ola minha querida familia!!!
Hey yall!!! I totally lost track of time and didnt realize that karen was almost done with her mission! wow that is so crazy!!! It feels like she just left! and sean to only has what??? 3 days left! That is truly amazing to think that they are all going to be home soon, then alex aint far behind that! It makes me so happy to hear from you all thanks so much for the letter and your support.
So this week in the mission has been absolutly one of my favorit weeks of my mission! So as you all know we had or trasfer calls last week over email and now I am here in luanda 1 c with elder ecman! I can tell this transfer will be one of my favorits! Elder ecman and I probably have the closest work ethic on the mission, making it supper easy to get along and to get a tun of work done. This week has been a huge building week for us. The whole configuration of this area is changing for the better. I will admite the work is 10 times harder but the work is far more fofulling. We have been doing so many contacts and in this week alone we have gotten 3 baptismal dates! Elder ecman is a lot more experience as a missionary and in the laguage especially so it is extremly nice to have him as a resource to study and what not.
Ok so to finnish up the story from last week. So I already explained how the chaple got robed and what he took so know I need to tell you how we got some of the stuff back. So we have this investigator that lives right next to the chaple. His name is hipolito. I have already talked abou him a while back. On the second return of the rouber Hipolito had heard somthing in the middle of the night like around 2 or somethign like that. So he went out side and saw this guy jump into his yard from the chaple and instantly he knew what it was because we had told him. So he went over and grab the robber and took the one of the speakers from him! ha ha Hipolito is a huge guy so he can handle himself and us missionaries. He was only able to get one speaker from but we are thankfull he got it.
We also got our amplifier back by some mirical to. The president of the branch was walking home from work one day and suddenly he felt a strong feeling to enter into an electric store that was on his way home so he did so. As soon as he entered there sitting on the floor was the amplifier. So he talked to the store owner and he let president take it back to the chaple without any cost! It was just such a miricle because that weekend we were going to watch general conference and we would have had no way to watch it.. It is just so interesting how the lord works to bring to pass his will.
So that same hipolito got a baptismal date for the 12th of november so here in not to long we will have a baptism! I am so excited for him. He is one of the most prepare people i know. The other two were with Irmão lourenso and his wife veronica. They made a comitmet to get married in december so that they could get all the money together and what not and they will be baptised in january! I am convinced that lourenso will be the the first patriarch here in angola:)
Well hey yall I love you so much and I hope you have a great week!
Elder Wilhelm
Monday, October 29, 2012
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Monday, October 22, 2012
10/22/12
Hello family!!!
Wow I loving hearing from you all so much!!! Gosh it just helps me so much to get letters from you all. THANKS!!!
Ok so I dont know how long I this letter will be because I am almost out of time but I have just a quick story to write to you all. But first I will tell you what is all going down with transphers!!! drum roll please........ I AM STAYING ha ha but thats not all I am recieving a new companion! I am super excited to work with Elder Eckmen, my new comp. He is probably just as much of a nerd as I am with music and hunting and stuff haha so I think we will get along great!
So this week at our branch we had a little visiter. No it wasnt an investigator or a member or any general authority. On monday night after a family night that us missionaries were hosting in the chaple a burgerler or however you spell it broke into the chaple. It happened long after we had gone so dont be worryied or anything, but what he had done was jump over the wall that surounds the church. On the front door of the church he had torne up some metal bars so he was able to slip under and get in. The first night on monday he took and amplifier for our speaker system. he came back two nights later and stole a few other things to. ha ha it was an interesting week. The amazing thing is we got the majority of it back. I dont have enought time to tell how that happened so untill next week ya:)
Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Wilhelm
Wow I loving hearing from you all so much!!! Gosh it just helps me so much to get letters from you all. THANKS!!!
Ok so I dont know how long I this letter will be because I am almost out of time but I have just a quick story to write to you all. But first I will tell you what is all going down with transphers!!! drum roll please........ I AM STAYING ha ha but thats not all I am recieving a new companion! I am super excited to work with Elder Eckmen, my new comp. He is probably just as much of a nerd as I am with music and hunting and stuff haha so I think we will get along great!
