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Friday, October 14, 2011

Week 72

HELLOOOOOO FAMILY!!!!!!!
Well things here in Mozambique are heating up. And I literally mean it. Ha-ha. The temperature just keeps climbing and climbing. This past week, almost everyday was over 100 degrees. And here in Munhava, we do lots of walking. We don’t teach a whole lot here. But that’s alright.
There are lots of inactive members in Munhava, and we try to help them out coming back to church. But lots of the time, people are not home and we go and find more members to help out.
So yesterday in sacrament meeting, there was a mom and like her two or three year old kid. The kid would grab his mom’s purse, and say “Vamos”, or “let’s go”. The mom would grab the purse back and make the kid sit down. And like 2 minutes later, he would do the same thing. It may seem pretty dumb, but while it was happening, it was so funny to see.
So last Monday, we had a 2 zone activity at the beach again. It was so fun. Elder Bonini made some killer steaks and they were so good. We had mashed potatoes and corn with them too. We even wrestled. I went in for a few rounds and did my fair share of wrestling. We have an Elder Petersen, one of our zone leaders, who was a state champion in wrestling in Utah. He wrestled too and of course he won his matches.
We just drew a big circle in the sand and the first person to touch outside of the circle lost. We had to be careful of the wrecked ship on the beach. After we did our shopping at Shoprite. For the trip home, we took a teca pela home. All it is is little hunk of metal on three wheels. And with the roads to the house, I really got scared.
Ha-ha. I can ride chapas, walk down the ghettos of an African city, or anything here in Mozambique, but a tcho pela I will never ride again.
I have started running here in Mozambique in the mornings. We live next to the beach so it is very humid here, even in the mornings.
Since I have like 7 and half months left, I need to start. Ha-ha so we invited the Bingham’s over this past week. They are going home this week. They are a couple who have been serving here. We made and ate tacos. Oh man were they good. We just sat, ate, and talked to them for awhile.
So last Friday we left our house at 8:30 in the morning, and we didn’t get home till 9:30 at night. We didn’t even go home for lunch. It was a very long day but well worth it. We did it because a member, Nicole, who speaks English, and is from Zimbabwe, is having problems. Her mom gets home at 8 at night from work. So we sit with them. And her mom is a very intelligent woman. We went over the plan of salvation a little bit. Then at church, she even came!!! The mom is reading the book of Mormon and Nicole told us that the stuff at home is already getting better.
I went on a division with the previously mentioned Elder Petersen last Saturday. He is so funny. We had a blast. I walked in his area of Beira 2. So it was good to get to know a little more of his area. The whole time we were just having a good time. It was a very fun division.

Yeah I do remember where a Lakeland hill is. I actually really wanted to move there until we found Bonney Lake. Is Bella just getting fat?
If she is, that’s not good. Ha-ha.

The Internet is bad today. I can’t send pictures. Sorry

Other than that, that’s about it. Have a good week everyone and I Love you all Elder Sirrine

Week 71

Another vacation? I wish I could go on a vacation. I have worked every day for over 16 months. But for sure, we will have to go to Reno. I love going to Nevada. My teeth are fine for now. We will see later.

Last pday was on Tuesday. So right after internet, I get a call from the zone leaders telling me to drop everything and that I have to go do my visa. So they pick me up and we go off to immigrations. The Boninis, a Brazilian couple, meet us there. There are a few more elders there. So we wait, and my time to do all my stuff comes up. Since I did my visa in Maputo, and I didn’t get some card thingy for my visa, I had to wait for the women in charge to come. So we wait for like an hour. We then get info, she wasn’t working that day. So we wasted like 3 hours of my pday there for nothing. I ended up going on Thursday and getting everything done and right. That same P/day I went back out to Manga for training from a guy from South Africa. He told us on how we need to get seminary and institute going here.

We were talking to a girl about her school. I knew the schools were bad here, but she told me how bad they really were. The teachers don’t teach really good things here. They aren’t even provided food here. The school system is so bad, that they can’t even offer their kids food at the school. They have places on the side of the road for food, but they don’t offer a whole lot for them.

So we were on a chapa this week and we were sitting on the very back row of four rows. This heavier set woman gets on the chap and sits on the row in front of us. This guy sitting next to her turns around and says in English “this lady is really fat". At first I couldn’t believe he said that in English. The people here are very blunt to people, but I was still a little surprised.

So every Friday, we leave the house at 8 in the morning and don’t get back till like 6 or 7 at night. We are out for a very long time on Fridays. And since we don’t eat lunch at home then, we eat out. This past Friday, my lunch consisted of a bag of chips, and a whole liter of peach juice. Hint of warning, NEVER DO THAT FOR A LUNCH. It may sound good at the time, but don’t do it. You will be sick all day from it. I have learned my lesson about it.

Other than that, that’s about it. I love you all and have a good week.

