Week Two has come and Gone. Wow!

This is the First baptism we were able to see performed in font in our back yard. This is Maria.

I look back on the week and I can not believe quickly it went. 
I can not believe how much we get done  in a week. With the same regard It seems like a month has passed and it has only been a week.
This week has been busy getting things complete here as far as our office organizing and becoming 'Legal" in Mozambique (for one year anyway).

I am including many pictures of our surroundings this time. I took pictures early in the morning when hardly any people were on the streets. Otherwise you would not be able to see the streets. It shows how difficult it is to walk down a street. We are getting to love it more and more.

Many of the older buildings look like this one. Just gutted and left.

just a couple doors down from the missionaries.

Main street in the city.

John just loving the left side of the road.

This is what many sidewalks look like . Some streets are clear where people are trying to improve neighborhood.

just a side street in the city. Most buildings have this appearance.

We have been able to find a nice jogging/walking park about 2 miles from our apt. so we walk down to it and run around it a while and walk home. It is very nice for Maputo Standards and all are people interested in running/exercising/talking with friends and etc. I would even feel safe there alone.
It is the walk to and from that is not so good.

This week John started driving so we now drive down to the park and walk and run and drive home. As we exercise we study Portuguese. We wake up every morning at 4 or 4:30 so we usually are out of the house by 5 or 5:30 a.m.

So Monday we got all ready to paint  and get the final  junk gone. We had a trip to the embassy to get some paper work done and so we are registered with the U S government that we are here. I loved seeing the young U.S. ARMY soldiers working there. We bought paint which was a process. Got it home and it had no color in it at all. Luckily Jaimie was here and could take Dad back to the paint store. The guy said ' I don't know how to do the colors'. So he just guessed and when we got it home it was pinkish purple. But we painted anyway and realized why some of the houses are such funny colors.  It looks OK.
I tried out making some cookies using African Sugar and Jungle oats and gave them to the missionaries when they stopped by. They loved them especially the chocolate chip part.

The lady who owns this store has good things and is so nice to us.

So we finished painting office and bathroom Tuesday and by Wednesday we had much of it back together. Wednesday 10a.m. to 1 p.m. we spent at immigrations with the missionaries. It is where you get renewed license to be in Mozambique or your first time license to be here. It was kind of scary to me as it was just so old and cold and you end up in office by yourself not knowing the language and luckily Dino stayed right by me(church employee) as I think he could see this was really getting to me.
 At that particular place the Missionaries were able to hand out a Restoration Booklet to a Canadian who was living in Mozambique for 6 years now and getting married for the first time to a Mozambique. When asked about children the fellow said he was waiting to have children until after they were married. He was very curious about what we all were doing there as missionaries and what our church was about. Elder Paxman talked to him a long while and SO since he read Portuguese then gave him a booklet. It was fun to watch.

I am glad the whole thing is over.
I will add pictures of downtown areas but You can not photograph anything government.


Great Elders are here.
Elder Russon from Lehi just lost his girlfriend on Monday. He was sad but  He is surviving. I refrained from saying 'your mom told you so.'
We got our truck to drive on Wednesday night and practiced driving for the first time with a set of elders. It was scary but dad did OK. The greatest thing about him driving on the other side of the vehicle is that he always opens my door for me without me even asking.  Get it?
It is nice to have that little bit of independence again.
Thursday we worked on humanitarian all day catching up on emails from specialists trying to meet deadlines for project applications. We also took a walk in another part of town looking for a cork board to hang in office. We always learn so much about the city on our walks. It is good though. Just when you think you have seen it all. ....!

just across from our apartment

We received a call earlier in the morning about a sister in the hospital somewhere in Maputo. She was a member of the church  from Portugal. She was visiting her Father in Maputo and got very sick (bleeding from tumors in uterus) and had to be rushed to the hospital(well clinic).  A sister from the branch was calling other sisters in the branch to go visit her. She told us she has no one else here.
John and I finished our work and called to find where this particular clinic was and so on our walk to office store we tried to find the clinic. It was way down town on busy outdoor market place. It is so hard to get through those streets in the 4 or 5 p.m. hour. They  are full of vendors and begging children and cars parked everywhere but on the street. It was windy and dusty and we wondered a lot about 'what if this sister is not there? what if she doesn't want us to be there?'

