Everything Works out Until it Doesn't and, Then you Die

Editor Note: The title is from a saying in Mozambique

Well, transfers happened. It was cool, you'll never guess who my new comp is... Did you guess? Well you're wrong, it's Elder Adams, my comp from the MTC. Crazy right? I was not expecting it at all. President called p-day night which is the earliest he has done transfer calls in a while. I was pretty shocked when he said Elder Mateus would be going and I was even more surprised to hear that Elder Adams would be my comp. It's going to be a solid transfer. The week has gone pretty well so far, honestly it has been a little difficult leading out an area after only one transfer here, but things have been going alright so far. Elder Adams is a solid missionary and we both have learned a lot since the online MTC together.
President called us Monday night and we had just started working in the area when the AP's called us. They told us that they would be here in an hour to pick up Elder Mateus and drop off Elder Adams. We were pretty surprised because we both thought transfers would be on Wednesday and that Tuesday would be our last day together. Elder Mateus had even put all his clothes in the wash because he thought he had one more day. So we had to rush back home and throw his soggy clothes in a plastic bag to dry out later. Then next thing I knew, Elder Mateus was gone and I was back in the area with Elder Adams.

These first few days we have been working with a lot of referrals which I think has been good. A lot of them have turned out to be pretty solid people that hopefully will progress. It always worries me that I might be forgetting about somebody important we were teaching but I think we are teaching everyone we were teaching before. We are trying to widen our teaching pool to include more adults and families but it is still looking like we will baptize a lot more teenagers before that happens.

And now, an observation about life. One thing that always impressed me is how happy the people are here. Life is very difficult here (it's hard to fathom sometimes). And yet people are quite happy, yeah things are hard but most people move through their simple but satisfying life generally happy. Many of these people have little to nothing, but find joy in simple things, talking with neighbors, doing housework, scratching out what little they can. Through it all they never cease to find simple moments are happiness. I know its a very common saying but happiness does not come from things. If you don't believe me, your wrong. If you want to be happier, I would start by talking to people, it works pretty well here. Anyway have a good week.

We saw a sideways coconut tree and we wanted a picture on it, so we asked the owner of the house if we could get pictures, she said yes but in Masenna (the local language) said that "the white guys will fall"

Just me crushing some rice at a friend's house, they said how I was doing it was weird. I guess there is a right way to crush rice

Elder Adams went to use the bathroom and just saw this goat slamming its head against the wall for no reason so we got a picture

Just me looking at a field in our area