3rd Stake Conference

3rd Stake Conference choir

3rd Stake Conference nice building

3rd Stake Conference choir and Stake Presidency

  One of the goals of the Mission President, President Koch, was to help create a new stake in Munga.  That should be complete soon.  We are also hoping a new Stake in Swaziland and in Maputo will be created before the end of our mission.

I wanted to show you this nice building.  This is the only building the church has built here in Maputo although there are 4 wards in Matola and 5 wards in Maputo.  These wards make up the Maputo Stake. 

There is a new building to be dedicated next week in Maputo.  The wards that will be attending that building are the Polana Ward and the Sommershield Ward.  We attend the Polana ward right now so we will be attending the new building. 

The church has had to really watch their properties they have purchased here in Mozambique.  If the owner does not improve their piece of property, the Government will confiscate it.  Elder Ellis was here a few weeks ago to argue our case on confiscation to see if we could get the properties back that the church had purchased.
Our participation in stake choir has been quite an experience.  You know I love to go to choir and sing.  Stan is a great singer and musician but does not have the same drive I do to participate.  When we first were invited to sing, we went to practice and waited around for 1/2 hour for more than 3 people to show, even the choir director.  Then we didn't even open a piece of music for 45 minutes.  Then we practiced for 4 hours.  I was very tired but Stan was irate.  When I went to choir without Stan the next time, the member of the Bishopric that is a great musician approached me on why Stan was not singing any longer. I referred him to Stan to explain.  Stan explained that choir should start when the starting time is and he won't sing longer than 1 1/2 hours.  After that, the choir was there (Interject: Someone was just hit on the street.  I heard this screeching tires and a baby crying and lots of commotion.  We ran down to see if we could help.  We saw a Chapa driver out over loudly talking to a mother with a baby of about 1 year and 1/2 in her arms.  She was rubbing his head. They finally pulled over out of the traffic.  I hope she takes him to the hospital. Traffic in Maputo is horrendous.  I am surprised there are not more accidents.  And kids....how do they survive.  Amazing!!)on time and we were late.  Stan has supported the choir without complaining.

This past week, we had an assignment dropped into our laps.  Both the Stake Choir Specialist director and the musician mentor were going to be gone for the performance today.  They said to Stan and I that we needed to help the Stake choir director and the Stake pianist for the performances.  At practice last Sunday, our last practice before we performed, we went thru the songs.  They sounded pretty good on one song, a Sally De Ford arrangement of "I Need Thee Every Hour".  The other 3 songs were not good.  I suggested they just sing the hymns strait out of the hymn book without anything fancy.  We were able to get those songs pretty good but another arrangement of "Whenever I hear the Song of a Bird" needed some help on the final verse.  I suggested we just have a duet with two people who knew the parts instead of trying to teach everyone their parts in this one practice.  We chose one Mozambiquan who is a soloist and a sister missionary.  I worked with them this week on one extra practice.  They sounded good!

Then, President Koch, our Mission President told the missionaries they could only sing on Sunday, not for the Saturday session.  Wouldn't you know it!  "Whenever I hear the song" was to be sung on Saturday and we had chosen a missionary to sing.  No one would give.  Pres. Koch's directive stood and Pres. Castanhiera's directive that this song be sung on Saturday rather than Sunday stood.  So, Saturday comes to sing this song and we fell apart at the part the duet should be.

However, the Sunday performance of "I Need Thee" was so amazing!  I felt like the angels were there singing this song.  It was so amazing.
Talking of driving, I remember a chase scene in a movie that shows the one being chased going down the wrong side of the road and eventually driving on the sidewalk and thru little tiny alleys.  I saw that now that I have experienced Maputo driving and found it amazingly similar to daily driving here, although not at those speeds.  Even this morning, there was someone driving down the wrong way as we went to church.  You are not safe walking on the sidewalk.  People drive on the sidewalk and park there too, forcing the walkers to walk the roads.  Crossing traffic is wherever you want to cross.  I call it challenging the gauntlet.  People cross one lane at a time and stand there while the next lane charges past you until that lane has a little opening and then cross one more lane.  The problem with that is that there are motor bikes that charge through the traffic unaware of lines or lanes at all, so just when you think you are clear for one lane, you need to watch for the motorbikes.  There are many alleyways, mostly not paved that are used for roads too. 

vendors selling to passing cars.

Here is a picture of streets in Maputo.  Parking in the median, vendors selling to cars driving in the street.

Parking job

Parking is amazing or not at all.  Very little space to park.  We would rather leave our car in the apartment garage and walk.  Often it is faster and more fun to do it that way.  If we don't have to carry too much.  I haven't got the "wrap it up in a capulana and put it on my head" syndrome yet!  Hum!

At one point, Maputo was known as the City of Acacia trees.  You can see one of these old Acacia trees in the median that has caused a challenge with this guy's parking!!!  Poor tree.  The city is just not set up for the amount of traffic it has and the traffic is growing!  Even at the church building this morning, the parking was totally crazy.  The architects have not allowed for the members who have cars.  The number of members who have cars is growing but the parking lots are not.

Beira

Dear family and friends,
We just returned from a trip to Beira.  We had 3 assignments there.  The first was a final inspection of the vision project we helped to complete.  The church provided hardware and some software for a computerized patient records system.  We found all well and the vision department very happy with the time saved and the increase in patient services.  The second was 2 surveys we were given concerning 2 previous projects there with equipment donated.  The church wants to know after a few years how things are being utilized and what areas they need improvement in.  We were able to complete both surveys since these projects involved the hospital.  The 3rd was just a hope we might be able to connect with someone there to discuss issues with the Helping Babies Breathe project.  We had emailed contacts, but did not hear anything.  As it turned out we were able to have a few minutes with Dr. Wing, a pediatrician who also is an administrator.  His insights were very helpful.  We will see how things turn out. 

The rest of the time there we were able to enjoy with Elder and Sister Wilkins.  He was a mission president in Brazil a few years ago.  They are from Utah.  They were such wonderful hosts.  They showed us around Beira and we had a great time.  They are CES coordinators/trainers and are doing a marvelous job there.  (This picture was actually taken in Swaziland a few weeks ago where we had a couples conference/training. It is a good picture of them so we included it here.) The rest of the pictures are of our sights and visits.  Beira has a different feel all together.  It has a more rural feel to it; a more "African experience" if you will.  We enjoyed good food; I ate lots of seafood and it was awesome!  We don't know when we will get back to Beira, but we loved it up there.  It is about in the middle of the country, while Maputo is in the very southern tip. 

This is what is left of the Grande Hotel Beira.  It was a luxury hotel/resort.  After the Portuguese were kicked out it deteriorated and is now just a slum for squatters.  Every piece of wood, metal, wiring, plumbing, etc. has been ripped out and sold or burned.  All that remains is the concrete and steel.  There is concern that some of it may collapse and people will get hurt or die. You can go on the internet and look it up to see pictures of it when it was at it height in the 60s.  This is not the only building like this there.  We saw several.  This actually is quite common here; not just in Beira.  We see similar things here in      Maputo, but the contrast is more visible in Beira.

This is a little piece of the market just outside the church gates. 

Here are gardens planted on the church property by members.  Nice produce they share with one another. 

We rose early one morning and took a walk along the beach.  This is a functioning lighthouse, but is being phased out.  We found someone near by and asked if we could go inside.  He left and then came back shortly with someone who had keys.  They opened it up and gave us a tour.  We walked the circular stairs all the way to the top.  It was fascinating!!  Afterwards they asked for money.  I gave them what I had; 200 meticals.  They were hoping for more, but that is all the cash I had.  We had spent the rest of it on capulanas (fabric) in town the day before.  Presently, 200 meticals is about $3.00.  

Sand crabs will be boiled and eaten

Drying fish.

This shoe washed up on the shore

Our walk along the beach produced some interesting sights.














This was a grouper that I thoroughly enjoyed. 

Woodcarvers kids

This week we hope to have a visit with a member of the Ministry of Health to let them know what we are doing and find out more about their priorities and how we might be able to support their efforts.  Right now, after getting the feedback we did from Dr. Wing in Beira, it seems that there are many other organizations working in the same area and it may not be in our best interest to try and put together a project that everyone else is doing.  The coordination with the governments officials is just too much for them to handle.  We want to help them; not cause more problems.  So we will see where all this leads. 

