We took Elder Tidwell’s glasses in to be fixed early Monday
morning, and by 3 p.m. we picked them up.
The one lens is pretty scratched up, but he is making do.
Yara needs to earn money for her mission, so she asked if I
would help her with baking items she and her sister could sell. Monday afternoon was our baking day with both Yara and Lumiana. It was fun to make brownies
and cupcakes with these young women!
Both items sold well!
As if not having the Internet for our Family History classes
wasn’t enough…this week, right before we left to go teach our Magoanine
consultant about online FamilySearch, the electricity in our apartment went
down! This does not happen very
often! The chapel still had power, but
no Internet, so again we are delayed finishing up the training for that
branch’s consultants. That night we had
cold cereal for dinner – the power returned about 8:30pm!
It has been predicted that June 2014 will be a
record-breaking month for baptisms in the mission. June 2013, when
Angola was still part of the Mozambique Maputo Mission, there were 115 people
baptized. Well, it is the 2nd
week of June and at Staff Meeting it was reported that there have already been
101 baptisms!
On Thursday morning we went with the office elders as they
purchased mosquito nets for missionaries in Swaziland. It was very interesting to accompany them to the open market and
listen as they talked to vendor after vendor trying to negotiate a good price
for the 20 mosquito nets we needed.
The weather has been cooler lately, but on Friday the wind
died down and we decided to walk to the beach in the morning.
On Friday we learned, by reading our names on the Branch
Conference agenda, that we were going with a counselor in the mission
presidency to Maxixe to help with their Branch Conference! This was a total
surprise to us!! An email confirmed it,
though. We were anxious to know what
our part was, so we found out more from a phone conversation with him on
Saturday morning. Maxixe is a city on
the coast half-way between Maputo and Beira!
Elder Tidwell had gone to Maxixe once before, with Elder Hobson. I was excited to see
more of Mozambique, but knew it would be a lot of work to prepare.
We attended a baptism on Saturday morning. Since a wedding was also planned for that
morning, the baptismal service was held upstairs in a classroom. The family being baptized showed a lot of
perseverance that morning, I thought. The
weather was a little chilly that morning, the water in the font was especially
cold and especially deep. The wife had
such a distressed look on her face as she entered the font and slowly descended
the stairs into the cold water. Their 9
year- old daughter couldn’t touch her toes to the bottom of the font, so she
stood on the bottom step to be baptized.
We next attended the wedding, which was in progress in the
chapel. It was President Smith’s
first. There was lots of singing and
dancing and Elder Tidwell took lots of little movies we will share.
I got a chance to explain, in Portuguese, to the women who
were sitting in back of us, why the phrase “Latter-day Saints” was in the name
of the Church. I love getting little
chances to explain parts of the gospel.
During the baptismal service, which followed the wedding, Elder
Tidwell received a call from the counselor in the Mission Presidency. When he came back to the chapel he wrote down
“We are not going to Maxixe.” Another
couple was going instead. Well, one less
thing to plan for! I was rather looking
forward to the trip, but Elder Tidwell was relieved.
Sometimes the family in back of our building has a long
into-the-morning-party with loud music.
Such was the case on Saturday night.
Well, hold onto your hat!
We found out we ARE going to Maxixe. Elder Tidwell received word from President Gonçalves before he went to bed on Saturday night. We'll be leaving at 6 a.m. Friday morning with President Gonçalves and returning Sunday evening. Later in the week we received the details about our assignments.
- Sister Tidwell - Teach R.S. "Tithes & Offerings"; be prepared to bear testimony on Family History and Temple Work; Talk in Sacrament Meeting Sunday.
- Elder Tidwell - Teach Rapazes & Moças (Young Men / Young Women) "Blessings of the Priesthood"; be prepared to bear testimony on Family History and Temple Work; Talk in Sacrament Meeting Sunday.
Sunday we invited the Hobsons and Solomon Smith for
Sunday dinner in honor of Father’s Day.
We had chicken, baked potatoes, zucchini, a delicious and
beautiful tossed green salad Sister Hobson made, homemade Parkerhouse
rolls and an apple pie and ice cream for
dessert.
Both Elder Tidwell and I were happy to share this meal with
other fathers and remember the important roles our fathers played in our lives.
Richard enjoyed the calls and Skypes received for Father’s
Day!
I had been working all week to pull together a Father’s Day
surprise for Richard – his Minha Familia booklet filled out! I had all the dates on my Ancestry Quest
computer files and found many pictures of his ancestors on FamilySearch. Since I have to print using his computer, it
was a little tricky to find a time I could initiate a print job without him
being right there watching. Friday
afternoon the opportunity came and I quickly brought up
the page of photos I needed to print out, sent the print job, successfully ejected the flash drive and then quickly went downstairs to get the print
job! Success! I had what I needed! I glued in the pictures on Saturday morning,
when Richard was gone to an early meeting.
Then I decided that I could put together a Treasure Hunt for him to find
his Minha Familiar booklet. I wrote each
of the 10 clues on a plastic lid and then put everything away until I could
work the activity into our Sunday evening.
When the time came, I had Richard step outside of the apartment in the
stair well. The only trouble was that I
got SO mixed up putting out the clues. I
was taking such a long time to set it up, that I had to assure Richard that it
was coming…. You see, Peter and Paul are
the kings of Treasure Hunts in our family!
By following the clues backwards, I was able to be sure that everything
was set up. I remember Treasure Hunts at
home, in our 280 East house and yard.
We’d let each of the kids have a turn to find the next clue, read it,
and then lead the “pack” to the next location.
There were lots of giggles and excitement! Richard’s Treasure Hunt was very calm
in comparison! He was very
surprised and pleased with the Treasure.
He had wanted to begin the booklet, but has been so busy he hasn’t been
able to do it. Now, he has only a few
pictures to find and stories to write up before Zone Conference. Each elder, sister, and each of the senior
missionaries are to have their booklets completed as much as possible before
Zone Conference which will be July 1st for the Maputo, Matola & Swaziland
Zones.
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