The last of February and in came March...you can say it came in with an I Do!

I thought of just jumping to March but I can not.
There were some awesome things that happened the last two weeks of February and the first week of March.
2 of them were  Miracles.  We know we have miracles everyday here on this mission but these two are worth mentioning along with a couple of other small stories.
Hope you can endure it.

So many things were going on in that month at one time.
The Nichols family had arrived from Portugal, actually they live in Alpine Utah but are living a year in Portugal, and were in country for a month.
We had a great time watching their experiences as they were showing their children the country their mother of their mothers birth.  The mother Catia was born in Quelimane. She lived there until she was 2 when Her family went to Portugal to live.

Elder Wollenzien on Island shore looks across the Sopinho River.

This is the other shore where the baptism was.

 I knew them through Karen Swalburg and  we have been keeping an eye on them as they traveled through this country with so many experiences including Real Mozambique flooding, mosquitoes and monkeys,

plus the baptism of their 8 year old boy in the Sopinho River.

Their kids will never be the same again.
We were finally able to meet them on February 24 at the church in Maputo right before we flew to Johannesburg. But we will get together again. They finish in Portugal the same exact time we finish in Mozambique.They were a great family.

There are 2 more children. One taking the picture and one young man downstairs visiting with the missionaries. I have never seen kids so excited about sharing the gospel with their family and others.  They will make great missionaries back in Alpine.
A secret...I know they plan to do the same thing I plan to do the minute we get off  the plane!

One of the completed wells.

We had a visit from Angela Hadjipateras from England. She came by to visit us because She was so impressed with the church's efforts to bring clean water to the Island of Idugo.

Women of Idugo working as we inspect the well!

Idugo is the island she also is trying to help in northern Mozambique. It is close to her project of Zalala Beach Lodge and Safaris. Look it up on line.

She is very concerned for the women of Africa.

She is also trying to build a functioning school in the community of Sopinho close to the island.

 We had a nice visit with her and hope her efforts with that island will continue. I am sorry I did not get her picture. We were so pressed for time.

Small Handful of The Children of Idugo.

We also spent many hours on our wheel chair project. We had a few problems with some of the chairs. This was a great concern for us. We did not want to be giving out a faulty product to someone disabled and poor. We tried ourselves to figure solutions and do what we could to remedy the problem. We were so thrilled when Rodney from the great company CE Mobility in Johannesburg came directly to Maputo with a truck load of parts and tools and commenced to repair the chairs that were faulty.

Repairing the faulty chairs.

Cantol, Rodney and Vernon repair wheels.

Vernon and Eugenio working together.

He also taught the technicians in the hospital how to do the work and he was so good to leave tools with them. When you come here and see how poor quality everything is you cant help but want to give them better.
Everything they have here is the cheapest quality you can find. It is very difficult and expensive to buy good tools or anything of high quality in Mozambique. It has to be shipped in from South Africa.
But Rodney gave many tools to the hospital technicians. What a great guy!
He spent 3 days in Maputo. It was wonderful. Now the process can continue.

Rodney shows a technician how to fix the axles.

This was a worry to us as we care so much about each of these projects and initiatives. We want to be sure we are giving the poor the very best quality we can under the proper conditions.

That  next few days we spent getting distribution items shipped to northern Mozambique and organizing the distribution center because we would be gone for 3 weeks.
Just the regular work that keeps us busy.
Meanwhile Elder Wollenzien is babying this Hernia so the surgery can wait until we get to South Africa.

We also had a wonderful sister in our branches here get married again after being divorced several years. A wonderful man found her. He adores her and treats her so wonderful. This woman is from Brazil. He is Italian.

Nilsa and Dany (He is Italian and she Brazilian)

 She has a boy on a mission and is a seminary teacher. Just a wonderful lady. She met this wonderful man and the missionaries and the Mission presidency are working with this man. He is very interested in getting baptized and to have an eternal marriage with Nilsa. That is her name 'Nilsa". I have to show you pictures of her cakes.