Remember this is before people are awake.

When we got to the clinic the nurse who spoke English asked us if we knew the lady? No. Do you know what color she is? (I do not know why she asked me this question) No! You have never met her before? No! We explained we were from the church and she is a member and needs us. We have come to see her.  Well the nurse went on like this all the way to the room. (I thought of Kurt in the hospitals in Russia)
She also kept saying this will be really hard for you . You do not speak Portuguese.
In the room she apologised to the lady and said we told her to bring us up there to see her. Well the minute we walked in the room the sisters face got this huge Smile from ear to ear. And the spirit came in the room so strong. As we greeted each other the nurse had to be amazed. It was as though we spoke the same language. You see this sister did not know why people were stopping by to see her. That is the cute part of the story. I learned it after we got home. But we had the best visit about out kids and grandchildren and Relief society. We talked about missions (her son serving in France and she had one serve in Salt Lake city and one in Brazil). We just had a good visit and it was hard to leave. She said if you come to Portugal you must come and see me. I told her the same.
She could not believe we figured out how to find her after being here only 1 1/2 weeks.
It was hard to leave her.

How we learned about her was her son ,who is home in Portugal, helping the dad with the 2 youngest children while mom was visiting her father,grandpa, in Mozambique, got on face book and posted something about his mother being ill in Maputo. If there were members there who could go visit her. Well another son read it in Maputo who told his dad who told the Branch President who told the relief Society sister to go take care of this sister. Kind of a cool story. I just have learned to love relief society more and more.

2nd person baptized. this is Jaimie.

Which leads me to the end of my story. Friday and sat were spent more emails, out to diner at a good place to eat and trying to make dad bread for the first time.

Font in back yard of Church.

Oh! And we got to attend our first 2 baptisms Saturday. Two sets of elders had a baptism each.
Maria probably about my age, her son, in black clothes in the picture is also a member. Her grandchildren and sisters and brother are in the picture of her. Simon Jaimie who is 20 and so excited to be a member and wants so much to go on a mission. No one in his family is a member. His family is in the picture with him.
I will include pictures.

Jaimie and family

But I must tell you about our relief society in Maputo 2 branch. I know we have 3 branches we are to take care of here but I need to have 1 I can call home. So I go to all meetings at Maputo 2 for now. And we go to sacrament at both Maputo 1 and 2.
I arrived on time this week(it is just down the stairs mind you) and they have RS first so members will make it to sacrament meeting and there were maybe 6 people there . This part is so cute about this place. A couple of minutes and there is a tap tap on the door. In walks another sister. about 2 minutes later 'tap tap' and another 2 sisters walk in. Again 2 minutes and 'tap tap' and another sister and a baby. Two or three minutes and 'tap tap'  another sister. It goes on like this until about the last 5 minutes sisters are walking in.  But the room is over flowing by the end. Each one has to come from some where and some of the places are far and difficult. Today all the chairs were in a big circle so we could see each other all the way around the room. It was the greatest feeling ever to look in their eyes as they listened to their great teacher instruct them about general conference. Their testimonies are so deep and strong and powerful. I can understand a little more each week but even with out words the spirit is just great amongst those women. Relief Society is the greatest Women's Organization in the World. I hope my Girls and grand girls will always remember that and gain a testimony and appreciation for Relief Society.
I have to apologise for the structure this time. I have a hard time putting the pictures in around the text. I will do better next time.

Dad helping put on lid of font. When we drain the font kids below the church love to play in the water.