So yeah, this has been a good week, I was all excited after transfers because I was staying in my house and everything when I get a call from the zone leaders, saying that because of the way the districts had been divided, even though we all kept our comps and areas, because I was the district leader of mozal, we would be moving houses to the Matola Kings apartment. But yeah, so we moved on thursday, it was really good it was depressing, I really loved my house, especially the elders in the house, but the new apartment, is sweet. It is the nicest housing in the mission other than the sisters, so I feel really spoiled. But yeah, other than that nothing changed. On wednesday we had a chapel cleaning for zone conference that was alright, I got on bathroom duty, but I am grateful for my mom, who taught me how to clean bathrooms, well, and my time at chic-fil-a where I learned how to do it fast. But it is a weird anomaly here in mozambique, back home it is always the mens bathroom that is disgusting, but it is polar opposites, I have never seen a bathroom grosser, than a mozambiquan womans bathroom, but long-suffering right, elder payne and I just started hucking water everywhere and then we mopped it into the drains, haha. But on thursday we had zone conference, that was a blast. It is always good to get training from president, and the other mission leaders. They announced/explained our new mission plan, it is super good, and I am very excited for the success we will see with it. They talked about last minute efforts a lot, and it was weird because I kept having the thought in my mind, "What would you be willing to give for your testimony" anyways that continued for a few days, and then the next day we were teaching a family about repentance and the law of chastity, and the thought comes, "how can you ask someone to give up thousands of years of tradition, you are only 19 years old" finally yesterday we were teaching a less active member about the day of the lord, and the reason he wasn't coming to church, was because he said if he didn't work on sunday he would not have anything to buy food for his family. and i told him he needed to trust the lord, and the thought comes "how can you ask him to give up food for his family" as we were walking to our next lesson, I was reflecting on these things, and I remembered a good friend of mine from the mission, who was telling me the story of when a friend of his asked how he could give up his life to serve a mission. And it finally hit me, I knew, as a former member of the seventy said, "There is no medical or scientific advancement, that will save africa, no government is good enough, this continent, and this people will be healed by one thing and one thing only; the gospel of Jesus Christ" I know that that is true, it is something that solidified for me this week. I love these people so much, they are the happiest, most humble, friendly people you will ever meet in your life. And they are impoverished, but I know that I have the one thing that will save them, and I know it will because I have seen it save so many of their brethren. That is the gospel of jesus christ, it is real, and it is as real as ever. How can I ask a woman to give thousands of years of marriage traditions up, because I know that there is a better tradition, an eternal one, how can I ask a man to give up a day to earn food for his family, to pay ten percent of what he earns, because I know that if he does the Lord will open the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing so great he will not have room enough to receive it. What would I be willing to give for my testimony, how can I give this part of my life away, it is simple, because as sure as I am that the sun will rise tomorrow morning, I am positive that this gospel is real, that we, the most sinful people of all can be forgiven of our trespasses against the lord, and that we can become clean, clean enough that we can be together with our families for all eternity. I will give my life for this testimony, and the lord isn't asking that I die for it, but he has asked that I give these two years, and I will, at this time in the middle, I have looked back on a lot of things I have learned, a lot that I am not proud of, but I know that the gospel is real, and for that this next year, can be even better. But we dont need a time of transition to make these decisions, I invite all of you to evaluate where you are with your conversion, and more importantly your consecration to the lord, and make a decision now to be better, because you have not gone too far away, nor are you the one exception in billions, of imperfect children, healed by an infinite atonement, Let Him in, let him change your life, and through you change the lives of so many others, this is what I learned this week, and I hope that you will all pray for me that this lesson will stick, because I need it, and I pray that you will all receive it as well, because it feels so good. I love and miss you all, but I will be MISSion you all for the little time that I have left to help these people among whom I have but a little time.
Love,
Elder Anthony Holt
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