Matola -Week 61

a obra do senhor

I just want to start off apologizing for not saying anything about Fathers day last week. Here, it definitely wasnt fathers day, so I really has no idea. But I hope you had a good day!
I remembered about the birthday though! Dad really is 46 already? That´s crazy. Sounded like you had a good day!
We had a pretty good week this past week, but it was very hectic. The super division ran well with the district of T3. We did internet with them, and them played some american football, so that was fun. While we were playing, most of the neighborhood came out to watch a bunch of white guys playing some weird sport. So we challenged some teenage kids to their sport; soccer. We played an intense game! Mozambicans definitely know how to play soccer. But we ended up beating them 1-0! We scored on a corner kick, and everyone went crazy! They were pretty embarrassed to have lost to some scrubby white kids.
We are still having a few problems in the zone as far as the chapel is concerned, but that will be resolved next month. For now, we are still getting bussed out to T3 to have church. Can´t wait for our new chapel to open! It is by far the nicest chapel in the country.
We are still very much in the finding mode as far as our area is concerned.
 The finding never stops! We have a couple families that are progressing super well, and we are scrapping to get all the documentation together for marriage. This week, we should make some progress with that.
Fernando and Ivone and their huge family are still progressing very nicely, except for an incident that happened Saturday night. We went over their, to find him very drunk. He has done so well over the past few week not drinking, but this week he gave into temptation. Not only did he give into temptation, but he tried to cover it up, telling us that he didn´t drink. But after all this time in Mozambique, I know exactly what someone looks like who is drinking. He apologized and begged for forgiveness from us. Obviously we aren´t the ones who can forgive sins, but we explained that we are willing to help him. They have yet to miss a day of church since we found them. Including yesterday.
The unfortunate part of the work... dropping families. We dropped a few families this week that stopped progressing. Super sad, because I know that these families were prepared by the Lord. But people have their agency and can choose for themselves.
The work is going well, and the stress continues to pile. Me and Elder Lake deal with a lot of problems that we didn´t think we´d be a part of. We talked to President Kretly yesterday about some things that have happened over the past few days, and some problems among the Elders. We will be having another meeting with him tomorrow night to talk about the branches in Matola.
 We will also be having zone conference! With the Matola and Maputo zones together this Friday. I´ll let you know how it goes. President Kretly alwasys gives UNBELIEVABLE trainings. I´m pretty excited about it.
But, I´m still happy as ever. Time is passing way to fast. I´m doing my best to live in the moment so that we can best help this people find the truth. I´m glad to hear that missionary training back home went well. It´s so humbling to be part of this amazing work. It would not be growing like this if this wasn´t Gods work. I know God loves each and every one of us. I can feel it here among this people! Love you all, have a great week.

Love, Elder Williams.

ps. I will try to contact Estacia this week. I will see what area they live in.

Matola - Week 60

Hey family!

Well, I wish I had a lot of time to write you, but I've just spent the past 50 minutes writing a letter to President Kretly about some things that are going on in the zone.

The past week was definitely a stressful one. There are so many things that are going on and that will be going on over the next few weeks. I'm currently in a city called T3. We are doing a "super division" with on of the districts in our zone. It's an idea so that we have better relationships with every Elder in our zone. The division is going good so far!

Me and Elder Lake didn't have as much time in our area this past week as we usually do. We had been preparing a wedding and a baptism that happened on Saturday, plus we've had a couple trainings that we have been planning. But we were still able to find a couple good families and teach a good amount of lessons and contacts. But a good family in our area was baptized this week! It was good to see them married and baptized. I'll send some pictures, I just don't have my camera with me out here.

Well, I don't have much time, but I hope you all have a good week! I'm doing fine here, and I'm happy! There are just a lot of things that need to change in the mission, and me and Elder Lake are right in the middle of it!

But I still love this work, and I'm excited to see this zone grow. Love you all!

-Elder Williams 

Matola - Week 59

The weeks continue to fly by at a pace that is very scary. We are now entering into the middle part of June, so every day and every hour is so precious.

Me and Elder Lake are continuing to work hard so that we can see real growth in our area. This week, we didn't have to much time in our area as normal, but plenty of time to find and teach! We are busy talking to the assistants, and making sure the elders in our zone have everything that they need. But it's been a good service opportunity.

The past few weeks, we have been doing divisions with the district leaders that are in our zone. I did one with the district leader of Matola 1, and Elder Lake did one with the district leader of T-3. These areas are so full of people and have so much potential. We were able to help them apply better a few   principles on finding and teaching. Preach My Gospel is very clear on talking to everyone! And one thing that I have learned over time is on how to really teach in a way that allows the person to understand what we are saying. A majority of the missionaries will teach the Restoration, and then afterwards that person didn't understand. Me and Elder Lake are really trying to really drive that into the zone. 

