So, It was a good week. It went by super fast. The big event of this week was our trip to Maputo. Way good. The new mission home is super neat. The roof is a thatched style and on the inside you can see the thatching through the supporting logs that make up the framework of the roof. Way nice. ZLC went well too. A little different since there were 6 zone leaders, we're used to only 4. It was a very good council and we talked about a lot of things. It went well. We ate this shredded chicken and we put it in tortillas (we don't have that up here in Beira, so it was a treat for us...) with salsa and stuff, so it was good. French toast for breakfast the next day. Then for lunch the Packard’s just gave us some money and
sent us out for lunch. We went over to this pizza place and it was super good. It was way weird though, because it actually was like a restaurant at home. Super weird. I felt way out of place. Beira is really far behind Maputo. So ya, everybody says Maputo is a totally
different mission and just after lunch I knew why. As we were driving through the Presidents neighborhood, I had my face pressed to the glass with my mouth hanging open because I felt like I was back in the United States. I haven't seen houses like that in a long time. So ya, it was a good trip and we got a lot accomplished. Good stuff.
When the President comes to Beira, usually the AP's do come with him but 2 weeks ago was a special trip on specific business so the AP's stayed down there. He likes the leaders to have good numbers and do missionary work and so I think that partially influences his decision, but also, like dad said, it is very expensive to fly people around. I think it cost about $800 to pay for our two round-trip tickets...
This week has been fairly normal. We've done a lot of missionary work. That was nice. We have some super good investigators. Next week should be like that too. So hopefully that will continue.
We actually got to listen to the conference talks for Sat and Sunday morning sessions. The
Paradises' invited us over and we listened to the streaming audio over the web. It was a little choppy at times, but it was really good. The guys in Maputo got to watch conference live, through the satellite dish they have down there. They have recorded it and should send
it up to us here sometime... so maybe we'll get to see it before the transfer ends. We kind of get jipped being up here in Beira...
Elder Smoot is doing well. He's a fun kid to work with.
We're getting excited for district conference up here. Elder Watson of the 1st quorum of the 70’s is coming out to talk to the district so we'll have our Zone Conference right before District Conference. Elder Watson was the secretary to the 1st Presidency for nearly 30
years... I'm super excited to hear from him. Hopefully he'll tell us a little bit about his experiences from working so closely with the 1st Presidency. It'll be a good conference I'm sure.
Elder Featherstone is good. Getting adjusted well. For just coming out of the MTC, he speaks pretty well. It is hard to understand much, but that is to be expected throughout the first transfer. Doing very well so far. Fun guy to have in the house and I think he and his trainer
are doing well together.
Sounds as if you are all doing some work back home. I don't think I'll recognize our house or you guys. Well, hope you all have a good week. I'll think about that package... there were a couple things that I wanted to request but they have currently eluded my mind. I'll let you know when I remember them. I'm super excited about how well BYU is doing. It'll be fun to go
home to a good team. Hopefully they'll be able to beat the U this year because if they don't, I won't ever hear the end of it from Elder Abraham...
Wulp, thanks for the letter and I guess I'll talk to you guys later! Have a good week!
Elder Okazaki