New Baby boy born to the Hoffmanns!!‏

On Thursday, August 28th Brooke delivered a healthy dark haired baby boy!

 6 pounds and 19.5 ".  More details to follow......Next Wednesday, Mom is flying to Virginia!!
 
On Monday of this week we began a new cycle of transfers. This is always an exciting time of many 

changes. As part of these transfers five (5) elders from our area began their missions. These included 

Columbia; Brazil and Angola. After several days of late night trips to the airport, we have had a few days

 free. As a result of the difficult Visa process into various countries changes occur daily....The next group 

of four (4) should arrive next week.
 
Photos of your nephew: 
 

and of our local area.....

Mom, Sister Kretly, Sister Hobson & Sister Dille

Our neighbor (Sue Dickie) went to South Africa to deliver her new baby (named Rosebud). 

This is the babies Aunt holding her

 

 The father had a welcome home surprise party for the Mother and baby!!

Sue Dickie and her new baby.

Three (3) returning home from their mission. E. Martins to Cape Verde; E. Vestia to Portugal and E. Allen to the USA

On Sunday, E. Custodio rode the train from his home in Marromeu for nine (9) hours. On Monday, he received his Yellow Fever shot (pictured below) and flew for the first time to Maputo. On Tuesday, he flew to his mission in Columbia!

Internet cafe with Elders Able, Bourne & Mason

Very friendly police officer writing a receipt for my parking ticket. My payment of 1,000 MZN ($33) is on the table. I and twenty (20) other cars received tickets at the airport, for parking in an area I have parked at numerous times.....

Local elders flying to Maputo. Ernesto Paulino; E. Custodio (Marromeu); Americo Manuel; E. Fulano-from Maputo; Elves Armindo & Manuel Caetano.

The ladies that pick up the trash all wear blue issued clothes, however some prefer to add a capalana.

On Wednesday morning the police arrived and stopped the sand stealing operation.....During the night men haul sand from the beach, place the sand in large piles and then during the day transport the sand for sale.

 

A City truck arrived and a crew shoveled the piles of sand into the truck and hauled it away. So far no more sand piles have appeared...stay tuned....

I love you,
 
Dad
 

Nazare-Youth Conference/EFY-"that life which is in Christ" (2 Ne. 25:27)‏

Last week on Friday, Saturday & Sunday (August 15-17) was the first every youth conference/EFY 

in Mozambique! The Beira District was selected to host this. The location was in a remote area called

 Nazare, in which the Catholic Church has a large campus-like facility that they rent out. The physical

 facility is ideal for this type of activity. The cost was $40 per person of which each participant was

 to contribute $16. The cost included the food which is always a huge issue with large groups. There 

were 160 youth ages 14-18. Overall this activity was a great success. 

 This week the good district president and his wife (Alfredo & Graca Camalizene) began the long trip to

 the Johannesburg temple.... 

On Monday (the day after youth conference) they left at 5AM for the

 fifteen (15) hour bus ride to Maputo. In Maputo they had asked permission to sleep at one of the

 Church buildings. However, the mission found them space at the mission office. 

On Tuesday, they left at 6 AM for the nine (9) hour bus ride to Johannesburg. 

On Wednesday (for the first time in three (3) years) they went to the temple.

 On Thursday they returned by bus to Maputo and Friday they will return home. 

 If all goes well they will have spent forty eight (48) hours riding a bus (at a cost of $350) 

to attend perhaps two (2) sessions in the temple!! The temple sessions on Tuesday, 

Wednesday & Thursday are at 3,4,5 & 6PM.  Another interesting 'tender mercy' about

 their temple trip is that the day before youth conference Graca finally received her passport and

 the temple patron housing which previously was full, just happened to have space available....
 President and Sister Camalizene are clearly faithful Saints who experience

 "that life which is in Christ" (2 Ne. 25:27).
 

 
Photos from the week....
 
This is Jaime Massango who is the CES director for Mozambique speaking to the first of six groups.

This is the meal for dinner

 

The prepared meals just waiting for some customers....

The happy youth eating dinner

These huts were used to hold small group workshops

This is the good District YM president

This is one of the housing units comprised of three bedrooms 

with two per bedroom.