Two of her 3 cakes. A Big Deal!

Cake Number 3! Cakes are importante!

Oh By the way this is Eduardo White Castle. The Oldest living Member here.

Just a simple get together afterwards.

Tradition is a big drinking Party for days. Not for LDS.

But they always set their tables very nicely.

No matter what they have.

The following pictures are youth and young adults at the wedding. Playing music. Jose is playing the piano. 

Jose and some girls.

  Jose just started piano a  little before we arrived. He is doing really well and he has great goals.

Jose spends every free minute he has at the church practicing to keep himself out of trouble.

He is working to go on a mission now. He is the only member in his family. This boy discusses U.S. politics with us all the time. He stays up on U. S . history.

A really sharp young man. His problem is the girls love the fact that he can play the piano so well and ask him to teach them. But they want to immediately play as well as he does.

Poor Guy.

It is very difficult to be an only member of a family here.

 

 Below is a picture of Vanessa, me some young women and Albertina (the young women President).

Side Note: At the wedding All these girls sang 'Families Can Be Together Forever' all verses in  ENGLISH! 

 

Albertina is preparing for mission. She will turn her papers in very soon. Probably this month.

Vanessa is still working at getting permission form her uncle to go on a mission.

Of Course Vanessa(left),YW, me and Albertina

 Below are Jose and girls again and some Young Men in Maputo 1 branch.
Boy with Big smile in front on left is Albertina's brother, Luis.
I call him Captain Moroni. He helps encourage his older sister, Albertina, when she has hard days. He is 13. He can hardly wait til next year for seminary.
These two,Albertina and Luis, come to church every week and during the week often. The kids come to the chapel whenever they can. They are the only members in their family. Their mother would like to be a member but is not legally married to the father. (Remember here also boys are always holding hands. Girls do the same)

Their father some days absolutely FORBIDS them to come to church. Do you know they have such faith. They pray so hard and most times he softens or falls  asleep.
They are the best children. It is amazing. The young man in black and white sweater is Nilza's son from her first marriage. Another great young man.

Some traditions are the same.

(Hope you are not too bored.)
That brings us to
Monthly Miracle  # 1! 
 (we have many but these were the top 2 of Feb.- March)

We also had a group of 4 Elders getting ready to go home the same day we were going to South Africa. We always get so sad when they go home. So they were so kind to come visit us one of their last nights when all the departing elders had flown in.
We promised to one day feed them the food we had to stick in the freezer when the power was out a couple weeks before...remember.
So they were going to take us up on it this night.
WELL.... When they all arrived at our house The first thing the Elders did was  hand Elder  Wollenzien and I this letter. They knew we would be excited as they know the work we go through at the Ministry of Health.

Elder and Sister W open the letter while the missionaries cheer.(and eat)

 It had come to the office hand delivered by The Ministry of Health.  The Courier was to deliver this letter to us personally but not finding us at the chapel he took it to the mission office, which is clear across the city. The Elders assured him that they would deliver it to us.
When we opened it we were so shocked!  It was like a dream come true for us.
It was a letter of permission from the head ministers for us to have an HBB (Helping Babies Breath) training in the province of Tete during June or July of this year.

Now the reason this is so amazing is usually we have to go through so much work to get these letters and stamps and people to respond just to get a letter of permission which the church needs in order to have a training. The church will not do anything without the proper permission in any country.
But we have been working very hard to get to know the Deputy Minister very well, Dra. Nazira Abdula. She is a wonderful caring person and pediatrician in the ministry. We have been trying to help them understand that the church is more willing to help Mozambique when the country is willing to work with us. Not against us and making things so very difficult.
For Them to deliver this to us is not characteristic of the Ministry at all! Not at All!

The Proof is in the STAMP !

(: It was so funny because We realized that we needed to start asking for this permission letter when we returned home from Johannesburg in March. We were anxious about it as it is just so much work and effort to go back and forth to their different offices to finally receive the document. :)

But WOW! Now we don't have to. They brought it to our DOOR!.
It is truly one of our miracles!  To us this is a great accomplishment.

