Gratitude "which thing I never had supposed"‏

This week Mom and I were permitted to take an extended P-day of sorts, as we flew to Maputo and drove to Kruger Park and Nelspruit in South Africa.

We were gone from Monday through Friday. We had a wonderful trip, with many tender mercies along the way...

The main lesson I learned/relearned, is about gratitude to The Lord. While I may be able to locate various scriptural references on gratitude, (which I'm sure to include a few in this letter) it has been some time, since I have thought so deeply about so many different things I am grateful for.

Beira, Mozambique compared to Nelspruit, South Africa, is perhaps even more dramatic than Tijuana, Mexico compared to San Diego, California.

When returning to San Diego from Tijuana we all feel a certain short term sense of gratitude. This is quite different than what I felt after living in a 3rd world environment for eight months and coming to know so many good, yet incredibly poor people.

Part of the reason for the great impact on me, was that I had not realized there was any difference between Africa and South Africa "which thing I never had supposed." (Moses 1:10)

A revelation states: "Thou shalt thank The Lord thy God in all things...And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments." (D & C 59: 7,21)

Moses records: "When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes,....Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; 

Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God,.... 

Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint; 

Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end; 

And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 8:10-18)

The experience to South Africa has given me a glimpse into what I will feel when we return home from our mission.

Here is Manuel Jose Vasco, holding his certificate from completing a course in air conditioning repair, he is 16 years old.

 In 2004, when he was seven years old, he had a dream in which he was walking past a tree and there appeared an Angel who spoke about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and asked him some questions. He was Catholic at this time and he went to ask his minister but the minister could not answer them. He then went to a Baptist, Methodist and several other denominations trying to find the answers. 

After several years of searching he concluded that no one had the answers. In November 2012, a friend invited him to Church to listen to a rebroadcast of the April 2012 General Conference.

While listening to President Thomas S. Monson's talk "The Race of Life"  all three of Vasco's questions from eight years earlier were stated and answered. He received a strong Spiritual witness that this was the only true Church. On January 5, 2013, he was baptized and is the only member of his family.

President Monson said: "In our times of deepest reflection or greatest need, the soul of man reaches heavenward, seeking a divine response to life’s greatest questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where do we go after we leave this life?

Answers to these questions are not discovered within the covers of academia’s textbooks or by checking the Internet. These questions transcend mortality. They embrace eternity." (The Race of Life)

Here are a 
A few photos of Kruger Park

I love you!

Zone Conference and Visitors - Go, Go, Go!

   This week we had Zone Conference. We just had Z.C. At the end of December 

but we had an early one because  Elder Hamilton was here.  It was shorter however, 

because Elder Hamilton did most of the training.  But the best part was that the whole 

meeting was in English - it was awesome!!  (E. Hamilton is from California but speaks 

French.)  We only have about 6 non-English-speaking Elders so other elders sat by 

them to translate the meeting for them. I definitely got more out of it than most Conferences

 because I could actually understand it - yippee!!!  It was good. Elder Hamilton is a good speaker and teacher. 
    He did take the group picture 20 minutes early though, so Dilles didn't make it in.

 They were bummed. :(   This was one of those times when I was grateful that your 

dad wanted us there 30 minutes early......;) 

We had a great lunch! The restaurant owner was out of town last time during our December conference and it didn't turn out very well but we talked to her and she did awesome. The Elders were in absolute food heaven!!! :)

After the Zone Conference, we went home and Sandi and I cooked dinner for us, the Kretlys, and the Hamiltons. We had eaten so much just a few hours before so we went lighter:
Chicken soup, fruit salad, cornbread, and key lime pie. Mine was the "Southern" half - pie and cornbread. Here we are with the Hamiltons and then Pres. Kretly tried out his newest gadget - an extention pole that clamps to your camera so you can hold it away from you and snap your fingers to take the picture. It took a few tries but we finally got it. The picture quality was kinda wacky though...

The whole gang - Kretlys, Hamiltons, Dilles, and us.

We collapsed in bed that night....

The next morning, Dad came in the bedroom while I was still asleep and said, "Kim, someone wants to talk to you." And held up my ipad where my gal pals were singing Happy Birthday to me! Oh boy! What a surprise!!! 

 

I told them they had to leave the room so I could put clothes on to talk with them. ;) And then, talk we did! It was so much fun!!! But alas, after 30 minutes the power went out and I lost them. It was fun while it lasted....

Here's a close-up.....;)

But then the power came on about 10 minutes later so I hurried and texted Lisa M. because Isabel had come over and I wanted her to see FaceTime. Everybody had already gone (it was like 1 am their time - bless their little hearts!) but Lisa was a great sport and said to call her. And she called Megan (another great sport!) who zipped back over and they Face-Timed with me AND Isabel. She LOVED it! 

 

I told her that Megan was the YW president and Lisa was the RS president and she said, "Tell her I'm the District RS president."I So I did and in true Lisa style, she bowed down to Isabel and that just cracked her up!! Getting an African to belly-laugh is no small feat! Anyway, it was really great to talk to my best buds and kinda feel like I was hanging out in Utah for a little bit.

Then some elders called and said their water had been out for 4-5 days and asked if we could do their laundry. We said yes and dad went and picked it up so Sandi and I did some laundry. 

 

But then Brooke Face-timed us with another AWESOME surprise - the video of all the fun birthday pictures she had gathered.

 

 She asked Lisa if she wanted to join in and Lisa went to town and rounded up a bunch of people. It took a few tries, but Dad and I had a blast watching it!!! Thank you again, kids - especially Brooke (and Lisa & co.) for doing that. It made my whole day/week/month!!! And yes, I cried a little but they were happy tears....

 

click to view video!

Dad bought shrimp, so that night I made ratatouille and shrimp. Well, I tried to. The power went out as I started cooking the shrimp so I couldn't finish it. But the ratatouille was done so we just ate that - with our headlamps. (Thanks again, Jas!)

When we delivered the laundry to the elders later on, they said they had a surprise for me and gave me some caramel popcorn that they'd made and the sweetest letter.

Still no power or water when we got back home, but it was a great birthday anyway!!!

We did burn up during that night without the A/C and we had Jaime (our cute country director from Maputo), one S & I guy from S. Africa, and one from the US coming in 2 days, so we decided to go to a hotel the next day so we could shower and get a good night's sleep. Most of the stores were closed that day because they didn't have power either and no generators. I had to cook for these guys so I was wondering how that was going to work out but fortunately it came back on the day they arrived. We picked them up from the airport and had a short training with them.

The next day, Saturday, we had a training meeting with all the branch presidents. Dad and spoke along with the visitors.

 Look at the guy looking at me...;)

Then we had training with our Seminary and Institute teachers. Dad and I did most of that because the men wanted to observe us. Oh boy...

 

Here's what our van looked like after the meetings. We gave rides to our teachers to save them the cost of the chapa. When I asked them how much the chapa cost - was it 5 metacaiz? (because that's the price in town), they quickly said, "No Sister, it's 10 metacaiz!" That's 33 cents, which is a significant amount to them....

(Last Sunday, we gave this bunch of girls a ride home after a fireside. I felt bad because 2 boys had asked dad for a ride but then some girls asked me and it snowballed to 17 girls! We couldn't fit the boys in and the girls get priority because it was night and safety is more of an issue for them. We had driven our truck so they had to cram in the backseat and the bed of it.)

The whole gang when we dropped them off.

On Sunday, the guys came to our branch, Dondo, that's 45 minutes away, and afterward we visited some youth who are struggling. We drove down some crazy back roads but it was fun to go in their homes. The one home had a freezer in the front room where we sat and there were a ton of flies swarming around it and us. We're thinking that with the city power outage, they probably had spoiled food in it.....yikes. They brought plastic chairs for us to sit on but the family - dad, mom, 3 sisters, and a cousin sat on a grass mat on the floor. The institute teacher came with us and we each took a turn speaking.

I knew the one sister was a good singer and told the men, so the guy from the US asked them to sing. They sang "I'm a child of God." and then we joined them singing in English while they sang in Portuguese. It was good. The dad said the family was going to come back to church and asked me to say the closing prayer. I told him ok but I only spoke 'poco' Portuguese. That got him to laugh. :)

 

We didn't go in this house but they brought chairs outside for us to sit on. They sat on coconut shredders and a stump. We were visiting three girls, so when it was my turn to speak, I showed them pictures of you 3 girls and told them about y'all. They loved the pictures and hearing about you. I told them how much I loved my kids and that I wanted them to be happy more than anything and that I knew, without a doubt, that the Gospel was the only way for you - and them - to be happy now and forever. Good spirit was there.

And a really fun neighborhood. Here are their next door neighbors. The ladies dozing on the mats and those are ducks and ducklings under the mosquito nets.

And here's a little boy going potty - he kept standing up to inspect his progress....

 

The neighbor kids crowded around dad when he brought his phone out.

And then me:

After our 4 hours of visits, we dropped the men off at the hotel and we dashed home so I could cook dinner. Dad then picked them up and brought them back over and we had lasagna, garlic bread, corn, and chocolate mousse. We had a good visit with them, took them back to the hotel, and fell dead into bed.
That was our FUN BIRTHDAY, HOT couple of days, and super busy weekend week!

Love you bunches!!!

The prophet Joseph Smith received a revelation on August 30, 1831, which states: "ye receive the Spirit through prayer....taught through prayer by the Spirit." (D & C 63: 64-65)

Three of the sad consequences of pornography are: "if any shall commit adultery in their hearts, they
1.) shall not have the Spirit, but
2.) shall deny the faith and
3.) shall fear." (D & C 63: 16)

I have always loved this statement about prayer:

"As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are his children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God, but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant, but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work, and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings." (Bible Dictionary, Prayer)

‘Real intent’ is important in our prayers as well as when we repent and seek forgiveness. The scriptures record that it is: “..counted evil unto a man, if he shall pray and not with real intent of heart; yea, and it profiteth him nothing, for God receiveth none such.” (Moroni 7:9) also:

“ But as oft as they repented and sought forgiveness, with real intent, they were forgiven.”(Moroni 6:8)

The phrase mighty prayer is used 8 times in the scriptures. For example:

Nephi said: “..I waxed bold in mighty prayer..” (2 Ne. 4:24) Enos said: “..I cried unto him inmighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul..” (Enos 1:4) Alma the younger encourages the church at Zarahemla to: “join in fasting and mighty prayer in behalf of the welfare of the souls of those who knew not God.” (Alma 6:6) When Alma went to Ammonihah and there: “Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city;...’ (Alma 8:10) “..the disciples of Jesus..were gathered together and were united in mighty prayer and fasting. And Jesus again showed himself unto them..”  (3 Ne. 27:1-2) As Jesus gave the Nephite apostles power to confer the gift of the Holy Ghost he instructed them: “saying: Ye shall call on the Father in my name, in mighty prayer..” (Moroni 2:2) Martin Harris was told to: “..humble himself in mighty prayer..” (D & C 5:24)The Docrine and Covenants records: “Jesus Christ ..will gather his people..even as many as will hearken to my voice and humble themselves before me, and call upon me in mighty prayer.” (D & C 29:1-2)

 In addition to having real intent, and mighty prayers there will still be times when like Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: “being in an agony he prayed more earnestly” (Luke 22:44). Perhaps, the simple procedure would be to insure that we are righteous as there appears to be a distinction made for the prayers of the righteous and the faithful.

“For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers..” (1 Pet. 3:12)  

“..if it were not for the prayers of the righteous..ye would even now be visited with utter destruction..But it is by the prayers of the righteous that ye are now spared..” (Alma 10:22-23)

“..nevertheless for the righteous sake, yea, because of the prayers of the righteous, they were spared.” (Alma 62:40)

“..the Lord will remember the prayers of the righteous..” (Mormon 5:21)

“..shall not be suffered to perish, because of the prayers of the faithful;” (2 Ne. 6:11)

“..the prayers of the faithful shall be heard,..” (2 Ne. 26:15)

“Nephi was more faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord–therefore he was favored of the Lord, for the Lord heard his prayers and answered them..” (Mosiah 10:13) (1 Ne. 1:1; 17:35)

“And except they repent..and cry mightily to the Lord their God, I will not hear their prayers..” (Mosiah 11:25) see also (Mosiah 9:17; 21:10 &14; 24:10; Alma 9:25, 14:11; Mormon 9:6)

Pray, Stay & Obey !!

