**********BRADY's NEW FRIEND, A BABY GAZELLE***********
Well we went on a safari today, it was pretty cool, we saw water buffalo, gazelle, and giraffs! I got some good pics and we got pretty close to them too! The best part was driving the truck off road though! It reminded me of the jeep but it was fun! I filled up my card in my camera.

My week went by alright. We were super busy and our flights got all mixed up which is never a good thing. President called me at 5 in the morning when he was suppose to fly out to Beira and he said that he was at the airport and they were telling him his flight was cancelled. That was fun. I had to go jump the fence to get into the office and fix the problem ha ha then they tried to get him on the way back too but luckly that one worked itself out.

Ya it will be cool having the mission grow alot. We are also going to send missionaries to Tete and more to Nampula. The mission is growing alot and it's kind of exciting! About serving in Angola, I wouldn't mind serving there, it would be cool to say I did. But I think I would rather go to Tete or Nampula, I'm not sure why. Tete has mountains though! That will be weird to see those again.

For visas for missionaries going to Angola we have to have a criminal report, then we have to get an invitation letter from someone there to come into the country. Then we have to get those letters signed and stamped by the ministry of foreign affairs and the notary (which can be a pain) then we have to buy a plane ticket for when we think that they will get there. After that we take all of it to the Angolan Embassy to apply for the visa. They then give us a 30 day visa that they take with them to get in to Angola. After that they have to go to the Department of Immigration and get a year visa. We have to do the same thing here in Mozambique for missionaries coming in, the processes are almost the same. The thing that makes it hard is that these places are spread out all over town so we can't do it all in one trip and everything usually takes a few days to process. It's all kind of hard to keep straight.

The fact that we have so much to do and so many people just seem like they are trying to hurt the church any way they can by witholding shipments and charging extra, some times it just seems that everything is going against the church. I don't know how, I can't explain it but somehow everything always works out. I don't know if its angels or just dumb luck but it always works out. I told president about this and that scripture or quote or whatever it was popped into my head. "no unhallowed hand can stop this work." I guess it really is angels that are helping us. Maybe they aren't always having to protect us as missionaries but I know that they are helping the church. I can see that for sure just working in the office.

Nadia will be baptized this Saturday which will be good, that girl's sister came to church and to some activities but we still haven't had the chance to sit with her yet. I'll let you know how things go with her. Other than that we are teaching a guy named Uldalteirio... it's hard for me to say his name too. But he seems to be super interested and is coming to church. Anyways I think that's about it for the week. I hope everyone is doing well! I love you! I'll talk to you later!
Love Élder Filho

Questions of the week:
1. How's the Ronga coming. Does it sound like those funky clicky, popping African languages? Do lots of people in Maputo speak it?
It's going alright, ya lots of people speak it and most understand it. It has some funny sounds but no clicking or popping.
2. How's your Portuguese. Do you think it's still improving? Are you pretty confident with it? Do you think you'll be able to test out of some college levels to get credit?
It's still going good. I can say what I want to say without problems usually. Ya I will test out of stuff for sure.
3. What's the rat kill? Do you still have some in your apartment? Do you have to worry about them eating your feet at night?
We got 3!!! I'm not sure if there are still some there. No they don't eat you and we are in beds so they can't climb up or else they might ha ha

.......BRADY & ELDER BROWER IN THE MTC........
Oh guess who is sitting right next to me? Elder Brower my MTC Companion! He is one of the Elders going to Angola! We will have 8 there in July. He says hello! He's a funny kid. He says he's kind of scared but not really. The mission is growing a lot and we will open up another city in a different province this transfere in Tete.

This week has gone by super fast for me as well. Things are going good here as well and we are keeping pretty busy. Ya we had one person baptized this baptism. And now her sister wants to be taught too and she wants to get baptized. Our area is doing really good and we have alot or really good people. I just hope we can keep on teaching them every week with all the other stuff we have to do. We got a list from president a few days ago with a list of missionaries he wants to send to Angola here in a few months so we are super busy getting visas and stuff done for them so we can get them off. But dont worry about missing out on stuff, i'm writing it down so you can hear all about it later. I'd like to write more but I just dont have time. But hey you'll get to hear a ton of stories when i get back!

