Monday, April 25, 2016

Week 94

This week flew by! I can't believe Im emailing again. It was a full week, with a lot of good stuff.

On pday we went to a members house whose son and daughter both left for their missions this week. We kind of had like a farewell family night. It was super legit and of course had some bomb food.

Our families are doing well. Candido e Ana got some of their docs done this week and it finally seems like they will be able to open the marriage process this week to be married and baptized the first week of May! Lloyd e Maria are doing osum as well! We took the senior couple, Elder and Sister Kimball, to visit them with us. Since Lloyd speaks English and Maria understands basically all of it, Sister Kimball was able to help teach and she rocked it. It was a super legit lesson and very spiritual. Lloyd e Maria loved it! It was also good practice for me kind of guiding the Kimballs and watching over them as we walked in my area. Now I can take care of Mom and Dad without any issues haha. You guys are gonna lose your minds in this area. Its like one of the poorest neighborhoods in all of Maputo! Im so excited.

We also sat with several new families this week that are just the sweetest. I love humble families! This one family, Daute e Alice, are really kind. He actually just got out of the hospital. He was shot in the leg as someone tried to rob his house. He house this super wicked metal contraption protruding out from his shin that is like holding his bone in place so it can fuse back together. The guy told the story like it was no big deal, just another day around the town, but I thought it was OSUM! They are really smart too, problem is he cant leave his house for another 3 weeks so we cant get them to church yet. We will keep going by and see if we cant start really working with them in about a month.

Last night we found another miracle road. We knocked a few doors and met some really cool people. We met a lady that was born in 1948 and was part of the Portuguese Colonization here. She spent like 15 min just telling us all the history of the little neighborhood we were in and how different everything was in the 1950s and 60s. It was sick. We also sat with a new family on that road that was extremely prepared, Nelson e Esperanca. They understood everything and seemed very sincere. And then as we were leaving the area this lady we had talked to earlier came chasing us down to tell us her neighbor had gotten home and that we should share our message with him. Went back, talked to the neighbor, cool dude, and he accepted a visit later this week. Always exists another road.

Friday morning Pres invited us over for breakfast and to do a study with him and Sis Koch. Sis Koch made the best breakfast Ive had in the last 2 years. Oh my you know how I love me some real breakfast... I think I had 5 plates haha. Then we studied with them 2 Nephi 2. Man I cant wait to be an older wiser man with a wise and insightful wife. It was super cool to be able to study with them and hear what they had to say or experiences that they have had. There is a lot to learn in this world. One thing I liked, though, is just how perfect the Big Mans Plan is for us. Its simple and to the point and it just makes everything worth it. Its nice to know that life really does have a purpose and its a good one too.

Fun story for the week. Elder Stanley loves to act big so he is always trying to wrestle or provoke me or the other Elders. I finally agreed to wrestle him for my workout on Wednesday morning haha.... man Im in so big trouble with Bjack. I beat up on Elder Stanley, but I was huffing and puffing and sore the next 2 days. Ben has about 90 lbs on this kid and about 3x the muscles... Mom is going to have to referee to protect me.

Well another week come and gone. Hopefully they keep getting better and these families can be baptized soon. That would be a good way to go out for sure! Have a good week.

Much Love,

Elder Hruby

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Week 93

I love you guys! You always write the best emails that just pump me up for the rest of the week. My week was pretty good... I feel like I always say that, but then again thats a good thing. Good weeks make for a good mission, and from what everyone tells me a good mission makes for a good life right?

For being a good week, not much out of the ordinary happened. It was a pretty standard week, which I always appreciate because that implies that we were able to get out into the area a good amount. You know what one of my favorite things we do is? Family Nights! Mozambican family nights are one of a kind! Luckily, we will be in Maputo on a Monday night when Mom and Dad are here so we are definitely going to a family night and you guys are gonna lose your minds its so osum! This last week we had a pretty legit one. The games got a little intense at the end haha, Mozambicans cant play to just play, nor play to just win, they play to complete destroy the other competitors haha. I love them.

Found out this week that our mission tour with Elder Cook got cancelled. I was a little bummed, but Im excited now because it means I'll get to go back to Beira and Swazi right before the end. If Elder Cook had come me and Elder Stanley would not have traveled, but now we will! So I'll get to go to Beira like June 02 and set everything up with my families there for Mom and Dad's visit 3 weeks later!

This week in some of our meetings with Pres and the senior couples we started talking about things that are going to happen at the end of June or in July and it was super weird when I realized I wasnt going to be there for any of it... do you guys realize how weird it is to be 8 weeks from finishing your mission?! 8 weeks isnt enough for me to get all these families baptized that we are teaching!

