanaga’s first family to teach and see married and baptized. He has often expressed love and concern for this family. In personal email, Elder Kanaga told me that Txxxx was now the 2nd counselor in his branch presidency. He loves to see the change that has blessed the Dxxxx family’s life.

Church was so good on Sunday. Afterwards, we had some really good lessons. Zxxx and Axxxxx are getting their documents ready and really working toward getting married. I hope to see that happen. We had a really effective meeting with the branch president Sunday.

The biggest problem I have right now is that my incision still hasn’t quit bleeding. I don’t have any idea how to stop it. Other than that, I had a good P-day, a good B-day, and a super good week.

Munhava 58th week - September 22, 2014

It was a hectic P-day last week and during internet the power cut out because a transformer blew up. We shopped and got haircuts. Unfortunately all of our lessons fell through.

Tuesday was better lesson wise we had some fall through but not all. I did divisions in our area with Elder Walker,  Elder Bourne went with Elder Olsen. We went to visit Dxxxxxxx and taught him about fasting and, of course, he understood it all perfectly. I was quite surprised how well Elder Walker already speaks Portuguese. It is amazing and it is only his second transfer.

Wednesday we started by doing contacts in the morning. We were super blessed to get a lot of them.

We taught a first lesson with a wonderful couple, Dxxxxxxa and Axxxxx. I am not 100% sure why it was so different or amazing but it was. The spirit was so strong. They understood everything we taught and when or if they didn't, they would ask questions. At the end of the lesson we asked them to be baptized. They had a couple of small questions but accepted with excitement. During our second lesson with them we taught about the Priesthood. Dxxxxxxx understood so well that he compared the Priesthood to  a key that opens a door. He said without the key, (or Priesthood) we can’t open the door to truth. I was so impressed.

We had a lesson with Vxxx and Dxxxxxxx. They are a reference from some other investigators. It was a good  lesson.

We had a lesson with Pxxxxx and Axx. He said his boss is back in Beira which means he will finally get paid and can get to work on their documents. It was a great lesson because they are reading and understanding the Book of Mormon.

We also had a lesson with a new family, Mxxxxx and Gxxxxxxx which was awesome. The lesson went really well. They are a really good family. Our second lesson with them didn't go as well. I am not quite sure why, but it was sad. But we had a great lesson with Zxxx and Axxxxxx. Zxxx plans on getting his documents next week. I really hope he does.

This past week we have not had dependable running water. The blessing is that four times daily Fipag forces water for 1 hour. That hour is when we fill water bottles and do dishes.

Sunday I gave a talk on “The Covenant People of the Lord” and although it was pouring rain we had families who walked through the down-pour to come to church. For one of the families it was their first time coming to church. I was impressed with these families. Our day following meetings was pretty solidly laid out but a bit of it fell through. We did have a miraculous lesson on Sunday for two reasons #1 it went through, #2 Pxxxxx finally got paid and said he is going to start working on his documents tomorrow!

We taught English class that went fairly well. I am really very impressed with how well some people can pick up English. 

Munhava 57th week - September 15, 2014

Oh the Monday that wasn't P-Day. It was good, but it was not P-Day because of a National Holiday. We walked (a lot) and contacted, and had one pretty good lesson. Then we had a couple lessons fall. We had a really forte (strong) lesson with Nxxxxx and Fxxxx. They were being pressured by family to not get married until they fix up their house. So we really had to gently but firmly guide their attention back to following Christ.

Tuesday was a pretty good P-Day. I mean Tuesday P-Days are always a bit odd, but it was good. Internet - I got a virus on my card and lost all my pictures from since I got back from South Africa. It also will not let me store any pictures on it. While we were out doing our proselytizing, we saw the Mozambican version of a “swirly”. Some poor little kid was being threatened by his older brother to be dipped in the putrid water on the path side.

Wednesday, had some good lessons. One was a good lesson reading the Book of Mormon with Lxxx and Mxxxxxx. Another lesson with a new family, and one with Zxxx & Axxxxx. We taught them about the Law of Chastity which they accepted. They planned to start on documents Thursday. We were to sit with Zxxx & Axxxxx again on Saturday. We taught him, she actually wasn't there, but they have already started on their documents. We just taught the Law of Chastity Wednesday and they had the faith to jump on it and start the paper to get married! Boom! Legit.

On 9-11, I could very clearly remember writing about 9-11 last year, sitting at my desk in Manga, in my first transfer. It is a day I will never forget watching the plane strikes and towers fall. I can remember that day clearly like it just happened. Crazy. 

Thursday, we did some contacting in the morning and finally got in contact with Dxxxxxxx, which is awesome because it has almost been one whole week. So we passed by his house before we taught English class. Then we visited Rxxxxxx & Axx. She prayed for the first time in Portuguese. We also went to visit the Mxxxxxx family. Jxxxxxx got called to the Dominican Republic and Jxxxxxx from the Maraza Branch, got his call to South Africa Johannesburg! Whoop! They will be leaving in November and December.

Friday, we had “Zone Training” first thing in the morning. Sadly our day out in the area wasn't solid, a lot fell. When we first got out to the area literally everyone we called or tried to pass by, dropped on us. We also had a member with us starting at 18H and that lesson fell too. Finally at 19H we sat with Nxxxxx & Fxxxx. I’m real worried about them because he is having quite a few problems with the Sabbath Day. He is a truck mechanic. So we are really trying to help him see and develop a testimony about sacrificing and keeping the Sabbath Day holy. 

We went to another family, Jxxxxxx & Axxx. She doesn’t speak Portuguese which makes teaching them super difficult.

Saturday we did some contacting and had a great lesson in the morning.  As we were going Zxxx & Axxxxx's house we saw a HUGE “MDM” parade, it was gi-norm-ous. We did  a little division. Elder Azevedo was sick so Elder Walker and I went to my and his areas, and Elder Bourne and Azevedo stayed home. I really like Elder Walker and his area reminded me so much of Manga! We visited a lot of families and I think it went very good.

Oh Sundays… they stress me out so very much... but we were blessed. We somehow got five families at church. Whoop! Blessings.  After church, as we were waking in our area we had to walk right through the middle of a “P.D.D.” parade and we saw a Frelimo Parade. All of our lessons fell through until the end of the night, but we had a super good meeting with President Mafaisse.

Munhava 56th week - September 8, 2014

Not my best P-day. I washed five of my white shirts with my black socks and blue towel. 

On the bright-ish side, as we were walking around contacting a motor cycle flew by super fast. His phone literally flew out of his pocket. A passing car missed it by 3-inches. We picked it up and put it together. We tried calling but it had no credit so we waited. He ended up calling us and we told him where to find us. He was really grateful and said he would come to church.

The political campaigns are getting going. We see lots of people wearing Frelimo, MDM and Renamo shirts. Plus a man wearing a Bass Pro hat, it funny to see that in Mozambique. We also saw around 25 “nuns” get out of one chapa and proceed down the road. The best part is that some of them were carrying cases of beer on their heads.

This week we had some good lessons and contacting this week in the Lord’s Mozambican “Vineyard”.

Sunday we have a miracle. We had ten investigators show up, including 3 families. We also spent Sunday visiting recent converts. They are all doing really well. We had a really good visit with Axxxxxx and Dxxx. Usually the lessons with them are a bit frustrating, however, Sunday it went quite nicely. We reviewed the Gospel of Jesus Christ and spoke a bit about the temple in “persevere until the end” part. They were genuinely interested in going to the temple.