12/31/12

Dear family!!!

WHAT!!!!!! Karen can not be home already! that is so cool:) I bet you
rocked it girl!!! Man It is weird to think you are already home. You
all better enjoy her while she is there because she will sair embora
pretty quick.

It was so great to see all of your shining faces in a box!!! I love
talking to all of you:) We just have the most beautiful family in the
world! And all those grand babies are so big!

Anyways this week was way sick!!! Quiet a bit actually happened. First
of all..... HIPOLITO GOT BAPTISED!!!!!! Man what a cool experience. He
asked me to baptism him. what a humbling experience it is to help
someone else make a covenant with our Heavenly Father. He was a little
nervous but after he felt awesome. That really isn't even the cool
part. During the confirmation he asked a member named Cordencio to
confirm him a member of the church. WOW That was probably one of the
most powerful confirmations I have ever stood in on. After church
Hipolito came up to me with red eye and said it is just like a fire
burning inside me:) what a cool experience! He will make an awesome
leader in the church and he will receive the Aronic priesthood next
week! He is just rockin it!

So yesterday Elder Eckman and I were just barely getting out of a
lesson with one of our investigators named Alex and were headed to our
last appointment. On our way there we got stopped by this guy who had
heard of the church over in Brazil. So we switch contacts and started
down the road when 3 big men started walking down the road to us. As
we neared them I started to feel strange and a feeling of urgency
slow crepted up on me. When the finally passed by my heart was pounding
and i just had a feeling of "Return home." Elder Eckman had had a
weird feeling to, but we continued on a little further to at least tell
the person that we wouldn't be able to pass by that night. From behind
us a young man on a bike greeted us in broken english. Usually I would
have just talked to him back in Portuguese and he probably wouldn't have
stopped, but I yelled out to him in english "good night my friend!"
Intrigued he stopped his bike and came back to the light post we were
under. We began speaking with him in Portuguese and talked about the
church. Close to the end of our conversation the sense of urgency
returned and every muscle in my body flexed ready for something. I
turned around slowly and those same 3 men that had passed were right
behind me. They looked at me then and elder Eckman and then at our new
friend. They continued their walk in the way we were headed. Elder
Eckman and I looked at each other and said "well we better get home."
I don't know what those men could have wanted from us nor do I want to
know, but If the spirit hadn't been guiding us to talk to the young man
or to return home it could have turned different. I am so grateful
for the safety that the Lord gives to those who are worthy to have the
spirit with them. He truly loves each and every one of us and as long
as we listen to those whisperings we shall always prevail over that
great destroyer.

Tomorrow we will have our pday because we have an activity planed as a
mission amanha. So today we are just writing letters and doing our
shopping. But this morning we have a very good lesson with one of our
new investigators named Mauro. Mauro is a paster from another church
as a matter of fact but has a big heart and an even bigger desire to
follow that which is right in this world. So today was our second
lesson with him. So we decided to talk about the Restoration. I have
never taught someone with so much knowledge in the bible. Everything
we would say hey would know and understand pretty much everything we
said. Although He was not contentious in any way. He actually knew
things that I would have never learned if it weren't for seminary and
my own personal study here. :) I know that will make bro Greer grin:)
After I got done explaining the restoration to the he looked at me
with a puzzled look. and just sat there for a few seconds thinking.
Then he made a connection and said "So if the church of christ was lost
to the world shortly after the death of Christ and then was restored
through the prophet Joseph Smith does that means not a single other
church in this world in right other than this..." He got silent again
and said "I will be totally honest with you. I have read from the Book
of Mormon and studied it, but I have never prayed about it to see if
this is true." Then Elder Eckman shared one of the most heartfelt
testimonies I have ever heard. The spirit had sunk into each one of
our hearts close to the point of tears for me. Mauro promised he
would pray. He is so ready for this message and is just a rockin
investigator. I love seeing the change in people:)

Anyways I love you all so much and I wish you all a happy new years!!!

Elder Wilhelm

12/24/12

Hey MOM!!!

I know that I will be seeing you tomorrow but I just wanted to write you a note:) I love hearing from you and dad. It really makes my day to hear from you both ever week:) Isnt it just such a blessing to have this technolegy!

