January 28, 2013

This week I don't really have a ton to write. We found some awesome new couples and we have 5 or 6 with the baptismal date in March that we are trying to teach and help get married. I really hope I get to stay one more transfer after this one because that's when all of our work should start paying off. This week they are having a collective marriage in Manga and we are going to be going to the register with a lot of our couples trying to figure out documents to prepare for marriage.

   We caught another chameleon and found out where a ton of monkeys are but we didn't get to go there yet. Maybe next p day.

    We had district conference in Beirra and the Kretley's and Elder Usi from Kenya who is in the Area Seventy came down it was way nice. We had a meeting with all the couples who are trying to get married and he pretty much just crushed any false ideas and traditions  they had about marriage and relationships and even funerals. It was nice and maybe coming from someone higher up than us will help a ton.

   President Kretley also gave a training about the new youth program Vinde a Mim in Portuguese but I think it's Come unto Me. Way Nice! Elder Hoffman and I tried to give a training on it to our youth teachers about a month ago but I'm pretty sure President Kretley put our training to shame. It's crazy how much that new program and Preach my Gospel are alike.

    Our branch is going ok. We have a lot of callings need filled and not a lot of worthy members to fill them. But I know these baptisms we are going to have in Warch will help a ton. Our president is awesome and he is starting to step up now. He was only baptized about 5 months ago! It's crazy but he is a cool guy. We are trying to help him and work together. Someday Inhamizua won't need missionaries in the presidency. Hopefully soon. Our new 1st counselor is a way cool guy and things are starting to look better but we have a ton of work to do. There are sooo many inactive members here. One of our contact questions when we hear they have heard about the church is if they were already baptized. We have met tons of inactive members but I know if we start baptizing a lot of people a lot of people will start coming back.

    One more story: so we have a lot of first lessons where the people just have like no reaction and don't pay attention show no interest at all but I have always wondered this so when we teach the plan of salvation you would think if people who really understood what it is and have never heard it they would be excited or at least change their facial expression or something but a lot of people are just like ‘yeah I already have a church’ ‘we are all on the same path’ kind of deal. But we had a lesson marked with a guy named Bobo.  When we first showed up he didn't have a shirt on and I was kinda just like great but tried to go in with a good attitude. But he was super nice and we planned on teaching the restoration but we both felt we should teach the plan of salvation once we started talking to him. One of the best reactions to the Plan of Salvation I have seen! So we told him that we all lived with God before this life and he was like ''Wait wait wait you guys just opened my eyes! You mean to tell me we all existed before this life and all this was planned out?"  It was super nice and the spirit was way strong like he actually participated and understood. And then at the end he says ''I don't get it. I'm a man you guys are only men but there is some kind of other power here using you guys to speak because this message is from God!" I was just like ‘holy smokes this guy is prepared’ so he came to the conference Saturday and loved it. His family lives down in Maputo and he just is working up here so we told missionaries down there to start teaching his wife at the same time but we will see what happens.

   We tried to do a Mozambican food week at our house because Elder Vestia from Portugal wanted too super bad. So we just bought beans rice and corn flower for xima, this stuff they eat all the time here because it's super cheap. And we could only buy things from the markets that our investigators would be able to afford and bread from the breadshop that is like 2 cents. It was a good idea and it saved a ton of money which I needed but none of us lasted. We all ended up cheating.

     It was a good week, and we need another this week. Oh and I got a picture with a guy, a member who I met for the 1st time this week, with an Elks Football shirt on!! Like 90 percent sure it's an old RV shirt!

   I will send pics next week. I didn't bring my camera cause it's raining.

                                         Elder Bigelow

January 21, 2013 - Inhamizua

Ok so I'm just going to write one Big letter to everyone,

         This week was way crazy. So first we saw monkeys - wild ones - next to one of our member’s house. His name is Pinto and he is super old and lives alone with his 3 grand kids.  He went to the temple last year to be sealed to his wife and all his kids who have all passed away. He is a way cool guy. Last week we went to go check on him and read in Doctorine and Covenants - he loves reading with us. But he told us that he and his grandkids didn't have any food because he can't work and his grandkids are pretty young. So we talked to the district president who is way cool and he helped us out. So we had 2000 mt (which is what we missionaries get about every week) to buy them food for 3 months. The hard part was having a receipt for beans and everything but we conseguired  after going to Beirra and trying like 100 different places. Then we had huge sacks of rice we had to carry through the jungle to get to his house so we called a bunch of members to help us but only one showed up. So we had a ton of stuff to carry. We tried to do it on our heads like everyone does here but it was pretty hard. I'm pretty sure we gained a lot of respect though. Everyone was talking dialect when we walked by, like ''look white guys have head balancing skills too!” Well actually, I just heard “white guys” and a lot of pointing but I'm like 90 percent sure that's what they were saying. Anyways that was way fun and now that family has food.

           We just did a ton of contacts this week.  We got 40 numbers because we super need more families to teach that will progress.

