September 30, 2013

Ola família

Hey, whats up y'all!  Thanks for all the pictures mom and dad. The mountains look so pretty right now! Wow, it is so green. That is way cool about your callings to (mom dad andKirsten).  You are all going to do great!!

So our week was way awesome!!! On Wednesday, we had a combined zone conference with the 2 zones here in Luanda. The conference we way longer than we all expected and ended up taking all day. Both sets of zone leaders gave just marvelous training on how to work with members and how to strengthen the recent and less active converts. One of the zone leaders didn't even get there until we were half way through with the conference because he was supper sick, but he decided to get out of bed and he came:) Afterwards, Mariquele and I bored everybody with some important info about baptism and stuff. In the end, we didn't even get to hear presidents training for lack of time... ya I was sad. To end off the conference we had a short testimony meeting, which was super spiritual. :) Ya,I love zone conference!!

Yesterday we went to one of our recent converts house, Felicia. When we got there we found her and her daughter sitting in their living room watching basketball. Her daughter has never wanted to talk to us.  Actually, she really didn't like us from what it seemed like. A lot of missionaries from other churches had tried to drag her to their churches so she didn't like missionaries. So she finally accepted to sit down with us for the first time and boy was it an amazing lesson. We taught her the restoration of the gospel and testified of how the gospel can bless the lives of every person in their family, including her. After that I asked her a question which was, "how do you feel about all of this," which for me was a strange and vague question. She paused for a minute and began to just thank us for helping her family so much. She began to explain that a year ago Felicia was super sick and they found out that she has diabetes. She almost passed away last year, but she didn't. Although she had not recovered mentally all too fast. She had thought about taking her own life to just end it all. After she finally got over it, she became a much more humble, but would not go to church. Then we beat on her door and just helped her turn her whole life around. It was just such an awesome experience to hear all of that. Then she just started thanking us more and more for all we had done. She also accepted to sit with us more and go to church.

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

Elder Wilhelm

September 23, 2013

ola ola família!!!!

Thanks y'all for all the letter!!! it was awesome to hear from you all.  It really just excites me just to do more:) It sounds like the little camp out that you all had was really fun!!! há há probably a little hectic, but it would have been fun to have been there. Those grand babies are getting so big I can't believe it!!!

This week was pretty busy with new elders coming and a district conference that we had. It was an amazing week!!!!

This weekend we had something called a district conference.  It is the same thing as a stake conference just for áreas where there are just branches. It was so cool to see all of the people I taught:) I love it when we have these conferences, just to see everyone! Both Elder Mariquele and I were ask to translate for sister Merrill. Ya, it was probably the scariest thing that I have done in my life!! Mariquele did it on Saturday at the chapel during the adult session and rocked it! But, it left me with some uneasiness because I had to translate on Sunday with everybody there. That whole weekend my knees were knocking together to the point were I was making noise:) há hajk. At the conference there were around 700 or 800 people! it was so cool, but it didn't help my nerves:) but it all turned out alright and I didn't faint because of fright.

This week we also received 2 new elders!!! Oh man was it good to get them here! Their names are Elder Rigby and Elder Peterson. Elder Rigby is actually living in my house right now and it has been a blast!! He is such a cool kid, and it is good to have such excitement in our house. New elders come in really excited and pumped for the work!! He has had to adjust a little bit, but it seems like he is loves it here in Angola.

We found this really cool guy named Adilson on Tuesday, and on Thursday we went over to his house and talked to him. It was a really cool lesson. He just opened right up to us and just started explaining to us exactly what he needs and wants! He really wanted to know more about the church.
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Anyways, sorry if any of this doesn't make sense, but just know that this week was awesome!!! I love you all so much and am thankful for you all! Have a great week!!!

Elder Wilhelm

September 16, 2013

Ola fam!!!

Hey y'all!!! Thanks for all the letters:) sorry my letter will probably end up being a little bit short this week. I had to write mom and dad about school and what not and the internet ended up being super slow!! so I will try and write fast and let you all know whats going on in the hood!

So this week we had transfers for real!!!! And guess what!!?? I am staying for yet another transfer with elder Mariquele, doing the same thing. Ha ha, I am way excited!! this is elder Mariquele's and my 4th transfer together! I really love Mariquele.  I really have gotten to know him so well. It will be a sad day when we get transferred. Other than that there really isn't a whole lot going on with transfers.

