Well, sadly the Hutch stories have come to an end... or have they? Transfers came today, AND dun dun dun drumroll please.... I will not be with The Hutch any longer, But I will be in the same house as him. So this is what happened. 2 Transfers ago when Hutch came we lost 2 missionaries so their area was combined with mine. The last 2 transfers I have been working 2 areas at the same time. Now we are gettting 2 more missionaries and Hutch and his comp will take one and me and my new comp will take the other. I am kind of happy that I can still work with some of my families while getting a bit of change in the house and with my comp.
My new comp is Elder Abel. He is in his 16th of 16 transfers. he goes home the end of April. I dont know much about him other than he was zone leader in Beira the first time I met him. I think we will get along fine. And I will still have Hutch stories once in a while in the house.
Elder Douglas and Elder Hillman both stayed in the house as well. So really we all stayed and we just got 2 more. This will be my 5th here and my 5th living with Elder Hillman, good thing I like him. 7 and a half months is a long time to live with someone on the mission.
The big news this week is the first stake being created here in Beira! It was a super cool experience. We had about 1,500 members show up in one chapel! We had a huge tent outside with big tvs broadcasting it. As far as what the General Authorities said (Elder Ellis, and Elder Kumbuloni) wasnt much of anything new. They basically gave the same talks as they did down in Maputo for the stake there. Same with President Kretly. Super sick though, my branch President became the 2nd counselor in the Stake Presidency! He is a boss.
A couple of the local speakers said 2 things that I really liked. They sound cooler in Portuguese so Im gonna write them as they were said. ªNao importa como nos comecamos, importa como acabamosª and ªDeus conhece nossa lutaª Hopefully Courtney can help you guys out on these ones! I really liked them
Last Pday we had a gator ball tournament with the zone, we took second. I was pleased considering our team. Dad, its ironic that you emailed me about the body slowing breaking down, because my body already is too. Not even 20 years old and I cant play gator ball for an hour without feeling like I got run over by Bo Jackson for the next 3 days. My body hates me, Im terrified to see what its gonna be like when Im 40.
We have this super nice new family, Olivio e Francisca. We gave them the BoM on Tuesday and on Friday he was alreadyin 2 Nephi 13! Super crazy. They also live right next to a recent convert family so its a perfect teaching situation.
As far as the Hutch stories go this week, I forgot to get any memorable quotes. But I got 2 stories for you. First Monday night Hutch taugh a couple of kids how to play Red Rover. Bad idea. The little kids were like karate choppping each others necks and loking like they were going to break each other. Also they tried to call Hutch over and he was about to run through them, but I had to stop him. Not the best idea as a missionary to run over little kids. Second storie. Since I thought I may be getting transfered this week, the last three days I have been acting as Hutchs trainee. He has had to basically run the area by himself to see if he could do it. He HATED it! We go lost so many times and walked around aimlessly for hours. The whole time I was just doing contacts and telling him I didnt know where we were going so he had to find all the houses himself. Luckily, yesterday we only got a little lost and he did a decent job. Just in time too as he gets a new comp today.
Well that was my week. Enjoy Spring Break! Your weather is getting better, and mine is still Africfa hot, but hey they say its supposed to start cooling down in April.
Much Love,
Elder Hruby
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Week 36
Ok so not to be a total downer, but this week was definitely a rough one. Let me just lay all the bad stuff on you first, then I'll make you laugh with some Hutch-ness at the end.
First, we had planned 3 baptism this week with one wedding. The wedding was going to be a miracle because everything had to go perfectly for us to even get the documents done, and for Josefina to get an entire weekend off from school and be able to do everything was a miracle in itself. Well, Wednesday morning we got a call from Vasco saying that Josefina's parents werent going to accept the wedding. They said that Vasco still owed money on the lebolo (basically the dowry for the daughter) and they also wanted to do a big party. Because of that Vasco and Josefina decided to not get married and therfore baptized. Needless to say I was a bit upset. First, because if they were going to tell the family the should have done it last month, not the week of. Second, we preach that the lebolo is a false tradition and wrong and should never impede you from keeping the commandments, yet they still let the pressure get to them.
