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Monday, June 20, 2011

Week 57












Hello family,
Everything is going good here in Mozambique.




So something weird happened last week. So I took a nap on pday. Once I woke up, I got up. I immediately fell down and couldn’t get back up. I had ultimate vertigo. I was just sitting there for about 5 minutes before getting up. It was really strange.
Last week, we also played basketball with a few other districts in the zone. It was really fun. We played at this old school that looked like independence hall. The owner was this old drunk Portuguese woman. She was hilarious. The basketball court was crap though. There were potholes in the court; the rims were bent and no nets. But besides that, it was really fun. We all had fun.
This week, I also did something for the first time on my mission. I had to knock a door. Yep, over a year on the mission, and I finally hit a door. When I did it, it was really weird. I had no idea what to say. But once you get talking, and have help from the Lord, it gets really easy. The guys name is Orlando, and he is a cop here in Manga. He is a pretty intelligent guy for being a Mozambiquan. We will see how he progresses and ill keep you up to date.
We have a newly baptized member here in Manga that looks just like Will Smith when he did “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”. But the member is a lot darker. The members name is Marques Vaz Marques. The thing is here in Mozambique, The parents always give their names and the grandparents name to their Children to keep their name going.
Last week, one of the Elders, Elder Mckell, made a jumboliah shrimp soup. It was heavenly. Since we are so close to the ocean, all the shrimp and fish are so fresh and that makes them really good.
There is a member whose life wasn’t doing well. He wanted to leave the city and just leave everything. But we talked to him last week to try and help him. He said her had been thinking and praying a lot. He told us he decided not to run away from his problems and now he is preparing to serve a mission. That’s really an amazing story to me.
We had an old investigator who I never saw at church, at church yesterday. We had a nice long talk with her during the week and I guess she changed her mind and perspective on everything.
I persuaded an investigator that mom was a chicken and dad was a human. I told her that Elder Christensen ate her. So I pretended to cry. She starts tearing up. Then we told her the truth. Her face was classic. I will never forget it.
We had a baptism on Saturday. David was baptized. I think I have already told you all about him.
We had the chance to have a little party at an investigators house. Her boyfriend was going back to sea to fish today, and he wanted to party with us. We had rice, beans, fish, and a mozambiquan dish called matapa. It’s a type of plant that they cut they leaves and boil them. I don’t like it but I wasn’t going to deny the food. It was fun.
I see lots of goats here. and tons of huge spiders and bats. Because of the war that was here, there are not tons of animals here. But the government is trying to bring back the animals. There are some reserves in this country.
I think the stuff I wrote in the email is fine. If you want to send anything else, please do

I love you all
Elder Sirrine

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Week 56

Thanks for the pictures. More would be nice! With pictures from me, we have had to go to another computer place for two weeks, and I can’t send pictures. So I will once we go to our normal place.
Sorry!!!!!

So this has been a good week. I saw this old woman wearing BANANA IN PAJAMA pants. I haven’t seen anything about that show in years. I remember loving it when I was younger and watching it every day. Ha-ha

I have had some more bike problems so that’s been costing me a pretty dime this past week. One time, my chain locked up and we were stuck.
But this random like 80 year old man walks up. He has this bag of tools with him. He fixes my bike. He was coming home from a funeral.
We sit with him and tells us his story. His family all died in a cart accident like a week before. All his kids were adults, they had their own kids. and his wife was there too. They got into a accident on the highway that killed all of them. 17 family members were killed. So we taught him about the plan of salvastion and it helped hiim alot. It was very sad but shows you that Heavenly Father send the right people to missionaries to teach. I think we helped him a little bit.

I ate tomato soup for the first time. I will never eat it again in my life. It was flipping discusting.

Yesterday the energy was gone all day. SO no one had it. At about 8 at night on the way home, it came back. You just hear all the kids screaming in joy that there is energy again. Thats how important it is here.

We taught a class at the church on how to help the teachers teach better. Mozambicans have to put in their opinion. They think they have too. They didn’t learn anything.

So this week, Elder Park, Who I live with for three transfers in Chimoio and living with again, taught me how to make pancakes. I will perfect them now and be the grand champion once I get home.

And mom, did you get that email about the package?

I love you all

Elder Sirrine

Week 55

Well I’m glad Michelle had some fun doing the Ballroom dance. I am glad she was able to find a hobby during high school. Once I get home, we will go to snoqualmie. Does Dad not work on Saturdays anymore? If he is still working at Swissport when I get home, maybe he can hook me up with a job.

