Well, to start out, it has been a good week. We've been filling our time with trying to find people. Our area isn't doing very well, and so we're trying to build it up. We're also pretty much limiting ourselves to teaching families. The church here, doesn't need youth, we need to be preparing good strong men to be able to lead the church. We need to baptize them now, so that they can prepare themselves to be trained in the gospel, so they'll be ready to lead in a year from now. Even though things are going pretty good for us now, we're spread super thin, and so we need more men to help us out. It will take them a while to get ready and so we really need to get them going right now. So that is what we're trying to do, is set up the Nampula Branch for success in the future, something that I don't think was done in Beira. Like Dad said, we want to do it right the first time around.
Saturday we went out to a member’s house, that currently live in an apartment in the city and is building a house outside the city. We built a little temporary garage thingy... we built it using only the following...

bamboo
2 machetes (big knifes)
a hammer without a head
3 boards of wood
10 nails
tires stripped into threads

We cut wood, dug holes and lashed things together until it turned out to be a pretty good looking little garage… ha. So ya, Mozambicans don't have a whole lot, but they sure do make the most out of what they do have... It was a fun Sat. morning. So a good day.

Today I changed my schedule around a little bit. All I did was switch the hours of my math lab and the New Testament class. I did that because I wanted a different teacher for religion and Elder Porter is in that hour too, so that will be fun to take a couple of classes with him.

I can’t believe I am going into my last transfer. I manage it pretty well, I do think about home and college and stuff like that, but then we go out and work and there is too much to think about in our work, and so I forget about all of the stuff going on at home and coming home. I kind of have this sense of urgency. (A) I know I'm going home soon (B) Nampula needs leaders now, so it doesn't turn out like Beira and (C) I feel like in my mission I've done everything except missionary work, and so I really want to do that before I end my mission. For me, there has always been a higher priority, (the branch, the zone or the mission) and here in Nampula, there is still a higher priority (the branch), they are not needy like Munhava or Beira 1. I do not have to dedicate large amounts of my time to keep them running, and so I finally have time to do real missionary work and really concentrate on my area. It is funny how it worked out, but I want to do real missionary work. Funny that I came on my mission to be a missionary and here I am in my last transfers, finally getting to be a real missionary. Funny how that happens, but I am so excited.
Crazy Andrew got new skis out of the whole deal. Pretty good. I can’t believe that prom is in full swing too. However, tell him that we bought a weight set up here in Nampula, and so we've been doing that 6 days a week and so tell him to watch his words because I'll still be able to whip him by the time I get home. Well, hope all is well and that things are going good. Thanks for all of the work on the summer stuff. It is nice to have someone else do all the work, and then I am left to make the decisions… ha so thanks. Thanks for the email; it was good to hear from the boys. I am glad they're doing well. Super strange that you're coming next month already. Wow, this month is already about 1/2 way over too. Have a good week.

Elder Okazaki