Week 94 - Feb 28 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELDER REBOLLO!!

“They had a surprise for me. Near the end of the night, right before they finished up their activity some of them called me over to sit down in the middle of the room, then they all walked in with a cake singing happy birthday. It was really nice”

Dear Family!!

Thanks for your emails. I know you must have missed me a little more this week since it was my birthday, but at least this was the last birthday that I will have to be away from home. My birthday here wasn't as good as at home, but it was still good.

This week was really good. Our investigators are still progressing well.  The one family/couple that we have been working with have finished all their marriage documents and we opened their marriage process at the civil register on Friday! They will be getting married and baptized on the 14th of this month! If everything goes as planned, It would be the first baptism in Quelimane this year and the first baptism of a family in quite a long time. So we are very, very grateful for this. This family was actually found a long time ago, by Elder Heaton just a little after I had left Quelimane the first time.  Elder Khumalo and I started to visit them again and they told us how much they wanted to get baptized before but they had to do all the marriage stuff first and were not able to for several reasons.  Over the past couple weeks we've been helping them with their documents and stuff and now they are 2 weeks away from getting baptized, it is a miracle! Aside from them, we have another family that hopefully can still be baptized this month.  On the 14th we will also baptize a few other people.

Church yesterday went really well. The attendance was up, it was almost 70, and we had 12 investigators there. I taught the lesson in the first hour for the priesthood group. It was about duties of the priesthood and how we should fulfill our responsibilities-It was a good lesson.

This week our branch had an audit. A brother from Beira came up to perform the audit. It was on Friday. I spent a lot of time this week helping Cornelio, the financial secretary organize all the tithing information from the past 6 months, before the audit. It went pretty well, the brother doing the audit told us our branch is doing a good job in taking care of the church's finances.

On Saturday there was a youth activity here at the church and an an institute class as well. At the activity they were planning to do a big thing and make a bunch of food, but because it was the last Saturday coming into the first Sunday, fast Sunday, they moved the activity to Sunday evening after church.

So, yesterday at about 3pm a bunch of the youth showed up for the activity. They played some games, conversed, and made a lot of food. They used our kitchen, but they cleaned up well afterwards-thankfully. It was fun to hang out with all of them.

They had a surprise for me. Near the end of the night, right before they finished up their activity some of them called me over to sit down in the middle of the room, by myself, then they all walked in with a cake singing happy birthday. It was really nice. I totally didn't expect this and really took me by surprise. The cake was made by one of the young women. It was a pretty good cake. I love this branch of Quelimane. It was nice to have these young men and women express their love or appreciation for me in this way. So I'm glad to say that I had a good birthday here.

To answer you questions, Mom. Yes, I’ll probably continue to keep my hair short when I get back. Have I fallen? Not by slipping on ice (like at the U-  Remember?)No, not really. I've had a couple incidents, but nothing too serious, for the most part.  I'll tell you more about all that when I get home haha.

I'm jealous of you guys always going to good new restaurants there. The restaurants here aren't bad, but they all have the same stuff.  There are no special restaurants for Chinese, or Italian, or Mexican, or pizza. All the restaurants have the same food (chicken, rice, beans, fries, hamburgers, etc.) You'll introduce me to some of those new good restaurants when I get home.

Anyway, I hope you have a good week at home and work.

I love you sooo much and hope this week goes by quickly and happily.

Love

Josh 

Week 93- Back in Quelimane After 1st Stake Conference in Maputo

2/23/15

Dear Family

Thanks for your letter. I'm glad to see that the week was good. Haha that's funny that you couldn't do laundry for a week just because the dryer didn't work. I have completely forgotten that dryers even exist. No one that I know has a dryer here; I've never seen a dryer in anyone's home.

About internet, I also forgot that at home the internet can be slow sometimes too. I guess I just assumed that in America everything works perfectly well and quickly all the time. I've been away for too long ha-ha.

This past week went pretty well. On Monday we returned from Maputo, as you know. On Tuesday we had a mini P-day. We just did internet, the rest of the day was normal. On Tuesday we also walked with Rafael, one of the young men who are preparing to go on a mission. I really enjoy working with him; he's smart and has a really good understanding of the gospel. On Wednesday we had some lessons, but a lot of time got taken up by our branch presidency meeting. It was a good meeting, though. It's nice that President Mabunda is back. It makes things easier for us to focus on missionary work. 

