Our First Week Celebration

We have been here 1,um, whole week. Wow! Now that went by fast.  The first thing we did was look into the pump problem. We found a bad switch which fixed part of the problem.
 Last week in church was so delightful and we were introduced to the branch. We are in Maputo 2 branch. 2 branches, Maputo 1 &,2 meet in this building. It is so awesome to see the active families that come with all their young men in white shirts. It is also fun to see the Elders and their investigators. There are 6 elders just 3or 4 doors down from us. One is from Chile. He is really blown away by this country even with the poverty he knows from chile.
I will try to get their pictures.

Our room nicely decorated

We had a senior couples conference this last week. It was in vilanculos. The conference was nice.We met the other couples serving in Mozambique. They are from lef,t us from spanish fork, the Banks from Chino,Ca., The Ross's from South Carolina, the Belini's from Sao Paolo, Brasil, the Spendloves from St George, The Hall's from Idaho Falls and the Osborne's from Alaska.I was so surprised how young the sisters and Elders were who were serving. Sister Banks and Sister Osborne are in their early 50's sister Spendlove is in her 40's. They are great people, so dedicated and more are needed.  It was fun to get to meet them. Some of them have only been here a month longer than us and are way out in the  middle of nowhere. Because of our welfare call we will travel and will get to visit them more often.
The beach resort was very interesting.  The tides are very strange here and fluctuate at very odd intervals. It can be a very low tide for a very long time and the next thing you know it it high tide. In an hour or so  later it is low tide again. and vice versa.


The drive up and back were interesting as well. IT was good for us to learn more about the country and culture. We were gone 3 days 2 of which were driving. We were driving home on Thanksgiving and so we stopped at a Kentucky Fried  Chicken ,if you can believe that... i never go there. That was an experience.

women selling things outside a city.

This is a Taxi. This one is very empty. It is raining all day.

In a small city

villages along the way

I learned the villages are much cleaner than the streets of Maputo and some other small cities you go through.

Little villages are just  out in the trees along the way. There are stands and places people just sit up and down the road trying to sell whatever they grow or find or purchase to sell.

  All along this 10 hour stretch there are people just walking or carrying things or riding a bike with a package way out in the middle of nowhere (or so it seems).

When we returned to Maputo we got back to work on water and  found each morning our tanks were empty. We think the guards are  selling our water to the neighbors below in the night. Every morning our 5000 liter tank is empty.
So they now know we are back and we have been  watching  and they know they will get fired if they get caught so last night for the first time our water did not disappear. That was important as today is Sunday and we need it for the bathrooms in (rather out) of the chapel.


I am including some pictures of my neighbors who live below us.   They loved me taking their pictures. They love to catch the water come out of the pipe from the font (we have an outside font) after a baptism. 

Today at church in R. S. I signed up for Christmas party to bring food and be a secret sister. We will have a gift exchange. Problem. What do I give as a gift?   I can also sign up to model a capalana. I passed on that one. 
I Love the Relief Society meetings. They are so spiritual.  I can not understand everything but the teachers give the lesson just holding the manual and going through it with the sisters. Their discussions are very spiritual. Each comment is so humble \ I can feel the spirit and love in those meetings so strong. One sister , Sister Castanhada  (not sure how to spell it) is the district Pres. wife. (like stake pres.). She is so sweet and comes each week with her 6 children in sunday best. She has 4 boys the oldest being  11 and they come in suits and white shirts and her 2 girls are dressed  so cute. She lives out in the jungle.   One day she said to me ' One day you will come out to the jungle and we can be in my home and talk about you having  8 children and me having 6children'. ? Does she Sound familiar to anyone?
It also was the Primary program. It was universal and wonderful. What I mean is that all the same things hold true as in our own ward. Boys don't want to sing, Some kids are just a hoot, Some just started to cry and all the parents had their eyes and hearts glued on their kids. It was wonderful. Different was this ...the kids all wore a Capalana of some kind, even the boys, with a hair piece also. They all matched And The parents took pictures before sacrament mtg in the chapel.

SO john and I are spending this first week cleaning out every closet in this Apartment. It was so full of saved items from many past mission presidents and missionaries that the clutter is in the way of the work. We emptied out every closet and cupboard one at a time. So our living room is full of  all sorts of things from binders of projects from 2001, an Old projector, broken printers,  an old Franklin 2E computer monitor to broken food processors, blenders over purchased office supplies,and a closet full of first aid kits. And we have 10 copies of Mr. Krugers Christmas  on VHS and more.
So this week we need to hustle as we have to get up north again as soon as we can to check a well.
Wish us luck as you know how well we organize. Where is Mandy, Katy and Alejandra when you need them.

outside of Maputo Chapel.and 4th floor is distribution.

