Reactivate the Deactivated

Life's good.  Oh, and the keyboard i'm using is stuck on Portuguese, so there may be slight punctuational errors because for the life of my I can't figure out where the apostrophe is. (Editor's note: I think I fixed them)   

In the last letter, I had mentioned Alexandre and Bete's family.  They are still doing well, but Alexandre has still not been open or talked to his wife.  He told us he did, but later when we spoke with her she said she hadn't.   The family came to church together, though. I'll see if next week I can get a picture with them.   Tonight we have a meeting in the chapel with just Alexandre and Bete, without the kids.  We will be sitting with them, with either the branch or district President.  Hopefully we'll be able to help this family decide to have a happy united one.    Another family we are teaching, Fransisco and Daina have opened up the marriage process!  They are set for Sept 21.   So far there are only 3 families in the Manga Zone who have the marriage process open.  There should be about three more who open it up this week.  I'm hoping to have another collective marriage on the first week of October.  

The Collective marriage idea was great, and has worked a lot until now, but elder Thomas and I have been working with our branch president, Abdala.  We feel that things need to be done differently.  Currently the district pays for the party and ends up spending a lot of money, and because of the quantity of families getting married, those families have a limit on how many people they can invite to their own marriage.  This limit has ranged between 18-20.   Personally I don't like restrictions if we don't have to have them.  Together in branch council this week we talked of ways that we might find a solution so that the world outside of our church doesnºt see us as so restricting.  (I'll keep you all updated on how that goes)  

This week we went to Francisco and Daina's house to teach them.  It had been a while since we went.  When we got there they were super busy doing the equivalent of a spring cleaning.   So we offered to help.  We stayed there for about an hour as together we worked.  I imagine that it was incredibly funny for other people to see two white guys working.  (I think for some reason here they don't think that we actually work doing physically straining work.)   When Elder Thomas and I walked off with a lot of buckets to a nearby well to draw water there were many amused and surprised faces.   When we got to the well we started filling up the buckets. As we did so, and as we looked at the not-so-clean (more on the side of dirty) water we looked at each other, saying can you imagine using this water to drink or to cook?  When we got back, most of the work was done.  Daina had left because she was late to something and Francisco was cooking something for us.  We told him we didn't need any food but he insisted.  By the time he finished he placed the food on the table and said, enjoy, its made by a man.  Haha.  We laughed, (the men here hardly ever cook, it's always the women so we enjoyed his little sense of humor)   As we ate Francisco kept working on a few last minute things.  Elder Thomas and I looked down on our plates and smiled, well the joke was on us, because we are eating and drinking from the same water that we went and pulled.  

Sunday was marvelous.  We had a record of 221 for the frequency in our branch.  And another miracle happened.  At the beginning of the Transfer we had a meeting with President Abdala to ask him what we could do to help his branch. He gave us two inactive families. The one that lived in our area had not been to church since their confirmation, and apparently didn't want anything to do with it.    

On Wednesday when I was on division with Elder Peterson we passed by his house, and he happened to be there. (In the past we have tried so many times to go by their house but he has never been home.)   When he answered the door he had a bashful smile on his face (I'm sure in his head he thought, blast they found me again!)   We smiled back, for some reason I felt we should take a different approach.  Instead of going in with the purpose to help reactivate him we decided to pretend like we didn't even know that he was inactive.  I explained to him that we are the new missionaries in the branch and that we are getting to know the members.  I explained to him that we really need his help in teaching a family nearby.   It went SOOO SOO well.  He relaxed and said he was happy to help.  It was a really good way to break the ice.  We sang a hymn and left with a prayer on our knees.  We had marked for the next day to go teach a family with him.  That day when the time came, he was home he let us in and we sat there while we thought that he was getting ready.  Then he came and sat down on the couch.  (Yes, he has a couch and few people do!)    We asked him if he was ready to go and he asked, where?  Haha, so yeah, there was definitely a confusion, he thought we were bringing the family to his house.  But it was no problem, we just stayed there and sat with him a little longer because we weren't able to leave the house. He had to stay with the kids because his wife was out at school.  His little daughters are so cute and great.  For the opening prayer he had his daughter Belmia give the first prayer.  In her 11 year old voice, she humbly asked the Lord to help his Dad and Mom come back to church.   It was such a sincere prayer.  At this point he kind of let us know that he was inactive and we kind of responded like, oh yeah? We didn’t know.  We had a great talk with him about what he believes made him inactive.  We committed him to come to church with his whole family and he did!  To me, it was such a miracle. It had been months and months since he was baptized and now he's back.  Also his neighbor who was inactive who we've been working with received the priesthood yesterday.  Rescuing the lost is just as important as converting new families.   

