2-8Sep2013 ElderKitchen,ThatchRoof,Kits,Smiths

Last Monday we spent the morning with one of the missionaries, Elder Kitchen, in the hospital.  He had an infected wound on his foot.  His companion needed to go grocery shopping, so he needed someone to stay with him, as it is a mission rule, as you know, that a missionary must always be with either another elder missionary or some other priesthood holder for elders or member sister for sisters.  He has been spending time with us in the evenings, so his companion can join the AP's and go teaching investigators.  The district they are in entails a lot of walking and he needs to wait until the wound has healed over so he won’t re-injure it when he puts shoes on.  Many foot problems are caused by poor-fitted shoes.  So, you up-and-coming-missionaries, be sure you have shoes that are very comfortable and that are sturdy to walk 5+ miles a day.  Wear them for a while before you depart and make sure they really are as comfortable as they feel in the store!

Here’s a snapshot taken at this week’s English Class.

This week I completed reading the Book of Mormon in Portuguese and have begun to read it again.  I had the opportunity to give the spiritual thought in Staff Meeting on Tuesday.  I decided to say a sentence at a time, first in Portuguese and then in English.  It went very well.  I am still hoping that my listening and responding skills increase, as they are very deficient compared to my speaking and reading skills.

They’re fixing the thatched roof of the Mission Office.  The procedure has been very interesting to watch.  For more information on thatching, see the Wikipedia article:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thatching

The potatoes we get here are more like new potatoes than russet potatoes.  They still can be baked, but they really make great mashed potatoes – lots better than the dehydrated ones.  Fixing them reminded me of when my Dad would make creamy mashed potatoes.  He’d boil the potato wedges until they were tender when pricked with a fork.  He’d drain the water into the pan with meat drippings to make gravy; then, he would use the hand mixer and whip the cooked potatoes, adding a little butter, salt and pepper.  There was a very critical time when he would ask someone to pour just the right amount of milk into the pan as he mixed the potatoes to a nice stiff, but still creamy consistency.  Yum!

This week Zoe and I finished documenting the Etienne LUSSIER and Victoire RENAUD family of 14 children, 9 of which had not been identified before our research.  On Friday afternoon, I walked Zoe through the process of requesting the ordinances, and before the end of Arizona’s Friday she emailed me that she and Silke and Landon and three of Silke’s friends went to the Arizona Temple and they completed the baptisms and confirmations!

On Saturday we were on our way to the Maputo chapel for a baptism.  The Office Secretaries pulled up and asked where we were going.  They told us the baptism had been moved to Matola, because the Maputo building didn’t have any water.  So, we hopped in their car and off we went.  It couldn’t have been timed better and we were thankful for this obvious tender mercy so we could attend.  There were 6 young people baptized and the elders said they were paving the way for their parents to follow in the next week or so. 

Elder and Sister Hobson were in Beira for most of the week lining up Humanitarian Projects.  They had a very successful trip!  They delivered this congratulations note to us from Brian & Kim Snelson, CES Missionaries in Beira.

 Dad and I are coordinating the purchase of the first six “new member family” kits for the branches.  We are working with Vanessa in the Distribution Center, which is located on the 4^th floor of the Maputo Chapel. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

The kits will contain a Bible, Triple Combination, Gospel Principles, Hymn book, an issue of the Liahon magazine, and the Family Proclamation.            

In the late afternoon we went with Solomon Smith for a car tour of Maputo and then made our way to their home which is about 20 minutes from the Mission Office.  Solomon Smith and his wife Tammy and little son Mark (who will be 1 year old in 2 weeks) had invited us for dinner and Solomon offered to spend some time beforehand with us to get to see the city a little more.  He works for a security company contracted by the American Embassy.  We neglected to get a picture of their family, but will try to remember and get one and add it to this blog.  On the way to their home we stopped next to the bay and watched the kite surfers.  It was a beautiful day, and, when we traveled home, there was a perfect rock-a-bye-baby moon in the dark sky.