3rd floor is our apt.4th floor is very small.

back yard of church property well kept.

Back of Chapel showing baptism font uncovered.

font

bathrooms are outside. Inside ones not working. Main doors were stolen off bathrooms.

 I know this seems like a travelogue but this first week was spent doing a lot of getting to know people and surroundings. When they kept pounding this into us at the MTC I thought it would be unimportant. I thought 'Not John and I. We will just hit the ground running'. Ha. ha. ha. So much to learn about your new life and people. It will take time. But we LOVE it.

Now In Mozambique

So we arrived in Mozambique. Tired but with no travel problems really. We had fun in the airports along the way.

This picture is for Wynette. A South African 

Mannequin

This will make me and Ron a nice pair of chaps. I will get it on the way home.

 When we arrived in Maputo we were met by the mission President's wife Sister Spendlove
She and the President are so young.  And,  yes Cody Spendlove, she is a hoot. I love her so far.

We were so glad to be there that losing all our luggage was no big deal to us. I am sure it will
arrive some day.  John did have one of his come with some pants and shirts and ties and 1 tennis shoe.  We are missing 4 more. I will be wearing one dress until they come. Oh well when in Rome do as the Romans? When in Maputo, do as the Maput's.
We met the President, ate Pizza with him and and some other members, went grocery shopping with sister Spendlove and then she dropped us off at our apartment/church/distribution center. There we found no water. They told us the city periodically shuts the water off just whenever they feel like it.When they do this that means no water for the church either. John , oh Elder Wollenzien, got looking into it. He found there is a pump problem in the building. So our first clean water project will be for our own water. We will begin on it
 Monday if possible.

I did not take picture from the outside in today but I took some from the inside out.. My view from the side is what most of the inner city maputo looks like. From the The back I see the ocean and am closer than when in San Clemente. The  church property is well kept and actually these buildings next to us are a cut above the village in my back yard.  If you look into the distance past the church's cement wall there are tin roofs. That is one terrace level. Those tin roofs cover some small GRASS huts. They put rocks etc. on the tin to keep it there.
Below that long row of huts is another terrace of the same thing and then it goes down the hill with more terraces.  There is a little community there. That is what most of the surroundings or any space of property are around the city. The  People are awake late into the night. I can hear chanting of very loud prayers from the Muslim Mosque up the street. It is loud and then it grows quiet. In the morning it gets light at about 4:30. But no one gets up till about 7.Then you hear foot steps and small talk . When I looked out the window it was the women from the community below starting their walk, even here in the city to get water for the day.
I will attach a video or two. notice how the walk with those huge containers with NO hands.

huts with tin roofs

Woman carrying water.

Another group of women going for water. John and I will probably get our buckets and follow them if our water problem doesn't get better.

Notice it is raining.

.

from MTC to Mozambique

The Night Before we went to the MTC was hectic but wonderful. We were set apart and were able to say good-bye to friends and family

It was sad but I think our children are as excited as were are.

We had a great time at the MTC and met some wonderful people. One of our favorite instructors was Matt Heaps. He is over clean Water Projects.
We learned so very much from him. 




We met so many great couple missionaries and had some fun experiences. This couple is the first John and Donna couple we have ever met. John and Donna Carpenter. They are serving in the temple in Finland.




This couple is the Packards. He is Cindy Packard's  brother in law.
I am sure you know Cindy Packard. She does many humanitarian
projects in the country of Mozambique. She started the
great Organization "Care for Life". The article in Deseret News was about her. What a coincidence? I don't think so. We were able to visit with Cindy before we left.

These are the 4 couples doing welfare humanitarian missionary work.   They are Left to right The Berthrong's (providence ut. to Chile) The McGovern's (Texas To Muldova), us and The Johnson's (Spanish fork to Guatemala).We love them all and miss them.

 

 

sam comes to visit

Shauna and John ran in the rag-nar this year. We are so proud of them.
Sam brought his children here for some help tending them.
It was a delight.  They were the best children.
They loved going to the farm and riding Burt.
Brylee's favorite was driving the tractor and running in the corn field.

Tate loved riding Burt,

dressing like Zurg, playing with Ansley 

and following the sheriff around looking for clues as to who broke in to our
container on the farm.That was sad.


 But for the most part it was a fun weekend.