Week #67 - Go Ye into All the World!

This has been a great week!  

President & Sister Senna have been with us from Tuesday to Saturday.  The best part is they took us out to eat every night!  Tuesday I drove Sister Senna around to check the cleanliness of homes.  She is a germophobe - I am not sure how she got sent to this mission!  The first place we went was the Sisters home (it is usually the cleanest!) Sister Senna walked in a saw a spider web and exclaimed, "Pessoas!  Pessoas!  Pessoas!...."  and she just shook her head.  That means people, people, people!  I was prepared from so much worse as the day went, but she was really kind even though she was firm.  She told us lots of stories as we drove.  She is really cool!

President now is pushing for people to get baptized.  They want to build a new stake in Manga/Beira area for when the new mission president comes this summer.  He said we need 300 more people in our area!  He said baptize the men, women, and children!   We are putting extra effort into our teaching now and really working to help the people get to church!  


"Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature, acting in the authority which I have given you, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
               D&C 68:8 

 We have had a some people baptized these past few weeks.  They are so happy to make this choice.  The Church is sending us 85 new missionaries by the end of April 2020.  They want to have things set up for the new mission.  Wow, what if Alex was called here?  Our area is at least as big as Box Elder County and I don't even know how many people there are, but we could use more missionaries everywhere.  

We are preparing for our big Christmas Party for the Manga/Beira zones!  We are doing a service at an orphanage in Beira, having a talent show, and playing fun games.  We are getting pumped!   Elder Barney is now the zone leader in Beira - it is great that I will get to see him more often.  Because the airport is in our area, we always pick up all the missionaries and drive them around for transfers which is happening this week.  So I am getting to know both zones pretty well.

Because of elections the city can turn off the power any time they want!  They were really good to keep it on during elections, but now randomly they just turn it off in different areas!  I can tell when the power goes back on because the people all scream and make noise in the neighborhood!  I slept outside in the back of the truck for 2 nights, because I could not take the heat!  As soon as I laid my head down - a mosquito would buzz by my ear!  They make noise here - they are the worst!!

We just sweat all day here.  If I am losing any weight it is through sweat.  It will start raining soon and then we are wet on the outside and sweating on the inside.  

We have an older man that guards our home every night.  From 1800 to 600 every day.  He is a really nice man.  The church pays him money to keep people from breaking into our home.  They have to do that for all the homes and the churches.  The churches have generators which is good for them.  We have better things than most homes, so they have to protect them.  He carries a machete with him.   Each home has one in it too, just in case.  A few weeks ago someone broke into a missionaries home during the night while the missionaries were there sleeping.  He found the knives and left the missionaries alone.   

There is a nice place in Palmada by the beach that I think the new Mission President will be.  They may use the home we lived in for the office.  Elder Latu that was in Nacala with me was sent up north to Dondu.  We received 2 more areas in our zone - don't know where yet.  We will have a total of 16 missionaries in our zone.  

We were pulled over again.  I tried everything to get out of it, but this time I had to pay them money.  I forgot to tell you we had a wedding last week!   We also gave a name to a little baby girl.  A baby had been born for 2 weeks.  We went over to visit and asked for the name and they did not have one.  So we gave some ideas.  One of names was Delilah (like Samson and Delilah from the Bible).  They liked it so now that is the girls name. So they call her that name with Portuguese enunciation.  I tried giving them names like Madison and Sandi, but they did not like them, sorry sis and mom! haha.  

I was able to see Elder Van Orden before he left.  We ate out and took some pictures, what a great missionary!  I have spent more time in the Book of Mormon since Elder Holland's visit.  It is powerful to open it up and whatever I read and study that day helps me with the challenges I have for that day!  I know it is true!  It is the word of God and reading it brings me closer to Christ.  We have the light the world the church has sent out.  We are trying to help people do just a little something to light the world this season.  I'll let you know how it goes.  


Love you all,
Elder Rees
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