Welcome home, Ryan!

Ryan got to see his family again for the first time in two years and to meet his 2 new nephews! He was shell-shocked for about the first week, but has slowly adapted to 'civilian' life. He said it was harder to adjust to being home than it was to being in the mission field! But we are all glad he's home! He will work this summer and then go to school in the fall. Well Done!

April 14, 2014 - Beira - LAST POST FROM AFRICA

This week has been nice, just finishing up my last p-day, and we had a huge beach bask with everyone from the Manga and Beira zones. I was able to give letters to missionaries to give to people in Inhamizua and Manga. Sometimes I am super pumped to come home but sometimes just super sad. I really am going to miss all the people here. Abreu and Carla finally got the marriage process opened in Matola but they are going to get married May 17th so I will miss it. Sergio and Ana should open up the process this week and get married on the 26^th, and we are helping a few youth get baptized on the 19th that have been coming to church for a long time. I have been getting email addresses from the few that have them and trying to call everybody. Still have some left to do though.

  Experience of the week: So Ana and Douce, the couple on the ‘Its a miracle’ video live in Macuti and she has tons - I mean tons - of brothers, sisters, cousins, just tons of family out in our area. We saw her last week and she asked if we would come by and give her dad a blessing. He has been pretty sick lately. So Wednesday we are on divisions and I was walking with Elder Stewart and we go to her dad's house to give him a blessing. So Ana is there, Bartalameu and Audora (old investigators) and like ten other people, most older women who only spoke dialect. So we go in and Ana wanted to start with a hymn but said they would sing one in dialect. So the whole family starts singing this song which sounds super cool and as they are singing just like all these neighbor woman like answer the call and pile into the house. So we gave him a priesthood blessing. Then we got some references of her brothers out of it. One actually came to church with his wife and are really interested. So last night we went to teach them at her dad’s house again. Two more of her brothers sat with us and one had tons of good questions about the restoration. I don't think I have ever taught someone the first lesson who has just understood everything like he did. I had to ask Elder Peckham to make sure he wasn't a member! Also Manuel and Eugenia are seeing a huge difference in their lives and are on fire right now.

     Things are going great and I am going to miss this place but I know the Lord will have other stuff for me to do back in the States. Me and dad will just have to come back and do a safari here in like a year or two!

                                                                                                               Love ya guys. See you soon!

                                                                                                                                           Elder Bigelow

April 8, 2014 - Beira

April 8, 2014

Well 2 weeks left! I can’t believe time has gone so fast! Part if me is super excited and the other part of me is super sad. I leave next Friday the 18th to go to Maputo and we will probably eat lunch or something with President, Saturday I think I will be able to visit families in Matola and Maputo , and Sunday I will go to Maputo 2 branch again and have exit interviews and Monday I am gone!

          We have been super busy - on the 19th our zone is going to have a collective marriage with 7 or 8 couples and the Relief Societies want to make a big deal out of it. Me and Elder Peckham are working to get Sergio and Ana married and baptized along with some single people, Rosa, Flavio, Lidia , Joaquim, and Luis. Hopefully everything works out and they are all ready by the 19th. We are also teaching a super-awesome family right now, Manuel and Eugenia, who are a reference from Sergio, and a couple we dropped but they came to church Sunday, Felizberto e Palmira.

    We did 3 divisions this last week, one with Munhava and I went and walked with Elder Maizane from Matola, and I went on a division with Elder Proksch, who is our district leader, and yesterday we went on a division with the other dupla from our house, Elder Thomas and Elder Hatfield. They have been struggling getting contacts and lessons in their area so we decided to do a double division and all work in their area. It worked out super nice and we got tons of contacts.

       As far as general conference I probably won’t be able to see it until I get home. Last Sunday was a normal fast Sunday for us but I bore testimony because I will be leaving.

        Cool story for the week... Thursday we were walking in the middle of our area, Chipangara, and we are on this tiny little road and it was night and we see the Snelson’s (the senior missionary couple in that area) truck pull up and they asked us where the house of a member was, so we all walked together and showed them. They were going to watch a kid named Fernando open his mission call so we decided to go with and on the way there Elder Snelson told us his story. So Fernando lost his dad when he was young and grew up with his mom and brothers and sisters. When they got older his older brother moved down to Maputo and joined the church and then his older brother passed away. Two years later Fernando joined the church and his mom was taking the lessons when she died as well! So after all this he saves up money for a passport to go on his mission over a long period of time because they are super expensive for people here. Finally he gets his passport and does his medical exams and his passport gets robbed!!! So he had to start all over saving up money and by the time he gets his second passport his medical exams expired … so he did them again and anyways he opened his call and is going to Angola!! He bore testimony at the end -there were a ton of people and the spirit was super strong! He sacrificed tons to be able to go on a mission!!!

