House Guest

Hey Everybody,

Well, it's another week in Mogaonine and I am tired after the week we had.  Lot's of work and very few results.  Anyway, that's just how life is out here sometimes. Saturday night was interesting though.  We had just gotten home from walking around and we were planning in our companionship's when we received a phone call from the assistants. They said they would be over to our house with Pres. Kretly in 20 minutes!!!!!!!!  Holy cow!  So we had to do some make shift cleaning really fast before he got there because, let's be honest, six young men between the ages of 19 and 22 in a house with no particular motivation to clean, can get a little dirty.  After we cleaned, we realized that it would be practically impossible to have this clean of a house in the middle of the week.  We all just kinda laughed.  President came into the house with another elder and the assistants.  The elder that came with him grabbed some stuff that was in the house (that was his) and then left without hardly uttering a word.  President seemed happy to see us and talked to us for a minute, then he asked if anyone in the house spoke Creole.  We have three elders in our house from Cape Verde that speak the language.  He asked one of them to look at something on his phone and translate the message.  After which he gathered us in a room and told us that there is no room for missionaries that break rules on this mission.  I was like, "OK, wow, what happened???!!!!"  Then he told us to have a good night and left. So needless to say, we talked after he left but could not arrive at a good conclusion of what happened or why. So I guess we can only listen and obey what he said: Follow the rules.

 

So that's important.  I also came to the conclusion this week during a lesson that there isn't just two people in a companion ship.. there are three: your companion, you and the Spirit.  The one who should be explaining the most is the Spirit.  It was just kind of a thought that came to me after wondering why we weren't making progress with some of our investigators. I sat there wondering why it was so hard to get someone to act or to understand and I thought about the way we teach and that the conclusion that I arrived at.  So I'm going to keep that in mind while I teach so we can be more effective during our lessons.

 

To answer your questions:
 First, our standard door approach is pretty standard.  We walk to the door, knock on the door and say "Com licensa", which is basically like saying "excuse me" and the people get to the door and we say Boa Tarde (good afternoon) and we tell them we are missionaries form the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and that we have a message that can change their lives or we ask them if they know where they are going after this life or how they can have happiness in their life.  Just some standard questions and then we ask them if we can talk now or if we can come back and visit them another day.  If they are busy, generally that's how it goes.  As for the second question, no, not really any at all.  I am doing good and don't have any health problems, so that's a blessing.  I know some elders that have had malaria the first or second week in the field.

 

I am super excited about Conference this next week even though I won't get it till after a few weeks, so that will be fun and interesting to see what direction that we receive from the leaders of the church.

 

I am in 2 Nephi right now, but I should be able to finish it up by the end of the week. I haven't spoken in Sacrament meeting yet and I don't know if I will, but if I do I will tell you guys.  The new Angola mission doesn't really affect me.  It's just that President Kretly has more time in Mozambique now, so that's cool.

 

Anyway, that's really all I have for this week.  Thanks for writing.

Lots of love,  Elder Proksch

Sifting Through

Ola!

What a week!  ha ha I mean it just flew by.  It seems like I don't even know what to write about.  We found a whole bunch of new families and we are starting to sift through them to see which ones we can actually teach or not.  Transfers are coming up again (it seems like we just had them), but I am hoping again that I might be transferred.  As history has shown, every time I say that, I don't get transferred.  So I think I will bet on staying here. ha ha!  It was really good to see everyone in the pictures.  I just realized how much I miss Dad  because he was in the picture and to tell you the truth, he's looking a little thinner (keep up the good work, Dad).  Of course, I miss mom too.  That's a given and I think about you guys often. 

The family that we had last week with the mother and the son is kinda border-lining right now, because we can't sit with the whole family and it's something we are really pushing for.  We need to sit with them, but it's like they don't want too.  The son really wants to sit with us, but it doesn't seem like the rest of the family does.  That's frustrating, but on a lighter note, we found a man who I swear was prepared for us.  He kept asking us if there was a church on this earth that wasn't a business and maybe where he could feel God's love.  Me and my companion just looked at each other and started right into the first lesson.  At the end, he wanted to come visit our church, but he couldn't make it on Sunday, so we will see.  We set his baptismal date sometime in April.  The work is going good and we are spending a lot of time with return missionary members to help us teach lessons (yes, even Mozambique has return missionaries!).  They help out a lot and I am learning a lot from the way they teach.

It was good to hear about Grant's Eagle project and how well everyone is. I am praying for those who aren't well and hoping they get better (Aunt Virginia).  I am glad to hear about Reid's progress in school and your guys progress in the Scriptures (you're ahead of me right?  Not! ha ha)  I am pretty sure the Lord is blessing you with a lot of things right now.  See if you can figure out what they are.

Sorry this letter isn't that long.  Not much is happening, but I have a feeling this week is going to be interesting... so stay tuned. ha ha

Lots of love

Elder Proksch

Oh yeah!  By the way... about the pictures.  The second one is one with my comp and the black guy (ha ha) is our return missionary member who served in South Africa.  We came to the conclusion that Mozambique to South Africa is like Mexico is to the United States. ha ha ha Funny Guy!

Ear Nose

Alright, Alright, Alright :)

How's my favorite family in the whole world? ha ha ha  Sounds like it was another good week full of events and oh... my.... holy... cow!   Sean's going to Japan!   Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattt???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That's insane!  Aunt Polly's gotta be loosing her mind!   I hope he likes sushi (or how ever you spell it).  That's just nuts!  Maybe he can stop by Africa on the way there and I'll show him around a bit.  On the other hand, that language is super hard core difficult.  I looked at it in the MTC and let's just say I'm glad I didn't have to learn how to read it.  But, wow, that is so awesome.  Good luck out there, Sean!  You are going to love it!  It's awesome! 

Oh yeah, and by the way, someone tell Dylan "Way to go!!!!"   That's awesome that there was a lot of people in the temple with him.  I just love hearing news like that.  That guy is going to be a great missionary.  I know it.  In fact, I feel prompted to say that I have a testimony about it.  That kid is awesome and I just get the biggest smile on my face every time I hear something like this about him. :)  Way to go, dude!!!!!!  The temple is cool, huh?  ha ha ha ha   Tell Kyle's mom "Thanks", the secret is to get the branches there to do a collective marriage.  Nothingspecial, just enough to get the papers signed and on the following day you have 20 baptisms.  But you gotta be careful with the relatives because everybody and their dog tries to get involved.  You have to stress the point that it's really just to fulfill a commandment.   And, yes, I have re-started my Book of Mormon reading and I think I am at 1 Nephi 17?  I don't know right now.  I am having trouble remembering, but it's going good, so I keep with you guys if I can ha ha.  Don't pass me up.  :)

So, this week has been sweet.  We hit all our goals for weekly planning.  We had lessons with members, people at church and ten baptismal dates marked (doesn't necessarily mean it will happen), but I have hope.  The idea is that we give this date as a goal for these people so they know we aren't messing around, or at least that's the idea.  We tell them that so they can't say, "Well, I actually don't want to get baptized" and then we stop teaching them because it would be a waste of time.  Bottom line is that we are being blessed and I am seeing the results of a lot of prayers being answered.  Weird thought just now, but do you think that people on the other side of the veil pray too or is there like a telephone or something? (food for thought... ha ha ha)

Also, this week we found this new family.  So cool, these people were just sitting out in their yard and we found the mom and the son.  She just returned from a church mission (for the Presbyterians) from Portugal and he's kind of in between things in his life.  Well, we had a greatmeeting and they asked some really good questions.  I was mostly impressed with the son when he said that he goes to church occasionally, but he feels something is missing and he later explained that he feels like sometimes he can feel a fire or something to that effect when he hears something good, but then it quickly goes away and he said he wanted more of that.  So we taught them both the first lesson about Joseph Smith.  The mom kind of understood it (as is the case with most older people here... they kinda get it, but they need us to teach it again).  The son really took a hold of what we were teaching.  We asked them both to pray about what we taught to see if it was true and yesterday we went back over to their house to check the progress.  The son was there, but the mom wasn't and we kinda felt defeated because he said that we should come back not this week but the next week :P  Grrrrrr.   As we were leaving, he kinda pulled us aside and said, "Hey, I did what you said and I prayed about Joseph Smith and I had an experience, a very strong one.  So we asked him, "Was it a good feeling or a bad one?" and he said it was great.  He said, "Now I just want to know more about it and how I can get my hands on more information if there is any?"  We told him that there is a lot more and we would be happy to teach him, but in the mean time we gave him the church website because we would like to teach the parents, too.  He said he will continue to push his parents to meet with us sooner if possible.  I left that house on cloud nine.  I was thinking, "Finally, someone did what we said and it worked!"  ha ha ha ha .  It was really a highlight  that and having five people at church. Oh, and Sansao was baptized... to answer you question.  He is helping us teach this other family that live right next door which is also another great family.  Can you tell we're being blessed yet?

Anyway, so that was my week and it was really great.  I hope to make this week even better.  Just a side note to Kyle and his lesson.  Generally that bad lesson that you had is par for the course out here.  For some reason, we have a knack for finding crazy people that have weird ideas about God, but it's good to know it's not just here in Mozambique.  My companion and I have a secret code for when we are in those situations and we don't want the person to know we want to leave.  We just scratch our ear and rub our nose because in Portuguese you can say "ir nos", which means "we go".  Pretty slick, huh?  It's basically the sign to get us both on the same page so we don't waste anymore time with that person.  So remember ear nose.  It's one of the fastest ways to get out of a bad lesson.

Hey mom didn't want you to think that I forgot about  your birthday two weeks ago, so I want to wish you a happy birthday and send you my testimony.  I think I will start out by testifying about the divinity of our Savior, plain and simple.  I know that without him we would all fall short of the goal we have and that through his love and compassion on us we can return to our heavenly home. I know that if we decide to trust him, he can magnify our efforts and therefore perfect them. There is a song in the hymn book called "Abide With Me" and it has some very sweet words: Who can understand? He only one. I also like the part about "He reaches my reaching".  These are really words of comfort when you feel out alone by yourself with no one else to help you out.  He's there and he lives.  I really like the words of Alma after he had his near spiritual death experience, "For he hath saw fit to snatch our souls from eternal damnation". I admire Alma's thought process and the love that he has for his Savior "For He is mighty to save".  To be honest, I gained a lot of my testimony about the Savior through music and the words they have.  I love the Tabernacle Choir and the beautiful music that they sing.  It really does lift your spirit and put sunshine in your soul. One of my favorite hymns is Sweet Hour of Prayer. Often I think of prayer and the time I have to spend with my Heavenly Father just talking to him about what I am experiencing.  My favorite part of that song, I think, is in the second verse: "Thy wings shall my partition bare, and bid me at my father's throne, make all my wants and wishes known".  I am glad I can have that kind of relationship with my father in heaven and it saddens me to know that other people don't enjoy that as well.  It is something so simple, yet brings so much peace.  If I were to bear my testimony about Jesus Christ,  I might as well just sing the song "I Believe in Christ", because it says just about everything I want to say about him and with the appropriate feeling as well.  That's what I love about music it lifts everyone to the same emotional feeling about those particular words in the song.  I know this testimony is kind of random, but I was reading an article at the back of the Liahona this month and a few months ago and here's what I read.  One talks about a young couple who is in search of a TV and they are looking for one that fits their budget.  He says that he learned an important gospel principle from that, its not the sales clerk that decides if the TV is worth as much as the price that is listed, it is the buyer. The sales clerk only estimates what he thinks you will pay for it and then posts the price, you decide if you want it for that price or not.  In the same way the savior looked at you, saw the price listed, and said yes I will pay that, they ARE worth it.  And for us, he paid the price that we could not have ever hoped to pay back.  With that in mind, listen to this next story. (this one is from this month's Liahona)  There was a man that lead a group of soldiers into Iraq to take control of an enemy base.  After all the enemy troops had been rounded up, a search for intelligence gathering was conducted to locate any information that could help further missions. While searching, this Sergeant heard an officer of the British forces yell, "STOP!  DON'T TAKE ANOTHER STEP!"  A young private had walked out into a mine field to retrieve what had appeared to be a piece of paper when the officer had yelled to her.  Immediately, she recognized her situation and began to shake with fear.  She began to sob as other soldiers gathered around the outside boarder of the mine field and started yelling words of encouragement.  Leaders of other platoons soon followed and soon you could see her begin to calm down.  She told the officer that she could see her footsteps faintly in the sand behind her and would retrace them back the way she was.  Slowly and painstakingly she retraced her foot steps all the while the soldiers on the other side were cheering her on.  Finally, when she reached the other side, she was received with shouts of praise and with tears of joy into the loving arms of her fellow soldiers.  Now, I ask you, were we worth and the price that our Savior paid for us?  Why should we let anyone stray from this path, who is willing to return.  Don't leave your friends out in a mine field with no way out.  The savior paid the price for their souls.  The least I can do is save one.  If you save just one, how great shall be your joy in the kingdom of your Father.  I leave you with my testimony that I know that this is the only true church on the face of the earth and that only and through Jesus Christ the great mediator of all men can we return to live with our Father In Heaven again.  I leave you my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

I love you, mom, and keep working at the triathlon stuff.  I always brag about you to other missionaries and how my mom is cooler than your mom.

Well, I love you all and have a great week!  

love

ELDER Proksch

Twenty Baptisms

Ola Mudo,

This week I won't write very much because I am short on time and have to leave soon, but I do want to say that we had an awesome weekend and 9 couples were married, baptized and confirmed for a grand total of 20 baptisms in one weekend.  That was super cool.  The spirit was definitely there and I had the opportunity to get into the font with an investigator and put my hand to the square.  Let me tell you when that happens you feel like you are on top of the world and there is simply no comparison to that feeling.  Right now me and my companion are looking for our next people to bring to the Gospel and we are working a lot with members to try and increase the spiritual potency of our lessons.  We had one lesson this week where the spirit was so strong, I was sure the room would burst into flames.   It was insane!   I know that the Lord blesses us and that all the prayers that are in our behalf are working.

Just a side note on fasting really quick.  It is my testimony that fasting is one of the fastest ways to feel the spirit and be closer to your Father in Heaven and the more we focus on the necessary things in life like becoming closer to Him, we can feel his spirit stronger.  Sorry this one is so short.  I am doing good... just super busy.  I will write more next week. 

Lots of love,

Elder Proksch