The biggest problem we are having down south is the mentality of the Elders here. Everyone is talking about Beira. People think that here in Maputo, it is harder to baptize families. But that is not true! We just need to be diligent and obedient and of course we can baptize families. The only solution to this is to baptize families. It has got to start sometime! I'm excited to see the growth over the next few months!

I have found a lot of purposes as a zone leader that I didn't think. We are trying really hard to help a few Elders be obedient. That was something I thought we all knew! We've had to deal with a few emergency transfers in our zone because of health, obedience, and all sorts of problems. But everything will work out, and our zone will get on board.

The work continues to go on and on! I love it. Missionary work will be something I do for the rest of my life. I was glad to hear of the experience that Tiffany had. There really is nothing more rewarding than doing this amazing work. It brings a joy that I can't explain. Me and Elder Lake were talking about it this week, and we were talking about how our mission is a personal thing between us and the Lord. Just like I have good memories with my earthly father, this is a good experience I have with my Heavenly Father. It's super cool, and irreplaceable. I don't know if that made sense...

We just continue to contact and teach the families we are finding! Fernando and Ivone are progressing well! As well as Fernando and Maria. We are scrabbling to complete documents for marriage!

Mom, as for my health, I'm fine! A couple weeks back in Beira I realized I was losing a lot of weight very fast, and I was kind of worried about it. But then we found out that I had a worm! But don't worry, I have since taken pills and I'm good now! I'm putting the weight back on now!

Me and Elder Lake had a scary experience this morning... we went to go buy cinnamon right outside our house, but as we were walking we saw 3 huge dogs. And then, they attacked. we started booking it as fast as we could and then I tripped super hard! Right when I tripped, they turned away and didn't bite. It was a miracle! Haha I was so scared. They looked so mad. Dogs here? Not fun.

Well, I hope you all have a good week! We'll continue to work hard down here and see miracles from the hand of The Lord. Love you all!

-Elder Williams

ps. Andrew, go tear it up at basketball camp. I want to hear all about it 

Matola - Week 58

Well, I was glad to hear from all of you this week! Sounds like the family is doing great, and that is exciting to hear. I hope Andrew had a great birthday as well! I can't believe he is already 11? He going to beat me in everything when I get home.

As for me, I had a good week! Very stressful and tiring, but obviously it was worth it. This week we were still in finding mode. We are doing our best to find the right families that have the best chance to progress. And we found a few! 

Last week, we came into our new area, and didn't have many investigators. We had a total of 1 investigator at church. So this past week, we realized that we needed to change that. So we worked hard and yesterday we had 11 investigators at church. That number still needs to go up, but little by little we will be building this area.

Our training on Tuesday actually went very well! Me and Elder Lake presented a training of things we thought would help the zone. All the district leaders in our zone have the responsibility to transmit the information the Elders in their zone. We talked about a variety of different things. We want to help the DL's understand their roles as leaders and how they can best satisfy the needs of each individual missionary in their district. We focused a lot on divisions and district meeting and the importance of doing them the right way. The training lasted about and hour and a half or two hours, and it was a success! The district leaders left feeling excited about the work and the potential that we have here in Matola.

Ever since I've been here on the mission, Matola has kind of had a bad reputation. It has been known as the zone where the work is slow and where the Elders don't work very hard. But that reputation is going to end now. Matola, in my opinion, has the most potential than any other zone in the mission. The other zones being Maputo, Beira, and Manga. The difference is that Matola is FULL of people. We are working in the suburbs of a huge city. There is no reason why the work should not go on at a faster pace. I know we will see a difference over the next few months. Matola will have the reputation of the fastest growing zone! Like how Beira is right now. I'm grateful to be apart of the work here in Matola and I understand the growth that the Lord wants here. We just need to work hard and be obedient.

If there is one thing I've learned on my mission, it's that 19 and 20 year old men can't do miracles. But God does miracles through those who are obedient.

Let me tell you about a miracle that happened this week. Last week, we contacted a couple named Nelson and Alma. They didn't have a phone so we obviously didn't take down there number. They showed us where they lived and we said we would stop by when we had time. We stopped by, and they weren't home. We figured the chances of them progressing was not very good, so we forgot about them. Since that day, we've ran into Nelson once again, Alma once again, and them together another time! A total of 4 times since then! We never run into the same person even twice since there are like 60,000 people in our area. But last night, we were contacting, and we found them walking down the road together for the 5th time! Crazy. We talked to them, and they said they had time to hear our message right then. We walked over to their house together and we taught the Restoration. They accepted baptism, and we marked a return lesson! Just another example of Heavenly Father watching over his children. He knows which ones are prepared and which ones need the gospel now. I'm grateful that the Lord gave us multiple chances to recognize that.