When I saw this lizard outside the Mission Office I had to get a picture of it for Kaedric Bybee, one of our grandsons, whose lizard recently died.  This lizard was pretty well hidden behind some cement blocks, and it was pretty tricky getting his picture.

At church today, there were 3 confirmations – the other 3 who were baptized yesterday were confirmed in Matola.  Another English-speaking family attended the Matola 1 branch today – the Garcia Family.  He just got a job with the government here.  They don’t know any Portuguese, but the husband knows Spanish.  It was great to be able to have someone else who talks English!

·         When we promise to do things for the Lord, we need to follow through.  When we meet the Lord and make an accounting of our stewardship, we won’t be asked what callings we’ve had, but we will be asked to how we have served and blessed the lives of others.

·         We need to make the Holy Ghost our best friend.  Follow His promptings and he will help us overcome the natural man/woman.

·         Everything we do requires faith.  Faith in Jesus Christ enables us to return to God’s presence; there is no other name under heaven that can save us.  Use your talents; serve with Faith; Faith without works is dead.

·         We are the true Church of Jesus Christ. Knowing the truth we have a responsibility to share.  Jesus told us what the Church was to be called (3 Nephi 27:1-10).  Not only the Church has Jesus’ name, but we each must take His name upon us.

26 Aug - 1 Sep 2013 Pie,PDayWalk,Elder Cyrier,TestimonyMtg

Monday of this week marked our 1^st month from when we left the United States.  I made an apple pie for FHE dessert – we invited the Hobsons over for FHE.  I had to use margarine instead of shortening for the pie crust, so the crust was more elastic and firm rather than flakey, but it was still very delicious as it was made with Granny Smith apples!

Monday is “P” day and our goal was to get close enough to the water to see the waves breaking on the edge of the sea wall.  We were gone about 4 hours and walked about 3 miles.  (I originally wanted to find the sand and beach to walk along, but Dad said we would have had to have walked probably another 3 miles or so).  We saw some very interesting things on our walk.  When we went by one of the schools, it was recess, we supposed, and the children were by the fence buying little wrapped candy treats from street vendors through the fence.  We turned down “Avenida Guerra Popular” and threaded our way through street vendors selling everything from apples and pineapples to shoes and electric converters.

We walked quite a ways and then were surprised to see this huge statue by the city’s old train station, “Estação dos caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (1908-1910).” 

 

The statue is in memory of those of died in WW I. This woman warrior armed with a shield and a gládio (also known as “glaive” an ancient European weapon composed of a blade on a shaft) defended her people by killing the serpent.  Words around the statue were:  Evala; Mecala; Forca (force) Quiomba; Genio (genius)  The statue is part of the “praca” (park) of the “trabalhadores” (workers). 

The next historical place we found was the Mozambique Fort restored in 1955 from the 1800’s.  This was on the sign:  “Fortaleza (1955) Nossa senhora de Conceicão Reconstruida no espaço da Velha Fortaleza.” 

They didn’t have a tour, but there were lots of historical maps, anchors, cannons and other things to look at.  Here are some of the iron reliefs which depicted battles in Gaza, which was an earlier name for part of Mozambique.

Representação da Prisão de Naungunhar Imperador de Gaza; Sculptor, Leopol de Almeida:

Naungunhar (1850-1906) was the tribal king and vassal of the Portuguese empire who rebelled and was defeated by Joaquim Mouzinho de Albuquerque and lived the rest of his life in exile.  He was the last ruler of Gaza.

Representação das Campanhas Miitares de Ocupação do Território; Sculptor, Leopoldo de Almeida:

Joaquim Mousinho de Albuquerque Comandante de Cavalria (with Richard); Sculptor, Semôes de Almeiea:

Representação de Militares das Campanhas de Ocupação:

This wooden casket, made by Paulo Como, holds the urn with the remains of Ngungunyane (1845-1906) King of Gaza from 1884-1895.   He was a hero of the resistance of Portuguese colonization.  He was exiled and died in Africa.

