Manga - Week 33

Natal!

We had an awesome week here in Manga! A lot of different things happened! We felt the Spirit super strong, and also had a ton of fun! There's not a better combination.
It's been a busy week as we continue to find families and help them progress and receive testimony. Our finding our the past weeks has payed off, and now we have a solid investigator pool. We have about 14 couples or families that as of right now, are progressing. This week we will be working hard in trying to set specific dates for baptism. We believe that we can prepare everyone of these to be baptized on the 12th of January, which would be UNBELIEVABLE! I can't even imagine how that day would be. But we realize that most of them won't happen because none of these couples are legally married. And it's kinda a brutal process. That is the biggest challenge in baptizing, marriage. Especially because many don't have sufficient money to marry. But hopefully we can get at least a few couples legalized to prepare them for the 12th of January. So we'll see how that goes.
We had a Christmas party this week! President and Sister Kretly flew up from Maputo into Beira on Friday morning and they spent they day with all the Elders in the Beira area. Elders from Tete and Chimoio also came down. Friday morning, was the zone conference, and President Kretly gave us a training. It was good to see the growth the mission has seen in the past few months, and I know it will continue to grow. President Kretly emphasizes being "extraordinary missionaries." And the traits we need to have to become like that. I love the advice he gives us, and I'm trying to get a little better each day at the things he teaches.
After the training, we had a nice lunch altogether, so that was super nice! After the lunch, we had activities all afternoon! Different districts prepared different skits and songs, and we played some games as well. President and Sister Kretly also gave us all new matching red Christmas ties! I love ties. So now I have a Christmas tie to wear on the 25th! After the activities we had a SUPER NICE dinner. Best food I've had in awhile. So I was definitely grateful. Overall, it was a great day!
It continues to rain here in Manga unbelievably hard. We woke up yesterday for church, and it was pouring so hard. I have branch presidency meeting at 8 am, so we left our house about 7:30 to leave for the chapel. I figured we'd arrive at the church dry, because we had umbrellas, but I thought wrong. Not only did we get wet, but we were wet up to our waists. The roads were completely flooded, and we had to cross a river (which is normally a road) to get to the church. Haha it was a crazy adventure! Me and Elder Fontes were laughing almost the whole time. And when church started at 9, there was barely anyone there. More more showed up as time went on. It was a crazy day!
One thing that's super sad happened this week... One of our investigators died. David was 49 years old and very sick. His 20 year old son is a member and it was really sad when we heard he dies. He was a good guy. Always read The Book of Mormon and always had questions, but because of health, was unable to come to church and other things. There's already been 3 deaths in the branch since I've been here. Super sad.
Mom, to answer your questions... We walk A TON! every single day. I have no idea how long, but a ton. There are no bike taxis here like in Quelimane, so it's been an adjustment for me. But we walk plenty of miles every single day. Plenty and plenty of miles.
Glad to here the package is sent off! You're sending another? I would love more washable ties from mr mac, contact solution, face wash would be nice, and I thought about something else the other day but I forgot... haha those things would be great!
Glad to hear things at home are going good! Christmas is fastly approaching! Which is weird. Thanks for setting up a skype account. That's how we will be communicating, so that'll be nice!
Well I hope you all have a good week! And make sure you rememeber the true meaning of Christmas! 

Love you all!

-Elder Williams

ps. Yes I know Elder Ruiz. He was the AP here. He just left last week. Small world!