Saturday, November 28, 2015

Week 72

STATE CHAMPS!!! STATE CHAMPS!!! STATE CHAMPS!!! Everyone in this internet cafe thinks the white missionary is even more of a weirdo than before haha. I know preaching the is more important, but I am pretty caught up in a state title. I am a proud brother! Cant believe Bjack was player of the game! Well actually of course I believe it, he is a stud, but its just crazy the little Benny poo lives up to all the hype! Man if you cant tell Im super jealous.

As for stuff of eternal importance.... the work continues. To be honest the area is a fight right now. We have had a family at church every week so far, the problem is it has been a different family every time. Thats good showing we are finding new families, but we cant get anyone to stick and really progress. We are gonna get one though, I can feel it in my bones.

This week we had stake conference. It was a transmission from Salt Lake to all the Stakes in Africa. Lots of emphasis on going to the Temple, keeping the Sabbath Day Holy, and paying tithing. During our conference as well, we divided some wards, one of which being mine! Now Elder Ellingson and will be starting a new ward. Same area basically but with an entirely new ward. Im stoked! We sat with Pres Koch after conference as zone leaders to realign the areas for missionaries in our zone. I love meetings with that man. Spiritual giant! We have a lot of work to do. The next step here is a Stake in Matola, not just Maputo. Means we have to step it up a little, especially as examples for the missionaries Pres expects me and Elder Ellingson to work the hardest, and get the most out of our labors. Gotta love high expectations :)

Story time. Walking in the area on Wednesday and bent down to grab my pen and my pant leg ripped from me knee almost all the way up my inner leg. I know fat kid problems. Well my g's were showing so I had to fix them somehow and we were about an hour from the house. What does your genius missionary do? Why buys super glue on the side of the road duh! I super glued my pants together to make them last through the rest of the day. The only issue was this is Mozambican super glue and nobody knows whats in it. As I was gluing it starting heating up really fast and burnt my fingers and the little bit that got on my leg burned me too. Probably not FDA approved, but hey thats just my opinion haha.

So this week is THANKSGIVING. We are going to buy a turkey and try to make our own stuffing and pie and mashed potatoes and sides and stuff! I am going to take out some personaly money because we are going big and I dont have enough mission money for all my food so thats my heads up. Today after internet we are going to have a Turkey Bowl as a zone! I call being Ben Hruby!

Well in the spirit of Thanksgiving I would just like to say that I love you all! Sou imensamente grato por minha familia. Sou grato por tudo que eu tenho. Por todo o amor de cada um de voces e vosso apoio. Tenho uma gratidao que nao consigo expresar por ser um missionario, especialmente aqui na melhor missao no mundo. E mais que tudo sou grato por meu Pai Celestial e meu Salvador Jesus Cristo e o privelegio que terei de viver com eles de novo e minha familia para toda eternidade! Tenham um bom Thanksgiving.

Much Love,
Elder Hruby







Thursday, November 19, 2015

Week 71

I know Im serving a mission and all. but WE GOING TO THE SHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

haha I think I might be more into this than you guys. My house and comp must be getting pretty tired of me. I have warned them every week so far that if BK loses I will probably cry and be in a grumpy mood all day. Good thing Bjack is a monster! P day is just that much better. Elder Ellingson's brother is playing in the state soccer tournament in Oregon so we both get on every week to see how our little brothers did first thing. Sadly his brother lost, so now we are both banking on Bjack haha.

This week was good. We baptized Millario. I dont I have actually mentioned him yet. He is a single 23 year old that has uncles in SA who are members. He is super smart and really humble and loves the Lord. He is fun to teach too. We had planned for his baptism on Saturday afternoon. We got to the chapel and hour early to prep, but the ward mission leader and some other sweet members were already there cleaning and filling up the font. About 45 minutes before the baptism the power went out and we had no water to fill the font. Good thing it was pouring rain! We grabbed all the buckets we could find and started letting the rain fill them. It was pretty frustrating and didnt seem like it was really going well. We even said a prayer and asked for some help. Right as we finished praying it stopped raining, kind of the opposite of what we had been hoping for. Without power or rain we had no way to fill the font. We had to postpone the baptism until Sunday after church. It all went well and stuff but I was pretty bugged that Saturday got all messed up. We had done all we were supposed to do, even the members had done their part this time and the investigators even showed up early. Everything was done right but still nothing turned out how it was supposed to. I was honestly a little frustrated with the Big Guy. I had a humbling moment, though. I still dont know what were supposed to learn or why it happened that way, but it doesnt really matter if I understand. God knows what is best and He knows EXACTLY what He is doing. It was a good lesson in trusting Him this week. Ironic since I was reading in Proverbs for studies and read Proverbs 3: 5-7.

