August 26, 2013

Ola familia!!!

Hey whats up y'all!! Thanks for all of your letters this week it was really fun to see the pictures of the babies and of the camp out that mom helped out at:) Mom you freakin rock!! I bet dad really likes that you are becoming a mountain woman as well:) and its good to hear that your new engineering job is doing great dad!!

Wow what a week it was for us, but it was so fun!!!! Elder Mariquele and I were kept super busy with traveling and baptisms and what not. It was just such and awarding week!!

So on Monday, Elder Mariquele and I started our big trip to Lubango, and boy were we in for a treat:) About 45 min into the trip it all came to a screeching halt. I was about to fall asleep when all of the sudden the brakes on the bus freeze up and BANG!!! Our bus collided with another car and we both pulled off on the side of the road. Luckily we weren't going very fast because our bus was fine, but the cars back windshield was blown out. ha ha! What a way to start a trip:) So an hour later we were on our way!!

The next part of the bus ride is really kind of embarrassing:) Just to give a little back ground. Without thinking, I brought a big 1 liter bottle with me and drank it all:) ay, I know, bad idea:) Well around midnight I had this dream that I was driving in a car and I was following president. President was driving so fast so I tried to keep up, but then president slammed on his brakes and naturally I reacted, but it was too late. We came colliding and then I woke up suddenly in a panic and realized... well... That I was peeing... ha ha ya it was pretty embarrassing, but luckily I was able to stop in time. haha you know you just got to give it all to The Lord :) At the next bus stop I tried switching cloths, but because of my wonderful luck the bathrooms were flooded. Ha ha! So I just stayed like that till Lubango, and didn't tell anybody for about a day:) Ya, my pride was on the line, but everyone had a good laugh about it.

While we were in Lubango we had some really good divisions with the elders there!! I went on splits with one of my old comps named elder Kearney. It was so good to get to talk and teach with him. He is just such an example to me. He will be going home soon so I will miss him tons!! So many things have happened to him, and he just stays patient and positive and wants to finish out strong!! Ya I freakin love that kid!!! It was one of the most spiritual divisions that I have had.

We also had a zone conference while we were down there. Mariquele and I really didn't have to do anything because we were there really just to observe, but it was so good!!! The elders really did a great job!! and part of the audience was all the way in from Huambo, connected by a video conferencing tool. The next day we jumped on a bus for the wonderful 18 hour drive to get back home. Luckily we didn't have any problems.

Once we were in Luanda, we had a big task before us. That was preparing all of our investigators for baptism. So we ran around as fast as we could just to get  it all set and in the end it was all worth it!! 8 of the 9 were baptized.  The 1 is a story for another day I will try and write it next week:) The service was so awesome, we had so many members come so they had so much support!! I was asked by Bibi and Telma to baptize them and it was just such a great experience. We have been working with all of these people for such a long time.  It was just such a relief to see them all getting baptized. The members are also way excited to have some new fresh meat and are excited to help out with the intrigation.

So I am almost out of time, but just to make some of you jealous today for pday we got to go on a safari with all the elders in our zone!!! It was such a blast to hang out with the elders and experience a little bit of Africa:)

Anyways,  love you all so much!!! Have a great Week!!!!!!

Elder Wilhelm

August 19, 2013

Minha Querida Familia,

Ola que se passa!!!! Howdey yall! Thanks for all your letters this week, it really got me really pumped for some reason:) You guys rock I really do appreciate the letters!!!!

Man this week has really gone by so fast, it sure seems like these past few months were just nothing!!! I am not exactly what to write, because so much has been going on I don't really know were to start.

So this week we have been helping a ton of our investigators to be baptized for this up coming week. As some of you may know that means that we also need to get them all interview the week before and fill out all of their baptismal records. So we got to have a couple of divisions with our district leader who got to do(lucky him) 9 interview!! há há Unfortunately I was not there. I was with the district leaders companion Elder Merkley!!!! It was such a fun division!! Elder Merkley is a very quick, and really shy kind of guy, but it was so funny because after I got him to start opening up we really became great friends. We talked about the mission, and what we each wanted to get while we were here, and because he is from a small town naturally we talked a lot about farming and hunting which a some really big interest of his and mine:) He was having a few problems with the language so we decided to set some goals and talk port between the two of us a lot more around the house!! It has been a lot of fun.

As I mention about the baptisms, all of those people passed and will be baptized on Sat. I am pretty sure I have talked about all of them before, but Rita and all of her kids(Telma, Gisela, Danise, and Jose) will be baptized, Felixia and her daughter(Eliandra) will be baptised and two daughter(Bibi and Bizinha) of Maria and Abrantes who are working on marriage will be baptized. We are so excited for them all to take this step of baptism.

On Saturday, there was a church that had a blood drive in our chapel. All of us missionaries couldn't donate, but we got to help pass out papers and take down all of the equipment. Mariquele and I Being the "burros" that we are we decided to have a little contest:) so he and I went out on the road, him on one side me on the other to see how many we could give out. So because my pride was on the line and his, we were stoping cars and giving it to them. há há it was quite a bit of fun:) But the blood drive turned out really well and a ton of people came and donated.

