Home Depot Mozambican Style

This is a typical style of building here.  The walls are filled with small stones.  Some are later plastered over and others are not.  This is a typical size of home.

Piles of wood for purchase

Grass mats for walls, roofs and fences.

This is bundles of thatching for roofs and we have seen some huts that have this on the walls also.

Here are piles of the rocks for sale.  

This woman's work is to break up the larger rocks into the correct size.  The bottom picture was along the roadway in the same area.  These pictures were taken on our drive from Maputo to Beira after out Couples Conference in Swaziland the first week in November.  We are in the Inhasssoro area on the coast.

PEOPLE, PEOPLE AND MORE PEOPLE

We received a new couple here in Beira.  Elder Enos and Sister Sonja De Castro Deus from Curtiba, Brazil.  They will be a  great asset here.  It has been so hard to do leadership training because of the language and they just breezed right in and took over.   We (Snelsons and us) gave a big sign of relief and hugs of gratitude.  He has been a bishop, stake president, temple sealer and now is a Patriarch.  What better couple to do the job!  No more elementary school approaches to training sessions.

Just had to put this picture in.  The tall girl in black and white in the middle is Marianna Agusto from here.  She is at the Provo Temple with her district on her way to Atlanta, Georgia for her mission.  The temple worker is a friend of Sister Snelson and sent this to us.

This is an example of a group of our young men that we just took to the airport to fly out to start their missions.

We see ladies like this every Sunday.  These ladies were walking home right outside our building in Manga.  I asked the lady with the baby if I could take her picture and the others stopped also.  Her little girl was so cute in her white hat!   Their church is called the Good News Church and seems to be very popular in our area.

We were visiting a branch in Magoanine (outside of the Maputo area) and took these pictures. These little babies are just the cutest!!! Here Larry is showing the Primary children the pictures he took of them sing.  

Catching Up

At the end of October we had a visit to our mission from Elder Clayton & Sister Clayton .  We had a wonderful missionary meeting in the morning, lunch and then training and a special adult meeting that afternoon.  It was a Monday afternoon and we sere so excited to see that over 500 people attended.  What a wonderful surprise it was because of a work day and and transportation is not very easy.  This is saying goodby to them at the airport on Tuesday morning.   Elder and Sister Ellis were also visiting, but due to flight problems had already flown out to Maputo.

These three pictures are of craftsmen here in Beira.  We purchased a nativity from then.  As you can see, it was a windy day, very pleasant. 

We just had to take this picture.  Usually the people are just standing, jam packed in the box of the trucks, but this  truck bed had plastic chairs?  Do you think he was able to charge more for the ride?

This is a typical picture (other than our daughter Melissa ) of what a piano lesson is like.  We usually set up 2 or 3 keyboards and other students practice while I give lessons at the bigger organ.  This is in the Manga Chapel.    

FALL UPDATE

 'Where's Sis Dille?'      26 Sept 2014 Beira Zone Conference.  This picture is our version of "Seek and Find Waldo"  

A better view of our whole group here in the Beira Zone.  Pres and Sis Kretly, Elder and Sister Snelson and us.  We sure enjoy working with these wonderful young men.

What a weekend!!   Three marriages and then their whole families baptized.  This is Palmeiras Ramo.

A really cute picture of this family. The man 'Johnny' is sewing a typical African dress for me and this is his wife and 4 children.  

This is is back room with all his supplies and where we try on the articles he is making for us.  This s also part of the kitchen.  I'm sorry about the extra stuff on the picture below, but I just had to put her in this entry.  Isn't she just precious?

beautiful Africa

Our beaches here in Mozambique are really quite beautiful.  The sand is very fine and wonderful to walk in and the water is warm.  As you can see, Mom and our daughter Melissa are having a wonderful time chillin' at the beach just across from our apartment while I had other responsibilities to take care of.  Love our work here, but I was a bit jealous that I couldn't be sitting in the sun with them!

Melissa taking a "selfie" with her Dad at another beach area northwest about 5 miles.  This is a very large beautiful convention resort that has been built by the Chinese here in Beira.  They have put this lovely walkway along their beach front.  We hope this works for them, but there is not anything else here in Beira right now...they do have a big casino there so maybe it will be all anyone needs right there.

We were able to go to Kruger National Park for 2 days.  If was really fantastic to see all these animals in their natural habitat.  What an unforgettable experience.

This is a group of hippos just chillin in the river watching us motor by on our boat.  We were glad we stayed out of their part of the river.  They are very territorial animals and are HUGE!!!  Below is what we saw for 2 nights - gorgeous sunset!!!

No rhyme or reason - just pictures

 This cute little girl and her mother were waiting at the church house in Palmeira.  

 Typical street scene throughout our area.

 Shopping is along the side of the roads.  The wares are placed out every morning and most close shop around 8 in the evening.  Some have plastic overhead in case of rain, some do not.

 These handcarts are used for everything, as you can see.

 Had to throw this one in...our mission van us usually full of Elders going somewhere from something.  Elders Lynn, Ensolado, Cummings, Bender, Stubbs, Galland,  Ebmeyer ,Stubbs and Allen.

 This is Zone Conference the 28th of March at the Palmeiras Chapel.

 Are these two little ones so cute?

 The little boys play with tires and  bicycle rims.

 We see everything tied to the top of the chapella (the bus system) and off they go.

This is President Kretly.  We were at the Matola (in the Maputo area) chapel for an open house and he spent at least 20 minutes with these children.  They are so cute.

Church Garden

When we first saw the grounds around the Manga chapel, we were a little dismayed.  The space on each side and the back looked unkempt and over-grown.  We wondered about it because the rest of the grounds were lovely and well manicured.  

We have posted pictures of the rest of the grounds before (with the chameleon) in older posts.  

In another post I showed this spot with a woman from one of the branches who was pulling rice from this area.  The rice was growing throughout and just after the rainy season.  Now it has these wonderful garden greens growing.

We see members leaving every Sunday (that we are there)  with their hands full of produce.  It is really great!  I think it is a great use of the area.