The computers are working better today but the keyboard kinda sucks. ha ha maybe you could pray for better keyboards next time though! Things are going alright here. the new comp is ok. We've had some problems the past few days but I think that we have them all taken care of. The problem was that since he is new, he is super over zelous and just wants to do all this stuff and I tried to explain to him that because of how new the church is and stuff and because of the culture things like that just don't work. Things are better now though.

That is way cool that Gma P hit 96!!!!! that's good to hear that she is doing so well also. I haven't looked at the pics yet but since the computers are so good today I will probably be able to look at them so thanks!!!! I hope to get to see her when I get back. I was thinking about it, and I think i'm going to want to do a lot of stuff with her when I get back. I was thinking instead of going to family night things at college (as much as i love them and all) I think I may start doing family night stuff at like a rest home or something. I don't know, we'll cross that bridge when we get there right?

We had some really cool stuff happen this week with inactive members. We reactivated a couple that was baptized in 2003. He worked on Sundays and she didn't seem to care anymore, but we worked with them and things are going great now! She is reading the scriptures every day and really loves them! I talked to Antonio (the husband) about talking to his boss and gave him advice on what to say and how to ask for Sundays off so he could go to church. That human relations class I took in college has helped me so much here! I've used everything from conflict resolvement to how to talk to your boss and tons of other stuff I learned. Anyways his boss agreed to give him every other Sunday off so he could come to church!!! They are both reading and doing super well and we are so happy for them! Reactivating someone is worth more than 10 baptisms in my eyes! We have also found some other inactive members and we are working with them now. It's still too early to tell if they will do good but I think they will.

Things in the branch are going well. We finaly have home and visiting teaching organized! and people are actually doing their visits!!!!! This is a huge deal!!!! I've never been in a branch that has these programs working and they will help reactivate members and keep the branch strong! It was a huge accomplishment and we are all super happy about it! It is a huge step in the progression of the church here and I'm so grateful that i could be apart of it.

We are pretty excited to get our new mission pres. It will be good! I'm sure I'll have plenty to talk about with him in our interview this week! It will be a change from Pres. Packard for sure but I'm way excited for it!

Anyways I better go, I kinda got a late start on email today so everyone is ahead of me. Thanks mom for everything! I love you!!!

Love Brady

Mozambique Mission Home

Hi mom,
 
I have to be really fast this week cuz the internet has been down forever and we only have like an hour before we have to leave. But anyways, my filho is here and he's a good kid. He is a little different.... ok very different but he's a good guy and we get along just fine. He is a professional jump ropper and so as you can imagine he is a little differant. He's a good kid though and I think we will get along alright.
 
This week we went to the zoo again and we fed more chickens to crocs. It was pretty cool. Then we got some fat monkeys to try and do flips for bananas ha ha ha it was so funny!!! i got some videos of it so you'll see it.
 
We weren't able to get alot done this week because of transfers around with missionaries but with what we did get done was good. Everything is going great here and we are all happy. Anyways i'm so sorry this is so short but i dont have much time. Thanks mom! I love you and i'll write you a better email next week!!! sorry again!
 
Love Brady

Jardim dos Namorados - Where Elder Richard G. Scott Dedicated Mozambique to Preach the Gospel

Well I got a call from Elder Udall with some news, we are going to have an extra missionary come in this transfer than we thought. He was going to get surgery on his shoulder but with the MTC Swine flu delay he could get it done and still come. So I will be training this transfer and Elder Depew will go to another area in our district so he's still close. I'm pretty excited to train though. It should be fun! His name is Elder Dunn from Rexburg ID, I read his application while I was in the office so I pretty much know everything about him ha ha but ya it should be fun. I'm excited but kinda nervous. I just hope I don't mess up ha ha! I'm excited to see what I was like when I first got here though ha ha! Elder Depew will stay in the same district and go to another area with another missionary who was in Beira. I'm glad he will still be in my district, he's a good kid and i really like him.

We had our branch council yesterday, it was kinda ruff. The meeting lasted like 3 hours and there were a lot of things that should have been done before in other meetings that just never happend. It was kinda ruff but we're getting there! We've had a lot of the inactive members that we are teaching come back to church so that was good. I really like this area and the branch. This is probably my favorite area that I've served in on my mission thus far.

That is pretty crazy about the elections in Iran. I think that it may happen here when the time comes. The president now I think will be reluctant to give up his presidency, and he is filthy rich so I'm sure he will have no problems paying the right people to keep him where he is. Oh well, we'll see.

