Brady's Bed with Mosquito netting and a baseball bat for security!

It’s crazy to think I've been out about 4 months now already. It’s really flown by. I'm doing great though, everything is going good, the language grows everyday and it’s very exciting. Our apartment is way nice and big. We share with another companionship in our district. One of them is from Brazil so it’s nice to be able to talk in Portuguese more with him and ask him questions. Wow that's crazy about the thing in China. It’s funny how out of the loop everyone is here, when I read that out loud everyone said "what!!!" and came and read about it ha ha. It’s really nice to have the news on Mondays so thanks! We have a mission tour here this week and I've been assigned to give a talk but lucky for me it’s in English so it won’t be too bad. I'm pretty excited for that. I can’t really think of much more that’s going on here except that it rained today... alot... there is ankle deep water everywhere. I'm really glad I have those boots they work great. Anyways I've had to type this 2 times now so hopefully it works this time I'll talk to you again next week thanks, Love ya!
Elder Brown

Click on the pic's to enlarge. Look for the men fishing with nets in the background.

Hey everyone, Saturday I had my first baptism, it was really cool and I can’t wait until we have another one which should be pretty soon. We have had a lot of success this week and I'm very happy with it. We had a lot of people who came to church again and a lot of people progressing it's great. Yesterday we were meeting at this guy’s house to talk about our branch and he lives in a shack out in the more jungle like area. While we were sitting there, I just looked up at the stars through the trees and it hit me, wow I'm really in Africa! It still feels like a dream to me sometimes. I remember hearing a lot of stories from people who helped build the church in Brazil and I always thought how cool it would be to do that and that is exactly what we are doing here. It's really cool to actually watch the church start from almost nothing and spring up. Even just from when I got here it has grown so much. When I first got here we had about 100 people who came to church, yesterday we had 257 people. It’s amazing. I will be sending a statue of a family of 5 home to my parents, the one I will send them costs 50 dollars and shipping will be about 40 dollars. But it will be shipped Fedex or DHL so it will make it home without problems. He makes bigger sizes but I'm not sure how much more they cost and he can make a family of any size. If you want one just give the money to my parents and they will be able to get it to me. Anyways I better get going but I love to hear from people so if you want to email me that would be great. Have a good week!
Elder Brown

Hey Mom & Dad! Thanks for all the news, it's nice to hear what's going on home cuz you're right ha ha I don’t get any news what so ever, I can't even listen in on what other people are saying about it because they don’t know either. Everything with our baptism went great! It was cool to stand in the circle to confirm her a member in church yesterday. Also our new Branch president is AMAZING!!!! He's such a good leader and he gave an amazing talk yesterday. I know that he has been called to build the church here. It’s really cool to say that I have been called to build the church here as well. All through the MTC our branch presidents who all served in Brazil would always tell us stories about how they helped lay the foundations of the church there. It’s really cool because that's exactly what I'm doing here right now! It’s hard sometimes because what we are doing I wouldn't always consider "missionary work" but it’s the really basic things that we do that helps lay the foundations of the church and it's really cool to be a part of. I can’t wait to come back in 10 years and go through the Mozambique temple! We'll see. Transfer meeting was really cool, it's way exciting. Our mission president makes this big elaborate slide show with everyone's pictures. He goes through every district in the mission and their pictures are next to their companions and then if they get transferred the picture disappears and someone else comes in. He's on the phone talking to everyone and people go nuts when something happens, it’s really cool. I'm staying with Elder Okazaki in the same area but we are moving houses is the only change. I found out that my friend from the MTC is coming to Beira so he'll be in my zone which is great cuz I'm kinda up here by myself. But ya, he should get up here around Friday or so. I got all the young women’s letters from the pouch service, and 3 of yours last week. How it works is when they ship supplies from SLC here they just throw the letters in with it so there isn't really any scheduled times they leave. We are going golfing today... ya we'll see how that goes. I'll let you know how nice the course is, I doubt it's anything like Lakeside ha ha. Anyways I better get going but its always good to hear what’s going on at home. Thanks Mom & Dad I love you! I will write again next week!
Love Elder Brown

This is the Chapel in Beira where Brady's branch meets. It is the first and only chapel the Church has built in the country (so far). It was dedicated in 2005.

