Jonathan's Mozambique Mission 2017-2019: The Last Ride

So, when I was in the office, President Senna planned a trip to a place called Quelimane where we have a branch and then another branch way out in the middle of nowhere named Marromeu. Anyways, as part of this planning, I bought flights for all of us, me included. So when I was transferred, the said flight was already bought. I thought that I would be uninvited, but because cancelling the flight would mean lost money for the church, President let me come! Ahaha so I spent the week with the old group for the last time. It was incredible.

We started by flying out of Maputo to Quelimane where we spent the night doing visits and helping less active members. We got to know some awesome families. Then we woke up early the next day and set out for Marromeu. It was about 6 hours by car and the road is pretty wrecked, so it was definitely an adventure. We were driving along when all of a sudden the President's car got stuck in a huge hole. His wheel got stuck and the hole was big enough that the wheel couldn't touch the ground. Luckily, President brought 5 missionaries with him (me, elder Stevens, Elder Mere(new Sec), Elder Flitton and Elder Cordy) and we picked the truck up and moved it out of the ditch. Super cool. HAhaha but we finally made it.

When we got there we got something to eat. We ate at a place that sat on the edge of a river. Anyways, when we went to go and have a look at the river we met a man named Victor. (I sent a pic of him.) Anyways, he is a fisherman and I went and started talking to him about his life. Ended up talking about pedro and how he was also a fisherman and about apostles and all the good stuff. Then we invited him to come to church that Sunday. He said he would bring his family. Cool contact!!

Fast forwarding, the whole trip we went out walking with members to try and invite as many people as possible to the conference that they would be having that week. WE walked a ton and it was suuuuupppppeeerrr hot. But gotta love the heat right?

Sunday finally came, and the normal attendance of 190 people shot up to 298 people, our goal being 300. It was incredible. Also Victor made it to church with his wife and kid. They left their house at 7:30 am walking and made it to church at about 9:30. Mad respect and I felt the spirit so strongly when he said he would be returning every week after.

Tons of people that we invited made it to church and it was an incredible experience. Lots of things happened but because of my faults as a human being and my impairment of writing things in english that's about it for the week.

On the way back through Quelimane, we had a family night with the branch that was super well planned. President was supposed to give a lesson, but because of some problems, he couldn't make it so we ended up giving the lesson and it was a super fun night.

On the way back I was walking with Elder Cordy and Flitton and we passed a man on the street on a bike. Hahaha, i called him out and he stopped to talk with us. We shared a little bit of the message and he had a lot of interest. I am always blown away by how prepared the people are to hear the truth. The people are incredibly humble and make me want to be better.

The Elders in Quelimane and Marromeu will have a lot of work in the next couple of weeks. We flew back today and we had a little time to write some emails. I love you all and I can't wait to get back to work in my area. Hope Elder Van Orden is doing good without me;) Until next time!

-Elder Thornton

Trip to Quelimane and Marromeu

Elder Mere