This week was extremely busy. There were 15 elders leaving our mission, and 10 missionaries coming in. (Including the first two sisters) On Tuesday after staff meeting we had to plan everything out, for example who will pick the new elders up at the airport, and where will the sleep. We also had a Zone Conference on Friday for the Maputo and Matola zones combined. Elder Ostler and I started our week as usual with P-day on Monday. We didn’t go do anything super fun that day; we just decided to do a big spring cleaning in our house. By the time we finished it was time to go out into the area. Tuesday we had staff meeting and from there we had loads of secret missions to do for the rest of the day. (Secret missions are things that are assigned to us by President Kretly) After the secret missions it was already 9:00 pm. We picked up the assistants and went to president’s house so the assistants could do the transfers with him. While they did that with President, Elder Ostler and I assembled a new piano that was delivered for the mission home. Good news bad news…..good news is, that the assistants and President finished making transfers; bad news is we got home really late. The following day on Wednesday President spent much of his time at the airport picking up the Elders who arrived at different times. One came from Fortaleza Brazil, 7 came from the US, and 2 came from Angola.
I have something incredible to say! These missionaries that came in are incredible! They have strong testimonies, they already know how to teach, and it won’t take them long to learn how to baptize families. The Lord that helped and prepared them to serve here in Mozambique. Everything here in Mozambique is starting to kick off. Almost all the missionaries have caught the vision of baptizing families to help the church grow. I believe that before I leave, we will have at least one stake here in this mission. This transfer our district baptized 10 people. 3 complete families. Those families have received callings now in the church. Our branch is becoming stronger and stronger, and the thing is, is that we as missionaries are only STARTING to get it. We are only starting to learn how to baptize families. As long as we continue recognizing God’s hand in this, and obey with exactness then God will continue to grant unto us success. I have a solid testimony that nothing could have happened here without God’s merciful hand. He guides us in every way, and is preparing more families. I believe that as we obey with more exactness, serve with more of our heart, and strive to follow the spirit that the Lord will trust us more, to the point that he’ll help us cross paths with more families, and more people that he has prepared. Key word: Families. It just makes so much more sense to find, teach, and baptize families, because that will promote real growth, and will truly establish the Church. Elder Nelson taught us that it is not one or the other, it is both. He taught us that we should strive for quantity and quality.
Because so many new missionaries have come, each member of our district has divided with one of the new missionaries. I have enjoyed so much the opportunity to walk with these Elders. They are super open to learn, and have a lot of energy. It was nice to extend the baptismal invitation in a contact with one of the new Elders and see his reaction. Elder Rios, one of the assistants who has now gone home taught me so much this transfer, and now I will have the opportunity to teach others. (he calls it inception. The act of instilling ideas into others’ minds) So basically I’ve been doing a lot of “inception” trying to help others understand better how to do things. Inception is a simple thing. It can be something as simple as a compliment, or a suggestion, or anything that would subtly help that missionary have an Ah-ha moment.
On Friday we had our Zone conference. The conference lasted 9 hours. We learned SOOO much. I’m super excited to start applying the things we learned. One of the things that was defined was the Snowball effect, and how we are going to use it in our mission. Basically it involves dedicating ourselves to our daily goals, and finding 5 families per day, marking a lesson with one new family per day, and sitting with one new family a day. By doing this every day, at the end of the week you will have at least one good family that will progress out of the 35 families you found and the 7 you sat with. By doing this every week, by the end of the month you will have 4 new families to teach. By the end of the next month you will have 4 new families and 4 progressing families. By the 3rd month you will have 4 new families, 4 progressing families, and 4 recently baptized families. That’s the snowball effect. We had 95 baptisms this month. The thing is, is that those baptisms were done by only 10 companionships in our mission. You can only imagine what things will be like, when everyone starts following t his pattern.
This morning, Elder Ostler, Cyrier, and I woke up at 4 oºclock in the morning to take three of the missionaries to the airport so they could fly home. On the way back we stopped by the beach because the sunrise was just to good to not take a few pictures.
Well transfers are happening this week. President showed us transfers on Thursday because we buy all the plane tickets for those being transferred. I about flipped a biscuit when I saw that I’m leaving the office. After 7.5 months being here, I’m going to miss it a lot. I’m going to miss being so close to President and Sister Kretly and learning so much from them. To be honest, I’ll still stay in the same zone (which is good) so I’ll still be around President Kretly. My new companion will be Elder Berg, one of the Zone Leaders for the Maputo Zone. Elder Berg’s companion, Elder Bateman will be the new AP. I’ll miss my district and the Elders in it, but I’m happy to still have the opportunity to serve them as a Zone Leader. Elder Berg and I are going to do a lot of work and a lot of inception. We have a lot of good Elders in our zone who know how to baptize families. Elder Berg and I together with God’s help will help our Zone to continue learning and progressing.
I know that this work is marvelous, for I have seen the change it has made in other people’s lives. I know that NOTHING could have been done without God. I’m super excited for the phase in my mission. I’m ready to serve even more and look forward to the opportunities ahead of me. And remember, “You may not live in Mozambique, but in your own way in your own culture, you can share the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.” -Elder Neil L. Anderson
-Elder Greenman
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