So things up here in Nampula(that is down for you all), are going great. This week has been a week of adjustment as we are getting used to only working in half of our area. The side we gave to the new dupla had all of our progressing investigators. But yeah, yesterday at church all of the old investigators were telling us how they were mad that we dont come visit anymore. I guess they will get used to it, it is part of progress. But yeah, other than that we had not as good of the week as we are getting used to working the other side, and we need investigators we hit a couple finding jackpots this week, but then none of them decided to come to church. We are working on being more even in our work and doing what we can to find new people everyday instead of just a ton of new people one or two days a week. They other thing that is kind of difficult is organizing a way to work in our area. It is also weird living with other missionaries. I haven't lived with anyone other than my comp for 3 months, so we got a little distracted at times. So other than the we taught lessons, knocked doors, and asked for references kind of normal missionary stuff that I always talk about, we did have a pretty cool experience this week. We were in church on sunday when a man comes to me and says, "I speak french, no portugues, little english" and then he handed me an envelope. It had some documents in there and asked us to take it to the Mission President, but to also read it. So I did. This man is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His letter told of how he found the church in tanzania and was baptized and received the Aaronic priesthood in tanzania in 2014. He has since then come to Mozambique as a refugee with his congolese wife and their children. His letter told of how in the camp they have found 3 other families that have had contact with the church, but were not yet baptized when they had to leave the congo. It appears that they are meeting every week and they have a Triple Combination written in Swahili that he translates into french, a primary teachers manual, and a copy of the red family manual. They have been reading from these, praying, and his letter is a plea for the authorization to meet as a group as they are far from Nampula and their conditions make it nearly impossible to leave the camp. As I talked with him, I remembered seeing a copy of a french book of mormon in an old dirty closet in the chapel, and I went to get it for him. I ended up finding 2 french book of mormons, unfortunately they were both fairly water-damaged and about 10 swahili copies of the book of mormon. This mans eyes lit up when we offered them to him, and he said he will save for a few months and should be able to come back in 2 months. I really wanted to get a picture of him, but he disappeared before I could. It was truly a touching experience and I even got a little choked up as I read the letter. It was a true tender mercy of the Lord. Especially as I have been struggling a lot lately feeling as though many members here do not seem to value their religion as anything more than just another church. We try to teach sacrifice and we try to teach faith, but it seems that they just dont want to give anything up no matter how much it holds them back. I have prayed a lot wondering why I feel this way, especially as I haven't felt this way my entire mission. But this man was definitely sent to show me the humility and faith of the people here. There are few that do not seem to care, but I have noticed that a lot of my frustration came from my own pride, which I have a lot of. But it was truly touching to see the look of contentment on this man as he partook of the sacrament for the first time in probably a year, and how happy he was to be at church even though he didn't speak an ounce of the language. But please remember Brother Msabah in your prayers and we look forward to hand delivering his letter to President Koch in a week at our mission tour, it will be especially cool as he will be with Elder Ellis of the Seventy for our annual mission tour and it is a cool story that I think President will relate to him. But yeah, other than that I Believe in all that I am doing, no matter how hard the mission gets, or how much I want to be trunky sometimes, I believe He lives, and I believe that through His love we can be saved, and that is why I am doing what I am doing. I love and miss you all and hope that you will be happy and protected throughout this week.
Love,
Elder Anthony Holt
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