Also I found some books for a dialect here called Ronga so I've started learning that a little bit. One of our guards speaks it so i'm going to go and sit with him and try and learn it. I have a whole year to learn it so I think I should get it down. I'm really excited to start learning it more. Its a super weird language and it sounds kinda funny but i'm excited to learn it. Also this week we had a rat problem in our appartment, it was pretty fun trying to kill them though. All 6 of us were running all around the house with broom sticks trying to kill them. Other than that the week was pretty uneventful, just doing office work.

Maputo is cool, its like a big city with lots to see and do, nothing too crazy happens like stuff did in the jungle but we see every part of the city because we are always driving all over it. It's way cool being so far away and stuff. I mean, I'm in Africa for cying out loud!!! It's awesome!!! But I still miss home, and also I miss being a normal person ya know? It's weird but all missionaries feel the same that I've talked to. No matter how hard you work and how focused you are you still miss home every day there isn't a whole lot you can do about it. I really like the mission but I do miss home. Anyways I better go but I will talk to you later. Thanks, Love you!
Elder Filho
DOWNTOWN MAPUTO

The Chapels in Mozambique

Chapels of Mozambique: 1)Chapel and Mission Office Maputo
2) Chapel in Magoanine 3) Chapel in Tete,

Design for new chapels being built in Mozambique

This week was a pretty good week. That's crazy to hear about what happened to Tyler but it's good to hear that he's getting better. It was kinda funny that mom told me everyone was healthy and then a few hours latter that happened. But I'm glad to hear that he is doing better and that he had a good attitude about all of it. I haven't had any pain like that but if I do I'll be sure to buy myself a plane ticket to South Africa. I'm not having anyone cut me open here! The doctors here aren't very good at all. Pretty much they only know how to treat external wounds and malaria. Anything else they will send you to the witch doctors. NO JOKE they send a ton of people to them all the time!!! We have members ask us if its ok to go to them. They are weird people too, you can tell that there is something wrong with them. It was alot worse in Beira but it still exists here. That's great to hear that things are going well in primary. I sat in on primary here and I'm happy to say that it works a heck of a lot better here than it did in Manga. It's weird being in a strong branch but I kinda like it!

This week in teaching we had an alright week. Our area is really cool, I like it alot. We have alot of people progressing and everyone is really smart. It's just hard to get them to come to church but I've already been through this in the city in Biera so I'm kind of use to it. The people who are progressing are doing really well. We have 3 baptism dates and we are way excited! It will be cool to have the secs baptize someone! It hasn't happened in so long but because we inherited the area from someone we can baptize them! We have some really good people here. There is one family that i really like to teach. Everyone in the family is a member except the mom. The mom was born in Russia and is super smart. she speaks like 5 languages and is a really nice lady. She didn't sit with us so i asked her daughter why she didn't sit with us. She said that she use to sit with the missionaries a long time ago but she has her own "ideas" about things and the missionaries got frustrated teaching her. So it seems that she got the idea that the missionaries were getting frustrated so she stopped sitting with them. The family has been trying to get her to come to chruch for a long time now but she said they just cant get her to come. She is a super nice lady and greets us when we come and even feeds us. So i went and talked to her before we left and asked her if she would sit with us next time and she said that she would. I'm really excited to see where it goes. If she has alot of questions and things, I think I'll call President Packard and have him come and sit with her. Either way I think we can get her to come to church.

Anyways i better go but I hope that everything is going well for everyone. Glad to hear people got my cards finaly. When I got here they were still sitting in the office. I had to send them myself but that's great to hear that everyone got them. I hope tyler gets feeling better and that buisness keeps going well. Thanks for everything. I love you and I'm grateful to be your son.
Elder Filho

Here's the questions for this week:
1. How many missionaries are there in the mission now? How many members in Mozambique? How many branches?
There are about 85 now. When I got here there was just under 60. Members I'm not sure, branches there are 14.
2. How's Tanha and Nelsia? Are you teaching others? Are you working with inactives or are there many there?
We stopped teaching them, they won't come to church and we are too busy now to keep trying to get them to come. I'm sure there are alot of inactives but we don't do alot with them, I'm sure that other missionaries do though.
3. Is it dangerous for the crooked policemen to have a copy of your license. That kinda worries me. What would they do with it?
No not really. They can't even use a credit card here so it wouldn't be of any use to them. Even the real one wouldn't do them any good. One missionary got pick pocketed and found his wallet later, they didn't even take his credit card or drivers licence just the money because they don't know how to use it and couldn't even if they did.
4. What do you do for P-days in the city?
Well we drive people around all day. Usually we play soccer or something, do email, buy our stuff and then work the rest of the night while we finish our email.

