We moved to our new house, which is a lot closer to the church

Week 22 -- 10/14/2013

"Church was great! Once again, about 120 people were present. When I got here a little over 3 months ago, the number was constant at about 70-75, so it is really cool to see the growth that has happened."

Bom dia, Familia!!

I LOVED the pictures you sent me! I always love fall in Utah. The pictures you sent of the mountains are so awesome. Not until I saw those pics did I realize how much I miss seeing the mountains so close by. There are no mountains in sight here. But its ok, Mozambique is also very beautiful... And very hot lately too! Yesterday was 40 degrees Celsius or about 105 Fahrenheit, plus humidity! Luckily all the classrooms in the church have air conditioners or fans. 

I'm glad that you guys had fun this weekend. I was laughing hard when I saw those pics of Hunter! I'm surprised you were able to take so many pictures of him without him running away. He looks good, I hope he stays healthy. It's kind of sad to see dogs here, most of them are in pretty bad shape. People here don't treat their animals very well. 

Dad, thank you for keeping me updated on the football. I was so happy to hear that Utah won that big game! I'm glad that BYU is doing well too. I do hope the weather will be good enough to go to at least one game this season.

Transfers are three weeks from today. Last transfer I felt 100percent certain that I would stay in Quelimane. This time, I'm not so sure. I think I will be moved to another area, sadly. I have really loved Quelimane, the city, the people, and everything. I love my mission! I can't believe I've already been out for 5 months! I'm almost 1/4 of the way through, and I feel like I just barely started! 2 years really is not a lot. 

Moving to a new place

So on Saturday, we moved to our new house, which is a lot closer to the church. That's because we now live IN the church complex! On Monday we called President Kretly about changing houses and he directed us to move into the church and live there, as the Osborns had. So on Saturday we made the move, taking everything from our house to the church. It was definitely not easy. There was a ton of stuff we had to move between the house and the church. Thankfully, our old house was only a few minutes- walk away from the church, plus we had the truck to haul things, two people helped up, Rocha and Marcelino, our investigator. It took all day on Saturday to move all the things (including all tables, beds, shelves, etc and put them in the church. It took a lot of work to get to the point where church could be held the next day without a bunch of our stuff in the way. We are still not done. There is still a lot of organizing to do. But most of the hard work is done. Living in the church is definitely an upgrade, though. The bedroom is bigger and nicer, the kitchen is nicer, the floors are tile and wood, instead of just concrete. Plus, we are right in the church, which is convenient for everything that we have to do. Unfortunately, the move made it so we couldn't go out and work on Saturday or Sunday. I'm hoping this next week will be normal without any surprises that will take us away from working for a whole day.

Church attendance

Church was great! Once again, about 120 people were present. When I got here a little over 3 months ago, the number was constant at about 70-75, so it is really cool to see the growth that has happened. Sacrament meeting yesterday was the primary program. They did really good! The kids sang three songs, and there were three little talks given. I played piano along with them to help them with their singing. They sang I am a child of God, A child's prayer, and another one I forgot. I'm sure Jacob knows these songs too. It reminded me of my primary programs back home that I participated in. Jacob, enjoy and appreciate all the time you have in primary and all the great things you learn and get to do. I wish I could go back to that time haha. Next week we will be showing General Conference on Saturday and Sunday. Luckily, since we are living in the church now, we will be able to make sure throughout the week that everything is set up right. We are planning on each of the days to show 2 sessions, with a little break in between where we'll have something for people to eat, so they don't get too tired. I'm looking forward to watching it. 

Our investigators

With our teaching this week, our investigators are still moving along well. We have three families with really great potential: Marcelino/Aida, Gertulio/Antonia, and Paulino/Fatima. All of them need to get married before baptism, but I believe all of them will within the next month or two. The thing we really need to focus on this next week is finding even more families with potential like them. I really believe the secret is in the members;  out of the three couples I mentioned, only one was a family that we found by knocking doors. The others came to us, by references or by having some other sort of contact with the church previously. We believe that every member here knows at least one family, whether it be friends or family members, who is ready to receive the gospel. For this reason, we always ask for references from the members and ask for their help while teaching. I believe having the members help us in teaching appointments has made all the difference and it is the reason that we have so many investigators with strong potential.

