Boa tarde. Gostei dos photos que enviaram. Estou a pedir mais!
First off, I loved the pictures that the family sent. I want to get pictures every week from you guys, so keep sending them! Let's make a deal, everytime that I send pictures, I want pictures in return the next week from the weeks activities.
We had another good week here in our area which is called Matacuane. We had zone conference this past Wednesday, so President and Sister Kretly were able to fly up to give us an unbelievable training. I cannot explain the love and respect that I have for my Mission President and his wife. They have taught me so much. We are so blessed as a mission.
He gave us a great training and talk about the missionary handbook. As a mission, lots of miracles are happening. But there are also missionaries who are completely disobedient. President is putting his foot down, cause he doesn't want missionaries who are obedient to suffer because of other missionaries. By putting his foot down, 3 missionaries have been sent home in the past few weeks. I know that as we become even more obedient as a mission, more miracles will happen. The Lord's blessings upon this country have only just started. But it all starts with us.
He also talked about mission stats, and that the mission baptized a lot of families in the month of March. He talked about the many miracles, and even showed us Neil L. Anderson's General Conference talk. What an amazing talk! He talked about miralces in missionary work, and finished his talk with the miralces in Mozambique. I guess President knew he would talk about that in Conference, he just didn't tell anyone. A few months back, Elder Andersen called President Kretly and asked for details because he felt he should share it in Conference. It really is humbling to be apart of this amazing work; here, at this amazing time.
Wednesday morning, I also got a phone call from the assistants down in Maputo. They were calling in behalf of President Kretly. They just wanted to let me know that President was thankful for the work that me and Elder Vestia did while we were together, and that our hardwork did not go unnoticed. I appreciated the phone call and was able to learn a lot that day from President at the zone conference.
The progress of Elder Biddulph, is coming along really well! His desire is in the right place and he is very obedient. Which is a blessing for me. I love having willing, obedient companions. His portuguese is also coming along very well. He just needs to speak with confidence, and then he speaks very well. But I am able to help him, because I've been there, and done that before! It reminds me of the blessing the Lord has given me to be able to speak this language. I really am grateful!
The work in our area is coming along. Our golden investigators, Leo e Alice are dong very well and have gotten all documents necesarry to get married. The have to forget a party, and sign the documents so that they can be baptized. That required a lot of prayer and some scriptures we needed to show them. But they have commited! This week we are working with Crayton and Albertina and their paperwork as well. Hopefully we can open the marriage process with them this week! So I'm excited about the way things are going, and we are finding as well. A new family, Jojo and Luisa were found this week as well and came to church together the first week! It's a young couple, he is 22 and she is 18! But they have a lot of potential and even committed to be baptized the first lesson! So well see how their progress goes this week.
There was a sad story with another family that we found this week. We contacted a man named Abel. He was very interested, and said that it would be something good for his family. When we went over to teach him, we realized that his wife had passed away. We testified of the Plan of Salvation, but also that we know of this plan because the true church was restored. He understood the restoration very well, and even explained in in his own words. We invited him to pray that night and ask our Heavenly Father if these things are true. I was shocked with his response. He said: "Fica para outro dia." Which pretty much means, I'll pray a different day. He was to lazy to ask God if these things were true. I was honestly devastated. I even got a little defensive and expalined the opportunity that he would be missing with his family. I was a little angry, but mostly sadened. That just gave us more incentive to find those who are willing to ask God!
Well, I better go but I hope everyone has a great week! I am so happy here, so don't worry about me. I am starting to eat super good as well, so that will help. Last week, I downed 24 eggs! So I'm getting plenty of protein! This work is so true. I'm so blessed to be a missionary at this exciting time. I love you guys!
-Elder Williams
