Week 8: This Is Exactly What I Signed Up For

So we've been teaching this family, Bento, his wife Edilta, and their 9 month old son Belview! I actually helped find them, and they are awesome! We met them while we were tracting and doing door contacts (Which we do a lot because it is so successful here) and so we clapped at this house, and the boy walking by told us to just walk around to the back of the house to talk to them! So we did! We went around to the back to see a line of shacks behind this house. We knocked on the first little shack and a man came to the door- Bento! He invited us into his humble shack so that we could teach his more about Christ (People love Jesus here) and he rolled out a bamboo mat that we could sit on because he didn't have any chairs and he didn't want us to sit on his dirt floor. So imagine this house; the dimensions are probable 10 feet x 10 feet x 10 feet, right, but the "living room" is smaller than my bathroom back home because the house is divided by a curtain into their room, and the "living room". So tiny hut, dirt floor, tin roof, and this young family invites the two white men in to teach them more about Jesus!!! I love it here! This is exactly what I signed up for!!! I absolutely love it here! 

Anyway, we sat on this dirt floor and taught the Restoration. These people are so receptive to the message, and we committed them to baptism!!! We need to get them married first, but we'll work on that one. But the people here are so receptive. If you walk up to a house, they will immediately bring out chairs for you to sit down and share a message with them, and people are always stopping you on the street to ask for pamphlets to read about Jesus! I love it here! And people get a kick out of the white guys speaking dialect to them, they just laugh every time, and sometimes they even try to drag you into an alley because they thought it was so funny ;) Haha!!!

 But yeah, we have 11 investigators with a baptismal date marked, we got 17 new investigators this last week, 10 investigators at sacrament meeting, it was just a killer week!!! We're working with a lot of investigators on the marriage process! It is a long process that requires a lot of documents and it is a complicated process, so we're working with a lot of people on that! So yeah, I just love it here! There weren't any super crazy stories this week that I'll share for my mother's sake, haha, but it was an awesome week! I absolutely love the work here, and the people here. I love waking up to a gorgeous sunrise, seeing the gorgeous sunset, and seeing stars and constellations that I've never seen before! The people here are the nicest people that I've ever met! Everyone is so friendly and loves talking about religion! You can get people's phone numbers like crazy! They'll tell you exactly where they live, and no one is afraid of anyone because they trust people here! Ah! I love it here!

The food here isn't that bad either! There are Padarias everywhere, which are just bakeries, but you can buy a loaf of freshly baked bread for 5 Meticais, which is a few cents in American Money (1 US dollar is about 40 Met) and it is delicious bread! So we have to cook all our own food, but it isn't too bad! I'm definitely learning how to cook better! Yeah, kind of an uneventful week, but it was super fun!

Oh! I forgot! I love playing soccer with the kids in the streets! Kids are always at the Campos, which are just fields with soccer goals on either ends, and I love just taking a few minutes to play around with them! It is quite humbling to have an 8 year old kick your trash and embarrass you with all of his friends laughing at you! But it is fun! I get a KICK out of it!

Well, that's all for this week from this side of the world! Until Next week!

I know that God speaks to us today. I know that he has called a prophet and that He truly does receive revelation for us from God. I know that as we follow the teachings in the scriptures and from modern day revelation that we will be able to return and live with our Father in Heaven again, WITH our families, for time and all eternity. I love this work. I know that this is the Work of God and that I am on HIS errand. I invite all to read the Book of Mormon. Begin with prayer, read, ponder, and pray to know of the truthfulness of it. I promise that as you do so with faith, with a real desire to know what the will of God is, I promise that you will receive an answer from God. I leave this promise with you in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Ryland Rash

Elder Rash Giving Tour of His Apartment

Elder Badger in their Kitchen

Elder Rash's Bed with Mosquito Netting

The Bathroom

The Zone Leaders and Roommates

Note from Parents - Mistie chatted shortly with him at Midnight AZ time - 9 am Matola time. He has running water. He has electricity most of the time. He gets 2 hrs of internet time for $5.00 each week. As you can tell he loves it there! We thank everyone who has prayed for him since he left.