June 3, 2013

Boa Tarde Familia!!!

Hey everyone how is it going!!!! Thanks so much for your letters and such. I just love hearing from y'all every week. And sorry for not writing anymore this past week. It was just a little busy trying to get everything done, but I made it through and president Kretly will be taking off on wen. So with a little luck all of the meetings will be cut dramatically haha.  I haven’t been able to read all of your letters yet because the internet hasn’t been working for a little bit so I hope it will come back before we all have to leave.

So now that I have about to week to make up, for I better get writing!!!  On Friday of not last week, but the week before, Elder Mariquelle and I were getting ready for the trainings and had a few questions so we called up president. At the end of the conversation president kind of stopped and said “Have you already talked to Abdo (the mission secretary) about your travel plans to come with me to Huambo to give the training?” Elder Mariquelle and I kind of looked at each other like “what is he talking about.” We were both a little confused so we asked president if we were traveling with him and he said, "yes". Ha ha Ya, we were just planning on giving the training in Luanda and not the other providences.  Elder Mariquelle nearly jumped out of his skin he was so happy, ha ha, and I will admit I was pretty excited to go see another providence. So we called Elder Abdo up and got it all scheduled out.

On Thursday, President arrived here in Angola and on Friday morning at 4 am we were up and at the airport! Gotta love traveling. On the airplane ride over there Elder Mariquelle was going crazy!! Ha ha It was his 4th or 5th time on an airplane so everything that he saw or felt he would ask if it was normal or he would say in broken English, ”I love my mission!!!” When we got there it was about 7 in the morning and man it was chilly! Getting off I literally thought I landed in go ol sj!! Huambo is so pretty, and a whole lot cleaner than Luanda. For the first couple of days we were just out with all of the other elders doing a ton of divisions trying to get them pumped for the worked and for the conference. It was a ton of fun! I ended up getting to walk with a couple of my old companions during to whole trip:) Wow what a blast!!!

Huambo was actually going to be the new capital of Portugal while it was still under there rein. It used to be called Nova lizboa, but after the independence of Angola and all of the civil war that had happen here, the city had been left in pieces and until recently people hadn't really lived there. You will walk around in the roads and look at houses that are just riddled of bullet holes, or buildings with part of a side blown off. And my favorite part was to see a few of the old war tanks that are scattered along the road:) It was so cool to see this and learn a little bit more about all of the wars that had happen here.

 We also stayed with this woman named Arora along with two other men that came up to receive a couple of  trainings from pres Kretly. On sunday Huambo was officially turned into a branch and a missionary and his companion (Elder Caslton and Ferguson) became the branch presidente and the second counselor. It was so cool to be there for this all because I get to see Huambo at its very start as a branch and hopefully by the end of my mission it will have a ton more growth. The next day we had our zone conference with the Huambo elders and the Lubango elders. Everything went way good, and it was a ton of fun because it was just a small group so there was a lot of interaction between us all. Huambo was just so much fun!!! but sadly we had to return to Luanda...:) So on Tuesday, we got our plane tickets and went back off to Luanda. As soon as we landed we were off to a staff meeting in elder Abdos house. And every single day after that was just full of meetings and training to help us get ready to become our own mission. We didn't really get to work one full day in our área. On Friday we had our last zone conference with the elders of Luanda, which went pretty good. Although I didn't feel it was as good because it was just a big group of missionaries and some of them have problems. All in all though it went just fine and I hope the Elders took it all well.

But besides from all of the craziness...  On Saturday our investigator, named Jose, got baptized!!!! José is 28 or 29 year old and a kick boxer há há this guy is a giant, but he was super prepared to receive the gospel. He had already heard everything from the prior missionaries, so we really didn't have to do a whole lot:) há há but he is so cool.  I am so happy he got baptized, and next week he will be the priesthood.

We are getting super excited to become a new mission!! I cant wait for the new presidentes arrival!!! But hey I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week!!!!

 

Elder Wilhelm

.