CRAZINESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am really in Africa!! There is so much to tell and you all have so many questions. I will try to answer and tell all but i am bound to forget somethings.
so first the travel. that was quite an adventure in itself! most everything was normal and routine travel through dallas and london. we got to joberg pretty late, liken 90 minutes late so we missed our connecting flight to moz. ya i thought we were gonna drive because on our itinerary we had no flight showing from joberg to moz, but luckily we checked to flight receipts in london and saw the church had indeed bought us tickets for a flight to moz! but we missed it anyways so i had to play Dad and run around sweet talking these south african women into helping us out. we had to call the church travel office but we couldnt get the payphone to work so i had to go buy a new calling card but that was through security so i had to persuade the secuirty to let me through without a boarding pass. they let me and i bought the card and we couldnt get through to the office and president kretly´s phone was out of service. so we had to get the airline counter to let us use their phone and finally we got through and got tickets for 2 hours later! got there in one piece and all our luggage made it!
First impressions... the Ap´s and 3 sisters picked us up. we went back to the mission home driving through maputo. we dropped our bags off, washed our hands (which we do a million times a day here) then went to dinner. we went to like the nicest restaurant missionaries eat at in moz called mundos. Got a huge american style bacon cheeseburger. figured that might be my last for a while so i went for it! then we went back and just went to bed at like 745 local time and didnt wake up till about 830~9 local time. we are 8 hours ahead here. then in the morning we went to a baptism the sisters had scheduled. it was osum 3 people were baptized! then lunch at another really good restaurant then naps until about 5. after that we went out to work. i went walking with elder hamrick. he is one of the Ap´s and super great. we taught 2 lessons and contacted some randoms in the road. the lessons are great!!! elder hamrick basically did all the talking and some translating for me. i understand close to nothing here hahaha. they understand me perfectly and i can say my thoughts or whatever and thats no problem, but actually conversing with others is basically non existent. our whole mission vision is to teach and baptize families. so every lesson is with a couple and for us to qualify talking to randoms people on the street as a contact they have to have a wife, be over 25, have faith in christ, and give us there phone number. no matter how poor, everyone has a phone! so anyways the first lesson we taught the law of chastity and they accepted to live it and committed to legalizing their marriage. most people here just live together and say they are married because they cant afford a marriage but part of living the gospel and law of chastity and preparing for baptism is getting legal documentation of marriage. so that is our main lesson with each investigator. the second lesson was a cute little family that already has a baptismal date. in the middle of the lesson the wife just whipped out her bare boob and started breast feeding!!! it took everything i had not to bust up laughing in the middle of the lesson! just writing this it is so hilarious. but everything here is crazy and osum and great and poor and dirty and beautiful and exactly what i thought and nothing like i thought and i love it!!!!!!!!!!
Yesterday we went to church and i got to greet everyone as they came in. that was so much fun! they are soooo nice and loving and especially when they knew it was my firstsunday here they were even that much nicer! some ladies were talking to me for a second and then started talking really fast and i told them in portugeuse that i didnt really speak much and couldnt understand them and the busted up laughing. elder poyfair laughed to and told me they werent speaking portuguese they were speaking dialect just to mess with me! we had 216 people attend church yesterday... thats amazing!!! they are ready for a stake to be formed here its just a matter of time. in the evening we went out walking again i went with elder lorenco. he is brazilian and osum. we went with a member named irmao rock. he is a recent convert and is 25 years old and loves going out with. he is soo crazy and funny! he never shuts up but its not like i understand 95% of what hes saying anyways. 90% of what understood him saying was he just kept saying i was big and strong and asked about sports i played... self esteem booster for sure haha! we taught 2 more lessons last night and again i was able to understand a little in the first but a good amount in the second. it really depends on who is speaking for me. some people i can really understand, others not one word. we probably walked close to 6 miles last night in 3.5~4 hours! we walk through the craziest places and alleys and everything. it is impossible to really explain this place but i have not felt scared once, expect when these to women grabbed my arm and their hands were wet that grossed me out so i pumped out the hand sanitizer haha. i still havent gotten a mosquito bite yet either!
other fun stuff... the area i will be going to in the next day or two is called chingasura its up in beira!!! its supposedly more jungley up there but really osum. my companion will be elder ipson or ipsen idk. heard a lot of good things about him! the mission home is really nice but found out the shower head shocks you pretty good if you touch it while showering hahahaha. also last night i locked myself in the bathroom for like 10 minutes because i could not get the key to turn all the way to unlock it! twas a blast. today we went and played gator ball with all the other 20 missionaries in this area. its like a mix between soccer and lacrosse so it was a blast! met a bunch of cool elders and sisters and got to see elder couch!!!!!! he is doing great and looks healthy still! welp i know i left something out that you wanted to know but hopefully i can get to it next week. mondays will be my p day from now on so if you want me to read your email on pday youll have to send the email by sunday night your time! I love you all and am so pumped to be here it is the best mission in the world and ive barely even seen it!!!!!!
Love,
Elder Hruby
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| The Mission Home in Maputo |
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| Joao the turtle (which means John) |
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| Just some P-Day turtle action...in the world's greatest t-shirt ;) |
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