So this week at our branch we had a little visiter. No it wasnt an investigator or a member or any general authority. On monday night after a family night that us missionaries were hosting in the chaple a burgerler or however you spell it broke into the chaple. It happened long after we had gone so dont be worryied or anything, but what he had done was jump over the wall that surounds the church. On the front door of the church he had torne up some metal bars so he was able to slip under and get in. The first night on monday he took and amplifier for our speaker system. he came back two nights later and stole a few other things to. ha ha it was an interesting week. The amazing thing is we got the majority of it back. I dont have enought time to tell how that happened so untill next week ya:)
Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Wilhelm
Monday, October 15, 2012
10/15/12
Dear family
boa tarde familia!!! Wow I just love hearing from you every week. It just lifts up my spirits and jsut makes me want to work even harder. Thankyou so much:) That is so wierd I will be coming home to a new house and to a new niece and to everyone there in good ol saint johns! Wow that will be cool!!!!
So this week not just a ton happen. It feels like for the past few weeks I have had a story or somthing to tell yall but really it was kind of a boring week:) So I will go ahead and answere a few questions that some of you have had since I have been here about the food country and the people.
Starting off with the food:) ha ha this is probably my favorit part to talk about with some people! I will explain it in a list. So so far I have eaten cow tun, cow heart, cow liver, chicken heart and liver. There have also been some very scetchy seafood just to add to the record:) I will be totally honest and say that I loved the heart and the liver from the cow and the chicken but the tun had just the wierdest tecture to it that made it so hard to eat for me. Angola also has a few staple foods, my favorit being funge:) Funge looks exactly like mashed poatatos. but it is mashed potatos gone horriblely wrong!!! It has hardly any tast to it but If i could give it a tast it would be glue:) The the tecture of it is just wierd I have never had anything like it before. I actually like it:) kind of. It depends on who makes it and what you eat it with.
So the people are black... ha ha but some of the nicest people I have ever met. These people are so ready for the message of the restoration it is incredible. The way we have found most of our people has just been through contacting on the road. We love references from the branch but usually they run out of references super soon. They way we contact though is a little bit more different compared to most missions though which was just changed recently by our mission president. Before we would talk to everyone men women and childeren to try and get contacts. There is a slight flaw with that that our president found. Most people when they enter into the church as the only one in there families have a greater chance of falling into inactivity. But now what our president says is to baptise as much and more as long as we are looking for families. So we started looking for people that we call "quallified contacts" First it must be a man who is married on the record is over the age of 25 and wants to here our message. The progression we have seen here in our mission has been enormous. This past month we had more baptisms then ever combined with mozambique. Over 80 people were baptised and about 45 of those were from angola!
Here in angola we have about 30 missionaries but by the end of the year we should have around 40! In june is the projected date for us to become our own mission. We are still a very new mission but it is growing so fast! The information we have gotten from the district here in angola is they will be opening atleast 2 more branches here within 4 months. The plan is hopfully to have a stake in a year or more! Oh this place is just exploding and I am so excited to be a part of it here.
So we will be haveing transfers next week. I am not sure if i will find out before I email next time or anything but who knows I would be happy either way to leave this branch or to stay here:) But i will let yall know next week. I love you all and have a great week!
Elder Wilhelm
P.S. Dad did you get to go on your huntting trip?
boa tarde familia!!! Wow I just love hearing from you every week. It just lifts up my spirits and jsut makes me want to work even harder. Thankyou so much:) That is so wierd I will be coming home to a new house and to a new niece and to everyone there in good ol saint johns! Wow that will be cool!!!!
So this week not just a ton happen. It feels like for the past few weeks I have had a story or somthing to tell yall but really it was kind of a boring week:) So I will go ahead and answere a few questions that some of you have had since I have been here about the food country and the people.
Starting off with the food:) ha ha this is probably my favorit part to talk about with some people! I will explain it in a list. So so far I have eaten cow tun, cow heart, cow liver, chicken heart and liver. There have also been some very scetchy seafood just to add to the record:) I will be totally honest and say that I loved the heart and the liver from the cow and the chicken but the tun had just the wierdest tecture to it that made it so hard to eat for me. Angola also has a few staple foods, my favorit being funge:) Funge looks exactly like mashed poatatos. but it is mashed potatos gone horriblely wrong!!! It has hardly any tast to it but If i could give it a tast it would be glue:) The the tecture of it is just wierd I have never had anything like it before. I actually like it:) kind of. It depends on who makes it and what you eat it with.