These hedges are Bougainvillea.  We have seen them in red, orange, purple and white.  The blue flowers are Plumbago.

We finally made it to the water. 

This is a ferry that goes to Catembe Island.

Part of the plan for our walk was to go to the Kentucky Fried Chicken down near the water on “Avenida 25 de Setembro.”  Well, we found the place and were going in, but were told that it was closed because they didn’t have any power!  That was at noon – so we walked home and had leftover goulash at 1 p.m.!  On the way home we saw this interesting panel on one of the roadsides:

Sunrise in Maputo:

We are busy with our assignments at the Mission Office; we have also been entering many convert baptism records on the church’s system.  I love the weekly Staff Meeting.  Even if the President is not in town, he still “attends” via “GoToMeeting” software.  There is much to coordinate every week.

On Tuesday evening we went to the English class which the sister missionaries are teaching at the Maputo church building.  Many young people and some adults were there and it was interesting to observe that they had the same feelings of feelings of reticence about trying to say English words as I have in trying to pronounce Portuguese words.  In the practice time, Richard and I spoke with João, 17 years old.  I would ask him things in Portuguese and he would answer in English.  It was fun helping each other. 

In the evenings I have been working with Zoe on the Etienne LUSSIER & Victoire RENAUD family.  She is researching on FamilySearch and I am researching on Ancestry.com.  This family started out with 5 known children.  We are now up to 12!  It’s fun to work together to gather information on this 3^rd great grand aunt & uncle.

It is springtime here and I like to gather blossoms which have fallen from the trees and bushes and then press them.  We went to a store named “Game” later in the week and they had a little nursery outside with lots of indoor and outdoor flowers and bushes.  It is the only place I have seen plants for sale.  I picked out this pink verbena plant and these deep purple and yellow mini petunias to put in one of our balcony windows.  I sure miss my garden!!! 

INSECT UPDATE:  ants, 2 yellow bumble bees flying in tandem, 1 black bumble bee, a cabbage butterfly, and dragon flies both large and small.

Sunday was the first fast and testimony meeting that we attended in the Maputo branches.  Elder Cyrier, one of the AP’s, was among the many testimonies borne today; it was his last testimony meeting as he is leaving to go home in about 3 weeks.  He loves this country, especially the people.  He has taught many families the gospel, and he is like a son to many parents in this and other branches. We have been riding with him and his companion Elder Tanner to the Mission Office and we have heard Elder Cyrier say many times, “Every day I fall in love with this country!” as he looks at a magnificent sunset or waves breaking on the seashore. 

In Primary today, I only understood a little of what was said, but I am learning the children’s songs in Portuguese and I love singing them with the children.  One of the parts of their meeting I did understand was their testimonies.  Most of them speak slower and the words they are using are familiar to me.  We attended both branches again today.  In the first sacrament meeting I felt the spirit and wanted to bear my testimony, but multiple people came up at a time and the meeting ended before I made my way to join them.  I was determined to go up during the next meeting.  I noticed that when people wanted to go up to the microphone they went and sat on the first row of the congregation, so when one sister went up I made my move and then I was committed!  My heart was pounding so much!  “Boa tarde!  Eu não entendo todas as palavras em Portuguese, mas eu sento o Espirito Santo.  Eu tenho o testemunho A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias.  Sei que o Livro de Mormon é a palavra de Deus.  Sei que o plano do salvation é muita especialmente.  Eu sei que Jesus Cristo é meu Salvador.  Sei que as familias ser eterna.  Eu assisto Primaria.  Eu amo as criancas.  Eu tenho netas e netos em Estados Unidos.  Eu amo minha netas e netos.  Eu sou grata esta aqui em Mozambique.  Eu quero de entender mais Portuguese. Este é minha testemunho em nome de Jesus Cristo.  Amem.”  I did it!  I have a strong testimony.  No language barrier is going to stop me from sharing it!

