Week 7 Finally in Mozambique

It´s been one of the biggest adjustments of my life this week. I flew into Johannesburg International airport on Tuesday. Elder Brown and I were pretty sure we weren´t going to make our flight. We landed and the lines were crazy, but someone was standing just off the plane with our names on a paper... and a wheelchair?  He put Elder Brown in the wheelchair and flew us past all the lines for security, checking in, more security and such because Elder Brown was in the wheelchair. We just made our flight because of him! We still have no idea why he helped us, but it was awesome. Once we landed in Maputo we got to meet the AP´s-Assistants to the Mission President (they helped us cross the boarder/fill out paperwork) then we met President and Sister Koch. They were super nice, and we were quickly into a small van with some missionaries and the AP´s. We went straight to KFC... Yup my first African meal was KFC. It was pretty good because I was quite hungry.

We spent Tuesday and Wednesday night in the mission office in Maputo (which has a swimming pool for literally no reason). We then were supposed to stop by the US Embassy to get our "Mozambique equivalent of a Green Card". But the MTC didn't give the required papers to Elder Brown and I... So, we have 60 days to get the papers sent to us, or we´ll get kicked out to Swaziland while we wait for them because you don't need a Visa there. Once we knew the papers would be an issue they changed my area from Beira (coastal city further North) to an area called "T3". Its kinda the outskirts of Maputo. That way when the papers come, I can go to the Embassy (I currently have a 60 day visa). Anyway, I switched some stuff between bags and only brought one suitcase with me to practice for the future. Most transfers are by plane and have a 40 pound weight limit.

So..... T3...... Oh what to say about it. Well, our house has a total of 6 people in it. Elders:  Burchett, Stegman, Brown (yay old comp), Griffith, and Mayaya. The house is considered quite nice for the area (I will include pictures). Its the house that got robbed just a few weeks ago :)  Anyway, it has a big spiked fence all the way around it, and another gated/locked fence around the front and back doors, then another door to go through. Did I mention we have to have a guard patrolling 24/7? So that´s interesting. ***Let me say though that I have never felt unsafe here, other than the driving.*** The house has two little fridges, a gas stove (literally uses gas cans like a BBQ grill), a small shack outside has a washer (still inside the perimeter fence ). The power has gone out several times since I have been here, which isn't too annoying until you know that when the power goes out, so does the water... for at least 4 hours after the power comes back on. Yay bucket showers. The shower is tiny.... made for very very short people. The shower head is probably almost a foot under my shoulders when I am trying to shower.

The food situation: We can get most foods.... Kinda. I am going to the store after I leave the Internet cafe where we email. There are these little fried ball things that are pretty good here. We eat lots of rice, cereal (with odd tasting milk), quite a bit of chicken here and Shima (no idea if I spelled that right). It looks like mashed potatoes, but don't be fooled. Its virtually tasteless with a very unique texture. The important thing though is clearly drinks. Duh. They have Coke, Pepsi, several types of Fanta, other drinks and Frozy´s. Glass bottles of Fanta are 15 Met.... The conversion rate is like 70 Met to a dollar. Coconuts and a Fanta while I walk is nice.

We walk a ton... I mean a ton. Our area is almost a 30 minute walk from our house. Its a lot of walking each day. Also, somehow I didn't think of this, but the "roads" are all sand. Which is insane when it gets all windy. Kids like yelling "Shao" (not sure on spelling) which means hey. They run up and like walking with us/holding hands. Its kinda fun, but others like to yell "Mahloongoo" which literally means "white person". It was cute/funny for all of 2 days. The kids are mostly nice and fun though. Sometimes we get to play a kinda version of checkers with them, or basketball/soccer.

The lessons and teaching is interesting. Hard to describe, but next week I´ll try to explain some lessons once I hopefully understand some of whats said. The Portuguese here is pretty "messy" as someone described it to me. Often mixed in are random dialect words which makes learning the language quite hard. It hopefully will click in the next few months.


Elder Howell


I forgot to mention, our apartment is crawling. Literally. So many cockroaches :) But there are also some wild lizard gecko things that are inside that eat them, so it evens out?

I´ll be here for a full transfer (6 weeks) for sure. Hopefully the paperwork is fast, but if they have to mail the originals, it will be weeks or months... A guy got a letter my first day here, it was from the start of June.... Some people stay one transfer, others are here for 4,5,6+ it really depends.  Our area for Elder Burchett and I is huge. Literally huge. Sometimes we take a 45+ minute chappa ride out to part of the area to teach people.  A "chappa" is a little bus that should hold 11 people but they stuff like 25+ people into.

I should have brought my umbrella. Its been raining/cold the last 2 days. Cold given I also left my sweater in the other suitcase. But its already warming back up. Before I know it it´ll be stupid hot again. 2 showers a day to try and fight off skin abscesses and worms. We are NEVER allowed to be barefoot because of them. Even always wearing shoes lots of missionaries get the foot worms--yay.

We all cook our own breakfast, then one person cooks for everyone for lunch. We go out and about, do a 15 minute "pit stop" around 5 or 6 to grab drinks/a snack. Then we eat "dinner" around 9 which we each cook ourselves.

Church attendance was small yesterday, there are 400+ baptismal records in the area, 87 people showed up... Apparently its usually 125-150, but it was cold.

I wish you all the best! Hopefully I answered any questions you had!

 The little kids like to hold our hands. 

 Elder Brown's wheelchair ride in the Johannesburg Airport.

 Cooking at the mission home.

 Looking outside from our apartment.

My bed.  We have to sleep under mosquito nets. 

 My apartment.

 Our shoes.

 Chappa ride.

 Cream Soda

 My area.

 Sandy roads.

 Lots of walking.