Manga 20th Week - December 30, 2013

On P-day, due to Christmas, Shoprite was crazy. But P-day email rocked and we ate at our regular place. At 1500 we went to play soccer at a field that’s back way behind the church. It was super fun. We played with the Manga 3 elders and Manga 1 and Manga 3 youth. We ended up having about 26 people playing. My team won 3 to 1!

On the way home Elder Schachterle and I found what is I am pretty sure the only pay phone in Mozambique. We met with a family in our area and dressed up for a Nativity. We were able to read and talk about the birth of Christ.

Christmas Eve we had a crazy day. We had a couple of lessons and then went to Baixa to the Senior couples apartments for our Christmas Party. We were able to skype our families, ate awesome food, had a white elephant gift exchange and watched the Christmas Story. Skyping was so amazing! Getting to see and talk with everyone it felt like our 40 minutes lasted only 2 minutes. It went by so fast and it was so hard to hang up. I could have talked for hours! I love them so much! I did not want to quit the call. That part was hard. After the best part of Christmas (the skype home), we read the Nativity in Luke 2 and watched a clip from lds.org.

Christmas Day I wore a brand new absolutely amazing tie I got from Bailee! I hope that this was the hottest Christmas I will ever have in my life. It was so hot. We were able to visit some of our investigators. We had not taught the Word of Wisdom yet and we were glad to find out that they do not have a problem with alcohol. It was such a good day. We met with another family and did the Nativity with them. It was awesome. The cherry on top of everything was visiting the T---- family, on the way home. I love them so much.

The day after Christmas was my six month mark. Time flies by! I still feel like I just stepped into Manga. It was a good day. During a lesson I got a call from the office elders. They had some good news and bad news. The good news is my Christmas package from my family was received. The bad news is due to how many packages they had for many missionaries, they were not going to be able to send my entire package. I had them open it and tell me about each item. Then I had to pick a few things for them to bring me. At least I know the package made it and I will get some of my things on the 31^st and some at the next zone conference or if I am transferred south.

We had a really neat experience from one of the members. He text us “I have my call, I am at the church. I will be opening it in 20 minutes. We power walked there. He was so excited! Then came the moment of his opening. It was a bit odd hearing a call letter in Portuguese, but so cool at the same time. He will be serving in the Angola Luanda Mission. He will be reporting to the Brazil MTC in April. He was shaking so bad from happiness, nervousness and the spirit. He is going to be an awesome missionary!

Elder Galland and Lynn had a wedding on Saturday so my companion and I took bikes and went to pay the water bill. The place is the opposite way from the church building. We got there only to find out the place was closed on Saturdays. So we rode all the way back to the church. On the way I saw a car flipped over. I have no idea what happened. The wedding was good. We gave Elder Ensaldo and Cummings a ride home… on our bike. They sat on the rack on the back. It was so hard to ride with an extra person on the bike. But… we made it. We had a couple of lessons with some new families. I really like them and hope it works out for them.

On Sunday, church was so good and then we had a couple of lessons. We taught an amazing couple C------ and J----. They are awesome. J----- has such a great testimony. They accepted marriage and baptism! I hope I get to see that happen.