We bought this floating bird

Wood carver in Beira

Last week we visited 5 schools in the Kamubukwana district.  We want to work with a couple of them to improve the facilities and conditions for the students.  Determining who is going to make the best partner is a challenge. 
We are so grateful to serve this mission.  Our eyes have been opened to many things and it has given us and continues to give us growth opportunities.  I am learning more things about myself; some good and others not so good.  Change is difficult, but it is necessary and in the end it is what this life is all about.  I am grateful for Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for me.  His perfect example is the anchor of my life.  My hope is that all my children and grandchildren will seek to know Him and exercise their faith in Him.  This church is His church and is being led by true prophets of God.  What an awesome  blessing that is in this troubled world!!
Love to all,
Elder Petersen, Stan, Dad, and Grandpa

Hello to Everyone,
The last couple of weeks has been full of challenges getting vendors set up for projects, getting payments made on time (not), and generally being hard pressed to have anything work according to schedule.  But in spite of it all, we are getting it done.  We have had great support from our help in Johannesburg, Elder and Sister Blake.  They are truly wonderful.  We have 2 water projects in Swaziland and are working on a Helping Babies Breath program we hope to have ready in a couple of months.
Here in Mozambique we have 2 projects with schools in progress and another we hope to get put together if the community will step up to the challenge of doing their part.  We also have a vision project near completion in Beira.  It was started a couple of years ago and hit a snag.  We were successful at getting it moving again.
We have a plan we want to present to a school district director where each school accounts for the school property:  grounds, building, furniture, books, materials, etc.  This reporting and accountability would help maintain continuity as school directors change.  The school council, made up of community members and a couple of school staff would take responsibility for this accounting.  A fund could be set up and they manage it and report to the community and the district.  There are some schools that do some of this, but there is no standard that we can tell.  We are hoping to influence a district director to take on this challenge with our help.  We visit with him this week.
We have been here one year.  Our DIRIs are expired (basically our "green card") so we had to go down to immigration to have them renewed.  It will be a month before we actually get the cards, so in the meantime we carry a notarized copy of the receipt.  I did not drive for a couple of days until we received these receipts because if I were stopped I could get into a lot of trouble.  But we have them now and will be taking a trip to Swaziland again on Wednesday.
The weather has been cooler; about 65 to 70 degrees in the day and around 60 in the evening.  Pretty nice.  This is our winter.
I have been looking for a car jack and accompanying tools for our truck.  Apparently, they were stolen sometime before we arrived here a year ago.  I have procrastinated getting them replaced.  I can find jacks easily on the streets for sale, but the extension tool to lower and raise the spare tire underneath the bed is impossible to find.  I may have to go to the dealer; trying not to.
We invited our interpreters and their dates to our home for an evening of dinner and games.  It was a fun evening.  They are great kids and we hope and pray they will get married soon.  The worldly ways of postponing marriage for any number of reasons is just as much a problem here as any where.
We are loving our mission.  It definitely has its challenges.  But we are so grateful for this opportunity and we encourage everyone to seriously and sincerely consider your situation and ask the Lord how and when you can serve a full time mission.  Then express you desires to your bishop and stake president.  They will counsel you and help to find a way.  The need is so great.  I know God lives and that we are His children.  He loves us; He cares; He is interested and involved in our lives.  Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer and has restored His church through the Prophet Joseph Smith and subsequent prophets.  Families are eternal if we live the gospel and take advantage of the sealing power in the temple.
Love to all,
Elder Petersen, Stan, DAD, Grandpa

Year's review

Triple Date minus Albertina and Brait

(Teril's entry) We have some amazing interpreters that we work with.  These are great women and men, all returned missionaries except one that is on a mission now.  Naldo was our first interpreter.  He introduced us to his brother, Benildo.  Vanessa was our interpreter for a few months before she left for her mission in Brazil.  She introduced us to Jose and Albertina.  Benildo introduced us to Vivaldo.  We have about 3 interpreters at a time.  Naldo, Jose, and Vanessa are not currently working with us.

In this picture, two of the three interpreters working with us now are shown with their dates.  I can't believe we forgot to take pictures before Albertina and her date left.  This was a very successful date night.  I prepared dinner for them (with much of Stan's help) and after dinner, we played games.  Margarita won.  She will be baptized this coming August.  She first took the book of Mormon from our house the second date night she attended. We are so pleased with her desire to listen to the spirit.

