Elder Zachary Williams - A Missionary serving in the Mozambique Maputo Mission (4/18/12-4/21/14): Maputo

Hello! This week was absolutely amazing! We saw so many miracles this week in our area, and in the mission in general. We are now starting to see the ball roll in our area, and it's ben truely amazing to see.

Carlos and Ana are doing great! We visited them with President Kretly this week, and we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith, repentance, and baptism. It was a great lesson and they once again, accepted the baptismal invite. Carlos almost finished 1 Nephi already as well! He came to church with 2 of his kids as well. He is slowly starting to become converted... it's amazing to see. Ana, wasn't feeling to well, so unfortuneatly she didn't make it to church. But we have hope that she will come this next week. We want to teach them with the Relief Society president to help Ana out a little bit more. I think that would help her come to church. So that's our plan for this week.

Ronaldo and Iva are doing very well. They came to church for the second time in a row, and they accepted the baptismal date of the 29th of March. We'll gotta push to get them married by that time, but they already accepted to get married before that time. We commited them to go do some documentation today, so we'll talk a little more about them tonight when we visit them. We've brought a few couples from the church to meet them already, and Ronaldo and Iva are very excited about the church. We've already been able to see the difference in their countenance. That is one more proof that the Gospel is true... It changes people, fast.

Another good family that we are teaching is Richete and Belinha. This is very interesting how they were put into our path. She was out in the yard and we started talking to her. She said her husband wasn't home, but that he badly needed a message about Jesus Christ. She said we could come back another day around 4:30 because that is when he is usually home. She said that if we marked a lesson, her husband would intentionally flee at that hour. So we decided to pass on day at 4:30, and he was home! Richete reminds me of Dwayne Wade. He is like 6'4 and 250 pounds. His muscles are so big, that he could play in the NFL. The first lesson, was interesting... But we were ale to notice something about him. We noticed that he is a very sensative man and wants to change his life. We were able to see the desire in his heart to know the truth as well. The first 2 lessons were very interesting. The second lesson, Belinha said that she didn't want to sit with us because she ''has her church.'' But she'll come around. She made sure to open the windows from the other room so that she could here us teach Richete about the Book of Mormon. He paid very close attention as we taught him about the Book of Mormon. There was one part of the lesson that was very special when the Spirit was very strong... I said this to him, ''Richete, you have a lot of potencial. Did you know that?'' He was kind of caught off guard by the question as he replyed, ''no i didn't.'' At that moment, he knew he could change his life. We expalined that it was only possible to reach his potencial through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm grateful that The Lord put into my mouth the exact thing that would touch his heart. The Spirit was so strong! he said he would come to church, and he did! He showed up in his car.... which we didn't know he had. He took notes during church and loved it. We remarked to go visit him again on Tuesday at 4:30. He is very special. I love him so much! He really does have so much potencial.

We are working with a few new families as well who came to church, Orlando and Felizmina and also Ernesto and Fernanda. Our focus with these families is to read the Book of Mormon and receive an answer from God of its truthfulness.

Lots of other excited things happened during the week as well, like going out to lunch with President Kretly as few times, and volleyball on the beach for P-day. But that stuff isn't nearly as cool as seeing our investigators people change their lives.

This week should be a very busy week. We have new missionaries coming in, and we will be giving a few trainings this week as well. It is the last week of the transfers so it should be a busy one. Elder Greenman says that the last week of all transfers and the first week of transfers are always the busiest. So it should be an interesting week! I'm excited to take it on.

I am learning so much as President Kretly's assistant. But I still have so much more to learn. I've learned a lot about leadership in the church, and leadership in general. My testimony has grown so much as I see miralces of the Lord in the whole country. Truly the Lord's hand is in Africa.

Elder Williams

PS... I loved the quote... It's so true - "Once the red clay of Africa soils your feet, you never wash it out." (Ernest Hemingway)