Well apparently Mozambique made it on KSL news. This week in the cities of Maputo and Matola (mostly matola) there was a riot. The people here were rioting because of an increase in public transportation prices. The USD equivalent of the increase was 5 cents. It made me think to myself that i'm grateful that in America when prices go up we don't riot, especially if it's only 5 cents. The riot wasn’t really all that crazy, but that’s probably because we had to stay inside and we didn’t get to see anything.
In other news, the chapel now has a ping pong table so in other words hello companionship study, haha, just kidding. (kind of) Elder Wollenzien and Sister Wollenzien one of the couples missionaries we have here, got permission from President Kretly to buy one. (by the way, if any of you know any couples who would like to serve a mission let them know that Mozambique is in DIRE need of them. Just don’t mention the riot above.)
Elder Largent and I are finding even more time to work in our area. We've met with some in investigators that are pretty promising. Aside from that two of our investigators are getting married within the next two weeks, and we have a baptismal date set for the 1 of December. So far there have only been two things holding them back, the law of chastity and keeping the sabath day holy. Soon they're going to be married and that takes care of that, but lately we've realy been trying to help Nelson keep the sabath day, his wife Cêlia comes every week, and so did he until he got a job. We've fasted and prayed with them to help them to find a way to come to church together every week. It's a struggle for Nelson to get work off on sundays. He's talked to his employer various times but it seems like his employer doesn't really care about it. Good news...all the effort is starting to pay off. Last week he made it church but was being called literally every 10 minutes by his work. He waited until after the sacrament, then he had to go. This week he came again with his wife. Aside from showing up on time the stayed until the end as well. Nelson and Celia are doing a great job, if they continue progessing at this rate, without a doubt they'll be baptized on the first of december.
Last sunday was District Conference. The conference was a satelite broadcast that had been recorded. President Thomas S. Monson and Elder D. Todd Christofferson spoke. A common theme was the responsiblility that the members have in the building up of zion, and a common phrase that was repeated variously was that if the men of the church were honrable and pure in their preisthood then the work would progress here in africa. The broadcast was for all the countries in the southern part of africa. After the broadcast was over the district president anounced that the Maputo 2 choir would sing. Now in the previous weeks Elder Largent and I had been working with the choir trying to put something together. Now I don't want to be negative, but when it first started the choir was pretty bad. Mom and Dad, remember how the spanish branch sometimes had a hard time holding a tune? Well this was like that but more so. Miraculously things actually started coming together. We were learning the hymn Because I have been given much. about two weeks before the Conference It suddenly hit me that the actually sound pretty darn good. Elder Largent and I decided to get a little adventourous so we began teaching the women the alto part of the song. Long story short they got it, and they sang it really well. If I may say so myself we had a gospel choir on our hands. The day for district conference came and we had planned a quick 15 minute practice at 1 o'clock to quickly go over all the details. No one showed up. So we left and came back for the conference at 16. We were uninformed because apparently it started at 15:30. We walked in and made our way to some empty seats in the back. At the end of the wonderful conference and when our choir was invited to stand and come to the front, I was scared out of my mind. First off no one had come to the practice earlier that day, and as far as I could see, I couldn't spot out anyone of the members of the choir. Elder Largent and I stood up regardless and made our way to the front. Miraculously people started standing up to join. I couldn't believe it. Whats even better is that all the women had matching traditional african clothing. If I may say so myself, we gave the mormon Tabernacle choir a run for their money.
This week all in all has been a good one, and Elder Largent and I look forward to the coming one with great enthusiasm.
No comments:
Post a Comment