Elder CJ Rees

Another interesting week.   Transfers were last Saturday so we have been driving everywhere.  Saturday we woke up at 2am and Sunday 4am to get to the airport. We left right after the Sacrament on Sunday trying to get missionaries and supplies out.  I am staying with Elder Sosa one more transfer.  I have been in Beira now 1 whole year.  I love it!   We are getting another dupla so we have 20 missionaries in our zone.  7 duplas will be training new missionaries.   George, the mission worker has to take care of 3 more homes now.  We have 4 Americans, Elder Hammer, Squire, Jones, and me in the zone.  The other missionaries are from Brazil or Africa.  The new missionaries come on the 26th.  The AP's arrive today and Pres. Senna comes in tomorrow.   We had 3 baptisms this week!  So excited. Domingo's is the skinny one.  He is always sick.  We wondered if we would have to carry him or if h...

Hey family its been an great week! Lots of work in the area and some amazing visits.  I saw a sunrise this morning at 4:30am.  Incredible. The Durban South Africa Temple dedication was awesome and Elder Rasband was there so it was incredible.  The Beira Stake President gave one of the talks.  The people have never experienced anything like this before.  They have never had anything so formal.  We were instructed to lock the doors when it began and each person had to have a recommend.  There were 3 sessions.  We had to turn down so many people for not having a recommend or coming late.  We would tell them they could see the next session.  They did not understand, but we had to do it.  They also had never seen the hosanna shout.  Just me and the other missionaries were waving our handkerchiefs.  They just looked at us and started waving their hands.  It was so wonderful to see them have this opportunity....

This is Crimaldo.  We took him to the airport to serve in Freetown. The night before he was clean shaven and the Stake President invited us to be there for his setting apart! Again another crazy week!  I don't even know how to explain it in words.  We have done lots of divisions with the missionaries in our zone.  So really fun week and some really powerful lessons.  I had the opportunity to go and do divisions with all of our DLs in our zone and got to see how they work and Wow, was I impressed! Just  the different ways how people teach made me really see how peoples talents and the Spirit work through them.  The craziest thing of the week.. a storm! the worst I've been in in my life!  Friday we traveled to Dondu.  We went to a take away (hamburger place).  It was kinda scary.  We got soaked, fell down from the wind and some lawn chairs came flying at us.  We saw the car and it looked like the wind was going...

It has been so crazy this week!  Sometimes doing the work of the Lord means doing a lot of run around!  The secretaries came and we have been looking for homes for all the new missionaries that are coming in a few weeks.  There will be 22 new missionaries in the Beira Mission area and we have to get everything prepared!  The secretaries are doing a bunch too.  We have found 2 more places and we are setting up mosquito nets, refrigerators, and Sister Senna wants medical supplies in there too.  The next transfer there will be another 34 missionaries.  I think they will be split between both of the missions. The missionaries will be coming straight to Beira.  They are not stopping in Maputo.  There is no mission home or nice place for them to come to yet. I will be picking them up from the airport and President Senna wants it to be as nice as possible so we are getting a big feast and trying to have it look and feel good for the new missionari...