This is a photograph taken on February 1, 2014, when we had a meeting with the Priesthood leaders in Beira. The men sitting down, are 7 of the 8 Branch Presidents.

One of the highlights of our mission is getting to know and love some of the faithful Saints in Mozambique.

Here is Farnando Dominges Cambarame. He is easy to love. He is 23 years old, and wants badly to serve a mission. Farnando joined the Church in 2009, after his older brother introduced him to the Church, but the brother (who was only 28) died in 2008, prior to Farnando's baptism. Farnando never really met his father, as he died when he was a baby. His mother also died in 2011, while she was investigating the Church. This sad story is not that uncommon here.

A requirement to serve a mission is for the member to pay for their own passport. Although the cost is only $84, this amount requires a substantial sacrifice which restricts many from serving. Farnando, obtained his first passport in 2012, but it was stolen, so he was required to pay for a second passport, which he did in June 2013, but by then, his medical exams were outdated, so today (Friday, February 14th) we scanned and emailed a new set of medical exams.

 Hopefully, this will complete his mission application and he can begin the three (3) month wait to receive his missionary call.....Doesn't this make you want to contribute to the General Missionary Fund ?

Here are some photos of a giant snail!

I love you!

Electricity - you've either got it or you don't........‏

Hi chick-a-dees,
   I've learned to really appreciate a lot of things since being here -

 grocery stores, garbage cans and garbage pickup, air-conditioning, etc. 

 But the thing I'm most grateful for is electricity. Without it, we have no water, 

no A/C, no way to cook our food, do laundry, charge our phones and iPads,

 light the house at night, etc. I LOVE electricity! Well, Monday, we still didn't

 have any. :(  We were so tired from the night before because we had to get up 

every few hours to get a drink of water from the fridge that we were trying to 

keep closed. Transfers started that day so we made a trip to the airport. 

But that night, we had a birthday party - in an air-conditioned restaurant. Yippee!!
   It was Freeman's birthday. He turned 31.  He's a go-getter, just like his 

sister Amalia, the YW president that got her doctorate. He's got an MBA from

 Zimbabwe and works for RioTinto Mining, which has a big operation here in 

Mozambique.  He was just called as the second counselor in the district 

(like a stake) presidency and is married to Sue, that I did the RS activity with.

 There are a few up-and-comers here and he's one of them. 

Look at his cool cake:
 

It's a shirt and tie. The desserts here are like the ones in Mexico - not sweet and pretty bland. But this was the best cake we've had here. It was a vanilla cake with pineapple juice on the bottom of it. Yum!!
The next day, we had a a lot of transfers so we made 3 or 4 trips to missionary apartments - getting elders/dropping off elders - and then back and forth to the airport. One of the transfers was a Zone Leader that's been the ZL since we got here. Elder Martinez: a quiet, humble, diligent guy. We were sad to see him go.... So, we took him some birthday cake and said our goodbyes before we picked him up later for the airport.
 (No makeup because of the eye infection - ugh!)

Here's a new group coming in - they were excited and ready to go! The guy on the left is from one of the branches and happened to be there dropping something off to be air-mailed so we told him to jump in the picture.

One of the elders that came in is the cousin of my teacher in the MTC. When I went to class one day, he happened to be there, so my teacher introduced us but I hadn't seen him since we got to Mozambique. Now he's in our area so I took a picture to email to my teacher/his cousin.

It's rainy season so the roads were kinda crazy.

And we had our first experience with a train crossing. It was raised and lowered by hand - no electronic sensors or lights on this one - in fact, it would be pitch-black if our truck lights weren't shining on it.

 
Here's one of the elders' apartments. Very typical. They always have something drying outside. With the humidity, it takes 3-4 days to dry clothes inside the house.

