We usually shop at the Premier Store which is like a Walmart. We are slowly adapting to the different ways
food is presented here. Milk, for
example, comes in 1 liter containers and costs about $2 (65 MT). The milk is UHT processed, so the shelf life
is way different than our milk. At first
we were a little taken aback when we read “best before 11/02/14 (11 Feb 2014)” on the top of
the container. You don’t need to
refrigerate it until after you open it and then you need to use it within 7
days. That’s no problem with us! There are a myriad of fruit juices, also in 1
liter containers, which also cost about $2 each.
At the grocery store, we always have lots of fruits and
vegetables to choose from: oranges,
grapefruit, apples, bananas, pineapple, coconuts, lemons, tomatoes, potatoes,
cabbage, butternut squash, onions. Some
of the produce (usually broccoli, cauliflower, grapes, lettuce, carrots) are
already packaged. The others you need to
bag and an employee with a scale prices it for you. The employee at that post on Mondays, when we
shop, has the prettiest smile! Her name is Dionisia.
She puts the bag full of produce on the scale, ties the top
of the bag, punches in the code for that particular fruit or vegetable, and a
little machine uses the weight and the cost to compute the cost. The machine prints out a sticky label with a barcode and the employee puts the label on the bag and off you go. At the check-out stand, the bags are scanned
like everything else. This saves the
check-out person from having to memorize all the produce codes! Pretty nifty!
Last week I was so hungry for a lettuce salad that we purchased a head
of lettuce. It is pretty tricky to do
the wash/rinse process to sanitize each leaf, but the crisp leaves have been very
delicious – we had a yummy tossed green salad, lettuce on sliced turkey
sandwiches, and a chicken salad.
Brown sugar is coarse, granulated and light tan in
color. I’ve been using the same amount
of this for my recipes which call for packed brown sugar, and for most things I
don’t see a difference. A lot of the
difference I see in my baking is the “oven” we have, which is a little
counter-top oven. Baked goods don’t brown
on the top like a regular oven, but they seem to brown (almost burn) on the
bottom! So far I have been most pleased
with the cake, banana bread, and cinnamon rolls I’ve baked. Cookies and pies just don’t turn out the
same, but I keep trying to get it right!
I purchased some “white margarine” and I will try that the next time
for pie crust. They have a good
selection of spices and flavorings. We
found Heinz ketchup, but we’re still searching for a good flavor of salad
dressing; we think we’ve found the kind of mayonnaise we like!
The raisins are huge!
On the way to the office on Wednesday, we went to the post office with Elder Tanner and Elder Cyrier to get the mail.
We shared a ½ chicken!!! Even though it was 98 degrees out, our tables were in the shade and we had a good time getting to know the missionaries who were seated next to us.
After the marriage, there was one
brother who said to us and Sister Hobson how he had hoped his wife would have
been there to share that afternoon. He
said she had said she would be there. He
said she had not been very active in the church lately. He showed us his wedding ring and said he
wanted to work toward temple marriage/sealing, but then said, “How can I do
that if she does not come to Church?”
Sister Hobson counseled him that he needed to “love her back to church”
and not be pushy, be patient. I added
that he needed to show her his love by being kind and helping her and showing
her that her needs were his needs and they could work together. He thanked us both for the advice. Then, talking to Dad and I, he said, “I see
you walking together every day hand-in-hand.
That is how I want it to be for me and my wife.” Even unbeknown to us, we are teaching and
impacting lives! Remember, each of us has influence on others even when you may
never know.
We’ve had to get used to little specks on the yolks of eggs,
which I remove carefully. Today,
however, we had scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast and there were no
mysterious specks on the yolks! The egg
shells are all brown in color. Premier
is a little like Costco, as one week you might see one thing and another week
you’ll find another brand of the same food or a similar product instead of the
same item.
Every day we have been to Premier they have fresh bread to
purchase, or you can choose regular sandwich white or brown (different than
home, but they call it brown) bread. The
Portuguese rolls are a good hard roll which is really delicious with melted
butter and garlic seasoning. Their
French-looking bread doesn’t have the same flavor as home, but it is fresh and
tasty in its own way. Sourdough French bread does not exist. If you want sliced
lunch meat, you go to the meat counter and they slice the amount you want and package
it for you. We haven’t found any ham or
bacon where we shop. In Matola we
stopped briefly at a SPAR store and they had a fat hunk of unsliced bacon, so
we know it exists. You can get small
whole chickens and cut up chicken pieces, ¾ of Kg for 160 MT (a little
over $5 USD). Hamburger is 290/kg; the
first small roast we bought cost about $12 USD. Hmmm, haven’t seen cottage cheese yet and
I’ve purchased a few things I think are like sour cream and cream cheese, but
haven’t used them yet. Am I making you
hungry?
