My packages finally arrived, It's like Christmas for me haha!

Week 46- Tuesday April 8, 2014.  Still in T3- near Maputo

“I'm so grateful when I think about our family is sealed together for eternity and that back home we have easy access to the temple to be able to go there to perform ordinances for those who need them on the other side of the veil.”

Dear family, 

Thank you guys for being patient this week- I know it must have killed you to wait another day to get my emails. Monday was a holiday here in Mozambique, and I guess the message you got from President Kretly mentioned it too, so you had to wait all day Monday and now I’m writing almost at the end of Tuesday- I’ll explain why in a moment.

Thank you for those conference notes. It seems like it was a really good conference, as always. I have a flash drive and speaker that I use to listen to music. I will be getting on LDS.org to download the audio for some of these talks. I'm glad you guys had a good time attending conference, even though it was raining. I don't think I will ever be bothered by rain back home again. Back home if it's raining you just have to put up an umbrella for a few minutes until you walk into the next building. Here we have to walk on muddy roads and it rains so hard it doesn't make a big difference having an umbrella haha. But it hasn't rained for a little while. We are coming out of the wet hot season. This week the temperature has been really nice. It's even a little cool in the mornings.

Going to Maputo

This week flew by faster than any other week I can remember. As I told you guys before, my companion is here while he waits to go to his mission in Angola. He got a call last week on Monday and found out he had to redo some of his documentation to get his visa. (By the way to answer your question, he speaks Portuguese and Cena, the native dialect of the Beira region. And very little English-I'm helping him learn though) So we also had to go to the city on Thursday and Friday as well, each of those days we also had to get up at 5. It was kind of annoying having to get up so early, but going to the city was so cool. On Friday, while we were waiting for some test results, we ate lunch at KFC. Again, it was really good, like last time. We passed some pretty cool things in the city as we walked around--government buildings, the big cathedral, and a huge statue of some Mozambican war hero. I didn't carry my camera with me that day, or else I would have taken pictures. It's because of mission rules and safety reasons that I don't walk around with my camera most of the time.
Anyway, we finished up taking care of those things today, and that's why I'm doing email until now, a little later than normal.

With Sister Kretly, our mission president's wife

Zone Conference

On Wednesday, we had Zone Conference. President Kretly taught us a lot of good things. He talked about the progress of the mission, which is going really well; and about being humble and obedient and not prideful, so that miracles can continue happening here. Later, he talked about two powerful tools of conversion-the book of Mormon, and family history/temple work. We talked mostly about the second one. I had never thought about family history as a big part of the work in Mozambique, but I now understand how we can help investigators and members here organize information about their ancestors, with the goal of doing their temple work.  Missionary work as well as  family history and temple work are part of the plan of salvation, and we need to do what we can, so that people not only reach the waters of baptism, but the temple as well. Our goal is to work each month with one member family to prepare them to go to the temple. We will teach them about things that will be required, including getting passport, travel expenses, temple clothes, etc. and what's most important, the spiritual preparation and getting a temple recommend. It won't be easy, to get members ready, but with hard work and sacrifice on their parts, it will be possible. I'm so grateful when I think about our family is sealed together for eternity and that back home we have easy access to the temple to be able to go there to perform ordinances for those who need them on the other side of the veil. I would encourage you guys to continue to do family history work and identify those in our family who are waiting for their ordinances to be done. 

Our families still progressing

Our investigator families are doing well. Our 2 families that are furthest along- Daniel/Zaida and Antonio/Anita have a baptismal date for May 10th. I know they can both reach that date, and if they do, it will be cool to have the double wedding/ baptism. We'll keep working and praying so it happens. I already have 5 months in this area--crazy, isn't it? There are 2 weeks left in this transfer, so I don't know how much time I have left here. So I'm enjoying every day I have to work in this area with these wonderful people. 

A nice surprise

As you know I have been waiting to get the stuff you sent me since November. Well guess what? On Tuesday I was in the mission office and I looked in the packages that had been received recently and could hardly believe my eyes when I saw one that said "From: Nelson Rebollo" I was so excited! My first package from home in almost a year!  And then… I looked around a little longer and guess what? I found another one!  2 packages in one day!!! One of them was in a lot worse shape than the other.  Fortunately, everything inside them was intact. It really felt like Christmas when I got home and I was able to open them. I loved everything that is in those packages!! I love the 3 ties you sent-I wore one the next day to zone conference. I really appreciate the deodorant- Much needed! The snacks and candy of course are great. I just finished one of the bags of pretzels yesterday. I really like the Liahonas, especially the conference report.  I could really feel the love and thought you put into these care packages as I opened them up. Thank you so much! I love you guys!!

Well, I think that's about it for this week. I really hope you guys have another great week and are staying happy and healthy and are spending time together as a family always. I thank you for your love and thoughts for me. Thank you for your pictures you put in the photobucket. 

I love you very much!!!!

Josh