More Q & A With Elder Mortimer // May 19th, 2014

My dad got to talk to Elder Mortimer over email again this week, and asked him the following. Please keep praying for my brother! We love him a lot, and we know he's helping make a difference in Mozambique.

Q: What's the biggest issue people suffer from over there?

A: Well, everyone is suffering temporally. I'm teaching someone who lives in a house the size of a closet. Another (without embellishment) lives in a straw hut. Not everyone gets to eat everyday. You can see the malnourishment in the kids as they play in streets. It's a different world, man.

Spiritually, the Law of Chastity and the Words of Wisdom are our biggest concerns. People here tend to live together (and by tend I mean always) without getting married. On the weekends, the alcohol is cheap and there aren't that many ways of having "fun" so it's usually what the people resort to. This also leads back into the problems with the Law of Chastity. I guess they go hand-in-hand here.

Q: How have you seen the Gospel help people there? Tell me about one of your investigators?

A: I've seen it change lives. I'm not sure if you remember my post about the drunk guy we walked home that ended in him charging me at me with a hug? The cartoon levels of drunkenness? 

He's three weeks sober now.

He used to drink everyday, for years. But since we've been meeting with him and teaching him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he is a completely different person. As it turns out, he's a physics teacher at a university in Maputo. He's actually very scholarly- it's such a contrast talking with him now when thinking about how we met.  I'm not aces with the Portuguese yet, but God let me understand him when he told us last visit that he feels more at peace and so much closer with his Heavenly Father. He has a baptismal date on the 31st.

Q: What is your address?  (We should be able to try to send at least post cards and airmail letters (thin envelopes).)

A: I actually received your postcard (FINALLY) this week. Along with other letters people wrote a month ago. On average it takes about 25ish days to get to me. 

(Dad's note: I sent the postcard the week before Morgan left the MTC, as did a few others. Morgan still hasn't provided me with his address, so here is the address of the Mission Home:

Elder Morgan James Mortimer
Mozambique Maputo Mission
Avenida Josina Machel, CP 1667
Maputo, Maputo, Mozambique

Letters and postcards take about a month. Packages should be sent several months early to arrive at Christmas time. Small items like photos or CDs can be sent in padded envelopes. Do not send anything of great value in a package as it will probably get stolen.)

 

Q: What's something you've learned this week that has impressed you?

A: I can do hard things. You can do hard things. 

I've always believed where there is a will, there is a way. 

Now, I know this.