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Thursday, July 29, 2010

FINALLY MOZAMBIQUE!!!

Hi Mom and everybody,

We have some time to e-mail here. We are all at the mission home. My first area I am going to is called Mogoanine. It is this town that is right outside of Maputo. They say it is a really strong branch. They have 42 ward missionaries there. I am heading out there tonight. I am excited. I can't wait wait to go. Tommorow morning we have to do stuff at the embassy to make sure we can stay here and everything like that.

My trainers name is Elder Call. The flights were not fun at all. They took forever to go on too. They just wouldn't end.

I guess my district has a baptism this Saturday. It will be my first Saturday in Africa and I am already going to go to a baptism. That's awesome.

So you can send dearelder.com letters to Mozambique. If you can, send them please! I miss everyone and would really like to hear from them.

So Mom I had to create a email account here. Ldsmail does not work here. iMy new email address is jacob.sirrine.moz@gmail.com. So on monday, which is my new P-Day, send it to there please.

The views here are awesome! Mozambique is such an awesome place!

Sorry for the short email. I promise I will have a long one on Monday.

Hope all is well at home. I love you all!

-Elder Sirrine

Week 9 - Final P-day in the MTC

Hi Everybody

So when I fly to LA I will be on Delta. but going to London and to South Africa i will be on British Airways. Then from South Africa I will be on South African Airlines. I get to LA at like 5:44 washington time so I think I wll call like 6:15 6:30 ish. Just so you know.

Well so far today I have been just packing really> Getting excited for my long trip to Mozambique. I also just got my haircut too. Tommorow in class we are going to have a "culture" day with our teacher who went to Mozambique. He is going to show us pictures and talk about Mozambique. He is going to show us a video of him and his companions hunting a rat in his apartment. He said that will happen...a lot.

The language is coming along fine. This week we have been reviewing everything we have done. i realized when I speak it I use all those things without thinking about it.

And thanks for the new shoes mom. Now i have a total of 4 pairs of shoes. The ones where the insole was all busted up I got new insoles from the library here and put them in there. But the 2 shoes I already had are already getting worn down. I will use one pair of hush puppies and one of the old ones. when the old one gets completely done, I will switch both pairs of shoes and do the same thing. Then I will just wear the hush puppies.

I sent home a package with stuff I do not really need. I mailed it this morning so it will probally get home like Wednesday or Thursday ish. Please be prepared for that.

Yesterday in the TRC, thats where we teach people, someone who went to Mozambique who is really skinny said he has gained 22 pounds since being home. He has been home like 9 months. And he is still a stick. So I think I will most definately be losing weight in Africa.

And did you send those memory cards? if not no big deal.

Other than that this week has been the same. This time next week I will be teaching people and bringing them on the right path to exaltion and closer unto Christ. Wish me luck!!!!

EMAIL OR WRITE ME POR FAVOR!!!!

Com amo,
-Elder Sirrine

Week 8 - FLIGHT PLANS!

Hi Mom and everybody!

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!!! FFFFFFLLLLLIIIIGGGGGHHHHHHHTTTTTTTT PPPPPPPPLLLLLLAAAAAANNNNNNNSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright, I leave the MTC July 26th,or a week from monday. My flights are from Salt Lake to LA. I leave Salt Lake at 4:51 Utah time, but I get to LA at 5:44. So that’s a two hour flight. Then I am there for about three and a half hours. So mom expect a call sometime during then. Then I leave LA at 9:20 LA time and go non-stop to London Heathrow. Packing some sleeping pills for that flight. I land there at 3:30 there time. So I don’t know the time difference so mom can you tell me. I will probably will call you there too. and thats Tuesday the 27th I get there. than I leave London For Johannesburg at 6:15 London time. And I get to South Africa at 605 South African time. I am there until 9:45 than take off to Maputo and on from there. So expect some calls mom.

Besides the memory card can you send some pictures of like when Logan was there and if you have any of Bella too? if you dont have them than its no big deal. Have you gotten my line of authority and if you have can you send that and the memory card I sent home too.

When your in Arizona can you have like Grandma and some other relatives write on dear elder. i would really love that.

And don’t feel too bad about not writing. I know your busy so its all good. In like a week im going too be sending home a Mozambique shirt I ordered from the bookstore with writing from people who are in my district on it. and I got like presidential coins from the vending machines here and I am going to send them home so maybe dad can get a book for them to hold them. Does Michelle still need new scriptures?. I can get them here for like 40 bucks. so if she does I can get them.

We taught the plan of salvation this week all in Portuguese. It went mais o menos. It was our first time teaching it so it was kinda expected. The pounds just keep on adding it seems here. I have probably gained a total of like eight pounds here. It is ridiculous. I play softball for gym most of the time and it reminds me of when I played in little league.

If people send me letters this week, like handwritten ones they should probally write in the mission adress not the MTC one unless it’s like early this week. So with all that stuff your going to send me you probally send it like Monday or Tuesday.

Other than that, life in the CTM, I mean MTC,(thinking in portuguese) is all the same. Eating, studying, and sleeping. thats been my life for almost eight weeks.

We all still get along great here too. I am learning patience.

I love you all,

Tchao,

-Elder Sirrine

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Week 7 - Congrats Jenny and Justin

Ola Mae e Todos pessoas,

How is everybody doing? Hope all is going well. Congrats Jenny and Justin. Whose next to get married?

So today my district helped clean the temple. It was so cool. All I did was sit around because I was security. I actually had my own badge and everything. It was pretty LEGIT. All the rooms are getting new lamps. The sealing rooms are huge!!!! It’s all crystal and it is really cool.

Hey mom, have you sent that package with my shoes in it? if not, can you send pictures of when Logan was at our house and of the fourth of July? I really want some. And if you send me that 4GB memory can you make sure you send my other one too?. The one I have in my camera now is 2GB. So if you sent it it would be awesome.

