Its real

Welp, another absolutely crazy and unexpected week here in Nacala. We have been working hard, trying to help the group reach its goal of becoming a branch. This week we had the Zone leaders from Nampula come up and do some divisions with us. It was an awesome experience to walk with Elder Strydom from South Africa and Elder Hancock our newest member of Nacala Squad. We also had a family night at the house of Tomas as he had moved and we wanted everyone to know where he lived. We had some powerful lessons and helped many people work towards their goals of Exaltation.

We had the opportunity to baptize some of the younger family members of Amisse named Artur and also his good friend Rapson. . They have been coming to church for the last few months and have sat with us as we taught many of the other people that have been baptized here. It was a great baptismal service and everything went well. We are teaching a couple other people right now that should be baptized this week, and will be my last baptisms here in Mozambique, Litos, Nivadolfa (younger sister of Flavia and Pascoal) and Junior. They are all learning to come unto Christ by making sacrifices and becoming true discipless. Then during church the following day we had the highest frequency while I've been here, a total of 87 people came to worship and learn together. We are so close to being a branch and I am sad that I wont be here to witness it but I have faith that the missionary's here will continue to help this incredible place to grow and soon we will have a two branches here.

Then as we were cleaning up everything after church and all, Euclides and some other recent converts brought out a projector that they had rented and presented a farewell video for me. They had taken a lot of pictures from Elder Latu's camera and put it into a video and gotten some of the people I know to talk. And i just cried. I remember saying to myself, "its real, i cant believe its real" I just hadn't felt like i was leaving until then but in that moment it hit me, and I knew that Nacala would always have a piece of my heart.

We left after that and did some more visits down the mountain and when we came back to the chapel that night to do a meeting with the leaders I went to open up the chapel and there was a group of members that had decorated the whole chapel and made a bunch of crazy good cake and other pastries. We watched the video again and they had some time for the members to get up and talk about me.... that was pretty special. and that was about it. Some of the members like Euclides and Jessica and Sumeia and Nicole and Suraia helped out a ton planning and setting everything up. Man I'm going to miss these people. Then today, as I was writing I got a text message from a girl named Graca. She said she needed help, I called her and it turned out to be Graca from Dondo, a member that Elder Flitton and I had sat with a ton during our time there. It was incredible to talk to her and hear how she was doing. I count it as a huge blessing as she wanted to give a reference to the missionaries there but didn't know who to send it to. She had asked a friend for the number of the missionaries near by and because our phone used to be a phone from Beira where she is at now she called us. kkkk I couldn't believe it. I don't know how much she really remembered me since its been such a long time but I never forgot how positive and kind she was to me as I was adjusting to missionary life.

The mission has been real, real hard, real rewarding, real joyful and really extraordinary. I will never regret these two years in which I learned how to be a better disciple of Christ. I don't think I will be getting on the internet here until I get home, I will have a full week before I go home. I should be having one more baptism and one more Sunday in Nacala and probably one hundred more surprises before I get home. But putting that aside I just want to let you all know that I know that Jesus Christ lives, I have discovered by the power of the Holy Ghost that Joseph Smith was called to be the revealer of The Son in these last days and that the True Church of Christ, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is here on this earth once again. This is the same testimony that I have bore as  a representative of Christ for the last two years and the same testimony that has brought me so much joy. I love you all and I'll see you in two.
and the journey continues....

-Love Elder Thornton

P.S.  no pictures because african virus deleted everything so that's great.

Luckily, Elder Latu was able to send pictures:)

Baptisms on the 8th of June 

 Artur and Rapson's baptism

 Going away party for Jonny

The finals

So as the final weeks tick down. I find myself reflecting more and more about the incredible opportunity that the mission has been for me. I cant seem to imagine my life without these two years in Mozambique and specifically in Nacala.

This last week was challenging as we worked nonstop, expecting great results but come Sunday we heard some devastating news, 5 of the 7 people that would be being baptized this week had to leave their houses and move away unexpectedly. So our turn out for church wasn't the best and the people that will be baptized this week is minimal but I look at how far Nacala has come in the last months... Starting with a solid 14 frequency until now with an almost 80.

Its incredible to see the amount of growth here and the vision that the mission has for Nacala. This should be my last full week in the Area meaning my last Sunday in Nacala is this week. I'm feeling mixed emotions, but the dominating feeling is that of not being ready. I don't feel like I'm ready to leave yet. I want to go home and see the family and go to college and do all the good stuff (aka sports kkkk) but I don't feel like I'm ready to say goodbye to the many great people that I have come to know and love.

As I bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting i found myself sobbing thinking of leaving all these great people and not being there for their futures, seeing who they become and what they will accomplish. I just pray that I have done the right kind of work and I have helped the people here be disciples of Christ.

Sadly no photos this week as the baptisms fell through but this next week we should have some good ones. Love y'all a ton!!

-Elder Thornton

Manuel and Dominique

Well, we weren't able to write last week because we moved houses last pday, so we didn't get a pday hahaha but things have gone really well. We moved houses so that our house can be a part of the Church. Some of the meetings will be held in the house, so that has been interesting.