This week was a blast. After church I did a just a few baptismal interview's for Elder Peterson, the district leader in Manga 3. Just a few of them. I started at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and 17 interviews later I had finished at 8 o'clock in the evening.    It was really special to interview all of those people who are going to be baptized next Saturday.  Well….that s about it.  I love you all and you all have my permission to write me.

-Elder Greenman

Being Honest

This was definitely one of those (hard weeks).  I like to look at those kinds of weeks as the weeks that I grow the most.  I have grown a lot.  I've seen the Lord's help in our area so many times.  On Sunday we passed by Alexandres and Bete's house on the way to church.  When we arrived it didn't look like they were really getting ready, and Alexandre was nowhere to be found.  His wife Bete said that he hadn’t come home last night and she had said that she thought she knew where he was.  It was a huge curveball thrown right into our face.  From what we gathered Alexandre has someone else and has had for some time.  We didn't pry into the situation we just invited those that were there to come to church.    The moment we arrived and entered the sacrament meeting room I felt so much more peace.  Alexandre and his family were still on my mind, but I was more focused on feeling the peace inside the chapel.  I was so ready to take the sacrament. That morning we all woke up to a lot of clouds.  It looked like it was going to rain.  And we all know that people here do not like rain.  That may explain why our sacrament meeting frequency dropped by almost 30.  (It didn’t rain, it just looked like it was going to rain, and just because it looked like it would, less people came.  We're going to have to work on that.)    After church we came home for district meeting where I gave a training based off of 3 Nephi 8:1     We discussed how we need to sanctify ourselves if we want to see miracles happen.  Our whole district is now more committed to be happy and be clean, and be extraordinary missionaries.  This week we had one of our investigators who has no job come work at our house, to cut our grass and do some other yard work.  Interesting thing is…that he found 4 black mambas in our yard, and they are still there….alive and hopefully not too hungry.   For those of you who don't know what black mambas are,  they are snakes.  Very poisonous ones.   We also have a lemon tree in our back yard and yesterday we made lemon leaf tea.  It was SOOOO good.  

      Later on Sunday evening, on our way home, we decided to stop by Alexandre's house just to talk with him.  I don't know how to describe my feelings.  I was frustrated, sad, determined to get to the bottom of things, and find a solution.  Elder Thomas and I thought that we would just be passing by and ask Alexandre to walk with us where we could talk to him and ask him if what we heard was true.  When we arrived we felt we needed to go in and talk with the whole family.   We sat down and said a prayer and we began talking about the family and how important it is.  We asked a lot of good questions that helped them express their feelings.  I asked Alexandre if there was anything aside from the marriage documents and money that would make it hard for them to follow the law of chastity.  He said no, that everything is fine and said,  I don't know if my wife has anything but as for me, no.      This is when Bete spoke.  I'll have you know that Bete is pretty shy and I haven't heard her say very many words at all, but at this moment you could see the love in her eyes and the pain that she was feeling in her heart and she explained that she wanted a happy unified family, where everyone was united and not off doing their own things.  She did not directly accuse Alexandre but explained the desires of her heart.  From there we opened the scriptures to Moroni 10:32 and we read 33 as well.  We talked about the atonement and how God will forgive ALL who come unto him.  We committed them to do as the scripture says to come unto Christ and deny themselves of all ungodliness.   The spirit was strong and Alexandre said, "I'm ready….Iºm ready to follow this commandment." We ended with a prayer on our knees. Then we left. 