We got to visit a nice family I baptized here in Mozambique. They are inactive right now, due to a number of factors. They are always really busy with work so it is hard to sit with them often. But we had a good visit. Hopefully in the coming weeks they will start to come to church again. We'll keep working with them. Friday was a good day; the work went pretty well that day too. Saturday and Sunday were good, but we didn't have much time at all to go out and work. On Saturday there were the usual activities: English class, institute, and the youth mutual activity. On Sunday church was good, but the attendance was low. There's still a lot of work to do to help get that up. The meetings were good, though.

After church, Abrao and Cornelio hung around to take care of some branch things. They also made lunch for us, it was nice. Then in the evening there was another little youth activity. They made cake. I mean to say, they burned cake haha. They left some behind for us, though. It was pretty good, the parts that weren't burnt.

At night we visited President and Sister Mabunda at their home and had a little dinner with them. They are a really nice couple, I enjoy conversations with them. We talked about ideas and things to put into action to help the branch grow.

Our investigator family that is progressing the most at this time is coming to church every week. We're working with them to get them baptized this transfer. Elder Mutombo, my new companion likes Quelimane a lot so far. We're working well together.

That’s all for now, enjoy your week! I love you

Josh

Week 92-- Maputo Stake organized on February 15 and Beira Stake was approved for March 22, 2015!

 2/17/15 Tuesday

Hey Family!

On Friday (2/13) we were told to get on a plane and go to Maputo to attend the historical first stake conference in Maputo.  So on Saturday night (2/14) we flew down to Maputo and stayed in the apartment of the Lopes' a senior missionary couple from Brazil. The conference on Sunday was like a dream come true! President had every missionary in the mission gathered in one spot for the first time ever. It was really a one in a life time event, it was so cool to see everyone there.

All the missionaries of the Mozambique Maputo Mission with visiting Church leaders at the conclusion of the first stake conference in Mozambique in the newly organized Maputo Stake. Feb 15, 2015

 I saw a lot of the members and people that I had baptized while I was in T3, and Matola, many of them were at the conference.  

Two years ago we would only talk about this day, in that it was a goal for all of us missionaries. We were promised that if we were obedient and did our work as the Lord commanded this day would come when we would be witnessing the first stake in Mozambique being established here in Mozambique. And now here was the fruit of all the hard work and dedication that every missionary past and present had to do to make this a reality.  The work is not done yet, it has only begun for us and for the future missionaries to keep the momentum going.  Here is part of the message from our mission President regarding this great blessing:

“Dear Missionaries,

Last week, we all experienced unforgettable moments in our lives. The first stake in Mozambique was organized. It was a memorable meeting where we had the presence of Elder Stanley Ellis and his wife. We also had the presence of Elder Mdletshe. It was exciting when all heard the presiding authority read the letter from the First Presidency approving the organization of the Maputo Mozambique Stake, the Spirit was very strong.

What a wonderful blessing it was to see all the congregation; the meeting was attended by more than 1050 people, all enjoying the sweet Spirit of that meeting. What seemed like a dream two and a half years ago became a reality. We felt the spirit of thanksgiving and joy to the Eternal God that we have a stake in Maputo! In addition, for the first time the entire mission was gathered together, all the missionaries were invited to this sacred event. It was a spiritual feast.

But the Miracles continue! Last Thursday, I received a call from the Area Presidency (Elder Ellis), announcing that the First Presidency of the Church approved the second Stake in Mozambique, the Beira Mozambique Stake. The new Beira Mozambique Manga District was also approved. So in a period of only one month two Stakes will be organized and one new District in the country. More miracles!

We can never deny the hand of God in this sacred work, the Lord has guided us since the first day we arrived in these blessed lands. I remember that upon arriving here, I thought about doing and carrying out a lot, but these thoughts simply vanished from my mind. The Lord was guiding us quickly in a few days giving Revelation, giving us the vision and thereby He made us see clearly what His will was. Our vision is: "To establish the Church in Mozambique and Swaziland, through Real growth, becoming extraordinary missionaries", our goal is: "To establish the first Stakes of Zion" our purpose is in Preach My Gospel on page one, and it's wonderful. So with this vision, Purpose and Goal, we walked in a direction that few believed in at the beginning, it was to find, teach, baptize, confirm and help complete FAMILIES to find eternal happiness. We speak of qualified contacts, how to become an effective missionary and work in all the phases, 100% obedient, then 100% PMG, do not do stupid things, focus on families that are progressing, the "snowball", helping youth to serve a full-time mission, help the leadership to mature through training and monitoring.

As missionaries, all of you, those who have passed here and also the current ones, to previous Mission Presidents, to the wonderful local leaders, to all, my sincere thanks for all the work done, and especially to God who made it all possible . These are the first results: Two stakes formed, a district, more than ten new units, 95 local full-time missionaries called, over 500 new holders of the Melchizedek Priesthood, 525 complete families baptized and more.

