Thursday, October 9, 2014

Week 13: Maputo (but not for long)

Sorry for the delay this week! Elder Hruby is doing great!

Dear Everyone,

What a week! I would like to just say sorry for the lack of pictures.
I lost my usb plug and the Wi-Fi at this internet cafe can only be
bought in like bulk quantities. If I don’t get a new usb plug I will be
some Wi-Fi for this next transfer. Speaking of transfers I will be
heading up to Beria!!!! Actually I will be in the Manga Zone serving
in the Chingassura Branch. I am so stoked. My new companion will be
Elder Ipsen. He is American. So all good news here! Thanks for all the
work Mom!!

All of you sound like you really enjoyed General Conference! Sorry to
disappoint I cannot relate yet... we watch it in November when we get
the DVD from Salt Lake. But, I am super excited now haha.

This week was insanely busy. Normally we have 20-22 lessons a week.
This week we had 33! We went HAM (Hard As Moroni) this week haha. The
best part was that we had 16 of those lessons with members present. It
makes quite a bit of difference when they walk with us and teach
lessons with us, so this week they were very helpful.

Missionaries work really hard, but we always find ways to be lazy.
This week it was with boleas. Boleas are getting a free ride AKA
hitch-hiking. Our area is a good 30 minute walk from our house so we
always try to get a bolea there and back at night. We were very
successful with that this week. Boleas are my favorite:)

We kind of have an inside joke here. Everyone gets so confused when we
introduce ourselves and we all are called Elder. They always ask
"Porque todos voces sao elderes?" And every time Elder Khumalo and I
bust up laughing and then explain it to them. Sometimes we actually
mess with them and tell them we are all twins or something stupid like
that. Found out this week that Khumalo actually knows the whole Lion
King song in whatever language it is and he translated it for me!
Pretty sick. We were at a lesson this week with Arlindo and Anastancia
and they have a little 4 year old boy; while we were teaching he went
and took a bath and came back in his towel and fell asleep on his
mom´s lap. It reminded me of Ben just lounging around in his towel for
hours after showering haha! Good news Mom, I am getting halfway decent
at cooking meals. I made some bomb pasta this week and am getting a
little creative. haha be proud. Last pday was solid. sorry if the
email seemed rushed. We pay for internet here. So I only bought 1 hour
last week and was trying to get everything done in time before Gator
Ball. Gator Ball was a blast too. It was good to play with the other
elders. Barroso didn’t even play, he just sat there the whole time so I
didn’t have to teach him haha.

The weather has been really spastic this week. It was stupid hot for
like 2 days, then like a bit chilly the rest of the week. I am nervous
for Beria because I hear it gets super humid and hot up there. I
enjoyed the cool weather this week, though, because we walked so much.
I already destroyed my black shoes. the soles are ripping and falling
off already:) I´m a real missionary!

The investigators are doing great. Celso and Teresa are super excited
for their wedding and baptism this Saturday. She was mad at me that I
won’t be here for it though. Domingos and Christina are doing great in
their first week as members. They both walked with us this week to
lessons. The lesson Christina came to was osum. We have been having a
difficult time with Atenazio and Amelia making any progress on their
marriage documents so we straight up asked them if they even wanted to
be married and baptized any more. He immediately said yes, but she
wouldn’t talk, like always. And Christina tore into her! It was osum.
she said she was acting like a child and needed to talk and be an
adult. It was great because she can say all that stuff that we want to
but cant. By the end of the lesson Amelia was definitely remotivated.
Arlindo and Anastancia are doing solid as well. They are just working
on documents right now. I will miss that wedding/baptism too. Ernesto
and Aida are doing really good. We had 2 nice lessons with them this
week. they too are preparing documents. He wasn’t happy with me for
leaving before his wedding either, but not much I can do. Friday,
Elder Barroso had to go do a baptismal interview so Khumalo and I went
out by ourselves for the night. We taught a lesson with a new
investigator and it was a blast because I got to take the lead! I
realized how much I can say in Portuguese. The language has definitely
been coming along.

This week I read King Benjamin´s speech. I really liked Mosiah
2:20-24. He talks about how in reality everything we have is from God.
The very breath we have is given to us each second. He says how we are
always indebted to Him for what He has done/does and that we could
never repay Him. But the good news is He doesn’t ask us to repay Him,
He only asks that we keep His commandments. And when we do that He
blesses us even more, so we are still always indebted to Him. It seems
kind of hopeless at first. Like we will never be able to do enough,
but I really liked the part where we aren’t expected to do enough. We
are just expected to do what He asks. And everything He asks of us is
for our benefit and He blesses us because of it.

Elder Barroso and I had an interesting conversation yesterday. We had
been teaching a new investigator and on his table he had a book called
"How to make your church a MegaChurch" Basically how to get rich
through church. Our conversation was that back in the day Satan used
to tactic that every church thought it was the only true church, like
in Joseph Smith´s time. But today, he is using the idea that if you
actually even believe in God it doesn’t matter what church you go to.
They are all the same as long as you are worshipping God. But we were
talking about how wrong that is and how grateful we are that we know
the one, true church on the earth. The only church that allows us to
return to live with our Heavenly Father. This Gospel brings true, full
joy in living because this Gospel allows us to know our full
potential. I think that because we know Gods plan for us and we know
our true potential, that we find joy in always working towards that
goal or towards fulfilling our potential.

Well that’s all for this week. Next week I will write from Chingassura!
I love you all very much and love hearing from you each week.

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

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