    It is part of Mozambican culture for the host to accompany those who visit, so Alexandre left with us and walked with us for about 5 minutes.  Throughout the walk we explained that not only is God willing to forgive him but we saw the desire that his Wife has to forgive him as well.   Bete is such a sweet angel.  We told him that he could trust us, and that we were there to help him.   He then told us everything, how he has been visiting this widow who lives in another neighborhood.  He said that he had compassion on her and would help her out occasionally around the house, and sometimes with a little bit of money.  That eventually just escalated and inappropriate feelings were created.   Alexandre asked us how he was going to fix his situation.  We explained that he needs to continue reading the Book of Mormon and Praying as a family, he needs to be completely open with his wife and ask his forgiveness and stop having relations with the other woman.    Earlier that day the curve ball had been thrown, but with the Lords help we were able to get some bat on that ball and now it's soaring high and Alexandre's family is on it's way to a grand-slam.  The spirit was super strong during that lesson. I'm so thankful for getting to know Alexandre's family and I know that they will grow so much from this experience. 

      If I've learned one thing on my mission (and trust me I've learned more), it is that if I want to be happy then I just need to choose to be so.  The mind is an incredible thing.  

-Elder Greenman

Andrew and his District playing Football (with Elder Snelson)

Manga Means Miracles in Portuguese...

Actually it means mangos but you get the point.   I love Manga more than any other area I’ve served in.  The people here are as good as ever.  The branch continues to strengthen every week.  Last week we had a frequency of 201 and we established the goal for 207 for this past Sunday.  This past Sunday we surpassed our goal and got 209!  As far as our area goes, we’ve dropped a ton of families who aren’t prepared yet and are starting over other than about 2 families that were being taught before I got here.  To get to know the area better Elder Thomas and I walked with the ward missionary leader Joaquim Conde.  Sunday after church we walked for two hours with him and he showed us where the majority of the members in our area live.  With that knowledge that we now have we are going to focus just in that area and create a nice center of force.   I gave a training this week to the district leaders in my zone on how to create a center of force.  The training went super well and they are already applying it in their areas.  Elder Robinson  the district leader in Manga 2 told of how they taught a family who lived near a members house.  They had marked the day before and apparently when they came the next day the family they had marked with had actually invited the neighbor member over.    Elder Peterson, the district leader for Manga 3  had over 40 lessons this week, on Saturday they taught 13 lessons.  I asked him how he was able to do it.  He said that the only way was by using centers of force.  Okay, so what are centers of forces.     All areas are large for the most part and would take much of a missionaries time to walk the whole are every day.  The Idea of centers of force is to only focus in one or two small areas within your area.  How do you determine where to create your center of force.  One of the main things you need to keep in mind is that the center of force needs to be where members live.  It also needs to be near a high traffic area where it is easy to find men and families walking around on the streets and paths.    Why do centers of force help?  It helps especially where the church is still relatively new.  It helps because as the families we teach will become members they will be living in a community with other solid families and recent converts, they will support eachother.  Also visiting and home teaching becomes more practical.  Also for those that live within the center of force but are not members begin to see the difference in the lives of the others around them and begin to have a desire to also have that happiness.     

Now that Elder Thomas and I know where the majority of our members live we will be focusing our time in that center of force.  Another great thing that is happening is that we have a collective marriage planned for the 21 of September.  So far the manga 3 district has one family who has opened up the process and elder Thomas and I will be opening it up with one of our families this Wednesday.  We are going to have 6-8 families getting married and baptized.  It is going to be a beautiful thing.  The manga 2 district will have a family married and baptized this week and also in the coming week.    Okay, my time is up, but more than anything I want you to know that miracles truly are happening here in Mozambique.  I’m loving  serving a mission.  I’m more busy than I ever have been before, but its good.

