T-3 24th week - January 27, 2014

Elder Kanaga was not able to send a blog update this week. However, we have some great pictures to share.

Restauraunte Ma'ide in Beira. This is where the missionaries ate on P-Days while in Manga

Transfers came a week early. Elder Kanaga was transferred to a place called T-3. It is about one hour (by car) from the mission home.

The missionaries saying their last good-bye to the Snelsons and the Manga/Beira area.
A big thank you to Sister Snelson for emailing the pictures.

Leaving for T-3

The sandy roads of T-3

A toy commonly made (by the children themselves) throughout Mozambique.
Elder Kanaga was struck by the ingenuity of the children.

Manga 23rd week - January, 20 2014

I love my P-Day Mondays. We e-mailed our families, ate lunch, shop and came home. Nothing crazy or out of the ordinary just a good day in Mozambique. Then we went to our area we had family night at Jxxxxxx Coxxxx's home. It was super fun. We played Mafia! 

This weeks we had a visit with  E------ and S------. They still surprised me. When we visited them Tuesday, E------ had some more questions, like "What are the churches 'laws'?" I've explained that the church doesn't have rules or "laws". They are God's commandments. He asked, "What foods are prohibited to eat?" We explained the Word of Wisdom to him (Doctrine and Covenants 89). We taught him about the book of Mormon and we gave him one. He was so excited. I know he will read it because of how much time he spends reading the Bible.

On a side comment, we are having power outages all the time! It's super fun. In fact as I am writing this the power has gone out on three different occasions

Many of our lessons fell through on Wednesday which was really a shame since we were walking with M-----. Sadly, we only got two lessons in that day, they were good lessons though. One of them was the first lesson. M----- bore his testimony about the church and shared his conversion story. Wow, the spirit that was there was amazing! Funny enough, even teaching English class that evening fell through. There was some confusion so Elder Galland and Lynn were already there and we let them teach it.

We walked with J------ C---- this week and had a lot of lessons which were all really awesome. I love seeing the people we teach grow and progress. I love to see when they have a question and together we find the answer, just watching everything make sense in their heads. Thursday E------ asked why God would tell Nephi to kill Laban. We explained it. He was still curious, then J------ made an interesting comparison. He said, it is like how God let Christ die so that we can all be saved.

We also had some good lessons as we walked with Irmão P----. 

  

Sunday, we had no power in church except for the last few minutes (grumble, grumble - eye twitch…), but we had some awesome lesson Sunday and really a good week.

Elder Kanaga is loving fresh pineapple! He says it tastes so different from the ones we get here.

Manga 22nd Week - Janaury 13, 2014

So much rain! My umbrella broke but I bought a $3 one in the market. We will see how long it lasts. Umbrellas are superior to ponchos because ponchos hold the heat in plus you can angle an umbrella. Thursday we finally had a break from the rain.

Monday night we did New Years Resolutions with a family in our area. They loved it and it was funny how “into it” they got.

We had some lessons fall through this week but we definitely had some legit lessons. A new family we have started teaching M----- and I----- and his parents T---- and A---- so they have been progressing good. I really hope they make it to baptism. Of course I hope that for every investigator I have.

I ate my first pineapple popsicle style. It’s very cool. On the side of the road they sell baby pineapple for 30 cents (American) each. They are about 6 inches tall by 4 inches in diameter. When you buy it, they cut it up right then and there. They cut the outside off but leave the spiky leaf attached. You hold the leaf and eat it like a popsicle. We walked with Irmão P----. He introduced us to some less active members and some old investigators. It will be really good to teach them. Maybe they are ready this time around!

Friday it was division with my old companion Elder Galland. This time divisions was in my area. I got to show him around and introduce him to all of our awesome families. It was a good day we had good lessons and fun too.

Energy Problems… I woke up at 4 in the morning on Saturday rather sweaty because energy had already been off for 3 hours. Something crazy was going on the energy was pulsing and all of our A/C units wouldn’t stop beeping. Finally we unplugged them and got a couple more hours of half sleep. We went the entire morning without energy. No energy until 1400 It was pretty darn hot I will stay. However putting unreliable energy aside, we had a good Saturday. Although half of our lessons fell through, half of them rocked.

This may have been the best Sunday I have had on the mission so far. Church was full with an awesome frequency of 233 in sacrament meeting. But wow here goes a miracle for Sunday:

Right before sacrament meeting started Elder Cummings called me over. He was talking to a man. This man, his wife and children had come to church for two weeks straight. They like it. They weren’t currently having the missionary lessons but he wanted them and he lives in our area! We got his number and set up for a time to visit him and his family after church.

After church we went over and met with him. Before we even started he asked 3 questions. He started out by telling us some of his background. He had been in a church since childhood but after growing up he read the Bible. He felt his church was not in line with Christ’s teaching. He wanted to follow the true path of Christ. #1: He asked if it (the true path or Christ) was our Church. He said he felt it is. He said he was already baptized, but he knew the baptism he had wasn’t valid. #2 He wanted to know if he could receive the right baptism. A couple of months ago he and his wife did a ring ceremony but he wants to get married legally. #2: He wanted to know what he needs to do. We answered his questions and had an awesome lesson.

E um Milagre! (This mission is a miracle!)

Manga 21st week - January 6, 2014

We had Zone Conference and training from President and Sister Kretly. His youngest son was there (visiting for the holidays) it was just an awesome conference. On the way there I tripped (over a hidden pot hole) into a pool (small lake) that the pothole was hidden in. Other than being a bit wet it was awesome.

Wednesday started a new year I was dehydrated because I didn’t drink enough in zone conference. But other than that we had an awesome day. The highlight of our Wednesday was our lesson with A----- & I---. They want to get married! He told us he use to drink a lot. Now, even on holidays (prime drinking time) he has only had water and soda. He told us he stopped the day he saw us and gave us his number! What a miracle.

We had a good restoration lesson with a family; I hope we can see this particular family progress. We walked a little with P----. He introduced us to some really awesome families. I hope we can get them to come back to church.

On Friday we had a Division Day. Elder Lynn and I were in my area. It was a pretty great day and we had a good lesson with A----- & I----. We also had a good lesson with C----- & J-----. The day had a hard time deciding whether it wanted to be blistering hot or rainy. It ended switching between the two…Ugh!

We had another wedding then baptism at the church this week for Manga 1A.

I saw my first Chameleon but it didn’t like me. He bit me and hissed at me. It was funny but I can now see why Mozambicans are afraid of them. They really hate chameleons. They believe if you get bit you die.

 It has been raining on and off for days but amazingly people still showed up to church. Some of them were soaking wet because they had to walk for 30 minutes in the rain and puddles without boots or an umbrella. After church and correlation meeting with the branch mission, we had a really good lesson with A----- and I---.

It was a great week.

 

Elder Kanaga has lost so much weight he had to trade his
  suit for one left in the house he is living in. I think he looks

  great