So there is a family of three we are teaching. Their names are Ana, Nasha, and Isabel. Ana and Nasha are doing great. They’re coming to church, reading the Book of Mormon, and keeping all the commitments.
Isabel, on the other hand, sat with us a few times, came to church one time, and then entirely quit on us. She was avoiding us, not coming to church. A few weeks ago we were able to find her at home. We had a nice long talk with her. Than 2 Sundays ago she came to church. And she started sitting with us when we marked with her family. She is reading the book of Mormon, coming to church and everything. She said she thought about what we said. And she repented of her sins she committed, and wants to come closer to Christ and God. She said only through sitting with us and learning, will this be possible. That just shows how much the Gospel can change someone’s life.

If the gospel can change a stubborn people like the Mozambiauans, than the gospel can change anyone. For everyone at home, remember that. The gospel is here to help us, not to force us to do anything. Only through change can we truly become true Disciples of Christ. When we go to church, we need to go there with the mindset of “ok, how can I change from what I learn". We need to learn and just not hear. In all truth, we are like little children to god. Things enter in one ear, and leave the other. We have to learn with a purpose of changing ourselves. We shouldn’t go to church or read the scriptures without willing to change ourselves. We learned about something like this from the AP's in a training we had last week. This is just what I learned from them

We were at a member’s house last week, and at his neighbor’s house, there were three women. The one in the middle was getting her hair braided and her bushy armpits done. So just imagine the woman sitting down with a women behind her braiding the one women’s hair, and a women in front of her pulling her armpit hairs out. Elder Christensen and I couldn’t help but laugh.

The 2nd of April was Children’s day here in Mozambique. So all the Elementary schools had little parties. And one of our investigators has a little 6 year old kid. He saves all the food and drinks he got for us because we marked to sit with his mom that day. So we get there, and he tells us he wanted to party with us. So we had some cookies and some sodas there. The people here love the missionaries so they give us food. We had the little kid, Eddy, eat like all the cookies but we ate a couple.

I also got that chess set I told you about. I won’t send pictures because I want to surprise you when I get home.

Last week we went to Six mile. It’s this old abandoned Portuguese resort. There was a manmade lake that had old rafts, and little houses. The reason it was abandoned was because the road to it would cost too much to pave and nobody wanted to go out it. It probably is six miles from the road. Ha-ha.

I was busy this week so I will take pictures of the apartment this week.

Well that’s about it. I love you all

Elder Sirrine

Week 54

One year DONE!!!!!!! This time next year I will be at home. If all things go right, I will leave May 28th because that will be Monday because of the leap year, and I should be getting home on may 29th at night. So this time next year I will be at home. YEE-HAH!!!!!!!


We have one investigator marked for baptism. His name is David. He is 21. He reads the Book of Mormon. He actually understands it. The Book of Mormon is very hard for the people to understand. But with David, he teaches us what he read instead of us teaching him. He is one of the few really intelligent Mozambiauans I know. He will be a real help in Manga. He will be baptized June 18th.

Tell Michelle congrats on almost being done with school and seminary.

So last week we went to the Manga 2 chapel to with a film on President Monson. We were just wearing P-day clothes. And we were riding our bikes to the chapels. And my legs are pale WHITE!!!! I have never felt so pale in my life, just riding along by all the very dark Mozambiquans. Ha-ha.
We watched on the lord errands. Really good. You all should watch it sometime.

We were walking along this market, and we see these goat heads. They weren’t connected to the body. So we buy them and just boil them for about 5 hours and eat them. FYI, don’t eat goat head meat. Very bad!

I have had lots of stomach problems lately. Everyone in our house has stomach problem. Along with stomach problems, I have had lots of bike problems. Everyday I’m getting something fixed. The bikes here are from India. And aren’t good at all.

For my one year, we went to that Portuguese restaurant. I had ice cream too. Oh man it was so good!

At a member’s house, all of a sudden these turkeys got there. The male was huge. He puffed up at us. No wonder why they have so much good meat. Ha-ha

Our new Branch President, Chikala, is moving our branch forward. He has been giving people tons of new callings and getting the branch mission going. He is a returned missionary that served in Mozambique.
And he is hilarious.

The weather here is flipping HOT!!!!!!! The other day it was 119 degrees with 100 percent humidity. Than at night its pouring rain because we’re right next to the oceans. It’s flipping crazy ha-ha.

Have a good week everyone and love you all

Elder Sirrine

Week 53






So I hear you’re in Disneyland. What’s with all these vacations when I’m not home?

Things here in Mozambique are going good. We had one baptism last Saturday. His name is Inocencio. He was taught for almost a year. But on Saturday he was finally baptized. You could see the joy on his face when he was baptized. But there really are not a lot of other people getting close to baptism. The Mozambique people are very hard headed people and very hard to change there ways. So sometimes the work here gets really hard.