Well, I hope you all have a great week! I'm happy but I'm definitely stressed. Something I heard in the MTC was, "if you aren't tired, you aren't working hard enough." And we are definitely tired.

Love you all, and have a good week!

-Elder Williams

Matola - Week 57

Well, I'm here safe and sound in my new area! Coming down to Maputo from Beira is quite a difference. I don't even feel like I'm in Africa anymore! It honestly feels like California. The roads are way nice, just about all families have cars, and there is not as much trash in the road. The palm trees give it a Southern California feel. It really is kind of a culture shock.

The area, is good. When I got down here, me and Elder Lake decided to make a few switches with the areas in our zone. The biggest area, is called Liberdade. Which in english is Liberty. There are about 60,000 people the live in that area alone. We felt like not much was happening in that area, but that it was the area with the most potential. So me and Elder Lake, switched areas with another companionship. We have the task of Liberdade to help it grow. Right now, there isn't much going on. The last Elders who worked in here are great Elders, they just had some hard times. Hopefully we can help the ball roll a little bit more. Yesterday at church, we had 1 investigator come to church. So we are kind of starting at ground zero. But we will be working hard to help this area grow. Out of all 60,000 members in Liberdade there are a total of 0 families that are baptized in the church. Not a single one. Including less actives. Hopefully we can be apart of helping MANY families come unto the fold, and be baptized. I'm excited for the challenge.

Yesterday, we went into the city to meet up with the assistants of President. We received our zone's stats, and everything that the Matola zone needs to become a stake. Just talking about the stake of Matola. Seperate from Maputo. Each branch needs to baptize 25 more families, and we need to have 1000 more members. So we have a long way to go. But we are going to be getting started right now! And I know the Lord will help. 20 year old men are not capable of estalishing a stake. But God is capable! So we need to rely on him to be able to do it!

So when I flew down to Maputo on Tuesday, who was waiting for m at the airport? Elder Martinez! We've stayed on oposite ends of the country for our whole mission, so it was cool to see him and talk to him for a little while. The funny thing is, he got transfered up to Beira 2! We are pretty much swithing branches. Haha so I will still stay on the opposite end of the country. Kinda funny. But we were able to take a picture back at my new house. 

Here in Maputo, it is very cold! At about 6 or 7 at night it gets very chilly. (Family Note: the low is 67 degrees).  I'm going to start proselyting in long sleeve shirts it is so cold. Maputo really does feel like a whole new country.

Well, the internet here is having a lot of problems. The site is not even letting us send emails, so I hope you guys all get this! I don't have that much time to write, because we are here to make a

training that we will be giving to our district leaders tomorrow. The training should turn out pretty well. I'll let you know how it goes! I will also be doing a division with a district leader this week, so I'm excited to be able to work with them. There are a lot of good Elders in our zone, including Elder Fontes who I served with for 4 months in Manga.

Well, have a great week! So sad to hear about the pup dean (our dog), but i figured the time was close. He really as a good dog. Have  a good week and I love you all!

Love, Elder Williams

ps. Happy Birthday to the small babe! Is that 11 years old?

Call to Zone Leader in Matola, Mozambique

Dear Parents and Leaders,

Elder Zachary Todd Williams was just called as a Zone Leader.  This position is very important and is key for our success as a mission.  He has been called because of his hard work and good example that he has given for other missionaries.  Some of his responsibilities will be: representing the Mission President on minor issues, helping the missionaries in their areas, training the missionaries, doing splits with District Leaders, and having a strong relationship with the Branch and District leadership where he is serving. Besides that he will continue to have his own proselyting area where he will work, finding, teaching, and baptizing families.  Thank you for your continued support and prayers for Elder Williams.  Thank you for preparing such a wonderful missionary to serve in our mission.

With love and appreciation,

President Paulo V. Kretly

Mozambique Maputo Mission

Matolo (ZL) - Week 56

Beira 2 District - May 20, 2013

Well, 6 more weeks have gone by and that means that we've continued to work hard over the past 6 weeks! But it also means that transfers are today. And President Kretly always does something crazy for transfers!

Lets flash back 12 weeks ago... I was in Manga and thought for sure that I was staying there. And he then transferred me to Beira 2, which ended up being a big blessing for me. President definitely receives revelation.

