Thursday, July 23, 2015

Week 54

Hello Family!

Twas a good week. We met Pres e Sis Koch (pronounced Koh) on Tuesday and had a mini zone conference. We had a nice brunch and then he gave a training for about 3 hours. It was super nice. The vision didnt exactly switch, we still are focusing on families and doing the most we can, but he gave a nice twist. He basically talked all about the foundation of the Gospel, which is happiness. He said as missionaries we are here to share happiness, which we oursleves should be happy. He wants us to enjoy serving and help others enjoy living the Gospel, not just because the missionaries told them to. The main focus is the really convert people instead of throwing up huge numbers. I loved it! We have a lot of missionaries, myself included at times, that do things just to get a number instead of really helping people. Just in these few days since the training I can already see a difference in our lessons and in our investigators. It means more to them, and in turn to me. I feel like a real missionary haha.

The rest of the week was just a good work week. We had a decent amount of time in the area and got to sit with some good families. We had 4 families at church yesterday! Also, one of our couples, Moises e Ana have all their documents done. The marked 15 of August for their wedding and baptism!

We found some super rich houses in our area this week. These houses are like as big or bigger than our house. I know we dont live in a mansion, but Im not naive we gots a nice house. For these people to have a house like that here is insane. We knocked a few doors and 2 of them marked visits. We sat with one of the guys yesterday. He is super devoted to another church, but hey we will at least give it a try and let him hear it.

Other than that I got no crazy stories for you this week, sorry! Hope life is going good back home, sounds like it is. Also, I didnt recognize Ben in that picture, since when did you grow facial hair? Freaking time sucks! Not to give you a bigger head than you already have bjack, but youre looking like a worthy opponent for a wrestling match now. But I'll give you about one more year to prepare yourself, maybe then you will stand an even better chance. Ok love you guys! Im happy here, lifes fun.

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Monday, July 13, 2015

Week 53

I agree with the counting up, more rewarding this way, also I don't seem like such a bum if I'm not counting down until I go home haha.

This was another good week, a really good start to the second year! Last pday I went and got my haircut by a Moroccan guy. Weird right? In Moz, but getting a cut from a Moroccan? It was the first time since I left that Ive had someone else cut my hair. It was a nice little treat to myself. On Thursday, the actual one year mark, I did a division with Elder Woolley, who is in my group, and we celebrated. We went to 4 "restaurants" in one day haha. We got a little breakfast pastery from this local cafe, then lunch at KFC! and an afternoon snack from this local place called King Pie, and dinner from a pizza place called Unos. SPOILED! Maputo is so modern compared to Beira. I had forgotten that real restaurants existed haha. It felt surreal to actually check July 9th off the calendar...

I think I have one of the funniest stories from my mission this week. It is about a 30 minute walk from our house to the area so walking home every night when you are dead tired kind of sucks. For that reason we usually try to hitch-hike (called a bolea here). Well on Wednesday night we got a ride. We got in and it was 3 dudes in the car. It took about 3 whole seconds for my gaydar to start freaking out. It kind of scared me becaus I didnt think gay people even existed here. The people don't even understand that concept so I was really taken off guard haha. Turns out all 3 were gay. Straight as a rainbow! When we got out one of them blew me a kiss.... ya thats a story for ya!

On a less ridiculous note, I am gonna meet President and Sister Koch tomorrow. So that should be sweet. Also, surprisingly we had a baptism this week. It was a 15 year old boy named Marte. He lives with members and has been ready a while now for baptism, we were just waiting until the next family to join him in there, but the other ward had a baptism this week so we joined that one! Nice little cherry on top for the week.

Well life is good over here in Africa. Sounds just as good back home too. I love and miss you guys, always in a good way. I put some pics up on dropbox. I used Woolley's camera. I think Ill go buy myself a new camera for my Bday next month! Ill keep a lookout for the package as well, thanks! Ok, welp have a good week!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Monday, July 6, 2015

Week 52 a.k.a ONE YEAR!!!

Just in case you guys didn't know, 52 weeks makes 1 YEAR! Yup thats right im officail. It seems insane to think Ive seriously been out for 1 year. Thats half a mission! In case you cant tell Im pretty stoked.

Funny to think a year ago I was with you guys floating the river and laughing as Dad cringed getting his foot cleaned out with a super powered squirt gun haha! Even weirder to think that the next 4th of July we will be partying together! I drew and colored in an American flag in my journal to celebrate here.

So this week was good enough. It went by pretty quickly. To be honest the mission here in Maputo is way different than in Beira. There is a different culture down here. The people are a bit more stubborn and its way more difficult to find new investigators, but the flip side is those that are baptized really are converted and the members here are really strong. It doesn't help that we are white washing the area, so we have been walking around a lot just trying to talk to people in the road and knock on doors to find new families to teach. For the first time on my mission we had 0 families at church. Hurt a little, but hey no one said itd be easy. Weve got another week so we will see what we can do, weve got some new families that look promising.

Thursday we went to the airport and wished the Kretlys off. We sang hymns as the came in, well I didnt really sing because Im tone deaf, but I was good support haha. President and Sister Koch are in Swaziland because they still dont have their visas. So Im still waiting to meet them. Im guessing he will do a meeting with all the zone leaders pretty soon. Well see.

Well sorry, but I didnt do another list for my year mark. I was looking at my 6 month list and realized that its a lot of the same stuff, Ive just learned it better. But because Elder Packer passed away I read his last talk from conference, and also Elder Perry's last talk. It was interesting to me that they both emphasized very clearly the importance of family. I was thinking about that and how thats all we teach here and how important it is in the Plan of Salvation. I realized that family is probably the one thing Ive learned most about in my 1 year here. I teach it everyday but I havent taken a ton of time to look at in my own life. I am so enternally grateful for the family I have. I dont know what we did, or why Heavenly Father has chosen to bless us so much, but I could never have hand picked a better family than mine. My gratitude and testimony of families have grown so much in this last year. If I learn nothing else from my mission, at least I will love and cherish my family and the blessing we receive as a family in the Temple. Eu sei que as famílias realmente podem ser eternas e podemos viver juntos para sempre. Sei, sem duvida, que a família traz a maior felicidade nesta vida, e na vida que vem. Sei que o conhecimento e a aplicação do evangelho na família nos ajudam ter a alegria que Deus quer que tenhamos. E sei que eu tenho a melhor família no mundo inteiro!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby