Elder Ryland Earl Rash: Week 44:Brazilian Portuguese is NOT Mozambique Portuguese

Welcome back to another week in the life of a white kid talking about God in Africa in a language that he hardly knows! Get ready to dive into the normal life of a Mormon Missionary here in the Mozambique Maputo Mission!

So this week was actually pretty nice week! We finally got to see General Conference, or at least parts of it. We were unable to see the Saturday session because we had to stay at home while some workers fixed a busted water pipe at our house. Our house had been flooding for about a week now, and the worker finally came. But Conference was nice from what I was able to understand! When the church translates the Conference to Portuguese, they have a Brazilian do it, and Brazilian Portuguese is very much different than from what I am used to hearing. So it was pretty difficult to understand the thick Brazilian accent during conference, plus I was kind of on Primary Control throughout the sessions, so that was also quite the distraction. But from what I gained from it was really inspiring! I'll be downloading all of Conference and listening to it in English this week.

This past week was a little tough as far as the work goes. Elder Haimbili had his companion, Elder Roque, receive his Visa and he left for Angola at the beginning of the transfer, but his new companion, Elder Evangelista, still hasn't gotten here because of Visa problems he has to stay in Maputo. So we have pretty much been working in 2 areas in order to help him out.

This week we also gave a blessing to a child of one of our investigating families. Tony and Carolina have a 3 year old son named Santos that woke up one morning and his eye had completely swollen shut! Nobody knows what happened, but when we showed up, we told them that we were able to give a blessing and they asked us to give it to him. The next day, the swelling had gone down quite a bit, he was able to open his eye, and the pain had completely disappeared. I know that God uses worthy vessels to bless his children here on Earth. I am grateful for the knowledge that I have about the Restored Priesthood power that was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

This week we didn't have English class, piano practice is going well. I've started playing at different meetings and get-togethers and during Sacrament Meeting.

Well, that's all I've got for this week. Maybe next week I'll have something more exciting.

I love you all so much!

Tchau!

Elder Ryland Rash