When sending a package whether it’s you or anyone interested in sending anything, it should be sent to the mission office in Maputo. They will get it to me from there, wherever I may be. 

Well, have a great week, everyone!!! I love you so much!!!!!!!!!! Thanks again for the pictures; I'll try to send you some next week!

Elder Rebollo


 

Week 21--Zone Conference in Maputo . President Kretly in Quelimane

Week 21—10/7/2013

 
"We were worried that the attendance at church would go down because of heavy rain, but it didn't, we had 107 people present. It's the third week in a row with 100 or more people, so it looks like a pattern that we hope will hold"

Hey Family! 

Wow, this week went by really fast! It was a good week though. After I had emailed you last Monday, we learned that we would be getting on a plane to Maputo that same afternoon. They wanted to fly us to Beira, but there were no flights. The same zone conference happened in Maputo and in Beira; the one in Maputo was on Tuesday. So we flew down there on Monday, and came back on Wednesday. Flying there takes an hour and a half. We stayed in one of the missionary apartments in Maputo.

I have already been in Quelimane for 3 months serving with just one other missionary, so it was weird to go to the conference and see so many missionaries. There were 50 missionaries there at the conference, including 10 sisters! It's still kind of weird to me that sisters are serving in Mozambique, but apparently they're having good success too. I saw everyone from my MTC district there, except for one.  They are all doing well

 

Elder Rebollo and Elder Bender



 

Elder Rebollo and Elder Toyn



 

My MTC district most all of them serving in Maputo and sorrounding areas

 



It was a nice little trip and the zone conference was amazing! It took place in the brand new chapel in Matola which was recently opened. That chapel is super nice! I'd say it's even nicer than a lot of chapels back home.

 

 

The conference lasted from 9 in the morning until 5 in the afternoon, with lunch in between (they ordered pizza, it was really good). President Kretly gave us great training and outlined the goals of the mission going forward. He really expects a lot out of us- and I like that.  He wants each companionship in the mission baptizing at least one family every month, not an easy task, but definitely possible if we work hard. The goal is to be able to divide most of the branches in Beira and Maputo and split the districts there (a district is a group of branches), in preparation for them to becoming stakes. Right now there are no stakes here, but we're hoping to be able to establish 4 stakes in the next 2 years. The goals of the mission are definitely focused on growing the church in the Maputo and Beira areas, but I still learned a lot of things that can apply here in Quelimane. We learned many things to help us in our contacting and teaching.

While in Maputo I bought a new camera and backpack. We went to a big nice store there in the city. It's basically like a Wal-Mart (I felt like I was in the US for a few hrs.-ha ha). We also stopped by a supermarket that was connected to the mall (once again, super nice, looked like any mall back home). Maputo is actually a really nice city, but really divided. If you have money, the quality of life is really good, but there is also a lot of poverty there, like the rest of Africa.  

Anyway, we returned on Wednesday and got back to work. We were worried because since last Saturday with the robbery, we hadn't been able to visit many of our investigators. We were worried that they might have become weak. But that wasn't the case, thankfully. Marcelino and Aida are doing really well (I know I had referred to her as Inez, but she actually goes by Aida). They had been living in separate places, but just a couple weeks ago moved into a house together and are excited to get married. We gave them the day of the 26th for getting married and they accepted, so now we will be working on getting their documents together. They are progressing really well and are really accepting the gospel into their lives. We also found another couple, Gertulio and Antonia. We taught them first a couple weeks ago and this past week they accepted to get married and be baptized as well! Both of these couples came to church yesterday too. We are hoping to get both of these weddings done within a month. There are a two other couples we are teaching that have just as much potential, but we are still early in the teaching process with them.  

It also has been raining this week. On Friday, it RAINED! It was the hardest rain I've ever seen, it was like the water couldn't come down fast enough! It didn't get too bad to where we had to use our boots, though. The worst of the rainy season will come in December and January. It rained on Saturday and Sunday also. We were worried that the attendance at church would go down, but it didn't, we had 107 people present. It's the third week in a row with 100 or more people, so it looks like a pattern that will hold.
Church yesterday was super great, President Kretly was here. It so happened that after zone conference on Tuesday, he flew to Beira to do their zone conference there, and from there he flew up to Nampula (north of here). He had left his truck there earlier last month when he got sick and had to fly down to Maputo. So from there, he drove down to here to Quelimane, and was able to be at church. It was fast and testimony meeting. All the testimonies that were shared were powerful, and President took the opportunity at the end to say a few words also. During sacrament meeting, a few were sustained to receive the Aaronic Priesthood, including Candido and his son Igor (whom we baptized at the beginning of August). Igor is now the first deacon in Quelimane!

The next hour during Sunday school, President Kretly taught all the adults, and then he taught the elder's quorum in the third hour. He showed all the adults the video "It's a miracle (E um milagre)". Have you guys already seen it yet? If not, you should, it's an amazing video. I saw it the first time at zone conference this week. All the members and investigators loved the video too. 

 

CLICK here to watch 'Its A Miracle'

After church, he took the time to talk with a lot of the members and met with our investigators that were there too. Everyone felt the spirit really strongly at church yesterday, it was a good day. I'm looking forward to this next week of teaching and contacting.  

Anyway, I'm glad you all had a good week. I'm glad you all watched conference and enjoyed it. We are 80K missionaries in the world now, it's amazing! And 15 million members too! I'm sure with so many more missionaries the rate of growth will be going up even more and faster. 

I liked those parts of conference that you shared with me. We are planning to watch general conference here at church in a couple weeks. We are expecting to be able to hook up the projector here to a computer and watch the conference through LDS.org.  Also, I received the ward newsletters from August and September. The Adams' have been sending them to me, and President gave them to me yesterday. Tell them thank you for me! It was nice to read the updates from the other missionaries in the ward, it seems like they're all doing well.

As far as a package that you will be sending me, I would like you to send it by the end of this month. I will put together a list of all the things I would like and put it in my email next week. 

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers for me! I know you miss me, and I miss you too. It would be nice to be able to talk to you face to face, but at least it's nice to talk to you through email once a week. And here in a couple months we'll be able to talk through Skype for Christmas, so we'll be able to talk face to face then.  

Until next week!! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Elder Rebollo


 

Week 20—9/30/2013
 

"Yesterday church was great! It was so exciting to see ten of our investigators come to church. And we had a total of 120 people there, the highest number in almost 6 months!"

Well, this week was interesting. It was pretty normal for the most part, but then something happened on Saturday that I'll explain in a minute.

I'm glad that you all sent me pictures of back home. It's weird to remember how close the mountains are. Here there are no mountains in sight, not to mention snow haha.

It will be getting even colder over there soon I'm sure. I always liked fall. Is the corn maze already open? You guys should go. I was wondering why you guys had fast and testimony meeting, but then I remembered that General Conference is next week. Since we don't get the discs here for a month or two, fast and testimony meeting will be next week here, as normal. Don't forget to watch all the sessions of general conference.

Yesterday church was great! It was so exciting to see ten of our investigators come to church. And we had a total of 120 people there, the highest number in almost 6 months!  Up until about 6 months ago, Quelimane had 6 elders and a senior couple, the Osborns - Elder Osborn was the branch president. So back then the number of people at church was really high because all the missionaries were working in all the areas here bringing a lot of people to church. Now that there are just two of us here, it's impractical to work in all the areas in and around the city, even with our bikes and car. But thankfully the members are stepping up and many of them are inviting their friends, family, and neighbors to church and those people are inviting others. The members who bring a person for the first time to church are making sure to introduce them to us so that we can take their contact and set up a time to visit them. Elder Heaton and I are making a Branch mission plan to further help the members know how they can help us in all the stages of the work (finding, teaching, baptizing, strengthening new converts, etc.). I am seeing that Quelimane has the potential to grow a lot in the coming months and years. If the members are determined to help the church grow here, they can make miracles happen.

As far as the work this week goes, we were able to continue teaching lessons with members present and we got contacts. It was a pretty normal week.

Now this brings me to what happened on Saturday. Before I say this, I want you to know that we're safe, healthy, and the Lord is watching over us. The point of me writing you letters every week is to tell you of my experiences, good and bad. On Saturday early morning, about 4 am, I woke up to go to the bathroom. I immediately noticed that the door of our bedroom was open, and we always close it. But I didn't think too much of it. On my way to the bathroom, I looked into the dining room and saw the fridge and freezer wide open and many papers and other things scattered on the ground. I ran back to our bedroom and turned on the light. I then noticed that things from our room were also gone. I woke up Elder Heaton to tell him what happened. We both went around the house to see more of what had happened. It turns out that someone broken into our house in the middle of the night, and we got robbed. All the main doors in the house were secured well, as always. And on the outside, rails (like jail bars) are around every window and entrance. However, we have a small window in the kitchen that also has these rails. But these rails weren't placed as deeply into the concrete. So the thief (or thieves) was able to chip off the concrete enough to rip off the guard rails and get in through that small window. Between the both of us, they stole almost 4000 MT cash, our cameras (which had ALL of my pictures), and our cell phone. They also stole my backpack with everything that was in it, and my mp3 player and speakers. Thankfully they left my wallet with my cards still intact. They didn't take any of our documents either. The things in my backpack included my Portuguese scriptures that I use during lessons, a small hymnbook, a dictionary, and a flashlight. Being that the window they entered through was small, they didn't steal our bikes. Other than the guard rail that had been ripped off, there was no other damage to the house. The most amazing thing was that they had entered our bedroom in the night without us waking up.  I know that the Lord was watching over us and protecting us, making us sleep very deep so that we didn't wake up while the thieves were inside the house.  After looking over what had been taken, we went to Walter's house (he's the member that lives the closest to us) to use his phone to call President Kretly, since our phone had been taken. We then went to the police to file a report. There were some lights on the outside of the house that had burned out, so we replaced those and the house is now better lighted on the outside. We weren't able to do any teaching or contacting that day, we just spent the whole day securing the house. The members helped us a lot during this time. One of them found us a guy to replace the guard rail, another gave us one of their phones for us to use temporarily. We were able to get the house secured to the point where we felt safe to continue sleeping there. We know that the things they stole have already probably been sold, but they are all replaceable. The most important thing out of all this is that we are safe and unharmed. I know without a doubt that the Lord was there in our bedroom that night protecting us.

This coming week we will be going to Beira for a zone conference that will happen on Thursday. It's uncertain if we will still be going by car, though. It now seems likely we will fly down there instead. While there, we will get a new phone and I will buy a new camera and backpack. We anticipate that we will most likely be directed to find a new house immediately or sometime in the near future. It is unfortunate, considering how close our house is to the church (just a two minute walk down the road). But for now, the house is secure. And now we deadbolt our bedroom door in addition to the outside doors. While we are gone this week, a couple of the members will take turns being guards to make sure nothing happens while the house is empty.

Anyway, I really hope I didn't get you guys scared by telling you what happened. You need to know that we are safe and being extremely cautious to make sure it continues to be that way. I definitely saw the Lord's hand in this experience, being that even though some things were taken, we can still continue with our work of bringing the gospel to families here.

I thank you for your constant thoughts and prayers for me. I know that even though you can't see me or talk to me at all times, you can know that I'm safe at all times through the comforting power of the Holy Ghost.  

I look forward to this next week, and hope to be able to send you more pictures soon when I get a new camera. Thank you again for your letters and pictures. I love you guys so much!!

Have a fantastic week,

Elder Rebollo

 

Week 19 – 9/23/2012

“Church yesterday was great! Seven of our investigators came, and there were almost 100 people in attendance, the highest number I've seen since I've been in Quelimane!”

Hello Everyone!!

First of all, transfers were today and, I found out that I will be staying in Quelimane, thankfully. I feel like I got off the plane in Mozambique a couple weeks ago, not 12. It hasn't felt like I've been in Quelimane very long, so I'm glad I'm able to stay here at least for the next six weeks.

I was very happy to hear that Utah won again!!  I remember the game last year where Utah barely won and almost blew it because the fans rushed the field early haha. Wow, that was a whole year ago

We had been planning on going to Marromeu this coming weekend and attend church there

, but our plans have changed. Instead, we will pick up the elders there, and then we will drive down to Beira to attend zone conference. After zone conference, we will go back to Marromeu, drop off the elders, and then return to Quelimane. The whole trip will take us away for 5 days, and we will be staying the nights in the missionary houses in Marromeu and Beira. We don't know exactly when that will be, but most likely it will be the first week of October. General conference is that weekend too, I think. We will get the CDs of general conference in Portuguese a few weeks later to show at church, in case you were wondering about that.

