Friends and Family,
This week was pretty amazing. Going down to Beirra reminded me there is life outside of my area here in Nampula. We flew down on a tiny 30 passenger plane. We flew through Tete and had a 30 min. layover and then flew down to Beirra. It was awesome to meet new people and talk to my MTC group - especially my MTC companion Elder Lake - he had some funny stories. I will tell you one real quick. So Beirra has an actual grocery store almost like the ones in America, huge and with a bakery and everthing called ShopRight. Elder Lake and his comp were buying groceries and they look down and this huge rat (they get huge - I have only seen one big one but like cat size I swear) crawls out right next to them. So they look at each other and look down the isle and one of the workers just all of a sudden drops what he is doing, stares down at the rat and starts sprinting toward them. They said he just punted the rat and it flew into a pillar and just died. And then the guy just picked it up with his hands and walked off! Haha - I wish I could have seen that.
Each place in Mozambique is so different. Everwhere speaks different dialects and have different cultures. It's like every city here is it's own mission. Transfers are next week and there is about a 50/50 chance I will leave since I have already showed my area to Elder Bradford. I will be sad to leave and I will probably never see these people here in Nampula again in my life but at the same time I am ready to start fresh in a new area. It will be hard.
But anyways Beirra and the conference were amazing! I learned so much. Elder and Sister Renland are amazing people and also President and Sister Kretley talked to us. There were about 40 missionaries - about half of the mission. It is so crazy to me that I have already been here 2 transfers. This transfer flew!! I have been out for over 4 months. Time is a crazy thing because I have not been here that long. After the conference I went on splits with Elder Largent to a place called Inhamizua. It takes about an hour by choppa to get out there but they live in Beirra because there are no houses out there for them to stay in. He is the branch president out there. We had an awesome 1st lesson with a guy and then went to the ward presidency meeting. On the way back though I got the front seat in the choppa and it was dark but I was just chillin. We were going pretty fast and then this guy jumps out in front of the choppa! I swear I saw his life flash before my eyes - haha - but the driver puts on his brakes for just a second and then just keeps going! I thought for sure we hit the guy - he was right in front of my faceI I didnt' hear a thud - so scary - but the guy must have just teleported to the other side and was fine - so crazy! Parts of Beirra really do look like the buildings in I am Legend. After the Potuguese left a lot of the buildings just didn't stay maintained. Kind of the story of Mozambique.
Investigators: man it's hard to find people that are actually willing to do things. There are so many churches here that people don't understand how ours is any different even after we explain it many times. A lot of people just kinda say like "oh yeah the word of God is always great" "God is great" "my church believes in God too." It is kind of like they beleive there are tons of ways to get to the top of a mountain and we are trying to tell them there is only one. And people say things all the time here and don't mean it at all. It is frustrating at times but I am slowly learning to love even the hard parts. One thing I am trying to change is I am a perfectionist in some ways. For example I worry a lot about the past and little things I did wrong and a lot about the future too. Sometimes it is hard for me to focus on the here and now because my mind is always worrying about something. It is killing me but I am slowly getting better and learning to accept my mistakes and learn from them and move on and not worry about the future either.
Joseph - the one guy from Congo I told you about - is an amazing person. We still have some to teach him but he has such strong faith and such a strong testimony. He has been living with one of his friends and working in his salon to pay for his place to sleep. His friend wanted him to work all the time and didn't really like Joseph meeting with us and coming to church because he couldn't work as much. Joseph knows the gospel is what he needs so he kept coming anyways and yesterday his friend kicked him out of the house. He sacraficed everything to follow Christ! He came to church even though it cost him his job and his place to live. So yesterday we helped him find a place (with the help of Augustinho, a ward missionary) to live at least for a couple of nights while he tries to figure out what to do. He even told us though that this will be a good change for him and he will find a better atmosphere to try to live the gospel. I want to see him get baptized so bad, but if I get transferred I don't think I will. He has such an amazing story. Some of our other investigators are going through some tough times. I feel so bad for them but we do what we can but the actual choice to live the gospel and come to church has to be theirs.
The mission is crazy I have grown so much and changed so much. Fixing things I didn't know I had problems with before I left. You really learn a lot about yourself out here and as you become stronger you can help others that much more.
My mission dad, Elder Leake, is in Maputo now but he dies in a week (or goes home). But he left his ipod in Nampula because it was old and he has some really cool stuff I have been listening to. Anyone who is married should listen to John Lund and his talks called "For all eternity" - there are about 5 different parts but it is so amazing. He is LDS and a great psychologist. For real Mom, Dad, Anne, Wes, Ransom, Katie, you guys should listen to him. It is really cool and he also has one called "the myth of perfection" - I ike a lot too. He teaches about his studies and then shows how they can be applied in the gospel and life.
People are honestly so blessred in the United States. Good Education, for example, and things I didn't even realize were a blessing until I got here. These people are amazing - it is a different world for sure. The people deserve better than what they have. I wonder why all the time I was so lucky to be born in the United States and get a good education and family and life. It is cool helping people to see they are better than their circumstances and help them see life is more than what they have right now. The gospel is hope! One of my favorite scriptures is Esther 12:4. We can honestly hope for a better world because of Jesus Christ if we have faith in and follow him. This life is honestly just a small moment of testing. Sometimes it is hard to see the eternal perspective but it helps so much.
We had a crazy lesson with a guy straight from the jungle the other day. He is the father of some of our new investigators Anna and Bernardo Manguambie.
But you guys should print off and keep all my letters too because I have not been the best at writing in my journal. That is something I will really work on this week. A really cool talk is by Elder Holland called "The Lords Vineyard" (I think) in this last general conference. David, you should listen to his talk and Elder Eyering's too called "The atonement and missionary work." We listen to it almost everyday - it is like our pump up speech.
Hey you guys have to keep me updated on new missionary calls from our stake. That would be crazy if someone else comes here. This place is so much different than even South Africa I have heard. And plaese send me Josh's email and Trevan Adair's.
We met a guy from New York (the Bronx) Steve, who lives here because his family does. He sells crappy American furniture from the US and it's like gold here but He seems like an awesome guy. Hopefully we can share our message with him and talk to him. He is Catholic but we will see what happens.
Ficam bem
Elder Bigelow
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