Mozamdo

This week was a really good week. I really like my new area and companion. This week we had amazing success in finding people. These last few days alone we have found 3 families who are very interested and who I think will do really well! It was great! The only 3 doors we knocked on all week turned out to be amazing families! I'm way excited to keep teaching them. I'll let you know how it all goes.

My area is a nice area. There is a lot of sand but it's not too bad. We have to ride bikes and our bikes suck but oh well. The area kind of remids me of a nicer Manga without the jungle. Or as many crazy people. Actually we ran into one crazy guy a few nights ago that scared the crap out of me! People here are really dark so I can't see them at night and all of a sudden he just started screaming and making weird noises. He was like 3 feet in front of me and I didn't even see him!!!! I almost hit him ha ha! Oh well, I guess I'll never escape the crazy people.

We watched general conference in our branch this week and to my surpirse there were a lot of people and most of them stayed the whole time! Usually we watch it and after the first hymn everyone leaves and it's pretty much the missionaries and the branch presidency but this time it was really good. Oh also my new assignment will be to work with the branch presidency which I'm really excited about! Our BP is a great guy who loves the gosple. Our branch is really new. Not even a year old so there are a lot of problems but we will work through them. There are a ton of things I want to do but I'm not sure if I will have time to get them all done. I would like to get home teaching set up but that takes a long time and people aren't very willing to do it.

My companion is a great guy. We are very different but we get along pretty good still. Over all the area and our house are really nice. I'm happy and healthy and doing great! Everything is going great and I'm happy to be a normal missionary again :-) Thanks for everything! Love you!
Thanks fam!

Brady

Questions:
1. Tell us about your companion...
He is from South Jordan, he's really into theater and singing and stuff. We are very different.
2. Tell us about your area. What is a "wealthy area" in Mozambique like? Does that just mean they have indoor plumbing and kitchens? How are the homes different than the poor areas?
Yeah that's pretty much right, they have actual houses but they are just made of cement and some people have running water and stuff. There is alot of sand which isn't fun for riding bikes but oh well.
3. Tell us about your branch.
It's a really new branch but its good. We already have a lot of people coming to church and the BP is awesome! I'm way excited to work with him.

I was transfered. I will be transfered to Matola to work with Elder Marlor. He just got here last transfer so he's pretty new but I'm way excited to work with him. Everyone says we have the best area in the mission so I'm way excited to work there. The area is a richer area, with houses and stuff. But Matola is really hot and sandy. There isn't much jungle here in Maputo more like plains and stuff. I'm excited though. I think there are prepared people there and I'm way excited to get out and find them! It's like 30 minuets out side of the city, so we're still close. And we have bikes!!!!!!! FINALLY!

Today was kinda ruff, we had to do embassy runs and spend lots of dollars on visa stuff. I always feel bad spending so much of the Lord's money even though it is to progress the work and stuff and that's what it should be used for, I just kinda feel bad about being the one who did it. I don't know it's kinda weird. Also Elder Wily and Elder Jensen (my old comp) arrived at the airport earlier today, but I forgot they were coming so no one was there to pick them up! oops. I drove them out to their old area to apologize but they weren't mad or anything. It was good to see them again. They are both going home on Wednesday. Elder Wily was my district leader in Manga and Elder Jensen was my comp.

There are a lot of things I will miss about the office though. The branch I was in was really good and worked really well. Also we have a lot of good members who I really liked, I'm going to miss them but I'll be back for all the baptisms and stuff so I'll still get to see people all the time! This week it was kinda sad saying good bye to all my investigators and recent converts. For the most part I really liked the branch. It is one of the strongest ones I've served in.

It was good to hear that I would be transfered. President told me in my interview that I would be transfered but he didn't say where. But I'm very happy with my new assignment! Also, this puts me in a good position to train Elder Graham when he gets here! A lot of times if there are 2 missionaries who are from the same city or something, Pres lets them train the new one. So I hope that I get to do that, that would be way cool! I want to have that kind of relationship with another missionary like I have with Elder Okazaki. It would be really cool and I would love to train him!

Hey I have to go, we still have some things we need to get done before we go to bed. Thanks! Love you! miss you! talk to you on mothers day! Thanks fam!!!
Brady

P.S. Hey I gave your email to Elder and Sister Cox. They took a pic of me getting my hair cut just barely and said that they would send it to you! They also do this news letter thing and they said they would put you on the list!

Yeah it is crazy how fast the weeks are going by for me! It seems like there are only 3 days a week, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and then it just goes right back to Sunday! It is good to have time passing quickly though. I love the mission and I'm learning a lot, but I'm excited to come home too.

