Week 22: Good exits and good entries

This week there isn't a ton to talk about. We didn't get to do much teaching or anything done this week. Everyone was busy with their parties... So, we did tons and tons and tons of contacting. Which probably sounds like the average missionaries email, but not for me.... I try to squeeze in 30-60 minutes of contacting a day. Usually we have lessons (25-30 per week) and don't have to contact all that much... I´m very thankful that the partying time is over. ´Holidays´ here are special. They have a 2 day before and 2 day after buffer of sorts where no one is expected to do anything (mainly because everyone is too hungover to do anything anyway). Its a bit confusing and tricky to get stuff done. Hence why I am doing emails on Tuesday not Monday like usual.

New Years Eve was definitely the most interesting part of the week. As you can tell from the above paragraph people here like to drink, but on big holidays it gets insane. So crazy that at 18:00 we weren't even allowed to leave the house. The neighbors, all of them, were playing music as loud as I have ever heard music (Imagine IMAX theater next to the speaker, but your house filled with the speakers). Anyway, it was SO LOUD. The house was literally vibrating from it. I am honestly impressed with how loud it was, until about 23:00 when I really really wanted to sleep. Finally I passed out at some point (no way to fall asleep when its that loud), but was woken up at 00:00 by the fireworks all going off and general insanity. The music didn't stop until about 8:00 the next day for an hour, followed by more music until who knows when...

On the topic of other cultural things everyone here says `Good exits` responded to with ´Good entries´ for the New Year. Today people are all still ´Good entries!`. Its interesting.

On the topic of investigator stories, I have been challenged to chess by Belito/Laura. We will do a family night with them and play. I have been practicing all week, 14 wins, 2 ties, 2 loses in my house right now. I will also cook Pennsylvania Dutch cookies for them (Thanks Mom for the recipe!). They are a really awesome family working hard on documents still.

Random note of the week. The magic glowing thumbs I got for Christmas have continued blowing minds of kids and drunks alike this last week. We came up with a new ´act´ on the way home from family night. We ´took the soul´ out of Elder Bennion (who them crumples to the ground)... We then ´share the soul´, eat it and then calmly walk away with him just laying there... People all just stare in terror and then freak out. It is super funny. Once Elder Bennion gets up they know its a joke, but that 20 seconds before he does is so hilarious.

I hope everyone had Good Exits and Good Entries!

»Elder Howell

These photos are of the list of each day something that I'm thankful for.  A tender mercy, small thing or happy moment.  230ish.  Its a really good idea (from Hannah of course), no repeats.  

Week 21: Christmas

This last week was a bit interesting given that we didn't have all that much time in our area to work this week, but it was all good. The week started weird when last Monday at the store a lady walked up to me and asked where `the bull tongues usually are`... I told her I had no idea, I´d never bought bull tongues in my entire life... She apologized and explained that she thought I was from here so I should know. I found that hilarious because I´m white, very white, I´m clearly not from around here, people remind me of that daily!

Tuesday night we found another mouse in my room, still no idea why we get so many (closest room to the kitchen is my only guess). Anyway, Elders Feliciana and Bennion screamed and ran away as per usual but Elder Burchett and I calmly set things up, hurled it though a door to the executioners shovel. All of which took less than a minute, we are getting too good at it.

On Friday we had a Zone Meeting in Maputo which was nice to go to and see tons of other missionaries I´d never met before. It was also our Christmas party which meant pretty good food-win.

Saturday was the highlight of the week though. It was stupid freaking hot though. We are talking 110-115 degrees depending on the report. As people kept saying ´heat, just heat´. The baptisms still went smoothly in our little redneck white cage ´baptism font´ though. Guteres, Justino and Celso. Justino was the 1000th baptism that has happened since President and Sister Koch got to this mission. Justino is awesome, especially given that his father is a pastor for his own church.