• Felix Natal e Boas festas!!! Eu te amo. Tu e mae sao tudo para mim. Si nao fosso por causa de voces eu nao estaria aqui. por isso agradeco. I love this time of Christmas Even in the middle of summer. A lot of Elders have told me that they dont feel any difference at this time of the year. As for me it is different, not how i used to think about it in the ways of presents or candy. Actually far from that. I find my thoughts wondering more on the savior. It was not necessary for him to come down with a chariot of fire plated in gold although that wonderful child might have deserved it. Starting off as humble beginnings born in a manger was born the king of kings and lord of lords. God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son. The ultimate gift had been give to us. The young child grew as any of us might have, line upon line precept upon precept. Being the carpenters son he taught the priests in the temple. As he grow to full maturity he taught us his everlasting Gospel and was the perfect example for us. I look in ah at his ability's by far exceeding anything from this world. For the sick he healed, the dead he raised, the blind were granted to see his brightness and glory as they opened there eyes for the first time in many years. He left us his church and gave us his authority. In the Garden of Gethsemane he bled from every pore, a pain and agony that can only come from emmence emosional, spiritual, and physical pain. In the end his ultimate love for us was so great that he die as a lamb before the slaughter upon the cross. Even through that excruciating pain he prayed to God and said "forgive them for they know not what they do." With the last ounce of strength he had he submitted to the fathers will and took up the ghost. Was that the end of the great king of the world. No it was not. Three day after Mary came to the seplicure in which he was buried and an angle spoke unto her.

John 20
 11 ¶But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,

 12 And seeth two ^aangels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

 13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

 14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and ^asaw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.

 15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

 16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say,^aMaster.

 17 Jesus saith unto her, ^aTouch me not; for I am not yet ^bascended to my ^cFather: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my ^dFather, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

Mom it is my sole witness that he lives. I know that this is truly his work and he leads and guides us through a prophet in these days. As He rose from the dead so shall we, and we shall return unto him and the father in the last day so long and we are true and faithful to all the ordinances and commandments of his Gospel. I love you mom so much and I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas:) I cant wait to talk to you tomorrow:)

Elder Wilhelm

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12/17/12

ola familia:)

Well hey there wonderful family of mine!!! Thanks for all the letters and
what not. You guys help me out so much! FYI mom I did get my packege:). Thank you so much!! I wasn't able to save them until Christmas because
the post office had beaten me to tearing off that wonderful green
wraping:) haha they just had to check it for customs. Those books are
so cool! I am in the middle of pres hinkley book.

This week was a fairly normal week on angolan terms:) Elder Eckman and
I gained quite a few new investigators this last week because of all
of our contacting. Although we did have a lot of interruptions with the
work this past week. As I had mentioned last week on our house we are
getting a lot of repairs done on the house this week to actually make
it livable for missionaries to exist in. So we waited for the
repairman once again but in the end it all got done other than a leaky
washing machine.

This past week we had a division with our district leader, Elder Hobbs
and Elder Kelsey his companion. I had the privalidge to walk with
elder kelsey. Elder Kelsey is from utah and is a marine if you couldn't
tell by the name:) ha ha and boy does he show it off:) It is so funny!
Near the end of our division as we going to the last person's house
when all of the sudden he stops, in the same place the elder eckman
and I got robed might I might add, and says lets talk to these guys over
there that are drinkin. I look over and see probably 5 or 6 men
sitting around a table all of them quite drunk. I thought to myself
why in the heck would he want to talk to them, but I complied and we
went over to them. As we arrived at the table Elder Kelsey slams the
table to get everyones attention. They all just stopped and stared at
us. Then kelsey asked if they had any questions for us, Ya this didn't
make sence in my head either. They were all startled by our intrusion
on their party. They began to ask what we were, and we replied that
we are misisonaries of the church of Jesus Christ.  Then Kelsey, trying
to start up an interesting conversation, barks at them that they
should all stop drinkin and save there money for more important things
such as their families:) as you can imagine they all protested. haha.  We
ended up explainig to them if they ever wanted help dropping drinking
they could give us a call and we would stop by. Then we gave them all
the word of wisdom pamphlets. haha.  Ya afterwards I asked kelsey what
the crap he was thinking and I just came up with the conclusion that he
was just looking for a fight:) haha. But It was quite an interesting
experience to say the least.

So this week Hipolito got back from Namibia and we are going to
continue talking to him again. Before he had left to Naambia, he
promised us he would look up for the church there and continue
reading the book of mormon. During our last lesson with him 2 days ago
he expressed his love for the book of mormon and how much he wanted to
be baptised. He said that while he was up taking his test he was
starting to feel overwhelmed and stressed. He decided to take a break
and read from the book of mormon and said it calmed him down in such a
strong way the he was able to concentrate again and continue studying
for school! He also went to church there and loved it!! He came back
changed, with more humlity, but confidence in the gospel. It was just an
amazing feeling to see him progress and prepare himself for baptism.
So we decided to have a white christmas with him and he will be
baptised only a few days after Christmas day:) He is so excited and I
am for him!

