He remembered and made my day!!

Hi mom, don't worry I didn't forget Happy Birthday I love you lots have a good day!!!

Week 36 Another Short Letter

SORRY THIS WEEK IT WILL BE A VERY SHORT EMAIL BUT I WILL ANSWER THE QUESTIONS

I had a good week this week we had one baptism of a young woman had a lot of lessons and we are working very hard! We found a few new great families and hoping to get 6 families baptized next transfer!!!

love you guys!!!

QUESTIONS

 What did you make your branch president for dinner?

COVEY ITS AN AFRICAN FOOD ILL MAKE IT FOR YOU GUYS WHEN I GET HOME

Was the womens day the name of the holiday there? 

YES ITS CALLED DAY OF THE WOMEN

Did you get the pictures I sent to you of our run?

YES

What exciting thing happened to you this week?

WE COMITTED 2 MORE FAMILYS TO GET MARRIED

What are you doing for p-day today?

GOING TO THE BEACH IT WILL BE THE LAST HOORA FOR ONE MISSIONARY THAT IS LEAVING

When does it start to cool down there?

NEVER HAHA LIKE HERE IN ONE MONTH AND IT ONLY GETS TO LIKE 80

How is it going with getting families to the temple? WE JUST TEACH THEM ABOUT THE TEMPLE AND WHAT THEY NEED TO DO TO GET THERE WITH PASSPORTS AND STUFF

Are transfers in a week? 

NEXT WEEK

Where do you get to skype me at?

NO CLUE

Anything exciting, funny or scary happen to you this week?

NOT THAT I CAN REMEMBER

LETTER FROM MISSION PRESIDENT

(Mothers note:  It is so nice to know that your son is working hard and being obedient, it makes your heart happy and proud of your missionary)

Dear Parents and Leaders of Missionary from Mozambique Maputo Mission,



Your missionary is doing great. All are in good health and today we are having zero problems with that and obedience. The mission is growing and the Sacrament attendence is growing each Sunday.

About 20 months a go the Sacrament attendency was 1700 in 18 branches. Today the Lord bless us with 3200 total in 24 branches. It's a miracle. What your missionary is doing here is amazing and have no words to thank you for prepare such a great missionary. I think we can have wonderful missionaries in other missions even great ones like we have here, but not better. We really enjoy work with them and my wife love them as her own sons and daugthers. They are adorable!

Please, keep praying for them, and the families that they are working with. By the way, since we start to mesure that, (Dec2012) the Lord bless us and they baptize 274 complete families! Is not a miracle? More than 85% of than is active on the church!

Our next big goal is send these families to the Temple this year, will be a big chalenge, but for God nothing in impossible, and our missionaries knows that.

Thanks again for all you doing to help them and lift them.

With love and appreciation,

President and Sister Kretly

www.presidentandsisterkretly.blogspot.com

Week 35

Hey fam!! This week was a another good week!! We worked hard and saw success!! but the pizza you guys made sound really good!!! and I'm starving!! Where is the new Elder from? we still haven't seen conference maybe in a month or so we can see it! Haha and Tobie lost out!! hahah!! Is Saydi still grounded from the Truck? It sounds Like the race this year will be big so hopefully you can make some money off of it! And who is the big job in Wenden for and who is she going to prom with?? and dads b day sounded way fun for him!! haha and Jeremy, Trey and Parker!! hahah that's funny!! when do they report? ANOTHER KID??? Holy cow whats this ones name? Jeez Indonesia sounds tough and Marissa is a champ for going through this!! and I was sad to miss the crepes and pancakes!!

Monday:  we played basket ball and soccer and went home and slept until it was time to go:

Tuesday: we worked and visited all our families!!

Wed; We had a division I went with elder Mumbai and had a good day we found a nice new family

Thursday just a normal day went and taught all of our families!

Friday: we had a youth who is going on his mission soon walk with us all day we had a lot of lessons and sat with a new family!

Sat:another normal day!

Sunday: Was a good day we had 16 people at church and a lot of them were new families!!! SO THAT WAS NICE  and we found out that we have p day today!! 

Monday: we went to our branch presidents house and made dinner for him and some other guys in the branch because yesterday was women's day and all their wives were out together so we went over had had dinner with them!! and its funny because he doesn't like the other elders at all!!! 

·         How far is Johannesburg from you? 

        A long way!!! from Maputo its like 3 hours!

·         How do families afford to go to the temple?

        they pay their sacrifice and the church helps with the rest

·         Am I bugging you with all my questions?