So the people are black... ha ha but some of the nicest people I have ever met. These people are so ready for the message of the restoration it is incredible. The way we have found most of our people has just been through contacting on the road. We love references from the branch but usually they run out of references super soon. They way we contact though is a little bit more different compared to most missions though which was just changed recently by our mission president. Before we would talk to everyone men women and childeren to try and get contacts. There is a slight flaw with that that our president found. Most people when they enter into the church as the only one in there families have a greater chance of falling into inactivity. But now what our president says is to baptise as much and more as long as we are looking for families. So we started looking for people that we call "quallified contacts" First it must be a man who is married on the record is over the age of 25 and wants to here our message. The progression we have seen here in our mission has been enormous. This past month we had more baptisms then ever combined with mozambique. Over 80 people were baptised and about 45 of those were from angola!
Here in angola we have about 30 missionaries but by the end of the year we should have around 40! In june is the projected date for us to become our own mission. We are still a very new mission but it is growing so fast! The information we have gotten from the district here in angola is they will be opening atleast 2 more branches here within 4 months. The plan is hopfully to have a stake in a year or more! Oh this place is just exploding and I am so excited to be a part of it here.
So we will be haveing transfers next week. I am not sure if i will find out before I email next time or anything but who knows I would be happy either way to leave this branch or to stay here:) But i will let yall know next week. I love you all and have a great week!
Elder Wilhelm
P.S. Dad did you get to go on your huntting trip?
Monday, October 8, 2012
10/8/12
Dear familia
WOW I TOTALLY FORGOT IT WAS CONFERENCE THIS WEEK!!! I hope it all went well and yes we did hear the news about the age changing though:) that is probably one of the coolest things I have heard. It just means that all of you young people out there are that much more prepared than us old people here on the mission:) Very cool stuff though. So It sound like yall had an awesome week but not to crazy. I hope mom and dad get to move soon though... I bet you are a little nervous.
So because we didnt get to watch general conference we will get to watch it in about 2 weeks hopfully. We will watch it in the branches. mas president was nice enough to invite all of the missionaries over on sunday to watch the priesthood session and to eat dinner. That was probably the most powerful priesthood session I have ever seen. and of course we got to hear an analyge about about air planes for ukdorf:) If you didnt get to see it watch it, then read it, then read it again! It just really got me so pumped to go and watch the other ones in a few weeks.
This past week Elder Kearney and I got to have a once in a life time experience. I am not talking about skydiving or anything like that but with one of our investigators. So I think I have already talked about our investigator lourenso. We have been teaching him and his family for the past 2 weeks know. The last few time we were there we had really talked about the plan of salvation and how we can complete our purpose on earth via baptism. So They have all been really responsive to it. This last time we were over at there house only lourenso was home so we decided to answere any questions he had about anything about the church. I know a brod question, but he looked at us and started to say,
"I have gone through this whole life just following what my parents taught me and what the preachers had always told me not knowing for sure where to go and what to do. I have always been a little weary with other churches including mine because they preach many things that arent in line with the bible, always asking for money and most of there teaching dont even come from the bible. Never have I seen such love and charity from a church as yours has shown to me and my family. The stress of family and being to gether forever is somthing that i want and need for me and my family to progress and grow."
This man I probably the most prepared man I have ever met in my life. As we started talking a little bit more we started talking about the book of mormon. He has read all of 1nefi and almost done with 2nefi in just 2 weeks. He bore his testimony to us with such strong conviction that he knows this church is true and that book of mormon is the word of God. He said at the beginnig he had a lot of doughts but as he continued to read and the study the book of mormon the more things made sence to him in the bible and with what he should do because of the book of mormon. I have perhaps never felt the spirit so strongly in my life.
I love this man with all my heart and I am just glad I could be here to find him. Anyone could have found him and had the same thing happen to him, all he needed was a book to help him find his way. I know this is the preachyest thing you are going to ever hear me say but That book Is everything to me. I know with what happened to him can happen to every single living person on this earth. There is so much power that just leeks off the pages and all we have to do to access it is just by opening it and reading its pages. I have been reading it a lot latty to be able to finish it again. I can feel myself grow and learn in ways I have never imagined.