-Elder Greenman

Letter Written Last Week, but for Internet Freeze, Could Not Send 'till Today

Manga is the best.   I left Maputo knowing I’d have a lot to do.  To be Zone leader and trainer, but little did I know that I would also be district leader on top of all of that.  Ya…..I don’t think I’ve ever been more busy in my entire life.  The plane flight was quick and as soon as I stepped off the plane, “hello humidiy”  ya…it’s a lot hotter up here in Beira.   Elder Snelson the Senior missionary was there to pick us up and take all of us to our area.  I love Elder Snelson, he is such a great missionary.  As we rode in the car we talked a lot about Manga and it’s needs.   Another great thing is that when I got to the house it was clean and super organized.  My companion Elder Thomas is such a hard worker and he and I are having a great time together.   I told him the first day that the Lord expects a lot from us this transfer and that it is going to be a 50 50 companionship that both of us would work together.       We’ve been working super hard and he is one of my favorite companions.    As soon as I got to Manga I set up a meeting with President Abdala to talk to him about what the missionaries can do to help the branch.  We were also able to get a few other numbers from him.  There are 434 members that live within our branch but with an average of only 160 people that come to church.    This week I’ll find out how many active families live in our branch and get to know those families to be able to use them in missionary work.    As for our area there are 4 families that have been taught for a long time but the only thing holding them back is getting married.  They are all working on getting their documents.  One family though is dirt poor and literally had no way as of now to get that money.    My district is awesome.  There are six of us total and all of us are training in fact the entire Manga Zone except the two elders in Dondo are training.  Okay, so much has happened this week, I’m having a brain overload and I really don’t know what to talk about now.    I’ll just say that I love the Manga 1 branch.  Church was incredible.  For us it starts at 8:30 so we left at 7 to go get investigators.  We had a goal of four families at church.  We have sacrament meeting first.  And the chapel just kept filling up.  We had 201 people at church.  Elder Thomas and I had 17 investigators and 3 families.    The members are so awesome, our ward missionary leader is the best one I’ve seen in the world.  And elder Thomas and I talked to him about a few Ideas we have that we believe will help the branch.  also good news,  Saturday night we sat with a new family. (Alexandre and Bete) they have………..7 kids.  Ya….  A family of nine.  Not all of the kids were there but those that were all accepted baptism for sept.. 14 and they came to church as well.  Also we had a baptism of a man named Paulo.  We asked the branch president if we could do the baptism right after church so that all the members would already be there along with our investigators.   So basically it all went super well.     

Okay so the Idea that Elder Thomas and I had has to do with the collective marriages.  The collective marriages takes so much money out of the District and branch’s budget.   Solution?  Do It on a much much smaller scale.  Here in beira the marriages are done by zones or districts and the district will pay for the party.  Instead of doing that we want to do the marriages on the branch level.  And instead  of the church paying for the party we almost won’t have a party.  It will be similar to Omar and Gina’s wedding.  The Elders quorum can bring drinks and the relief society brings a little bit of food.  Everyone in the branch just donates a little bit.  This solves the problem of the church having to spend so much money on the weddings.  Another problem that we as missionaries have is that sometimes we teach families that don’t have a job, and have been searching for one for months and months or even years.  Currently there is one family like that in my area.  Julio and Delfina.    Of course the families we teach still need to do sacrifice and do everything they can but there are a few occasions where a family that we are teaching is doing everything they can but still can’t get enough money to get the marriage documents.   Solution:  the branch uses a very small percentage of what they would have spent for a party to help that family get the documents.  But the family has to work towards it, the branch president will have an interview with the head of household and give him a worthy job to do within the ward.  He will have to work hard for it but then the branch will pay for him.  It will only be in rare cases that the branch will provide this help for families because the majority are able to scrape enough for marriage docs.  So the idea is cut the costs that the branch spends on parties.  That’s the main idea, then on the side, in rare occasions the branch will use a much smaller amount of money to help certain families get married.  (the party never should have been the focus anyway.)  okay so the idea is still rough but we’ll be talking to the branch president on Tuesday.    Okay so the internet ran out here and I don’t have anyway to send this so I’ll probably have to send it next week.