    Yesterday we also found 3 chameleons by our house (sent a pic) and things are going super good. We are staying super busy in fact we have divisions again with Beira 1 tomorrow.

                       Love you guys

                                             Elder Bigelow

March 31, 2014 - Beira

This week has just been a giant blur haha pretty crazy. Me and Elder Peckham ate some bad food at Muslim Mondays, just a restaurant here in Beira, and we both got pretty sick for a few days. Just now am I starting to feel all the way better.

      Now to the good part of my letter. So Last week I told you all about our zone plan to help people get to the temple and how excited we were to try out our plan and help families here in Beira get to the temple. Well this week we had interviews with President Kretly and we talked a lot about the plan and anyways he and the assistants this week took our idea of every dupla picking a family and helping them get to the temple and made it more organized so that now the branch presidents pick the families and a few other changes and our whole zone conference was about helping members do family history and getting them to the temple!! So everyone in this half of the mission received this training and next week everybody in the south will get it! It was super awesome! It really strengthened my testimony of receiving revelation.

     Anyways in my interview with President he asked me ‘Elder Bigelow do you remember how many families were being baptized when you first got here? Or even how many families we had here in the church?’ Very few..... We had to baptize families first and now we have to get them all to the temple. Since December of 2012 our mission has baptized 280 families! I feel like my group of missionaries was called to build the foundation and now they can start working on the walls and the roof and stuff. 

     The branches didn't split yet. I think we need to help strengthen the members some more first but our zone conference was nice. I had to direct and I was super sick the night before but during zone conference I was fine. At the end, Elder Lake and I, the only ones from my group up here in the north, got to bare our testimonies. It was a super crazy experience, we started our missions together and are ending our missions together. We both started crying and it was weird just thinking back on all that has happened the last 2 years. The funny thing is that almost exactly a year ago Elder Lake was in Beira 2 and I was in Inhamizua. This week as well Inhamizua finally has a member branch president and counselors!

   This week I am going to start giving stuff away and I will buy stuff to bring home when I get to Maputo. I already have stuff but I don't know how much you guys want me to bring home? Me and Elder Lake are flying down to Maputo on the 18th and Friday and Saturday we can go buy stuff and visit families - pretty much whatever we want.

    Well love ya guys

                  over and out

Elder Bigelow

Zone Conference in Beira

March 24, 2014 - Beira

Well, I was going to send pictures of Joao and Rosa’s wedding and baptism but the computers here won’t let me send them.

   Our week was super crazy. We had to get everything ready for the wedding, mission leader conference ( .. we had to present the plan for our zone ..) and district leader conference. So last transfer our focus was on working with the members and strengthening our relationship with the leaders while helping them fulfill their callings. The missionaries in our zone who really applied it are starting to see a lot of success so we knew that working with the members couldn’t just be a one-transfer focus but that it is going to take time to strengthen the branches here in Beira. Anyways last week we were over at the Snelsons (the senior missionary couple) and Elder Snelson was talking to us about the temple and how few members here from Beira have been and that in the Beira district which includes all the branches from Beira , Manga , Inhamizua and Dondo, only about 10 couples have been sealed and I knew 1 or 2 of these couples in Inhamizua who were inactive when I was there. The stats were super sad, over 100 families baptized here in Beira last year and not one of them have gone to the temple. So Elder Snelson talks about how easy it is to get to the temple and we were like what? What are you talking about? And he tells us about this plan that is happening here in Mozambique where any family that wants to go to the temple for the first time, if they save up all they can the church pays for the rest. They just have an interview with the branch president and decide how much they can pay for passports, travel, food and everything and the church will help out with anything rest. Kinda like the atonement right? Anyways we were all taking and I think the biggest reasons nobody is going to the temple is 1) because nobody knows how, they just knows it costs tons of money and 2) this plan has not been very well announced or explained and so nobody knew the church would help. I think I had actually heard about it before but I had no idea how it worked or how easy it was. So for the district leader conference we gave to the district leaders in our zone, we decided to make a goal to have each dupla pick a family from their branch and help them get on this program and to the temple. We had Elder Snelson come and explain the plan to everyone and afterwards found out that President Kretly is actually giving a training this week about temples to all the branch presidents. It was super cool. I really feel like the next step for Beira and what the Lord wants is for families to get to the temple. Elder Maizane, the Mozambican Elder I knew from Matola, was at the training and he was super excited and asking tons of questions because he wants to help his family in Matola get to the temple.