Go HOLLAND!!!! Make sure you write DearElder like immediately after the game so I know about it. I am wearing my Holland soccer jersey right. I gotta represent.

We taught a lesson in all portuguese on Thursday. It went really good. The guy was in the army and went to Iraq with someone from Fort Hood. We talked about it, ALL in portuguese. It was awesome. That was probally one of the best things this week. We started only talking in the language only in class this week. It is hard but it is coming along.

In about a week I should get my flight plans for when I go to Africa. I am so excited to go. I can’t wait. Our teacher who went to Mozambique said his first night in Mozambique he heard gunfire... creepy right? But he also said that the apartments aren't even really bad. They have plumbing, electricity, and a fridge. and thats a lot more than most people have. So I am not too worried about it. Our teacher said we will probably fly to England. And we will have like a six hour layover there. That is kind of what he did.

Time here is flying by here so fast. It is crazy! I have been here six and a half weeks already!

This week we got 8 new people going to Mozambique. 8 more!! Africa is growing so much. 17 days left.

Someone friom the Victor Falls Ward came in on Wednesday. His name is Scott Milburn. He is going to Guatemala. I see Allen Swanson everyday. It is pretty cool.

Other than that nothing has really happened. Just really eating and studying.

I love you guys. and congrats Jenny!!

-Elder Sirrine

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Week 6 - Go Holland!!

GO HOLLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope Germany wins too so they could play each other. Last Friday we had a devotional Eight of the twelve apostles were here. Dallin H.. Oaks spoke to us. He is really awesome and it was really cool. This past Thursday me and my conmpanion taught our first lesson in Portuguese. It went alright. We are still not very good at the language but it will come too us. The marines in my distict are here because they recieved like temporary relief from the Marines or something. One is from San Deigo, the second is from Las Vegas, and the third is from Atlanta. We have someone who is from Kennewick Washington, South Carolina, Indiana, Mexico City, and from Tucson. All the rest are from Utah. On Wednesday there are more people coming to the MTC headed for Mozambique but I don’t know how. For our travel plans I think we get them in like a week and a half or two weeks or so. I leave for Africa three weeks from Monday. Everything is really is the same here in the MTC. It does not change a lot. Gym in morning, then breakfast, class, lunch, class, jantar, I mean dinner, then study. That is really what I have been up too. In my district there are three marines, an MMA fighter and two people whose dads were in the military in Germany Did either you or dad know people with the last name of Shnobrich? They lived in Germany the same time as us. I don’t know if Matthew got my letter I sent to him, but i need a new English Preach My Gospel. Mine is ruined..sorry! I also need a new language book. You know that little potuguese book you got me when I went through the temple? They don’t sell them here.. and if you did get it, I would need a purple one. I is for continental Portuguese and the one you bought, the green one, is for Brazilian Portuguese. Sorry but I can’t use it. If you can’t get them , maybe you can tell Matthew about it. Other than that, I really don’t need anything, unless there is something you want to send me ! So a little more about my district…ummm…the one elder from Mexico City cannot go with us to Mozambique because he was not able to get his visa. He is being assigned to Boston instead ( I am a little jealous because I would love to go to Boston). Our teacher who went to Mozambique on his mission said we will fly for a total of like 32 hours total. He said we will most likely fly to LA, then on to London. Then to Johannesburg and Maputo from there. It sound like a big adventure and I am really excited to go. We all get along really really good in our district. On Sunday I am going to made the senior companion so that is really cool! Other than that, nothing has happened. I love you all and look forward to those letters in the next couple of days. GO GO HOLLAND!!!!!! And Germany.

Tchao
Elder Sirrine

Week 5 - Learning Lots!

Hi mom and family,

This week is a pretty big week at the MTC. It is the mission president seminar so all the apostles and the first presidency are here. I have not seen any of them but tonight is a special devotional. Several of them will speak but all of them will be on the stand.. it is going to be pretty awesome. I will have more details about it next week. This week has been pretty good. Last Saturday we played “Simon says”.. all in Portuguese.. it was really fun! A person from our district has a book about the church that I thought was interesting I do not remember what it is called, but it has a lot of info about the church. I talks about when Joseph Smith showed Parley P. Pratt where he received the golden plates. He describes it as the Hill Cumorah opened up and they walked into a huge cavern. And there was a fire going and there was a table. On it was the Sword Of Laban and on it it said" this sword shall never be sheated again until the coming of the Lord. He also said that were writing on gold plates stacked three or four feet high. And the walls were made out of marble.. I do not know if any of that is true or not but it was pretty interesting to read and the book had a lot of information in it. I will find out the name of it so I can give it to you and you can check it out. get the name of it and give it to you.

This week we are also playing Risk.. It was our teachers idea.. For our "countries" he took our last name and found a word that stars with the first letter of our names. Like mine is Sirrine's Sub… get it? The temple is closed until July 25th so I will not be able to go through a session again. Today we got to tear out all of the carpeting in there. It was actually fun! Mom, did you email those letters, cause if you did I have not gotten them. It was kind of sad this week. I only got two letters since last Saturday so I am looking forward to getting some this week.. And is Michelle still doing that letter thing at church? For the world cup, GO HOLLAND, USA, AND SOUTH AFRICA I want to go for Uganda, but there playing the USA this week.. Did you take any pictures with Logan when you had him? If you did can you send me some? It sounds like fun going to Opas house to build a new fence.. i wish I could help!! Well that is really all for this week.. and the computers are acting are weird and stuff. So I will talk to you all next week. I love you all and miss you. Elder Sirrine
PS 31 days down, 31 more to go before I leave for Africa…YEAH BOY!!!