December 16, 2013 - Matola

Hey guys !

   This week went well. We started teaching a guy with real dreads but he didn’t end up coming to church. But we will keep with him this week. Transfers went well: Elder Ebmeyer got transferred to Matola 2 and I got a new companion who is coming today from Magoanini, another area here in Maputo. He is in his 3rd transfer and is also from Provo. I am excited and really want to help our area take off. I am just staying as district leader again.

    This week we had a miracle happen! We have been working really hard trying to get Abreu's birth certificate but he needed a number on one of the documents he had lost to get it from the register in Maputo. So we went to like 4 places trying to look for this number or anywhere that would have some of his records and nobody was helping us. They all just kept sending us in circles it was always somebody else’s job. Finally we said a little prayer and were sent to an old guy in the criminal records department in Maputo. You have to know that all the files here are paper and by hand - no computers. Anyway, we paid him about 5 bucks and he went and found Abreu’s primary school records so we could find the number to get his birth certificate!!! It was super crazy. 

    As far as calling for Christmas goes, I can call on the 23rd or the 25th at whatever time is best for you guys. Just send me an email next week saying what time is best and I will call then.

   Elder Lake, my companion in the MTC, is the branch president now in Inhamizua and I talked to him this week. It sounds like inhamizua has changed so much. In January they are going to have 5 or 6 couples that are already members get married finally and become worthy. Most of them I knew when I was there. It made me super happy to hear about how well one of my old areas was growing!

   Thanks a ton for all the help with school stuff and don’t worry, I am staying focused! I get sad every time I think about how fast the mission is going by. This transfer seemed seriously like no time at all.

     Well tell everybody I love them and thank Gramma again for the eggnog she sent. Super good!

  Love ya all!

    Elder Bigelow

December 9, 2013 - Maputo

Hey well this week I have a little more time so I would send pics but my computer won't let me so It will have to wait till next week. The zoo was cool but the only things they had were crocodiles and monkeys. They used to have a hippo but I guess it died. But it only cost about 20 cents to get in so it was way worth it! We just bought live chickens on the side of the road and threw them in to the crocodiles. There aren’t really rules here like there are in the states.

    This week we found 2 new families that came to church and it was a good week! This week we are going to help Carla and Abreu get some marriage documents in Maputo. He got robbed and got all of his documents stolen.

      Andre is Uncle Donovan’s look-a-like here in Africa! Tell me if you think so. I will send pics of the wedding last weekend. 

    This weekend we are going to sing in a Christmas program the Kretlys are doing and next week is transfers! I have no idea what will happen. By the way, I think I am just going to call, not skype, on Christmas.

      That is awesome Dad doesn’t have to wear a cast.

        Tell everybody hi and thanks for looking into school for me. 

 Love ya guys!

 Elder Bigelow

December 2, 2013 - Matola

     Hey sorry this week is going to be super short. We are in Maputo and still have to run back to Matola. But the wedding and baptism of Andre and Maria and Jr. was awesome. Samuel and Maria were padrinhos (godparents) and Samuel baptized them !! How neat is that? Abreu and Carla are going good. We are going to help them with documents soon.

     We just got back from the Maputo zoo that only has monkeys and crocodiles but we fed them chickens and I got it all on film.

      Hey I super need your guy’s and Ransom’s help with UVU info. I do not want to go back to ASU and Elder Awbry just got done applying there so maybe we could room together. But I have no idea how to know prices or how to apply or transfer grades or anything and I don’t want to come home without at least an idea of my future life. Thanks love you guys tons

     Elder Bigelow

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

November 18, 2013 - Matola

Hey guys,

  Hey can you please forward me Holden’s emails? I still have not read any of them.  And also I heard the Houstons are moving. Can you get me their email? And also I am not sure if we ever gave them back the Rosetta Stone language computer program I used before the mission. If it is still at our house can you give it back to them? I think Ransom might have borrowed it after me. Thanks.

   Well, I got Dad’s email and wrote him back. Hope everything goes well on his surgery and that is awesome he is getting Saul’s old truck!

  This week went well. We finally found some new families. The neighbors of Samuel and Maria are awesome. She has been in South Africa and is coming back today, but he has come to church twice and is reading in the Book of Mormon. Apparently she lived in Zimbabwe and got to know the church and has been looking for it here so we are really excited about them. Andre and Maria are finally getting married and baptized on the 30^th, next week.

   Tell Colton Edwards ‘hi’ for me. That is crazy he is already home. It’s good to hear that all the missionaries in the Philippines are doing fine. Who did Reagan marry?

   Tell David ‘hi’ for me. Does he have his own email? I want to write him his own letter so, if not, I will just send it to yours next week.

  We might get a new house! One that is pretty close to ours right now actually. But I have kinda gotten used to bucket showers and am learning how to hand wash clothes. It takes forever haha but all the people here do it like everyday. It's pretty much a part of their culture. It is pretty funny how they dry them. They just beat them against a giant rock. Maybe one day I will try to film it.

