I Understand What is Going on a Little Bit More Now
Wow I have already been in Africa for one month. Crazy. Anyway this week was pretty good, a lot of good work happened and we had zone conference which was really fun.
First, I wanted to write a little bit about missionary work here. If I had to use one word it would be easy. It still has a lot of challenges and living here is not very fun but it is a lot more straightforward than the United States.
Finding new people to teach is pretty easy, almost everyone is down to talk about religion and are rarely busy. When we do finding, which isn't very often right now, we only look for families to talk to. Teaching families is really nice as a missionary. Also random people will stop you and want to talk about religion. People literally ask to be taught, this doesn't happen often, but it does happen. The problem we run into here is that we have too many people to teach, and we can't work with all of them.
Teaching is also super straightforward, it is easy to setup times to teach and the people are very attentive. They usually grasp most of what you teach and remember past lessons pretty good. The challenge we have in this area is knowing who is actually interested and who is just nodding along. So many people are down to be taught and even be baptized but a lot of them aren't very committed. It is pretty challenging to tell who will actually continue attending church and learning and who will just as soon not come.
This was the largest focus at zone conference, working with the ward to strengthen the members. They talked a lot about working with the leaders, working with less actives, and helping recent converts. A lot of the other Elders talked about what they had been doing that worked really well. One that seemed particularly effective was encouraging members and leaders to talk with less actives and inviting them to church. The less actives are super willing to come back and usually just need an invite.
I was pretty surprised with how much I understood at zone conference. Sister Moraes went around during lunch and asked the Americans how much they understood (1 through 10) and I was surprised to be able to say 6 out of 10.
Lunch was super good, we went to a restaurant that was super close to the chapel. The restaurant was nice, even for the United States. We all got pizza and for Africa, it was really good. Zone conference is basically the one time during the transfer you get to eat good food. I am pretty excited for the next one.
Then the second half of zone conference started, I don't know what it was but I did not understand much. President and Sister Moraes were giving big spiritual talks and I could barely understand any of it. Still it was super cool. President Moraes instated a pretty crazy rule that you are only allowed to baptize two people a transfer (at this time baptisms are still aren't allowed in the country due to Covid). He did this so the people we do baptize are actually quality, solid people that will stay active. He also encouraged us to work a lot with less actives. These changes should help us missionaries direct our attention better and really work to strengthen what we have and build strong wards.
Being with the whole zone was also super fun, actually being able to talk with the other Americans was really nice. Because the zone covers multiple cities some Elders had to fly in and two were staying with us for a few days. It was really nice and pretty fun.
Also this week our ward had ward conference, which basically means that there are a few more meetings and people from the stake are there. Our chapel is pretty small and we had so many people there today that some of our members and Elder Icaro and I had to sit outside.
All in all this week was much needed. After zone conference I definitely feel like I know what to do more. Talking with other missionaries was really fun and it was just a good experience. It is definitely still challenging here. This week our water wasn't working for a few days. Portuguese is still super tough. We walk so much more and eat so much less. I am handling it better each day. This week was a big help. Hearing from other missionaries and getting more information was super helpful. Things will certainly only improve from here.
First, I wanted to write a little bit about missionary work here. If I had to use one word it would be easy. It still has a lot of challenges and living here is not very fun but it is a lot more straightforward than the United States.
Finding new people to teach is pretty easy, almost everyone is down to talk about religion and are rarely busy. When we do finding, which isn't very often right now, we only look for families to talk to. Teaching families is really nice as a missionary. Also random people will stop you and want to talk about religion. People literally ask to be taught, this doesn't happen often, but it does happen. The problem we run into here is that we have too many people to teach, and we can't work with all of them.
Teaching is also super straightforward, it is easy to setup times to teach and the people are very attentive. They usually grasp most of what you teach and remember past lessons pretty good. The challenge we have in this area is knowing who is actually interested and who is just nodding along. So many people are down to be taught and even be baptized but a lot of them aren't very committed. It is pretty challenging to tell who will actually continue attending church and learning and who will just as soon not come.
This was the largest focus at zone conference, working with the ward to strengthen the members. They talked a lot about working with the leaders, working with less actives, and helping recent converts. A lot of the other Elders talked about what they had been doing that worked really well. One that seemed particularly effective was encouraging members and leaders to talk with less actives and inviting them to church. The less actives are super willing to come back and usually just need an invite.
I was pretty surprised with how much I understood at zone conference. Sister Moraes went around during lunch and asked the Americans how much they understood (1 through 10) and I was surprised to be able to say 6 out of 10.
Lunch was super good, we went to a restaurant that was super close to the chapel. The restaurant was nice, even for the United States. We all got pizza and for Africa, it was really good. Zone conference is basically the one time during the transfer you get to eat good food. I am pretty excited for the next one.
Then the second half of zone conference started, I don't know what it was but I did not understand much. President and Sister Moraes were giving big spiritual talks and I could barely understand any of it. Still it was super cool. President Moraes instated a pretty crazy rule that you are only allowed to baptize two people a transfer (at this time baptisms are still aren't allowed in the country due to Covid). He did this so the people we do baptize are actually quality, solid people that will stay active. He also encouraged us to work a lot with less actives. These changes should help us missionaries direct our attention better and really work to strengthen what we have and build strong wards.
Being with the whole zone was also super fun, actually being able to talk with the other Americans was really nice. Because the zone covers multiple cities some Elders had to fly in and two were staying with us for a few days. It was really nice and pretty fun.
Also this week our ward had ward conference, which basically means that there are a few more meetings and people from the stake are there. Our chapel is pretty small and we had so many people there today that some of our members and Elder Icaro and I had to sit outside.
All in all this week was much needed. After zone conference I definitely feel like I know what to do more. Talking with other missionaries was really fun and it was just a good experience. It is definitely still challenging here. This week our water wasn't working for a few days. Portuguese is still super tough. We walk so much more and eat so much less. I am handling it better each day. This week was a big help. Hearing from other missionaries and getting more information was super helpful. Things will certainly only improve from here.
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| Elder Icaro and me with a goat |
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| Nampula Zone |
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