This week was pretty good. We are still trying to get the visas and flights for the Angolan elders. We went to the embassy today and they still weren't done. We are getting kinda frustrated because they have been processing them for so long! Oh well, everything will work out. President is going all over the place in a few months and we have to figure out when he needs his passport and when we can use it to get visas for all these places and how long the embassies will take and ARRRRRRRRRG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is going to South Africa, Zambia, and Angola but all in like 2 months so it's going to be really hard if it is even possible to get all his visas. On top of all that we have to book his flights, hotels, and do everything else we normally do. Also on top of that we have lots of missionary supplies stuck in customs which means that Elder Brown is going to loose all his hair and it is going to take him the rest of his mission to get it out...... yeah I'm a little flustered right now sorry ha ha

Teaching is going alright too. We have good people but they all lack something. A lot of the people we teach just don't think that it is all that important. They don't come to church on time, they read like 2 verses a day and think that is plenty. Its kinda frustrating that they just don't care! At the same time though I can't really blame them, I was the same way before so oh well. All I can do is try right? We have one baptism date, Julia is her name, she's 17 and lives with her uncle's family who are all members. She won't be baptized until the 9th of May.

We watched more of conference yesterday. I like Elder Nelson's talk in the Saturday afternoon session! When he said that public prayers shouldn't be long I almost stood up and cheered! FINALLY ITS DOCTRINE! Oh by the way ha ha I almost forgot, I can finally tell you what I've been keeping a secret forever, we will have a special visitor here in at the end of May! Elder ****call my mom, she'll tell you who*** is coming to tour our mission! Pretty cool huh? I'm way excited!

Transfers are coming up. I still don't know anything which is weird but later this week I should get a lot of information. One thing though, I might be transfered out of the office. I'm not sure yet. Me and Elder Udall were talking about it. The assistants have a huge influence on transfers and we talked about whether it made more sense for me to stay or leave. We both decided that it would make more sense if I left. However in the end it is all up to President. We'll see what happens I guess but I know that it is one of things Pres. is considering.

Anyways other than that not a whole lot to tell about this week, I decided that I was going to do a tour of Maputo with my camera while I was driving just so everyone can see what Maputo is like when I get back. Since I have a car I can have my camera out whenever and it's not a problem. I started today and just made a little one. I think you guys will like it! Thanks for everything! I love you and I am so grateful to be your son. I was thinking about all the things that you have taught me and I am so grateful. The Lord blessed me with amazing parents so thank you so much. Have a great week!! Love you!

Elder Filho

It's super strange to hear about snow and stuff like that. It's pretty hot today and I haven't seen snow in over a year! Crazy huh? It is going to be ruff when I first get home though. I will leave in the middle of the summer here to go to the middle of winter there ha ha.

I'm glad you guys liked conference too. I actually have a funny/cool story about that. So President and the assistants were in Beira so that left just us to run conference and get it playing in English and Portuguese. No big deal right? ha ha nope. It took us at least 6 hours to set up! We had to set it up to play in both languages, and also record so we could send it up to Beira. Well after a brutal battle with a lot of wires, we got everything working. So the missionaries started coming and conference was about 10 minutes away from starting. I was sitting there listening to the Mo-Tab Choir singing and watching the timer go down to start conference. Then to my horror..... it all cut out!!!!!!!! with like 7 minutes to conference!!!!! Everything shut off and I don't know why! So I ran down to the room that has all the satellite stuff thinking that maybe some kids got into it and unplugged something. But no, everything was just the way I left it! I don't know why but it all just stopped working! I unplugged everything and plugged it all back in and it still didn't work! I restarted the system and still nothing! Keep in mind this whole time I unplugged and stuff I was running up stairs to see if English was working, and then down stairs to see if Portuguese was working. Conference was about to start in like 3 minutes and I was at a loss, I had no idea what to do. I had tried everything I had known how to do. Then I don't know why, maybe because I was just out of ideas, I just stated unplugging things and plugging them into random places. I didn't even have the same set of audio and video going into the same spots or anything! It was all a big mess. But while I was doing that I just went downstairs and Portuguese was working! Then I went upstairs and opened the door and to my surprise, It was working in English too! I have no idea how it all worked! It was all such a mess and I don't know what I did, I thought I was just making more of a mess but I was out of ideas and didn't know what to do. It sounds like something dumb and insignificant, but I can't help but wonder if there was something else besides dumb luck involved. I went down stairs and back into the satellite room and looked at the big mess of wires all over, and I started tearing up. I don't even know why, I was just so grateful that it was working. Later I told Elder Fairhurst (the senior guy) about what had happened and he said "Well Elder Brown, it looks to me like you did all you could, and then the Lord did the rest."

This week we also taught some lessons. We have a lot of good people who are progressing well. Work in the office is going pretty good too. I'm grateful for being able to work in the office. It has taught me so many things that I know I will use throughout my life. We did have a busy week with President and his wife going to Beira. They went up to Marromeu which is a long ways away from the city. President couldn't use his phone or anything so he was literally gone for 5 days. I don't like when we can't get a hold of him. It makes everything harder. Then to make matters worse Sister Packard got sick and so I had to get her an emergency flight back home on a Saturday when everything was closed. She made it home though so that was good. She just had a fever and stuff, it wasn't a big deal but she just couldn't go to Marromeu.

Over all everything is going pretty good here. I'm enjoying my time in the office and I'm learning more each day. Thanks for everything. Have a good week. I love you!

Love
Brady