New Years Day and Zone Conference

     This week was part 2 of our holiday, such as it was.  The Kretlys were here for Zone Conference, so Monday was spent getting ready for it.  Dad and I were in charge of the food so we went to the restaurant to double-check on everything. Good thing we did because the owner is out of town and the person in charge didn't know about the lunch order. Oh Africa......
     Two of the missionary apartments are out of water so both groups of elders came over to shower and fill up their drinking water containers.  The one apartment is within walking distance of us, but the other one is farther away so we went to pick them up and brought them, and all their containers, and 2 loads of whites to wash for them. They were pretty happy to have a shower and some clean clothes to wear.
    We had to go to the airport twice to pick up four elders that were flying in from two different cities. One group is with Elder Lara that went to THS. His comp went to Mountainview. Such a small world. Currently, we have 3 elders and 1 sister that went to THS, and 2 couples whose kids' went there.  In the words of Elder Christianson, "We own Mozambique!"
    President Kretly LOVES shrimp, and so does their son, so they had bought some shrimp to eat but since Sis. Krelty doesn't like it, she doesn't fix it, so I offered to cook it for them.  The Dilles were at their apartment already, so Sis. Kretly decided to turn it into an impromptu pot-luck.  It was a little late and Dad had already eaten (while I was writing to y'all) but we brought up some shrimp that we had and Diiles brought some over and we had a shrimp fest with Brazilian rice and salad.  It was fun to talk and visit for a little bit because the next day was going to be a marathon.

    Tuesday was Zone Conference. It started at 9 am. We had lunch at 1:00 and then dinner at 7:00. President Kretly had four elders talk about a miracle that they had experienced and it was very touching.  Even though my comprehension is about 2%, I could feel their testimonies and pick out enough to get the gist of their experience. It was very good. We LOVE the missionaries!! They are all so different but are able to use their own personalities and abilities to do what Heavenly Father wants them to do.  And they have good hearts and really work hard and do their best, which is not easy to do 24/7, but they really try and are usually successful when you wouldn't think its possible. It's pretty amazing how they're so young, and fairly inexperienced in life, but are able to do what Heavenly Father wants them to do and accomplish so much.  As tired as I am sometimes, their schedule would do me in!!  K, I'm rambling - back to Zone Conference.... Although we love all of them, we do have some we know a little better than others. One of them is Elder Houston.  I forget where he's from, but he's fairly new - been out maybe 2 months.  But he's a guy that doesn't get too worked up about things, has already adapted, and just rolls with it. He makes me laugh and Zone Conference was no exception.  
     We're entering the 'rainy season' and Tuesday it was raining tons.  All the elders had to walk to catch chapas to the church and some have worse routes than others.  He thought it'd be a good idea to put his suit pants in a sack and wear his P-day shorts.  It WAS a pretty good idea, except he forgot the sack. And also, apparently, the key to the apartment, so the whole apt was locked out.  When he walked up to show dad and I, at first I was flabbergasted. But then he explained what had happened and I busted up. When I chided him about it, he just took it in stride.  I asked if I could take his picture and he said yes.  When I said it'd be on our blog, he said he didn't care and started telling all the other elders "he was gonna be on the Snelsons blog."  What a character!! 

 

  After lunch, we took a group picture outside. I could barely hold my eyes open because it was so bright.  The Kretlys had bought Santa hats for the elders and put treats inside, including Christmas ties, and bought scarves and ties and a CD for us and Dilles for Christmas presents. It was fun for everybody.

Here's the funny one.  The Kretlys got into it more than the elders! Haha

Then off to eat! And eat they did....;)

  During dinner, they showed a slide show. They had asked each person to send in 3 pictures. It was fun to watch.  And then we all went into the cultural hall and each apartment put on a skit.  Some were silly, but some were really funny! The elders with a quick sense of humor came up with some clever ideas.
This was a retelling of the "Pocket Watch and the Hair Comb" Christmas story - African style...

Here's some elders making a street contact to a couple with a "baby," who's really a local elder that's waiting for his visa to Brazil. Nicest guy - weighs about 120 lbs, dripping wet.  He's the one I did the language assessment on about 3 months ago.

And then Sandi thought of a skit we could do on the spot so we did. It was cheesy, but the elders liked it and just loved the fact that we did it. ;)

After we finished with everything, it was 9:00 pm - a 12-hour day!  We still had to take all the elders home and dad had the ones that live the furthest - an hour each way - so he was really beat when he got home.  The people here celebrate New Years Eve by playing loud music and staying up all night, so we had the beat of the drums ALL night long.  Ugh!!!

       The next day, we had a New Year's Day lunch/dinner with the Kretly's and Dilles.  After we ate, we played Heads Up.  It's kind of hard to play it with native Portuguese speakers, but they were good sports and got a kick out of it.

          Kretlys flew out the next morning and dad and I went to look at a house with some elders. We've been trying to find a new apartment for one group of elders because their apartment is not too good but it's been a challenge.  As poor as Mozambique is, the rent here is crazy expensive!  Unless it's a falling down death-trap.  So to find a decent house with good security, A/C, hot water, and in their area at a decent price,  is a lot harder than you would think it would be. The apt turned out to be in about the same shape as their current apt so we'll keep looking.             

      We got a call later from the one group of elders asking if they could come over and shower and fill up their water. We said sure and went to get them.  But our electricity was out in the garage where they shower (in the guards' quarters) so we got headlamps for them and they showered with that as their light.  Here's dad taking them home:

 

    On Saturday, the same elders called again and said that they still didn't have water.  They went through their water faster than normal because they had a pair of elders from out of town stay with them for Zone Conference.  They also asked if they could do more laundry, so we went to get them and we did 5 loads of the smelliest laundry ever! Like I said, it's been pouring rain so half of the clothes were wet and they'd been wearing them for almost 2 weeks, instead of 1, so it smelled awful but 4 hours, a lot of soap, and some bleach later, it was sort of normal. Their shirts are stained from the mud, and the wet, blacks straps of their backpacks, but they were definitely improved. Here's what the road looked like on the way to their house:

    

 We were out of fruits, so after that, we went to the veggie market in town to stock up. We bought bananas, mangoes, apples, oranges, and a pineapple. It's mango season so they're super cheap but the apples and oranges are expensive. They're worth it though.  Good food is one thing that we both really miss. It all tastes the same here - bland and tasteless. The quality is very poor except for the fresh things like the shrimp and locally grown fruit, which isn't much.  But even I'm getting sick of shrimp, something I didn't think was possible. But there's only so many days a week I can eat the same thing, even if it's something I like.  Oh well... 

      We've both talked about food so much, I feel like a military person on assignment in the desert that fantasizes about his Mom's cooking.  We fantasize about Cafe Rio, Zupas, and Cheesecake Factory, but we'd be thrilled with a McDonalds.  We did do date night with dinner at a hotel that's really nice. It was built by the people that built our apt building and the restaurant just opened. Its a beautiful restaurant but the food was expensive and just so-so.  Sigh......     

     That night, about 11:00 pm, the power went out (again!) but this time it didn't come back on and so we didn't have water or electricity all night.  It was sweltering hot and we could only sleep about 2 or 3 hours at a time before we had to get up and get a drink of cold water.  It was a very long night.....ugh!

      I remembered that someone was blessing their baby the next day and had invited us to their house after church.  We weren't sure exactly what they would be doing and I wasn't sure if I should bring something but decided to hedge my bets and make something. I couldn't sleep anyway so I made a chocolate cake to take, figuring that if something happened and we didn't need the cake, it would keep and  I could use it for something else. I always try to think of Plan B, because Plan A rarely goes as planned here.

