April 15, 2013 - One year!

Well this week I have a little more time to write. This week was probably one of the weirdest weeks of my life! A lot of stuff happened - both good and bad. Some stuff I will have to tell you guys all about when I get home, but I will just focus on the good stuff that happened. Elder Awbrey from Louisiana is my new companion and it's awesome. He was in Dondo and so we were already in the same district, but president took missionaries out of Dondo so he came to be my companion.  The other dupla that is in our house are Elder Martins from Cape Verde and Elder De Oliveira from Brasil (who I lived with for a transfer up in Nampula). They are both way cool and I am super excited for our district and our zone.

    This week we have a zone conference with president which should be way awesome. They already had it in Maputo and all the missionaries there loved it.

    Hey well, Bobo got transferred and moved up to Nampula this week. I don't know if I already told you this, but anyways he speaks English at his job and is always looking for ways to better his language. We gave him a Liahona which is like the Ensign in English and he loved it. But I was thinking it would be way cool if you guys could send him an e mail in English and maybe just talk to him a little bit. I'm sure he would be way happy and try to write you guys back. inaciobobo@gmail.com  It is so weird how much he has changed since we first contacted him when he was drunk haha. He loves the scriptures and really wants to help other people. His family might move up there too and they could get taught by the missionaries.

      I watched part of conference this week and got to see elder Anderson's talk that talked about Mozambique - way cool. I'm pretty sure those pictures were taken in Maputo and one in Beira these marriages are awesome and are happening a lot more frequently now and we have had a couple in Manga as well. In fact, Friday there was a collective wedding and we baked a cake and went and helped. A couple that are in our branch are going to get married this month. They are super excited. We should start the process with them this week and then we just have to wait for like a week to make sure nobody rejects it. Also Carvalho and Albertina, some of our investigators, are working on their papers. Papers are a headache but they are about halfway done. They have been coming to our branch for three years! He told me they were already members when I first got here so we weren't even teaching them until I found out. They were taught a lot in the past and then dropped because his documents were in Tete and they were not trying to get them, but after they got dropped he went and got them on his own so they can get married. They have a daughter who was baptized in our church and then died, so they started investigating and found out about temples and how they can live with her again and super want to be sealed as a family. But they are super funny. I'm not sure how old they are but they speak a lot of dialect. I really like them a lot. You might have to send me some cake recipes because Elder Awbrey and I are making the wedding cake for Amisse and Pasqua, the couple that are already members. Please? Thanks!

    Joao Bueno, President Kretley’s first counselor who lives in Manga, is awesome. He is from Brasil but his wife and stepsons are all from Utah. He lives here working for Care For LIfe . They help the people build latrines, learn how to purify water and do a ton of stuff, I actually think it would be super cool to have a job like that but - long story. We got to eat over at there house on Friday and it was super good. His wife made us cookies and we watched conference and talked to their sons who only speak English. It was awesome. I have actually been over a couple of times and they are the nicest people ever.

     Me and Elder Awbrey hardly have any investigators so we have a goal of 42 contacts. we already have 9 today. It is way cool having a companion that really wants to work hard and we can help each other. Our house needs a lot of work so this transfer I have a lot of plans to fix it up.

    Hey did you ever talk to Blake Sanders about his e mail? Can you please try to get it for me? And can you send me your new phone numbers again - I can't find them and never told anyone they changed. And if you can get a bunch of girls to write me I wouldn't complain either just jokin’!

       The mission goes by way fast! It's crazy - a year has gone by! I don't really want to think about it.

      Other good news - the little baraca (lemonade stand on steroids) right next to our chapel didn't blast music during church! I didn't even have to ask once for them to turn the music down. I was banking on leaving last week, so when my president asked me to talk I said ‘yes, but if I wasn't there because of tranfers somebody else in the presidency would have to do it.’ I talked about missionary work.
     I love my mission and things are going good! Our stats should be a lot better this transfer and I am learning a lot. Love you guys!

                                                        Elder Bigelow