Hey, so this week has been good. Elder Pierson is good. He’s a lot
different then Elder Lundgren. He’s way younger. Only in his 6th
transfer and a new senior companion. Transfer day was fun. The ZL’s came
over with Elder Pierson at around 8 and we had a big meal waiting for
them so we all ate and hung out. It was fun. Elder Pierson is from Utah
too. South Jordan I think. He’s got a girlfriend back home that’s
waiting for him. They’re way crazy. They have promise rings she writes
him every week. They’ve already got a ring picked out and everything.
Its just nuts. He’s a good guy though. He’s like maybe a ½ inch
taller than me and about 10lbs heavier than I am so ya. He knows the
language pretty well. Not as well as Elder Lundgren but well enough.
He’s pretty funny too. Not gonna lie. I laugh a lot. A little more
challenging of a companion than Elder Lundgren. We get along fine and we’re
good friends so no problems like that. Just not as good of an Elder as
Elder Lundgren I guess you could say. So ya, but things are still going
good. This week we didn’t teach as much because of so manythings
going on with transfers and stuff like that. But this week we’ve already
got a pretty full scheduale. It’s a funny thing. As you learn
another language, slowly your English get worse and worse. You forget words
(expecially big ones) and you have no idea how to spell in either
language. But things are going well. One of our goals this transfer is to
have me at the ability level of a senior companion by the end of this
transfer so we’ve got a lot of ground to cover but if I work hard at it,
I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to do it by the end of this transfer.
I’m excited to see how things go. Sounds like homecoming went well.
That’s too bad about jase adams. If he had been student body president
he would have won for sure. By the time I get home I’m not going to
know who Andrew is anymore. Sounds like already he’s completely
different. Sounds like they’re having fun though. I’m glad my old
Arapahoe clothes are getting put to some use. By the time Will gets there
wont need anything else. Will’s and Bapa’s letters were nice. It was
fun to hear from them. I’m glad to hear the Chargers won. I heard
about BYU losing. That’s too bad. Oh, and the tsunamie. Ya we heard about
that. It was like the night before though. Aparently there was a lot
of stuff going on in the City and that’s how the zone leaders found
out about it and then when they dropped Elder Pierson off that same night
they mentioned that a tsunami might hit.. nothing happened though.
Thanks for the weather update. Rain is not a good thing. We walk on dirt
which turn into mud when it rains and if it rains hard it turns into
soup. Apparently investigators houses have been known to disappear in
Munhava in the rainy season. Not too excited for that. Sunday went well.
Elder Pierson doesn’t know any of the investigators so I had to set up
appointments with all of them. That went fine. Then He also doesn’t
know the area so he just follows me around as we wind on little dirt
roads through our area. Its kind fun because I know what he feels like.
When I first got here following Elder Lundgren around I felt the same
way. Totally disoriented. No idea where we were. You can tell he feels the
same way. Its cool though. I’ve learned a lot. I can figure out
directions down here using the stars and sun so its kinda cool. One night
we had to use it too. We were heading over to an investigators house and
we had to use that little bridge in the picture I sent you to get
there. Well we didn’t know this at the time but they pull that thing up
at night. So when we got to the bridge it was gone. So instead of
backtrack we just used the stars and headed north to the main road that would
take us to a different bridge. So that was my adventure this week.
Things are going well though. We’re teaching two families that are doing
really well right now. And that I’m really excited about. One family
will be baptized for sure. They just need to get leagally married
first (It’s a mission rule that everyone who we baptized that is married
must be leagally married. Most people out here just have traditional
African marriage.) so it will be a little difficult to get them married
because you need some documents of personal identification and other
stuff and no one here had documentation on anything. So we need to get
them all that stuff first which can be pretty expensive for the people
here so ya, we’ll see. But they’re progressing super well. They keep
all the commitments we give them and are just super cool. So I’m
pretty excited about them. Then the other family is going super well too.
they’re way cool too. the wife is super smart (most mozambiquan women
have trouble speaking Portuguese, let alone reading the BOM in
Portuguese..) so that is unusual. And the dad is super cool too. so we’re
working closely with them. He’s building a new house for his family and
then he’s gonna rent out the old one so we help him build the new one
every Saturday morning. He’s building it out of cinder block so those
gloves are coming in handy. All we’re doing right now is moving dirt
though so nothing too exciting yet. This week we were teaching a
lesson to a recent convert that Elder Lundgren and I baptized (Beatrize). At
the end of the lesson she gave us a bag with 4 little bags of rice in
it. She gave each of the Elders that taught here a little bag of rice
with their names on it to say thanks. I already have tons of rice but
its was still really nice to get. It was a really nice gesture. It was
nice to know that our work was appreciated. It really touched me. So that
was another cool little experience for the week. Well, things are
going great. Its starting to get a little hotter. Miss you guys and love
you!

Elder Okazaki