November 25, 2013 - Matola

Well this week has been pretty nice,

  Tuesday I got to go on divisions with Elder Williams who is the Matola zone leader. We were in the MTC together and so it was way fun. We had 3 full families at church and as a district we got ten families and our frequency at church was 190!! I think that is a new record for Matola! Super pumped! Our water situation still isn’t the best and washing clothes by hand is quite the experience but this week I will try to pay somebody else to try to fix it. President shut down our idea of getting a new house because our location now is like perfect.

     Ok, so let me tell you guys a super cool story about a family we are teaching right now, Carla and Abreu! So we will start off this story way back in the 90's when Carla lived in Zimbabwe and went to our church with some people in her family but was never baptized. So she is from Mozambique and comes back and hooks up with Abreu but was never able to find the church here. Then she moves in with her family to Taxlom, right next to Samuel and Maria. So she talks to Maria and finds out our church is here but doesn’t think her husband will accept. And then she left to visit family in South Africa for like 3 weeks. So get this - while she is gone, without saying anything about the church to her husband, Elder Mendes (who left last transfer) invites him to church when they cross on the road and he came. So we talk to him at church and sit with him that week - 1st lesson - accepts baptism!! And we left him a Book of Mormon. The second time we go back he is halfway through 1st Nephi and has talked to his boss about not working Sundays and we finish the restoration. Third lesson Carla is finally back from South Africa and blown away that her husband has already found the church and he is in 2nd Nephi with an answer that Joseph Smith was a prophet and they both just want to get married and baptized!! With Samuel and Maria with neighbors and friends!! Pretty legit! The Lord really does prepare people to hear our message! 

   Andre and Maria are finally getting married and baptized with their son, Jr., this weekend and they are super excited. Their interviews went super nice! They have really strong testimonies and are going to help us teach some lessons this week. If you guys want you can write them emails this week and I can translate or google translate or something. They are seriously an amazing family. I will send pics next week.

   Thursday we are all going out to eat pizza for Thanksgiving - at least everyone in our house.

    Hey, I got your package!! I almost cried when I got Gramma’s eggnog mix - give her a big hug for me! The letters were super nice!! And trust me, I will put all that candy and sauce mixes to good use! Sorry I couldn’t wait until Christmas but I don’t know what I would do without the socks that were in there. Thanks everyone!

    Well, tell everyone ‘hi’ for me!

    Love ya guys!

Elder Bigelow