Speaking of families... Lloyd e Maria are doing osum!!! They are one of my absolute favorite families. We will go over to there house when Mom and Dad are here. They are pretty flippin wealthy and super young. Lloyd speaks fluent English too so that'll be fun. They are progressing super well and are just working on one trickyish document of his before they can get married and baptized. They are excited. Antonio e Cartilia are also doing well. They always come to Church and in the process have reactivated their neighbors. They are just short on money right now so they have to save up for the rest of their docs. Candido e Ana are doing great as well. They just have to get one more doc before they can get married. The rest is simple because they are really humble and easy going and just cant wait to get baptized. We are hoping they can get their docs done this week and be married and baptized on the 30th! Fingers crossed.

Well that was basically my week. Life is great. The mission is osum. Im loving every second of it!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Friday, April 15, 2016

Week 92

Pretty low key week. It was good as always and we got a lot of time in the area this week, but everything ran pretty normally and smoothly which makes for a lack of crazy/different things to write about.

We had some zone meetings that Pres conducted this week, just to pass on some info and give a little bit of training. We were talking about loyalty to the Lord and how that factors into our obedience and also our relationship/responsibilities with others. You know how Im a fan of one-liners so I picked this one up from the meeting. "It's not about who is right, but rather what is right." Add that one to the quote collection I guess right.

Stanley and I found 5 new families this week that show potential to progress. We found them all on the same road! Tuesday night around 2015h we had nothing marked so we decided to knock doors on this road. 2 doors later we were invited in to a house and taught the Restoration. Wednesday we had some free time again around 20h and decided to go back to the same road... first door they let us in and we taught the Restoration. Thursday weirdly enough we had nothing to do around 20h and said ah what the hey lets go hit that same road... 4 doors later we sat with 2 families in the same house and taught the Restoration. And Friday I bet you cant guess what happened... ya we went back and ya 2nd door we taught another new family! Sadly, last night we ran into the end of that road. We will just have to try the next road haha. Pretty sweet!

Saturday and Sunday we got to watch General Conference! It was the best one of my mission. Most likely because I finally understood everything and was really trying to pay attention. Crazy that I will watch my next Conference in English! There were sooo many good talks and so much to take from it all. Gotta love how much they talked about families. Families are the best! I liked a ton of things but 2 that stuck out to me were Elder Renlund's talk and Pres Uchtdorf's. I thought it was interesting how Elder Renlund explained how people develope a sense of entitlement with God and think they have the right to all blessings. Interesting how when we distance ourselves from the Lord we have more of this attitude, but when we grow closer to Him we realize how dependent we are and how lucky we are to receive all that He blesses us with. And then Pres Uchtdorf gave another osum one-liner: "There exists nothing good until you do it." I'd consider that motivating.

We are working really hard with the families we have! Candido e Ana are progressing well and are moving along in their marriage docs. Same with Antonio e Cartilia. I really hope they can get baptized soon! The rest of the families are kind of iffy at the moment. I have started to really understand what it means to have agency. Its painful to watch people hear, recognize, and follow the truth for a time, but then turn away from it. They make me want to hit a wall sometimes haha, but you can only do so much for them ya know.

So life continues. Single digit weeks is too small. Not seeming real still, but I think its because I'm lucky to be able to be busy everyday. I prefer it that way. As Elder Holland says, "Run hard and to the tape."

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Week 91

Transfers!!! Today is the start of #15.... of 16! Yeah thats for real.

This week was super solid. On Tuesday a new group of missionaries arrived! We went the airport to pick them up at around 23h. It was a group of 4 Elders and 1 Sister. The Sister's name is Sister Dyre and she is like some super legit country star. She has been on tour with Miranda Lambert and Florida Georgia Line and others too! But now she is in Moz serving a mission...sick right!? They all slept most of the day of Wednesday, but Thursday we got to give them a little welcome training and then I walked with one of the new Elders that night. It was really fun to see all their reactions and hear all their questions. Its really freaky how accustomed Ive gotten to everything. I just keep getting little reminders of how weird going home will be. The best part of hanging with the new missionaries was it was just a nice refresher of how totally osum my mission is! I would never pick anywhere else to serve, even with all the craziness I love this place. Im so excited for you guys to come and see it for a week.

