Week 101: LAST EMAIL

Wow you guys should see my inbox! Week 101, last one, last week, 1 more week, your done, haha its pretty ridiculous.

So here we are... it really is the end. This is the weirdest experience Ive ever been through in my life. Trying to explain how I feel would be useless, but its all good.

This week has been a little strange. Im actually no longer an assistant. Pres brought the new one in a week early and let me finish my mission where?... in Mahotas of all places! Im back to the promised land for my last week. Ive been here since Friday and have been walking with Elder Rispress, a West Point cadet. I couldn't have picked a better way to go out.

I'll be honest I don't really know what to write. I feel like at this point it would be better to just wait and tell you everything in person! So I guess I will end with just a few thoughts.

I think most of the experiences and things Ive learned on the mission I will never be able to adequately explain, kind of like basic training, but I think the Lord does that on purpose. We serve the Lord for 2 years because we love Him and want to help our brothers and sister, but in the process of growing closer to the Lord and learning to genuinely care about others you learn a lot about life and yourself. Im so grateful for this time and will look back on it with an ear to ear grin for all of eternity. I love this place and I love the people I have been priveleged to meet. I know the God lives and that His son Jesus Christ is our Savior and they love us and are merciful beyond all comprehension. I know the gospel changes lives for the better because I have seen it happen countless times. And I think of all the things that I have learned the past 2 years, the one that has changed my life, who I want to be, and what I plan to do is 2 Nephi 2:25 "Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy." I know we were created to be happy. That is the end purpose of all things and I know that true, eternal happiness only comes through the Savior and His gospel. I plan on being happy.

I love you guys and cannot wait to finally see you! Its been a fun ride, I'll tell you all about in 2 weeks! For the 101st and last time....

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 100 (WHAT THE WHAT?!?!)

Triple digits!!!!!!!!! Just gets weirder and weirder every time I get on internet to write you guys... only 1 more time after this week. This past week was legit. Traveling is always a good time and seeing all the missionaries and old areas is a blast.

So Tuesday we had our first zone conference in Swazi. It was so cold! It was like 30 degrees Fahrenheit. I wore an overcoat the entire presentation. It was nice to start our week off in English, it made our training a little easier. The conference overall was a success. I think it was fun and entertaining for everyone, but also instructive and spiritual. Wednesday I drove us back to Maputo... it was kinda weird driving that long of a distance, especially with a manual car that Ive only driven like 6 times haha. Thursday we had our conference here in Maputo. Also went well, right afterwards we went to the airport and headed up to Beira! I love that place. Friday was our conference there. At the end President had all those that were going home bear their testimonies. So me, and all of my group that was up there; Elder Couch, Woolley, Ence, and Heald. That was a weird moment. We all just kind of looked at each other afterwards like, "Did that really just happen? Are we really done?" Cant explain what its like.

Yesterday I got to go to church in Chingassura! I got to see all my peeps there. It was surprising how many people remembered me. Last time I was there I didn't go to church I just passed by a few houses, but yesterday I saw everyone. It made me really happy talking to all of them and seeing how they are doing. When I told them that Im coming back in 2 weeks with my mom and dad to visit them they freaked out! Its gonna be such a good time. Our flight home got delayed until 23 last night, so we didn't get home until about 230 and I didn't get into bed until about 415 because we had to drop Pres e Sis Koch of then head back home and shower and stuff. Good news is today is Pday so we got to sleep a bit. Still a bit worn out, but I can make do for 12 more days!

One thing from zone conference that I did want to share was another good one-liner from Pres. He always ends with the best quotes/sayings. This time he used "Bloom where you're planted." He talked about how we are all placed in different places/circumstances throughout our missions and more so our lives and we don't always have the best situations around us, but that we can always make something of it. Just do what you can and make it happen. Successful people, happy people take what they are given and turn it into what they want it to be.

Well family... I will talk to you next week! Keep enjoying the beautiful summertime.

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 99

Greetings from the Kingdom of Swaziland!

Sorry for the late email, but I am writing you from Swazi. We are down here for zone conference tomorrow. Elder Stanley and I had a dope trip down. We left this morning around 8, but as we were leaving we realized our passports were at the office so we had to go into the city to grab those and with traffic we ended up leaving the city at 9 haha. To make it a real road trip we stopped in at the gas station and I bought us 2 bags of chips, 2 packs of cookies, 2 muffins, some bakery bread, and of course... a 2L of Coke baby! The drive was beautiful. It is probably the coolest road trip in the world. We got into Swazi about 1pm (I can use normal time now since thats how they do it in Swazi), and went to a local sushi place seeing as it is our Pday we decided to treat ourselves... beyond good! I ordered a 2 person platter but downed it alone, 23 pieces of sushi.

This whole week is gonna be crazy. We are here until Wednesday morning, then back up to Maputo. We get 1 day in our area, then Thursday we have zone conferece with the Maputo/Matola zones, then right after we drive to the airport with Pres e Sis Koch to fly up to Beira. We will be in Beira untilSunday evening! Im stoked to get 1 more chance up there. It'll give me the opportunity to talk to all the people we are going to visit and mark some visits with them! Crazy week... doesn' t really compare to Dad's travel schedule, but its an honorable mention.

This past week was solid. Each day was very standard. We knocked out several visits and got in the area a decent amount. We did spend a couple of hours finishing up our zone conf presentation, its pretty sweet. We are talking about how to find new investigators. We divided it up into 3 points; Referrals, Part-Member Families, and Contacts. And since all the best things are done in 3 we made a sweet, kinda funny, video to show. Its got the 3 stooges, a flea flicker from the Saints, mickey mouse 3 musketeers, the 3 amigos, a sick big 3 highlight with wade throwing an off the backboard alley oop to king James, and Steph Curry reinging a 3. Don't worry we are gonna transition it into a spiritual training, but we needed an attention grabber haha.

Fun story this week. Saturday the Secretaries had 3 baptisms so we went to support and help out. The font stopped filling up just below knee level so we needed more water. Well the Sisters brought their entire water storage done and we emptied it into the tank. I got a nice video of it. We emptied 74 5L bottles... thats 370L of water! It took us like 10 minutes. Good news is it made the baptisms possible and everything ran smoothly. Its these kind of stories that Im gonna miss!

Crazy that school is out! I still feel like Im a year from coming home... which I think is a good thing, but don't get me wrong Im super stoked to see you all! 2 more emails and thats it... weird. Life gets real. Have a great start to the summer!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 98

Well everyone... I cant believe we are under a month now. Thats just messed up! I don't know about you guys but my mind isn't doing a very good job of comprehending it.

This week was a little bit of a mess, but not anything bad. We finally moved out of the mission office into the new apartment the Kimballs found for us. It is only about a 30 second drive from our old one, but its on the fourth floor of the complex. That made Tuesday a long, exhausting day. I ended up carrying both fridges, the washing machine, kitchen table, and a bunch of other stuff up those flights of stairs haha. I think I was born to move. 11 times before the mission and now 3 times on it. Some people are just gifted ya know? The good news is the apartment is nice and spacious. It has a great view of the harbor and Im a fan. We spent most of this morning cleaning up the appliances and getting everything orderly.

Wednesday we also lost most of the day in the area becasue we had to run errands for the mission. Not a bad thing, but just means we got almost no time in the area until Thursday. That being said, we still managed to have a fairly decent week. Almost no one came to church, but we can only give them the opportunity. Upside: we got 2 refferals this week and both families are pretty legit. I actually have an honest hope in them. One of the families, Elsidio e Pureza, is beyond cool! Pureza is a professional singer and also works for the state as like a womens rights protector or something like that. Elsidio has a doctorate in Physics and teaches at the university. They have the coolest 11 year son named Ed. He is special needs, and absolutely loves us. He always says the prayer when we are over there. He is really smart and is super attentive in our lessons. They told us he wasn't actually born like this. He was born healthy and until he was 5 almost 6 years old he was normal functioning. He got sick and they took him to the hospital where the doctor gave Ed the wrong injection. He had mixed Ed up with another patient that was super sick and gave Ed a medicine that was way too strong and it ended up messing Ed up really bad. He lost his ability to walk and talk for several weeks and he never really recovered. He can talk now, but he isn't all there and he has difficulties walking, but man he is a blast and his parents treat him sooo good. I love it!

Lloyd and Maria are still hanging on. Lloyd came to church like usual, but 45 minutes late... like usual. We are working hard to help the turn the corner and really start taking things seriously. Because of timing and documents, they are kind of the only family that has a shot of being baptized before I leave. Fingers crossed.

We taught a 7th Day Adventist and her family this week. It was actually a super sweet lesson. Elder Stanley and I were teaching in tune and we felt like we were throwing out good Bible scrips left and right for her to eat up. At the end we asked if she would pray about the message and she said she would. We then asked her what she would do if God showed her that this was the only true church. You know what that gutsy lady said!? She said," God and I would have an argument. I would stay up all night fighting with Him until he convinced me I was wrong." hahaha! You know what we did? We marked a return visit haha!

Another fun story for you all. My IDL and debit card came this week so I finally am driving. Elder Stanley had to teach me how to drive stick, but it wasn't too bad. There is actually a nice track close to the mission office so we just paid to go out for like an hour and a half for me to practice. It was nice, especially because it was realistic. There were goats, machamba mamas working on their gardens that are planted inside the track, school kids playing with their kites, go karts that almost ran under my truck, etc. Haha it was insane! Ive never seen anything like it. Oh I forgot we also saw two church services being held on the field inside the track. What the heck people?! Good news is I only stalled twice. And now Im driving normally. This place is one of a kind.

Well enjoy the last real week of the school year and the osum weather. Talk to you next week. See you in 4!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 97

It was a quick week for me as well. It was a weird week too. Lots of random stuff that isnt usually on the agenda. I enjoyed it, though.

We had our big mission leadership conference this week. We flew-drove all the zone leaders in to Maputo. So Tuesday we spent a lot of time picking up Elders from the airport. The good news is in the evening Elder Stanley and I had time to divide and work in the area. He walked with Elder Coptizky, which is the Elder he trained about a year ago, and I got to walk with Elder Couch. It was a blast! I love that dude. Tuesday evening we had to go pick up the new missionaries from the airport so in total we made 3 airport runs that day.

Wednesday we had our meeting and it went really well. It lasted about 3 hours and Pres asked Elder Stanley and I to give a training for about an hour of it. I think it went really well. We got a good group of leaders and the mission is doing really well right now. In the next 6 weeks we are forecasting 210 baptisms mission-wide!!! Thats HUGE. Things are looking up right now.

Thursday we got stuck in the office and moving missionaries around to different areas so we didnºt get to our area until 19, or 7pm as Bjack would prefer. The good news is in total the week was actually very productive and I had a good time. We are working hard and I feel good about that, the difficulty is getting these families to come to church. This is by far the hardest area Ive had in bringing families to church, even harder than Liberdade. Speaking of which, I did a division with Elder Ball in Liberdade on Saturday and it was dope.It is always fun going back to an old area. He is still teaching 2 of the families that I was working with which makes me happy. They are slowly progressing, but progressing nonetheless.

I really hope I get to see some more baptisms before I leave. We have families, but they are all struggling with really committing. I think sometimes I dont realize how much the gospel, and the Lord in general ask-require of us. All these other churches are just show up and listen and you are saved. Christºs church is a bit different haha. It is hard to change that culture right away and for these families to really jump in and start acting instead of just listening. We are finding like crazy too. Since Ive been with Elder Stanley we have found 50 new investigators. Thats 50 people who received our first visit and accepted a second one. We are just now trying to find the legit ones who are ready right now. Im praying that we can get at least one family in this last transfer!

Well Im sure Boise is beautiful as ever! Enjoy! Summer time is right around the corner. Have a good week.

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 96

Well the 4th and final skype sesh has come and gone. I remember lastyear for Mothers' Day it was my first week training Elder Green and it was Elder Douglas' last skype as well. He went home 5 weeks after! To make things even weirder we woke up at 430 this morning to take the missionaries to the airport that are going home. The crazy thing is I wont take any more to the airport... my group is the next to go home.

It was great to see you guys yesterday! Thanks for getting up early for me... well not really early for you guys, just for Bjack haha. Its crazy how much has changed in 2 years, but how much the family is still the same. Seeing you guys in 6 weeks is gonna be great!

As for my week... this one was much better. We had 3 families at church, first time thats happened since I got to this area! Lloyd e Maria are doing good still, we are just fighting to get their docs done. They need to hurry so I can see them get baptized! Candido e Ana and Antonio e Cartilia are all doing well. They are 2 families of humbler means so we are just in the waiting process for money to do their docs. This week we were able to find a bunch of new potential families. We had 18 new investigators, meaning people we sat with and that accepted a second visit. Of those 18 looks like we may have 2 good new families so thats sweet! As I told you I went on a division with the Maptuo zone leaders and went back to my old area of Mahotas! It was too osum! I loved seeing Ramalho e Felicidade and their daughter Nilza. They are pumped to meet Mom and Dad. It was nice being
back there... lots of good memories.

This upcoming week we have a mission leadership council. We are flying all the zone leaders down here to participate so it will be nice to see some of my buds. Elder Stanley and I have to give and hour long training so we have/are preparing for that. The new missionaries get here tomorrow night which is always fun. We only have 2 coming this transfer.

Well Im pretty tired from the airport run so I think Im gonna go take a nap. Have a great week! Also, you all should start thinking of a couple things you would like as a souvenir. Ive got a couple ideas already, but let me know if there is anything specific.

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 95

Well sounds like you guys had quite the week! Pretty legit birthday. I love the pics... Ken did a decent job of reenacting my pose haha.

Not a lot to write about this week...sorry. It was a good week, but we struggled a little bit. We had a lot of lessons drop and we werent able to find any real new investigators. On Saturday we had 12 lessons marked and confirmed.... but all of them cancelled except 1! From 1330 until 1930 we walked knocking doors and contacting in the road. It was a rough haha, but hey it builds character right? Its all good we still have some legit families.

Abel e Aujidia came to chruch this week. They are a sweet family. Super humble. Their house is about the size of your upstairs bathroom. They are very attentive, and are quite bright as well. They dont have any kids so our lessons are usually very quite and calm so the spirit is pretty strong. On Saturday we taught them and we were talking about how they felt when they prayed or read the BoM, they responded that they felt peace or happy, and they were able to see that was the Spirit. After Church they sent us a text and said that they loved church and they felt that same peace and happiness there. They are a good family.

Lloyd came as well. Maria was traveling. But they are progressing well. We just have to get that punk to come to church on time... he always shows up Mozambican, Mormon Standard Time. He is looking to get his doc this week so we are making head wind with them. Pres Koch really likes Lloyd so we may take them over to Pres' house for a family night as well. They are my goal. Lloyd e Maria are the most legit family. They are a family that will go to the temple.

Like I said, not a ton to write about, but life's good. Im gonna take a nap today... Im fighting off a cold. Believe it or not its actually been a bit chilly this week. Have another osum week!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

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

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

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

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

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

Week 89

As you are probably expecting... THIS WEEK WAS OSUM!!! It was one of the best weeks of my entire mission. I missed Beira so much.

On Wednesday we had zone conference in Maputo/Matola. It went well. We didnt have energy for half of it because Mozambique cant seem to quite figure that out still haha so we werent even able to show our presentation, but it went good enough. We got our training out and it seemed to go swell.

Thursday we flew up to Beira around noon with Pres and Sis Koch. We got up there and stepped out of the plane and I was hit with a wave of heat! Oh my lanta I forgot how hot and humid it is up there. The humidity really makes it infinitely worse. That evening I walked with the Beria zone leaders which was a good time. One of them, Elder Rispress is a West Point cadet. We had some good fun walking together.

Friday was our zone conference for Beira/Manga/Nampula. This one we had energy and air conditioners so that was nice. It was kinda weird giving the same training a second time, but cool because we were able to change it up a little bit as it seemed appropriate for those zones. The whole theme of conference is faith. Pres obviously gave some sick insights, per usual. Part of our training we used the analogy of a rocket taking off for faith and works, so for a cool visual I asked Pres if we could do a coke and mentos rocket... he said yes! Everyone loved it. When we do it in Swazi this week I will try to get a video.

After conference I got to walk with the Elders in Chingassura, my old area! We went by and visited all my families that I baptized there! It was one of the coolest things ever. I was so happy to see them all and it made me even happier when they seemed happy to see me! I got to sit with Armando e Graca and we took some photos. She had another baby since Ive been gone! I told them that we will be coming by at the end of June so they can meet my parents... you shouldve have seen their smiles!

Saturday I got to walk with the Manga zone leaders, one being my boy Elder Couch! It was the first time we have been able to walk together our entire missions, even though we have been talking about it since the MTC. Only took 21 months! It was a good time. It was his birthday too, but that doesnt really mean a lot here haha. Elder Ence was also up in Beira and was staying in the same house with me and Elder Couch so it was a good MTC reunion.

Sunday we had Beira stake conferece. It was really flippin hot! 1,200 people makes for a lot of body heat... African body heat:) It was super nice to see all the member from Chingassura there. A ton of people I never expected to remember me were coming up to me and hugging me and we were able to catch up! Probably one of the best parts of this entire week was right after the conference. 3 of my recent converts were conferred the Melchizedek Priesthood. Matira, Lino, and Maechado! I got to sit in and watch them receive it. It was too legit! It made me so dnag happy seeing everyone doing so well and so happy. I told Lino, he is the one with the dreads, that I would bring Mom and Dad by as well in June because he is a super dope artist and we can buy some of his paintings. Also, he is just one of the coolest guys ever so I want you to meet him.

Ya so if you couldnt tell it was a really great week. I would give anything to go back and serve in Beira or Manga! There is nothing quite like it. Tomorrow we are off to Swazi until Thursday. No rest for the weary. Im excited to see what its like there... and I hear they have real pasteurized milk there so Im gonna pound some cartons for sure. Enjoy the beautiful Boise Spring weather!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 88

Now just a disclaimer before you all think that I'm not focused and whatnot here in Africa, I am still sweating, a little less now that I have a car, and I'm still trying to find families to be baptized, but yes I too had realized that we are now only in double digit days until I see Mom and Dad!

I'm looking to go out with a bang. I think the Lord has similar plans in mind too because this week was just a great big giant all in one blessing! For the first time since October we had 3 families at church again, all 3 were there for the first time too. It felt soooo good! Manuel e Maria are so dang sweet. They are prepping for 02 April for baptism, and hopefully there 5 daughters. Maria has some physical disabilities so she walks with crutches, but she still came to church. I love them. Candido e Ana, they are a young couple that I totally misjudged. Our first lesson with them was mediocre at best and I didn't think we would really ever see them again. The last 3 visits with them have been really nice and Ana who said a grand total of 2 words the first visit is opening up and smiling and its great. After church we went and sat with them again and Candido introduced us to 5 more families that we are going to try to teach... all his friends and family. Sick right!? The last family is Lloyd e Maria. Man they are legit. They mess with your heart a little though. They are young, but pretty wealthy and just a cute little family with their 1 daughter. We have extremely spiritual lessons with them, but he kind of has commitment issues, but nonetheless they came to church and seemed to love it. We got plans to take some powerhouse members over to visit with us! Blessings, well visible ones, are starting to pour out again and Im grateful.


We have been running around like crazy this week trying to take care of our area and get zone conference ready at the same time. We have our training done now (gonna talk all about faith) and the presentation is set so that's a lot of stress gone. We have zone conf in Maputo on Wed, in Beira on Fri and in Swazi next Tues! I'm stoked to go back up to Beira and see it. I have been gone for almost a year! And Swazi is just going to blow me away Ive hear. Elder Christiansen says its like Park City!

On Friday we got a little spoiled... we got to eat lunch at President's! Sis Kock mad a BOMB lunch. We ate probably enough for 10 people, but no regrets. She even gave us ice cream for dessert! We were over there because we had to fill out a questionnaire with Pres. At the end of May/beginning of June Pres Carl B. Cook is coming for a mission tour so we had to fill out some questions he asked the Pres and Aps. Then afterwards we spent like 2 hours with Pres Koch working on transfers. Who will go where and who can be comps and stuff like that. It was cool to see how Pres does that stuff and the amount of thought he puts into all the little details. Also, how much love he has for all the missionaries. He really doesn't judge us or hold grudges. Something I need to work on.

Today just trying to rest up for a busy week. I'm excited for it though. It'll be nice. I cant believe how fast time is going. It is a weird feeling to be where I saw so many other missionaries at as they were getting ready to go home. Good news is there is still plenty of time to take care of these families we are teaching and even find more before the end! Glad you all are doing so good. I love you all and hope you have a solid week!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 87

The mission just keeps a rolling on! I cannot believe it is MARCH! Basically everyone I met on the mission is already home. We are all so old now, not a fan.

This week was legit. Not because it was perfect the whole week, but it ended on a really high note. In all honesty it didnt start out that great. It is weird being an assistant. We live with just the office Elders and they are basically always at the mission home taking care of finances and whatnot so they hardly ever interact with anyone. Our house hasnt had water since Ive been here, and Elder Christiansen said it has been without water for almost 2 months, so now we basically moved into the mission home, but it feels more like we are encroaching, rather than living. I felt super isolated this week since we dont really get to interact with anyone else. Pres also told us that Elder Christiansen and I are going to stay together as aps until the end (we are in the same group). I love this guy, but serving 4 transfers with anyone is hard, so I was a bit overwhelmed earlier this week. Until Saturday we had interviews with Pres. I actually told him that I didnt think me being ap was the best bet haha. Im such a whimp. But as always the wise mission president explained why I was called and what I was to do. So long story short I was pouted for myself, but Pres cleared some things up and Im ret to go until June.

That was the majority of the week, but like I said the week ended on a super good note. Yesterday was Stake Conference and Antonio e Cartilha came... again! We taught them about the Law of Chastity this week and they are so down to get married asap! We just have to help them get their docs from their other provinces. We also taught 3 LEGIT families in the last 2 days. Lucio e Janita, he was a pastor for a local church, but he understood the Restoration and BoM better than anyone I have ever taught! We read through the entire introduction with him and his wife point by point for like an hour and a half because they were asking the sickest questions and understanding! He also came to church. This other family, Manuel e Maria, are too cool. They are a referral from a High Priest in the Stake. We sat with them last night at the members house and they basically said that from what they had heard from their member friends that they already wanted to join and be baptized... what?! In the span of 2 days our area flipped around and it is looking beautiful now! Feeling like Im back in Mahotas again.

Funny story... well at least to me. We were knocking doors this week and had this man open up and let us in for a lesson. His wife wasnt home so we kind of just got to know him and talk about who we are and what we do. He seemed pretty nice and like a good guy. At the end after the prayer we were heading out and he asked if he could give us new names... ok? Me being me, I was all for it so I said yes haha. He said I was Adam... I thought it was cool enough.Then he looked at Elder Christiansen and said, "hmm, your comp is Adam, and Im not gonna say you are Eve, bbbuutttt... you are the Eve here." HAHAHAHA what the heck? I thought it was bloody hilarious! Christiansen was soo mad too. He held a grudge for like 3 days and wouldnt go back to the guys house haha. So if you want you can address me as Adam from now on;)

I think thats all I got for this week. Im still not driving since I havent renewed my license yet, maybe by the end of this week I will be, but no stress people drive so slow here so there are never real accidents. Heading out to play gator ball now, wish me luck so my body doesnt die!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

"We knocked on a door that turned out to be an art museum!"

Week 86

Week 1 in this crazy place is complete! It was pretty good, different, but new stuff is entertaining. With all that happens in these 2 years of the mission, I dont know if there is a single greater way/place to learn more and gain more insight for life, not to mention the gospel.

So this week we had a couple of chores we had to take care of in the office. We were there basically everyday from 1030-15, then we got the rest of the day to work in the area. Elder Christiansen said normally we are in the office a lot less which is nice, it was kind of overwhelming and the computer hurts my eyes after so long. We put together all of Maningue news and we also had organize our leadership council this week as Pres was in Beira so we ran it from down here.

The area is sick! It is the poorest area I have served in... or seen for that matter. We walk through some alleys where I have to turn sideways to fit through while at the same time shuffling my feet so I dont fall into sewage haha... totally my kind of area, makes for the best stories. Chamanculo (my area) is one of the oldest in the mission, so weve got some pretty old members and some of the pioneers of the Church in Moz here. Right now we are just running around talking to as many people as possible trying to find those prepared families. We had one family at church, Anotnio e Cartilha. They are so sweet. We also have another 5 or so families that we are going back to, to see if they will progress and come this week. Its crazy how much the work changes from area to area. As far as numbers go, here in Chamanculo even with all the office work we did, we blew my stats out of the water from Liberdade. But its just a different style.

I was really looking forward to Pday. I need some rest haha. Last night we had to go get Pres e Sis Koch from the airport at like midnight so we only got 6 hours of sleep, but thats why the missionary sabbath (Pday) was created. I really dig being around Pres more. Our meetings with him are pretty legit. Definitely get a bigger/clearer perspective on all that is going on with our mission.

Well such is life. Its a good one for sure. Glad to hear everything is solid back home. I love and miss you all. Have another osum week! Talk to you in MARCH!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

PS: Im still not driving. I am renewing my international drivers permit, then Christiansen has to teach me how to drive stick, but hey these Ford Rangers are pretty sleek!

Week 85

Well wasnt this quite the week! To be honest it is a bit of a blur, but man was it good. Tuesday-Thursday were pretty much normal work days, which was good we got to visit our families and get the area ready for the next two missionaries.

Friday Elder Ellingson's mission ended! He left Friday morning to the mission home to hang with Pres and relax. Crazy, I am now exactly where he was when we first become companions! I kind of was homeless after he left so I just had to walk with some other Elders for the weekend, it was solid, though. Ellingson's parents got here on Sunday and it was so sick to see them! They looked beat from the 2 days trip, but they were beyond stoked to be here. It made me excited for when Mom and Dad come! You guys are gonna be so dead from traveling, but there is no rest for the weary... we gots stuff to be doing!

I think the highlight of the week would obviously be the visit of Elder Anderson. That was first up close and personal interaction with an Apostle! It was osum. He presided of Stake Conference from 9-11, then we got to sit in on the Priesthood leadership meeting from 12-15. I was asked to translate for the Swazi leaders that were there because Elder Anderson was speaking Portuguese. Then, from 1530-17 we had a meeting with Elders Cook, Ellis, and Kumbulani, with Elder Anderson just for the missionaries! Got to shake his hand so that was cool. What I thought was really cool was that just from listening to him and being around him you could tell that he is just a man, just another human being like us, but at the same time man does he carry around some power with him. It is a cool combo. His last testimony that he left in the missionary meeting hit pretty hard. You could feel it in your core that what he said was true beyond doubt. Exerience Im grateful for.