Second, we still had the jovem Xavier that was ready to be baptized. We had it planned for 1pm on Saturday. We showed up at 12 and got everything ready and were just waiting around. Xavier showed up at 1:10 and we waited around until 1:50 and no one else showed up! Everything went wrong in the scheduling because we let the branch plan it instead of the missionaries. We had to reschedule it for Sunday before church at 7am. Its a 30min walk to church and we had to fill up the font so we woke up at 545 to get it all set up. The good news is we got Xavier baptized! The meeting was Xavier, me, Hutch, the branch mission leader, and the branch Presidente. Sad that no family showed up, but it was actually pretty nice. So that was good at least.
Third, came home from Pday last week to find our house broken into. This is actually kind of funny more than annoying. The broke in and stole I think 5 or 6 things. The only thing they stole of mine was that alarm clock that Dad gave me. In total I think the stole about $50 worth of stuff in a house that had easily a couple thousand dollars worth of stuff they could have taken. Ignorant robbers haha.
Fourth, the power has been TERRIBLE here. We are averaging about 50% time with power and 50 without. We went 2 whole nights without power. Its impressive how hot it still is here at night, and its even more impressive how much you can sweat while you sleep.
Nice well that was a nice little rant. Just so we are all clear, I still love this place haha. Makes for some good stories. And as far as Vasco e Josefina, I dont know what exactly, but I was supposed to learn something from all that. I am still trying to humble myself enough to figure out what, though. But as always the Big Guy was still looking out this week. He gave us 3 new GOLDEN families this week. All 3 have already accepted baptism and all 3 came to church, the entire family! One of the families already loves me because I helped their 10 year old daughter with her math hw for like 20 minutes. It was actually super fun. Im making her a multiplication table that she can memorize since she was never actually taught how to do that. She is a sweetheart. Her name is Pascua.
And now for the part you were all waiting for. The Hutch section of the email... This week I dont really have a new story for you. He pretty much acted as he normally does. I did snag some nice quotes this week, however. He got on a Southpark rant at one point so thats where I got 2 of the quotes. And the other ones are just good ole' classic Hutch.
"You don't really matter to America until Southpark makes fun of you."
" All anyone has to do is watch Southpark and they'll know exactly how America views the rest of the world."
" If we don't name the first Inter-stellar starship the Enterprise, I think we will be doing ourselves a disservice."
"If Elder Hruby was a girl... would you date him?"
And this is my favorite from this week: "While you were sleeping I used 12 Q-tips to clean my ears."
Oh you have to love this kid!
I finished the 4 Gospels this week. I noticed that a lot of the time when Christ was faced with doubters or non-beleivers He would always just say look at my works. If my works are true then I am true. Actions speak louder than words, thats a fact.
Have a good last week before spring break!
Much Love,
Elder Hruby
First, we had planned 3 baptism this week with one wedding. The wedding was going to be a miracle because everything had to go perfectly for us to even get the documents done, and for Josefina to get an entire weekend off from school and be able to do everything was a miracle in itself. Well, Wednesday morning we got a call from Vasco saying that Josefina's parents werent going to accept the wedding. They said that Vasco still owed money on the lebolo (basically the dowry for the daughter) and they also wanted to do a big party. Because of that Vasco and Josefina decided to not get married and therfore baptized. Needless to say I was a bit upset. First, because if they were going to tell the family the should have done it last month, not the week of. Second, we preach that the lebolo is a false tradition and wrong and should never impede you from keeping the commandments, yet they still let the pressure get to them.