Benildo and Vivaldo will be attending the temple this week.  Going to the temple, here, is quite an ordeal.  It takes about 8 hours if you drive it by car.  None of these good men and women own a car.  It cost quite a pretty penny to ride the bus from here to Johannesburg, South Africa to our temple, plus a lot more hours than 8.  They will be there 2 days attending sessions before they return the same way.

We pray our interpreters will each take a righteous mate to the temple soon.  Such good people!!!

This is our one year anniversary in Mozambique.  One year ago, we left the Utah MTC at 6:00 am to ride to the plane.  We arrived July 25, 2015 at midnight in Maputo, Mozambique.  Lots of hours flying, and waiting at airports to get here.  We feel like our year has been very successful.

Impaputo before paint

Our first project was windows and paint at Impaputo Primary School.  Such good people!

Impaputo after paint

We feel like we have a relationship built there that allows us to drop in and see the director whenever we drive by.  It is good to see the maintenance plan in place whenever we drop in.






At one point we saw a window the students had broken.  Titos said the student and his family would be required to fix the window.

At another visit, we saw some desks that had been pulled out of the classrooms to be fixed.  The government wasn't able to replace them so the community of Impaputo was fixing them.

Mateque Primary School before

Inhagoia Desks make a difference

 Mateque was the next project. 

Mateque after

Inhagoia before desks

Inhagoia was a great desks project.  Both these schools have shown signs of maintenance application.  It is wonderful to see the communities involved in the plan.  Mateque finished securing their classrooms for the desks after the project was finished.  Inhagoia labeled the desks so they would stay in the right place and tied them together so they would not move.  Great plans in action.

Mateque book covering

Books received were covered to protect them.  Happy kids.
Happy kids with desks, books, lights, and secured buildings.

Desks at Mateque at last

NRT in Beira and in Swaziland

Swazi water

Beira Vision

Swazi Gone Rural

Five projects were assigned to us as Major projects.  We learned about water in Swaziland, Helping Babies Breath and about a place called "Gone Rural" there as well. 

Machava water and latrines

Ricatla

In Beira, we learned about a major vision project and another Helping Babies Breath.   We have had quite a year. I can't seem to get this posting to let me put the pictures where I want so sorry about the disorganization.

I feel the Lord's miracles around us daily.  I am so appreciative of this time to serve with my Great husband.  I know the Church is true and the Atonement is the greatest gift of all.  I love the feeling of closeness to my Heavenly Father as I search the scriptures and find answers to my prayers there. 

Here is to another great year!!!

Joaquim Chissano

Printer for Helping Babies Breath

Swaziland Projects progress

July 4, 2016

Todays visits!  Nompie came with us.  Nompie is the Water Adminstrator of Swaziland. We visited 3 wells. We traveled the whole length of Swaziland in this tour.

The 1^st well we stopped at was called Hlabangamehlo which covers 50 homesteads about 150 people.  We passed a group of people we thought were there for us.  They were registering for food with the drought.  

Government crew putting on the hand pump lever

At this well, we viewed the government workers putting in the pump and the wand to pump it with, it being a hand pump.  We witnessed water coming out of the well.  I was surprised we did not have community members there to celebrate the water coming out.  They were all at the food registration.    The foundation needs to be built yet.

Water at last

It was so exciting to be there when the water actually came out of the well.!! 

The 2^nd well was called Ncuthu Hand Pump.  This was very close to the 1^st well and one we had seen when we visited last time. 

Broken Mthoutela Hand pump

Too many joints Mthoutela

  I am glad they did the pump first so people can get water while the foundation is being finished.  Nompie suggested they let the drain off water go into a reservoir for the animals to drink from a little distance from the fence so there is no contamination.

These pictures show the before and after of the Mthoutela well.  There were just too many joints.  It had been fixed too many times to be fixed again.  The first picture of the refurbish shows the fence around it with a gate being installed.  It looks better.

 

This picture shows Nompie pumping the water at this well.  We are so excited and so are the people.

Nompie, Water Administrator for Swaziland

At this second well, we saw some of the community members here, some washing clothes and another to get water.  It is good to see the community there when we came.

