Zone Conference Assignment

We were asked by Pres. and Sister Koch to talk in each of the zone conferences.  There are 4 events!  Some zones were combined.  2 zone conferences were in Maputo.  One was in Swaziland.  One was in Beira.

We taught the Welfare Principles.  I am sure the missionaries were surprised to hear how the Welfare Principles affect them and their investigators.  We shared stories.  One was from our visits to Moamba Hospital.  Seeing so much need, it was easy to be engulfed in our desire to give them what they needed.  However, at this visit, Stan had a thought.  "Do not let your natural compassion blind you to doing this in the Lord's way".  We ended up not doing a project there.  We could not find a champion.  Another story was of  some senior missionaries, not serving in the welfare department, who saw the need and started giving things away.  They would hand things out their windows from their car and from their offices.  When that couple went home, the next couple could not afford to do that.  The African people were furious and destroyed their car.  The church had to purchase a new car for the new couple.  Keep your services within the cultural rates. 
Some of the missionaries have been tempted to help couples pay for the necessary government documents to get married so they can be baptized.  The people here have many worries about the expense of marriage, more than just the lobolo.  Teaching the gospel and encouraging them to exercise their faith in the law of tithing and the fast is the best thing to help bless their lives.  The law of unintended consequences often comes into play.  We unwittingly may teach them that joining the Mormon church is the way to get money for marriage.  That is not the message we want to teach.

Lunch with the zone leaders and Pres. and Sis. Koch

We also had a visit from one our major initiative representatives from the US, Doug Mehr.  He works with vision.  We visited 3 hospitals in hopes of developing a vision project.  We are finding that the hospitals in Maputo do not necessarily want new equipment.  They mostly need training and materials to run the equipment they have.  We found they do not have means to keep antibiotics on hand for patients.  Many of the consumables cannot be replenished.  This is where they are in the most need.

At one hospital, we found 7-10 pieces of equipment that had something wrong with them.  Their technicians have not been trained to fix and maintain the equipment they have been given.  It is most frustrating.  One of the pieces of equipment we donated to them 10 years ago need new software updates to be used.  Another uses a light bulb a day and the ones they put into it are not the right light.  These hospitals were pleading for more training and capable technicians.

Doug Mehr with Pres. and Sis. Koch

Doug Mehr and the staff at Mavalane Hospital

We met up with the Kochs and had lunch with them so they could meet Douglas Mehr.  This phot was taken at the Polana Hotel, the hotel that Elder Andersen stayed at when he and his wife came to Mozambique last year. 

 

 

Elder Ellis eating with us at Lunamar

We stayed at the Lunamar Hotel in Beira, the same hotel Elder Ellis stayed at.  Elder Stanley Ellis is in the Presidency of the South East African Mission.  He was in Beira to form a new Stake.  Across from Elder Ellis is Elder Makasi, an area authority Seventy.  The Munga Stake was created.  We were able to attend because the zone conference was just days before the stake creation.  What an amazing time we had at this event.  The spirit was so strong.  These people were so ready for this splitting of the Beira stake.

Stake choir at the Munga Stake creation.

This choir sang with all their hearts.  They were beautiful and enthusiastic.  They had practiced for this event.  Done in truly African style.  I will tell you about that when I get home.

Beira Stake building

cuties at the conference

The kids in Mozambique are so full of life.  Cute!  Cute!! Cute!!

Kretleys at the airport

The Kretleys were the mission President and wife that we talked to when our papers came thru.  They went home just a month before we arrived.  They came back to be at the Munga Stake Creation.

idolizing missionaries

So, we are waiting for conference to begin.  We are sitting in the cultural hall so the microphone does not transmit well and there is lots of commotion all around.  After a few talks, in comes this little boy, maybe 6 or 7.  He is strutting down the isle with his hat turned backwards.  Two rows in front of us are a set of missionaries.  This young man spies the missionaries and immediately tries to sit close to them.  He does not push into their row.  That would be too obvious.  He pushes onto a chair that is already occupied and sits for just a few seconds.  Then changes to the other side of the isle still within view of the missionaries.  In this picture, you can see him looking at his idolized missionaries with his hat turned the right way.  He sits for about 5 minutes trying to do what the missionaries are doing and being reverent but decides this seat is not good enough.  He goes all the way up to the front row of seats and disappears from my sight for about 10 minutes.  Then he comes back down the isle and find this seat straight across from the missionaries and tries to be just like them again.  Pretty soon, he gets up and leaves the room. 