      Did you get that letter from President Kretly I sent about the dresses? What is the situation with that? We need a lot of big dresses because we have quite a few small ones but some of the women, like Maria, are kinda big here and she was sad none of the dresses we had fit her. But they are going to rent one.

 Well I might try to send some pics today so have a great week!

Elder Bigelow

This is a building in Maputo that was designed by the same guy who did the Eiffel Tower.

November 11, 2013 - Matola

Hey guys,

   This week has probably been the longest week of my life. 1st off all the new missionaries in our district got here and it is a little weird adjusting. We were all super tight in our last house and could joke around and stuff but now it’s a little different - but things are going good.

  Also, what started out as trying to fix a leaky shower head turned into us having no water for 3 days and taking showers with our neighbors hose sticking through our bathroom window! Our pump has tons of problems, but hopefully this week we can get it all fixed. Some guy came and fixed it enough to where we have water, but the pressure was sky high, so the 1st time I turned on the shower head it exploded -haha! Add it to my list of things to fix in our house this transfer.

   Elections are going on and so this week we are supposed to buy three weeks of food and water! Nothing is really happening though. Don’t worry. I have been learning karate every morning in case things get ugly and I should be a black belt soon!

    We found 2 awesome families. One is Samuel and Maria’s neighbors who are supercool. She gets back from South Africa this week. Samuel got the priesthood last week and is seriously a super-member who is helping us a ton. He has given us a bunch of references and is always inviting people to have family home evening with them at their house! President already has a calling picked out for him and we don’t even teach them - they just teach us!

    Also we found a couple, Lorenso and Acusena, who are cool. He came to church yesterday. I wrote about them last week. Our first lesson was crazy. I asked what she was looking for in a church and she goes ‘the answer to three questions: where did we come from? why are we here? and where are we going after we die?’ I couldn’t believe it. I had to make sure she didn’t already have a plan of salvation pamphlet! But we taught it and the restoration this week to them.

   Hey that is super crazy about the Philippines! Have you heard anything about Chantz? And Ransom wrote me about the Utah thing. That would be awesome. I really think I want to go to UVU.

   Don’t worry about my health, Mom. It’s always supernice.

 Well, love ya guys!

  Elder Bigelow

p.s.  I asked President Kretly about the wedding dresses, and this was his answer:

About the wedding dresses they can send without put any costs, just need to send and put as a used dresses. Because if they put a amount the value, we pay a lot of taxes here!
Thank you for being a great missionary!
Paulo Kretly
President
Mozambique (Angola) Maputo Mission

[President Kretly is Brazilian and his native language is Portuguese. You can really tell J]

November 4, 2013 - Matola (still)

    I am sure our mission could use those dresses for sure. [A sister in our ward here in Eagar wanted to know if she could donate some wedding dresses and temple dresses to the ‘wedding planners’ in Ryan’s mission] I will write President Kretley about it in my email this week. 

  Well transfers were pretty crazy. Me and Elder Ebmeyer are staying together for a third transfer!! 3 out of the 6 people in our house are leaving and our house is getting a new elder. I am district leader again. It should be a fun transfer but not at all what I was expecting. 

    Elder Lake, my companion in the MTC is going to be branch president in Inhamizua and Inhamizua has 4 missionaries now. They need a lot of help with leadership. Amisse, the guy me and Elder Awbry helped get married is the elders quorum president and is doing super awesome, I hear. But I found out today that Pasqua’s wife passed away. Super super sad. They are only like 35, but what a blessing they were able to get married and live the law of chastity before she passed away. I am going to call him today.

    We finally got a new family to come to church, Ragina and Sadiki, who are pretty cool and we had an awesome lesson last night. We sat with a couple who he had sat with the missionaries like 3 years ago and when we called him decided to let us come by but didn’t tell his wife. They both are without a fixed church, so I felt like I should ask them ‘what are you looking for in church?’ And she thought for a minute and she asks in exactly these words: 'Where did I come from? Why am I here? and Where am I going?'  We were just like blown away! So we ask if she has ever found an answer to any of these questions and she says no. So we pull out the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and have her read the intro and she almost started crying and says ‘These are the exact questions I have!’ So we taught about the Plan of Salvation and we are going back this week. It was super nice to have a lesson like that because sometimes I feel like we have been sitting with tons of new people but not having very many great lessons. But it really helped my faith that God is preparing people to hear our message. Andre and Maria will be baptized this transfer but we want to baptize at least one other family as well. 

    And please don’t remind me about how much time I have left! I hate thinking about it! It makes me super sad sometimes. Missionary work is super hard or frustrating but I don’t know how I am going to leave this place! I don’t even have the slightest idea of what I want to do or where I want to go when I get home. Well I love ya all  - thanks for the photos.

     Elder Bigelow