This week was super nice. So first of all Aderito and Fatima were married, baptized, and confirmed! Super excited for them. It was awesome. SO originally it was supposed to be a collective wedding with 8 couples but... long short short... it ended up just being our couple and the district who was going to fund it was not going to anymore. We found all this out like a couple of days before the wedding. So we explained to Aderito and Fatima it was just going to be a simple party afterwards and they could still invite their 20 invites but everything would have to be donated from branch members. So we had meeting with our branch leaders and Aderito and Fatima and asked if anyone if anyone would donate food or drinks and have like a small party afterwards. Like super simple. So our Elders quorum said they would donate a couple of sodas and stuff but our relief society president was super skeptical about food and we could still make the party happen. Then 2 days before the wedding we had one more meeting to finalize everything but it was still super up in the air. My companion was super worried.
We show up Friday to decorate right before and this member helped us and it was super nice!! B:ut at 14:00 when the wedding was supposed to start it was only Aderito but we were expecting it to start late anyways. Then at like 14 thirty this truck shows up full of members and full of tons of food. So much food and drinks!! Then a member comes in with a computer and speakers and we set it all up right when Fatima shows up in a super nice jeep and a parade of like 3 or 4 cars all decorated and stuff and all of their family. So she starts walking in ( with a super nice dress from Portugal) and by that time everyone is there and everyone is singing African wedding songs in dialect their family even had their own mini choir that came and kind of like wedding cheerleaders starting everyone on all the traditional African songs. It was awesome! I love Africa! So the ceremony goes great there were a lot of songs and stuff and then everybody goes out to take pictures so we set up the same room for the party (supposed to be small 20 invites) but by now we have tons of food ( our branch is the best), tons of members and they had a lot of family and friends. So the members wanted to try to feed everyone and just have a huge party and we did! Mozambicans know how to party haha.
Their family had a dance team it was like 3 couples all matching and they danced. They had a huge wedding cake, everyone ate a full meal ,there was like a year supply of soda. It was like a wedding back in the States but Aricanized so it was way cooler. I took a bunch of videos and pictures. The couple even broke the floor with their dance, the parents spoke, she threw the flower thing, like honestly the whole sh-bang. I want my reception to be like that haha.
So Saturday was the baptism. Elder Wartena baptized Aderito and I baptized Fatima. The feeling of helping a family to be baptized ( they have a little daughter Fofucha 2 super cute ) is really ... let's just say I feel super blessed. And I think our mission helped 8 complete families get baptized this weekend alone each one with their own conversion stories and it makes me want to like cry haha. Our mission is honestly seeing real growth and so many miracles.
Oh and afterwards they had like another reception pretty much ( they call them copo de aguas) which means like cup of water but really they are parties - at her moms house and we were invited. It was a crazy story as well - remind me in your next email and I will write you about it next week I still want time to send pics.
This week we also looked for new families but it has been kind of tough. We walked in a triple with Elder Bender as well and it was way fun he is in his 2nd transfer and had to come down from Quelemone this week. I called Elder Awbrey and Domingas and Candido are doing good still just trying to save money to get married. I am going to be super happy when they get married and baptized!!
I can't even explain how much have been blessed and how much I am learning here on the mission. It's like one of the quotes general conference I don't remember exactly how it went but The African people don't have a whole lot of what doesn't really matter but they have a lot of what matters most.
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