After shopping on Monday, we worked all afternoon pulling
together plans for the details for the General Authority visit next month.
President Kretly wanted a report at Staff Meeting on Tuesday. When we had the plans ready in English,
Richard did the next step – translating them into Portuguese!
To me, this translating process was another testimony of Joseph
Smith and the authenticity of The Book of Mormon. Elder Tidwell has a great understanding of
the Portuguese written language and, of course, he knows English. It takes him a couple of hours to correctly
translate one page of text – and, he’s using Google Translate to give him the
foundation translation. Some, who do not
believe Joseph Smith was a prophet, say that he fabricated the whole story of
the golden plates and made up The Book of Mormon! How could Joseph Smith with only
a rudimentary elementary education and knowing nothing of ancient languages and
texts, make up a story with story lines which interconnect and make sense?
Modern handwriting and textual analysis reveals that the book was written by
multiple authors. “The translation was a
staggering achievement. It was completed within eighty-five days, from 7 April
to 30 June…. Considering the complexity, consistency, clarity, artistry,
accuracy, density, and profundity of the Book of Mormon, the Prophet Joseph’s
translation is a phenomenal feat.” (Welch, John W. Ensign, January 1988, “I Have a Question) He accomplished it by divine help.
In the Skype call from Peter and Charlotte and family last
Monday, we heard about their great camping and fishing trip to Payson Lakes
over Labor Day weekend. After a night of camping and even driving up to the
Devil's Kitchen overlook to see the red-rock formations, the van brought their
family home safely. This was to be the
van’s last adventure, for when Peter pulled into the parking lot at his work
the next morning, it had a "transmission attack" and died. [A new
transmission would cost about $2500 and the Blue Book value of a working van of that
year is only $665!]
The van, which in its 17 year life has taken the family and Elder Tidwell and I on many trips, has never stranded us in a bad situation far away from home. It has always waited until we got safely home, even in its last trip! We put an entry on our “Family Says” page and invited the family to add memories. It is sad to see it go, but it has served the family well!
The van, which in its 17 year life has taken the family and Elder Tidwell and I on many trips, has never stranded us in a bad situation far away from home. It has always waited until we got safely home, even in its last trip! We put an entry on our “Family Says” page and invited the family to add memories. It is sad to see it go, but it has served the family well!
Sometimes it takes a while to see the reasoning behind some
laws. One of the elders said he now
understands why there is a law in most states that you can’t park within 30
feet of a stop sign. Here in Maputo you
can park right up to and on the corner!
It is very hard, as you can imagine, to see approaching cars!
I helped Elder Damião, who is going to Brazil to serve in
the Brazil, Salvador Mission, print out a Family Ordinance Request so that he
can do the ordinance work for his father when he goes to the Johannesburg
Temple. His father, who had been taught
the gospel and was in the process of filing of marriage papers prior to his
baptism, contracted a very bad infection and died before he was baptized. He was very anxious to help his father.
We are receiving more missionary recommendations to
process. Of the six we have received in
the last 3 weeks, half of them are sisters!
On Friday we were invited to attend District Meeting and
help with a poster the elders and sisters were putting together showing the
basic steps to get to the temple.
Well the R.S. activity, learning how to crochet, happened on
Saturday afternoon! Only 2 attendees, Sister Celeste Moiana and Sister Laura Matica, but we had fun and learned a lot together!
We were only home a few minutes and then we left with
Hobsons to meet Elder and Sister Dille and their daughter and Sister Dille’s
mother at Café Sol for dinner! The
Dilles had returned from Kruger Park and are on their way to Beira, then Johannesburg,
and finally to Zimbabwe to see Victoria Falls.
On Sunday we attended the first meeting of the Temple
Preparation Class for the Maputo 2 branch. The elders started with an “envision” activity
in which we closed our eyes and he described looking at and entering the beautiful
sacred temple. Elder Tidwell and I and
both elders shared our testimonies to the couples.
To make sure Manuel got home safely today, Elder Tidwell
walked him home after Church. We noticed
he had arrived late for Church and he explained that he had made a wrong turn
and had gone through a very hard time getting oriented again and returning to
his apartment. We could tell that the
experience had been very stressful and frustrating to him. I can’t even imagine being blind and trying
to navigate the bumpy sidewalks and busy streets here in Maputo. It would take a lot of faith to even leave
one's safe apartment! We had a nice visit
with him later that afternoon. We helped
him fill out more of his Minha Familia pamphlet and then read him some
articles. We had also brought him some music
CDs. He said he felt like a rich man!
That evening we joined Sister Castanheira and her children
who came to surprise Sister Hobson for her birthday.
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