Greetings from Mozambique Africa. It's hard to believe that its already been 6 months since I was in Burley. Time seems to have slipped right through my fingers. For those of you who have never been to Africa, I'd like to let you know that it's Beautiful. Sure theres a lot of poverty, bad roads, and a little uncleanliness, but all in all Africa is wonderful. I've never seen a prettier sunset, I've never tasted so many exotic fruits, and to be honest I don't think I've ever come across a people more friendly than here in Mozambique. Everyone and their dog wants to talk to us. The hard part is getting them to church.....
Currently I'm serving in the middle of Maputo, the capital city in Mozambique. I was trasfered here from up north where I was serving in a small little jungle town called Dondo about 18 hours away by bus. It's been quite a change from a small town to a ginormous mozambican metropolis. One bit of good news is that I've had my first baptism! The only thing is, that I wasn't actually there. I was transfered before he was baptized. My companion and I were both transfered to this new area in Maputo so we're doing all we can to get it down. Our focus these past three weeks has been Contacting. Our goal is to find at least 35 new people a week and mark a time to visit with them as soon as possible. Like I mentioned earlier, the people here love talking to us. The hard part isn't getting Contacts but contacting people who are truly ready to hear the word of God. Yesterday, before church Elder Brogan and I were on our way to an investigators house to walk with them to church. On the way we came across an older man who was returning home from his church. We were in a hurry, we were late and it was starting to rain, so we briefly invited him to our church that was going to start within the next 40 minutes. After that we went our way, thinking nothing more of the contact we had made. (We had gotten used to talking to people and then being stood up) We made our way to our investigators house. When we arrived they weren't even close to being ready to go. We waited a few more minutes trying to help them but then decided to make our way for the church building thinking that they probably wouldn't come at all. We arrived at the church empty handed. Our goal had been to bring at least one investigator to church. So we made our way up to the first class. The Maputo chapel is a little different than any i've seen before. It's a four story building with a beutiful view of the ocean. Unless things have changed I don't think burley has one like that. The Principles of the Gospel class is held on the third floor, so Elder Brogan and I headed up and found two seats next to the window looking out on the street below. About five minutes into the lesson we looked out the window and saw a family of five making their way for the chapel. It was the same family whose home we had gone to earlier that morning. About five minutes later, the very man we had contacted that morning also came. We were super excited. To me it seemed like miracle. This past week we have had the opportunity to teach Manuel, the man we contacted and invited to church. We've taught the first lesson and given him a Book of Mormon. This coming week we're planning on visiting him again and are excited to see where he is in the Book of Mormon.
Aside from haveing an Area to work in we are working in the office as well. It's been interesting trying to balance our schedule so that we can get things done in the office and help our area up. President Kretly has given Elder Brogan and I permission to use a mission car for the office work, which makes things a lot more interesting. So now....I'm driving. Hey, Dad, remember when you were teaching me how to drive stick shift? I do. Well now i've had to learn to drive stick shift while being on the right side of the car and on the left side of the road, and everyone here drives like crazy people. Except me, I pride myself in my calm and defensive driving, although my companion would say otherwise. I can't lie though, I did get stopped by a police man the other day. I rolled down the window and he asked if we were from The Church. I told him we were and what church we are from. He stood there for a minute and then told me to pray for him and then told us that we could go, so we quickly drove on before he changed his mind and gave us a ticket. (for your information, I didn't do anything that would deserve a ticket. Here if the policeman see a white guy driving a car many times he'll just pull him over and dish out a ticket.)
I'd like to thank all of you for the prayers and support, I feel them and am grateful for them. I love being a missionary and know that there is no better place for me to be right now. I invite any young man who is thinking about serving a mission, to serve, you'll never regret it. Mozambique already has two missionaries from Burley serving here, and from what I understand Jake Garn recently recieved his call here too. I know that I was called of God to serve here in Mozambique. I know that this gospel is true and that our salvation is made possible through Jesus Christ who lives.
-Elder Greenman
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