After the meetings I went and started playing taxi driver with Elder Christiansen. Transfer are today so we were driving a bunch of missionaries around trying to get them packed and in the right spots. I think we were running around from like 18-2230. And this morning we were taking people to the airport and running around some more. It has been probably the most stressful 18 hours of my mission haha. There is a lot that goes on in the mission office between Pres, the senior couples, the secretaries, and the APs that makes the mission funtion... I was somewhat unaware of that haha. But its been good and now everything is calm.

Also, another highlight from Sunday is that my families from Mahotas came to the Conference. All 4 of the families I baptized while there came yesterday!!! And 3 of the men are getting the Melchizedek Priesthood! Seeing them and talking to them and hearing about how they are doing was osum. Milusha is now the YW president, and they all just looked so happy, and different. I could see a difference in all of them. It was one of the few times were I have felt just joy to core. I was kind of overwhelmed by how happy they all made me and got a little teary-eyed (Im a sap I know). Mom and Dad you are going to love visiting them. I told them we will come by and they all almost lost it with excitement!

So ya, that was my pretty stellar week. Good way to end the transfer. Im excited for what this one holds. Only 3 left so better take advantage!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 84

Another week down... Elder Ellingson's last full week of work! He heads to the mission home this Friday... weird. We had another good week. It was a happy week. We had fun in the work and some success too.

Unfortunately, we didn't have a huge turnout at church, from investigators nor from less-actives. Just one of those weeks. We still are feeling good about our 3 main families. We had some pretty spiritual lessons with them and they are doing some of the small things that are really going to help them come closer to the Lord and progress towards baptism.

I have come to love this area a lot. Ironic how you become fond of something that has been so difficult and a pain in the neck at times. I think we really don't get full satisfaction out of things if we aren't made to work for them. A lot of sweat, some blood, and maybe a few tears (figuratively speaking, cause I don't cry) makes for some cherished memories and people in this area.

Last Pday we played Gator Ball... oh man Im in so much trouble when it comes time to wrestle Ben. Even given a month to get myself into some sort of shape its gonna be humbling. Its ok though, when he gets home from his mission I'll wreck him just the same!

Not a lot to say about this week, but it was good and Im happy. I was talking with some other missionaries this week, and some talked about things that have happened to them or their families since they have been gone... I just wanted to end saying we are blessed. I hope we never cease to see that. Ive said it before and I'll say it again, I don't know what we did to deserve this osum family/life but Im very grateful for it. We have a lot to give back.

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

PS - Elder Hruby was just made an assistant to the Mission President! This means he will be going all over the mission to do trainings with other Zone Leaders. We are not surprised because he is such a stud, but we are so proud - We love our Elder Hruby!!!

Week 83

With another week down and my release date getting moved up... we are under 20 weeks left. I will only wear my fast Sunday tie 4 more times! Weird right?! This week was good, tiring, but that's better than the alternative. We are in a good groove this transfer, teaching legit families and finding new ones, and we had our highest Sacrament attendance in 5 months! All good stuff.

We again had 2 families at church which is always a blessing and I will never be upset about that. Unfortunately, Joel didnt come this week. He went to do something in the morning and didn't make it back in time. The good news is I think he felt bad, and noticed a difference not being there. Sometimes they have to miss just to see why they should really go. Totti e Beatrice came again! They are progressing super well! They look happy. Our new family, Agostinho e Ana, also came. And they loved it! Ana's oldest sister, Nadia, is one our strongest members so that is a great support system. Those are our 3 main families and they are legit and I'm happy to get to teach them.

The rest is going well. The weather has been bearable so that's always a plus. We walked with a returned missionary this week, Irmao Adilson. He served in the London, England mission! I already asked if he knew or had ever heard about the Geddes... no  :(. But he was a blast to walk with.It is fun hearing about other missions and getting advice or council from those oh so wise RMs.

Our zone is doing super hot right now as well.This week our zone had 16 total families at church.Avg 2 per companionship. Pretty sweet. Our zone is sweet, although at times I would love to throw them into basic training so they would learn to stop being whiners. No one likes a complainer... as I'm complaining haha.

Well thats alls I gots this week. Good week for sure, but nothing too out of the ordinary. I love you guys. Congrats to Peyton, now he and his big forehead can retire! Have a great week!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 82

Oh my lanta for the stars of liza... its February! What they heck!? It was just New Years like last week. My comp goes home in 3 weeks! Ive said it many times, but time is just a trip here on the mission. I love it.

Good weeks just keep rolling. They are good, not for lack of struggles, exhaustion, nor frustrations, but the few good families make everything worth it... especially when they come to church!!! Joel e Sara came to church for the third straight week. We visited them on Saturdaynight and he told us he wasnt going to be able to come to church because of work. We had a really good lesson with them and didnt try to convice him to come we just talked about how when we put God first good stuff happens and Joel would be blessed if he came to church. Showed up on Sunday and he wasnt there... literally seconds before Sacrament Meeting started he walked in! Ya this guy is legit. He will be baptized, the question is just when. We are working for the 20th of this month, we will see how ready they are to act!

We also had a new family come to church. Totti e Beatice. He is a member. They are super young 21 and 19 respectively. But they are extremely smart and are fun to sit with. We will start working more with them this week.

The rest is pretty standard. Elder Ellingson and I are just wiped every Sunday night. We look forward to rest on pday! Everyone else thinks we are lame because we dont go play soccer or do anything other than internet and groceries before going back to the house for the rest of the afternoon. Today is especially nice. I getting over another lame head cold and Ellingson has some of the most wicked blisters youve ever seen on his feet. Looks like he has a giant hole in his right foot. The dude is a trooper though haha. Missionary work smacks basic around like a red headed step child. Sorry that may have been a little politically incorrect haha.