Second, we still had the jovem Xavier that was ready to be baptized. We had it planned for 1pm on Saturday. We showed up at 12 and got everything ready and were just waiting around. Xavier showed up at 1:10 and we waited around until 1:50 and no one else showed up! Everything went wrong in the scheduling because we let the branch plan it instead of the missionaries. We had to reschedule it for Sunday before church at 7am. Its a 30min walk to church and we had to fill up the font so we woke up at 545 to get it all set up. The good news is we got Xavier baptized! The meeting was Xavier, me, Hutch, the branch mission leader, and the branch Presidente. Sad that no family showed up, but it was actually pretty nice. So that was good at least.
Third, came home from Pday last week to find our house broken into. This is actually kind of funny more than annoying. The broke in and stole I think 5 or 6 things. The only thing they stole of mine was that alarm clock that Dad gave me. In total I think the stole about $50 worth of stuff in a house that had easily a couple thousand dollars worth of stuff they could have taken. Ignorant robbers haha.
Fourth, the power has been TERRIBLE here. We are averaging about 50% time with power and 50 without. We went 2 whole nights without power. Its impressive how hot it still is here at night, and its even more impressive how much you can sweat while you sleep.
Nice well that was a nice little rant. Just so we are all clear, I still love this place haha. Makes for some good stories. And as far as Vasco e Josefina, I dont know what exactly, but I was supposed to learn something from all that. I am still trying to humble myself enough to figure out what, though. But as always the Big Guy was still looking out this week. He gave us 3 new GOLDEN families this week. All 3 have already accepted baptism and all 3 came to church, the entire family! One of the families already loves me because I helped their 10 year old daughter with her math hw for like 20 minutes. It was actually super fun. Im making her a multiplication table that she can memorize since she was never actually taught how to do that. She is a sweetheart. Her name is Pascua.
And now for the part you were all waiting for. The Hutch section of the email... This week I dont really have a new story for you. He pretty much acted as he normally does. I did snag some nice quotes this week, however. He got on a Southpark rant at one point so thats where I got 2 of the quotes. And the other ones are just good ole' classic Hutch.
"You don't really matter to America until Southpark makes fun of you."
" All anyone has to do is watch Southpark and they'll know exactly how America views the rest of the world."
" If we don't name the first Inter-stellar starship the Enterprise, I think we will be doing ourselves a disservice."
"If Elder Hruby was a girl... would you date him?"
And this is my favorite from this week: "While you were sleeping I used 12 Q-tips to clean my ears."
Oh you have to love this kid!
I finished the 4 Gospels this week. I noticed that a lot of the time when Christ was faced with doubters or non-beleivers He would always just say look at my works. If my works are true then I am true. Actions speak louder than words, thats a fact.
Have a good last week before spring break!
Much Love,
Elder Hruby
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Week 35
This week seemed to go pretty quick. And the best part is... we got the marriage process opened for Vasco e Josefina!!!!!!!!! Everything had to go perfectly because we had to time it right with his work and her school, but The Big Guy was looking out! They are going to be baptized next Saturday and the asked me to baptize them. We will also be baptizing a jovem named Xavier. He is a boss and is super active and a really good kid. So that in itself made this entire last week super nice. Good thing too, because the rest of the week was pretty boring to be honest. We walked a lot.
Ive started trying to write down quotes each day from Hutch. This week there are 2 that I liked. First, "Nothing of worth happened today." This is probably a lot more funny to me since I know Hutch and because he said this to me as I was writing in my journal at the end of one day. I think it was his little jab at me saying I was wasting my time. The second, and I have no idea why he said this or where he got it, we were just walking on the road one night back to the house and Hutch out of nowhere says, "Rhianna is the Marilyn Monroe of our time." Uhhh what? He never ceases to amaze me. Ok I also have to tell you this story because its just too classic. This morning as I was grabbing some shorts to wear for the day I grabbed a pair and saw a bandaid stuck to them. Well I havent used a bandaid on my entire mission and Hutch is the only other person that comes in my room. I came to the dreadful realization that the bandaid had to belong to Hutch because he had been using them to cover his volcano infection thing on his hand. I started to freak out a little and refused to take it off and made Hutch do it. Sure enough there was blood and goop on the bandaid. We will be holding a ceremony tonight to burn those shorts...