Christmas Eve (which doesn't exist here but it did in our hearts) after the baptisms we ate lunch, then it started to storm. A nice huge sandstorm. Thankfully our taxi showed up quick and we were off to the office. Once it dropped us off and we got inside it started to pour rain, totally flooded the streets with over a foot of water. Thankfully the mission office is a nice place, so we stayed dry. We also go to Skype home. Best 45 minutes of internet of my life, and probably the fastest 45 minutes of my mission by far---naps included. It was awesome to call home an see that everything was as it should be :)

Christmas was quite uneventful for the most part. I had little wrapped presents to open which was awesome though. Church was 1 hour with a killer 95 people. We then ate Christmas dinner which was literally beans and rice (later junk food from packages though). We went out for a few hours but had to return to the house at 18:00 for our safety given its the 3rd biggest drinking day of the year here. The amount of parties and drinking was insane, we could clearly hear all of it all night. But I still took the opportunity to try and minimize my ever increasing sleep debt. 

That's it for the long update of the week. I hope everyone had a great, and cold Christmas! Love all of you. Thanks for the love and support you send my way in any form.

Elder Howell

 Christmas Eve Baptism of Guteres, Justino and Celso.

Elder Bennion and Elder Howell.

Zone Conference at the Mission Home.  Can you find me?  

Christmas Goodies from the USA.  

7 people in 1 small taxi to save money? Of course!

Elder Jesus, what a man to have around  on Christmas.

Heading to Zone Conference....mmm  coconuts. 

Elder Howell figurine. 

Again, Skype was awesome!

Christmas Eve Skype!

Elder Howell was able to Skype us on the morning of Christmas Eve. It was the best Christmas present EVER!  There is a national holiday today in Mozambique, so we should receive an email on Tuesday this week.

Week 20: Tis the season to sweat

This update will be a short one as I get to skype my family this week and not all that much happened really.

On the 16th I got a nice little surprise of Elder Chipman (my Zone Leader, from Utah) and his comp came by with an attempt at cake. It was somewhere between cake and brownies? But what counted was the hour plus they took in the heat to bring them to me. Really cool of them. At 11 we tried going to lunch, but a storm rolled in and we couldnt leave for an hour. Finally we got to a pastalaria to eat. So, I went with feijuada again, bad idea. The meat was once again hairy, but at that point I was just hungry so I pushed it aside and ate the rest (you could say missions change people a lot I guess). It was nice overall though. The total for all 5 of us was 1155 Met (75 Met to a dollar). After that it was a normal day, but it ended up with me face planting it into a lot of mud while trying to jump over a stream (which should have been a road). Overall interesting, unique, special, different day.

We didn´t have any really cool stories in my area this week. We did finish 3 baptismimal interviews. Justino, Guteres and Celso will all be baptized this week. One nice update is that Sibastiáo decided he wants to be baptized (we think its watching his friend Celso finally taking the step made him really think about it). It will be exciting to see if we can help him get ready for January.

Random Fact of the Week:
1. Elder Feliciana is really scared of: Frogs, toads, cockroaches and mice.... We walk around all of those all the time. There is some serious entertainment to be found in watching him scream and jump off the path when a frog is spotted.

Merry Christmas to everyone, I wish you all the best!

Elder Howell

Week 19: 106 degrees and lots of rain

Shout out to Caitlin and her Birthday on the 10th!

The big thing of my week is Elder Feliciana, my new companion. We thought we knew what was going to happen at transfers, but due to some contention in the house over the broken shower stuff seems to have been changed. Anyway, the shower is still so freaking cold. Elder Feliciana is from Brazil. He is `The coolest Brazilian in the mission´ as everyone told me. He deserves the title. He is 19 and the happiest person I have met on the mission. He is the Energizer Bunny of happiness, well when he isn't taking a nap at lunch. He was in Swaziland for 6.5 months so his English is actually really pretty good. We still need to carry dictionaries around to talk about random stuff but it´s fun. We bonded very quickly when we got smashed into he back row of a chappa with 2 very, well "fluffy" ladies holding tons of cabbage. He fell asleep for the entire ride on my shoulder. Nothing shows more trust than falling asleep on a chappa with someone.