Water committee

On our way to the third well, we saw the same well we had seen the last time we visited.  At that time, we had Sithole and Mthulie Florence Mamba in our car along with another colleague.  We mentioned this well and the concern that the gate was not closed.  It had a great fence and a lockable gate but it was left open and we could see footprints of animals all inside the fence.  Mthulie immediately called the Water Committee leader for this well.  The answer was that there are people getting water who are not a member of the water community area so they leave it open for them. HUMMMMM!  This time, we saw the same thing only donkeys were inside the fence and the gate was wide open.  The Water committee leader was called again.  She said there were youngsters that had gotten water and forgot to close the gate.  

 These are the kind of  concerns we hope to work out in the Community Trainings.  When we went back by, the youngsters had chased out the animals and closed the gate but I could see extensive animal tracks all over inside that fence.  CONTAMINATION!!!! Scare.

installing the gate

This third well was called Mthoutela.  This is the well that Nompie had mentioned in front of the WASH conference complimenting us for our help in meeting the Swaziland Water Goals for 2022 .  These people at Mthoutela were dancing because they finally had water.  When we got here, there was no more dancing.  The water pump had broken after only 10  days of working.   The same Government workers that were at the first well were here working on the foundation but there was no water flowing from the well.  The draw rods had come lose and it no longer could pump up the water.  Soooo sad.  The government workers did not have the right equipment to pull the top off and find the lose rod.  They said they would come back tomorrow.  

  

  I am glad for one thing.  The community of Mthoutela all support the well. 

 

We stopped at a couple of wells along the way that are not the wells we are providing materials for .  Nompie really cares about water for her country.  She was just checking and made notes on the needs she could see.

We appreciate the principles the Swaziland Government holds true. This is why they are a good partner.

Two projects progressing in 1 week?????

Ricatla is progressing

We went out to Ricatla to see the progress of the work being done.  Last week, the community came out to get started on finishing the community classrooms, refurbishing the existing desks, and put in the electrical, metal doors and windows.

Here are some pictures of their progress!!!

Working with Ori and ?

Steel covered in concrete

As you can see, the steel has been covered over with the concrete and a pile of bricks has accumulated  at the far side of the construction.  There were two other stacks of bricks we saw this week as well.

Here the electrical is being put in.  The school still has not let us know they have the electricity to the school yet but they are working on it.  These desks were worked on but not complete yet.  We have the money into Luxoflex.  As soon as the money appears in their account the desks will be delivered.  We expect them next week.

Auarelio's electrical

Desks are getting done.  There are still some not complete yet but they are working on it.  Good job Ricatla

I find it interesting that the electrical job was done standing on a chair propped between these two desks!   HUMMMMM!!  Welfare principles need to be taught here!!!

These good people are spending lots of time and money.  Effort has been expended to refurbish these very desks to as new as they can be before we deliver the new desks we promised.  I will bet you that none of the people who are refurbishing these desks did this little stunt!!

Chair used for a ladder????

 

This week we could see some  progress.  A company called Dallas came out to the Machava School and took the first step to the “Draw Down Test”. The draw down test is what we have needed to go forward with the development of this project.  The test will show us the capacity of the well.  We need to know how many people this well will care for.  We have a school of over 7200 students with an 8 bucket flush latrine that need water to their school and latrines.  The church provided a borehole and latrine several years ago.  For several reasons, the well and latrines have fallen in disrepair.  We have been working with them to rehabilitate the well and latrine.

This Monday, we met up with the Agua De Maputo to do what Dallas did Friday.  After meeting with FIPAG who referred us to another department, called Agua De Maputo who referred us to another department in Agua De Maputo, we finally got someone out to do the draw down test we thought!!!!

Jars in hand, ready to do some testing.  We walked out to the borehole.  When they realized there was no pump, they said they could not test the well!  How could that information get lost in the “pass the buck” process, we will never know.

However, one of the men did say he would send some contacts that could actually do the draw down test without a pump.  We called from this list and got Dallas to come Friday.  They cleaned the borehole ready for the draw down test to be done Monday.

They piped air down the borehole throwing water up and out until the water became clear.  Now the borehole is clean and ready for the draw down test.

Once we have the capacity of the well, we have the perimeter of the project development.  Graca Cossa, the new director, has been working with her school council and community chefi to clean up the morality of the school to secure that the new things brought into the school will be safe, protected and maintained.

After the new pump refurbish Graca paid for was stolen, Graca has been mobilizing the community to secure the school.  She has been collecting materials to finish the wall around the buildings.

Cute kids excited about whatever is going on!!

Water cleaning