I wonder if these missionaries know the impact they are making on young people.  Missionaries are so visible and looked up to.  The image of a missionary carries a long way.
Love, Sister Petersen, Teril, Mom, Grandma

Dear All,
As Teril stated above, the last 2 weeks has been wonderful as we have had the opportunity to be with Pres. and Sister Koch at all the zone conferences and do a bit of teaching.  A few of the quotes that have impressed me the most:
Elder Christofferson - The end goal of welfare is not self-reliance; it is service.
Elder Oaks - The growth required by the gospel plan occurs only in a culture of individual effort and responsibility.  It cannot occur in a culture of dependency.  Whatever causes us to be dependent on someone else for decisions or resources we could provide for ourselves weakens us spiritually and retards our growth toward what the gospel plan intends us to be.
Elder J. Reuben Clark Jr. - The real long term objective of the Welfare Plan is the building of character in the members of the Church, givers and receivers, rescuing all that is finest down deep inside of them and bringing to flower and fruitage the latent richness of the spirit, which after all is the mission and purpose and reason for being of this Church.

We are working to finish up the projects we have started so we can close them all before we leave the mission.  There is one project we hope to still get in that we believe we can start and still finish it.  Mateque school is one of our previous projects.  The community has come together and is building 3 more classrooms all on their own resources.  They have the walls up.  If they can get the roof on and the floors done, we will help them with doors, windows, electricity, desks, teaching materials, and cabinets.  It is so exciting to see them work for this.  We have challenged all the schools we have worked with to do similar things because they all need more classrooms.  This one actually is doing it.  We found an Italian NGO that builds latrines and we introduced them to the Mateque school.  They will build them a new latrine.  We could do it, but feel we don't have the time to follow through; so this is really great because now this school will get 3 new classrooms with desks and materials and a new latrine.  They deserve it. 
I miss my family something terrible.  But for that reason, I would stay here for another 2 years and keep working on these projects.  The satisfaction of seeing the people take responsibility for their own situation and work to improve it with some help from the church humanitarian funds is marvelous. For those of you that can serve a mission, I encourage you to step out and up; have a bit of faith and find a way.  The Lord will reward you handsomely.
Elder Petersen, Stan, DAD, Grandpa

Latest from Mozambique

Dear family,
We are growing!  Our stake has incorporated some interesting things to help the wards to grow.  This is a picture of the missionaries home in Boane.  It takes not quite an hour to get here from Maputo in our truck.  Most people coming to church must ride a chappa.  That takes much longer.  The stake President and councilors decided to have the Boane members meet at the missionaries' home.  We were told there are so many coming that there are not enough chairs for everyone.  Now this group is a break off of one of the Matola wards.  They are still members of the Matola ward but are meeting in Boane.  This change is to encourage people to come to church by making the way there easier.  This is working.  But of course!!  When it is inspiration, it will work!

This Catembe bridge has been under construction the whole time we have been here in Maputo.  It is scheduled to finish in Dec. 2017.  Now, the Catembe people must ride a ferry into Maputo for any dealings here.  We have many members of our congregation, the Polana Ward, that live in Catembe.  The Stake President and counsilors have a place for the Catembe members to attend in their area.  They will start meeting there in April.  They will still be a part of the Polana ward but will meet in Catembe.  This will cut our ward in half.  We will only have 45 attending in each area.  What a great challenge to increase our numbers even to fill the positions to run a ward.  Are we up for the challenge?  Yes!  We are.

 

 I have been enjoying my wheelbarreling!  This is a strange phenomena!  These pictures show the progress of the garden.  The first garden produced some vegetables.  However, these last two pictures, the fruit has not been set or harvested.  Strange!  What do you think is going on?

termites and lizard

The vine like thing growing up the trunk of this tree is not a vine like you would see in the Ozarks.  This is a protection for the termites to climb up this tree.  From what I understand, the termites don't like sunshine.  They build this protective tunnel so they can climb up during the sunshine and not get hot.  Not vines.  Yes!  Termites!

Isn't that lizard beautiful.  THey do a kind of dance too.  They push up to their own rhythm.

Isabel is the baby I am holding.  She is the daughter of our housecleaner, Teresa Guilamba.  Teresa passed away two weeks ago and left this newborn baby and a 6 year old and a husband.  She died of complications from Tuberculosis.  What a shock this was.  How we must rely upon the promises of our Heavenly Father.  She was a good member of the church.  Her six year old, during Teresa's convalescence, did not want to stay home.  He asked to go to church with his aunt.  Teresa was a good teacher of her children.  She was a good example of living the principles of the gospel.  The promises are sure.  There are many details and arrangements having to be made to fill the gap left by Teresa's passing.  She is missed.

 Some interesting sights.  A woman carrying bread she just bought at the grocery store.  She will take that out to people who can't get to the grocery store and sell it for pennies a loaf.  What a living.  There are lines down around the circumference of the store waiting for this subsidized bread.  When they finaly get up to the counter, they buy all they can carry.  AS you can see, they can carry a lot of loaves.

This last picture is a school boy playing with a top.  There are not many surfaces that a top could be played on but this school has a nice smooth cement pad that this top is twirling on.  So much fun!  School is a good experience.