We had a really cool lesson the other day with a new investigator named Marta. Marta is an older woman about 55 to 60. She lives alone, but every once in a while her husband comes around and stays with her for a few days. The first lesson the husband was there, but we could tell that there was something wrong with between the two. So on the second visit the husband wasn't there and she was all frustrated. We asked her what the matter was and she just spilt out everything that had been going on with her. Her Husband decided he wanted more the one wife, so now he has 2 or 3 spread throughout luanda, so she told him that she wouldn't have any of that. That is why sometimes the husband is home. Also 5 or 6 years back she had a miscarriage and had found no comfort from anyone. Anyways after she explained that all to us, we told her about the plan of salvation and how this life is a time for us to learn and grow and that one day she could see her children that had passed away. The spirit was so strong and we all started crying a bit:)

Anyways I love you all and have a great one!!!

Elder Wilhelm

August 12, 2013

Boa tarde Familia!!!!

Thanks fam for the letters!!! It sounds like Karen and Sean are just gonna go play around for a couple of week before they have to go back to school. Man that makes me so jealous!!! I hope y'all have fun!!!

This week was just so awesome. There was so much work in our area and it made the week just fly by!!! This was probably the most time that Mariquele and I will be able to work in our area for a long time, and may be some of the last. We are going to start doing divisions with all the trainers, and zone leaders, including the ones in Lumbago, so we will probably end up traveling a little more, but what a great experience it will be.

On Tuesday, we got one of the new elders that flew in from the Brazilian MTC. Once again Mariquele and I had to get up a little earlier than usual and go with president to the airport to go and pick him up. We got to the airport around 5 am and we waited until his plane arrived, which was at 5:45. Well 5:45 came and went and we never saw a short like black man come out of the airport runway. At about 7 or 7:30, my companion and I decided to go and ask a security guard to go look for him to see if he had even gotten off the plane. The guards were not very friendly, but we finally got an answer that they had seen a guy that looked like us, with a name tag and all, walk out.... We just kind of looked at each other, puzzled, and walked outside and sure enough there he was:) haha.  Ya, what a great welcoming on our part. ha ha! He said he had been out there for about and hour or so.. but he is so funny I can't wait to get to know him better,

This last Sat. I got word that one of my investigator in my old area was going to get baptized. I don't know I you remember, but it is Lourenco and his family. I found him with Êlder Kearney a year ago. Well they finally got baptized and it was just so cool to see! The mother, Veronica, invited me to perform her baptism.

Well sorry I don't really have anymore time, but I love you all and have a great week!!!

Elder Wilhelm

August 5, 2013

Ola Minha querida familia!!!!!!!

Well It sounds like back home for y'all is just play play play isn't it:) ha ha but that is a good thing!! Thank so much for the letters and all I really do appreciate it.

This week for us has been absolutely amazing also, but before I let y'all know what happened this week.  I better tell you about....TRANSFERS!!!! SOOOOO IIII WWWIIIILLLLLLLLL BBBEEEE in the same place WWWWIIIITTTTTHHHH the same black guy:) Elder Mariquele and I will have at least one more Transfer together as AP's. This is going to be our 3rd. Ya I am way excited!! but there were quite a few of changes in the mission, for example we will be receiving 3 new elders this week and hopefully 2 more really soon. And there was a new zone that was created out in the providences in Lubango and Huambo!!! YA!!!! OUR MISSION IS GROWING:)

This past week, in our district of Luanda, they had organized a camp for all youth. Elder Mariquele and I talked to all of our investigators that were eligible to go and participate. In the end we got 4 youth to go from three separate families that we are teaching. When they got back it had just such a big impact on all of them. One of them, a young woman, named Bibi, was having a hard time dropping drinking. By the time she got back, she told us about all of the wonderful experiences that she had, and told us she won't drink anymore and told us she wants to be baptized!!! Her whole family was effected by it and all have gained even stronger testimonies of this gospel. Tonight we will actually pass by their house with a member and talk with the parent about how to get married and the importance of our families.

On Saturday, there was also another activity done by the women of the branch called African women day. They invited all of the members to come and watch and the also asked the missionaries if we could help set things up with food, tables, chairs, and inviting out investigators. So we obviously told them yes and helped them out. To start off the program, we all went into the sacrament room and had a few messages, talking about the importance of women and had a few testimonies, but at the end the music leader had slipped out and nobody knew where she had gone. So the woman that was in charge of it, Irma Adi, looked straight at me and called me up to lead the music.... I got up and saw what the hymn number was and it just so happened to be, "As sisters in Zion":)ha ha, ya I really was just giggling the whole time knowing that I was leading the women in the hymn for the women. After all that was done, they had a short talent show and then they had kind of a grand march type thing that just turned into a big dance party for all of these old women:) ha ha it was just so much fun and we had a few investigator show up as well. Needless to say, once they started to get dancing and what not, we decided to take off. Ha ha! I am so thankful for all of these activities. It has helped our investigators get so many more friends in the church.

Well anyways I love you all so much and hope you just have a wonderful week!!!!

Elder Wilhelm