The other big moment this week was getting 3 packages at transfers. Stuff for Christmas from my awesome Mother and from Hannah´s mom. It´s always a thrill to get mail. I am trying to be very patient and not open the wrapped stuff, so far I am still succeeding. I know one of them is gummy sharks, I can smell gummy sharks from a mile away, sorry kilometer away. I've been sugaring up our investigators kids with all the sweets I got. Candy bracelets seem to be a bit too complex of an idea here though... The kids who just want to come and chat with me get candy. Those that yell mulungu or ´me da´ (give me) get nothing. I am also way too entertained by ´Balloonies´ the weird gel balloon things that you can play with after blowing.

Random Facts Time:
1. It was 106 Degrees here on the 9th.... Then within an hour or two it was storming and dumping rain--Thanks Mum for the raincoat, just in time!
2. We got to watch a Christmas Devotional singing thing. So nice to hear good English songs, but man Utah is WHITE.
3.  I forgot to mention that we finally killed a mouse this week. Elder Feliciana is VERY scared of them and we found 2 in our room multiple times (no food even goes in the room -.-) Anyway, we finally all teamed up and went Lord of the Flies on that mouse. With war cries and shovel throwing, literally kicking and finally just smashing we got the mouse. Our neighbors probably think with all that noise that we opened a new church next door.


Family Update:
Mosias and Vitoria are this awesome family that will be officially opening the marriage process this week. It´ll take another 30 days until they can get married, but thats okay! Super cool family. David and Ana are slowly collecting documents but its really hard for them. Haven't gotten my ralador(grater) yet but hopefully this week!

Thanks for the emails, have a great week everyone!

Elder Howell

Helped dig a trench to help fight off mosquitoes, which cause malaria.

The Christmas Devotional

Everyone happily taking photos of the dead mouse.

This peanut snack is good.

This is literally just sugar and coconut. I thought ´mmmm I like toasted coconut´. It was sooooooo bad. Lol

Is it candy, or a bracelet?  Actually....its a candy bracelet!

Week 18: Transfer Day

Since there wasn't a baptism this week I can just enjoy the little random things about this country, like the fact that we went to a less active members house for a lesson (5th or so time since getting here) and we noticed for the first time that the neighbor literally had a monkey. A MONKEY. Suffice it to say I was thrilled out of my mind. No idea how we never noticed it before, but what matters is that we did this time. We tried to feed it, but its a racist monkey that wouldn't take food from white guys... I will befriend him if its the last thing I do in T-3. We wanted to know how much they cost, we got laughed at. `You just go into the jungle and grab one`... Next P-Day maybe (totally joking don't call PETA on me)!

We had no power all night for the first time since being here. Never have I been so hot, and I enjoy steam rooms :) Not to mention that the airflow from the fans usually keeps the bugs down. It was a rough night. The next day we didn't have water, which made everything even better. That continued for 3 days.... Once we got water, I got one hot shower, before someone (who will not be named, but isn't an American) broke the shower head.... You could say it was a week about patience and not freaking out :)

Today is transfers, again (crazy to think I've been out over 4 months). That means that this email will be shorter than usual. I've been told I´m staying in T-3, but moving areas... again... I´m.... Ummmm accepting of it. I will get a new companion too, which means I have to switch rooms. My new companion is a native Brazilian and apparently really amazing--I will make my own opinion though :) Thankfully I get to stay here to see how everything works out. We have 10-12 baptism planned for Christmas Eve now which would be really cool to see!

Random Facts of the Week!
1. Elder Brown is going to Beira, Elder Mayeya is leaving too.
2. The members have been drowning us in lychee and mangoes , yum.
3. Fanta/Coke 300ml drinks are now 17-18 Met #RIP15MetDrinks
4. English Class is going strong and ending well with a `spiritual fart` or as a native English speaker says `spiritual thought` :)
5. Hopefully the ralador is ready this week for purchasing!

Update on a family:
Less of a family update and more of a fun chain of events. The older man Morse I mentioned several weeks ago (who invited lots of people over to hear our message) invited a man named Denis. We have since sat with him a lot (he and his daughter are set for the 24 of December). He then showed us his sister and brother who are both actively coming to church. Very exciting to see what one, very unique, person can lead us to!

