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