Monday, March 25, 2019
Transferred
So, this week was transfers so that was pretty interesting. Only one of the districts in the mission stayed the same so it was pretty crazy. All the Elders from Beira and the cyclone are serving in Maputo so all the areas there have a ton of people.
As far as Nacala, the work here is going really well. We are looking to have a baptism with 7-9 people this week. From our side we have either 3-5. The first two are named Ancha and her son Paulo. They have been coming to church for about 2 months now and have come to a lot of activities. She just had a hard time accepting baptism. Paulo has wanted to get baptized for a while now but we were waiting so they could be baptized together.
We also have Famito who was invited by Amisse to get to know the church. He is excited to be baptized and has been making big changes in his life.
We also had a miracle happen with Pascoal and Henriques as Pascoal was someone we were teaching in our first couple weeks here but he fell of the face of the earth. Then he showed up to church one week with his friend Henriques who decided he wanted to change his life and start coming to church. So Pascoal became super excited to help him out and teach him about Joseph Smith. So they are both getting ready to be baptized together!
Oh yeah and the Nacala squad is staying together no one here got transferred.
Other thing, Amisse, Felizberto and Delmar all passed and blessed the sacrament here this last week that was pretty awesome:)
Love ya'll and have a good week!
-Elder Thornton
(Just as a side note, we did get to talk to Jonny last night!!! The first thing he said was he wasn't doing too good. When we asked why, he said their meter ran out and it was sooooo hot and the mosquitoes were so bad that they didn't get much sleep...They have to pay each week for how much electricity they use....I guess they used more electricity than normal and it ran out Sunday afternoon. He explained more about some of the couples they are working with and how hard it is to get married. He told us about the transfers, where some of the Elders were transferred to, and what he knew about the cyclone. Most of the information on the cyclone they got from people in Nacala. It was so good to hear his voice.)
As far as Nacala, the work here is going really well. We are looking to have a baptism with 7-9 people this week. From our side we have either 3-5. The first two are named Ancha and her son Paulo. They have been coming to church for about 2 months now and have come to a lot of activities. She just had a hard time accepting baptism. Paulo has wanted to get baptized for a while now but we were waiting so they could be baptized together.
We also have Famito who was invited by Amisse to get to know the church. He is excited to be baptized and has been making big changes in his life.
We also had a miracle happen with Pascoal and Henriques as Pascoal was someone we were teaching in our first couple weeks here but he fell of the face of the earth. Then he showed up to church one week with his friend Henriques who decided he wanted to change his life and start coming to church. So Pascoal became super excited to help him out and teach him about Joseph Smith. So they are both getting ready to be baptized together!
Oh yeah and the Nacala squad is staying together no one here got transferred.
Other thing, Amisse, Felizberto and Delmar all passed and blessed the sacrament here this last week that was pretty awesome:)
Love ya'll and have a good week!
-Elder Thornton
(Just as a side note, we did get to talk to Jonny last night!!! The first thing he said was he wasn't doing too good. When we asked why, he said their meter ran out and it was sooooo hot and the mosquitoes were so bad that they didn't get much sleep...They have to pay each week for how much electricity they use....I guess they used more electricity than normal and it ran out Sunday afternoon. He explained more about some of the couples they are working with and how hard it is to get married. He told us about the transfers, where some of the Elders were transferred to, and what he knew about the cyclone. Most of the information on the cyclone they got from people in Nacala. It was so good to hear his voice.)
Monday, March 18, 2019
And Dinis slides in home
Highlight of the week: Baptism!!! Dinis got baptized and that was awesome, Quick story, hahaha, hope I didn't already tell this buuuut Dinis came to know the church through his friend, the recent convert Tomas. Dinis loved the church and was calling his brother that lives in Marromeu to tell him about it.... turns out that HIS BROTHER IS A MEMBER THERE hahaha how cool right? Anyways, we didn't know if the baptism would work out this week because he recently quit his job because it was making him work on the sabbath and he also moved houses so we didn't know where he lived AND he didn't have a phone.... so we didn't have any way to communicate. Luckily for us he decided to just show up at the church one morning and we were able to finish the lessons and plan the interview. Everything went well and he ended up being baptized.
This week I had a cool experience with Pregar meu Evangelho (Preach My Gospel). We worked our tails off this week. We worked long hours and did so many visits. We tried to include members and find new people and do everything exactly how we should, but the end result was definitely lacking. People didn't show up to church and we had some people tell us they had decided to stay with their own church. I was pretty devastated. I kept on thinking "man what a waste" we had worked and worked but it seemed like it did absolutely nothing. Anyways, I started reading the first chapter of pregar meu evangelho and it was talking about being a successful missionary and I just had this strong feeling that we aren't here just for results. I had thoughts come to my mind of stories I had heard of missionary efforts having effects years and years after. I guess after all this time being a missionary I'm still just figuring things out one day at a time. But I'm starting to learn that results aren't the only thing that counts. I love y'all and I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Lords Kingdom on this earth in preparation for the Second Coming of our Lord.
-Elder Thornton
Monday, March 11, 2019
Conference and more dead bats
So cool story. Like three more bats died and some little kids broke into our yard to steal them. They told us they ate them..... I don't believe them. It was quite humorous because one kid grabbed the bat and started chasing his friends with it.
