December 26, 2016 "Black Christmas"

Nothing can be more Merry in Christmas than to be representing Him 24x7... ENJOY!

stay safe.. be happy... enjoy the present for a happier future!! HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

and remember....

December 19, 2016 "Wet"

Because of the rain, our area is now a river. 

It has been raining so hard this past week! usually we haven´t been in the area when it starts raining so that´s been a blessing, BUT we do have to wear boots everywhere. Wearing boots sucks. especially when you accidentally step into a hole and your whole leg goes in the water and you have a soggy boot the rest of the day.. (that happened yesterday)

The bright side is that the temperature has been a lot cooler lately.

We also had our Christmas zone conference!! it was awesome! and something that is even cooler is that this week we will be skyping our family and friends!! so if any of you wanna skype for a little, just email me your skype name! (sike, thats against the rules.) 

Other than that all i have to offer you guys this week is some cool pics and a Happy Christmas.

Hope you all look to find the deeper meaning and when you give a present, make it something not just with your money or time, but put yourself in it! 

"He who gives money gives some, he who gives time gives more, and he who gives of  himself gives all."

Thomas S. Monson

Elder Fuchs

December 12, 2016 Where Shall YOU Work Today?

Great baptism this week!

This week was fire with referrals from members! the families here in Maraza are really doing their part in helping us teach other families that they know. It is always great to work with members and see how the members re-kindle their joy for the Gospel as they share their own stories and experiences of how they changed their lives. 

In church this week we learned something super cool. We were talking about how we shouldn´t seek to serve people just because we might get recognized, but we should seek to serve people because we sincerely desire to help others. We cannot keep doing things just to please other people and try and look good. Doing that leads to pride.

Now if we are having a sincere desire to help other people or to do something good and happen to be seen or acknowledged or praised for it, it´s chill. As long as we keep doing things for the right reasons.

This kind of made me think about my own little prideful self.. Growing up playing soccer I never wanted to play defense because they never got to score the goals. I only wanted to play in the coolest positions where I thought I would be seen by others and praised for it. 

Also when the time came to play in a tournament or something I would get very frustrated if we were assigned to play on a field in the very corner of the complex or somewhere where no was could see that i was playing. I only wanted to play where there would be a lot of people watching. 

Maybe that´s not the worst thing ever, but what was probably not so good about it is that I was more focused on those aspects of "who was watching me" rather than playing my best because i wanted to help my team. 

This makes me think about a poem I found a while back talking about this concept in gospel terms:

Father, where shall I work today?
And my love flowed warm and free.
Then He pointed out a tiny spot
And said, “Tend that for me.”
I answered quickly, “Oh no; not that!
Why, no one would ever see,
No matter how well my work was done;
Not that little place for me.”
And the word He spoke, it was not stern;
He answered me tenderly:
“Ah, little one, search that heart of thine.
Art thou working for them or for me?
Nazareth was a little place,
And so was Galilee.”
--Meade McGuire

Christmas time is coming up. 

What are your desires? 

Are we doing good things to look good in front of others?

Are we focused on what really matters?

Do something nice for someone, and don´t tell anyone about it. 

It´s much better this way!

We need not serve to please. Come what may, we need only serve.

December 5, 2016, New Transfer! 7 Months Left!

I don´t have to much to say this week, it was a really good week! Things here are great in the area

 i´m serving in! 

Because i dont have much to say ill just make a pros and cons list off the top of my head of things this week that happened or that have been happening or will happen soon.

Pros:

Baptism

new investigators to church

not sick

new transfer

same companion: Elder Combs

Thanksgiving

7 months left

Christmas Skype coming up

Cons:

rain and muddy streets

HOT AS HECK

Satan

Love Handles

that´s all i can think of for now

this week i found a nice scripture that i think will be of great worth to me in certain aspects of my life, and i hope it can do the same for each of you.

It talks about how Prayer + Fasting = Answers

We all have doubts or questions, sometimes prayer alone might not be enough to get the answers we need... well.. it is enough, but sometimes we are just too hard in our hearts to hear the answer we are given with prayer alone, so i figured that accompanied with fasting is the perfect way to be able to really get what we are searching for. I´m not sure if that´s doctrine so don´t quote me on that.. just a personal thought i had this week in my study! 

Alma 5:46

Elder Fuchs

1. my buddy Elder johnsons last day

 

2. Our zone killin it with the baptisms!

3. Elder Combs and I were walking and we found this cool spot, so we sat on some cinder blocks and ate a couple mangoes. 

November 21, 2016, Africa Is Great

Africa is great. but something that sucks here is Lobola.

Lobola is ``the price of the bride``. It forces millions of people to not get married, and to live together with their girlfriend or boyfriend. The parents of the bride make the soon to be husband pay a certain amount of money to be able to marry the daughter. So as soon as you finish the payment then you have the parents ``blessing`` to get married. This tradition BLOWS! But.. it is a good way to find an elect family. If you can find people that are willing to try and convince the parents or to even legally get married without doing it, you know you have an elect family that God has prepared and softened for you to help them in coming into the lords church. It is always amazing seeing a family with the courage to do something so special and to make small sacrifices to get married. Most of the people here do not have all of the documents in hand that they need to get married so another obstacle for helping people get married is getting the documents.. all they need it an ID and their birth certificates. Seems like something so simple thinking about it back home its just something everybody already has! hahah but here most of the time that´s not the case... so make sure you tweet #endLobola2k16 to @DonaldTrump this week.

Maraza is an amazing area! this week we get to catch a plane down to Maputo, the capital, for a leadership meeting! where we are gonna have a nice little get together with the mission president and i think we even get a thanksgiving dinner! ....... oh yah...

get excited..

Thats about it fam. Stay great! thanks for all the emails you guys send me friends and fam!

I´m thankful for you guys! have a great Thanks Giving!

Elder Fuchs

November 14, 2016 "Goods & Bads"

This week there were many good things and also many things that were very frustrating that happened.

Good things first right? 

We had a baptism of this woman who was a referral from her boyfriend and she is amazing! she has changed so much, and made a lot of difficult decisions and changes in her life in order to be living the gospel, but she has been so much happier! when first sitting with her she was so shy and quiet and kind of sad, but these past weeks preparing her for her baptism and helping her with some personal issues she has opened up and is always smiling whenever we see her! Amazing to see the happiness true repentance can bring!

We also had the baptism of that family that got married last week! that was also very awesome! 

The negative of this week was that Elder Combs and I have been finding a ton of new investigators, but we just can not seem to find the elect investigators. these past few days doing some finding, but the people we find just don´t seem to recognize the plain and simple truths that are taught in the message of the restoration. it is a bit sad to see. Sooo keep some prayers for Elder Fuchs and Elder Combs to find the right family this week!

Love you guys! 

Donald Trump!.. We made it.

Elder Fuchs

November 7, 2016 "Maewege"

This week was pretty normal here in Maraza!

We were able to go to the wedding of Miguel and Elsa the couple that i had found and taught in my last area of Chamba! It was beautiful! and i think based on what it was like and what ive seen in america.. im going to be pretty dissapointed with my wedding. hahaha 

The culture here and the people are so fun! they just know how to have a good time, even though they are pretty awkward sometimes hahaha they know how to party. so ill send a little video of them dancing and stuff.

Other than that we are finding many new families and people each day! When i think about it im very blessed to be serving here where the people are so very receptive to the gospel and already have a firm belief is some of the things the gospel teaches. we can knock a couple doors and just within those few doors we can sit with a new family to share the message of the restoration with them. This area is dope! 

The Gospel blesses all of us, but exaltation is no fun if you´re there alone. Bring a friend, bring your family. When we choose to follow we slowly change. Looking back to how Miguel and Elsa were when i first sat with them they have completely changed into different people because of the Gospel and the teaching in it!