The other big news this week was a curveball from Pres. He decided to transfer Elder Christiansen down to Swazi. It was surprising because he had told us multiple times that the two of us were going to stay together until the end. Apparently he felt a need to send Christiansen down there. My new comp is Elder Stanley. He was actually an office elder for like 6 months and just left to Swazi for only 1 transfer but now he got called as an ap. He is super legit. Funny. kinda nerdy, but in a good way, and works like a boss. Im really happy to serve with him.

The area is looking goog. We had 2 families at Church, Anontio e Cartilia and Candido e Ana. Lloyd also showed up but his wife, Maria was in SA. They are all doing very well. We are having some of the more in depth lessons Ive had on my mission. These families are so sweet! We are hoping to see them continue to progress and be baptized soon. Hopefully this month. It would be a real blessing. Its been a while since Ive been able to see a family baptized. Im excited.

Funny story for you guys. I never know if you really think these stories are funny or if its just funny to me because the mission has wrecked my sense of humor or if its just funny in the moment, but here it is. Elder Stanley and we walking in the area on Saturday and stopped to contact this guy. Normal contact but as soon as we finished some other guy called us over, probably because he saw us give out a free pamphlet and he wanted one too haha. We go over and the guy starts talking and he didnt seem nor smell drunk but he was all over the place in his conversation. We were being friendly and kinda joking around with him when I noticed a tattoo on his arm with little claw marks and the word "Hapan." I made the mistake of asking him what it was and he went off on this hardly followable story and then at the end he resumed saying it was supposed to say "Japan" but he mispelled it. I thought that was funny in itself but to make things better I then asked why he wanted Japan on his arm? His answer.... "I worked a lot with the Chinese." YES!!!!!!! Priceless right? Oh I love Mozambique!

Well off to another week of business. We got lots of meetings this week and lots of good visits marked! Hope you guys have a great week as well. Enjoy the beautiful weather. It's starting to cool down here as well!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Friday, April 1, 2016

Week 90


Holy cow... 90 is a big number! Its even more weird right now because we have a group of missionaries here in the office that are going home today. One of them is Elder Katoa. I lived with him in Chingassura my first 2 transfers there. Its crazy because my first week there I took a picture of him holding up a "6 months" sign, and then his last week there before he got transferred he took a pic of me holding up the same sign... not far behind him.

So I'm sure you are all wondering how Swazi was... IT WAS OSUM! We stayed in the capital Ezulwini, which in English means heaven, and oh was it heaven! It is beautiful there. Mountains and paved roads and malls and wow. When we got there we went over to a shopping center to eat lunch, you could have fooled me into thinking we were at the outlets in Park City. Afterwards, we met up with Pres e Sis Koch and 2 senior couples. One of the senior couples. the Kimballs had just gotten back from South Africa and they spoiled us. They brought us a box of Krispy Kremes and a mcdouble with a large fry from McDonalds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like I said it was heaven. I thought I was so overwhelmed it was ridiculous.

I went out with one of the missionaries in Swazi to visit some investigators to see what it was like... I sound like a bumbling idiot when I try to teach or pray in English. We went to this one families house (I would say there names but in Swazi there names are basically impossible to pronounce nonetheless write) and the wife was sick cause she had eaten too many guavas haha. So instead of having a lesson we helped the husband wash all the dishes. Then, we were going to try to teach a little, but the husband was trying to cook dinner for his wife so we offered to help and they actually accepted. I asked her if we could make her some cooked guavas for dinner... she didnt really find the humor in that haha. We actually ended up cooking some rice and chicken for them and had a nice chance to talk about the gospel with them as we were cooking. It was a neat opportunity, more real life which I havent really had yet.

We got back to Maputo on Thursday, culture shock all over again. Haha no not really, but it was a notable difference. Im convinced the Lord is blessing this country though as the Church grows because this week Maputo got a Pizza Hut! Is not that a great blessing?! It was nice to get back into the area and finally start taking care of our families again. We have about 5 or 6 that are really doing well. We had some good investigators come to church, and 1 complete family, Lloyd e Maria. They are legit. We had members hugging our investigators to welcome them to the ward. Talk about a warm reception.

Easter was nice. The talks at church were solid and the stake held a devotional in the evening. Easter here is celebrated, but not much differently than other holidays. They really just take advantage of the time off and party with there families. Pres Koch had us over for an Easter Lunch that was of course delicious beyond all get out. It was us and the 6 missionaries going home with 3 senior couples. Twas a good time.

Sounds like Spring Break was pretty low key, good! Next year we can do something crazy like go bungee jumping!? Ben and G-lou get better soon! Go UNC! Talk to you in April!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby