Beautiful Sights and Sounds of Maputo Mozambique !

 I know this may be a little long. I am not sure how to say so much with less words.

This is the Maputo 2 Primary and their leaders. We visited primary in both branches this Sunday. It brought us so much comfort after a busy week. Vanessa on left also is in the primary presidency. She does many things in the branch. The other sisters are in the Presidency. Vanessa learns all she can about the church organizations and then helps the organizations all she can. Cute white baby on the left is Marta. She almost looks like a doll.  She is an Albino Mozambique baby. Her mother is an investigator and in another class so Marta comes to primary. I got to hold her all during primary today.  Primary is simple. You can understand the simple Portuguese and it is good for dad.

This was a fun ending to a busy week. We loved our time in the Primary this week.

This has been a busy week and I can not fully describe it to you as it is to long and you will be bored just reading it all. But one very hot afternoon after having our apartment fumigated the day before and our air conditioners all break,again,because of a bad storm, there were up(3 long flights) in our small apartment the men working on installing our new pump and water system, the wonderful man who works miracles to fix the air conditioning, 2 sets of missionaries visiting with the office senior couple, the office senior couple and Naldo,our translator. We had also returned from a discouraging appointment with the minister of health and we were having Naldo making follow up phone calls on that for the HBB project when at the door was Cantol, our NGO representative for a wheelchair project, who we really needed to talk with.Then came Joseph who decided he wanted to give us a Portuguese lesson this afternoon or early evening and then came a nice return missionary who wanted to order Doctrines of Salvation in English cuz he just got done serving in South Africa and didn't want to loose his language....so I headed upstairs(1 more flight). It was crazy. Luckily i had made a ton of cookie dough Sunday night for something and the rest was in the fridge. So I started cooking and feeding everyone who was there cookies and whatever else. Especially the ones who had to take shappa home. Then about 6pm pres. Milton Manjate showed up with a translation question and he was looking for seminary/ institute students So that got rid of Joseph and the newly returned missionary and a big sack of cookies.  The workmen left and the air conditioner was working again (He got the other big bag of cookies) and finally  Everyone else left. We were so tired that night. But we realized every day is that way. You would think the 3 flights of stairs would be too much to climb up to get up here. Then we realized how much it reminded us of home. I think that was really what we needed. To Be reminded of home.

I wish I had a picture of that day to put here. But I will put one of Friday after Zone conference. The elders are waiting for their individual interviews in our apartment. Reading church materials and A World Book Encyclopedia set someone left here. They love getting together after zone conference. We also cook for Zone conference and pick up Elders after shopping on Monday so they don't have to take a shappa home with their bags of groceries

 Our weeks are busy either sending emails back and forth to people in the United states about different projects we are working on or sending emails and message to people in country or South Africa for the same reason. We are learning about paper work, the exactness of our church financial system and keeping better records.It is hard but we love it. We spend time meeting and talking with members of NGO's we are working with, officials in different Health Ministries, checking on Well projects that should be completed, reading about the upcoming projects, translating Portuguese contracts so we know what is going on, and it all sounds very boring I know. It can get so mind bogging and then little miracles will happen. For instance when there a  young lady from a  T shirt screen print company just happens to appear on your 3 flights up front porch (and never has there ever been a sales person come to our door ever since we have been here) when a few minutes before you remembered that you need to order at least  50 t shirts for the wheelchair project in march. That's when you know  this is the lords work and he is giving you a helping hand.Another miracle is when missing box of eye surgery supplies SAFELY arrives in country and gets EASILY through customs  into the Dr.'s hands who has been waiting 6 months for that equipment.

We have little miracles like that happen all the time.  We realize here that each person we meet either on our walks or in the park or checking well projects or in the ministry offices are that many more people who learn about the church.
We usually learn we meet them for some reason. So we pay attention to that.
Samia was the funniest one. We really needed a place to fix our truck and detail and fix all the old mission cars (there being 8 now) so the mission can sell them. On our evening walk we met this guard who told us to come back to his business he was guarding in the morning. So we did and met Samia and Lionel. She is a portuguese business lady who has a shop that does that exact thing. Fix up trucks I mean.

It is all mission work

  These are random things.

Dad and I run every morning at a park. The people there are friendly and we meet and talk to new people everyday.
One man talked to dad last week about Mitt Romney, Mormons, why the other Christians don't like Mormons and many other things.. Very interesting. He was a professor and lectured at a major University here. He was not impressed with our current politicians in office  and wondered what the people were going to do like Mitt Romney.
In Mozambique the Politicians go to the villages, or send their GUYS, and buy off the village chief. The villages only vote the way their chief tells them.

Oh You know the huge soccer stadium. Well China built that for Mozambique Free!!!!! All Mozambique had to do to receive it was turn over  all their wood  rights to the republic of China for the next 50 years.
Man was that worth it or what or what?#@$#%$  All I can say is Ching Chong Wing Wong! No offense Mckay!

The Maputo Soccer Stadium from China. It is huge.It is almost one year old.

But we love all of it. We are busy  though. Some of the experiences are really challenging. Some are scarey for both of us because we have never done them before.And some of the experiences are very sweet like visiting with the people and hearing their incredible testimonies and faith they have. Their family stories are so hard and they go through so much. They don't know how hard their lives are but I do and it makes me sp grateful to be born where I was born.
So Sunday's are nice and so are the days we get to spend with the people.
 This week went to visit Primary for both of the branches. We went  last week for a little while but this week we felt we really needed to go to both and it was the highlight of our very very busy week.
If you click the link below you will see our little darlings sing 'I hear the Saviors Voice'. Only Sam will understand it though...

Primary again! Please take time to watch the video. They were so excited.

We will redo next week but watch this one.

 Notice the girl who comes in and the girl who reacts to her. They are twin sisters.

http://youtu.be/on8iQA3ZDqs


In Primary (both branches here and probably the rest in the other towns) they meet all together In the same Room, Nursery on up,For the entire 2 hours. Sometimes just one leader shows up. They help each other and adapt to all age levels during that time. The District Primary President last week asked me for ideas. Me who has a church with many classrooms ,tons of technology and a variety of visual aids. How do you do it in one room, no piano, only a white board. Well I tell you the spirit was so  strong there as much as in any huge and primary I have been in.
The children care for each other and they sing like no other.  That's what they love the most and that's what brings the spirit in so strong.
I have relearned that we don't need so much stuff to teach the gospel. Just the scriptures a testimony and the Holy Ghost.

District New Beginnings

Dad and Sister Senda on the left and 2 other sisters. Sister Senda YW President in branch.Her family is going to the Temple for the first time in April. She has 6 children.

Some cute young women. One on right is the girls singing.

Saturday Night they had a District New Beginnings . It was great to see the young Women. They had such simple decorations. After the Spiritual part they shared talents. This particular girl for a project sang 'Walk Tall You're a daughter of God' in English. When I realized what she was singing I grabbed Dad's camera and tried to get her singing. Remember they have no accompaniment. Each girl that sings beats her finger on the pulpit to keep time. You can just barely hear her do this. But many girls sang. I only recorded a couple and will only share this one right now. Remember she speaks Portuguese and so do all the other girls listening. But she learned it all in English. Could I do that in Portuguese? Nao!  The last chorus she repeats in Portuguese.
Click the link to hear her SING!


http://youtu.be/PJoPuCU4VOM

Yea! I fixed it!

February 2012....104 degrees in Mozambique.

Dad and Joseph

Well we have been here almost 3 months. It seems longer but shorter if that makes sense.

Longer in that things are becoming more familiar and normal to us. Shorter in the sense that we still ahve 15 months to be away from our wonderful children.

So We decided to show you some of the people we know here. Just a couple of them. Dad doesnt take his camera as often and so I will take more when I get my camera.

This is Jose'. We call him Joseph. He comes around the chapel and takes piano from Vanessa and teaches himself.

He loves to visit with Dad. He is almost 17 and a good young man with a hard life situation.

He has not been around lately but today at church he told Dad and I that he dreamed about us. Her dreamed we were gone and that he was very very sad. He is going to make a schedule he said so he can make sure he has time to come and help us. 'The video is a clip of him playing the piano. He had us show him what a recital was and so he played and I recorded it. He did not want to watch it. He said he will when he gets more professional. He is a hoot. we love him.

http://youtu.be/W-WAIpaSNQI 

Vanessa and Joseph. They did not know we were watching them. Vanessa teaches many the piano. She is learning herself. she has been a member almost 1 1/2 years. She came to the church a couple of years before that. She is 22 and teaches Priamry and runs the Primary and keeps the young women active and just is a gung-ho person in the church. She also works up in our distribution center with us.

Joseph and Vanessa

Elder Cluff, Oyerzun,Paxman,Lopes,Workman and Russon.

So then we have the Elders.
They keep us busy every Monday as we pick them up from their shopping spree and deliver them to their respective apartamentes so they won't have to take a shappa home with their purchases. You see the Shappas are a mini van with as many people you can squeeze in them and shut the door. It is the funniest thing to see.
These are and some were the Maputo Elders and we also pick up and deliver the T-3 elders and Magoinine Elders. It takes us from 11:30 until about 4:30.

The Elders help us and we help them out at times without feeling to sorry for them. This is quite the mission. The are non stop missionaries. They also have a non stop President and he goes from one end of this country to the other so that he sees each missionary at least once every 6 weeks.
And Somehow he makes it more than that. He is a great President for this mission.

2 of the Maputo Elders heading off to an evening appointment. This is a good street.

Brother and Sister Castineira and Family.Kyle is asleep.

They are adding a septic tank system for their house.

This is the Castineira family. He is the District President which is equal to the Stake President at home.
He is a successful young lawyer and they have 6 children. 2 girls Nicole and Nickeeway,(given) and 4 boys, Eddie, Junior,Kyle and Krishnay. THey bought some property outside of the main city and are building their house literally one brick at a time. It has taken them a long time and it is very plain and cement walls in and out and so African Plain but big and roomy. Notice the Iron fences that they put around their homes and apartments.
They have to keep working on their property or the government can come and take your property away from you if you don't use it. The are adding different things to their house and if they want to change something they just knock a wall down and do it differently. They are the greatest people. They have been members only 6 years. When the missionaries were teaching their family she had a dream that the savior was going to come and the world was so wicked. She knew it was a sign to her the church was true.
They are loving very strong members with very NORMAL kids. They are a hoot. I loved the children's crayon art work on the walls inside the new house.

Front view of the Castineira house.

They are trying to do a goofy picture. Nicole hid behind her dad.

They have worked so hard to make a nice out of the way place for their children to run. They first built a wall to establish it was theirs and then started the house. They will have a 24 hour guard as most places do. They will provide a place for the guard to sleep. They also have a girl who stays with them but outside to help sister Castineira with the kids and cooking and etc. In this country if a woman does not work or have a good education she is treated unkindly by the men in the country. Not the LDS men but the men in general in the country. They are mean and look down on them and do mean things to them . So Sister Castineira goes to work a couple of hours a day. Or she did till Krishnay was born . now she is home for a while.
They are great people with great responsibility.                They had us over for Dinner and made our first real Mozambique dishes. Kovi and Matapa. It was so good. They pound these certain leaves and spices together for one and coconut oil and on the other they pound another leave and put coconut milk with it. We loved it and had so much fun. Wow . IT is so hard to be a mom in Africa and then to still have this smile that everyone loves. I know it is the same and they have their own problems but they are trying so hard to build the Lords kingdom in their country. You just love them.

This family is a Great Leadership family in  Mozambique.

Ladrao....In English The Thief !

Antonio Rapinga Exercise Park Maputo Mozambique

Today we saw something we had heard about but never seen.  thought I should write about it before I forget.
We were down at our running park this morning  as usual (park name Antonio Rapinga Exercise Park)when one of the nice men who is a regular at the park told me some youth were walking around our truck and some other cars and that I needed to move our truck and quit parking where we park.
So I told dad and he thought well we will move it next time. So the man talked to me again and told me that the youth from the troubled youth place around there are always looking to steal mirrors or whatever they can get off your car. I told him we have our license plate # etched in our mirror and lights and etc. Then the man said they wont take them then but you should not park there.
Well the next lap around the park  I noticed a group of grown men chasing those 2 young men. I guess the made another sweep around the cars and tried to get something off of someonelses car parked in the vacinity. They had come from over by our truck again running and the boys were fast but these men some of them near our age were fast also. One boy got away but the other boy did not. Too bad for him. He just got the physical beating of his life by all of the men. Some of those older men had a good round house kick to the kids head .Dad and I just stood there and watched from a good distance as all the men headed over there and just beat and kicked this boy until he couldn't get up.We did not know what to do. You always think you would try to save the poor person...Not in this situation. One of the Grey uniform police men (there are many colored uniform police and you have to know them as this distinguishes their authority. The grey really are thugs themselves and stop you when you are driving just for money usually.)came up and told them to leave him alone but they gave him some good kicks first and then the kid just got up and took off. You see the people get so tired of there being no laws that they take the law into their own hands. When you call a police man they dont do anything and the grey uniforms are the friends of the thieves or Ladraos and just turn their backs. The communitygets so frustrated that They usually beat a Ladrao to death. Thank goodness not this time because we would have had to step over him to get into our truck to come home (jk). Afterwards the man in the nice sweat outfit told dad 'I told you to move your truck . they will come back and you need to not park there.' It was a place with some bushes and you cant see your car really well but we were watching it. We decided to heed the council. We also could see the man was worried for the cars and for the youth. If they have the tempration they will steal it.
Anyway it was an interesting begining to our day. We are so thankful for the laws that govern our country and our soldiers and policemen. They really deserve a big thank you and some cookies. So today go thank a police officer or a Soldier. Shauna could hug one.

Happy 30th Birthday Katy!!! and Abe!

Katy Korbin and Bridger In front of the Lincoln Memorial! .2011

Katy and the Camel at Mt. Vernon

Today is our Beautiful Daughter Katy's birthday. She is 30 years old. Wow! Did that go fast.
Happy Birthday Katy!

Katy and Jenny at the height of their adventure together.

It was 30 years ago we were walking around Orem Community Hospital for 2 days, along with taking a trip around the Orem Rec center track, trying to get you to make your appearance into the world.

Katy in her moms kitchen acting like her mom.

You were such a beautiful baby girl. You were so much fun and
entertaining. We all would just sit in the family room and watch you play and pretty soon we would all  play with you. We  all loved you so much. Your brothers adored you and Windy and Mandy fought over who got to tend you. You were born when everyone was finally old enough to help.
The funniest thing you would do is go through every set of clothes in your drawer every day. And then you would disappear. You would give up on the clothes all together and just in your diaper and jelly shoes head down the road toward the Oerti's or Kelly's or where ever you were going.  So one of us would run down the street and get you. You would just get so bored.

Katy and kids at the DC Temple.Thanks Aunt Mandy for the Great Adventure.

You wanted to do everything you saw someone else do no matter what it was. If you saw someone doing a circus performance you wanted us to get you lessons to do it. But at 2? The hardest thing for us was to help you see what was going to hurt you and try to keep you safeYou are so talented. You have the ability to do anything you put your mind to.
You have always Been so beautiful, fun, intelligent, creative with a great desire to explore new things.
You loved your Dad, your friends and the animals and anything fun to do.You have so much strength in you. We remember how you stood up to people in Spring Lake and how hard it was for you but you knew what the right thing to do was. We have always admired you for that.
You could make friends with anyone. People loved you. You are a great mother to Korbin and Nora and Bridger. They sure love you. We can see it on their faces.
We are so blessed to be the parents of such a remarkable young woman Like you, Katy.
Happy Birthday

Bridger, Korbin and Nora Halloween 2011! SO Much FUn.

Katy's Kids at Marine Memorial

Bridger , Nora and korbin at Arlington. Bridger you are so cute.

Have Fun You Guys.

I will add the Video dad Made for korbin, Nora and Bridger. Maybe they will be able to watch it.



 http://youtu.be/heqAnWpJBbQ