Oh, my holy cow!
You guys would not believe the week I have had. Let's start a little earlier in the week when I had a division with Elder Brandao. He's one of our zone leaders. We went to go pick him up in Matola (the nicest, richest area in Mozambique) and leave Elder Poyfair with his companion Elder Williams. Elder Brandao is from Cape Verde. On a chappa jammed full of drunk people back to T3 we talked about some difficulties we had been having with our branch president. Let's start into that. First of all, our branch president seemed to have his own agenda with our investigators. He wanted to get them to leave their family and cut all ties with them so that they could follow God and be married and baptized. That's cool with me, but not while we can still do something to satisfy the family and still keep family ties and be friends with everyone. There is no need to start a fire in a coal mill. He just wanted them to knuckle up and make a decision, when on the other side we were trying to do something that the family would be happy with. That is throw a party later, after they get married, to satisfy the family. I think our branch president forgot that our purpose as missionaries is to help others come unto Christ and that we can't do that if we are tearing a family apart. So we had a meeting with him last week (and I didn't want to tell you guys about this until I found out how it went) and we sat there for 2 agonizing hours while he grilled this poor family on making the right decision and telling us we couldn't do what we wanted to do with their family. He even told them to wait and get baptized later, even if it's much later. I sat there with Elder Poyfair and when we heard that, I pulled out my scriptures and read him Alma 34: 33-35. It's a little long, but it was worth it. I will save you the rest of the details. We called our Zone Leaders right in front of him and had him talk to them about how we couldn't do this. Long story short, he got on board pretty fast after he talked to our ZL's. That was ridiculous.
I spent some time with Elder Brandao explaining these things and he was giving me tips. We also did about 40 contacts in one day. It was nuts, but I learned a ton from him. Just on leadership, alone, it was an education on what I need to be doing. A lot of things on obedience. Needless to say I talked to my district about a few things that were out of order and I have a few more unfriendly friends in the house (they swear I am ruining their lives). So it's not all sunshine and daisies being district leader, except when you get a family baptized and married !!!!!!!! It was awesome! The night we were going over to their house it was raining and we had to walk in the rain to get over there and then when we arrived their power was out, so they were married by candle light. I know! Right? How cool is that!!!!! The whole time we were walking over there with President and a few members, I was thinking, "We are doing this no matter what. This needs to happen because they are getting in that water tomorrow." It was really cool to see. This, of course, happened after Elder Brandao went back to Matola and I was with Elder Poyfair again. I kid you not, those prayers that you guys have offered, I think I used every single one of them that night just hoping and praying that it would go through. At the end of the ceremony everyone went home to go to bed and the next morning it was still raining as we grabbed everyone to go to Matola to get them baptized. It was crazy and we ended up having to ride the last bit of the trip in the bed of a truck to get to the chapel. There was just no way we were going to be late or miss this opportunity for them. The baptism was simple, and the Spirit was there. I baptized Antonio (he's really tall) and Elder Poyfair baptized Ines (his wife). He also baptized their little girl of 8 years, her name is Fatusha. She is funny. To top it off, we had not had water for a good two days and we smelled a little funny, but it was worth it. So everyone got baptized. I have some pictures that I want to send you guys. I just don't know if the internet will support it. They were married on Friday, baptized on Saturday and because we FINALLY GOT CONFERENCE, they will be confirmed next week during Sacrament meeting.
Conference was awesome except for the fact that they misprinted the Sunday morning and afternoon, so we have two Saturdays and no Sunday meeting. Super annoying, but we did get everything else. You guys were right, this conference was really personal and really good. I have never received so much instruction from one like this and I am excited to get the magazine to read it because I want to go through each and every talk. So I am excited for that.
I love you guys
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