Elder Sirrine

Week 70

Yeah I am already here In Munhava. I live with 5 other elders. 4 work in Munhava, and the other 2 work in the branch of Beira 1. The thing is from our house we walk 20 minutes to go catch a chapa, and they take another 30 minute chapa ride to our area. So we take almost an hour to go to our area and then do the same thing back. It’s crazy. We take almost 2 hours every day to go and get back from our area. The area here is still confusing. There are so many twist and turns that I get lost in like 5 minutes. We do a lot of reacts here, or help baptized members get back to church. We only have like 3 real investigators.
But it’s better to help members come back to church than have an investigator...

But I have a funny story before I left Manga. So we are going to a member’s house and we are on the bikes on a little trail. There is a chicken and her chicks. They scatter and one chick runs in front of my tire. All of a sudden I feel something kind of heavy hit my foot. I look back and it the chicken I thought she was running away and hit me. Elder Johnson told me the chicken flew and ATTACKED me!! I was attacked by a chicken!!!

To get to an investigators house here in Munhava, we walk 30 minutes to get to an investigator. We almost walk into downtown Beira. It’s crazy.

So our front door has a glass window. And it broke because of the wind. So we had someone fix it. Never work with a mozambiquan and money. It’s the biggest hassle in the world. And because we are white, they think they can rob us.

The reason why I am writing on Tuesday is because on Sunday, the worst holiday in the world happened. It was when the mozambiquan started their fight for independence against Portugal. Yeah, Portugal treated mozambiquan bad, but Mozambique was a really nice country back then.
But now not so much.

That’s about it. Have a good week everyone. I love you all.
Elder Sirrine

Week 69

Transfers!!!!!!!!!!!! So I am being transferred. I am going to Munhava, which is still Biera, with Elder Sessions. We were in the MTC together. It should be an adventure

So we were on the main road in Manga, going to Vascos, the wood guy.
And we turn to a side road. We see a mission couples truck stopped. As we get there, Sister Bingham gets out of the passenger door. We go to shake her hand and I see this 20 something year old women in the backseat. She waves to us and I give thumbs up. A little farther on the road, they stop again and get out. Theirs kids, and they do something and she screams out "Oh my gosh", which made me happy to hear. Once at Vascos, Elder Bingham is translating. He has her pick up a little log of Ebony wood and she yells "Holy cow!” i just loved hearing an amreican accent, not a British.

We have an investigator, Candida, who told us a story. Our church is the first church she has gone too, which is very rare in Mozambique.
She said before coming to church, She was always mad at people things at home were horrible. But since going to church, everything has gotten better. Now the guy she lives with, when he gets home at night, picks up the book of Mormon, calls the family over, and they read together as a family. I will miss them for sure.

Julia an investigator gave us her English homework to have us help her with it. We look at it, and it was RIDICULOUS!!!!!The teacher just copied and pasted it. There were articles and questions about stuff she didn’t have. It was crazy.

We have an investigator named Luisa. She has one special quality. She loves her kid. She plays with her, and she doesn’t beat her child which is rare here in Mozambique. That’s one reason why we still sit with her, is because she is a rare mozambiquan adult who loves and doesn’t beat her child, which I love.

We had to catch a chapa this week. When we got on, we couldn’t see the cobarador, or the guy who collects the money. We get off, and we had to pay the driver. Now he doesn’t have to pay anyone for working for him.

Have a good week, wish the Walsh's good luck on the business, and please update the blog. I love you all Elder Sirrine

Week 68

Hey everybody, Things are going great here in Mozambique.So I told you all about Nacha who was baptized a few weeks ago. Well, she has a calling now, already. She teaches the teenage girls. She is 15 and she teaches 16 to 18 years old. It’s amazing how a little girl like her is already teaching girls older than her. She is one of my favorite people here. I love her.We also marked another baptismal date with Laurinda. She is in her twenties. She has been in and out for awhile but she is doing great now. She will be baptized in October and I won’t be able to see her baptism which is sad.So last Monday, we didn’t leave the house. We did a deep house clean. Right outside the window of my room, I cleaned the dust off. There was like an inch of dust on it. I cleaned out the filters in our a\c, which were never cleaned before. And oh my gosh. They were worse. After cleaning them and putting them in, our room is FREEZING!!!!!! I never have been so cold here in Mozambique.At some member’s house, he was like “wait a minute I will be right back" so we keep talking to his wife. He comes out with the same exact shirt she is wearing, and says “The Elders always wear the same clothes and so will we." They are this old goofy mozambiquan couple. Ha-haSo there is tons of new callings in our branch. I’m excited for the people.We went to the church for a lesson. We got there early. So we ended up laying on the cement waiting. I fell asleep while waiting. Well, not asleep, daydreaming. It felt nice to lie on some cement. We have an investigator named Candida. We are at her house, and she tells us of her blessings she has received since sitting with us. Her boyfriend has a legit job and now they can finally work on getting marriedSo there is a kid, whenever we pass by him, he wants to fight us. He is like three. So I always get off my bike and we "wrestle". It’s so funny. He only goes up to my knee in height. He swings his arms and when I pick him up; he gets this big old scared face and laughs. It’s hilarious. I saw a turkey get chased by a teenager and it tried to fly away. It’s this huge male turkey. But with humans, it’s scared freightless. I played "goldfish" for the first time with some members today. It was the first time in years that I played. I felt like a little kid, ha-haWell that it, have a good week. I love you allElder Sirrine