Friday, one branch had six weddings! This was an interesting one. Most of the couples had been married in the 'traditional' way, but not legally with a marriage certificate, etc. When the church first came to Mozambique, it accepted the 'traditional marriage' as sufficient for baptism. But a couple of years ago, the policy was changed and they required that the couple be legally married prior to baptism. The couples that were already baptized were given time to be married - I think a year. Some did, some didn't. Many of the ones that didn't, still came to church but weren't able to advance in the priesthood, hold callings, etc. Nothing was done and the couples stayed in limbo.
A couple of months ago, an elder was called to be the branch president and he's 'grabbing the bull the horns' and getting things turned around in the branch. One of the things he's tackled, are these couples.

 So these couples were all legally married and one of the couples has been called to be the new Seminary teachers for that branch - the first time we've ever had a married couple do that.
  Another couple is the RS president. This was a second marriage for her. Her first husband left her and their three children when she joined the church. She's the sweetest woman and smart with a good job. She's also albino.

  
And I saw Ana Maria, whose been working out of town for a few months. She's the widowed mother of 8. I've been so worried about her daughter, Celia, who's been home with the kids and is only 17. So when Ana Maria told me that she was back for good, I burst into tears. I told her how worried I had been and she grabbed me and kept hugging me and wiping the tears off of my face. These are the people that I'm going to miss when it's time to go......

After the weddings, it started to pour rain. Another set of elders had a wedding and had made the cakes for it. They asked us if we could go to their apt and pick up the cakes and bring them to the church so we headed over there. Here's a picture of some kids playing in one of the huge potholes filled with rain.

 When dad slowed down for me to take a picture, they took off running so it's not the best picture but you can get an idea of what it's like.
Here's the front yard of some houses. The orange speck on the back right is their laundry hanging out to dry. Some people wear rubber boots but most just carry their flip flops and walk through the muck.

Saturday and Sunday were District Conference. Elder Hamilton, of the Seventy, was visiting. Saturday, we started at 9 am and didn't finish until midnight. It had been raining that day and the electricity went in and out so we didn't have the microphone or lights for some of the meeting and it was really hard to hear. Sister Kretly had asked Sandi and I to have lunch ready for the Hamiltons to eat in between the training meeting and the adult sessions. We got it ready before the first meeting, but couldn't bring it to the church because the fridge doesn't work very well and it has roaches in it anyway. The first meeting went over by 30 minutes and we didn't want to get up in the middle of it, so when it ended, we drove like maniacs back to the apt, loaded everything up, and floored it back to the church. They had 15 minutes to eat before the next meeting... We felt bad, but it was one of those 'rock and a hard place' situations. We had to take the food back to the apt after lunch and when we came back, I saw this in the parking lot of the chapel. One of the members must be a chapela driver. So I hopped in for a picture.

After the adult meeting, we took some elders home. There were 6 of them so 3 rode in the back cab of the truck. A woman from the Dondo branch asked for a ride, so she and I shared the front seat with me on the emergency brake for the 45 minute/"but felt like an hour and 45 minutes" ride. When we finally got home, we had to wait for a flight of a new elder to come in. An hour later, we got back in the car, drove to the airport, picked him up, then dropped him off and headed back home. I got to bed at 1:00 am but woke at 4:30 am cuz the power went out and it was so hot. Long day - longer night!
Here's the delivery of the new elder. 

It was so late, the other elders were in their PJ's but they all woke up to welcome him.

Sunday was worse, electricity wise, but great spirit wise. It was pouring rain! The electricity cut out for most of the meeting but there were over 1000 people at the Sunday meeting and 43 men were made elders! And our little group, Dondo, was made a branch! That was exciting! So now the people can be called and set apart for their callings, instead of just being asked to do something. It was a good meeting and it's awesome to hear the people continue on, power or no power. When the choir sang and the power quit, they just kept singing and the organist would join in whenever the power came back on in spurts.
At the start of the meeting, a member came and got me, saying that Isabel wanted me. I went out of the chapel and there were Isabel and Mariana standing in the entrance to the chapel totally drenched from the rain. They wanted me to take their picture. Crazy girls! But I went and got my camera. Here they are, soaked to the skin.

Long week and next week is going to be longer with Zone Conference and Seminary and Institute leaders visiting from S.Africa and the US. I better eat my Wheaties!
Love you kids a bunch!!!