So that was miracle #1!....

Now back to the Elders....(be patient)

Elder Gibson (from Victorville), Elder Barlow(from Kaysville) Elder Largent,(Morgan Utah) and Elder Paxman (Provo, Utah) were the elders leaving. Because we just love these elders here in Mozambique and because we had food they came by with the office elders,Elders Greenman, Ostler and Rios for a district meeting. They included us and it was nice.They again are the best Elders.  I am sure now that Heavenly Father has sent and continues to send the cream of the crop Elders to Mozambique.

Miracle Number 2:
The elders in this whole mission have been working on something wonderful.
Bringing families into the church.

Elder Paxman told us a story about passing through a 'neighborhood' when the spirit told him to stop and talk to this man that was just sitting there on the street. To open his mouth and talk to him.
When he did it ended up they taught the entire family and this family is preparing for baptism.

(Elder Paxman told us this after he told us that his goal when he left Provo, as he told at his farewell, was to save someone.)

The last conversation Elder Paxman had with this man, as Elder Paxman was leaving before the baptism, was this; He told Elder Paxman 'Thank you Elder! Thank you for having the courage to talk to me that day in the street. and especially thank you for SAVING my family!'
This is what the Elders in this mission are doing right now. They are out working hard to save families.
It has been amazing how the Lord has directed them to the most amazing families.

In the Beira district and chimoio and Quelimane area there have been many families coming to the church.

You see the first challenge for them is that in order to be baptized they need to first be legally married.
Here there  is another problem. Families dis-own the couples when they don't do things in the traditional manner. Many traditions involved in traditional ceremonies are contradictory to the commandments of the  church. So the couple has to choose to marry in a way that will keep them worthy to be baptized. This creates a problem.
There is a lot of money involved in the registration process and paper work. There is a traditional Lobolo the groom must pay. So many times they go against there very deep traditions of their culture to live the gospel culture. So it is a huge sacrifice for them to be married.

Long story short this is the goal! families!

In December, in the Beira district,  there was a combined wedding of several couples and the next day they were all baptized.
In Chimoio and Quelimane they are having marriages and baptisms right and left.

The Combined weddings have worked out very well. Right off the new couples have friends in the church. They know they are not alone. It has really been a good thing to have the combined weddings.
The Goal was to have a combined wedding in March in Maputo.

And So: Our March Miracle in Maputo:
(even though we were in Johannesburg we were all excited for this day in Maputo)

The marriage of  9 couples at the Maputo Chapel on March 1st 

President Castanheira at left officiates as  9 couples say 'I DO!'

And on March 2nd the Baptism of families.

Today To the Lord they said 'I will'!

What a great sacrifice for them. But what a blessing to their families. What a blessing to Mozambique!


 
I have learned so much about sacrifice here. The youth sacrifice to be able to serve missions. Couples sacrifice to be a family in the Lords kingdom. So many people here sacrifice so much more than I do. So much more.
If I could take one lesson home to share with my family it would be this one.
Be so thankful for what we have. Cherish it. Take care of it.
When you begin to think you have nothing look again. We have everything.
Especially when we have the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We have it all! 

Update On Elder Papa John:
Since February 24th we have been Johannesburg. John had his surgery on the 27th and all is going fine.
Painful but fine. He is going to live.
He ended up with two hernias in stead of just one and some vericose Veins he needed to have taken care of.
It has really taken the wind out of his sails for a while ....but there are so many around us who have had the same surgery we can see he will survive.

Yesterday we took an adventure to the Nelson Mandela house in Soweto and that walking and standing and riding in the car did him in big time. So he needs to take it easy still.  

 We are anticipating the country directors conference of sitting long periods of time next week-
And then the 4 flights of stairs up to our apartment in Maputo! 
We definitely will take it one step at a time.
 
  


We have a country Directors conference all next week and plan to return to Maputo on March 16th.

We will let you know how the rest of March goes.
Chao for Now!