  Yesterday President and Sister Kretly gave a training on the new family history program ‘My Family’ and talked a lot about temple work and the importance of getting to the temple. He said being a member your whole life and never getting to the temple is like being stranded at sea and swimming swimming simming and as soon as you hit the beach… dying. It was actually one of the best trainings I have ever been to, the spirit was super strong and the members were pumped!

     Zone conference is Friday and we will figure out what is going on with the branches. I think we might have some more work to do before they split though.

     The wedding went super well with Joao and Rosa and afterwards we were going to baptize them but the water was super gross . Dark dark brown – couldn’t even see the bottom - so I called President Kretly and asked if we could baptize them on the beach but he said no, instead we rented a chapa Saturday night and went out to Manga to baptize them there in superclean water. President was there giving the family history training so everything worked out. Joao and Rosa’s family were just singing super loud wedding songs the whole way over and there were too many people so my comp had to stand up the whole way with his butt out the window haha. Joao and Rosa are a super awesome family

   Also this week I got a call from Abreu and Carla from Matola they still aren’t married or baptized. They have had crazy document problems and then as soon as they were going to open the process his dad got super sick and they had to pay for him to go to the hospital. I was super pumped he called and then I talked to elder Jarvis today and he said Carla and Abreu are going to try to open the marriage process this week so their marriage and baptism will be the Saturday I am in Maputo right before I go home so I can be there to watch!! That would be soooo awesome - I love that family!

   Things are going super well and I love it out here. Today I saw Elder Ebmeyer, who is working in Manga, and he is training a member I knew from Maputo 2, Jose, who was preparing for his mission when I was there. I did a couple of splits with him and he helped us out a lot but he is here serving until he goes to Angola. It was really cool to see him today

          Love ya guys. Tell dad I would love to talk at a fireside when I get home!

 Elder Bigelow

March 17, 2014 - Beira

March 17, 2014

Guess what I saw this week? A guy wearing a Pie town New Mexico shirt!! I wish I would have had my camera.

    This week was awesome! So we are getting Joao and Rosa baptized this weekend and already had the process opened but then Rosa’s uncles who raised her said she couldn't get married until Joao payed labolo! Ridiculous right? They are both over 21 they can make their own decisions. So Joao just wanted to tell her uncles ‘too bad what are you going to do to me?’ but it would have caused tons of problems in Rosas family. So whenever there are problems with like anything here in Mozambique they have like big family meetings and everyone has to come to put there 2 cents in. And we got invited to one of these meetings with her uncle. He was just being super selfish and wants money, beer and food and anyways at the end of our meeting they still didn't decide anything. We told them they could just sign the papers get legally married, baptized and then wait and have a huge party with the family later whenever they wanted. Well they scheduled another huge meeting and invited way more people - just this time we were not invited. Luckily their padrinhos are super awesome members and were invited so they could help Joao and Rosa plead their case. We prayed tons that everything would work out but I was kinda expecting the worse, either way the process was opened so they had to get married but we really wanted Rosa’s family to accept it and they did! They called us after their big meeting and they were super pumped so Saturday after their baptism they are going to have a huge party at their house and everybody is cool with it! It only took the 6 weeks from contact to baptism and it would have been on the 8th if Rosa’s uncles would have accepted it.

     Now to the serious part of my letter. So Thursday night we went to sit with an old investigator we wanted to pick back up but he wasn't home, so we contacted a his neighbor who invited us in to his tiny cinderblock house and I am sitting right next to the door and Elder Peckham is sitting next to the window made out of mosquito netting instead of glass. So we are getting to know him a little bit just talking and this huge blast goes off and it shook the house so there is dust everywhere. I had to check myself to make sure I didn’t get shot or anything and we look at the guy and he just says " Oh the dang police in this area." So I started freakin out in my head and we shut the door all the way.  I was trying to think how we could kick down the back wall of his house and run. But then nothing happened and like 10 super long minutes go by and people start walking outside the window and stuff so we asked them what happened, was it a grenade or like what? But nobody knew what we were talking about. So we go outside to leave and look down on the ground and saw……… a coconut! It had fallen out of this super tall tree and hit the metal chapa roof right above our heads. I was kind of disappointed - I thought it was going to be a crazy cool story.

    This week we are also opening up a marriage process of Sergio and Ana who are getting baptized on the 29th and we finally are making progress on documents for a couple who are from Tete. We are really trying to help them get baptized in the middle of April. President Kretly is coming up this week for a zone conference and I am like 90 percent sure the branches up here are going to split!! I am way pumped! Also we got some super awesome new elders in our zone. Elder Hales and Elder Shumway came up from Maputo. We all lived in the same house in Motala and they are super awesome. We are all good friends and Elder Hales is serving with a missionary who I knew in Matola before he left on his mission! I really feel like we are going to see a lot of success here in Beira this transfer.

