Week 4 - 6/8/2013,

On Friday 6/7/2013,

“Thank you so much for all your letters and emails and pictures this week! They really make my day! And thanks for the package!  The Ensign with all the conference talks is great. I read them during personal study time, in addition to the scriptures.

To my family, I'm writing you guys a hand written letter, since I don't have time to write you everything in an email. This week has been really great! It's gone by so fast though! I'll be out of here in just a little over two weeks! I'm excited! Sorry, this email will be short, but you'll be getting a nice long letter in the mail. Some exciting things happened this week, so look out for it.

Elder Rebollo

NOTE: Today Saturday (6/8) we were anxiously waiting for that “nice long letter” to arrive.  But it did not! We were very disappointed. That evening, at about 9:00 PM a couple in a car drove up in front of our house, they said that they were looking for the Rebollos and that they got a letter from the MTC that was delivered to them by mistake “…so we thought you must really be expecting this letter from your missionary, and had to find you” - Thank you again!

6/7/2013

Dear Family and Friends

            Its Friday 7:30 AM and I’m waiting for my laundry.  I hope everyone had a good week! Every day for me is almost exactly the same, so that’s probably why time goes by so fast.  But something different did happen this week.  I found a friend from High School here, elder Arnesen, who plays piano, I gave him some music so we could audition for a musical number.  The audition was yesterday (6/6). The MTC President’s wife, Sister Nally, is the music coordinator for the MTC, so that’s who we auditioned in front of.  Sister Nally said she loved it and we were a “definite yes” to play a musical number at a devotional sometime in the next two weeks!  Elder Arnessen and I were in Orchestra together so it was nice that I was able to find him.  He is a piano performance major at BYU, so he had absolutely no problem playing the music.  We only run through it twice right before the audition.  So I’m really glad it turned out so well.  My companion was so impressed that he was bragging to everyone in the district how well I did in the audition.  I don’t like to brag about myself, so at least I had him there to do it for me.  He was with me in the audition; afterwards he said he was nervous for me.  Luckily, I wasn't nervous. If we get the assignment to play, I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’ve been seeing a lot of people here I know from both PG High and the U.  The missionaries in my district are great!  This past Sunday (6/2) I was made District Leader.  My district has six elders and five sisters.  As district leader I’m in charge of picking up mail every day and conducting district meetings on Sundays.  I do have to go to a lot of meetings on Sundays, sort of like Ward Council.  I also authorize temporary companion exchanges if requested.  I like it. It’s more responsibility, but it’s not hard.  The biggest thing is picking up and distributing mail every day.  We’re only allowed to read letters at night after class, so reading them is a nice way to end the day.

Let’s see what else… Sometimes during class we watch part of conference talks and if we have extra time on the computers we can watch videos on Mormon.org.  Sometimes I pull up a map of Mozambique and you can see satellite images.  We’ve been doing that, exploring Mozambique.  We’re all really excited to go.  It’s nice that a group of us will be flying together to Mozambique.

We had a really great Tuesday devotional this week from Elder Tad T Callister of the Presidency of the Seventy.  He talked about how the New Testament is the blueprint for Christ’s Church and how every teaching, ordinances and calling laid out by Christ can be found in our church today.  For example when Christ was on the earth, he called Prophets, apostles, seventies, bishops, priests, deacons.  What other church on earth has all these?  Christ and his apostles taught that baptism for the dead is necessary.  What other church today has baptisms for the dead?  His message was really well organized and it was a powerful talk. There is so much evidence that this Church is the true Church of Christ and the earth today. But regardless of the evidence, people come to learn that the Church is true through the witness of the Holy Ghost (Moroni 10:5).  I’m so glad that I’m a member of his church, and that I have the opportunity to share the Gospel with others and invite them to come unto Christ.  Eu sei que por meio da expiação de Jesus Cristo, podemos ser limpos de nossos pecados. Eu sei que o Monson é um profeta de Deus.

Have a fantastic week!

Elder Rebollo