This week was quite weird. The week wasn't that productive because of a torrent of rain and crazy lightning storms. But we still got in some great work. We had a conference in Nampula (about a three hour drive by chapa) for the district and we had been working hard to try and get as much people there as possible. We had to wake up at 3:30 am to prepare everything and we ended up bringing 55 people and they reserved us seats at the conference at the front where everyone could see us and they gave us like 5 shout outs during the thing. It was a super awesome experience and President expressed how proud he was of the work we were doing and have done here in Nacala.
Not much else happened, rain, dead bats and conference. But this week we hope to have a baptism with Dinis, the friend of the recent convert Tomas. He came to conference and it was cool. Oh, by the way we had about 25 members at the conference and the rest were the people that we are teaching so that was encouraging.
Alright, well internet is yet again making me feel like T-rex trying to grab something with its tiny little hands soooo I'm going to say farewell and until next week! Much love
Elder Thornton
Ancha was at the conference, she is officially a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!! and she invited her brother to conference!
This week was quite weird. The week wasn't that productive because of a torrent of rain and crazy lightning storms. But we still got in some great work. We had a conference in Nampula (about a three hour drive by chapa) for the district and we had been working hard to try and get as much people there as possible. We had to wake up at 3:30 am to prepare everything and we ended up bringing 55 people and they reserved us seats at the conference at the front where everyone could see us and they gave us like 5 shout outs during the thing. It was a super awesome experience and President expressed how proud he was of the work we were doing and have done here in Nacala.
Not much else happened, rain, dead bats and conference. But this week we hope to have a baptism with Dinis, the friend of the recent convert Tomas. He came to conference and it was cool. Oh, by the way we had about 25 members at the conference and the rest were the people that we are teaching so that was encouraging.
Alright, well internet is yet again making me feel like T-rex trying to grab something with its tiny little hands soooo I'm going to say farewell and until next week! Much love
Elder Thornton
Ancha was at the conference, she is officially a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!! and she invited her brother to conference!
Monday, March 4, 2019
Everyone leaves us here in Porto
Well, two people got baptized this week and me and Elder Latu found them both and neither of them were baptized in our area hahahaha. Some crazy cool stories though. I just love seeing how the gospel changes lives.
So first off we have Delmar. Delmar is about 23 years old and to be fair he really found the church by himself (and of course the Spirit) when it first opened here in Nacala. He said he was passing the church on the first Sunday and felt that he should go in. He went to the first one and then never came again. He said he didn't think much of it as there was a lot of pressure for him to keep on going to his church but eventually he said he saw us walking in the road. He didn't talk to us but he decided to go to church again. After, we asked him if we could walk to his house with him. Sadly, his house was on the border line between our two areas here in Nacala so the other Elders got to meet with him and teach him. This week he was baptized and confirmed.
Another awesome story was Ancha. We found her our first week here and we had taught her everything and she wanted to be baptized way bad but..... she was married and her husband had no interest in being baptized.... so she was stuck. But she made the decision to leave him and move back home in Nampula so that she could be baptized there. We heard from the Elders that everything went well and the baptism was beautiful. The faith of the people here is incredible.
The problems that we are coming across have to do with marriage. The process here is so frustrating and hard, but we are working with a few couples to try and help them reach their goals of marriage.
We have this one man named Euclides. Wow, his story also is pretty awesome. I'll let you know more about him next week, but for now whats going on is that so many of our recent converts are inviting people to church. We have gone walking a lot with them to go and meet family members and such. And this week Euclides introduced us to his aunt, and she came to church and is excited to get baptized.
The work is going, not as fast as I would like sometimes, but I have to remind myself that God has his own pace and I can only do so much.
I love you all and just wanted to say that I know that the gospel has changed my life and I am such a different person because of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for me and you and everyone. I am a first hand witness to the changing power of Christs atonement. Until next time.
-Elder Thornton
So first off we have Delmar. Delmar is about 23 years old and to be fair he really found the church by himself (and of course the Spirit) when it first opened here in Nacala. He said he was passing the church on the first Sunday and felt that he should go in. He went to the first one and then never came again. He said he didn't think much of it as there was a lot of pressure for him to keep on going to his church but eventually he said he saw us walking in the road. He didn't talk to us but he decided to go to church again. After, we asked him if we could walk to his house with him. Sadly, his house was on the border line between our two areas here in Nacala so the other Elders got to meet with him and teach him. This week he was baptized and confirmed.
Another awesome story was Ancha. We found her our first week here and we had taught her everything and she wanted to be baptized way bad but..... she was married and her husband had no interest in being baptized.... so she was stuck. But she made the decision to leave him and move back home in Nampula so that she could be baptized there. We heard from the Elders that everything went well and the baptism was beautiful. The faith of the people here is incredible.
The problems that we are coming across have to do with marriage. The process here is so frustrating and hard, but we are working with a few couples to try and help them reach their goals of marriage.
We have this one man named Euclides. Wow, his story also is pretty awesome. I'll let you know more about him next week, but for now whats going on is that so many of our recent converts are inviting people to church. We have gone walking a lot with them to go and meet family members and such. And this week Euclides introduced us to his aunt, and she came to church and is excited to get baptized.
The work is going, not as fast as I would like sometimes, but I have to remind myself that God has his own pace and I can only do so much.
I love you all and just wanted to say that I know that the gospel has changed my life and I am such a different person because of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for me and you and everyone. I am a first hand witness to the changing power of Christs atonement. Until next time.
-Elder Thornton
Elder Reese, Felizberto, Amisse, Elder Thornton, Gracio, & Elder Francom
Baptism day with others in the group that came
Baptism of Delmar - Elder Francom baptizing and Jonny and Elder Latu as witnesses
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)