So I think Kyler should be ending his mission pretty soon! Isn't that crazy! I think he's done in August or September. I can't believe he's already just about done with his mission! Time really does pass by fast out here. He's pretty sad about leaving though. He want's to stay I think which is good. It will be good to see him when I get back though. It will have been almost 3 years since the last time I saw him.

That is pretty crazy that it has been raining that much. Here it's been raining the past few days too which is never fun cuz it always makes it humid. I hope that the rains pass and that you can start to enjoy your summer! I'm glad that you guys are staying busy though, and that you guys are all happy! I miss you all but I'm having fun out here too. Everything is going great! Anyways I better go, I'll let you know how things go with my filho (son) next week. Thanks! Love you!

Love Brady

Here's the questions for the week:
1. You said you didn't build much on the house last week for your investigators. Last we heard you were still making bricks. What have you built so far? Are they still doing OK?
No we are still working on blocks but we haven't done much for a while. They are getting weaker but we are going to go try and get them going again.
2. Who are you teaching? Do you have a lot of investigators?
No we are doing more work with the branch and with members than investigators. We have a few but not many.
3. What is your chapel like? Is it rented and is it a real church?
It is a rented place that use to be a store I think. It's really big though, it's the biggest chapel we have in our mission.
4. Have they made any changes in security since Elder Nelson's visit?
Nothing yet except they do have armed guards in front of pres's house.

Thanks fam!

This week was pretty good, nothing too exciting to talk about. However we did make peach cobbler and it turned out really good! ha ha other than that not a whole lot happened. Elder Depew and I are doing great and he is a great guy! Our investigators are doing better and our members as well. The Packards left yesterday for home. Sister Packard has to get surgery on her arm or something to fix it. Not a big deal or anything. It was pretty sad to see them go, but we are excited to have President Spendlove. He was a great guy so we're excited to see what changes will happen with the new pres.

That is crazy that tyler is graduated already!!!!!!!! It feels like yesterday I was there! now I've been graduated for 2 years!!! It's really crazy how fast time has gone by! I'm glad the graduation went well though.

I've been thinking a lot about the things that I have learned so far on my mission. In fact Elder Depew and I were talking about this a lot. I would have to say that so far I have learned more about life than anything. I've learned about the gospel as well but I've learned something very important about it. I've learned that the Gospel is so simple. That is how I've had to teach it but slowly I'm realizing that that is how it should be. You don't need to know everything about the atonement, the plan of salvation, or the universe to acheive eternal life. You just have to understand the basics and keep the comandments. I'm not going to be able to bible bash when I get back like many other missionaries. I'm not going to be able to have deep deep discussions on doctrine, but I don't need to. I've learned so much on my mission so far but not about these things like other missionaries have learned. I don't want to talk about this too much because it makes me look trunky which I'm not ha ha but that is just what I have been thinking about a lot this week.

Anyways everything here is going well. We are starting to work a lot with the branch and trying to make the auxilaries better because the branch is so new. We made a bunch of callings and we are filling up our auxilaries. Now we just have to work with them and make sure they get trained right. Everyone wants to do their best, but because of lack of experience they don't know how to do that. So we are going to start working with them a lot. Its kind of hard because we already have so many people that we are teaching but we are going to try and make time for it all.

Other than this not a whole lot happened this week. Just work as normal. But everything is going well and I am happy. Thanks dad for everything, I love you very much and I am so grateful that I am your son.

Love,
Brady

Hi mom,

First off I'm doing alot better this week. Thanks so much for the prayers, I know that they helped. Elder Nelson's visit was great! Except of course the attack and stuff. I did a pretty good job hiding how mozambique really is though right? ha ha This is the worst thing that has happened though so don't worry about it. Ya so basicaly what happened was they were sitting and eating dinner and 4 guys with guns walked in and kicked Elder Nelson in the face. Then Sister Packard tried to run for the door to call for help but one guy grabbed her. He beat her up, broke her arm and while she was on the ground the guy put his gun to the back of her head and told her that he was going to kill her. When the guy turned his back she ran out the door and called for help. She was a real hero. After it all she was so worried that the missionaries would hate the mission and the people. It was really cool to me that even after all that, she still had such love for the people. She is an awesome mission mom for sure. However stuff like that hardly ever happens so don't worry about my safety. We now have a ton of people from the church security place that are going to make everything a lot safer for everyone. Church security is going to look at all the missionaries houses and make sure we are safe.

Another cool thing that happened, well it wasn't so cool to me at the time. But at our district conference with Elder Nelson I was just hanging out looking for our investigators and stuff. Then another missionary came and told me that President Packard was looking for me. So I went and talked to him and he told me that he was putting me in charge of security and I needed to pick 4 other missionaries to help me. He told me he wanted me and another to stand at the door and the other 2 to go to another back entrance. It was pretty freaky that President put me in charge of security for an Apostle!!!!!! I was super nervouse too! cuz when he got up and started speaking he said that the forces of evil were trying to stop him from giving his messiage and I thought "oh crap something is going to happen" but luckily nothing did ha ha! It was really cool though.

