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
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