Church yesterday was great! Seven of our investigators came, and there were almost 100 people in attendance, the highest number I've seen in the branch  since I've been in Quelimane!

Something nice that's been happening is that members are inviting others to church. And almost 100 percent of the time, if they come, they like it and want to learn more. We're really blessed to be in a branch with members that care about missionary work and growing the church here. They want a chapel of their own, and know that in order to achieve it, we need more members here.

This past week was really good. We didn't have anything out of the ordinary happen to us, so we were able to focus on teaching lessons and contacting. We had more success this week in teaching investigator lessons with members present. Having members present at a lesson is really helpful. When an investigator has doubts about baptism or marriage or the Book of Mormon, the member is there and can answer, knowing what it was like to be in their position. For example, we were teaching an older couple about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. We had a member, Augusta, there with us. This couple likes the church, but they have been catholic their whole lives and don't want to leave their church. Augusta, who used to be catholic, too, was able to testify to them how she was able to follow what she knew was the truth and get baptized in the true church. But we'll see how that couple progresses. I told you last week about Marcelino and Inez. They are still doing well. They currently live apart, but are looking for a place to rent to live in when they get married. We are going to try to find him work to do so he can earn money to pay for the marriage documents. We hope that they will be getting married and baptized this coming month.

The car has turned out to be a big blessing for us recently. We've started teaching a few member references, and most of them live a bit far. If it weren't for the car, we wouldn't be able to take the time to go teach them. With the car, we are also able to give the member a ride to go to the lesson with us. The bikes have been a blessing too. Without them, we would be late to most of our teaching appointments. Everything here is flat, there are no hills to climb up, thankfully, and so riding the bike here is pretty easy for the most part.  

I love you all, and hope you have another week of health and happiness.  

Elder Rebollo

Week 18-- Another great week in Quelimane

Week 17-- 9/16/2013

Hey Everyone!

This past week was pretty good. Not as many crazy things happened, and we've been having more success. I'm glad to see that you guys are doing well again this week. I realize that when I mentioned our monthly trip to Marromeu I forgot to mention the reason for the trip. There are two missionaries down there, just like here. The church has been there for a while now, has a couple hundred members, and a chapel. Marromeu is a small jungle town and when the missionaries need supplies, they have a hard time getting them but since Quelimane is the closest major city, those supplies come here. So we will bring those supplies to Marromeu- things such as Books of Mormon, pamphlets, sacrament water cups, etc. They are also having a problem with their internet, so we will be taking a new internet modem down to them. When we go down there, we will be staying in the missionarries’ house. Elder Heaton served in that town before, so he is excited to visit the members there. We are planning to go the last weekend of the month, and stay for church on the 29th. You have probably already looked on the Google maps to see where it is. The route to Marromeu is about 300km, but a good part of it is on dirt road, so the drive will take about 7-8 hours. We will make sure to take necessities like plenty of food and water with us. We will be taking the car in for a maintenance checkup this week to make sure everything is good. I heard that on the way there we will cross a cool bridge over the Zambezi River.

Things with the bikes are going well. It's nice being able to get to places faster, and not having to spend money on the bike taxis.

Yesterday I taught the music class for the first time and it went pretty well. There are only 3 members coming, but that's because we only have 3 keyboards. I hope I'm here a little longer so I have time to keep teaching the class for a while. Transfers are next week, so hopefully I don't get moved. 

About me trying to find a cello in this city- sadly- I probably won't find one. But if I find myself in Beira or Maputo next, I will for sure try to find one and put on a recital. President Kretly would help me for sure, if I needed it. He was actually supposed to visit again this past week on his way back down from Nampula. But he got pretty sick up there and had to fly down to Maputo. It was something he ate, apparently. But when he gets better, he plans on returning to Quelimane for another visit, most likely before the end of the month.

Last week on P-day we took the car out and went to a place 30 minutes outside of the city to see crocodiles. Walter went with us since we didn't know exactly where it was.  We went there also to see how the car was running, but it was cool to see the crocodiles. 

We took a couple chickens to feed them to the crocs.

Here are a few pictures I took along the way

So it was a pretty good P-day. Other than that, we just worked contacting and teaching lessons this week.

We had a lot more success this week teaching lessons and finding new families. One of the new people we're teaching is Marcelino. We contacted him on the street in the past and invited him to come to church.  It took a few weeks but he finally came last Sunday. This is what we found out about him, he started investigating the church about 8 years ago, in Beira. He went to church down there and the missionaries gave him a Book of Mormon. Unfortunately they weren't able to teach him because his job took him away from the city and into the jungle. While there, the company he worked for fell apart and left him without a job and stuck out in the jungle. After a few years, he got enough money to get out and moved to Quelimane. 

During that time away, his wife had left him for another man. Then a couple weeks ago, we contacted him in the street and invited him to church, and then he finally came by last week. We started teaching him this past week- he really likes the church. He still has the Book of Mormon given to him by the missionaries back in 2005. It's in bad shape, but it was marked up. He had been reading it. We gave him a new Book of Mormon also. He has a girlfriend, Inez, and they both came to church yesterday. We already taught them the law of chastity and they accepted that they will get married. So this next week we will be starting on that process, and hopefully they will be baptized sometime next month!

It was really cool to see that he still had that book that missionaries gave him so long ago. I'm sure that at the time, those missionaries had no idea how much this book would affect this man’s life and must have been disappointed that he was not able to continue with the lessons at that time, but they did a great thing by planting the seed of the Gospel in this man’s life that is now starting to grow

Anyway, I hope you all have a fantastic week

I love you guys so much!!

Elder Rebollo

BIG changes for us in Quelimane

Week 17 – 9/9/2013

 

" We learned that (in our mission)  there were 92 people joining the Church in the month of August, and almost 400 since April this year "

Hello Familia!!!! 

We had a very unusual, crazy but overall a great week! Our mission president came to visit! Here is how it went:  Started Monday after we got home from using the internet and shopping, we made brownies to take over to Walter and Darmin's house, because they were making us lunch. And they had never had brownies before. So we made them and took them over to Walter's, along with the game Risk. 



 

Lunch

 

They made us some crab, which were really, really good! They really liked the brownies too! Then we played Risk, it was really fun spending time with them, it was fun hearing them express how much they like those brownie, we were having a great time with them playing the game, when all of a sudden we got a call from the APs.

They said they we needed to book a hotel for President Kretly up here in Quelimane and asked us which one would be good. Then we asked when he planned on coming up here. They said that he would be here that night! He was visiting Marromeu and driving up to Nampula, but decided at the last minute to stop by Quelimane. So we had to cut our visit short with Walter and Darmin and headed back home.  As we were cleaning the bathroom we got a call from Maputo again. The APs said that President was an hour away. At that very moment, the buoy in our toilet broke! So water started coming out, so we had to just put a temporary stop on it because we had to leave the house immediately to go meet President Kretly at the church.

Meeting President and Sister Kretly

When he got there, President said that he wanted to meet one of the families that had been recently baptized. We hadn't planned on meeting with any family that night! And hadn't set anything up with anyone, so we called Candido and Marcia to see if they were at home. Luckily they were. So we took President to visit them. The visit went well. President Kretly got to know them and shared a short message with them. After that, we went to dinner at a restaurant. We had pizza, which was pretty good (but still not as good as pizza back home). President told us we were doing good work up here. And among other things he also said that we needed to continue our efforts to find more families like Candido and Marcia. After lunch he dropped us off at our house.  The next day, however, was even crazier! We got up and met the president at the church again to help him set up a meeting through the internet there. This was a weekly meeting that he has with his assistants and the senior missionary couples. It was cool to sit in on the meeting. They talk about the weekly stats from throughout the mission and what needs to be implemented to help bring more success.  We learned that there were 92 people joining the Church in the month of August, and almost 400 since April this year! After the meeting President drove us to his hotel to pick up Sister Kretly and we went to lunch together. It was nice to get to talk to them. President and Sister Kretly mentioned that they saw my cello videos on Youtube, and that they were impressed. President said if possible I should try to find a cello here and put on a little program for the members. So this coming week we will try to find a cello somewhere in Quelimane, I'll let you know how that goes.

New bikes, a car and Marromeu

Also, he told us to start using bicycles, so this past week we bought bikes and have started using them to go to teaching appointments. Using bikes has been nice; we are able to get to places so much faster now! I'm glad President made that decision.  

Also, another thing; A couple years ago there was a senior missionary couple, the Osborns assigned to work in this city, they used a car or pickup to get around and to drive to other towns; they left earlier this year and since then the car has been sitting at the church, President told us that the car belongs to the mission.

 

He told us that we will start using it and we will be making a trip to Marromeu once a month. Marromeu is a town south from here, and is about 6 hours away. He also told us that we should take the car around the city a couple times a week to get used to driving it, and to make sure the its running well and to take care of whatever maintenance it might need.

So now we have new bikes, a car and Marromeu city added to our assigned area, these are definitely BIG changes!

After lunch with President and his wife, we went back home. At that time we discovered that we had locked our keys inside the house, so we had to kick in the door!
 

As if that was not bad enough…As soon as we got in though, we heard water flowing. We rushed to the bathroom…and sure enough, we found that the temporary stop we put had failed and water was everywhere! The water reached our bedroom, which got flooded with a couple centimeters of water! So we spent the next few hours scooping and mopping up.

Later that night, we met the president again. He wanted to test out the car. So we went driving around the city a little. Then he had Elder Heaton get behind the wheel. President wanted to give him some tips and instructions on driving here. It was like we were back in driver's ed. Ha-ha. Some time after that, President  and Sister Kretly said goodbye and left. 

It was nice to spend a couple days with them even through all the chaos at our house.  Before leaving, President gave us helmets and told us to make sure to wear them. Since then, we've been enjoying going around on bikes.

  

The rest of the week was more normal. We got a guy to come over and fix the toilet, so there's no problem with that anymore. He also fixed our water heater. I don't think I mentioned that we had a problem with that, but we hadn't had hot water for the past week. We were heating up water on the stove to take showers. But we have hot water again, thankfully.

 

We continued doing contacts and teaching lessons. We've had more success with it lately. We are teaching more lessons and finding more families. We'll just have to see how they progress. We were so happy to have five of our investigators come to church yesterday, which was great! Hopefully this next week doesn't bring any more surprises and we can focus on the work here.

But anyway, that was my week! Oh, I almost forgot. President brought up some letters that the mission office received. One was from the Adams; they sent me the ward newsletter from July. The others were from children in the primary.  Tell them all that I received their mail and I really appreciated it!

Well, I hope you all have a good week! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for me! I'm doing well, I'm staying healthy.

I love you all so much!!

 

Elder Rebollo

 

 

Week 16 - 9/ 2/ 2013 

 

The following is the message Elder Rebollo sent to the members of our ward

 

Dear ward family,

I thought I'd personally take the time to share a thought with you. I'm currently serving the people of Quelimane, Mozambique, in the northern part of the country. The church has been here for about 2 years, and the branch here has about 70-80 members. The gospel is still new for the majority of them, but they are willing and eager to learn more.

 

Church members in front of their meeting house in Quelimane, Mozambique

The members are particularly interested when learning about the story of the early latter-day saints. The pioneers lived in a very different time and very different place than the way people live here in Africa, but the members identify with the virtues of faith and sacrifice exercised by a people that didn't have many material possessions. Church meetings here are held in a house that has been converted into a chapel. But the members desire to have a chapel of their own someday as the church continues to grow here. They know that in order for this to happen, they must pay their tithing and pray for those who don't know about the gospel, that we as missionaries may find those who are ready to accept it into their lives. They also have an interest in learning about temples and the sacred significance of what happens there. Right now the closest temple is in South Africa, a trip which, for most families, would require the sacrifice of a few years’ worth of income. But many families here still plan to make the trip there eventually, to partake of the sacred ordinances and seal their families for eternity. A few families have told us that they pray every day that the church will continue to grow here so that there might someday be a temple in Mozambique. I know with absolute certainty that that day will come, and many families in this country will be able to be sealed for eternity and have the promise of living together forever in the celestial kingdom, as they continue to live according the gospel. I am so grateful for the temple and the eternal blessings it brings to families. I know this topic gets stressed a lot, but I hope that you will take advantage of the opportunity you have to be so close to a temple, and enjoy the blessings that come from going there often. 

I appreciate your thoughts and prayers for me and all the missionaries in our ward!

—Elder Rebollo