Elder Ryland Earl Rash: Week 21: The work is not easy, but definitely worth it!

First let me apologize for not writing yesterday... It was P-day yesterday and our Zone Leaders made it mandatory that we attend an activity on the Beach in Maputo. Now, from T-3, it is SUPER difficult to catch Choppas to the beach down by the office. Let me put it this way; try catching a string of buses from Mesa to downtown Phoenix, DURING RUSH HOUR, while your whole neighborhood is trying to catch the same buses to the same place, while all of the buses are already full... Not fun. So you now have an idea of how difficult and frustrating it is to go down there. We left our house at 8 in the morning, and didn't return until 18:30 (7:30p.m.). So we didn't get to email yesterday because we were down in the city all day. But I did get a phone call this morning from Sister Koch because SOMEONE snitched on me! (Mom) Porque você fez isso! Você sabia que sempre vou escrever para você! Mais, tudo bem!

I really don't have a lot to write about this week..... I'm also short on time... So we'll see how this goes.

On Wednesday we had a service day planned, so we woke up and went to work in the Machambas! A Machamba is pretty much a swampy farm/garden that people grow produce to sell at the market! We have a few families in our ward that we are super close with that have machambas, so we went to help out! We worked in the Machambas for 4 hours, filling buckets from water holes, and transporting them all around their plots of land! These Machambas can be pretty huge, too! And we got BURNT! We got burnt so bad. We were the only 2 white guys within a 50 mile radius, without hats, without sunscreen, in the middle of the day! Needless to say, now I have a super nice tan!

As far as the work is going in T-3, I love it here! Elder Nielsen and I are working super super hard. I love this companionship. We both understand that we are new and not the most experienced missionaries but because of this, we are both super willing and super driven to work with all of our Heart, Might, Mind and Strength. We have truly seen blessings as we've done this. Our investigator pool has practically tripled since the last transfer, and we are working with three families on getting married before baptism. We have been extremely blessed and the work is going extremely well for us. It is by no means easy, but it is definitely worth all of the stress and effort that we put into it!

As for the Zone Activity that we had, we played capture the flag on the beach! The Beach was gorgeous! Except for the fact that it was crazy windy and sand kept getting EVERYWHERE, it was super fun! I got some pictures of us at the beach, so you'll have to check it out!

I apologize for the briefness of this letter, but we've got to get out and go to work!

Oh, but I did get some letters this past week! So a big shout out to all my Homies; Sister Watkin, Jenna Hooper, Minha Princesa (Shelbie), Sister Brandi Giles (Holla at my girl in Mexico!), and Grandpa Rash (Representing New Mexico!) I absolutely loved all of the letters! All I can say, Keep em coming! Well, that's all I've got for this week! Tchau!

Note from mom: I did not intend to get Elder Rash in trouble yesterday. I posted on Facebook that I didn't get an e-mail and Sis. Koch, the missionary president's wife, saw my post and made a phone call to my boy bright and early this morning! Apparently, the power was out and they thought if they wrote their e-mails at the end of the day that the power would be on by then....well, the Zone Activity took longer than expected and they ran out of time. I feel very blessed to have Sis. Koch watching out for not only my boy, but me as well! I was able to chat with her on Facebook for a while and enjoyed having a laugh with her over her calling him first thing this morning! I have a feeling Elder Rash will NOT put off writing his mother again!