There is a huge mango tree behind our apartment
building. The little mangos look like
ornaments hanging from the branches.
These pictures were taken in the garden at the Matola Chapel.
Last Monday Sister Hobson and I went on a little walk and
visited the two near-by lojas (stores).
I found a box of colored thread (the other boxes were all white thread)
and it only cost 25 MT, which is less than a dollar. When I decide on a sewing project, I’ll have
thread to choose from!
Last Saturday we waited at our apartment all day for a
MoviFlor delivery. At 4:15 p.m. we got a
call that they weren’t coming! Totally
frustrating for us, as you can imagine!
Well, on Monday, I was down at the Maputo building at the Distribution
Center getting things together for the new family kits and I got a call from
MoviFlor. I gave my phone to Vanessa and
she talked and found out they were coming in 30 minutes! What a surprise, as Saturday they didn’t give
us much hope of a Monday delivery; in fact, they said it “might” be not until the next
Saturday. We like those kind of
surprises! They delivered a cabinet for
our bathroom, two chairs (one for Richard and one for me to sit on while we work at our
computers) and a small computer table for me.
They had to put together the computer table and Richard’s chair with
wheels.
With 5 new sister missionaries arriving that week, we had to
give up the one desk the Hobsons had loaned us.
Richard usually works at his computer at our kitchen table, but we may
be deciding to purchase a desk for him.
We had Staff Meeting at President Kretly’s home this week; afterwards he took us out to eat at the Chinese restaurant. We sat in a separate room with a round table
that I gathered they used when they’d come there before. They ordered many dishes and put them on a
giant glass turntable in the middle of the table. Everything was so delicious!!!! At the end,
Elder Hall, a tall thin missionary finished off the last plate of rice. “Elder Hall finished it all!”
On the way to the office on Wednesday, we went to the post office with Elder Tanner and Elder Cyrier to get the mail.
The post office is located next to the “bat” park, and I
sure wanted to go inside, but there wasn’t time. After our office work, we finally got two
boxes of Distribution Center orders sent off to Quelimane (look on a map) through DHL. We’d been working on getting these orders
together for weeks, so it was nice to cross something off the list!!!
On Wednesday the 10 new missionaries arrived: 5 Elders and 5 Sisters. 
Dad and I joined with them for our mission training done by
Elder Cyrier and Elder Tanner. Even
though we were supposed to have received this training weeks ago, I think the
timing of it was just right for us. A
lot of the things, such as the geographical layout of the mission, we’d learned
already by asking questions, but by hearing it again with visuals made it all
fit together. They explained the mission
vision, the goals for the proselyting missionaries, and we felt the spirit very
strong. Both of us bore our
testimonies. Dad told the new
missionaries that he had served in Brazil when the first stake was organized
there. He said he was planning on being
here in Mozambique to see the organization of the first stake here!
·
Bem Vindos á Melhor Missão do Mundo – Welcome to
the Best Mission in the World
·
23 million people in Mozambique
·
40% illiterate; 2/3 of children drop out of
elementary school
·
We are part of the spiritual development of this
country; We are here to help and serve
·
End of 2012 – 6,029 members of the Church; 140
families have been baptized so far in 2013
·
18
Branches; 2 Districts; 4 Missionary Zones; Centro de Força (Centers of Church Strength) = Beira and Maputo (look at map)
·
Maintain the spiritual change of heart that Alma
challenged the people to retain (Alma 5:26)
·
This is a Preach My Gospel mission – your anchor
is Chapter 9
·
Missionary success is measured by their commitment
to find, teach, baptize and confirm converts
·
Every day:
Find 5 qualified contacts (Belief in Christ, has a family, wants to
learn more); Teach 1 family
·
Concentrate on Families
·
Every Month: Baptize 1 family a month
·
Find Qualified Contacts; Teach with Power;
Baptize Many; Help members Endure to the Endowment – Let the Spirit take
control
·
Real Growth is the important thing – we not only
have a Quantity of new converts, but a Quality of new converts – we retain them
and they regularly attend and participate in Church
·
Milestones:
Desire (Alma 32:27); Repentance & Baptism (Mosiah 18:10); Ordinances
& Covenants (D&C 84:19-21); Conversion (Alma 23:5-6)
·
“You get what you go for” – Elder Boyd K. Packer
·
Be an Extraordinary Missionary
·
“Don’t live your life without miracles!” - Elder Neil A. Anderson
After the training, Dad and I got
to go with everyone to Mundo’s Pizza for lunch.
We shared a ½ chicken!!! Even though it was 98 degrees out, our tables were in the shade and we had a good time getting to know the missionaries who were seated next to us.
On Friday, we knew it was going to
be another hot day, so we went on our errands in the morning to prepay
electricity and to look for a television set.