Off to find out who I will be around for the next 6+ weeks of my life!

Elder Howell

Selfie with the gang.

Sharing the candy love.

First monkey I've seen.

This is how long letters take to arrive.

Lychee fruit.

One of the Christmas presents was open, so I ate them... so good.

                                     

Massive mango.

Week 17: Baptism of Sidonnia

Well the major point of the week has to be the baptism of Sidónnia. She showed up on time... The other girl getting baptized showed up 30 minutes later and we started an hour late (Something very strange to get used to). It all went smoothly after that and I got a bagia sandwich so everyone was happy.

While on the topic of food this week:
Thanksgiving! Yayyyyyyy.... Oh wait, no one celebrates that here... So Elder Brown and I just went to a Pastalaria and got feijoada and chicken... It was like 300 Met for everything, but it was the worst food I have had yet. We both almost lost it when we realized what the `meat`was in the feijoada. So that wasn't fun at all. But Elder Burchett and I did return to a shack near some investigators that sells fresh made fries so that was good.

The high point of the week was probably getting 2 packages on Thursday though. I love getting mail! Some how I had 0 letters (no sure how wink wink everyone) but I did have lots of yummy snacks and little wrapped Christmas gifts that I´m doing my best to not open. Elders Brown and Burchett got packages too so we all just shared and binged a bit on good old American junk food for Thanksgiving.

We had our English Class this Saturday and it went quite well. We didn't have too many people show up due to weather, but we have very high hopes for attendance the next few weeks! Its very fun to have all of them say `Good morning Teacher` at the start. I also brought some Skittles to give to those who could answer random questions. Lots of people here like to `try` and talk to us in English. There is one fast test, simply ask `how many toes do you have on your left foot`. If they can answer that, they probably can speak decent English.

The giving of Skittles in the English class lead to everyone wanting them, so I made a trade. I `put away my childish things and became a man` this week by trading Skittles for a bag of killer mangoes with a kid in the ward... 1 Cor 13:11 Look at me Mom! I´m growing up so fast :D!

Random Facts of the week:
1. We haven't had water for 3 days now :) Some guys broke the pipe while setting up a tent for a drinking fest, I mean party.
2. Some people here are very poor, but a TV and huge speaker are a must in any tin roofed home. Our neighbors speaker literally shakes our house.
3. During the closing prayer of a lesson someones phone starts ringing. The investigator praying says `Please cast that devil out from among us` and the phone just stops ringing.... They thought that was a really crazy moment, Elder Burchett and I thought it was a really funny moment.
4. One positive name I get called is `Elder Wow` because Howell is super hard to say.
5.The church had no power for church or family night because they didn't buy credit, so after sacrament we just sat outside.

Family updates: Belito/Laura and family were at church as always, they´re still trying to get documents done as they can, but they´re pricey. We can't give them money, but we have been looking for a relador (coconut grater) and he´s a wood worker, so he is making a nice one for us that he will get paid well for. Works out really well for everyone! Hopes for meeting with David/Ana this week.

Thanks for all the love and support,

Elder Howell

The kids.

 Sidonnia's baptism

Elder Mayeya, Elder Brown, a girl, Sidonnia, Elder Burchett and Elder Howell.

More kids. 

Tons of these crazy flying attacking beetles.

These cool kids ask for photos everyday. I did give them candy :)

`Thanksgiving` meal... like 300 Met.... Almost threw up. The feijoada had hairy meat in it... We are 95% sure we got the little butt end of it.

This is just one of our daily meals Elder Mayeya cooked.

This ice cream is good... But the lactase doesn't work here #FoodRegret.

Fun praying mantis in front of an albino... I see like one of them a day... Didn't think of that before I got here, but there are lots of them.

Yes, yes that is a black magic witch hut. I don't think I was in her spells splash radius though.

English Class went well. We think 50 people next week.

Designated tag holder.

Thanks for all the love and support,

Elder Howell