19 - 25 Aug 2013 Home&Office,Routines,JardimTunduru

Monday we continued compiling a spreadsheet about the 23 apartments where the 88 missionaries live.  Since it was “P” day, I was able to talk to almost every one of the companionship's in the morning. We had also planned to train on the Church’s IMOS system, but the training site was down. 

In the afternoon we walked to a nearby fabric store to get fabric for the window in our bedroom.  The 60” wide bolts of fabric, of all types and colors and weights, were wound on long cardboard rolls stacked on tables and along the walls.  The prices displayed were for one meter (about a yard) of fabric.  There were also many “capulanas” for sale; they were hung on lines from the ceiling.  There were lots of “helpers” in the shop, so whenever I stopped to look at something, they were right there wanting to know if I wanted to have them take the roll to the measuring table. I finally found the color of blue fabric I wanted.  I really don’t know what kind of fabric it is – if Lyn or Emily were here either one could tell you in an instant!   The helper put the roll on the measuring table and the person there rolled out the fabric and found there was 2.4 meters left on the roll.   We said we’d take the whole piece, although I only needed 2 meters.  It was 40 MT/meter, so the total was 96 MT, less than $3.00.  When we got home, I draped the fabric over the suspension rod in our bedroom and presto, we now have some color coordination in the bedroom!

Tuesday through Friday we were in the Mission Office during the day.  Here are some pictures of our office which is on the 2^nd floor around the corner from the Mission President’s Office. 

Richard has a brand new computer and we found out this week that it has Windows 8 on it, so it has been a challenge to find the Desktop – but once he’s there, everything seems to work normally.  We don’t have Microsoft Office yet, so all of our work, except for IMOS training, is done on my laptop which I take back and forth every day. 

I turned my desk so I can look out the window into the trees and every once in a while this week we have seen a gorgeous bird, with a slender black beak and black wings and a green iridescent head, eating seeds on old tree blossoms.  It is some kind of a sunbird; we’ll try to get another look and perhaps even take a picture so we can make a better identification.

We bring our lunch with us to the Mission Office and eat it outside in the garden whenever the weather allows.  One day I saw three black white-striped lizards; they might be the common flat lizard (Platysaurus intermedius), a species of lizard in the Cordylidae family.  

The soil here is apparently very fertile.  One afternoon we watched the gardener prepare long shoots of a noded plant into equal portions, angle a hole into the soil with his trowel, and put the sprigs in the hole and cover them up.   He explained that he had put most of the grass in using this method.   

We continue to see beautiful orange-sun sunsets and one evening, when we were going home quite late, we saw a huge full moon whose light shone over the dark water.  One late evening, on the way home, the water was very turbulent; along the beach there were fairly large waves.  Little fishing boats anchored off-shore were really being jostled by the waves; in some places, the white spray rose up over the wall and splashed onto the road.  There are some beautiful tile pictures along the road next to the water and Richard took a short movie of them glittering in the lights of the passing cars. 

Another thing we’ve learned how to do is to input the convert baptisms into the Church system.  Elders who live close, give the hand-written paper baptism records to the AP’s for inputting and filing.  Most of the Elders live far away, so they go to an Internet café and send a digital copy to the AP’s who print out a copy for inputting and filing.  Eventually, at Zone and District conferences, the original paper copy replaces the digital copy.  Some of the copies of the digital records are blurry; it reminds me of trying to decipher an online parish record.  Baptism records are important documents and we feel thankful to be able to help input this important information.

We found out that a letter mailed from Mozambique through their postal system costs about $3 and it may take 2-4 weeks before it is delivered in the United States.  So, we will continue to send email birthday greetings to you throughout our mission; we haven’t found any African greeting cards here anyway.  We might try designing our own using Word Publisher – and you can print them out there!