As far as the rest of the area... kind of status quo. I really am so stoked for the wedding and baptisms this weekend. But let me tell you right now... I do not want to do any wedding planning for my wedding. I cant imagine how ridiculous that is. I am stressed out and running all over the place be a Mozambican wedding planner, I dont wanna see what its like for a wedding back home, my wife is in charge of that.
Normally 4 transfers in one area is pretty long. Not super unheard of, but its rare-ish. 5 is basically something that never happens. I honestly want to get transferred, though. Being in the same area this long slows down the time a bit. Ya I will leave some nice families but there are plenty all over. I really want to go to an outside area like Chimoio or Nampula. Unfortunately the trend with Hutch is once Pres Kretly finds somebody that works with Hutch he uses them to the max. I have a feeling I will do 5 trasnfers here and 3 with the Hutch. We will see.
Crazy to hear about Sarah! Never would have guessed. The good news is she could go 17 months of her mission of hard, long work and then find that one golden investigator that last month and it will make it all worth it. She will see there is a purpose to her being called there. I am finding new reasons all the time. I think one was to learn from Hutch and try to teach him a thing or two as well. Thats been my goal lately is being an example to him. Of hard work, good attitude, and diligence. But honestly mostly just loving the people. He really doesnt have the best outlook on the country or the people and it kind of rubbed off on me a bit so Ive been very conscientiously trying to reverse that and rub off on him how great this place is and the good in these people, because there really is a lot to love.
I've made it to John in the NT. Super sad I have never read it until now. The NT is super nice and the JST is super sick to read. Just two things I really like this week; Luke 21:14 Christ essentially tells us what we hear all the time. We need to decide now how we will act/react in a given situation. If we wait until it happens its too late and it is so much harder to do what is right in that given moment. If we just decide now it makes it a lot easier, it doesnt take away the temptation but makes it so much easier to push to the side. Second, Luke 22 Christ explains that he that is greatest among you will also be the one that serves the most and is the most humble. I dig that one. You are only as good as you help others to be.
Love you guys lots and thanks for the support. Nice work on my taxes Dad. We will have to use those here in about 2-3 months when the college applications start up. Woo!
Much Love,
Elder Hruby
Ive started trying to write down quotes each day from Hutch. This week there are 2 that I liked. First, "Nothing of worth happened today." This is probably a lot more funny to me since I know Hutch and because he said this to me as I was writing in my journal at the end of one day. I think it was his little jab at me saying I was wasting my time. The second, and I have no idea why he said this or where he got it, we were just walking on the road one night back to the house and Hutch out of nowhere says, "Rhianna is the Marilyn Monroe of our time." Uhhh what? He never ceases to amaze me. Ok I also have to tell you this story because its just too classic. This morning as I was grabbing some shorts to wear for the day I grabbed a pair and saw a bandaid stuck to them. Well I havent used a bandaid on my entire mission and Hutch is the only other person that comes in my room. I came to the dreadful realization that the bandaid had to belong to Hutch because he had been using them to cover his volcano infection thing on his hand. I started to freak out a little and refused to take it off and made Hutch do it. Sure enough there was blood and goop on the bandaid. We will be holding a ceremony tonight to burn those shorts...
As far as the rest of the area... kind of status quo. I really am so stoked for the wedding and baptisms this weekend. But let me tell you right now... I do not want to do any wedding planning for my wedding. I cant imagine how ridiculous that is. I am stressed out and running all over the place be a Mozambican wedding planner, I dont wanna see what its like for a wedding back home, my wife is in charge of that.
Normally 4 transfers in one area is pretty long. Not super unheard of, but its rare-ish. 5 is basically something that never happens. I honestly want to get transferred, though. Being in the same area this long slows down the time a bit. Ya I will leave some nice families but there are plenty all over. I really want to go to an outside area like Chimoio or Nampula. Unfortunately the trend with Hutch is once Pres Kretly finds somebody that works with Hutch he uses them to the max. I have a feeling I will do 5 trasnfers here and 3 with the Hutch. We will see.
