A Beginning

January 03, 2022

A Beginning

The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Modern Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind blew in the great city of Beira. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning.

In this age a young missionary, Elder McDonald had finally arrived at the Beira Airport. Stepping out of the airplane he was hit by a wave of humidity and heat, even at that late hour of night. This place was going to be very very different than anything he had ever known, but, his work required it and the Lord desired it.

It has been a crazy few weeks, in the short time I have been here in Mozambique a lot has happened. First though, I thought it would be fun to share things I have noticed about what it is like here in Mozambique.

As mentioned before it is super hot and humid here, it is usually about 80 degrees Fahrenheit and with very high humidity. People told me humidity makes a big difference and now I believe them. It is hot. All of our houses and churches have AC just so that it is cool inside.

Also where we work is very much a city. There are tons of people here. Everything is also pretty rundown and simple. All the buildings are concrete and most aren't painted. There is garbage everywhere and the sidewalks are super torn up. It is super different than anything I am familiar with.

Now when we got off the plane we found out transfers were in a week and we would be living temporarily with other Elders. I was in a group with three other Americans with two natives as our companions. Yes there was six of us. It was super strange. The next day we had our introduction training. This meeting made it super apparent that work here was very different. All of the trainings were about hygiene and finances. Then there was a spiritual thought at the end and then the meeting was over. Clearly physical trials are much more common than spiritual ones here.

So those companions I was with were also some of the office Elders. Which meant that they spent a lot of time in the office, which meant I got to join them. That first week we spent most of our time sitting in the office talking with the other people there. It was fun but I wanted to see what work is like here. Well I would eventually.

That Saturday was Christmas and transfers were the next week so in celebration our President flew every missionary (about 75 missionaries) in the mission in to Beira to have a mission wide Christmas party (or Natal in Portuguese). It was pretty crazy and fun. We played a lot of games and had some pretty good food. Then they gathered everyone back in the chapel for a few more activities. After playing a few games they announced we were going to watch a movie, and I was thinking something along the lines of the Nativity or something like that. So I was shocked when they pulled up the Lion King. So then the mission watched the Lion King and afterwards had a nice spiritual discussion. That whole day was pretty fun. It was a nice Christmas party.

That Monday was p-day and that night I would be flying out to Nampula where I would be working. My companion would be Elder Icaro, who had been working in the office. That day we played soccer with a ton of other missionaries and went to a park with what would be our future district. It was all pretty fun but I did get sunburnt pretty bad even though I put on sunscreen.

The flight out was also a little crazy, everyone was running late so we got to the airport about when the flight was supposed to leave. Fortunately, just like us, it was running late and we were able to make it.

At this point I had finally made it to where I would be working, Nampula. Specifically in the Napipine Ward. Our area is huge and it covers about a fifth of Nampula and probably 20 villages and towns outside of the city. We do almost all of our work in the city though.

In the first week here we got quite a bit done even with all the problems we ran into. When we got to the house, we didn't have clean water, gas (for the stove) or money. All we had was a small amount of food and electricity. Fortunately our Stake President is awesome and because he is charge of our housing he fixed all those things the next day. But an hour after he left our power went out. Fortunately, he was able to fix it that night. I joked with Elder Icaro that we had had every just about every possible problem except being sick. Well, the next day I was sick. Not like throwing up or anything I was just super super tired and I had a small fever. Well, I wanted to work and I thought I would be fine so I didn't tell Elder Icaro just how sick I was. I made it home just fine, but dang, I was sooo dead the entire day. Then two days later Elder Icaro got sick too. It was a blast.

On New Year's Eve we had a small party with our district, we were planning on going to a restaurant for pizza but after about 20 minutes of walking, we found out it was closed. So we walked another 15 minutes to a restaurant we had already walked by to have the pizza there. Still, it was pretty fun and the pizza was pretty alright.

My time here in Mozambique has been pretty crazy, it is really super different then anything I have experienced. Everybody, speaks Portuguese, we work in a big city, our house has all sorts of problems, and basic commodities are not guaranteed. But it has been cool. There are always struggles when going on a mission and here the struggles are definitely more physical than anything else.

The other big trial has been the language, it has been pretty rough. I understand so little and when I speak it is difficult to understand. But, I have gotten a little better. I can have a very simple conversation with my companion (who only speaks Portuguese) and I can teach some parts of the lessons. Elder Icaro is pushing me to learn and teach very quickly which is nice and stressful.

Things have definitely been stressful. Adapting to a completely new environment is difficult and taxing. I have been doing pretty good and the other Elders who came with me seem to be doing good too. I got a lot of comfort from some papers I brought with me. I know the Lord wants me here and these new burdens show the trust God has in me. He trusts me to work hard and overcome these obstacles. He knows I can do it, and can become better because of it. The journey is never easy but the destination is worth the trip. We learn and grow from the path we take not from where we end up. Journey before destination. Our work is what counts, I want to work hard, even when it is hard. And I know the Lord will bless me for it.

P.S. Sorry for the stuff at the beginning, it is from a book. The first paragraph of this post is a modified version of the intro to every book in the Wheel of Time book series. I finished reading it right before entering the MTC. It is a pretty cool book series and I would recommend it. It does have 14ish books so it is a big commitment.