Last week, we went to the Grande hotel. It’s this hotel the Portuguese had when they were here. It was probably like from 50 to 100 years ago. It had very European architecture, and it used to be a really good building. But now it’s full of Mozambiquans and its so run down. The people don’t take care of the building and it is pretty disgusting. So it falling apart. I would have loved seeing it in its heyday.

I also killed a chicken this week at a member’s house this week. We were going to eat there. And here in Mozambique, they eat a lot of chickens. So I stepped on its feet and wings, grab its head, cut off some feathers, and cut its head off. Blood got everywhere. On my shoes, my arms, my shirt. And when people say chickens still move after their heads chopped off, it’s very true. But the food turned out really good. It was chicken and rice, with a type of gravy thing. It was really good.

I have had lots of stomach problem and the worst diarrhea of my mission this week. It’s been bad. I am trying to get better.

And remember mom, the chess set I told you about with the African animal pieces, that will be done next week.

I hit a year on this coming Thursday. I can’t believe how fast time has gone by. So I’m almost over the mountain and going to climb down

Well that’s it, I love you all

Elder Sirrine

Week 52





Hello Family,

Chicago? Wow, never been there before. With Aunt Karen, I am sure you will have a blast going there.

The weather here has been hot lately. But hopefully it starts cooling off here a little bit. I would love to have some rain!

Sounds like the family have been busy little bees.

So things have been going good here in Africa. Last P-day, we had a zone activity at the chapel. The chapel has a huge lawn there. So we took off our shoes and socks, and played ultimate Frisbee. My team SMASHED on the other. My feet were so sore because it’s the first time I have walked in barefoot in a year. Ha-ha. Funny right. Than we had some food from Cape Verde.It was corn, beans, and vegetables made into a soup. We all just sat around, ate, and talked. Than we played a soccer version of monkey in the middle. You make a circle of people, with someone in the middle, and you kick the soccer ball around. If the person in the middle somehow gets the ball, the person, who was defending it, goes in the middle. That just continues. It was so fun.

I had to fix my bike last week. The axle part in the back tire got JACKED up. But luckily it cost only like 60 meticals to fix. I was worried it would be more. Elder Christensen had the same problem. We were just riding and it happened. Luckily we were by the bike place to fix it.

So we have a new member that said he wants to serve a mission. The cool thing is, his brother is on a mission in South Africa, and his sister is waiting for her mission call to get back to Mozambique. So if he goes, there will be 3 members of his family on missions. That’s what Mozambique needs is more native missionaries.

Last week, I made fried chicken, rice, and potatoes. There was a missionary leaving to go home so I made it for him. It was really good. I realized out of the 7 transfers I have completed, 4 have had missionaries going home. The last three there has been one. So I have gotten really trunky for home. Ha-ha.

We had training on Saturday. President Spendlove is so smart. He taught us allot. We also had transfers. I am staying here in Manga with Elder Christensen. I am glad to be with him again.

In my district and in my house, I have done the most time on the mission. I am the second oldest missionary in the zone. That feels really good. I don’t feel like a new missionary anymore. Ha-ha. It’s a really good feeling.

While waiting for an investigator, this drunk guy came up too us. He was speaking in English. But the funny thing is we got to him to start dancing and singing in the road. It was one the funniest things I have seen on the mission

Well that’s about it, I love you all

Elder Sirrine

Week 51



It was really sweet to get to talk to you this weekend.

So this past week a few things have happened. For example, yesterday we were at an investigators house. And her Dad was walking around with no shirt, wearing like sheet or something. And he is this huge guy with a big old gut. He was rubbing his belly and stuff. Not a pretty sight but funny to see. Ha-ha

We were able to make lasagna last week. Oh man was it good. I felt like I was at home since it was so good. Ha-ha. But it won’t ever beat lasagna at home.

At another investigators house, we get there. And there is this guy that’s drunk trying to talk English with us. Then he starts singing to us. We are like, whatever, we won’t pay attention. Than about three quarters of the way through the lesson he comes back out, NUDE, and leaves. We don’t know what happened to him. Ha-ha.

We also had to clean the chapel last week. I cleaned the bathrooms. If you think you have seen a bathroom, just wait till you see a bathroom in Mozambique. It’s HORRIBLE!!!!! So disgusting.

When we are coming home every night, we get attacked by dogs. So the other night, before we get to the area where we get attacked. We pick up these stick. Then we go and they start coming. And we hop off our bikes and start attacking them with our sticks. They start running away with their tails between their legs. There were about 4 or 5 of them. We beat them all. It was actually pretty fun to do it. They never have attacked us again. Ha-ha

Well that’s about it. I love you all have a good week, Elder Sirrine