When we had gone looking on other days we could only find huge
flat-screen tv’s which were way out of our price range. Going to the little shops on a street not too
far from us, it seemed every shop had television sets in all price ranges. We chose to go back to the shop run by a very
friendly English-speaking Muslim lady.
When we explained we didn’t have any way to get a tv home, she said, “No
problem! You can have my boy! He will carry it to your home!” This “boy” she had hired from the north bush
country and she explained how she “kept” him, meaning that he was part of her
family. She was teaching him many
things, because in Mozambique without education you can’t go anywhere in your
life. Since we also purchased a table to
put the tv on and both items together were too heavy for her boy to carry, we
were driven home by her son in his car!
We felt that her friendly smile and English “How are you?” when we went
by her store the first time, brought us back for these purchases. She also gave me a shell-shaped silver butter
dish as a gift!
Friday we attended a double
wedding and here are some pictures of the event. The brides were beautiful and it was touching
to see the couples stand across from each other holding hands to make their marriage
promises. When the couples kissed, there
was a loud cheer and high-pitched trilling noises from the ladies. Later, individuals stood and led the
congregations in a traditional “Obrigada Deus” and “Hallelujah” songs. We recorded some on our flip camera. The couples who were married are: Feliziana & Fernando (they have a little baby boy Yuri); and
Looks like we’ll be sending
pictures of the baptism pillowcases I am embroidering for the grandchildren who
are turning 8 and being baptized while we are gone. Richard went online to see the cost of
sending a one pound package from here to Utah through FedEx. How about $117 with delivery in 4 days. There are sure to be slower deliveries, but,
then again, they might not be delivered!
After a couple of days of really
hot weather, Saturday was overcast and quite windy. We had planned to attend a 12:30 wedding in
Matola and then a 2 p.m. baptism in Maputo.
While at the Matola 1 chapel waiting for the wedding to begin, I met
Edina, age 8.
The wedding was delayed so we had
to leave before it happened to get to the baptism in Maputo. [I heard later
that the wedding finally took place about 4 p.m. The groom was really worried that his bride
had changed her mind!]
Brother Machoie, second counselor
in the Maputo 2 Branch Presidency, conducted the baptism. He speaks distinctly, deliberately and loud
enough for all to hear and I could understand just about every word he
said! I said to myself, “It’s
happening! It’s happening!” This
continued with most of the talks about baptism.
It is such a good feeling and blessing to hear and understand entire sentences!
There were 11 baptisms, including
the two brides from the previous day and one of the grooms and the 8 year old daughter of one of the couples. We both felt the overwhelming feeling of joy
for these converts who went one by one into the cold water of the baptismal
font and were baptized.
After the baptism, we went home
for a few minutes and then returned to the chapel to put some signs up about
the Women’s Conference Sister Kretly has organized for next Saturday, September
28. Sister Hobson will be speaking on
Visiting Teaching and I will be speaking on Relief Society and how every sister
needs it!
After putting up the posters, we
were about to leave and Dad, seeing a light in one of the rooms, wondered down
the hallway. There he saw Brother
Machoie and Dad asked him if the branch president was in town. [I had been given the go-ahead to contact the
branch presidents of Maputo Branches 1 & 2 to get a date to speak in their
Sacrament Meeting about family history.]
When Brother Machoie said the president was in France, I knew Dad had
been led to go down the hall so we could talk to Brother Machoie. He speaks English and he asked us to sit down
and I explained what we needed. He was
grateful that I wanted to speak and responded by telling me I could speak “tomorrow”! I explained that the week after would be better
for me, since I wanted to practice my talk in Portuguese so I could say the
words correctly. He then said something
very touching. He told me ‘You can practice
if you wish, but if you decide to do it tomorrow [even if you would say
something incorrectly] we respect you as you have come to help us keep the
commandments of the Lord. That was so
humbling. The Lord prepared the way so
we could accomplish what he wanted us to do! [Now I have two talks to prepare
for next weekend! I am excited! The Maputo 1 branch will be contacting me
with a date to speak.]
On Sunday, Brother Machoie
conducted Sacrament Meeting and he even announced I would be speaking next week
and that I had a very important message! There were 8 confirmations in the Maputo
2 Branch and 3 in the Maputo 1 Branch.
Sunday was Elder Cyrier’s last full day in the Mozambique Maputo
Mission. He talked in the Maputo 2 Branch and his advice to the members is
great advice for all of us:
1.
Keep the commandments and you will be blessed spiritually and temporally.
(See Mosiah 2:41)
2.
Help others keep the commandment; share the good news of the gospel.
3. Have Faith in Miracles. Don’t live your life without miracles. Every day, recognize the miracles which have
happened and recognize the hand of the Lord in your life.
We can’t get enough of these beautiful sunsets!
No comments:
Post a Comment