Hey Mom & Dad, it was really good to talk to everyone. The 45 minutes went by pretty fast! We got a new branch president yesterday which is good because we haven't had one since I've been here. The guy called has only been a member for just over a year. He's a good guy. His daughter was baptized right before I got here and we've taught his duaghter lessons. We teach lessons at his house all the time so we know him pretty good. We've been assigned to train him how to be a branch president. It's pretty hard to teach someone about this stuff when he's only been a member a year but I know he'll do great. The members here are pretty good, they don't like callings very much though but for the most part they're great. We have a baptism this week! Anyways, I better get going but it was good to talk to you! Happy Mother's Day Mom! Love you! Elder Brown

Left Elder Okazaki's Trainer, Middle Elder Okazaki, Right Elder Brown. 3 generation picture!
MOTHER'S DAY PHONE CALL!!!!!!!!!
We talked to Brady Saturday night which was Sunday morning in Mozambique. It was SOOOOO good to hear his voice!! He's loving Mozambique and is getting along great with his companion. Elder Okazaki is a hard worker and has been great in helping Brady progress in the language and in learning to teach the discussions. They have been scheduling about 10 lessons a day, however some people drop out. The area he is in is wealthy (by Mozambique standards) and many of the people are too busy with their jobs, or uninterested. In other areas in the mission, the people are unemployed and have plently of time on their hands and are more willing to be taught. There are 4 area in the city he's in, two areas are friendly and open and the other two areas are Musulim and people are very prejudice and unfriendly and tell them to go home to their own country. He said he feels very safe even when walking the streets at night. The people regard them as "Holy Men", even those who aren't very friendly still respect them. He said the weather is perfect, they are just going into the winter months. He's only had 1 mosquito bite and isn't getting sunburnt. He is currently serving as the Elder's Quorum president in the Beira 1 branch (pronounced Beda). His companion is in the Branch presidency. The Mission president has one Elder in each branch presidency to see that things are done right. Brady also teaches the Sunday School class. The missionaries oversee the meetings to make sure things are done and taught correctly. They meet in the first chapel built by the Church in Mozambique, and is currently the only chapel the church has built in that country. It's a very nice church and has classrooms and a baptismal font. He will be having his first baptism on Saturday. They are baptizing a young woman who is 14 years old. She has a very strong testimony and has an Aunt who is a member of the church. He feels she will be a very strong member of the church. He feels good about his Portuguese, is studying daily and is getting better at understanding the mumbling, quiet Mozambicans. There are 6 Elders in his district that are in the Beira 1st branch. The mission consists of two zones, the Maputo zone and the Beira zone. Most missionaries serve 1 year in each zone. Transfer meeting is coming up this week (his first one) but doesn't expect that he or his companion will be moved. We will get an e-mail from Brady on Monday and will post it along with more pictures. He loves getting e-mails from home and he expects to get letters from the pouch service at the transfer meeting which he is really looking forward to. Thanks for keeping in contact with him. He mentioned how much he loves getting emails from his family and friends. He sounds great and happy and is excited about what he is doing. This is one Mother's Day I will always treasure!!!! HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL OF YOU!!!

CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO MAKE THEM BIGGER
Hey everyone! Not much to talk about this week but I did get all of my baggage this week, but they did steal my cd player and running shoes. Shoes here are only about 100 Meticias which is like 4 bucks. The money system is pretty cool. Everything is so cheap it’s sweet. Anyways, today we played football on the beach which was way cool. Everyday I just look around and realize wow I'm actually in Africa and how beautiful it is here. We share our apartment with two other missionaries. I did however have a bad experience this week, when I was cooking with some hot oil the chamose I was cooking fell off my fork and splashed boiling oil all over my hand. There were a lot of people around and I didn't have a place to put the pan down so it sat and boiled on my hand and arm for about 5 seconds before I was able to rinse it off. It’s healing well though so it’s all good. They don’t have any of the good food I like so I’ve had to experiment with different food finding what I like. Oh and one other thing, there is a member here who carves these really cool statues out of this really cool black rock. He makes these "eternal families" they are really cool looking, I'll see if I can send pictures today but I'm not sure and I took pictures of them so if you want them let me know and I will have him make and send them. He sends them through Zimbabwe so they shouldn't have a problem getting there. Ya my daily routine is pretty normal as far as missionary work goes but with alot more lessons. We teach about 6 lessons a day so some days we don't even do street contacts or knock doors. There are alot of people here to teach but the problem is getting them to come to church. Ya sometimes I just get hit in the face with the fact that I'm in Africa but most of the time it just feels like a dream. Anyways my email time is just about up so I better go but I love hearing from you! Thanks for everything. I love you guys! Have a good week!
Love, Elder Brown
A Mozambique Movie Theater (Video from Elder & Sister Spendlove)