Elder CJ Rees

Wow this week was amazing!!  We started out great doing the normal work.  I was on divisions with an Elder from California.  He's headed home in two weeks and he taught me a lot.  Then me and my companion became sick.  It lasted for days... I have stories, but I cannot share them here.  That was a bummer of the week.   But I traveled to an outside area called Chimoio!!  It was like a 3 hour car ride.  The Zone Leader left his companion with Elder Van Orden and took me with him to pick up President Senna.  We spent the whole day together with Pres.  He is a great man and has a great sense of humor!  He took us to a nice restaurant and then we drove back to Beira This week we have 1 person for baptismo so we are both way pumped!! The work is continuing. Beira is growing and so is Mozambique.  I'm so excited to see the Lord's hand in the work this week!!  Thanks for the prays.  Com Amor, El...

I can't believe it, I'm going home in 1 Year!!  I kinda hit my year mark - I leave on August 11th of next year.  Elder Goncalvas & I celebrated and bought chocolate and a steak!  It was incredible!! It's been a pretty crazy week again!  T o start off we had a awesome zone conference and we gave a training. My companion was told about preparing a message and he never told me and totally forgot.  So when we arrived at the Zone Conference he saw our name on the list.  We became frantic and asked if we could have 5 min to prepare.  The Spirit was with us - we  talked about the missionary handbook and it went really well.  So grateful for the Spirit. This week we had some lessons with one or a few of our people we are teaching and wow were they powerful!  The top of the list was when we were with our friend Orezeo.  He's 30 years old, not married, and we have been teaching him for about 2 weeks.  This past week he...

We have been working hard!  I love walking in these shoes you sent me! It is so much better.  Thank you!  We had 3 baptisms on Saturday.  It was great.  Then we have to skip a week until we can mark any more for Baptism, but we have 8 more prepared in 2 more weeks.   We have people here who think we are Chinese.  I think it is because the Chinese own a lot of land here and so when I look different they think I am part of that culture.  I can take it for only so long and then I have to tell them that I am an American!  I just want to carry a flag with me or something to help people out!   When we talk and teach people we are finding ways to help them while we share the gospel with them.  The other day I helped a lady cut some lettuce while Elder Van Orden was talking with the family.  The only challenge is they don't think I know how to cut lettuce because I don't cut it in my hand.  I don't want to cut myself!...