In last week's letter I mentioned that we were helping some mozambicans get ready to leave on their missions. On monday night, one week ago, we went to pick up one of the missionaries who was going to serve in Angola and Cape Verde. Their plane came in late, so we only managed to get to sleep at midnight. Then we woke up 4 hours later to take President and Sister Kretly to the airport (they went up to Beira on a morning flight). We had an early start to our day. When we got back from the airport we did some work in the office and prepared for staff meeting we would be having at 11. We usually do it over the internet using a program called GoToMeeting. The assistants, Office elders, Elder Tualufo, and all of the Couple Missionaries participate in the meeting. Two of the couples are in Beira, that is why we need to do the meeting over the internet. In the meeting we discuss and plan for the upcoming week, as well as make sure we are prepared for what is coming in the next few months. Staff meeting went well, and when it was over we went to staff eating (haha, we do this once a month where we go out to eat). After that, we raced around to buy clothes for all of the missionaries who were leaving the next day and finally made it home at 8 o'clock in the evening. They were then set apart as missionaries, and spent the rest of the night packing their bags. We finally got to bed at midnight again, only to wake up at 3:45 to help them get ready to leave. We left 40 minutes later to go to the airport and arrived just as the check-in started. We sent them off (see attached picture).
Needless to say, Elder Brandão and I have not had a lot of time in our area this week (Editor's Note: nor time to sleep!!), but we did have time to sit with one of our families—Humberto and Nercia. They are progressing well. Humberto works at the Airport, and Nercia works at a pizza place downtown. We've taught them the restoration and the Book of Mormon. In our last visit we asked them if they would come to church. Nercia said yes, but Humberto said no, because he was scheduled to work that day. We invited him to see if he could swap his work schedule with someone else. Saturday we called him to see if he was able to. Good news, bad news. Good news is, that he was able to. When we called saturday afternoon, he said that he was going in to work at that very moment to do his co-workers shift and that he would end at 10 o'clock. Bad news: On sunday we received a call at 8:20 from Humberto. We answered and he said that he was really close to the chapel and had walked all the way with his wife with the intention of coming, but his boss had just called saying that his co-worker didn't show up to take his morning shift. Sadly, Humberto had no choice. He had to go to work. His wife came though, and she enjoyed it as well as made a friend. It's interesting to see that Humberto did everything he could to make it to church, but even after that, the choices that another person made affected his life. Sometimes in our lives when we do everything we can that is good, sometimes unexpected things happen. The choices we make affect others profoundly. I don't think that Humberto's co-worker will ever know or understand what effect his choice to not come to work made on Humberto's life. Let us all be careful with the things we think, the words we say, the things we do, and the way that we do them.
I can't believe it's a new month. I'm looking forward to another month of miracles. 20 families were baptized in the month of November. So far in the month of December, 5 families have been baptized and confirmed.
-Elder Greenman
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