       Yesterday was a crazy day as well. So our president was not at church and Elder Ostler had to talk because a speaker didn't show up (which has been happening a lot lately.) But this is where it gets crazy - so our last speaker was our new elder's quorum president who I called Friday because our main speaker backed out. So he gets up and speaks in Portuguese and then Masena, the local dialect, which was weird but wasn't that big of a deal. But then he just kept going on and on how we should all speak Masenna at church because there are old people (the word he used translated into English as grandmas) who don't understand Portuguese perfect. He was like this isn't the church of the white guys this is the church of Jesus Christ so we should speak Massena. Super crazy but we got everything figured out afterwards. I think our district president is going to talk to him. But Inhamizua is a crazy place. Tons of machambas rice farms and super jungley.  Every once in a while we find houses where nobody speaks any Portuguese. 

         It was a good week. We’ve just got a lot of work to do with our branch. This week we have to find a seminary teacher or we might have to teach seminary here as well, which would super kill our time. But I think we can possibly find someone.

Love you all,

              Elder Bigelow

January 14, 2013 - Inhamizua (still!)

Well transfers were crazy and unexpected as usual.  But I'm not leaving! There were hardly any changes at all. We only received one new elder who stayed down in Maputo.  After I left Manga was stuck with only 5 missionaries and my last comp, Elder Ostler, walked with a branch missionary all transfer.  The only change in the whole mission pretty much is he got taken out of Manga 1 to come and be my comp again but in Inhamizua. But the funny thing is because Elder Hoffman already left and so neither of us have had a comp we have been walking together already since Friday. He was already half moved into our house. 

           This week was pretty crazy but it was nice walking in Manga 1 again and being able to see a lot of the members there and some old investigators. None of our speakers showed up to church yesterday and I was sitting up front with president since Hoffmann left, so I had to give a talk like last second. I pretty much just taught the restoration to our whole branch and investigators and invited them to pray about it. A lot of changes are happening in our branch and it's helping a lot. Inhamizua has a lot of potential. 

        There have been a lot of service opportunities here and it's cool to be a part of it. I think I could stay in this area a while. Our goal is to get families baptized that can really help our branch. We have a couple of nice families we are teaching right now so hopefully they continue to progress.

        I am pretty sad though that there was nobody to replace Our area in Manga 1. The other elders there are going to have to pick it up and add it to the area they already have to help out all the investigators that are there.

        Things are going good and I'm excited to see all the miracles that are happening and that are going to happen on this mission!

                                                         Elder Bigelow

January 7, 2013 - Inhamizua

 Hey, 

            This week was ok. We did a lot of work with our branch which killed our stats but the stuff had to be done. This is by far the hardest area I have worked in but I'm learning a lot from it. Saturday, Elder Carl B. Cook came with his wife and his daughter who just finished a mission in Spain. The Kretleys came too and we had a zone conference all day Saturday and than had a big meeting with the missionaries and branch leaders on how we can better work together. It was nice - just none of our branch leaders came. I learned a ton and found so many things I need to change. I made a lot of new goals after that training. 

         Last night all the members in Beira area had a big fireside with Elder Cook who talked about the importance of families and how we can help strengthen our own families. Elder Cook is seriously one of the coolest guys I have ever met.

         My companion is going home in a week and so he flies down to Maputo Thursday or Friday and transfers will be Monday. I will probably just walk in a triple for a couple of days. I already asked Elder Ostler, my last companion, if he will come to church with me in Inhamizua Sunday so it should all work out. I have no idea who my next companion will be but if he is younger I will be put in the branch presidency which will be hard but it will teach me a lot I will have to learn how to run a branch and make sure everything is getting done how it is supposed to. But I learned a lot this transfer about this stuff from Elder Hoffmann and I will have a church manual. Whoever comes we are going to have to work super super hard to help this branch and try our hardest to be exactly obedient to all the mission rules.

         This week we have to do a couple of trainings for branch leaders and find a lot of new investigators. It's going to be a crazy week and I hope we can get everything done that we need too.

         Oh and cool story about Dondo. Me and Elder Lopes worked our butts off up there but honestly didn't have any success. we just contacted contacted and contacted. We started off with only 2 investigators who we ended up dropping and by the end and had some new investigators but not many were progressing. After we left they didn't end up going anywhere so I was pretty sad because I felt like nothing at all came out of that transfer. But I talked to Dondo yesterday and They told me a story: So there was this lady, Teoma, Elder Lopes and I talked to and invited to church but she never came and her husband was never there. But for like 3 weeks in a row Elder Lopes always wanted to go back and invite her to church again, so we did but she never came. Then my last Sunday there, General Conference, she came and we were way surprised. But we both got transferred right after so we never got to sit with her and her husband. But then like a week or two later the elders in Dondo were walking down the street and run into this lady and her husband. She said she loved general conference they started the lessons and she and her husband got married last week and are getting baptized Saturday! Way nice! I tried to call Lopes and tell him last night - he will be way excited. I never understood why he always wanted to go back and keep inviting her but I'm way glad we did.

                                                            I love you guys 

                                                                             Elder Bigelow