This week was pretty busy for me. We had alot of travel going on in the mission and also all of the regular stuff we have to do every week. I'm starting to work more with the finances which is kinda hard for me to get a grasp on but hopefully I'll be able to get it down. It's amazing to see how the church works and how a mission operates. It's a side of the church I never thought I would see.

Other that normal work not a lot happened. I do have 3 companions now though. The third comp is Elder Brower who was my comp in the MTC so it's kinda cool being with him again. We are working in his old area so we just take turns walking with him and learning the area. Then he will go to another area after 3 weeks. I think we may have made church history to have 4 in a companionship. Maybe not but at least mission history.

People we are teaching... well I don't know them yet because our area just got moved. We are still teaching those 2 Tanha and Nelsia but it's been a while since we sat with them. I've just walked with Brower for one day so I still dont know our new investigators. I've been pulled over 5 times in the past 2 weeks. The cops pull you over and tell you you're going to get a huge fine for something ridiculous and then they say but if you just give me half of that right now then you can go on your way. So you just kinda have to talk your way out of it and tell them that you can't give them a bribe and they usually let you go. I did have one guy who almost took my license saying that it was nessisary to take it to the station for 90 days which is bull. We were lucky he stopped me right in front of the US embassy so I asked him if we could stop by there on the way to the station to see if they can take an American's civil documents. He decided it better to give them back. So now I've made a bunch of copies and I just give them the laminated copies now so they can keep them if they want. The government here is so full of corruption it sucks.

With the work here in the office, there is so much to do that it is a miracle that we get it all done. I know the Lord is helping us because I wonder all the time if the church will survive here because of the corrupt government, dishonest members, and all sorts of other problems. But some how the Lord blesses us just enough to get by. It's amazing to see how the Lord works many little miracles right and left to accomplish one great miracle. It's interesting to think about how often does that happen in our lives and we dont even notice? How offen does some little thing happen that we dont even notice make such a big difference? I know that is one thing I have noticed here is that it happens alot more than I ever thought all through my life.

That's kinda weird now that I'm getting to my year mark on Friday. I only have to miss holidays one more time before I go home. Like Valentines day. The next one I'll be home for. It's way weird to think about. The mission is continuing to fly by for me and it just keeps going faster. Before you know it you'll be at the airport waiting for me to come down that escalator and I'll have my lion skin on my back that I slew with my bare hands! I actually had a dream about that last night and I did beat the lion so I think it was a vision telling me that I can do it. I may try my luck we'll see. If you dont hear from me its probably because I'm in the hospital. ha ha jk anyways I better go but hey thanks for the emails every week. I think I'm the only missionary who hears from all his brothers and sisters.
I hope that everyone is doing well and that you are all happy and healthy. I'm doing great and I still love the work. Anyways I better go but I will talk to you next week. Love you all!

Love Elder Filho

Here's our questions for the week:

1. We will start working on a package. Besides toothpaste and some black pants, do you have any other requests? I know you have better food there now. What do you want us to send you?
Some mac and cheese would be nice. Some spearmint gum maybe too. the eclipse stuff seems to last longer. Oh also pics. I like getting pics! Thanks!

2. Dad was wondering if you've given many priesthood blessings. Do you have some experiences from giving blessings you can share with us?
Not alot, we try and have the members do it as offen as we can. But I did give a blessing of health to a guy who had malaria in Manga. It was a neat experience. When we gave him the blessing he was really bad, he was super hot and couldn't even stand up. Then the next day he was almost completly better. It was really cool.

3. Tell us about your new area. Are you in a new branch? Who are you teaching? What's the area like?
Well the new area is the city so we don't have alot of investigators which is good because we don't have time to teach alot. The ones we do have seem to be doing well though. There are alot of buildings, lots of cars in the streets, it's a really busy city. Trash everywhere but thats kind of this country's trade mark.