Feliz Natal e Feliz Novo Ano

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  This tree  (called 'Arvore de Natal' ) is outside our old Inhamizua building.  The church did not renew the lease and we are getting a new chapel [modular] closer to the area where the people live.  It is so pretty and looked like Christmas to us.  We could just picture lions or elephants or giraffes resting in the shade under it.  Anyway, it just says AFRICA to us.  We had a wonderful Christmas with the missionaries.  We hope that everyone else had a great day with family and loved ones.

Here are the Elders who work in our area.  They work in Beira, Manga, Munhava, Inhamizua and Dondo.  It is so fun so associate with them and help them when we can.  They are all hard workers and are sharing the gospel with many people.

We had all the Elders over to our apartments (this is President Kretly's apartment) for dinner (which Sis. Snelson and I cooked) and a "white elephant' gift exchange.  Then 1/2 of them used all our computers to Skype home.  The rest of the Elders came over the next evening (Christmas day) and Skyped with their families.  That is why we didn't call anyone until later.  It was a wonderful experience to spend Christmas with these exceptional young men.  We served them BBQ chicken sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and chocolate cake and ice cream.  Most are from America, a couple from New Zealand and several from Angola, Moçambique, and Cape Verde.  We ended our evening Christmas eve by reading the Nativity story in Luke and feeling the spirit there in the room with us.  We are very grateful to our Heavenly Father for allowing us this opportunity.  Is is difficult to live here and leave our lovely family far on the other side of this world, but we feel assured that He is taking care of them for us and we in turn are doing our best to take care of his missionaries.

 We liked this picture. This is what the doorstep of both apartments looked like for two evenings.

This was taken on the 31st of December at Zone Conference.  On the front row with us is President and Sister Kretly (center) and Elder and Sister Snelson (left).   What a great way to start the New Year.