Lizards in the bathroom, bike taxis, and a 4-yr old correcting my Portuguese "nice"

Week 9--7/15/13 Quelimane, Mozambique


"Walter and Darmin(new members), have a little boy named Mauro, about 4 years old. He loves when we come over to visit. I was talking to him and he was correcting me on my Portuguese, it was really funny!"

Dear Familia,

 Thank you sooo much for all your letters! I'm glad you all had a good week. I miss going to church in our ward. Church here is good too, but it's different.  Jacob, it sounds like you've been having a lot of fun this summer. Did you catch any snakes? I haven't seen any snakes here so far. There are a lot of lizards, though. They're pretty much everywhere. I've found lizards in the bathroom a couple times already. They're pretty small, though. Wow, I guess it's been pretty hot over there. Every day this past week has had rain on and off. Thankfully we haven't been caught walking around in pouring rain. The temperature has been nice too; it hasn't gotten too hot yet. That will change around September/October.

 

I forgot to say this last week, Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!

 

It's weird that it's already the middle of July. In fact, today's the 15th, so that makes two months that I've been on my mission! This month especially has gone by soooo fast.

 Elder Seoane, will be leaving for home in less than a month. That means that I will be getting a new companion next month. We get along well. He's been a good trainer. It's been a little hard still because I don't know the language that well. But I'm getting better each week, which is good. I don't know if I mentioned this before, but people here say "nice" a lot. You can say nice for pretty much anything.



This is what public transportation looks like

Also, here in Quelimane, they have bike taxis. They're people with bicycles and you sit on the seat behind them and they'll take you where you want to go. It's really cheap, only 5 meticals, which is less than 20 cents. There's more bicycles than cars here it seems. Only  few can afford buying cars here.

 

 

We go everywhere to contact new people but lately we have been teaching and contacting in the city, not so much on the outskirts. The reason for this is that in the city, people are more likely to already be legally married. And if they aren't, they most likely won't have a hard time paying for the necessary documents. In addition to that, most people in the city are able to read. It's difficult to teach and have investigators learn if they can't read.

 We haven't had any meals at member's houses, but sometimes they will offer some fruit or a soda or something. We can't drink water they offer us, of course. I haven't had any stomach problems so far, I've been careful. There are mosquitos everywhere, but it's not a big nuisance. Yes, I've gotten bit, but not too much. We do sleep with mosquito nets. The repellant works well. I still have quite a bit; I don't think I'll need more for quite a while. 

There is milk here, but it's not pasteurized, so it tastes a little different. But I like it; it's not too different than at home. We were contacting one day and found a lady cooking crabs. We bought some from her and had them for lunch earlier this week. We had it with tortillas that she made and some beans. They were really good!

Work this week has been good. We have a couple families that are progressing and will most likely get baptized early next month. We also visit recent convert families they are really nice too. One of these new families, a couple, Walter and Darmin, has a little boy named Mauro, about 4 years old. He loves when we come over to visit. I was talking to him and he was correcting me on my Portuguese, it was really funny! 

Thank you for your words of support, it really helps! I miss you guys too! Continue to have fun this summer. I look forward to your letters next week!

 I'm doing well here. I'm really enjoying everything! Have an amazing week!

I love you all!!

Elder Rebollo

 

 

 

First Few days in Quelimane

Week 8— July 8, 2013 - Quelimane, Mozambique

“The church was started in Quelimane only 2 years ago, so all the members and leaders are really new in the church. These new members are really helpful with the missionary work. Already this past week, we taught quite a number of lessons with a member present.”

Hey Family!

 I was so happy to get the pictures from the 4th of July from you guys! It looked like a lot of fun! Thanks for the letters from each one of you also. I was looking forward to today since I didn't get much time to write you last week. Anyway, I'll start off from last Monday: I worked in Maputo in a trio companionship with a couple other elders on Monday night and Tuesday. It was pretty good. I rode in chapas (a minivan stuffed with people) a few more times while I was there. The public transportation in Maputo is pretty crazy.

 Flying to my first area and meeting my first companion in the field.

On Wednesday(7/3/13), I was picked up from there and taken to the airport to go to Quelimane [Kelly-money]. When flying within Mozambique, you can only check one bag, no heavier than 20kg (44lbs). So I rearranged my things to fit in one bag without being too heavy, and left the rest in my other bag, which will stay at the mission office. It wasn't too bad; I didn't have to leave too much behind. The flight was about an hour and a half. Quelimane is a lot smaller than Maputo; it's like a mid-sized city. My companion and trainer is Elder Seone. This is his last transfer of his mission, so he will be going home next month. He's a really good missionary; he's had a lot of success during his mission baptizing families. I've already learned a lot from him about contacting and teaching lessons. He's in the branch presidency here. The branch here is pretty small. The average number of people that come to church per week is about 70. The church was started in Quelimane only 2 years ago, so all the members and leaders are really new in the church. These new members are really helpful with the missionary work. Already this past week, we taught quite a number of lessons with a member present.  

