We had a busy P-Day.
As I recall, that evening I forgot to write in my journal until it was really late, so
my entry is a list of things we accomplished.
One of the major things was an outline of the Family Get-Together
schedule we sent out to all of our children.
I want to make 3-tiered skirts out of capulana fabric for all of our
granddaughters! The time is speeding by
crazy fast!
I gave the spiritual thought in Staff Meeting:
My husband and I have many years of
experience with the Scouting program in the Church and its main motto “Be
Prepared” is one we can apply to missionary work. Another motto the Scouts learn in camping was
“Leave No Trace” which stresses being careful with fire, conserving flora and
fauna, and carrying out trash - these also can apply to our time here in
Mozambique. However, we are not here on
a camping trip; life is not a camping trip.
We want to, as Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scouting movement,
taught, Leave a Place Better Than You
Found it. He explained:
"No one can pass through life,
any more than he can pass through a bit of country, without leaving tracks
behind, and those tracks may often be helpful to those coming after him in
finding their way."
In the Preach My Gospel section
“How Do I Use Time Wisely?” it states in the 2nd paragraph: “Do all you can to leave your area stronger
than you found it.” When you work in an area, or visit
a branch, met someone new, or help someone, do you leave the area, branch or
person better than you found them? And
the corollary: Are you a better person
than you were because you worked in an area, visited a branch, met someone new,
or helped someone.
We are in a place that someone was
before us. Elder Ellis talked about this
concept in his short meeting with us in Matola in quoted 1 Nephi 3:7. We are
now preparing the way for the next one to take our place. What have you done to
make the way clearer? Reading again from Preach My
Gospel: “The Area Book” (p. 140). The Area Book contains: Area Map, Progress Records; Teaching Record
forms for Investigators with a Baptism & Confirmation Date, Progressing
Investigators, New and Other Investigators, Former Investigators and Recent
Converts and Less-Active Members. There
are Potential Investigator forms; Media referrals and other referral records,
and Convert Action List forms. In the
Branch and Mission Information section missionaries can put a branch directory,
positions list, schedule of ward and missionary meetings, a list of part-member
families, a directory of missionaries in your district or zone. Another section
“Information about the Area” is the place to put information about public
transportation, barbershops, places to shop, places to avoid. In our Staff Meeting the AP’s report on
mission numbers – District Leaders hopefully are using the Call-In Summary
Report to keep and report their mission numbers. Preach My Gospel states “This book should stay in your
apartment after you are transferred so that future missionaries can use the
information.”
One of the first Zone Conferences I
attended in this mission we were to think about the final day in the mission
field and answer:
What kind of a missionary do you want
to be known as?
What do you want to say you have done
as a missionary?
What do you want to have become?
What difference would you want others
to notice in you?
As our time is short before we
leave, I want to review my responses and take stock. I encourage each of us to contemplate the
answers to these questions, review them often and make goals to fulfill the
responses.
In Family History, I have some
“Leave No Trace” ancestors. Let us not
be one to our posterity or to our Mission.
May we each identify ways that we can make our assignment, our area, our
companionship, better than we found it; may we be better people than we were
when we began – not to our glory, but to the glory of God and his son, Jesus
Christ. “Be not weary in well-doing, for
ye are laying the foundation of a great work.” D&C 64:33.
Since Elder Hobson was in Beira on Monday, we didn’t go
shopping, but we got to go on Friday. I
got to see my friend Guilhermina. She
wants to get my email address so we can keep in touch after we leave. I am going to miss seeing her – as I will
miss many things about this unique country.
Bananas anyone? The red trees are blooming again!
I love the vibrant orange of this flowering bush at the Mission Office garden! These white blossoms were also very fragrant! You are purchase beautiful lemons as big as a grapefruit!
The projects we worked on this week were identifying keys, reviewing
Missionary Recommendations, entering baptism fichas, and making final preparation
for the Temple Preparation Class we would be teaching on Sunday. The month of October finished with 105 baptisms!
On Saturday we attended the wedding of a couple from T-3
branch.
In addition to the branch choir who sang the opening song, there was a group of 8 singers who presented African music and rhythms during the ceremony. They really knew how to harmonize!
It was a blessing to be able to include 3 Family History
lessons into the Temple Preparation Classes in Sunday School. I have been working on putting my regular
lessons 1 & 2 together for the first of these 3 lessons. Sunday we gave the lesson and, since it had
been a while since we have taught, I was nervous about it, but it all went very
well. Even though we started late, we
had time to cover what I had planned. Elder
Tidwell manned the computer to advance the PowerPoint slides and I gave the
lesson. Elder Tidwell fielded questions
and directed the discussion questions.
I was very pleased to see the 3 children from the selling
booth up the street at Church this morning.
They were there very early and had the biggest smiles to greet us when
we came into the chapel before the meetings began. The younger 2 girls, Sonia and Teresa, went to Primary and the
15-year-old, Antonio, went to Priesthood meeting opening exercises and then the Young Men
leader shepherded him off to the right class.
Every week new investigators attend.
New families are one of the main numbers that the mission measures
and reports. It is the foundation of
baptisms. If you find new families and
they come to Church, they are beginning on the path to baptism!
On Sunday evening Elder Tidwell attended very important training on how to
do tithing settlement. President
Kretly, who presented the training, used the PowerPoint slides which Elder
Tidwell had put together. Branch
President and branch clerks throughout the mission attended via GoToMeeting.
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