The Mozam-boys and Hotel Purgatory
Honestly, it has been a long week. Travel is super exhausting and we got a lot of curveballs thrown at us. But it was pretty fun.
The beginning of the week was my last few days in Ashton Park. We had some pretty cool dinners. All were pretty fun for different reasons.
Our first dinner was with a couple I haven't had for dinner before. It was a pretty nice dinner. But the crazy part was after. The husband was showing us some stuff we had gotten. First he showed us a massive crocodile skull. Then he showed us these massive elephant tusks. Both of these things he had hunted himself to get. Then he walked us into this room and turned on the lights. Next thing I know, we are standing in a room FULL of taxidermy animals. Their was literally tons. Like not on spot of the wall was empty. The man had killed and stuffed two lions, three bears, one massive moose, one rhino (which he darted and got photos of to replicate the head), and probably at least 50 other animals from all over the world. It was incredible and it was a pretty fun dinner.
Our second dinner was interesting. When we arrived dinner wasn't quite ready which happens sometimes, when we sat down, we saw the steaks, which was our dinner, on the counter. The problem was, they were completely uncooked. We then knew then this was going to be a long night. It was still a fun dinner but these members were in absolutely no rush.
Our third dinner was cool, it was at our Elders Quorum president's house. The food was solid and they invited over some fun guests. One was a less-active missionaries have been working with for years, it was nice seeing him but there is a good reason we stopped working with him. The other was a really cool member from the Eastern Avenue ward. We spent most of the time talking about me leaving. My companions graciously left me to do the lesson since it would be my last time. It was very spiritual. It was a really cool last dinner in Ashton Park.
That night we went to the mission office to spend the night so I could leave in the morning. My bags were a little overweight so I had to leave a few unnecessary things behind. Then I said goodbye to my companions. I spent the night with the AP's, office Elders and the two other Elders leaving, Elder Mikkelsen and Wilcox. Unfortunately Elder Wilcox's COVID test didn't work and he couldn't go. Elder Mikkelsen and I were going to the same mission so all of our flights were together.
Travel was wild. My first flight took me Phoenix and by the time we got to our next flight they were doing final boarding. That flight took us to Chicago and had a couple other Elders on it. There we waited a while with probably 12 other missionaries for our flight to Amsterdam. When we put in papers for whatever reason I had to do it three times and was the last person to get on the flight. It was a little stressful even though everything was in order. The flight was super long and boring. There wasn't much to do and it was pretty hard to sleep. The next flight from Amsterdam to Johannesburg was even longer. This time I knew what to expect and spent my time better. It was a total of about two days of flying and the entire time my body felt pretty bad. At Johannesburg we had arrangements to stay overnight and leave for Beira the next day. A man named Aaron was in charge of us and helped us get situated for the night. That night we got our noses swabbed for a COVID test.
The next morning we had breakfast and got ready to go. All we needed was our COVID test results and we could head to our flight. Unfortunately, the tests weren't done in time (which was apparently the hotel's fault). Aaron had to scramble to make a bunch of calls to find out what would be happening. At this point we knew we would be at the hotel for longer than we were expecting. Having nothing else to do, us Elders (about 20 at this point) started playing card games while we waited for the news. As our flight was taking off I was playing a nice rousing game of UNO. Aaron let us know that we would getting flights for the next few days and would be leaving as soon as possible.
We would be leaving on three flights for the next three days. They did it in alphabetical order so I would leave on the second day (Monday). Our time at the hotel was pretty rough. As a missionary what we could do was pretty much limited to talking, sleeping, reading and playing card games. So we played a lot of card games. It was also a great opportunity to talk to the other Elders and learn about them. We came from all over the United States and had been out anywhere from 4.5 months (1 transfer less than me) to 17 months. We all had some cool stories to share and it was pretty cool. Aaron our travel representative was super cool. He had served in our mission about a year ago and answered a lot of our questions. I got a really good sense of what it would be like.
We also felt bad for Aaron because the trip was really only supposed to be one night and ended up being three. He basically had to babysit 20 Elders for someone else's mistake. He was super cool about it and even enjoyed a lot of it. He did a good job keeping us out of trouble and well fed.
After a few days of hotel purgatory we finally got our flight to Mozambique. We were all super glad we were actually getting there. Our flight had us fly into Maputo then wait and get another flight to Beira. Even though we waited about five hours in the hot airport it was so much better than the five-star hotel. The airport was progress. Waiting around as a missionary honestly stinks. You have nothing to do. It honestly made me want to work more, because the alternative is boring and unsatisfying. Working brings me joy, and why shouldn't it? I am helping others come to know Christ. It makes happy and it makes so many others happy. Location and circumstances change but the work is still the same.
I am glad to be apart of it.
P.S. As I am writing this while I am in the airport in Maputo. I am going to include the rest of today in next week's letter.
The beginning of the week was my last few days in Ashton Park. We had some pretty cool dinners. All were pretty fun for different reasons.
Our first dinner was with a couple I haven't had for dinner before. It was a pretty nice dinner. But the crazy part was after. The husband was showing us some stuff we had gotten. First he showed us a massive crocodile skull. Then he showed us these massive elephant tusks. Both of these things he had hunted himself to get. Then he walked us into this room and turned on the lights. Next thing I know, we are standing in a room FULL of taxidermy animals. Their was literally tons. Like not on spot of the wall was empty. The man had killed and stuffed two lions, three bears, one massive moose, one rhino (which he darted and got photos of to replicate the head), and probably at least 50 other animals from all over the world. It was incredible and it was a pretty fun dinner.
Our second dinner was interesting. When we arrived dinner wasn't quite ready which happens sometimes, when we sat down, we saw the steaks, which was our dinner, on the counter. The problem was, they were completely uncooked. We then knew then this was going to be a long night. It was still a fun dinner but these members were in absolutely no rush.
Our third dinner was cool, it was at our Elders Quorum president's house. The food was solid and they invited over some fun guests. One was a less-active missionaries have been working with for years, it was nice seeing him but there is a good reason we stopped working with him. The other was a really cool member from the Eastern Avenue ward. We spent most of the time talking about me leaving. My companions graciously left me to do the lesson since it would be my last time. It was very spiritual. It was a really cool last dinner in Ashton Park.
That night we went to the mission office to spend the night so I could leave in the morning. My bags were a little overweight so I had to leave a few unnecessary things behind. Then I said goodbye to my companions. I spent the night with the AP's, office Elders and the two other Elders leaving, Elder Mikkelsen and Wilcox. Unfortunately Elder Wilcox's COVID test didn't work and he couldn't go. Elder Mikkelsen and I were going to the same mission so all of our flights were together.
Travel was wild. My first flight took me Phoenix and by the time we got to our next flight they were doing final boarding. That flight took us to Chicago and had a couple other Elders on it. There we waited a while with probably 12 other missionaries for our flight to Amsterdam. When we put in papers for whatever reason I had to do it three times and was the last person to get on the flight. It was a little stressful even though everything was in order. The flight was super long and boring. There wasn't much to do and it was pretty hard to sleep. The next flight from Amsterdam to Johannesburg was even longer. This time I knew what to expect and spent my time better. It was a total of about two days of flying and the entire time my body felt pretty bad. At Johannesburg we had arrangements to stay overnight and leave for Beira the next day. A man named Aaron was in charge of us and helped us get situated for the night. That night we got our noses swabbed for a COVID test.
The next morning we had breakfast and got ready to go. All we needed was our COVID test results and we could head to our flight. Unfortunately, the tests weren't done in time (which was apparently the hotel's fault). Aaron had to scramble to make a bunch of calls to find out what would be happening. At this point we knew we would be at the hotel for longer than we were expecting. Having nothing else to do, us Elders (about 20 at this point) started playing card games while we waited for the news. As our flight was taking off I was playing a nice rousing game of UNO. Aaron let us know that we would getting flights for the next few days and would be leaving as soon as possible.
We would be leaving on three flights for the next three days. They did it in alphabetical order so I would leave on the second day (Monday). Our time at the hotel was pretty rough. As a missionary what we could do was pretty much limited to talking, sleeping, reading and playing card games. So we played a lot of card games. It was also a great opportunity to talk to the other Elders and learn about them. We came from all over the United States and had been out anywhere from 4.5 months (1 transfer less than me) to 17 months. We all had some cool stories to share and it was pretty cool. Aaron our travel representative was super cool. He had served in our mission about a year ago and answered a lot of our questions. I got a really good sense of what it would be like.
We also felt bad for Aaron because the trip was really only supposed to be one night and ended up being three. He basically had to babysit 20 Elders for someone else's mistake. He was super cool about it and even enjoyed a lot of it. He did a good job keeping us out of trouble and well fed.
After a few days of hotel purgatory we finally got our flight to Mozambique. We were all super glad we were actually getting there. Our flight had us fly into Maputo then wait and get another flight to Beira. Even though we waited about five hours in the hot airport it was so much better than the five-star hotel. The airport was progress. Waiting around as a missionary honestly stinks. You have nothing to do. It honestly made me want to work more, because the alternative is boring and unsatisfying. Working brings me joy, and why shouldn't it? I am helping others come to know Christ. It makes happy and it makes so many others happy. Location and circumstances change but the work is still the same.
I am glad to be apart of it.
P.S. As I am writing this while I am in the airport in Maputo. I am going to include the rest of today in next week's letter.
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| Leaving for Mozambique |
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| On the flight to Johannesburg |
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