        As far as where I want to eat when I get back I would be super happy with a barbeque at Saul’s house! But the biggest thing I want to do is go to the temple - Mesa or Gilbert!

March 10, 2014 - Beira

  Well transfers today were pretty crazy - our whole house is staying exactly the same! I am excited though to stay here with Elder Peckham. This week we did a lot of marriage documents. We finally opened up Joao and Rosa’s process for the 22 of this month and we have two more families we are trying to baptize on the 29th who are both references from Douce and Ana, who are recent converts. They are actually on the video ‘It's a Miracle.’

    So in our area in Macute we have a part where we work which is pretty poor and on the other side of the road are just huge mansions. When we tried to do contacts over there nobody is ever home or are muslim. We actually contacted the ambassador from Zimbabwe over there. But anyways - this week we got a reference from other missionaries from a guy who they said had a super nice truck. So I called him and as soon as he explained where he lived I knew he had to be filthy rich. So we walked to where he said he lived and his house was 5 cars 3 story house!!! Biggest house I have been in in Mozambique. His name is Simon and he has a job pretty high up in the government. But he had tons of questions and really wants to know which church is true. He has been to tons of churches and he has a huge mix of beliefs, but we taught him twice on his balcony 3 stories up overlooking Macute. He didn't come to church, but has been reading in the Book of Mormon and we know he will help out the church a ton. Plus he gives us juice every time we go over!

    This month at the end I am pretty sure the branches in Beira will split and in Manga as well. As soon as that happens, more missionaries will be sent here to Mozambique! Our frequency yesterday was 263! We are working super hard trying to get 4 families we found last transfer baptized and I am super pumped!

   Love you guys

                 Elder Bigelow

March 3, 2014 - Beira

March 3, 2014

Our week here in Beira was pretty nice. We finally got Zaria baptized and we had a good turnout. We just put a bunch of disinfectant in the baptismal water. Tomorrow we are opening up the marriage process of Joao and Rosa, who were going to get married on the 8th but now want to wait til the 22^nd. Also we are going to do documents with Sergio and Ana.  They don’t have money because he lost his job but our washer broke so we are going to pay Ana to wash our clothes and they can use the money to get documents. We finally watched ‘The Work of Salvation’ with our branch, or at least some of the members showed up, but I think it helped a lot.

   Before the mission I think I had some stress and anxiety problems and on the mission sometimes I get pretty stressed out. I think I am just getting scared that I am going into my last transfer next week. Trying to get everything good before I go and ending everything.

    I think I want to apply to BYU for the winter semester as soon as I get back though, because I have no friends in Phoenix at all, and maybe I could just work and save up a bunch before then and look for grants and scholarships. For me it would be cheaper than UVU but It might be hard to get accepted. I don't know, I am kind of thinking that it is better to work hard for something I really want than taking something I have but don't want. I don’t think ASU would be the best environment. What do you think? I could just find a job at home until then or up in Utah or something.

    Transfers are next week and there are going to be a ton of changes - I really hope I stay with Elder Peckham until I go home though. We are working super hard and should have 3 families baptized in March.

  Have you guys talked to Mitchell or Colton yet? How are they doing?

  How is David doing with schooling and everything?

    Love you guys,

                          Elder Bigelow

February 24, 2014 - Beira

   To answer your question: we did stop by Lucias house this week but we found out she actually passed away up in Niassa while visiting family. We gave her a blessing and she got well enough to stand up and walk around and travel and after she visited family she passed away. I guess the reason we gave her a blessing is so she could visit her family before she passed away.

   This week was a good week. We were supposed to baptize Zaria on Saturday but it didn’t happen because the water coming out of the tap here in Beira is super gross right now - you couldn't even see the bottom of the font and nobody from our branch was really able to come so we rescheduled for next week and made better plans. We were thinking of just baptizing her on the beach because it is super close.

    I went on divisions with Elder Sip in Beira 1 this week and we had some pretty good lessons. It is super important when teaching a family to make sure they both really understand the great apostasy or nothing goes right down the road. We retaught a family the restoration who the wife was having trouble coming to church and she hadn't really understood the apostasy. It was an awesome lesson and she understood it, promised to pray, but Sunday still went to her church. Do what? Everybody has agency.

    We asked the other elders in our district to reactivate and help our branch mission leader and it worked! We had correlation meeting and the branch missionaries are really excited. Our branch is already changing a lot. Everybody is starting to do visits and be more proactive and we are seeing that the missionaries in our zone who are working with the leaders are having families to teach and families at church. On the 8th of March, the last week of the transfer, there are going to be at least 3 couples married and baptized in our zone.