Open field next to the camp

Bedroom with a young man studying the scriptures

The sound system

We ran out of bananas on Saturday....

The full court basketball facility

Also used for soccer and other games.

President Kretly speaking to the youth.

These are the Priest age young men and their leaders.

 

I Love You!

Crazy Markets & the First Ever Youth Conference‏

Hey kids,
   Well, your ol' Ma is pooped! This past week has been a wringer - a fun wringer though...

 
    Tuesday, after my English class, the Relief Society President from the Beira branch was waiting for me to talk to me 'privately.' Turns out, she wants to start a business and asked if I knew someone that would want to invest money in it. Hmm....., no. Bless her heart.....it took like 15 minutes for me to decipher what she was saying and figure out how to answer her without hurting her feelings.             
   I finally got home, made dinner, and then one of the kids that I'm helping apply to BYU - HI called to get help with his essay. I noticed that all three of their essays had just come through on my email, so I asked if all of them were together. He said yes, so I talked to each of them one at a time and edited their essays over the phone.  Felt like I was talking to you guys with your papers, but they were harder to communicate with.....;)

      Wednesday, Dad and Larry went to help pickup bananas - almost 900 pounds - for the YM/YW Youth Conference that was that weekend.

  That left Sandi and I without a truck and we needed to get some things for the Conference, so we did something that we have been wanting to do - we took chapela ride to Maquinino, the big, crazy market that I did the wedding shopping at with Isabel last week. The chapelas are a little dangerous because they are so small and the drivers here are pretty reckless. We've seen a few get clobbered by cars. But they look so fun - like the the pedicabs in New York! We hiked out to the main street, and walked along until we saw one coming, and flagged him down. We took a video of the street while we were driving.  They sound like a Go-Ped but go pretty fast.  

  Me and Sandi with Tito

 

 After we shopped at the market, we went looking for tangerines. We passed a butcher shop that the Dilles had bought some ribs at and decided to go in and buy some.

 

  I cooked them in the crockpot. They weren't Costco ribs but we thought they were delicious! Anything resembling food from home is a big treat!!

 
    Thursday, Dad agreed to go to the Go-To market with me to buy some jeans because I needed some to wear to the youth conference. This place is nutty! Suffice it to say that we were the only muzungos (white people) in the whole market and got our share of stares. The first jeans I fond were out on the street - laying in the street - and I didn't have anywhere to try them on. Dad suggested the car because it was close, so I went in there. While I'm trying them on, other sellers are coming up to the window and holding up their jeans. So much for privacy......

    When I got out of the car to see how they fit and show Dad, a group of guys gathered around to tell me that they looked good. They were Armani jeans but they were kind of big so we said 'no thanks' and went inside the market. After walking around, I found some jeans that I thought might fit me and I asked the guy if he could come out of his stall so I could go in and try the jeans on. I just kind of ducked down behind the jeans that were hanging up. I found 2 pair that I thought would work and we paid the guy the muzungo price of $5.00 each. We told him that we knew that was the tourist price but it was his lucky day and we would go ahead and pay it. 

    We looked for a new ball cap for Dad because his has gotten moldy from the humidity but we couldn't find any.

 

    Friday was the big day - the first day of the first EVER Youth Conference in Mozambique. Super big event for them here!! The kids had to earn 500 metacaiz ($18) and it was so hard for them. And they had to be active and enrolled in seminary.  Boy, were they all excited!! It was an experience unlike anything that they've ever had. Workshops, dinners, a dance, making a group flag and cheer, etc. Of course, this is Africa so things are different - like two of the leaders brought their toddlers with them. I thought "Holy cow! How's she gonna participate, much less watch over the girls, with a baby." But they're so used to having them with them and if they cried, they put them on their back in a capalana. One of the toddlers was a busy one and walked all around the room during testimony meeting on our last day, but oh well, at least the leader was there.

A workshop with President Kretly:

 

Wearing their matching t-shirts that were donated by Eyes for Zimbabwe, the humanitarian group run by the 3 LDS women golfers.  The shirts are probably their favorite thing and they'll wear them until they fall apart.  We'll see them at church for a long time....

