Hey!
Well, i'm actually in Africa. I'm still having a hard time believing it
myself. The plane ride was good. It actually wasn't that bad. I slept
for 8 hours on the ride from Los Angeles to England. it worked out
really well then i slept a lot too from London to South Africa. Mozambique
is good. Its a different world for sure though. However, its not as bad
as people think. we have mostly the same things here as people do in
America. just not as good quality and less of it. we get peanut butter,
milk (although its a little sweeter..), eggs, meat. a lot of things.
all of it is actually pretty good too. not nearly as good as american
food but i like it. One this place does have though is fruit. The fruit
here is so good. its sold everywere. streets and stores and just tons of
places. its amazing. we'll be out and want a quick bite to eat so we'll
by a tangerine our some bananas or some bread (the bread is amazing
too) from a street vendor and just eat it. and dont worry its totally
safe. Elder Lundgren (my trainer, the DL, member of a Branch Presidency
and he's been out a little over a year..) is a good guy. went to BYU-ID
before the mission and is from Sandy Utah... went to Alta high school..
He's a nice guy. shorter than me by a couple inches and he's got a
little spare tire around his waste that he said he aquired here but will
get rid of it with 6 months left to go on his mission.. he's a really
nice guy. he's got some funny storys. this week we taught about 10-15
lessons. we went knocking on doors and street contacting. the area that i'm
in is called munhava (moon-ya-vah). apparently its the mud hole of
Beira (the nothernmost zone in our mission). i guess when it rain all the
water from the entire city runs through our area and we end up swimming
to appointments. thats atleast what i hear happens in the rainy
season.. which starts in a couple months.. so i'll let you know how that
goes. the people here don't here don't live in grass huts like everyone
thinks.. there are those here and there and in specific areas but mostly
its all concrete. cinder blocks are common here. all dirt roads where we
work. lots of palm trees and dirt. the people here are so nice. they
are all super cool. the kids are so cute too. all of them. i'll send
pics as soon as i get them. church was good. it was amazing to hear all
the testimony's of the members. i can't believe their still members its
amazing. the people have so many problems. there are really no morals
in this country. its no big deal about anything. back in the US there's
a lot of pressure from within the brach or ward to stay active. there's
also a lot of pressure from with in families to stay active. here,
there's none of that. the members that are active are active because they
have a testimony not due to social pressures. its a pretty cool thing
to see. the branch i'm in is having a pretty hard time as i understand
it. just a lot of problems. last sunday was really good though i guess
so Elder Lundgren was pretty excited all day. I guess a lot more people
than normal paid tithing and fast offerings. We have to take chapas
(vans..) to our area. chapa's are vans that people own and drive specific
routes that we use as transportation. they cost 10 metical's a ride
(about 40 cents).. so we take those all over the place. we get 50 US
dollers to live off a week. about 1250 metical's. We actually don't live in
the area we work in. i guess there's no housing there that is suttable
to missionary standards.. so we have to take a chapa to our area every
day. but ya, things are going well. i'll send pictures as soon as i
can. can't really think of anything i need.. thanks and Love you all!