    Sergio lost his job but he is a boss. I wish you guys could meet our investigators right now - they are all super awesome. Like I would totally be super good friends with them before the mission. This week we should start more documents with families.

   Well hope everything works out back at home for you guys. Just remember the blessings you are getting. I will have to look at that ASU thing today but I change my mind everyday about what I want to do when I get back. It is something that is going to take a lot of prayer to figure out. I figure I could go into the air force for 4 years and have college paid for after and then go into humanitarian aid, or we got a ride from a guy from South Africa who works fighting against kid trafficking and saves kids lives all the time. I think a job like that would be super fulfilling. I have no idea - too many choices. All I know is I am at least going to have to have a plan for my life before I think about getting married. Everybody going home is getting married super fast!

   Working with all these families though, I am definitely learning what is needed to have a happy family. There are tons of stuff that just destroy families and Satan is behind everyone of them. For real the only safe way to raise a family is the gospel!

   Well, love ya guys ,                         Elder Bigelow

February 17, 2014 - Beira

This week I can't even explain how many miracles we are seeing in our area. We had 7 complete investigator families at church even though it rained! We watched ‘Work of Salvation’ with our zone and are trying really hard to work with our branch leaders. We went and visited our branch president because he was coming off and on to church and not a lot was happening in our branch - We have a lot of inactive recent converts. So we just went and asked him how we could help and showed him that we support him and want to work together and it was a super nice lesson with his whole family. He had a super good plan in reactivating these families and asked our advice. So Sunday after church he schedules branch council and he sits down with us and all the leaders and he says “today we are not going to talk much I just want us all to come up with a list of in-active members and an area to start and we are going to go out and visit these families right now and give them home teachers and visiting teachers and next week we will gout with a different group and visit other inactives and give them home teachers and visiting teachers.” He really stepped up and has an inspired plan. I don't think I have been in a branch here where home teaching and visiting teaching has been really working but he has a whole plan of who everybody is going to account to and everything. We also visited our elders quorum president and had the same type of lesson and things went super well. The future of missionary work is the members! 

    This week we are going to baptize Zaria, the wife of Joao who passed away. They were taught pretty much of everything and were literally about to open the marriage process and get married. I know the relief society will help her a lot and she is a super strong lady.

     I am not sure if I wrote you guys or not about a new couple we found 2 weeks ago, Joao and Rosa, but they are one of the most prepared families I have taught. They have come to church twice, kept all their commitments and today we got all his marriage documents. By next week we should be able to open the process and they are getting baptized and married on march 8th. We also have like 4 or 5 super solid families in Macuti 2 which were references. 

    One of our investigators, Sergio, called me this week while we were out walking and was like ''I am kinda in a tough situation. I am in jail and my wife doesn't know yet'' and after he said that I tried to ask him questions but his phone didn't have very good connection so I couldn't understand anything, I tried calling him back but they took his phone from him - guess he only got one call and decided to call us. So we were super worried trying to figure out what happened. We talked to his wife later and she found out and told us what happened. So he is a guard for some Chinese guy and was working the night shift and fell asleep so when he fell asleep the place got robbed and the Chinese took him to prison. While he was there they found the stolen stuff so all charges against him got dropped but the police wouldn't let him out until he paid 2000 met. Super corrupt!  But anyways he got back and came to church we were able to talk to him he is super funny. Their area was super flooded and they came to church anyway. He may or may not lose his job though.

   We are going to have a lot of baptisms in March and April I think. The people here are just super prepared and as we work with the branch and take care of our recent converts the Lord will lead us to these families who will get baptized.

   I called some of the families I baptized down in Maputo and Aderito and Fatima the couple in the ‘It's a Miracle’ video (that the missionaries made) are planning to go to the temple! They already have passports which is the most expensive part! Andre and Maria are doing awesome. He told me that Stenio and Jr. are enrolled in missionary school (seminary).   Samuel and Maria both have callings - he is in the elders quorum presidency and is doing work. I talked to the Manga elders today they said Maria, a lady that Elder Ostler and I baptized, is still going strong. Now I just need to call Bobo, the guy I baptized in Inhamizua, and try to get him back active.

   We are just staying super super busy and the weeks are flying by! It's crazy. Thanks for the story you sent about Cathryn. That is awesome she is fine. You had me worried the whole letter. And as for the ASU info can you send that to me please? Thanks.  I just want to check some stuff. When you talk to Colton you will have to let me know and tell him to write. That is nuts he is already back. I am going to cry for sure when I leave. So many things have happened here on the mission and I don't want to go back to the world.

  Love ya guys,

                         Elder Bigelow

Oh and Lucia gets back tomorrow so we are going to go visit her.