I believe that today, I, Sister Kretly, you and all the missionaries who have gone through this mission feel as Ammon and his brethren felt and related in Alma 26:31, 35-37 “

Family and friends, I’m happy to serve our Lord Jesus Christ here in Mozambique at this very special time, when we are experiencing the Lord's blessings towards his children here in this beautiful land. 

Elder Joshua Rebollo

Week 91 – Back in Quelimane after Zone Conference in Beira

Dear family,

This past week went pretty well, nothing too crazy happened, but it was a good week. On Tuesday we had a meeting in the morning with Elder Tad Callister, the Sunday School general president, and Elder Larry Gibson, 1st counselor in the Young Men's general presidency. It was an amazing meeting! Elder Gibson talked about helping the young men preparing to serve missions here in Mozambique and talked about our priesthood duty to share the gospel with others.

Elder Callister spoke about the Atonement and repentance. I was amazed at his knowledge of the scriptures, he really knows them inside and out. The way he explains things is so clear and thorough. I've never had an explanation of the atonement like the one he gave. It made me realize that there is so much about the Atonement and about Jesus Christ that I have not yet learned or that I don't yet understand. We had a chance to shake their hands and talk to them a little afterwards, but I didn't get any pictures with them, sorry. 

A few hours after that meeting we made our way to the Beira airport to go back to Quelimane. The plane ride was nice, smooth and no delays. We found everything back at the house just as we had left it. On the Sunday we were gone we had Abrao, our branch mission leader, conduct sacrament meeting, and he said everything went well and many of our investigators showed up. The rest of the week went well. We visited all our investigators and worked to find new ones. 

What we really did well this week was visiting the members who we felt would benefit from our visit. Many of these are members who I visited regularly the first time I was here, when they were newly baptized converts. And now some of them, not all, are not as active and participating as they could be. We visited a family that used to live pretty close to the church the first time I was here. Now they live really far. But they have a car, so this week they took us to their house and we had a nice lesson with them. We also visited another family, who've been members more than 2 years. We also continue to visit Walter and Darmin. We are working with these families because they have been members for well over a year and have not yet made preparations to go to the temple. We also visit many of the youth in the branch; they amazing! I really love them all.

On Friday it was the opening day of Carnaval here in Quelimane. Some cities in Mozambique put on a carnival festival, like the tradition in Brazil. In Mozambique, the Quelimane carnaval is the biggest one. The opening day had a big parade in the streets. We weren't expecting it, and it made it a little hard to get to some of our lessons. It was cool to see the huge crowds though. People dress up, paint their faces, wear crazy clothes, and dance a lot. Carnaval here will continue through this week and end this coming Sunday. The bad thing is that in this festival there are a lot of people drinking, women with revealing clothing, and a lot of other temptations, that we encouraged the members specially the youth to not attend this festival. Instead, we organized some activities at the church this weekend for them to come and be together so they didn't stay at home and get bored and go to that festival.

On Saturday I taught the English class and afterwards there was institute /seminary- a member teaches these classes. On Sunday afternoon there was another youth get-together, with food this time. Since the chapel is our house, we have to stay there with them while they have their activities. It's fun to be with them and converse and have fun with them. The Sunday meetings went well.

President Mabunda has still not returned, so I led Sacrament meeting once again. He'll be back before this coming Sunday, though. 

A few more missionaries went home today, including my former companion Elder Bender. It's really weird that he is going home today. I was companions with him over a year ago in T3, back then he still had a long time left, as did I. But now that he's gone, I realize that my time is quickly coming as well. 

I'm so grateful that I'm here in Quelimane at this time. I can't think of a better place in the mission to be.

I love you sooo much. Have a great week!!

Josh

Week 90 - Later this month, The First Stake in Mozambique!!!

“…There was a light in their eyes that wasn't there when I first contacted them on the road almost 2 months ago. I can see the joy the Gospel in bringing into their lives. It was a really inspiring moment for me and I felt rewarded by the Lord to see the fruits of my labor ”

Hey Everyone! I am in Beira today attending Zone Conference

This past week everything went well. Monday through Wednesday we worked our normal routine out in the field and in the branch. There was a zone conference in Beira and we were instructed to attend. So I had to assign the mission leader Abrao to take care of Sunday meetings here.

On Thursday evening we got a chopela to take us to the airport there we waited a few hours to take a flight to Beira for zone conference.

Upon arrival in Beira, the senior couple, Elder and Sister Castro Deus, picked us up and took us to one of the missionary houses near the Beira chapel. This house is pretty nice; it has an extra room, so there was enough space for us. We got there late so we just went to bed almost immediately. The next day was zone conference.