Elder Greenman and Elder [is it] Thomas?

Elder Greenman was not able to make it to an internet café this week due to electricity problems in his apartment...he and his companion had to spend P-day waiting for an electrician, however, we were blessed to have a picture sent to us from one of the couple missionary sisters who serve with him. What a dear! I think this is Elder Greenman's new companion named Elder Thomas.

Back to the Motherland

This week was really good.  About 20 new missionaries arrived to our mission and 8 are leaving which allows for some areas that were closed to be opened back up again.  (this includes Dondo!  My first area is opening back up again.)  This week two of the new missionaries stayed at our house.  Elder Ndala from Angola and Elder Ujembe from Magoanine (a city near Maputo)  They stayed at our house and worked with us in preparation to be transferred up north to their first area after the Mtc.  Elder Ndala worked with Elder Hamrick and I with Elder Ujembe.  We taught so many lessons this week and continued to find more families to teach.  We found another 20 new investigators this week.  Our area truly continues to be blessed.  Every day we are finding more families to teach.  This past week we taught the Law of Chastity a ton! We have 5 families who have accepted to open up the marriage process this month to get married in Sept.  That is 5 families being baptized in Sept.  Miracles are happening here in Mozambique for sure.    This past Sunday we had District conference in the new Matola Chapel.  Elder Cook from the Seventy came for the Saturday sessions, and it was really good to talk to him again and feel of his genuine love for everyone.  We knew that the Sunday sessions would be very special because President Kretly said that he  was going to show the “it’s a miracle” video made by our mission that talks about how many couples in Mozambique were able to get married, follow the Law of Chastity, and all of this by putting God first and the traditions behind.  Knowing that this video would be shown we did everything we could to get as many families as we could to church.  When it was all said and done we had 4 complete families and various other part families.  They all loved the conference and many of them expressed afterwards their desire to get married and follow God’s commandment.    After the conference when the majority of the members had left President took me aside and asked, “Are you ready for the trip?”   I knew transfers was going to happen but I did not expect at all that I would be leaving, especially since Elder Hamrick and I have been seeing miracles happen in our area and had only been together one transfer.   Regardless, I told him yes I’m ready.  He told me that the Lord needs me in Manga, which is a neighboring city of Beira.  (yup, I’m going back to the motherland.)  He told me that I will continue to train and will continue as Zone leader.   My companion will be Elder Thomas.  Elder Thomas came in with Elder Hamrick, they were in the MTC together.   It will be quite interesting to train finish Elder Thomas’s training right after starting elder Hamricks (a missionary is trained for two transfers, therefore Elder Thomas and Hamrick still have one more transfer of training.)    I’ve been thinking a lot about duty and the responsibility I have as a missionary to go where God wants me to go.  It has never been harder to leave an area.  It has never been harder to leave the branch where I’m currently serving, but I know that this is where God wants me to go.  And I only desire to go and do what the Lord commands me to do.    I have a few goals upon arriving in Manga that I feel need to be accomplished.  First  serve my companion and gain his trust.  Second have a meeting with the branch president and ask him what we as missionaries can do to help each other become the best missionaries, find out how many members are in the branch, and how many currently attend, also how many active families are there in his branch.  More than ever I want to, and need to use member in this work.  By the next weeks letter I will account on these goals that I have set.  I know that  this next transfer will only be a continuation of the miracles I’ve seen here in Maputo.   The principle of obedience is what helps me the most in deciding to not be depressed or sad about being transferred.  It is hard, but I do not regret the time that I’ve had here and I will willingly go where ever the Lord needs me and continue to make the best use of my time there.

-Elder Greenman