My story for you this week is how my life was threatened by a Major in the Moz Army. We got a boleia, hitchike, from this Major on the way home one night and I was making small talk. He wanted to practice his english so we were speaking english with him. He was a pretty funny guy and we were laughing a lot. I started trying to see if we could visit him another day and share our message. I asked if he had a wife and he said he just had a girlfriend. I forgot what I said after that but it triggered something and he was like "why you want to know huh? What you want to know about my gf for? You gonna steal her from me? I will kill you myself!" Um... what?! You can imagine the akward silence that took place after that insane statement. Then he just started laughing and said he was just playing around... ok physco. So thats my story for you this week. Made me laugh at least.

I love you guys and love hearing about how osum all your lives are. We have a pretty cool family. Have a good week. Thanks for all the prayers.

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 81

Two solid weeks in a row! After 3 months here I finally feel like Elder Ellingson and I have a good grip on things. For the second straight week we popped off 25 lessons and found 34 potential new families. Out of 34 maybe 10 will actually sit with us, but still we are finding a good amount.

Guess what? Joel e Sara came to church again! They were super early too. They were there before we showed up. Man I love good families. We had some pretty solid, spiritual lessons with them this week. He is starting to recognize the promptings of the Spirit and he is liking it. He committed to baptism, and we really hit hard repentance this past week so we can teach about marriage tomorrow. Hoping everything continues well. Your prayers are appreciated for sure.

Other cool news, on Wednesday night we had a live missionary broadcast. It was for all missions all over the world. It was the first time they have done one of these in over a decade! It was with Elders Anderson, Oaks, Bednar, Stevenson, and Renlund. The big emphasis... "We teach Repentance, and baptize Converts." We have too many recent-converts falling away because we aren't teaching them correctly before baptism, so we got a reenergized focus on teaching the gospel in the right order with the right focus. It was sick. And as always Pres e Sis Koch with the Senior couples took care of us all afterwards and bought us pizza! Oh how I love good food, not cooked myself!

I finished the Pearl of Great Price and now am onto my last book of the Standard Works, Doctrine and Covenants. Man I love the scriptures. They are pretty freaking sweet! Cant help but feeling good when you read them and you learn something every time you read.

As for the rest of the week... not a ton really. At least not a ton I want to write about... I'll keep some stories for in person;) Don't worry Mom, I didn't electrocute myself again or get hurt in any form. Actually in fact, Sister Kimball, one of the senior couples, made me take some sunscreen from the office on Wednesday and promise to put it on everyday. Apparently I was pretty sunburnt. Who knew? I guess Im just so used to it haha.

Well I love you guys tons, and am super thankful for how blessed our crazy family is! Have a great week.

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 80

Cool weather and some progress in the area, I'd say it was a pretty good week. Note super exciting as far as interesting life stories, but with investigators is was nice. Well it couldn't really have gotten worse than last week haha, but it was in all honesty a tender mercy this week. I think we may have found our family that can be baptized this transfer to send Elder Ellingson out the right way.

The family is Joel e Sara. It is kind of a wordy story so bear with me. 2 Sundays ago we were out working in the morning before church and this lady called us over in the road. We stopped to talk to her and found out she is a member that was baptized as a teenager 10 years ago. Not super rare to run into old inactive members, but whenever we do we try to take an opportunity to visit them and see their interest level in coming back to church. We ended up visiting her and her non-member husband, Joel, this week. Come to find out Joel already knew us! 6 weeks ago we contacted him in the road and marked a visit with him, a visit that for some reason never happened. We looked back at our planners from last transfer and Joel was the very first man we contacted! To make the story better we taught a nice Restoration lesson and he understood pretty well. Sara is super stoked to come back to church so she is helping a lot. We taught on Tuesday and went back on Saturday. On Saturday we just followed up, but at the end Joel e Sara wanted to share scrips they had read together in the BoM... super sick! And to top it of... They came to church! Originally he wasn't going to be able to make it because he had a work commitment at 13 which is the time church starts, but he showed up and said he had cancelled it to come... sounds pretty legit to me.

The rest of the area is going decently. Elder Ellingson and I have got a good hold on our area by now so we work it well. We are able to get about 25 lessons a week now... the transfer before I got here the area averaged 14. We are getting blessed for sure... even if we cant make people progress. There are always several families in potential that could become some legit investigators but we will see as the days roll on.

We had zone conference on Thursday. It was osum as usual. The training was actually basically the same one given to us 2 weeks ago in our leadership council, but this time it was to the whole zone so that we are all on the same page. Good stuff, and a good refresher. Sis Koch talked about Pride vs Humility. Quoted a lot the talk by Pres Benson Beware of Pride. I need to study that a LOT more. The other thing that stuck out to me was something Pres Koch said. He said that we do a lot of things and sweat and stress over the work but we forget why we do all of it. Not just in the mission but in life. We forget why we are evening busting are selves to get stuff done. It was a good little reminder.

Well thats about it for my week. I cant believe you guys bought an arcade machine... who are you people?! I love my family. You guys rock! Have another great week and treat the baby good for his BDAY!!!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 79

Well the weather took a break this week so that was nice, only had about 2 or 3 days that were deathly hot, the others were fairly nice. This week was pretty uneventful. We had a full week of just work. No meetings, no trainings, no nothing, just time to work which was nice.