We have been working nonstop the last couple of days. We now live in a super awkward place in relation to our area so we have to leave at 10 and we don't come back home until 21, so that makes for some pretty full days. I love it though, we are working with a ton of great people and families.

We had two baptisms from our area this last week, Manuel who is family of Henriques and also Dominique who was invited by Famito who was invited by Amisse who was invited by Ancha..... hahaha i love references. The best thing that happened this week was we had a frequency of 79 this week! We killed our previous record and we have hopes of more growth.

Also Amisse was interviewed for the Melchizedek priesthood and also Euclides and they should both receive it the following week. Also Euclides was chosen as the new Elders quorum president which is the coolest thing of all time. It was crazy to see the Church functioning these last weeks and seeing how almost everyone there wasn't there at the beginning. Nacala has been the most rewording experience of my mission. It has been incredible to see the church start from 14 people to 79 in about 5 months. We should have a couple more baptisms this next week and the week after we have a lot of people who are preparing for baptism. I love Nacala i love the work, I'll have to talk to y'all next week;)

-Love Elder Thornton

 Baptism of Manuel and Dominique

Jessica e Euclides (and Amelia)

So, another awesome week here in Nacala, as we worked hard to do our best and be our best. We had some changes happen as Elder Rees left for Nampula and Elder Hancock took his place. President is also emphasizing a new rule for the mission to teach 10 people every day and make at least 30 contacts. Its been proving to be very difficult but we are trying to get better every day at doing it. We found a lot of great people this week that have a lot of potential to be great Disciples of Christ.

At the end of this week we had a great baptismal meeting with Euclides and Jessica getting baptized along side the daughter of our first baptism here (Elvira) named Amelia. We have also been very impressed by the way the recent converts of the church
have been bonding together and creating a strong unit here in Nacala.  Also several of the men that we have baptized over the last months received the Aaronic Priesthood and are excited to administer the ordinance of the sacrament.

Coming up this week we will have our zone conference meaning we wont be able to hold baptisms this week but coming up on the 25th we are planning on having a large baptismal meeting.

I love this work and I love the opportunity i was given to serve God through my service to the people here in Mozambique.

-Elder Thornton

Baptism of Amelia, Elvira's daughter

 Baptism day of Amelia, Euclides and Jessica

 Euclides and Jessica baptism

 Euclides baptism

 Chima com Matapa (Mozambican Dish)

 kids from Nacala

 Zone Conference - Latu, Francom, Rees and Jonny

 Zone Conference - Pres. Senna, Latu, Francom, Rees

Maningue News May 6, 2019

the return + wedding + crazy

Awesome crazy week!  We finally left on Thursday back to Nampula.  We slept as soon as we got back to the Zone Leader's house and woke up the next morning stressing over how we would get home and how would we make this wedding that we've planning for, for two months, finally happen. We got up Friday morning, found a dress that would work perfect for Jessica, rented out a whole Chappa for us four and our bags.  So we finally got back here in good ol Nacala and the second we got here just straight craziness.  We unpacked, and started making phone calls to get this marriage organized. We had to plan a whole wedding, execute it and that proved extremely difficult.  Just a quick shout out to all those people that have a part in putting together a wedding because I put together a little, simple one here in Africa and probably the most stressful thing i've done in my life! Elvira (our first baptism we had here in Nacala and the mother of a very cool family) and Albertina (a super cool non member who loves the church and is waiting on her marriage to get baptized) was able to do the shopping for all the food that would be cooked Saturday morning. Euclides brought the DJ system and we ended our day early to make sure we got up in time for the stressful Saturday to come.

Now, Saturday-wedding day. We woke up, showed all the women that helped with the cooking where the cooking would happen, and we started decorating the chapel and the front of our house to get prepped for the wedding. With the help of the "youth" here, the decorations came out nice and everything came out clean before people started coming. At 1, we had to go with the couple and their families to the registry to officially marry the couple. We ended around 2:30, and got back to the chapel in time for everyone to be there and from 3 to 7 we had a cool party with members and non members all afternoon.  Thankfully everything went well and now Euclides and Jessica ARE MARRIED hahaha. It was a long process and at times I honestly didn't think it would happen but we made it.

Next week we will have a couple baptisms and they are definitely going to be a part of it. Their whole family will have been baptized at that point and I am beyond excited.

Besides that the sad news of the week is that our beloved friend Elder Rees was transferred to Nampula. We will getting a new elder Elder Hancock so we will see what happens there, but Elder Rees will be greatly missed.

Also all of the people are making fun of us here because we had to leave to Maputo by Presidents orders because the cyclone didn't hit here. They only had some higher winds and rains than normal, so that bites. But the work continues. 

I find myself becoming sentimental as i think of the people that I might never see again. I love the work and the opportunity to see peoples lives change because of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Sorry for the short email, and if I didn't respond to everyone its just kind of a time crunch here but i still love y'all, i promise! hahaha  Plus I'll talk to ya here in a few;)

-Elder Thornton