But anyways to say the least we set up a baptismal date with him for in 2 weeks:) We tried to set it up for in about a month but he wouldnt have any of that:) ha ha he wanted it as soon as we could. To say the least we are going to pass by that house a lot this week:)
Well anyways I love you all so much and I hope you have an amazing week!
Elder Wilhelm
Monday, October 1, 2012
10/1/12
Ola familia!!!!!!
Hey whats hangen with you all!!! Gosh it sounds like there is just a tun of stuff going on back at home. Its is so cool that everyone is in Saint Johns:) It makes me so happy to hear from all yall. Hey lara thanks so much for the awsome pictures of your house that is so sick I am glad all is going well you you and the fam. Mom and dad I really hope the house goes through soon for you two so you can just move out of the house, it has jsut been insain.
But anyways This week was so stinkin fun! we had just a ton of success with our investigators progressing and what not. So this week I will try not to just ramble on for two pages about my investigators again:) ha ha So we have this investigator named hugo. He is about 25 years old and is probably one of the nices guys I have ever met. The problem with him for all the missionaries is he doesnt go to church. For this he was let go a few months before I had ever even gotten in the area. So we found him in our area book and we have visited him something like 6 times now and Just one week He finally walked into the church. My jaw had dropped to the floor and so did elder richter (our zone leader and also the person that droped him). It was such a mirical to have him finally get to church:) He loved I and had made so really good friends at the church.
So for p-day today we all went to go play soccer as usually but after me and my district leader decided to go on a division. So after soccer we went to a place called the bem fica art festival. At this art festival the sell all sorts of crafts, pantings, and status. As we started going in looking at all the stuff men would just come up to you and drag you to there stands, and would start to bargin with you. :) Ha ha ya being a big white man from the united states they saw a perfect oprotunity to "make a spare buck." You would start talking to them about what thing you wanted and about the priced. With out fail every one of them probably tripled the value of every thing that they had on the table. I have got to say this was a lot of fun just talking the guys down. I was able to get an african trible make for $40 when the starting price was at about $120:) ha ha Ya it was a tun of fun. In the end I ended up with the mask, a family of elephants(Including 6 figurins), a statue of an african hunter, and a had carved knife with the one of the angola simbles the thinker on the handle:) haha all in all It was just a blast talking those guys down in price.
Well hey I love you all so much and I hope you all have an amazing week:)
Elder Wilhelm
Hey whats hangen with you all!!! Gosh it sounds like there is just a tun of stuff going on back at home. Its is so cool that everyone is in Saint Johns:) It makes me so happy to hear from all yall. Hey lara thanks so much for the awsome pictures of your house that is so sick I am glad all is going well you you and the fam. Mom and dad I really hope the house goes through soon for you two so you can just move out of the house, it has jsut been insain.
But anyways This week was so stinkin fun! we had just a ton of success with our investigators progressing and what not. So this week I will try not to just ramble on for two pages about my investigators again:) ha ha So we have this investigator named hugo. He is about 25 years old and is probably one of the nices guys I have ever met. The problem with him for all the missionaries is he doesnt go to church. For this he was let go a few months before I had ever even gotten in the area. So we found him in our area book and we have visited him something like 6 times now and Just one week He finally walked into the church. My jaw had dropped to the floor and so did elder richter (our zone leader and also the person that droped him). It was such a mirical to have him finally get to church:) He loved I and had made so really good friends at the church.
So for p-day today we all went to go play soccer as usually but after me and my district leader decided to go on a division. So after soccer we went to a place called the bem fica art festival. At this art festival the sell all sorts of crafts, pantings, and status. As we started going in looking at all the stuff men would just come up to you and drag you to there stands, and would start to bargin with you. :) Ha ha ya being a big white man from the united states they saw a perfect oprotunity to "make a spare buck." You would start talking to them about what thing you wanted and about the priced. With out fail every one of them probably tripled the value of every thing that they had on the table. I have got to say this was a lot of fun just talking the guys down. I was able to get an african trible make for $40 when the starting price was at about $120:) ha ha Ya it was a tun of fun. In the end I ended up with the mask, a family of elephants(Including 6 figurins), a statue of an african hunter, and a had carved knife with the one of the angola simbles the thinker on the handle:) haha all in all It was just a blast talking those guys down in price.
Well hey I love you all so much and I hope you all have an amazing week:)
Elder Wilhelm
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