It was really a good conference with Elder Nelson. When he walked in the room for the first time you could just feel the spirit and you knew that he was an apostle. Then when he shook my hand I could feel it even more. It was really an amazing experience. I'll look forward to telling you more about it later. In his address to us as missionaries it was really cool. They talked alot about marriage and stuff. Then he gave us an apostolic blessing. In his blessing one thing that really stuck out to me was he said that we would be great missionaries after our missions. It was really cool! While he was giving the blessing you could just feel the power that he had! I was sitting with Elder Spaulding and after we were both just like "did you feel that!" It was a really testimony to me that he really is an apostle of the Lord.

Well these are the highlites from my week. I'll be working with my new comp Elder Depew this week so I'll let you know how it goes with him. He is a way cool kid and I'm sure we will get along great! We couldn't do much teaching because of the conference but it's all good. Anyways I just want you all to know that I'm ok. My health is getting better so there is nothing to worry about. Thanks so much for everything again. I love you and I'm so grateful for you.

Love Brady

Here is what President Packard told us to send to family and friends at home about what happened. Dear Missionary Parents and Friends,

We know our experience of Friday evening has made the news in the US. We’re sorry for the shock and concern that it obviously has caused with so many. We have been particularly concerned about the parents of our missionaries. We want to assure everyone that we are fine, that our missionaries are fine, and that we are moving forward in constructive ways to complete our assignment in the next month.

The news reports from KSL and Deseret News were mostly accurate about the incident. We were just completing dinner in our home when four armed gunmen overpowered our one guard and entered our home. We were threatened verbally and physically. Cindy was roughed up but finally did get away to warn other guards and neighbors who came to our assistance. She suffered a fracture in her left elbow (not the same arm she broke last year). She is sore with other bruises and skinned knees from being accosted. Elder Nelson was accosted as well but he is fine with minimal injury. Throughout the ordeal all commented on how we felt calm and guided in the things that we were prompted to do and not to do. Angels were with us. We are grateful for the unseen help we received. Elder Nelson and his wife, Wendy, are remarkable. At the end of Friday evening, before our guests returned to their hotel, Elder Nelson gathered us for prayer. We knelt in our living room with him as he blessed us all and blessed our mission and all of our missionaries. We continued with a great missionary and district conference weekend. During the meeting with all the missionaries Elder Nelson emphasized that this type of thing happens all over the world. It is not unique to Africa as some might assume. He cited the incident that happened with President Hunter in the Marriot Center with a gunmen many years ago and other incidents in Central and South America. Elder and Sister Nelson left Sunday afternoon on schedule to return to the US. We, and the entire Maputo District and Mozambique Mission, were blessed immensely from their visit, example, and teaching.

Lindy, our 9-year-old daughter, is fine. She and Henriqueta (our home assistant) and her baby boy, Nathan, were all here at the time but were kept safe throughout. Lindy took Nathan and hid in a closet. We have beefed up security at the mission home as a temporary measure and the head of security for our Area arrived in Maputo on Sunday morning and will be here for several days before also traveling to Beira and will evaluate and take steps to further assure the safety of our missionaries and Mission facilities including the Mission home. Petty crime is common here, even burglaries. Home invasions and armed confrontations are not common. We have had one missionary apartment burglarized in recent weeks but have had no other incidents involving missionary apartments in over a year and a half. My feeling is that Elder & Sister Nelson were not specifically targeted or that this was any act against the Church. This was most likely an isolated armed robbery and we happened to be their target this particular night. The fact that we had a rental van parked in front of our house that evening with our guard outside the gate keeping watch may have been a contributing factor. We’re not sure. Our guard that night, Kennedy, although threatened with a gun and roughed up badly and very scared that night, is also fine. Some have speculated whether our guards were involved. They were not. With the Area and Church security personnel we will be reviewing all security and safety procedures and working to make things even more secure and avoid these types of things in the future.

We appreciate your love and concern for us and for your son serving here in Mozambique. We are fine. Thank you for your love and prayers for us and for your missionary son. We have all felt that love and support. With every new missionary who arrived in Mozambique, during orientation and right after talking about health and safety precautions and the need to use common sense in following all these guidelines, we remind them of this promise of the Lord from Doctrine and Covenants 84:88 – “And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.” We are grateful for these blessings. They are real.

With our love from Mozambique,

President & Sister Packard