Now, lets flash back to last night. Me and Elder Biddulph were doing daily planning, and talking about our plans for the week. I thought for sure, that I would stay in Beira 2, since I'm training Elder Biddulph and everything, but I woke up this morning to a big surprise.

I have officially been transferred to Matola 2! Matola is the suburbs of Maputo, and there are a lot of people there! Maputo, is a city of millions of people, so Matola is probably the zone with the most potential. There are 2 zones in Maputo. The Maputo zone, and the Matola zone. And since it is the biggest city in the mission, there are a lot of missionaries down there.

My companion is going to be Elder Lake, who was in my MTC group. We are pretty good friends, and both hard workers so I know we will have success. Together, we will be the zone leaders over the Matola zone to help that area explode. There is so much potential out there! I have always wanted to serve with elder Lake, and I figured I would I some point. And now we are zone leaders together! He is from Burley, Idaho and lives on a Potato Farm.

I got off the phone with him this morning, and we have already made some plans for our zone. We are the youngest ZL's in the mission, and we are serving together. We have decided to take on a new area, that he believes has potential. He has been serving down in Matola, but not in that area. He was also made zone leader today, and we will be whitewashing another area! I have done that plenty of times on the mission so far. It was a surprise when I saw transfers, and it is bittersweet. I loved serving with Elder Biddulph, and it's too bad that it won't last. He was transferred to Manga 3, and leaves tomorrow.

I've been talking to the Beira zone leaders and they say that President has so many plans for Matola, and that he wants a stake there bad. Our job there will be to baptize qualified families, and a lot of them. That way, the men can receive the Melchizedek Priesthood, and we can get our Matola Stake. President Kretly is a man of many plans, and I know that he will achieve every goal that he sets. It is an absolute pleasure to be apart of it.

This past week, I was sitting with the Beira zone leader, and he was talking to me about President's plans. Mozambique not only has the potential to have one stake, but we want lots of stakes! Then, we will be able to get a temple here, and these amazing families will be sealed forever. This past week, I got on my knees and thanked Heavenly Father for the privilege to be in Mozambique at this amazing time. Then, I pleaded to have more part in this amazing growth. I know I got my answer my getting transferred to Matola. There, I will have close communication with President Kretly, he will give unbelievable trainings to us, and we go for our Matola Stake. I'm excited for the chance to be apart of it.

As for our area here in Beira, it's looking super nice. We have one family who already has a marriage process opened, and 3 more are still working on documents this week! So I feel confident with the work that me and Elder Biddulph did, knowing that some more very good families will be baptized over the next few weeks.

Let me tell ya about an experience we had this week with a new family. We received a reference from another companionship from a street contact that they did. His name was Mario. So we called him, and went over there in the Afternoon. Mario, is a pastor for another church and that is his only job. He understands that it is wrong to receive money for that, and wants to quit but he has no other way to pay for food. His house is one small room, with a table and bed all in that small room.

We started teaching him and his wife Rute about the Restoration. They understood it very well and agreed that if they knew these things were true, would be baptized. Two days later, we went back over there. He felt like the things we taught 2 days previously were true things that would help his family. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and gave him a baptismal date. We invited him to church, but that was when there was a problem. This man named Mario works one time per week which is Sunday mornings as a pastor from 8-11. That happens to be the same time that our church starts. I realized that there was nothing we could do, knowing that this man can barely pay for bread for his wife and his small daughter. We closed with a prayer, and during the prayer I felt a strong feeling to tell him that he needs to be at the true church tomorrow. So after he prayed, I invited him to pray about what he should do on Sunday and that we would call him on Saturday night to see what his decision was.

Saturday night came, so I called him! I asked him if he was coming to church the next day. he replied, "eu faço o que para chegar la." That means like "what am i supposed to do," or "how am i supposed to go." So I figured he wasn't coming to church.

Right at 8 the next day, he showed up! I wanted to hug him! He skipped work, to go to church. During sacrament meeting, he became teary eyed as the youth sang the youth theme song for the year. The spirit was so strong! After the meeting, I asked how he felt and he loved it! He received an answer right there at church!

We went over again yesterday afternoon, and had a spiritual lesson. He wants to be baptized, but can't quit work or else his family will literally starve. We applied chapter 11 of PMG and asked, "Mario, will you quit you job this week so that you can be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" The spirit was so strong! I know God will help him find more work. he has unbelievable faith.

Well, time is up! Tomorrow at 9 am I'll be flying down to Maputo. It's a flight of about and hour and 45 minutes. Then, I'll be getting to work down in Matola as the zone leader. I'm excited for the opportunity. I hope you all have a great week.

Love, Elder Williams

ps. picture is of our Beira 2 district