Week 67

Another Week down in Mozambique. I have started my 16 month of my mission already. Can you believe that?So in our backyard, we have a bush right. So we go back there, and this chicken bolts out and starts freaking out and it crosses into other people’s yards. So were like "what the heck". We look out under the bush and we see 6 eggs. The next day a different chicken is in the bush. WE looked at the eggs yesterday and there were 16 eggs in total. The owner of the chickens came over yesterday to get them. He told us all of them are fertilized so we could not eat them.
So at an investigators house, Laurindas, her daughters tried carrying our backpacks. Our backpacks are really the same size as they are. They try carrying it and they can barely hold it. It was so funny to see. Ha-haSo something bad and good happened. So we bought some food on the side of the road. We go a little way off to eat it, by a member’s house. Were eating and the female member tells us to come over. So we go. She tells us she is super sick. And they have pretty much nothing which is the norm here in Mozambique. So we give her a blessing and say were going to return the next day. So we go there the next day. She is just covered in a Kapalana, which is a cheap sheet of fabric. Her husband, who is a member too, is freaking out. Malena, the women, is suffering. So we take her to the poor excuse of a hospital. It’s just full of people. But being white, we got bumped up to the front of everyone. She gets checked by the "doctor". And is given medicine. We go back on Saturday and someone is on their roof. It’s the owner. He is replacing their roof for free. And Malena is up and around smiling and acting how a person should. That was a miracle her recovery.So I went on a divisio. I got to go to Inhamizua. My first time walking there. It’s out in the woods. But it’s very beautiful. So one guy, Pinto, this really old guy, who is 68. His family members are all dead. He was supposed to go to South Africa to go to the Temple on a caravan from the district. But the district messed up. Instead of 48 spots they only got 27. So he got bumped from the list. But later on, Elder Crriea form Cape Verde, Who is also the branch president of Inhimizua, was doing everything he could to help him go. Nothing was working. But later on in the day he gets a call from the district presidency, saying Pinto is going to the temple and they are taking someone off the list. I think the only reason he is still living is to go and get sealed to his family in the temple.This week I have seen so many blessings. May all of your weeks be filled with them too. I love you all

Elder Sirrine

Sorry no pictures, I don’t have my card reader

Week 66

I probably need 36 size pants just to be safe. Where did you send the package to? The pants could just be normal church. Just a few pairs since I have 9 months left. Thanks mom.So this week has been a good week. One major thing happened this week. We got stormed by major rats this week and my hand got bit. I have this huge gash in my hand and I spent 2 days in the hospital. And now I have a got a bandage over my finger and can’t bend it......just kidding! The hospital and rats never really happened, but my hand is covered in a bandage. Another elder was cutting a carrot for lunch and it fell. I intensively went to grab it and so did he... with a knife in his hand. And my ring finger on my left hand got slashed. We don’t trust mozambiquan hospitals so we cleaned it up ourselves. Now it’s all bandaged up and it’s healing pretty well. I'm taking off the bandages on Tuesday. But don’t worry about me, I’m fine.So we had our baptism last Saturday with Nacha. The font wasn’t filling up, but really slow. We ended up taking a hose from outside and using it to help feel the font up. One of the only real fonts in Mozambique.... wasn’t filling up. That’s how bad some of the better buildings are. Other than that, the baptism went great. I was able to conform her on Sunday. After, she was smiling ear to ear. It was one of the best feeling moments of my mission.I saw part of an American football game, well a part. It was the Ravens vs. the Redskins. The skins are looking good.We played a Mozambiquan game where you throw back and forth a little ball, and try and hit the person in the middle. It’s kind of like monkey in the middle mozambiquan style. It was actually pretty fun. Ha-haWe got to hold legit hippo teeth in our hands. There is a guy who does stuff out of hippo teeth and he had 4 HUGE teeth in his hands. I dint get a picture but I never thought I would ever hold a hippo tooth in my hand. But I did. Score!!!I was also able to buy legit soft serve ice cream for the first time in my mission. It was so good. I really have not had a lot of ice cream on the mission so it was really good to get some in the stomach. Ha-ha.There has been lots of drunks here lately I don’t know why. We love messing with them. Last night one was so drunk, he couldn’t even respond to us. Usually they can respond alright, but this guy was gone. It was so funny. Ha-haThats’ about it. I love you all and have a good week.Elder Sirrine