Well I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Wilhelm

12/10/12

ola boa tarde minha querida familia

It is so great to hear from you guys so much. Just reading at how you
are all changing is really awesome to see! Thanks for all your support
and love that you write to me.

Well it was another amazing week here in Angola! I really have quite a
bit to talk about, I guess and not at the same time.  Well, first things
first. I need to tell you of a story of how I almost became a real
missionary:)

It was last monday night right after we had gotten done with writing
you wonderful folks. We were headed to a noite familiar with the
branch over in the chapel. Elder Eckman and I were in a little bit of
a hurry because of our tardiness. So we hailed a os combatents taxi
crammed in there with a ton of people and off we went. Just to add a
little bit of information on this, I had been having a little
constipation for the 2 days before:) I thinks you can tell where this
story is going... so we get taking off in the taxi and I started to
get a little unconfertable to say the least.  The pressure was fairly
small at first and rapidly gained in intensity and pulsing. haha!  Then 
we hit the worst traffic I have seen in my mission in Angola. Oh boy, I 
thought to myself as we drove down the hot road with a driver
pretending like he was a race car driver jerking every inch. We
hadn't been in it for 30 min when I decided to make an executive
desision and jump out. As soon as I got out I threw the money at the
cobrador (the person who collects the money) and took off with the
brisk pace in the direction towards the chapel.  My companion who was
close behind me didn't know what the matter was:) I turned to him and
said I had to use the bathroom now or I might poop my pants! The
velocity of our pace became faster and faster the nearer we came to
the chapel and in the last 2 hundred yards I ended up sprinting to our
destination in just the neck of time:) ya it was a close call... The
reason I say real missionary is because here in Angola, a few elders
haven't been able to make it to their destinations in time. They say
you aren't a real missionary until you crap your pants... that is not
a price I am willing to pay:)

So on to more missionary type things. As you may have guessed the church
here in Angola is a very young and very disorganized baby right now.
It has been getting a lot better in most other branches but in ours
the work seems to be slow. It is definitely apparent in our
sacrament meetings when the president calls upon people from the
audience to find out what is going on during the up coming week. It is 
not the most ideal place for us as members to feel the spirit let
alone for our investigators. We decided to discuss the issue in our
past district meeting and going over it with our mission president to
see if he could give us any instruction. What we came up with is a
series of training meetings that are under the direction of the branch
president, with the branch president being trained by our mission
president. So starting this up coming week, my companion and I will
start off the trainings starting with the sunday school presidency
and teachers. And every week we will be teaching a different auxiliary.
So we obtained a copy of the manual and we will be studing up on
this this week:) We are pretty dang excited. What we will be mostly
doing is trying to get them excited about the work so that they will
arrive on time and complete their callings.

But anyways there ain't much more:) I love you all and I hope you all
have a great week!!!!

Elder Wilhelm

12/3/12

hey there family!!!

Many it is so wiered to see that you are all growing up right before
the computer screen:) haha all of thoses beblamights are running about
without dipers on haha gosh that is so cool!!!! I can't wait to see you
all at Christmas time which isnt too far off:) We should be able to
speak you on Christmas eve or Christmas day. I am not to sure yet, but
I will let you all know, and karen is already almost home!!!!
what!!!!!! that doesnt make any sense at all!!! haha Ilove it so
much:)

So anyways guess what we had today!?!?!?!?! TRANSFERS!!!! Drum roll
please....... I am staying!! haha it will be with elder Eckman also.
We are both super excited to be working for one more trasnsfer:) It
should be way sick! We will kill this transfer! haha also another
really sick thing that happened is we moved houses!!! whooow!!!! I am
so happy to be out of that chaple for like the first time in my
mission haha. We had been falting water and energy for quite awhile..
so we finally moved and oh boy am I thankful. The house we are living
in now is ten times better than what we were in. Not just the nicest,
be we will see. We are going to be getting a lot of repairs on the
house this next week.

For teaching and what not this week, it was a fairly slow because
we had to move houses and get everything going in it. We did have a
really cool lesson with these two women that we are teaching named
Junia and Alexandraa. This week was, I think, only the second or third time
with them. These two know the bible like that back of their hands, but
really feel like there is somthing missing in it.. That's where we come
in with the Book of Mormon:) haha! They both, within a week, read half of
first Nephi!!! They are loving it so much! i just love being a
missionary so much and getting to see the changes in people:)

Anyways, I love you all so much. Sorri I am almost out of time. I love
you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

Elder Wilhelm


 

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