        YES

·         Package yet?  If so did everything arrive ok?  Was anything melted on anything? Any maggots           in it?  NO IT IS IN THE MISSION OFFICE AND MAYBE I WILL GET IT IM 1 OR 2 MONTHS BECAUSE             IM IN BERIA ANDI IT WILL COST 100 BUCKS TO SED FROM THERE TO HERE

·         Do you feel that you know you were supposed to be called to Africa? YES

·         Do you get the ensign? No

•  What are the gas prices there ?ABOUT 1 DOLLAR A LITER

•             Do you buy fresh milk or do you have to buy it in a carton or a can?IN A CARTON IT SUCKS

•             Do you read Tylers Blog?YES

•             Have you been receiving my emails of Weslys letters?  They are pretty amazing.YES

•             Do you have icecream?IF I BUY IT

•             Who do you hear from on a weekly basis? YOU,  MARISSA, OTHER MISSIONARIES THAT I MET IN THE                MTC, TYLER, JOSH AND SOMTIMES TODD AND CARLEEN

•             How are all of your lessons going this week?  Any more new families?  I was impressed with how                    many lessons you had last week.  We will keep that in our prayers about the families you are                          teaching.

•             Have you been doing any touring for pday or do you just stay local? LOCAL AND PLAY SPORTS I                        HAVE NOT GONE TOURING YET

•             What are you doing today for pday?  SOCCER

•             What area do you get to have a bike?  NO

•             Do any of the missionaries in Mozambique get to use a car?  THE APs AND THE SISTERS AND THE                      OFFICE ELDERS

•             Are you writing in your journal? SOMETIMES

·         Do you know anyone with smart phones there?  If so have them take pictures of you and email            them to us   YES 

·         Do you get to do anything for Easter?  NO

·         What about Mothers Day, do I get a skype call or just a phone call? Looking forward to seeing           that faceJ! SKYPE I THINK

·         Pictures!!!!!!

·         Speaking of Pictures….I want some  I WILL GET SOME

I LOVE YOU GUYS 

Another source of Public Transportation Missionaries are not suppose to ride these 

Week 34 a lot of interruptions

Hey family!! 

This last week wasn't as good, we had  a lot of interruptions throughout the week!! hahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahahahhahaha Saydi got a ticket!!! Did she cry when she got pulled over? How long is she grounded for? This week was a below average week but mainly because we had zone conference and interviews with president and other interruptions but we are still working hard!

Monday: last Monday we just chilled at the other elders house and then went to work!!

Tuesday: dont remember but we taught lessons and did contacts!

Wed: we sat with this super nice family their names are Nordino and Dina!! They are three kids and they are a funny family!! They really have a desire to get baptized!! We had a good lesson on how to build a testimony!!

Thursday: We had interviews with president it went good and then went on splits after to have our district leader do some baptismal interviews for us!

Friday: Zone confrence it was good we talked about how we need to help people go to the temple and so now we have a goal to help one famiy per month go to the temple or be prepared to go and we got some good food!!!

Saturday was just a normal day!

Sunday:  morning we went to pick up our family for church Nordino and Dina and the husband got called that night to go over to his sisters house because his sister and her husband got in a fight so he went to resolve things and was way bummed that he couldn't go to church and the wife was pretty sick but she told us to just take her 3 kids so we walked about 2 miles to church with their three kids it was pretty funny their kids loved it and they said they wont miss next week!! but that was my week i love you and im out of time!!

love you lots!!

ELDER ROBERTS

Week 33 "Emails back and forth and questions answered"

This week I happened to be up very late and I caught Taylor online so these are a few of the questions that went back and forth between us:

Mom:  How are you?

Taylor: I am doing good!  We had a successful week!

Mom:  What made your week successful?

Taylor:  Well we just worked hard and got  40 lessons this week and found 13 new investigators! I don't know it was just a good week! 

Mom:  That is really awesome!!  40 lessons that is a ton!!  Are a lot of them really interested in the gospel?  I was showing my friend Rory your blog and she wanted to go back and read your letters.  She signed up to receive your mission blog update. Sounds like you are being a good missionary!!  Do you find teaching people is getting easier?  Can they understand you good?  Have you had to do a lot of teaching or speaking at church? Do you still have your chameleon?

Taylor:  yes teaching is easy just sometimes I need to say a word that I cant find in my head but its coming along great! and I think they can understand me and I have only spoken at a baptism and we let our chameleon go just so it wouldn't die.hahah 

Taylor:  I took out 100 dollars of my account just to have extra money because you just put my 500 in!

Mom: I put your $500 in your savings account not your US Bank account!!  Also Grandma Carol gave you $25.00.  Have you been working hard?

Taylor:  Yeah we have been working hard and almost all of our people have an interest but its getting them to act is the problem! but we try to visit all of our families every day to help them stay strong! and oops i thought the money you put in was in my US Bank account! sorry! but tell grandma larson I said thanks!!  I got the Christmas card this week!! took long enough!!

Mom: How is your companion and how are you getting along?  Holy cow that took a long time to get the Christmas card?  Have you gotten any other mail or packages? 

Taylor:  My companion is good we get along great! Well the office elders say I have 3 packages or three things and I will get them on Friday!! 

Mom:  Have you been emailing Josh?  Parker Moss got his mission call I can't remember where and Trey Branningham is going to Costa Rica!

Taylor:  Yes, I have I was just about to email him actually.  That is sweet that Trey is going on a mission.

Mom:  How is church is it different than here?

Taylor:  It's about the same its 3 hours and we have 3 classes just like home but its a little louder because of the kids?

Mom:  I guess what I was trying to say is does everyone come to church on time and do their calling.  So when are transfers?  What place do you want to be transferred to?

Taylor:   yes actually everyone does their calling here and they try to start church on time but all Mozambicans are late so sometimes we start church with like 20 people and by the end we have like 150.   Transfers are in 4 weeks!! and yes i want to go to a place called Tete, its the hottest place on the mission but its a dry heat not wet haha that's where i want to go!

At this point I had fallen asleep with the phone in my hand so that was my conversation with my son.  Here are the other questions and answers that I asked him in my letter.

Copy, Paste & answer Questions you know the drill

Your face always looks red are you sunburned? Sunburned

How are the mosquitoes?

there are alot of them!

Malaria Pills?  You know what I am asking?

no they give me headaches

Have you gotten sick at all while you have been there?i have gotten sick once and it was 2 sundays ago

Did you get Grandma and Grandpas R. bday card or a letter from Grandma Carol?

not yet

Besides teaching investigators what else does your week consist of?  Zone conferences, other meetings etc?

we meet with the brach mission leader once a week and we will have zone confrence this week

Why is the branch President your favorite part of your mission? he is not my favorite part of my mission but he was the 1st missionary out of Mozambique and he is great to take to lessons

If people don’t have toilets do they have outhouses?  Where do they go to use the bathroom? some have outhouses or they use their neighbors out house or kids just poop on the road in front of everyone

Any Monkeys yet?

NO

Do you eat at Members Homes?

somtimes

How often does your mission president come to see you?  maybe once a transfer

When is your next trip back to the mission home?

when i go home

What exciting thing happened this week?

40 lessons was pretty cool

Coolest thing you have seen on your mission besides the chameleon?

the crocodile that we fed the chicken to!!

week 32 Focusing on the needs of our investigators!

I'll start with the questions:

How was your P-day? What did you do today? well today I'm going to play soccer with the other elders

Did you have your baptisms this week?  Yes we did we had one this week and 8 last week 

How has your power been this week?  The power situation is fixed!! thank goodness

How much money do you get a month and is that all for groceries or do you have to pay for other things?  We have about 190 dollars but its used for everything not just food

Whats the grossest thing you have had to eat?  Goat stomach

What was the most exciting thing you have done this week?  We found a chameleon and he is at the house in my room!!

Tell me your spiritual story for the week?  WE FOUND A TON OF NEW PEOPLE TO TEACH THROUGH REFERENCES!! MY TESTIMONY GREW THAT IF WE WORK THREW MEMBERS WE WILL HAVE SUCCESS

How many new contacts this week?  yes we found 15 new investigators

Are you being obedient?  For the most part yes!!!

Are you taking lots of pictures?  YES

Did you get the video of Audrey's mission call?  NO

Do you have regular toilets?  YES

Do you have to bury or burn your trash?  NEITHER WE THROW IT ON THE ROAD AND THE TRASH MEN PICK IT UP

Do most people have indoor toilets?  NO

Does your mission president let you watch movies? CHURCH MOVIES BUT I HAVE SEEN ONE AT OUR BRANCH PRESIDENTS HOUSE

Whats your favorite thing to eat there?

COLVEY OR WEDDING FOOD WHICH IS CHICKEN, FRIES , POTATO SALAD, SALAD, GOAT, BEANS, RICE

Did you get your package yet?  NO

Favorite thing about Manga?  OUR BRANCH PRES.

Are all the elders in your house good hard working elders?YES

ARE YOU OBEDIENT and hardworking? YES

Do you miss your mom like crazy?  NO...... YES

How is the power situation?  GOOD

Any new investigators?  15

Scariest thing that has happened to you so far?   I DON'T GET SCARED

Ok this week was a good week we found a lot of new people and we are working hard!!! My comp and I have started worrying more about our investigators than getting numbers and we are trying to focus on their needs!!!  We have started working with the members more to find more people!!  I know that this is the Lords work that we are doing and I know this church is true and I am supposed to be here!! I have a challenge for you and the family to do, I want you to pray and think of a family or friend that the missionary's can teach and I want you to pray hard and really focus on the spirit so that the missionary's can teach someone!!! I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!