Oi,
Wow, that was quite the e-mail. I feel like I was there and eating all of the good food that you guys ate. Here, Thanksgiving was wonderful. On Thanksgiving Day we didn't actually do anything... just another normal day. However, the day after (Friday) was Zone Conference and so the Sisters threw down a huge amazing meal for us. It was way sweet. We had turkey, potatoes, bread (aka rolls), and some steamed veggies and watermelon. I know watermelon isn't really a Thanksgiving food but it was a real treat for us. Not a whole lot of melons around here...so all the missionaries walked away very satisfied. For dessert we had some sort of apple cobbler pie thingy which was way good with ice cream. The sisters really did well with what we have out here. So ya, it was a pretty good feast for us.
Other than the feast, things have been going well. We have had a ton of administrative work to do this week with zone conference, so we didn't do a lot of teaching. Just a lot of preparing and things like that. One morning we went on a hunt for an orphanage where we could do our Christmas service project. We went out to Manga, after hearing that there were some good ones out there and we did find one, but it just didn't fit, and so we ran into a guy named Joao Bueno who is a Brazilian and who is the head for Care for Life. He was over here because of the problems they've been having, and so we asked him about an orphanage and he said that there were a couple out in Dondo... Dondo is way out there. about 45 min outside the city, we’ve been out to Dondo before and so we decided to check it out. He gave us directions to where this place was located and so we went out there. Well we ended up finding the place, and when we showed up, the guy that ran it, was super surprised that we were there and wanted to help. He was very excited and it was a good experience to talk to this guy. I think we'll end up going out there this Christmas. They've got about 50 kids at the orphanage and so I think it will work out perfect!
Glad to hear about winter and snow. Winter may be in full swing there but summer is coming around here. I'm starting to find that I'm always wet and damp and so that’s when you know it is summer time. Apparently Maputo is a little cooler, so it might not be as bad this year. Today we'll be playing a turkey bowl to round out Thanksgiving for us here. It was pretty funny, because President Packard outlawed national holidays, and so technically we weren't supposed to do anything for Thanksgiving and we didn't, however the day after we just happened to have a large turkey dinner, Sister Packard talked at zone conference about being thankful and the p-day after Thanksgiving, we're playing football. I just find it funny how when you have American zone leaders, American couple missionaries and every DL is an American, Thanksgiving still seems to happen... that being said though, I didn't hear any Brazilian complaining about the turkey dinner...
Also no word of a package. I still haven't heard anything but who knows, it might be in Maputo right now. Well, things are going great here; sounds like things are going well there too. I was glad to hear you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that all went well. I’m glad you liked the picture too. Good thing that helped. We took it when we were out there in Dondo at that orphanage. Well have a great week and thanks for all the letters!!!
Elder Okazaki