This week began with transfers for the missionaries. Although there weren’t many transfers between
the zones, most missionaries advanced to other leadership
responsibilities (such as junior companion to senior companion) so there were lots
of corrections to the transfer cards.
This week, when we did our shopping, I talked briefly with
another young lady who weighs produce at Premier. She was happy to be asked if we could take a
photo! Her name is Guilhermina!
Each week at Staff Meeting (which are usually held on
Tuesday mornings) someone gives a spiritual thought. This week’s thought was about Nephi and his
brothers. Laman and Lemuel had tied
Nephi up; Nephi prayed that the Lord would give Nephi “strength…[to] burst
these bands.” Elder Greenman explained
that in answer to Nephi’s prayer “the bands were loosed from off [his] hands
and feet” and then concluded that sometimes our prayers are answered in a
different way than the way we have asked.
Nevertheless, our prayers are always answered in the way that the Lord
feels is best for us. Food for thought!
We held our last family history class for 2013 on
Wednesday. It looked like we wouldn’t
have anyone there, and then we heard the hurried footsteps and one of our
students who had not been able to attend for a long time came and sat down in
the classroom to catch his breath. This
19 year-old young man is always smiling!
He explained that he really wanted to come to class tonight and was glad
he made it. The lesson we had planned, the
use of pedigree charts and family group sheets, was perfect for him. He understands their use far better than he
did the first time we talked about them and is anxious to gather information
about his family. We are taking a break
from classes until January 8, since the next 2 Wednesday evenings are Dec 25
and Jan 1!
The Elders gave me a stack of baptismal fichas (records) to input. When I got the box I prop the pages up with from the top of our file cabinet in our
office, I saw something move in the
box! I screamed and dropped the box. Investigating, Elder Tidwell and I saw a tiny
lizard, about an inch and a half long.
Its little black eyes looked frightened, too! I carefully carried the box downstairs and outside and Elder Tidwell got ready to take a
picture! I tapped the box, but the
lizard didn’t come out. Its little
suction pads on its feet clung to the cardboard. The little guy didn’t move
until I nudged it – and then it scurried into the garden and disappeared! Either that day or the next Elder Tidwell
saw another similar-sized lizard scurry into the bedroom across from the
office. So, look out! Little lizards are lurking!
This week we were heavily involved in preparations for the
Christmas Eve dinner for 57 missionaries, President & Sister Kretly and
President Kretly’s son and his wife. The dinner was to be held in conjunction
with Maputo Zone Conference from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Christmas Eve day.
On Wednesday and Thursday evenings I made Christmas cookie
dough for Date Pinwheel Cookies, Molasses Krinkles and Russian Teacake
cookies. Then on Friday at the office, I
used their gas oven to bake 25.5 dozen Christmas cookies! If I had used my counter-top oven, it would
have taken forever!!! With the
regular-sized gas oven – 6 hours! I
wanted each of the missionaries to have a taste of homemade Christmas
goodness. The Elders said the kitchen
smelled like heaven! One of them said
that he could eat them all with no problem!!!
(Now, adds Elder Tidwell, if the oven at the office had run out of
propane, who knows how we would have resolved that problem, but all worked
perfectly.) The elders each got to taste a Molasses Krinkle, but I froze the
rest.
We hung the string of rice lights in the kitchen! Before Christmas, we purchased another couple
of strings of rice lights, so in the evening we have lights flashing on and off
in a variety of cycles and everything looks very festive!
We are grateful we get to Skype with our families! We got to see the two beautiful blue parakeets (Rose and Blue) that Kelsie received for her 10th birthday. Sometimes the grandchildren sings songs to us and show us their new toys and other things. Here is a candid shot of Amelia and Georgia via Skype!
We also enjoy phone calls with everyone via our Vonage phone system. We are also very thankful that so many products are available for purchase here in Maputo. This week the camera on my laptop stopped working. Elder Tidwell was able to buy a webcam and by simply plugging it in, it worked! We’ve had some problems with sound on Skype, but everything seems to be working well now.
On Friday we finally had mirrors in our bathrooms
installed! Hobson’s invited us to dinner
that evening and we called it a celebration dinner!
Although the Saturday before Christmas is not the best time to be at Premier
shopping for food for a big Christmas Eve dinner for the missionaries, none-the-less that is where we
were! We ended up with two grocery carts
full – one containing boxes of water and cans of juice, the other one was
filled with a variety of fruits for the fruit basket (pineapple, red grapes,
green grapes, apricots, peaches, oranges, apples, plums), veggies (lettuce,
tomatoes, cucumbers, mushrooms) for the tossed salad, an additional 60 apples
to go with their pizza lunch, and ice cream for dessert.
There was also a Santa activity for children at the Premier
grocery store on Saturday. There was also a place to get presents wrapped by
the parking lot.
Mozambique is about 60%
Christian, and Christmas is a special holiday here. One Internet site indicated that dove
ornaments (symbolizing peace) and cross ornaments (symbolizing Christ’s
sacrifice), both on the symbol from the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM)
are often hung from trees. There was a
lot of shopping happening at both of the stores on our street, and the stores
were open on Sunday before Christmas (it has always been closed on other
Sundays) and were open also on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Day is also called “Dia da Familia” or Day of the Family.
Sunday we held the missionary Christmas program (just like
the one we did last week in Maputo) at the Matola chapel; Matola is north of
Maputo. We didn’t have as large of an
audience, but the Christmas spirit was felt through music and word. One of the members told Sister
Hobson that the program was “Too beautiful to be too short!” One of the elders
wanted a copy of the script!
“Prestamos testemunho,” juntamente
com “Apóstolos Seus, devidamente
ordenados, de que Jesus é o Cristo
Vivo, o Filho Imortal de Deus. ... Ele é a luz, a vida e a esperança do mundo. Seu
caminho é aquele que conduz á felicidade nesta vida e á vida eterna no mundo vindouro. Graças damos a Deus pela incomparável dádiva de Seu Filho divino.”
For you English speakers, that was:
“We bear testimony,” along with “His
duly ordained Apostles—that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of
God. … He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the
path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to
come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son.”
This is a powerful true message we share with you at the
holiday season!
We end this week's blog with a unique sunset!
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