Crazy to hear about Sarah! Never would have guessed. The good news is she could go 17 months of her mission of hard, long work and then find that one golden investigator that last month and it will make it all worth it. She will see there is a purpose to her being called there. I am finding new reasons all the time. I think one was to learn from Hutch and try to teach him a thing or two as well. Thats been my goal lately is being an example to him. Of hard work, good attitude, and diligence. But honestly mostly just loving the people. He really doesnt have the best outlook on the country or the people and it kind of rubbed off on me a bit so Ive been very conscientiously trying to reverse that and rub off on him how great this place is and the good in these people, because there really is a lot to love.
I've made it to John in the NT. Super sad I have never read it until now. The NT is super nice and the JST is super sick to read. Just two things I really like this week; Luke 21:14 Christ essentially tells us what we hear all the time. We need to decide now how we will act/react in a given situation. If we wait until it happens its too late and it is so much harder to do what is right in that given moment. If we just decide now it makes it a lot easier, it doesnt take away the temptation but makes it so much easier to push to the side. Second, Luke 22 Christ explains that he that is greatest among you will also be the one that serves the most and is the most humble. I dig that one. You are only as good as you help others to be.
Love you guys lots and thanks for the support. Nice work on my taxes Dad. We will have to use those here in about 2-3 months when the college applications start up. Woo!
Much Love,
Elder Hruby
Monday, March 2, 2015
Week 34
Dear Everyone,
As usual I'll start with the best part of every email... The Hutch stories. First let me just say that this week was actually an hisoric week for Elder Hutch and I. Hutch did his very first contact since he has been with me. Just so you can get a clue on how big this is; Each week we have a goal to get 35 qualified contacts. That means a man over 25, with a wife, that lives in an area with missionaries, and you get his phone number and mark a visit... all in the road. Hutch and I just finished our 7th week together. In the past 3 weeks of just this transfer alone I have gotten 80 contacts by myself... Hutch got his first in 7 weeks on tuesday! I was a proud comp haha. This week I went on a division with Elder Douglas in his area and Hutch stayed in our area with Elder Hillman. This meant that Hutch actually had some responsibility and had to run the area for the day. Well they ended up getting lost 3 times, only got 2 lessons, and Hutch forgot to call all of our investigators that we had marked. Twas a rough day. Means I got a lot of work to do these next 3 weeks to make sure he is ready to run the show because I probably will be transfered in 3 weeks. Oh Hutch man!
The week went slowly I think because we had 3 days in a row were all our lessons were falling through. The good news is our focus families are doing well. For Vasco and Josefina the register that handles all the documents lost one of their residency verifications so they had to redo them. If everything runs smoothly, we will open the marriage process this Thursday and they will be married and baptized on March 14! Prayin alot for all to go well, they deserve it. Also Fani e Crizalda are doing super well. They are one of the best families I've taught. They arent marked until May 9 because of family stuff, but they are nice. Im just super stoked to finally get Vasco e Josefina baptized. Its been a while. Other missions probably think thats a raelly ungrateful thing to say, but hey when you are in the best mission in the world you expect lots of baptisms!
So Im moving through the New Testament. I was reading in Luke this week and chapter 6:39-42 stuck out to me. 7 weeks with someone like Hutch can take a toll and had made me a bit impatient and at times judgemental. But Christ teaches to basically check yourself first. Make sure you're doing right before you get on somebody else. Ive been trying to really apply that with my comp. Just make sure Im really being the best comp to him before I ask him to change anything. Just one of those things that takes time and lots of effort, but Im working on it.
Starting to get pretty toasty again here, hope you enjoy that beautiful Boise weather. Super jealous. I put more pics up on the dropbox. The one with the family is Saite e Melita with their daughters. We did a family night with them and then took a pic or two. I told them that Dad is the Colonel and got them all to salute ya Pops! Enjoy.
Much Love,
Elder Hruby
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