So that familia from Rwanda came to church again. We didnt even visit them this week! We got permission to teach them so we may actually get to baptize them! Sick right? They speak some Swahili so tell Michael to send me some phrases so I can make them laugh.

Zone training went well. Our zone has a goal to baptize and reactivate one family before the end of the year. Big goal, but there are families ready! We talked about doing all the simple things that we know how to do. We have been taught/trained a thousand times how to be successful no its just a matter of deciding what type of missionary you want to be and doing it. I enjoyed the training, for myself too.

Well other than that I dont have much. It is getting really flippin hot again. My face got super sunburt and my nose is peeling nicely. Yup even after beeing in Africa for almost a year and a half I am still a normal white guy! Have a great week. ROLL KNIGHTS!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Friday, November 13, 2015

Week 70

Was a week of firsts. I rode bikes for the first on my mission. I taught a Restoration lesson in English for the first time. And we had another family come to church for the first time. Id say it was a good week. oh and of course Bjack won his first playoff game!

So the area I am in is pretty far from the house, the closest part being a good 30 min speed walk, and the area goes on forever. I dont actually know where it ends,but lets just say Ive walked 2 and a half hours from the house without reaching the limits. To be a bit more effective on days when we have a lot of lessons, we started using our bikes. This is the only house that has had working bikes so Im taking advantage of it. It has been nice. The only 2 negatives are the even more never ending attention to the white guy, cause now he is on a bike woo hoo!, and Im pretty sore because Ive become a fatty, but other than that I love the bikes.

This family we taught in English is from Rwanda. They are refugees. They speak dialect, French, and English so thats why we had to teach them in English. It was super fun. I sounded like a babbling idiot because Ive never taught the gospel in my own language haha, but I loved it. I was too nervous to pray aloud in English so I made Elder Ellingson say the opening prayer haha. Im gonna have to work on that before I come home. The family, Charles and Grace, came to church yesterday as well. We luckily had a member in Elders Quorum and Relief Society that spoke enough English to translate for them. I dont know exactly where we are going to go with this family since they dont speak tha native language, we will to ask Pres. The good news is they are already legally married.

This week we also had our mission leadership meeting. It was decent enough. But Pres always seems to end with a bang. Just something that leaves you thinking and wanting to do better. I like that about him. Two things that stuck out to me where: time is really just a question of preference, and its better to change the lives of a few people, rather than just barely touch the lives of many. Like I said he leaves you thinking.

Tomorrow we have our zone training. Ellingson and I are actually going to use some of the stuff that Dad sent me 2 weeks ago in the 4th Missionary. So thanks for that! Hopefully it goes well. The zone is picking up slowly but surely so thats good news.

Well the weeks keep on rolling by. Im excited for Thanksgiving! We are gonna make a bomb lunch! And skype is just around the corner! Time is such a trip. I love you guys and love that life is going good for my family! Have a good week and Roll Knights haha.

Much Love,
Elder Hruby



Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Week 69


Geez... really was an eventful week for you all! Im glad things are calming down a bit. Tell aunt Connie I love her and not to worry she's got missionary prayers coming her way.

For me, the week was a success. Better than last week, but still lots of room to grow. The area is picking up slowly but surely. We still had 1 or 2 days this week were we spent most of the day walking in the sun just trying to find new families to teach, but hey like Dad says, "If it was easy, everyone would do it."

The good news is we have 2 families that seem super legit. Izidro e Jacinta and Magre e Sarifa. They are both younger couples with only 1 or 2 little kids. Izidro e Jacinta came to church yesterday too! I really like Magre e Sarifa. They are really humble and kind, and super intelligent. They ask good questions, which is kind of rare sometimes. Last night Magre asked me, for the first time on my mission, why I am or why I stay a member of the Church. It was a cool question, and we were teaching about the Book of Mormon so I got to share my testimony about it and it turned out to be a really nice lesson. I am also kinda of partial to liking Magre because he is a JW and personally I would love to convert one of them haha.

The rest is going good. Elder Ellingson and I are getting along. No, matter who you are comps with you always learn new things and find ways you can better yourself. Its actually kind of nice. The house is good too, we have some younger guys, but they are adapting well and have good attitudes. Being zone leader in Matola is a bit different that Maputo. Matola has only Elders so you can be a little more up front haha. But also this zone is notorious for difficulties with families and marriages so we are working hard to make some headway there.

This week I was a little sick with a head cold, ironic since its hot as anything these days. But the good news is our little drink breaks in the afternoon usually helped me get through the day. Every day around 5 me and Ellingson stop at a little side store and grab a 30 cent coke or fanta. gotta love the prices here:)

Have a good week! Take care of the family, well families really. Love you guys and pray for you too!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby