Oi!!!

Well it was a lot of fun talking to you guys! And the time did pass by super fast. Well, the one thing we didn't talk much about was Christmas. It was good. Christmas Eve was spent teaching lessons until 6:00 pm and then we were in the office doing work until about 10:00pm. The Office Couple here, used to be a Col. in the military and so he kept telling us how this is what it was like in a combat zone, that you would work right through the holidays.. Sometimes I look around and have to assure myself that I'm not actually in a combat zone... But it was good. A good way to spend Christmas Eve. Christmas Day we went to an Orphanage here in the city. The Orphanage was actually pretty well off. I wish they had picked another orphanage that maybe didn't get as much outside attention like we did in Beira. It was still good though. During the little service project we had a bunch a different stations set up, and the missionaries were at each station, however  Elder Fiallo and I weren't assigned to anything, so I ended up picking up a kid that obviously had a mental deficiency and I ended up holding him and carrying him around the whole time. You could tell that he didn't get a lot of attention and so I think that he enjoyed it. We just walked around and chased other little kids and sat on the swing a little bit. It was a good way to spend the morning. After that, we all went home and our house and one other house ended up going out to KFC for lunch... Super Good. Later that day we watched "It’s a Wonderful Life" again. I love that movie, it may be just because I'm in Mozambique, but it’s good. I enjoyed most of it. I had to try and translate the last half of it for the Portuguese speakers… that was hard. The next time you watch it, you should pay attention to the language that they use. I just tried to get the main jest of the movie across, and that was our Christmas. The rest of the week went well, just lessons and a normal week.

You were right about the weather not being as hot as last summer. So far it has been really nice. Really cloudy. That has made the difference. I think there was one day there where I would actually classify it as cold. Great day, almost put on a sweater kind of day. Today wasn't bad. The reason why I'm writing so late is because, all of Maputo was out of power for most of the day and so it kind of messed up a lot of people’s schedules. We ended up having to take some elders home and so that didn't give us time to internet and so we're doing it now in the mission office. That’s why this will probably be a pretty short letter... but it was great hearing from you guys. Sounds like everyone is doing well. Lots of skiing and stuff. Sounds good. Thanks for the tip on the "AP theme" dad. I actually had given it a little thought but never really pinned anything down. To be honest, looking back at my "ZL theme" I might continue with that. In Beira I really pushed for more focus on working with the branches and less active members and that's actually been adopted as our overriding mission goal for 2009 and so I was thinking about continuing with that, but at the same time, that objective of mine has already kind of been completed and so I think it might be time to pick something else out, and go with that, I'll see. I wish Bapa O were here to give me some pointers. Those would be helpful now. I'll let you know what I decide. Well, thanks for the letter and that is about it, it was great talking to you!

Elder Okazaki