The church leader attending was Elder Stanley G. Ellis of the Seventy and his wife, along with President and Sister Kretly. The training was really good. It was about the gospel and the whole purpose of the work that we do, and what we can do to help strengthen the church here. He made an awesome and exciting announcement:

On February 14-15 there will be a special conference in Maputo in which, the Maputo Mozambique district will become the first stake  to be established in Mozambique!!

We were all very excited when we heard this. And most likely a stake in Beira will be established a little later this year. Since 2012 when President Kretly started, over 500 families have been baptized in Mozambique! It has been really cool to be a missionary here and play a part in the progress of the church here. I am a witness that this is a mission of miracles!

After lunch there was training, for missionary leaders, like district and zone leaders, I was invited to be in this training meeting also. It was another great training.

After the conference we had a little time to go out to do some work. We went over to Mascarenha, the area I just left 3 weeks ago and visited a couple people. It was really nice to see them again. I visited 2 families, who I with Elder Christiansen found not long ago. In fact when we got there we ran into him along with his companion, who had just finished giving a lesson to them and were getting ready to leave. The two families were really surprised and happy to see me. I was overjoyed to learn that their marriage docs are almost complete and will be getting baptized in a couple weeks.

I really can see something different in their faces, in their eyes as I talked with them. There was a light there that wasn't there before, when I first contacted them on the road almost 2 months ago. I can see the joy the gospel in bringing into their lives. It was a really inspiring moment for me and I felt rewarded by the Lord to see the fruits of my labor here. It strengthened me and has given me more motivation to continue working hard until the time I go home.

On Saturday, the Beira district conference started with a couple sessions, first for the priesthood, and then a general session. I learned a lot of things about the importance of the organization of the church and counsels in the church; a lot of these things will help the Quelimane branch.  

On Sunday was the general session of district conference. It was packed, there were over 1000 people there! I got to see more people from Mascarenha too, so that was nice.   

Anyway, that was my week. It is really nice to be here in Beira again. Tomorrow (Tue)before we go back to Quelimane, we will have another zone conference. Elder Tad R. Callister, the Sunday School general president will be visiting, along with Elder Larry Gibson, First Counselor in the Young Men general presidency. I'm excited to hear them speak to us! 
I’ll tell you about that conference next week.  

Have a great week!

I love you all!!

Josh 

(This email from Josh is from 2/2/15)

Week 89 – A normal work week in Quelimane

Dear family,

Thank you for your letter and always thinking of me and my safety and health. I'm doing well here in Quelimane.  I do get tired sometimes, but I try not to exert myself more than necessary. The fact that I don't have much time left, motivates me to keep working hard every day until its time for me to go home. The Lord is helping me always. I don't let things get to me too much. The added responsibilities do add an extra weight. But it's nothing I can't handle. Thankfully it hasn't kept me from doing my regular missionary work. Only a couple days during the week I have to spend more time just dedicated to the branch. And I know it will be easier when the branch president returns next month. But for now it's cool to have this added challenge. There's no way I would be able to have an experience like this if was serving in the US or some other place where the church is better established. It's a pleasure to serve here, though, I'm really grateful for it.

This week went pretty well. It didn't rain much, so we didn't get soaked like last week. This week was the opposite; it was just very very hot. The intense heat of the sun dried out all the roads that had been under water just the week before.  

On Monday we had a family home evening for the branch here at the chapel. We read a chapter from the Book of Mormon together and played a few games, it was fun spending a good time with the members. On Tuesday we had a normal work day. We usually go out on the road and contact people in the mornings  and after that we go have lunch and do studying in the early afternoon. Every day we took one of the members with us to teach at least a few lessons. We found a good number of new investigators this week. 

On Wednesday I had the branch presidency meeting with the executive secretary, Cornelio. He's a really cool guy. He's about 25 years old, is single and is a singer. He has made an album already and has had some success. He was once on a program that is the Mozambican equivalent of "American idol', and is working on a new album. He's a really strong member too, always available to help out. Also Abrao was in the meeting. He's the member who will be going on a mission this year and is waiting for his calling which should come soon. 

We talked about the things of the branch and picked the topic for sacrament meeting talks.

Thursday and Friday were good days, we found a couple more new families to teach. On Saturday we had a lot of things to do at the house. In the morning was the weekly cleaning of the chapel. In the afternoon I taught English class, about 7 people showed up. Then after that there was a young single adult activity and we participated. It was pretty fun. Yesterday church meetings went pretty well. The attendance was 65 and we had 16 investigators at church! The classes went well. I didn't teach yesterday, but I did give a talk in sacrament meeting. I talked about integrity.  The other talks were also very good. I felt the Spirit during church. I enjoy when we are being taught by the Spirit. 

We ate at one of the member's houses for lunch and walked with another member for the rest of the day to our lessons. Nothing too exciting or crazy happened this week though. It was a great week and I'm excited being here.

Anyway, I hope you have another great week and enjoy the warm winter.

With Love

Josh  

Week 88 - Happy to be back in Quelimane

Dear Family,

I'm doing well here. To answer your question, I am aware of the floods up north in Macuba, I've seen pics and videos of it as well. This is the rainy season. Quelimane, along with much of Zambezia Province, is extremely prone to floods during the rainy season, but I don't think we will have floods here like in Macuba. However, many roads are flooded due to heavy rain; they're still passable, but in some parts the water gets pretty high, even with our tall rain boots on. But we're staying safe. We dry off immediately when we get home and try not to be too wet during the whole day. It's all part of the experience though; I'll have some interesting stories to tell when I get home. But I’m enjoying my time here so much.

Last Monday in Beira, after I got the news of the transfers, we went about our p-day as normal. That evening we went out to work and I said goodbye to some of our investigators and members in our area. I thank the Lord for the special opportunity I had to work with so many good people here, Almost everyone I met was very receptive and friendly. So it's bitter sweet to have to leave, but this is the work of the Lord and this is His time. The next day I got on a flight to my new area.

So now, I am back in Quelimane,  this city hasn't changed much since I left over a year ago. All the roads look the same, there's still a ton of people riding bikes everywhere, To me, Quelimane is a beautiful place it's not a big fancy city in any way; it is small and old and has a unique history!  I love this place and although it is small, it has about everything you need.

The work this week went well. It was nice to visit the members during the week and see them at church yesterday. All were very surprised to see me here again.  Serving here this time is a lot different than my first time. This time around I'm not a new missionary, I know the language, the culture and the people,  and this time I have a lot more responsibilities, I have been called by our mission president to serve as the 2nd counselor in the branch, however, our 1st counselor has not been coming to church for a few weeks. So the presidency for now is just President Mabunda and me and the executive secretary. But things got more interesting for me because on Saturday, President Mabunda traveled down to Maputo, he's taking a 3 week vacation from work. So yesterday I was presiding and conducting sacrament meeting.  And for the next two weeks I will do the same, as well as presiding over other meetings during the week. So yesterday it was a little strange for me to say the least, but it went well for being my first time ever that I was presiding in a branch of the church.  I also had to teach the Gospel Doctrine class for the adults during Sunday school, the regular teacher was absent, in fact a lot of people were absent because of heavy rain. This week we are going to work really hard to invite people to come to church next Sunday.

The rain wast not enough reason to keep us from doing our job. If that was the case, we would not have gone out all week. The good thing is that when it's raining the people we want to visit are in their homes. So we put on our boots and get on our bikes and do our work as normal.

I've got completely soaked from head to toe about 3 times this week haha. 

We have great youth here in this branch. Every day this week a young man came along with us to our lessons. There is one young man here, Abrao, who submitted his mission papers this week. He is a pioneer in the sense that he will be the first person from Quelimane to go serve a full time mission. I will probably be here when he receives his call. My companion is Elder Khumal from Johannesburg, South Africa; this is his 3^rd month in Quelimane. Even though I know a most of the city already, he's been showing me around parts of the city where I didn't go to when I was first here. 

We also need to work a lot with the inactive families. Sadly, one very nice family we baptized has been inactive, so I'm excited to start working with them and bring them back. Other members I left behind though, are strong.  We had dinner at the house of one of the families we baptized  back then on Tuesday night when I got here.

Our house is still the same as before, it is big and comfortable; we also have our church meetings in this house.  Me and my companion are the only ones assigned to work the whole city, So I’m glad that we are allowed to ride bikes here in this area; it makes it getting around a lot easier- even in the rain.

This p-day has been good so far. We went to a soccer field to a school nearby and played soccer with the youth of the branch. It was pretty fun. Then we did our shopping, and came home. We use internet here in the house. 

Tonight we are having a branch family home evening here at our house, it should be fun.  Now that I've spent this week getting used to the area again, I'm ready to work and find new families and help the members be stronger and help the branch have real growth. It will only be possible with the hand of the Lord.

I thank you for all your prayers for me and my investigators. I love you sooo much and I’m glad to hear that you're all doing well. I am always praying and thinking of all of you.

Love,

Josh