 

 
Sports:

 

This was dinner the first night - matapa (a plant that they boil with coconut milk and tomatoes) & rice & fish, complete with the head....:0

 

 Me and Sis. Kretly with the gang

 
 After dinner the kids took showers and they showed videos of Mormon Messages that each branch had made. Some of the branches didn't have a way to videotape it, so they just acted it out for the group. They had fun with that! Then they had a dance, which was a highlight for them because they are a rare thing here.

 

     Saturday started at 8:00 am with an exercise class taught by.......me. The leader that was going to do it got sick, so they asked me to fill in the night before. Erin, your music saved my bacon!!! I stayed up til 1:00 am listening to the CDs and picking the songs to use. They had told me that the class started at 9:00 am but at midnight on Friday, Sis. Kretly called and said it was at 8:00 am. Oh Africa..... It was a 45 minute drive to the camp so it was a short night.  Yawn!! 

 

   After class, was breakfast - bread with bologna - and then we played games. We divided them up into six groups and had six stations set up with a different game at each place. We did a balloon toss, an egg relay, sack race (with rice sacks), human pretzel, pass the string on a spoon down the shirt, and a three-legged race. 

    Generally, the people here are kind of quiet and reserved but we saw another side during the games. They are VERY COMPETITIVE!!! I was in charge of the egg relay and it was tricky to keep track of them because they would run along side the person walking yelling at them to hurry. When I declared one team the winner, the other team argued with the them and tried to tell me that they hadn't won - every single time. Imagine 30 people yelling at you in Portuguese trying to tell you why they were the winners, and not the other team. Yeah, it was intense!! 

    The first time I tried to sort it out, but I quickly realized that it was impossible, so for the rest of the groups I just put my fingers in my ears, smiled, and let them holler at each other. Then I said "You're all winners. It's just for the fun it." That worked, sort of, except one time when a team said started booing when I said that. Haha!!!  They were terrible sports but it was kind of funny. It was a workout for me too because I had to run from one end to the other to make sure that they didn't touch the egg when they passed it and that they stayed behind the line. I'm telling you - they were playing for keeps!!

  

Them arguing, me refereeing - well, trying to....

 

   Dad doing the sack races. When I told him how hard my relay was and asked how his was, he said it was easy because he declared the winner as soon as somebody started before they were supposed to - and every group had somebody that started too soon. His races were short.....;)

 

 After dinner that night, we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows which was a new experience for them. They loved the marshmallows!!

 

   Then they were all blind-folded, joined hands, and were led to a rope that they were told to hold onto no matter what. 

 

  Leaders were on one side telling them to come away and on the other side telling them to hold on firmly. The rope led to the "Tree of Life", a tree we'd decorated with Christmas lights and marshmallows in little bags representing the sweet and delicious 'fruit' of the tree. 

      It was really good and really effective but a few of the leaders got a little too theatrical (another surprise) and scared the bajeebies out of some girls - and boys too. The girls were crying because they were spooked by it all and some boys and girls refused to move down the rope. These are 14+ yr old teenagers but they've never experienced anything like it before. In the U.S., we grow up with Halloween, haunted houses, amusement parks, and spook alleys. We understand the concept of fantasy. They've never seen those things and live in a place where witch doctors, witches, and curses are part of their culture  and believed to be real. So, it was all very real to them. 

    I had to run interference and tell some of the leaders to tone it down, and then talk to the girls and guide them to the end. The actions of some of the leaders was kinda crazy....they really got into the dramatic part and kinda missed the real objective. Oh well, it was a first time/new experience for them too. 

    After everybody eventually got to the tree, they took off their blindfolds and the District President talked to them. 

 

   We got home about midnight - totally beat! 

 

    Sunday, we headed back for church. They had Sacrament Meeting, then classes, and then  a testimony meeting. The kids were racing each other down to bear their testimony. They finally had to tell them that we were out of time and nobody else could come down.

   Here's the Mia-Maid class:

It was a long but fun week!! 

Love you guys lots and lots and LOTS!!!!  ~Mummy(I'm reading a British mystery right now....;)