February 10, 2014 - Beira

February 10, 2014

This letter won't be super long. I wrote Ransom about a story and asked him to forward it to you guys but things went well this week. 
{letter sent to Ransom:

    Well this week I am going to start out with a miracle we have seen in our area. So like a week and a half ago we were walking in our area of Macuti doing contacts because our lesson fell through and as we are going in and out of theses houses we see a teenager about our age just sitting on these steps in front of his house. Usually we don't contact men that are not old enough to be married but we started talking to him and asking if his parents were home. So he opens up his gate and we go in and talk to his dad, Zacarias, who is like a giant teddy bear - just the nicest guy ever - and we go and sit on his porch. So on the porch I look over and there is this lady just laying out on a make-shift bed who looks super super sick. Literally no muscle on her body - just skin and bones. So we start talking to her and her name is Lucia and she is Zacarias' wife who had been sick for about 6 months. She couldn’t really eat anything - she couldn't walk - nothing. The whole time I felt we were sent to that house for a reason and I kept thinking it was maybe just to teach them about the plan of salvation before she died. During the whole lesson she couldn't really talk much and kept spitting into this rag. So we shared the plan of salvation and talk to them and before we leave she asks for a blessing and says “if I ever get better I am coming to your church!”
    So we explained to them what a priesthood blessing was and I anointed her while Elder Pecham sealed the anointing. I was shaking super bad - the spirit was really strong and I wasn't even the one giving the prayer - but I had a really strong feeling she would get better and in the prayer Elder Peckham said she would walk again. 
     So we went back a couple of days later and had been calling them but nothing happened in the first couple of days. But this week we went by to see how she was doing and her kids said she had gained back weight she walked around and she travelled to Niassa to visit family! So we haven't seen her again yet but she gets back this week so we are going to visit them! They are going to get baptized for sure!

     We also had another investigator who was really sick that it almost looked like he had the same thing as Lucia - just super skinny- nothing but skin and bones. When I first got up here he and his wife were about to open up the marriage process to get married but he got worse so he couldn't even really walk either. He went into the hospital last week to receive blood and we gave him a priesthood blessing as well, but afterward we kind of thought he might not make it. Then Saturday we found out that he passed away. It is just super sad because his wife is pregnant and they have 2 little kids. It hit my companion pretty hard because he found and started teaching that family. We still are planning on baptizing the wife and I know the church and branch will help her a lot.}
     We bought a soccer ball today so we can play soccer on the beach every morning for exercise and we went to the grand hotel. So the Grand Hotel -you will have to look it up online- I guess it used to be pretty much the nicest hotel in Africa when the Portuguese were here but when they left it just got wrecked- like totally destroyed. Now there are 3000 people living in it because it's free. They don't have to pay but it is so trashed! I took some pics I will have to send some. The city has been trying to kick everybody out who is living there because I guess the foundation is super weak. The spiders in there are literally as big as my hand! So we went up on top and took some awesome pics of the beach. 

    This week we had 4 new families at church! We have found a lot of awesome families since I have been here and have been asking references from literally everybody even if they reject us in the contact and have been getting a decent amount. We have 3 or 4 families that were being taught before I got here but it is sad that we have had to drop a few of them because they just lost desire. We are working really hard to get two families baptized and trying to get the zone excited! Tons of families were baptized here last year but a lot of them were not really taken care of after baptism and so there are a lot of inactive recent converts. The number of baptisms in our zone has gone down a lot but I think that as we learn to take care of our recent converts and help families get to the temple they will be more willing to give us more prepared families to baptize.

     I am going to be super sad to leave but it's nuts I already have flight plans! [He will arrive in Phoenix on April 22!] I am just trying to do everything I can to make the time I have left on the mission count. I got an email from Logan today he is awesome -it made my day! I guess I will just figure things out with college when I get back because I was thinking as well maybe it would be better to just do one more semester at ASU and then transfer to BYU. I heard BYU is cheaper for people out of state because they pay member or nonmember but the deadline already passed for fall semester. But you can still start my application for UVU just in case and I will be thinking about what I want to do. I want to take some Portuguese classes and try to major or minor in Portuguese and then see from there. I speak okay Portuguese but some classes would for sure help.

   Love you guys,

                    Elder Bigelow

 A spider as big as my hand!

This tree is on top of the roof of the Grand Hotel. It just started growing up the side of it!

February 4, 2014 - Beira

February 4, 2014

The weeks just keep flying by faster and faster! But things are going great here in Beira. Elder Peckham and I have been being superblessed with new families to teach. I don’t even know how we are going to find enough time to teach them all this week. Yesterday we had 8 lessons and last week we had over 20 new investigators. We have a goal to baptize at least 2 families this transfer.