I have so wanted to see some interesting bugs to report to the grandchildren.  My desire came out in a dream I had the other night of an elongated black beetle.  I stepped on it ever so lightly to stop it so I could collect it and describe it better - and then I woke up!  We have seen flies, of course, a couple of small spiders, and a couple of mosquitoes - we are glad we're not seeing many of those because they are the carriers of Malaria :(   We don't go out after dark as that is when mosquitoes are out!

On Saturday we went grocery shopping and furniture shopping with the Hobsons.  There is a very modern furniture store not far from our apartment and we ordered a cabinet to put in the bathroom.  It will be delivered some time in September.

Whenever we're out we see people selling things from little booths by the side of the road or on the sidewalks.   Here are some examples. 

The colorful bottles on the long boards are bottles of nail polish; you can get your fingernails and toenails done right on the street! 

I love this one of a cute little girl with her purse!

This group of craftsmen have a regular spot at one of the intersections.

We are very thankful for the elevator!  Then there is the washing routine for fruits and vegetables; they must be washed in a bleach solution for 30 seconds, then rinsed and dried.

 

Our regular Sunday schedule is to attend 5 hours of Church.  We go to all of the meetings for the Maputo 2 branch (8-11), and then stay for the last 2 hours of the Maputo 1 branch (10-1 p.m.).   I go to Primary and Dad goes to Priesthood and Sunday School.  In Primary, they teach everyone together in one big group instead of separating for classes.  They are teaching from the Primary 3 manual.  Are any of you grandchildren on the “Forgiving One Another” “The Lord Helps Missionaries” or “I Can Be a Missionary”?  In singing time, I bet most of you grandchildren are practicing for your Sacrament Meeting program.  That is what the children in these two branches are doing.  I am anxious to print out the music and Portuguese words to the songs "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" ("Se ao Meu Lado Estivesse Salvador") and "If I Listen With my Heart" ("Se Eu Escutar come o Coracão").  I want to learn the children’s names, but when I ask their name, I don't understand what they say. I have to have them write their name down and some of the littlest ones don't know how to write their name yet!  The 1^st counselor in the Maputo 2 branch is going to get me a list next week.

In sacrament meetings this week: A young single adult convert told how the gospel came into her life at a time when she needed it and her life was changed.  A young man told how his testimony grew as he saw unmarried couples being married and then all dressed in white with their children to be baptized.  The high councilor reminded us that though times change, the gospel remains the same.  A sister spoke of the importance of serving our neighbor.  Sister Kretly spoke of how we can endure our trial by putting faith in a loving God.  President Krety spoke of welcoming new members and investigators into the church where we support each other.  He encouraged parents to bring all children to church even though it takes patience.  We are helping the children to set patterns for their lives; step by step children learn  the gospel, grow to be strong youth who become missionaries, marry and have children of their own and the cycle continues.  Come to church and find peace and recharge your batteries.  God knows our hearts. 

On Sunday afternoon we went on a long walk.  We ended up at Jardim Tunduru Botanical Gardens which were "designed by the renowned English gardener, Thomas Honney, in 1885.  

The design of the garden was based on the gardens of the Sultan of Turkey and the King of Greece. Entering the park, a visitor will find a statue of Samora Machel, the first president of Mozambique. The gardens are filled with ferns, cycads and other exotic species of plants."  The gardens are exquisitely laid out, but are overgrown. Think Central Park but in Maputo. Here are some historical and some present pictures of the garden.

While we were in the park we heard this chattering sound in the trees.  I thought it was birds, but I couldn't see them.  Then we went to another part of the park and the chattering was louder.  I saw some bird-like things flying in the tall trees and then landing to join a big clump in the branches.  Then I saw one of them and it was hanging!  Yep, it was bats!  These pictures show the clumps in the trees, but we didn't get a picture of them flying.  Their wing spans were about 15" or more.  The pictures aren't very good as it was in the late afternoon and the park was pretty dark because it was overcast. 

We didn't stay around too long after that and made our way home to the apartment.