The area... lets just say Ive had better haha. Actually this week was an historic week for me on the mission. It was the first time Ive had 0 investigators show up to church. Ya it was a little bit of a slap in the face. We finally thought we were getting somewhere with these families, but we are basically gonna drop everything and start from scratch this week to start the transfer fresh and let the Big Man work some miracles to help us hit our goal of 7 baptisms this transfer. Sometimes you just gotta put your nose to the grindstone and keep pushing forward. Read a great quote from President Howard W Hunter: "With your life and faith centered on Christ, nothing can go wrong permanently."

With the lack of progressing investigators Ive got lack of things to say haha. This upcoming week we have zone conference which will be nice. Oh also some big news for you! The last Sunday of this transfer, Feb 21, Elder Anderson is coming to Maputo! He is having a general meeting with the members in the morning, and in the afternoon and meeting with just the missionaries in Maputo, so like 30 of us! That will be super osum!

On a chapa ride this week I met the Mozambican Lil Wayne. The dude rapped to me for like 10 minutes right in my ear, and when he finished he started like playing his hand like a flute and going buck for like 2 minutes. Everyone in the chapa was plugging their ears and I was just busting up laughing. I think the guy took that as my approval so he continued until he got off at his stop. It gave me a nice little laugh halfway through the day, Im sure you'll like it too.

As for the transfers being moved up a week, they will just even out as we do 7 weeks this transfer so my release date is the same no stress. As far as planning through the mission the APs still haven't gotten back to me so when I know Ill let you know as well.

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 78

Happy New Year family! Hope you guys had a good time. I sure did... sleeping through the new year, but its all good I love my precious sleep time. We actually had to come in early on New Years Eve, around 1700, to avoid the craziness. Mozambicans love to party thats for sure. So we got a little bit of extra chill time in the house this week.

On Wednesday we had the leadership council with Pres Koch. He flew all the zone leaders in from all the zone in the country and in Swazi. We had a training from 9-16h. Long, but super good. Probably the best leadership training Ive been at. We talked about some of the mission goals for 2016 and what needs to happen to get there. A large part of the training was learning how to be better leaders. Not like a sports team captain or a leader at the Academy, but a leader in the Church. We studied D&C 121:34-46. It was super legit, I enjoyed. Ive got a lot to work on. I was definitely trained and cultured into being more of a forceful leader on the field or in a workout so I took a lot out of the training. Always learning.

Transfers got moved up a week so today was the big news. Me and Ellingson are staying together for another transfer. It is his last! This will be our 3rd together, Ive never done 3 with one comp. Good thing we like each other.

The area is picking up, slowly but surely. Magre e Sarifa are getting better, there is just some little hesitation on her part about the marriage. They have had relationship issues in the past, but they are changing as they do the little things. Weird the gospel changes people. We also are teaching a widow with two 26 year old twin sons. They are doing good. We are hoping to baptize these 5 on Feb 13! Our goal for this transfer is 7 in total. I would be stoked.

I finally finished the Old Testament this week. Only took me like 5 months. I learned a lot, but probably will never read it from cover to cover again, but one time is worth it. It makes the New Testament and the BoM make a lot more sense actually. Now on the the PoGP and then D&C to get all the standard works done on the mission. Wooh!

Last thing, in the training from Pres he told a cool story that I liked, and I felt like it applied to my area recently. In short it goes something like this; " The Lord told a man to move a giant boulder from one spot to another, the man pushed and pushed for days upon days but was never able to get the boulder to budge, not even an inch. After a long while of this the man finally turned to the Lord and asked, 'why are you having me to this, it is impossible, Ive tried and tried my very hardest, but I cant even get this thing to move, whats the point?' The Lord then responded, 'look at your muscles. Look at your shoulders and your arms, and your legs. Look at how strong you have become because of this boulder." I thought it was a cool little story.

Well have a great first full week of 2016! This is gonna be a good year... I can feel it in my bones!

Much Love,
Elder Hruby

Week 77

Man do I love skyping! Email is always good on p-days, but seeing all your faces and actually hearing your voices is just osum! The best part is even with all the growing up, and distance, we are still the good ole Griswalds! I love you guys.

Christmas was a much needed mid-week break. Last week wasnt the greatest and this week didnt start off on a much better note, but Christmas day was the best, and the last 2 days have been really good. We had 2 families back at church! Magre e Sarifa and Americo e Rosa are both back on the right track. For lack of time, and a good amount of preparation on their part, they wont be getting baptized this transfer. This will be the first transfer of the mission without a baptism. Kinda rough since I havent worked harder on my mission than I am now, but optimistically it looks like we could have 2 families baptized next transfer! Both these families are pretty willing to get married without a big party or anything so that makes it easier.

Dad was right, the weather was a lot nicer to us the past couple of days. I didnt sweat through my shirt until about 30 minutes after leaving the house, instead of the usual 5 haha.

I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. The second time on my mission. Bishop asked me to speak about..... Missionary Work. How convenient! It went well, but I had to rush because the girl before me went like 10 min over so I only spoke for 6 minutes.

This upcoming week we have a zone leader meeting with Pres on Wednesday. He is flying all the zone leaders in from all over the mission to attend the meeting in person. Im excited to hear what he has to say. New Years Eve we will have to be in by 5pm to avoid the party people... what a shame;)

Well thats all for the last week. I love my family, you guys rock! Did I tell you how much I dig skyping? Cause I do... a lot! Have a good week. And HAPPY NEW YEAR!



Much Love,
Elder Hruby