What up!
This place is so sick. You have no idea. I'm glad you guys have been able to read the Osborn's blog. I'm glad they have one. Then you can know how I'm doing throughout the whole week. Did you see my shaved head? Haha I look like an idiot and it's so weird. One of the Elders in the house cut it. That's how I'll be getting my haircut for the next 2 years I guess.
So yeah we had a baptism last Saturday, and it was super different then the average baptism. The font was just a giant tub of water outside the chapel. It was crazy. Plus the membership in Quelimane pretty much doubled in one day. Haha.
The people here are so nice. It's crazy. They don't have a thing, but they are so happy! Everyone loves saying hello and they are so friendly. They are also so willing to talk about God. It's funny cause whenever we are tracting, we'll go and knock on a door, and at one of the houses we hadn't even had the chance to say anything before he invited us in! So crazy.
Funny story about that actually, so one day we're walking up and down the street and we see a huge house. (mozambique standards). And we decided to go and knock on the door. So this lady answers the door and we explained how we had a message about Jesus Christ. She invited us in and then we sat down. Then she went and invided the rest of the household downstairs for our message. But it was super awkward cause as I'm sitting there, I'm looking around and noticing pictures of Nuns around the house. Then, down the stairs walks like 7 Nuns. Haha funniest thing ever and so awkward as you could imagine. So we shared a brief message and left. We laughed about it later, but just kind of a funny experience!
We have a lot of investigators as well! Usually our days are full of lessons. Which is good cause it helps me learn the language faster. But since me and Elder Workman were both new to this area, most of the people we teach we found the first few days, and marked return appointments. So pretty cool!
One investigator specifically is Cornelio. He is about a 22 or 23 year old kid, and actually a singer with a top 5 song in Mozambique. He so nice and honest and wants to know God better. But he's been struggling with addictions. The past week we've really been trying to get him to recognize the Spirit in his life. So Saturday night, we challenged him to pray that night and ask if the things we had been teaching is true. And he committed to doing that. As you could imagine, I prayed hard that night for him, and even fasted for the purpose of him to recieve an answer. The next morning at testimony meeting, he got up and bore his testimony that he had recieved an immediate answer. I was so pumped! I honestly love him and I'm so glad our prayers were answered. Now we are gonna help him continue to get over his addictions so he can be baptized. Super cool experience! And I know I'll have many more where God answers our prayers and helps an investigator.
The work that we are doing is so important. Last night, Elder Workman and I had like a 2 hour chat which actually ended up being a very successful companion study. I realized that nothing really else matters in the world then the gospel. And we have the ability, through the spirit, to change lives forever. And it really does hurt when someone rejects it. They don't understand the importance of our message. It also hurts not being able to say everything in Portuguese I want to say because of my limited vocabulary. But I know I'll learn over time.
There are also some sad things that I've seen here. The people treat dogs and cats like garbage. I've never seen so many dead dogs in my life. It's the worst.
My bed bug bites healed. Finally! But they got replaced with some pretty wicked spider bites. Haha they hurt so bad. And itch like crazy. Hopefully it's not to serious?
We had the opprotunity to "pilar" rice with an investigator the other day. It's the african way of breaking up rice or something. Super fun. You guys should look it up. But it's funny cause the people think it SO funny to watch a white person do it. So they all gather around. Especially all the kids! They gather around and just laugh. Haha it's so funny. I love the kids. They are all shocked that they are looking at a white person. One little girl even cried when she looked at us and ran anyway. Maybe she's never seen a white person before? There are honestly NO white people here. It's nuts.
The Osborn's are taking us to the beach today! Whoo! So pumped. We're gonna play football and have food and everything. Should be fun. I'm curious to see how nice the beach will be. I guess Quelimane doesn't have a very nice one. But it's probably still pretty.
Well, that was my week! They say the first few weeks in the field are the hardest, but I really do enjoy it and I'm happy! But it is hard. I go to bed exhausted everyday. It's amazing how much my testimony has grown each and everyday. I'm glad I'm here!
I hope you have a wonderful week.
Love and miss you!
-Elder Williams
