This week has been a very interesting week for 3 main reasons.
*Side Note* To see all photos I take use this link, I try to update it weekly:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B3QUnxNL3tyAZDIzX3ZPMmJtQUk?usp=sharing
1. We did “District Boleia Day” on Thursday this week. This meant we marked 0 lessons for the afternoon and just did studies in the morning, a lesson and lunch. Then we headed out like a normal day but we just started catching boleia after boleia for 4 straight hours. From “The Rutunda de Maganine”(giant round about) to “The Lixeira” (dump) to “Esspresso” (city) to “Costa De Sol” (the beach). We did this route back and forth chatting up/inviting everyone to have visits with us or if it seemed better to invite them to our English class. Oh, we do English class here now too. 25+ people in basics and advanced class each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday show up.
2. Like the Subject/Title says: Birth and Death, lets start with death though. We woke up to find a dead guy outside our house…. Pouring rain, guy face down in the mud. I go to check on him and my Mozambican Grandma comes out and yells at me “Don’t touch him! I think he is dead! If you touch him you are the ‘first at the scene’ and the police will make you stand around all day”. This makes me pause, then I go inside to ask the others what to do. I return to find another man trying to pick him up. He yells at me for help and I run over. Turns out dead man wasn’t totally dead. Barely breathing but alive. We sat this mud covered man up and he started to shake crazily. He clearly had been drinking and passed out-HARD- the night before and been unconscious face down in the mud all night. We tried talking to him but he couldn’t open his eyes or speak, just breath and shake. We propped him on a wall and I went to get help. I came back with Elder Nielsen to find a stranger and his wife trying to wrap the man in capalana to warm him up. Attempts to give him some heated slug stuff failed. Finally more neighbors showed up and we found someone to guide us to the “Chefe de Bairro” (head over the neighborhood) house. We brought her back to find the small crowd trying to warm him up but he was in the same state. Elder Nielsen and I started planning to hire a chapela to take us to a hospital with the man but then everyone freaked out. “EIGHT! HE WROTE AND EIGHT! This unable to talk, shaking half unconscious man just drew an 8 in the mud! What?! Everyone starts encouraging the guy to keep going, "FOUR THAT'S A FOUR!" (numbers start with 82,84 or 86 here usually). After another few painfully slow but exciting minutes he writes out a phone number. We call it.... Not answered :( We try again on my phone, answers but starts yelling at me in Xanganha, so I pass the phone to the Chefe and they dialect talk. Grandpa translates it to Portuguese for me that its his aunt who lives kind of close. They start running over to pick him up. I then had to leave and hope to get an update here in a few hours from Grandma or Grandpa on what happened overall, we just hope he made it! There is the death (or close to it) part of the week!
3. BEA! This week Bea (formerly spelt Bia by accident) got baptized! This is the first baptism that I have really felt a solid connection to. Elder Nunes and I were invited to teach her by a member last transfer, at the time, the worst reference I have received. She had no interest in listening to us (hearing our words, okay, but listening no), she couldn’t even properly read the cover of the Book of Mormon, she wouldn’t speak (grunts for yes and no was it), wasn’t dressed well (even given standards here and wouldn’t try to pray and was always just sad. It was SOO frustrating, but we just kept showing up because she was close to our house and it worked well for an “easy stop by” because she didn’t work. We deemed her “Inanimate Object” as the member who she lived with called it. We finally decided that it wasn’t even worth swing by lessons to teach her but felt bad just dropping her, so we did one final invite to church. That next Sunday she showed up at church, dressed a bit, “Bea like” even for standards here but we were happy she showed up because the member half dragged her there. Then the train wreck of talks began: Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom talks given SUPER bluntly. We died inside thinking she would never sit with us again. But we stopped by the next day and she just broke down crying. After a very awkward 5 minutes she expressed her love for Sunday, the talks and the people who welcomed her. We were blown away by her just talking let alone what she was saying. She opened up about some serious hardships in her life, death of a friend because of an abortion, personal struggles and having been kicked out by her family months ago because of her struggles. All of which lead her to be totally open to the messages in the talks on Sunday. That was an emotional night for everyone involved. The complete 180 degree change had been made. She started praying, reading, coming to church weekly and keeping commitments. This week she happily showed up to her baptism. She even got in contact with her mother and cousins and got them to show up to the baptism. Never have I seen someone changed, happier to be baptized and start over her life. She WAS the sad, mad, non-talking “Inanimate Object” now she is happy, kind, open, reading, changed Bea back in contact with her family and moved back in with them this weekend. The change was crazy.
That was my week. Thanks for the emails and letters and love everyone!
Elder Howell
Elder Combs, Bea and Elder Howell on baptism day
The baptismal font.
Mahotas baptisms April 29, 2017