     We were both exhausted in the morning and we couldn't shower before we went to church because we still didn't have power or water. [when the electricity goes out, so does our water because we need power to operate the pump that pulls the water into the building.]. So off we went to church - 45 minutes each way. We had told the RS president, Telma, the previous week, that we'd pick her up on the way because she just moved to another town that's between us and the church. When we got to the pick up spot, she wasn't there. We waited for awhile and then left.     

     About 10 minutes after church had started, Telma came in.  She did motions across the aisle but we didn't get what she was saying.  After Sacrament meeting, she told us that she saw us drive past but couldn't flag us down.  Apparently, we had gone to the wrong place, stopping short of the pick up spot, so when we took off, we drove right past her.  We felt bad but we tried. One stop on the side of the road, looks like very other stop by the side of the road.   This is Africa after all - tall grass is tall grass everywhere you look. She was typically African though and said 'no harm done, we'll try again next week.'  These people are used to things not working, people falling through, etc.  They just go with it.  We did give her a ride home though and found a landmark for us all to use next time. And the family didn't bless the baby because they weren't there.  We asked Telma where they were.  She said that they were visiting family in a city 8 hours away. On to Plan B....  But here's the picture that I took last week.  That's her sister holding her, Odette, the 16 year old YW President.

She's so cute and SO teeny! Two weeks!!

      The kids were really good in Primary this week.  Except that I had asked the teachers to tell what they were teaching the following week so that I could prepare a story and song to go with it.  This was a new concept for them to prepare the lesson during the week, instead of on the spot in primary. They've been pretty good about doing it except last week one teacher told me that they were teaching about prayer and that's what I prepared a story for.  Expect.....he wasn't there.....so the other teacher taught......about the 6 Days of the Creation.....which had nothing to do with my story on prayer.....and I had the story of the Creation at home.....but I didn't prepare it and bring it......because they told me that they'd be doing it on prayer.....which I did have ready and with me - -  you getting the picture here?  That is typical Africa  -  you try to prepare for any scenario as best as you can and then just shrug your shoulders and go with whatever happens.

     But they were really good so I told them that we'd sing 'Do as I'm Doing' and that I'd take a picture of them and their artwork - they drew the things that happened during the 6 creation days on the board.

One boy offered to take the picture so I could be in it. It was a long shot, but I let him. But about half of the kids got out of the picture to stand behind him and watch him take the picture. ;) 

Oh and I forgot to tell you what happened last Sunday. After church, Telma, asked if she, and some other ladies, could have a ride. Dad said yes. Four ladies and two kids piled in the backseat. Two ladies and one child climbed in the back of the truck. On the way, I asked Dad where we were going. He said to see somebody. I asked who. He didn't know. So I asked the ladies. Telma said they were visiting a woman from the branch whose brother had died. Twenty minutes over muddy/bumpy roads and we arrived.  When Telma went up to the house, the woman wasn't there.  So we started to leave. But Dad suggested that we call her. Nobody had her number. So Dad went up to the house and asked her husband if she had a phone to call her. He said no. Then he said that she was just up the street at her parents. He offered to show us where. So we all walked up the road. It was SO hot!

       

      When we got there, Telma took charge and we sang a hymn (they brought hymn books from the church) and then she asked the father about his son.  "He was 29 and got sick.  Doctors are expensive. He didn't get better and he died. They don't know why."  They rarely do here. After the father talked, Telma asked Dad to give a prayer, and then we stood up to leave.  I asked the father if I could take a family picture. It would be gauche to do that in the US but they were pleased that I asked and were fascinated that the picture was 'instant'. They were making tortillas, which I can't find here and when I told them that I love them but can't find them here, they offered me one. But I said no because there were 9 other people with us. It was nice of them though. The visit was good. They appreciated it, even though they're not members. The woman (in the green shirt on the right) is the only member in her family. 

Then we all walked back to the car.

And that's how you go visiting in Africa. 

We love you, think about you, and pray for you EVERY day - actually multiple times a day!!  

      xoxoxxoxoxox, mom