     Since last week Beira has been having tons of problems with energy. Manga has not had energy (electricity) or water for a week. For now those elders are staying at the Beira chapel. We went a few days without it but somehow our neighborhood got it back. So everything is going good now. 

    We are working in two areas: one called Chipangara and we started working in another area called Macuti. We just switch off between them everyday. Zone conference was awesome! We talked a lot about family nights, working with the members and helping our investigators make and keep commitments. This week me and Elder Peckham also gave a training to the district leaders about the importance of working with members and helping to strengthen our branches. Here in about a month or two there are going to be 3 new branches just here in Beira and I think another 3 in Manga! We downloaded the broadcast from the 1st presidency ‘the work of salvation’ and want to watch it with all the members here in Beira. I know that the Lord has a lot in mind for Africa and that here in no time missionary work is going to explode! Elder Bednar said it is like Mexico or Brasil in the 70s but that the church will grow even faster here. I have been so blessed to be able to serve in Mozambique where the people are so accepting!

     Well love ya guys,

                      Elder Bigelow

 I took a picture with 2 mac the rapper from Inhamizua- I've told you about him before. Cool guy. 

With Elder Hamilton of the Seventy.

January 27, 2014 - Beira

January 27, 2014

    So since last week, a lot has happened! And sorry I didn't really even get to write last week either, but transfers were not really supposed to be until today haha. So Sunday after calling the zone leaders about our stats they told me I was leaving Maputo to be zone leader. So the next morning we go to look at transfers on the computer and I found out I was coming up to Beira but I thought I would leave like Tuesday night. Turns out my plane ticket was for Tuesday morning at 6:30 in the morning and so I had to go sleep in the office and the office elders were coming to get me that afternoon. So I spent the rest of the day packing and getting my suitcase down to 20 kilos. I didn't even get to say goodbye to anybody but I have called a lot them this week. It was pretty crazy leaving after 5 transfers.

    And I actually started my mission farther up North in Nampula which is where that little village of Luaha is so I will never get to go back up there.  But President Kretly baptized 3 families up there last transfer!

    So Tuesday I walked in a triple with Elder Peckham, my new companion, and Elder Martinez who is actually from Mesa and knows Lacy and Patrick! I guess Patrick was his teacher’s quorum adviser! Martinez was just waiting to go down to Matola - we pretty much just switched spots. We served two years together but never met until this week.

   Wednesday two Elders came to stay in our house who were going home, so we walked in another triple and had a busy day. Thursday we did divisions with one of the district leaders and I stayed in our area and showed it to him after just two days but it was a lot of fun. It has been pouring here in Beira all week! Our area is pretty flooded but we use irrigation boots and they make you feel invincible - you can literally walk through anything. 

    This week President Kretly and Elder Hamilton of the Seventy came up to Beira for district conference (or stake conference) for everybody in the Beira area. So I got to see a lot of people from Manga 1, Dondo, and Inhamizua!! it was really nice. I took a picture with 2Mac the rapper from Inhamizua. He got the Melchizedek priesthood on Sunday! Actually Sister Snelson took the and I asked her to send it to you as well. 

   Me and Elder Peckham were super busy this weekend getting everything set up for this district conference and during the whole meeting we just had to sit up on the stand and run errands for president. Tons of stuff went wrong with the energy and internet so we were super busy trying to keep everything working. They prepared a presentation on the computer that they actually didn't get to use because of all the problems so a lot of the conference was just improv. I felt pretty bad but it was still an awesome conference and he talked a lot about how members are actually the full time missionaries because here in a little bit the missionaries leave they go home but members always stay this is their home not ours. On Sunday the generator actually exploded during the conference! it was pretty crazy. We saw it from where we were sitting and it was super loud. I guess it just couldn't take going on and off so much.

   We have some really awesome investigators and a really nice area. We live just two minutes from the beach and we walk past it everyday. This week we actually had this super drunk guy follow us into our investigator’s house. He followed us and we went in and he came in but they acted like they knew him so I thought it was like a brother or something and then we asked them if they knew him and they started freaking out they thought he was a member we had brought to the lesson! It was pretty crazy. I am pumped to be here in Beira I love it here and I am excited to end here.

Tomorrow we are having a zone conference with the Kretlys and the Hamiltons and I am really excited. They actually came over to our house today and I got a picture with him. (he said he will send it tomorrow.) He was supposed to teach a lesson with us today but he decided not to, I think it's because of all the rain. But things are going great -staying super busy -and It is going to be  a great week!

   Love ya guys. Tell everybody hi for me, and tell David to be carefull haha! That is like the 3rd time since I have been here he has cut himself!

   I was actually thinking lately that majoring in humanitarian aid would be super cool. Isn't that what Uncle Jim did for the church?

