Cody's in AFRICA!

I realized that I hadn't posted at all about Cody and his mission, so here it is! Back in Mayish (? I think) Cody was called to serve in the Mozambique, Maputo mission in Africa, Portuguese speaking . When he opened his call and tried to pronounce the place we were all shocked! Africa?! Crazy. The date he went into the MTC though wasn't until July 19th so he had awhile to wait. A few weeks later he got a letter from his mission president saying that he would most likely serve in the Angolan region of the mission, a different country on the other side of the continent. This region is pretty new and there were only about 20 missionaries TOTAL who had gone there. So we didn't know much about it. He got his Visa for Angola and left for the MTC. He spent 9 weeks there and really enjoyed it. I think he learned alot about himself as a person and the Gospel and Our Savior. When the time came for Cody to go to Africa I think everyone was a little nervous. He was going halfway around the world and we couldn't communicate with him by anything but email for 2 years...weird. He got there and we found out there is no mail system in Angola...meaning mailed letters and packages were pretty much an impossibility. If we do want to risk sending him a package it would cost about $200 and the chances of it actually getting to him are slim to none. So we get a weekly email and that's about it. Haha!

He is really loving it there though...you can just tell he is so happy! Cody's mission presidents wife keeps up a blog about all the happenings in the Angolan mission. Cody is currently serving in the city of Luanda. Here are some pictures of him and his zone...my favorite is the one of him and his companion in their apartment...pretty sweet! I especially love the dolphins on the wall.

These are some pictures that Sister Walton posted on the blog of scenes of Luanda. Cody says they have no traffic laws there. He said it's like being in LA traffic with no laws. Scary! It's all dirt roads. He said that people really carry baskets on their head...so cool. And in many places there isn't electricity so they do all their washing (dishes, clothes, etc.) in the river. It's really crazy to realize that there are still places in the world that are like this. 

Cody is doing really well, I'm sure we don't hear the bad stuff that is actually going on, but he seems to really be enjoying himself. And we get to talk to him in about a week! We actually might get to skype which would be really fun!

If you want to keep up with him and how he is doing we have a blog where we post all his emails. It's http://farewlltotheusahelloangola.blogspot.com/. You can also check out the Angola mission blog at http://angolaluandamission.blogspot.com/