13 - 19 Oct 2014 6thFloor,Lopes,CastroDeus,Election,GenConf

We began this week by helping the sister missionaries move back to their 2^nd floor apartment, clean the 6^th floor apartment, and further ready it for the new Brazilian couple.  The other new Brazilian couple will live in Beira. That makes 8 sisters on the 2^nd floor!  That’s not the record, however.  At one time, there were 10 sisters in that apartment.  Both new couples were to arrive on Tuesday morning about 11 a.m. and there was much to prepare.  The Secretaries and AP’s helped move the beds, desks and wardrobes. 

Tuesday, we stopped briefly at the office and then went shopping for a countertop oven, kitchen table and chairs and other things for the new couple.  The street where the Home Center store is located was super busy and a traffic accident complicated matters.  We were cutting it close as the delivery truck followed us to the apartment building.  We called the APs at the airport and found out that the couples were coming on a different flight!  We gratefully had more time to get everything in place.  The rug we purchased matched perfectly with the turquoise couch, and the table & chair set brought out the lime green accent in the rug! 



The two couples arrived in the evening.  We are so blessed to have two more exceptional couples here in the mission:  Elder & Sister Castro Deus and Elder & Sister Lopes

Wednesday was election day and we were instructed to stay inside in case there were any disturbances.  In the morning the line to vote was very long!  We could watch the lengthening line from our kitchen window. 

It turned out to be a very quiet day in Maputo – not even one truck with people yelling and waving flags and no sirens!  We heard other cities did have some problems.  The Lopes’ and Sister Hobson (Elder Hobson was still traveling home from Beira) came to our apartment for this week’s Staff Meeting via GoToMeeting.  Next week’s General Authority visit and calendaring were the main subjects of the meeting.

The thunder, lightning and rain storm we had on Thursday evening was a blessing, since it hasn’t rained for a while.  Friday began two days of strong winds.

Maputo 2’s branch president wanted to show Conference on Saturday and Sunday and, having remembered that we had provided one of our computers to show last conference, asked Elder Tidwell to come on Friday to the chapel to check the connections and sound system.  They were able to get everything working; the office elders distributed flash drives containing conference.

On the way to the chapel on Saturday morning, I saw a huge beetle crawling along the edge of the sidewalk.  It was headed for the street and I tried to turn it a difference direction, but it was bent on going across the street.  I regret that I don’t have a picture of this magnificent beetle.  I went to the chapel and stayed only briefly to put down my things, and when I went back to see if I could get a picture of the beetle, the beetle was gone.  It may have been one of the wet blobs I saw on the asphalt, or, maybe it was a super-fast beetle and it had crawled to safety.  I hope the latter was true.  Next time I’m going to be more inventive about finding a makeshift container to put the beetle in.

Even though we had listened/watched conference in our apartment live or on time-delay over BYU-TV, I enjoyed being able to concentrate on the messages again as we met for conference in the branch and viewed it on the huge screen in the chapel.  About 30 people came for Saturday’s showing; on Sunday almost 200 attended.  Elder Tidwell’s computer played conference and I used my computer to bring up the English text of the talks and followed along.  I could underline and highlight things I wanted to remember.  There was a short break in between the two sessions.  I went outside and visited with a group of 7 year olds. The girls dressed in yellow are twins!

 

As I listened to conference, several things came to my mind that I wanted to do to follow-through with what I had learned. Conference is a time to review our lives and make attainable goals to work toward.  We are blessed to have prophets and apostles who continue to teach us to remember Christ and keep the commandments.