Hey!
This week has gone by fast but it seems like last Monday was such a
long time ago! A lot has happened this week. It’s been pretty good. We had mission tour with Elder Koellicker. That was super good. I really enjoyed it. He knows Nana O. He said he was on the missionary board or something like that when Nana was in the Relief Society Presidency. So that went well. Then on Friday we had Transfer Meeting... So I found out that I’m staying in Munhava for another transfer. Elder Pierson is leaving and going down to Maputo and I’m getting an Elder Buckner as my next companion. Apparently he’s from Utah and played Football for BYU the year I was there. He’s only got 6 transfers and just went senior over another kid in my district down in Maputo. So I’m excited to serve with him. He’s black too (not African black but like American black) so I’ll be one of two white guys in Munhava. I’m super excited about it. He sounds like a really good guy and I think everyone likes him. It ought to be a really good transfer. I’m almost positive it will be my last though because President Packard wrote me and told me to make sure that Elder Buckner knows the area well because this will probably be my last in Munhava. As far as the baptisms go, the one on Saturday went really well. We’re having another next week. Our area has a total of 11 being baptized. So that will be good for the Branch. I’m going to baptize 2. Their names are Lucas and Domingos. They are both 20 years old. They are super cool too. I really like both of them. They’ll be super strong. Also some more news is that Elder Lundgren, my trainer, is going down to Maputo to be the A.P. so that will be a big step for him. Elder Lundgren and Pierson and the rest of them will be leaving for Maputo on Wed night and Elder Buckner flies in at 9 in the morning so we won’t miss a day of work. It will work out great. They’ll drop Elder Buckner off and Pick up Elder Pierson and that will be that.

So Christmas is coming up. They released our schedule. We’ll be doing a lot with the members. Throwing 2 big parties. The Friday before, will be a party at every chapel, so we’ll have our own little private Munhava party and then Sat. night we’ll have a huge district party over at the main chapel here in Beira. It ought to be good and give the members something to do. Then Christmas Day we’ll call home and then get together just as missionaries and celebrate. It ought to be good.

It looks like you guys had tons of fun cutting down the Christmas tree. That’s pretty funny about Andrew and his wallet and cell phone. And girls. I thought I’d never see the day. On top of that I’m missing it too. It would have been so much fun to make fun of him, the way he loved to make fun of me about girls. But instead I’m here, half way across the world, so he ought to consider himself lucky. Of course the Christmas tree is too big. It always is. I didn’t miss much though, because I know what happened. Mom and Will picked out a huge one, Andrew protested saying it was too big, but mom won the argument anyway. They cut it down, took it home. Then the next day dad got home, commented on how big the tree was and wanted to cut the bottom off, but mom wanted to
just see if it would fit. So they measured it, found out it was about 5 feet too tall, cut off 5 feet, then brought it in and put it up scraping the roof. But it sounded like it turned out to be good.
Franny wrote me a nice e-mail today. I love getting her e-mails. It sounds like Bapa is
doing good too. He’s always loved that Del Taco place. Well, anyway. Glad
all is well, thanks for everything. And I guess I’ll just talk to you guys in a week and report about my new companion! Miss you all and love you!

Elder Okazaki