VISIT WITH NAMPULA AND QUELIMANE ELDERS

 This is the back entrance to the hospital in Nampula.  We walked around a little.  It seemed to be about the same as our hospital here in Beira,  maybe a little larger.

 Elder Carvalho and Elder Nhaquene  and us in the front of the Nampula hospital 

 We took them to the restaurant that Pres. Kretly suggested. It was on an upper floor and had a view of the city. It was very nice. We were the first customers of the night.  Mozambique has the Portugal influence and most people eat later in the evening. 

 I am with Elders Khumalu and Silva in front of the clinic in Quelimane.  It was a very nice clinic, we were pleased that they had this place to go to.  We also visited the hospital and I think it was much better than Nampula or Beira.

 There are no chappas in Quelimane.  Taxis or taxi bicycles.  And the road was full of bikes!!!

 View from the roadside.  This is corn.

We hoped that the bus would not fall over before we got around it.  Very typical view.

 We were at table outside as we ordered (this is Nampula) and a heavy rain started so we rushed inside.  Then all the power went off.  Fortunately the restaurant cooked on gas, so we ate by candlelight.  We were their only customers and they closed when we left.  It was a fun meal.  The rain continued for several hours that evening.

 In Quelimane we had no power at the restaurant, but it was not due to a storm.  The elders said that this is a daily occurrence for them.

 We are so impressed with the quality of these Elders.  Those who serve in the remote areas are on their own.  I have always felt bad that we can't get up to their area as see them regularly, but they are solid and very good missionaries.  We were so happy to have this opportunity to visit their areas.  Both sets of Elders (Nampula and Quelimane) live in apartments that are part of the church building.

VISIT TO CAIA, NAMPULA and LUAHA in JANUARY 2015

 You will see in the next few pictures that the drive north to Nampula was just beautiful.

 This began our journey outside of Dondo on  EN 1.  (This is a main road [1 of 2] to Marromeu)

 We drove about 300 kilometers on this road to reach Caia.

 As you can see, even when we had some oil. it was still 'off-roading'

 President and Sister Kretly visited with this group of villagers on Sunday morning.  They were such a happy group of people.

 It just poured rain as the meeting ended.  They all lined up in the shelter of the thatch overhang to see us off to Luaha.

 We crossed the Zambeze River.  The rains hadn't come heavy yet, but when they do this area is about 3 times larger.  The toll bridge was built by South Africa.

 This is the Luaha group.  They are a large family unit and have built themselves a nice meeting hut in the center of their village.  It was so much fun to be there.  They love President and Sister Kretly!

 Here I'm visiting with President Lucas.  He is the patriarch of the family.  He joined the church as a young man in Portugal.  All the members of his family married and were baptized two years ago and President Kretly created their group.

 Sister Kretly

 As we were leaving, President Lucas had 4 young men carry over a huge sack of corn.  They raise corn as their main food and income source. He gave it to President Kretly as their offering to the Church and President Monson.  What a sacrifice that is for them, they have so little and live such humble lives.  But they were so happy and wonderful to be with for 2 days.

They loved seeing my pictures of our family.  They were all impressed with our 7 children, spouses and grandchildren.  They were also impressed with the fact that we had been married for 46 years.  They liked that I wore a capulana and tied one on my head.