Arriving in Quelimane and the church here

One of the members with a car, Firmino, came with Elder Seoane to the airport to pick me up on Wednesday. The residence is fine. My perception of what a 'nice' house is has already changed a lot. So to me, the residence we have is not bad. My living conditions are pretty good. We went to the grocery store when I got here on Wednesday. I have just cereal in the morning, and we usually make pasta for lunch. We don't really have dinner, but I'll have a snack when we come back for the night. We don't have bikes, so we go everywhere on foot. In fact, most missionaries in the mission don't use bikes. There are only a couple areas, maybe.  Elder Seoane and I are the only missionaries in Quelimane. Usually, there would be 3 companionships here, but since the mission is placing a huge focus on the cities of Maputo and Beira, most of the missionaries are being concentrated there.  So it's a lot of work, but it is fine.

Church on Sunday was pretty good. We live on the same street as the church, so it's only a 3 minute walk which is nice. But in the morning we go to pick up investigators for church. This Sunday, most of them didn't make it. The sacrament meeting was really good. It was testimony meeting, as you know. It's a small branch, but the meeting went over a few minutes with members bearing their testimonies. The second and third hours were good too.  I didn't understand a lot of it, but I still felt the spirit of what was said.

 The Language

It's hard to understand people's accents and their fast talking sometimes, so it's a bit of a challenge. I guess it will get easier with time. The language is coming along alright. I'm still expanding my vocabulary. Anyway, I really like it here in Quelimane. I've only been here less than a week, but I'm starting to get to know the members and investigators, which is fun. Maybe next week I'll be able to tell you more about our investigators, since for now I don't know them too well.

Keep sending me pictures, I really enjoy seeing them. I haven't taken too many pics yet, since we can't have cameras with us when proselyting, but today we'll take pics, and I'll send them all next week for sure. I hope you had a good weekend and a good time at church. I hope you're having a great summer! I can't believe we're already into July! Time goes by so fast. I hope everyone is staying happy and healthy!

Don't worry about me, I'm staying healthy, eating safe food and water, Have a fantastic week, family!! 

I love you all so much

Elder Rebollo

First impressions, Five days in Maputo Mozambique

Week 7- July 1, 2013 Maputo Mozambique

 

“For the most part, the people here are soooo nice and friendly! You can walk up to pretty much anyone and just start talking to them… they'll take the time to talk.”

 

Olá família!

 

Arriving in Maputo Mozambique 6/26/13 

It's great to finally write home. Right now its 3:30PM, so it must be like 7:30am over there. I'm doing really well! I'm glad you got that email from the APs. Well, a TON has happened since last spoke to you in London. The flight to Johannesburg was good; I slept through a lot of it. There were a few snags getting our boarding passes for Maputo once we got there though but we figured it out.  The flight to Maputo was nice and short, just a little under an hour. Landing into Maputo was crazy! It is a HUGE city with A LOT of people! We landed and got our bags. Thankfully I picked up both my bags with no problem. I was lucky, A few elders and sisters had their luggage misplaced or missing, and some bags were still in Johannesburg. Sister Kretly showed up a little while later, and helped us with the luggage problems. President Kretly was in the northern part of Mozambique at the time, so he didn't greet us at the airport. So 2 hours after we arrived in Maputo, we finally got to leave the airport. The APs came with their cars to load up our bags and give us rides to the mission office. The drive was crazy! There are basically no rules on the road over here, it seems. People walk out into the roads without looking and other cars get really close to you and turn without warning.

We had a little lunch at the mission office, but we were mostly tired and dirty from the long trip. Half of us elders slept in the mission home and the other half went to another missionary residence in Maputo. I was one of the ones sleeping over in the office. It has a kitchen, a couple bathrooms, a bedroom, a living room, and of course, offices. It's a really nice place. That night after we showered and relaxed, the APs took us out to eat in downtown. We ate at a place called Mundo's. It was really good; I got a cheeseburger and coke. They love coca cola here! It’s everywhere, on all the signs and walls all over the place.

Anyway, I slept really well that night, I was sooooo tired. They let us sleep in a bit, thankfully.  

The next day we went to the US embassy to sign some paperwork so we can stay here legally for the next little while. After that we went back to the office. We got the chance to walk around the area a bit. We walked out to the road that goes right along the coast. It was really nice. The view is really amazing. That night, we went to president's house for dinner. So that was the first time meeting President Kretly. I really like him, he's nice, funny and really goal oriented. He has great expectations for the mission over the next two years. Right now there are 0 stakes in Mozambique. By June of 2015, he wants 4 stakes. So there's definitely a lot of work to do here. We were able to learn more about the different areas of Mozambique and the goals of the mission, as I mentioned.  

The next day was a Zone Conference for missionaries Maputo and Matola. Matola is the neighboring city of Maputo, it's really big too. The conference was at the chapel in Maputo. It was great. We were all new to the mission, but it was good to hear the training from President Kretly to all the missionaries on how to accomplish the goals of the mission. President Kretly is the CEO of Franklin Covey in Brazil, and he's really good at giving motivational talks and getting the missionaries energized and on the same page to accomplish their task. I love hearing him talk, he's really passionate about the work here, and it’s great! This mission REALLY focuses on baptizing familias, because it builds a good foundation for the church here, and families are more likely to stay active than single people. I couldn't understand everything in the conference though; it was done all in Portuguese. It was still good, though.  

I am guessing that you're probably wondering when I got out to my first area to start working with a new companion. Well, we arrived on Wednesday, and transfers were today, so for Saturday and Sunday we were put into divisions with other missionaries in the area. I was sent to Matola and worked with Elder Williams, on sat and sun. It was a lot of work, but it was really good. He is also from Pleasant Grove, believe it or not.  He graduated in 2011. When I saw him, I thought he looked kind of familiar. So yeah, that was really cool to work with him for a couple days. So I went along with him as he did baptismal interviews and other responsibilities. We did contacting in the streets too. That was pretty interesting. I have a hard time understanding the people here a bit; they speak Portuguese different than I've ever heard it. We also went and taught a lesson to a couple. We taught about the plan of salvation. I didn't say anything until the end, when I bore my testimony about our Heavenly Father’s plan. For the most part, the people here are soooo nice and friendly! You can walk up to pretty much anyone and just start talking to them. They don't all want to be taught, but they'll take the time to talk. 

On Sunday we went to church, it was great! We took a chapa (a van stuffed full of people) and a bus for 40 minutes to get to the church; there is a closer chapel that is still under construction. Church was really good. President and Sister kretly were actually there, and they spoke. The chapels here look very different than in Utah, that's for sure. I wish I could send pics, but I'm on a computer in the mission office, and we can't hook up cameras here.  I will send pics as soon as I can. Anyway, after church and lunch, we went out contacting and teaching lessons again. We taught a lesson on the restoration to a couple, and I spoke a lot more during it. It was really nice. The houses are super small. One of them was basically four pieces of metal and a roof. But the people are happy, so that's nice. I really like it here.

I don't have time now. But I needed to say that I got my transfer today. My first official area: *Quelimane!! It's up north. I get on a flight to there on Wednesday (7/3) and in the meantime I will be on a division with another elder in Maputo. But today has been good. We did more visa work and stuff. But I need to go now, sadly. I wish I could have said more.....I know you're all doing well, thanks for the pics! You all look great as well! Don’t worry about me, I'm healthy, and eating right! Have a good week!!

 

Love you all, Josh (Elder Rebollo) 

 

 

*Quelimane (pronounced "kelly-monney"), is Mozambique's 4th largest city and seaport which serves to be an important trade centre for Mozambique. Situated approximately 20km from the Beautiful blue seas of the Indian Ocean

Week 6 Arriving in Mozambique

Elder Rebollo arriving in Maputo, Mozambique

Week 6

Maputo, Mozambique 6/24/13---6/27/13

Dear Family and friends,

Elder Rebollo left the MTC June 24 and arrived in Mozambique on June 26. He and his group had a grueling trip that took them through Dallas, TX, London, Johannesburg and finally to Maputo, Mozambique. With flight times and layovers it was just under a 50-hrs trip.

We talked to him while he was waiting in London. He sounded great and we were very happy to finally hear his voice saying how much he loves his family and that he is grateful for his time at the MTC, his district, his companion and teachers. He told us that it was the perfect time to leave the MTC and get to the field. He recalled some of his experiences and some of the highlights while he was there. He talked about all the things he learned and his desire to get to the mission field. He was traveling in a big group of eight elders and three sisters, all assigned to labor in Mozambique.

We were told that he and his group arrived there safely and that they looked great and are eager to start working.

Great News! Devotional Performance, Travel Plans.

Week 5 - 6/14/2013 MTC Provo

Queridos familia e amigos

I hope you all had a wonderful week. Mine was really good. So I told you Friday (June 7^th) that Sister Nally said that I would play at a devotional.  Well, right after I sent that letter I got the official invitation from the MTC to play at the Sunday devotional on June 9^th, at 7 pm,( that was just less than 2 days away from that day) —at the same time I picked up the mail containing some more great news, my  travel plans! I’ll tell you about that in a moment—

The Devotional

A devotional at the MTC

That Sunday June 9^th, I went a couple hours before the devotional to do a sound check.  Then the devotional was at 7 pm   The devotional was for the whole MTC, so that’s a lot more than 3000 missionaries and all the MTC presidency and branch presidencies.  It was by far the biggest audience I would have to play for.  The devotional started with an opening hymn, then a prayer and after that a member of the MTC presidency introduced the speaker and then I did my musical number.  I was definitely nervous!- but I didn't make any mistakes.  Elder Arnesen, at the piano, did a great job also.

My companion 

MTC companions Elder Thomas and Elder Rebollo

and everyone in my district 

My MTC District

said that the whole thing sounded great and that I looked good in those big screens.

The devotional hall is really big, it holds about 2000 people.  Then it is broadcast to an overflow room in another MTC building that has another 500; then there is an extension of the MTC at Wyview, which has about 200 seats.  The speaker was Brother Richard Heaton of the MTC administration.  He gave a great talk on teaching by the Spirit is the most important element in teaching the Gospel. 

Famous...for a week :) 

After the devotional, I got a lot of compliments from the people around me, including MTC President and Sister Nally, and Bro. Richard Heaton, the speaker they all shook my hand and told me I did pretty good and that they enjoyed the musical number.   Throughout this week I've continued to get compliments from missionaries as I walk around campus: “Are you the elder who played cello on Sunday?” and “Good job on that cello on Sunday” Seriously! I have been complimented by I don’t even know how many people.  And I can tell others look at me as I walk by because they notice me from playing at the devotional.  I am not used to dealing with all that attention, but, It’s pretty cool; it was such a great experience.  I know the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to share my testimony through music. 

Travel Plans

At the end of the day we looked tired but really, we were like celebrating all day long!
We are going to Mozambique, here are our Itineraries!!

In my email I said I would be getting my travel plans next week.  Well, I just checked the mail that same Friday and guess what?  THEY ARE HERE!!!!!!!!!!  I can’t believe it! That means I got my visa!  And I have my complete itinerary. Here it is:
 

We are leaving SLC on Monday, June 24^th, 1:45 pm to Dallas, TX- to England- to South Africa and to Mozambique, arriving there on June 26 around 11 am

So, Yeah, I’ll have a 7-hr layover in London, I have heard that for layovers that long they allow you to leave the airport. So I might get to see London a bit!

You have no idea how excited everyone was when I walked in with the itineraries.  It was crazy!

So I will definitely have plenty of time to call home.  I will need a neck pillow; these are going to be LOOONG flights, especially to London and London to South Africa.

With love, 

Elder Rebollo                                                                                       

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!! J I LOVE YOU DAD!!

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

Week 3 - 5/31/2013 MTC Provo Utah

Oi Familia! 

The time is really flying by!... We have gym time 5 times a week. Since the weather has been nice lately, we've been going outside and playing volleyball on the sand courts by the temple. It's pretty fun. We're continuing to teach our "investigators". It's still hard to do it all in Portuguese, but it gets easier each time. At least when I get out in the field, I'll have a companion who's fluent in Portuguese. One of the teachers here from another zone came to talk to our district during class yesterday. He got back from his mission to Mozambique 4 months ago. He gave us a lot of good information and answered our questions about Mozambique. It's nice that we have a good resource here to answer our questions.

I've been learning how to teach and be led by the Spirit, and to determine the needs of investigators. This saying often gets repeated a lot around here: "We teach people, not lessons." And it's true. The Gospel of Jesus Christ can bless the lives of all people, but they have to recognize how it can help them with their needs. The only way to do that is for us as missionaries to build trust and ask the right questions to people. Also, our personal study in the scriptures is very important in seeking personal revelation that can help us to help our investigators. I started reading the Book of Mormon when I got here two weeks ago, and I'm less than a hundred pages from the end. It's amazing how much can be gained from each verse. There's nothing in the Book of Mormon that isn't in there for a reason. I'm so excited to go to Mozambique! 

Jacob, congratulations on finishing 3rd grade, and doing so well this year, I'm SO proud of you!! I hope you have a ton of fun this summer! Thank you so much mom and dad for continuing to work hard every day for me and Jacob. I love you!!. 

Have a fantastic week!!!--Tchau!

Elder Rebollo