19-25May2014 HotWater,Fatima,Inspect,Crislerio&Joanna

Since it had been two weeks since we did our shopping, we ran up quite a bill at the grocery story this week.  The celery we purchased was heavy on the greenery, so I decided to take Sister Dille’s advice and dry the leaves in the oven.  Now I have crushed dried celery to use for flavoring.  I have looked for celery salt, but haven’t been able to find any here.

By Monday evening we had a functioning water heater!

During our lesson with Milo and his wife, their little boy Mileno had fun playing with the fabric ball I made him.  This week I have been preparing visual aids for the Salvados to use in teaching.

I’ve been busy this week with baptismal fichas.  We had a total of 60 baptism so far for May; we will hear the numbers of the last week in May at Staff Meeting on Tuesday.

This week we received a letter from Zoe she wrote on 26 April.  She included her journal entry for the last day of Easter Pageant.  Her letter conveyed the Spirit so strong.  We are so thankful that she and her family have had this great experience.

I finished my Minha Familia booklet this week.  I hope to add the short histories on FamilySearch this week. 

Family History classes are becoming a little tricky.  Since we teach on Sunday afternoon and Wednesday evening, we never know who is going to show up for each day.  This week, David, one of our students who has had all of the lessons, arrived first.  After we started showing him some “extra” FamilySearch how-to videos, Crislerio’s family, who are investigating the Church, arrived.  [They had come for the Sunday class, so I didn’t think they would come on Wednesday night, too!] I was uncertain what to do, so I continued to show the how-to video on adding Photos to FamilySearch.  It was exactly what David needed.  He recalled that his family had group photos taken at marraiges and other important events that he had seen at his relatives’ houses.  He didn’t know you could add group pictures to FamilySearch and tag the individual people!  Then, while looking at the roll, I asked Crislerio and Joanna if they would like to have the rest of Lesson 1.  They had had only one part of it on another day they attended.  It turned out to fit the situation.  David said he wanted to stay, even though he had had that lesson.  We had a great lesson on “Why do we do Family History?” and answered a lot of questions.  Sister Hobson wanted a picture for the mission history, so we staged this one!

Staff Meeting was on Thursday this week.  Elder Cummings gave the spiritual thought on one of the 10 principles he learned from his Dad before he passed away from colon cancer:  “The Broken Window Effect.”  If you come upon a house with a broken window, you might have the attitude that it’s okay to break all of the windows.  If everyone in the town had a similar attitude, the town would become run-down and no one would want to live there.  If, however, you came upon the house and had the attitude to fix the window, and if everyone had that same attitude the town would be beautiful and well-kept and everyone would want to live there.  It is all in your attitude:  If you think you can, or, if you think you can’t – you’re right!  This principle also emphasizes the Power of Example.  At Staff Meeting we talked about an exciting change in the mission, but it isn’t official until tomorrow.  So, stay tuned!!!

Right after Staff Meeting, one of the AP’s told me that a lady was outside wanting to see me.  It was Fatima – she was the housekeeper in the house right in back of the Mission Office.  When she would come outside to hang the clothes, she and I would wave to each other.  She had such a nice smile! One of the days she was out, I called to her out the window and asked her name and she told me it was Fátima.  Well, the next week I noticed that she wasn’t coming out anymore and I asked the guard if he knew why.  The guard knew Fatima and explained that the family she worked for had moved and Fátima didn’t have the job anymore.  I asked the guard to say “Hello” to her if he saw her again.  Well, the guard saw her this week and made it possible for us to officially meet each other.  Smiles and "Hello" waves really do have power to unite people!

We made our first surprise missionary house inspection this week in Matola.  The President wants us to do a return visit before transfers the first of June to see if they have followed through with the suggested we gave them.  Missionaries are trusted to keep their houses/apartments clean. “We teach them correct principles and they govern themselves.”  When that trust is broken, then the trust needs to be reestablished.

On the way back through the neighborhood, the AP's drove past this beautiful tree and I had to have them turn around so I could take a picture of it.  As you see, it is covered in big white blossoms.  I've looked in the Africa Tree book I purchased, but can't find anything quite like it.  That's OK.  I can still enjoy it!   I wonder if the Tree in Lehi's (and Nephi's) Vision of the Tree of Life first had beautiful white blossoms before the white fruit formed? :)

Another 12-year old was sustained to receive the Aaronic Priesthood today in Sacrament Meeting.  The Branch President commented on the large group of Deacons and said they are our future missionaries. Here is a picture of the Deacons and Teachers in the Maputo 2 branch.

After Church we took these photos of Crislerio’s family: Tynara, Crislerio, David, Joanna.

This weekend we have had Elder Biddulph with us while he recovers from being sick.  He helped straighten up our “storage room” so he’d have a place to sleep!

I organized Brother Castel-Branco's family history papers this week.  His direct line on his father’s side goes to India and then Portugal and then to Spain in the 1600’s!