       Elder Bigelow

At the airport when he arrived in Beira. From left: A member who was at the airport, Ryan, Elder Peckham (his new companion) two elders (don't know their names) and last, Elder Snelson (senior missionary couple serving in that area. Sister Snelson is taking the picture)

January 20, 2014 - last time from Matola

Hey this is going to be the shortest email of my mission. So - long story short - transfers are happening a week early and I am flying up to Beira tomorrow at 6:30 to be a zone leader until I finish my mission!! I love Beira so I will write more next week. I have to go pack because I am sleeping in Maputo tonight!

  Love ya guys

                 Elder Bigelow

January 13, 2014 - Matola

What's up??

     This week we were able to help get Stenho, Andre and Maria’s son, ready for baptism and he was baptized on Saturday by Andre!! It was awesome! I will have to send pics next week. We spent most of our p-day table shopping here in Maputo and we still have to get back to Matola. But also Elder Shumway and Abel, in my district, baptized and married a family and their neighbor that was contacted in the street in my area by Elder Ebmeyer, my last companion. Pretty cool! I got to do their baptismal interviews and they have super strong testimonies.

    Today we played ultimate frisbee with a bunch of elders here in Matola and Stenho and Jr.,  Andre and Maria's kids, were able to come. It was a lot of fun. We are really trying to work a lot more with the members and create more unity between the members and missionaries. We also found a super cool guy to teach named Joao this week. Married in the register with no church!!! But there always has to be catch right? - so he works Sundays right now and his wife doesn't like us …Yet... But he is super smart and read the restoration pamphlet and asked some of the smartest questions I have ever heard. Also Samuel (like in Samuel and Maria well anyways) he got the Melchizedek priesthood this week! Super nice.

   In other news: There is a wall in our house that has a huge hole and rats have been getting in this week, so our house has been a warzone lately! But it is being worked on as we speak. Good thing I practiced mouse stomping with David and Tyler on that old Saint Johns road! Also we are finally getting a new kitchen table - the last one is super gross.

   Also I am going on divisions to the zone leader’s house this week. The first time I will sleep in another house in over 6 months. Kinda pumped. But things are going great - working on helping an inactive family get married and come back strong

    Love all you guys and if you love me you won't judge my spelling! [Don’t worry, Ryan, Mom edits for you!]

                     Elder Bigelow

January 6, 2014 - Matola - Happy New Year

I totally thought I wrote about new years last week!!

    New years was good! Me and a few Elders went to sleep at 10:30 but woke up at 11:30 to sit out on the roof of our 2 story building and watch all the fireworks. Everyone just buys fireworks and at 12 there were thousands - it was super cool!! We could see all the way into Maputo! But then our neighbors starting setting them off and they were getting super close so we got down and went to bed.

   New Years is huge here and everyone goes to their families’ house on the 1st and they eat lunch and party all day again. Just today people are starting to go back to work. In America we have national hangover day but here they take a week, haha. It is super funny - everyone gets super excited and we still get people all the time asking how we entered into the new year.

    This week went well as far as the work too. 203 frequency!! If our frequency stays above 180 they are going to split Matola 1 and Matola 2 into a Matola 3 branch as well. We are really focusing on working with the members. Elder Jarvis and I are in charge of helping Primary and the young men. Our primary president is awesome though, and keeps all the little rascals under control. When I had to help with primary a lot in the beginning of my mission, high school wrestling experience came in handy, but I may have lost a few times when they ganged up on me. Primary women have a way with loving not fighting.

     This Saturday we are going to baptize Stenho and we are pumped! He is Andre and Maria’s son who is the same age as Jr.  The other elders are baptizing a family so we are just going to do it all together. Andre is going to baptize his son!! 

  We also are teaching a family from Manga and another family, Ditos and Ana who are way nice. We are still helping Carla and Abreu with documents but they are doing awesome and always have references for us.

     So crazy story: here in Matola they have huge lizards with bright blue heads called gala galas. So yesterday there was this crazy hard mystery fruit on the ground so I picked one up to throw it at this huge tree and then I saw this gala gala so I went to throw it at it but I had no hope of actually hitting it. But I nailed it out of this tree and it starting spinning circles! I thought I killed it and everyone that saw was super amazed with my skills (they probably wanted to eat it) but we went to catch it and it ran off.

     Our area is huge and so we are trying new places and we are trying to teach families that I or other missionaries had dropped the last couple of transfers and are having some success. 

   I seriously love this place and the people. Right now is the time of machambas so we are scoring all kinds of fruit and stuff.

   I made your fry bread like 5 times - super good! Don’t know why I never asked for the recipe till now! 

   Well love ya guys! Have a great week!

       Elder Bigelow