As I had let you know last week WE ARE IN HUAMBO!!!! Man it has been really fun to be with all of these elders. All 13 elders that came here stayed in the same house!! Ha ha, but tonight we will be going back to our areas which means another super long bus ride back to Luanda!!! ha ha

I am going to be so happy to see Luanda again though. Every time I leave I just feel weird:) ha ha and it will be awesome to get back to working with our investigators and recent converts again! I am not sure who went to church this week yet, but we will find out during this next week:)

While we have been here in Huambo. We had  a zone conference with the Lubango zone. It was way cool! These elders, I think, are truly the best we have to offer to serve here in the provinces where the church is just compiled of a branch for each city.

Anyways I love you all so much!!! have a great week!!!!

Elder Wilhelm

September 9, 2013

Querida Familia,

Hey fam!!! Wow it was so great to hear from you all! Thanks for the letter and the pictures of the cute babies that got blessed on Sunday! Man, they are so adorable!!!! Its good that Karen and mom didn't get the bends or anything:) Ha ha, but thanks for all of the letters!!

This week was so awesome for us! I am absolutely loving life! Our area is growing, missions going great, and there is not room for complaining on this boat:) When I say our area grew, I mean literally it did. In our branch we lost a dupla of missionaries. Why? Well so a little over a week ago in Terra Nova, there was an elder that got robbed and got stabbed in the arm at around 7 p.m not to far from their house. Don't worry though, he is fine.  All he needed was 3 stitches. In result of that,  president issued an order to those missionaries to be in house at 6, but to leave their house earlier until they could find another place for them to live. During this last week the elder that got stabbed got sent to one of the safest areas in Angola, in the cassquele branch with another elder (who lived with us). Sadly, in the end, the area in benfica a was dissolved until we get those new missionaries. So, in our district, we had to divide up the areas and now we have a lot more area with a lot more investigators and recent converts!! I was a little stressed at first, but then we got to visit with some of the people and just kind of got attached to them:) aha ha! So we are working really hard to keep that area going good so that when it opens back up again the elders will not have to start with nothing.

On Thursday, Elder Mariquele and I were walking in our area doing some contacting when this lady stopped us. She was kind of a poor lady and didn't look like she was all there, but she told us about her friend that was really sick that need some help. Mariquele and I kind of looked at each other and decided that we would go. We followed the woman up to what she called her house, but it was more like a 5 by 5 cement block. There in front was a woman, laid on a cloth, on the ground. The first thought that popped into my mind was that she is dead.. but as we got closer, we saw that she was breathing and started talking to her. She was about 60 years old, or at least looked it, and didn't have any help or money. We started to talk to her family that was there and they said that they didn't really want to help her.  At that, elder Mariquele and I got a little firry. In the end, we convinced someone to help us take her there and we got ahold of a family member that could pay for her. The problem was just getting her to the hospital. We called our branch president and he was far away and couldn't get anybody to come so we called president Merrill. President said that he would love to help us so off we went  with him and took this lady to the hospital with 2 of her family members in that back of the car. We got to the hospital and let them all off. They was very thankful for the help. I really don't know how much good came from the whole experience, but we got to know her family a little bit and hopefully one day they will want to talk to us more to find out more about the gospel.

This week we are way excited because we get to travel down to Huambo to have a zone conference. We will go by bus again:) my favorite thing!!! I will remember not to drink so much water. Lubango elders will meet us there and we should have a great time!! President will be going too, but they didn't want to go by bus, so the old folks will be going by plane:) ha ha! I sure hope president doesn't read that! But, it should be a ton of fun!

Anyways I love you all so much!!! It is always great to hear from you all. have a marvelous Week!!!!

Elder Wilhelm

P.S. I totally forgot to tell you!! We got a truck this week to use for divisions and stuff! Ya, probably the scariest driving I have ever had to do:) If you think Mesa is bad then you are badly mistaken:)
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September 2, 2013

ola Familia

boa tarde familia e os alheios que leem esta carta!!! Thanks mom and dad for the letters!! You guys stinkin rock!!! It sounds like you old foggies are having a great time in Cozumel with Karen! Oh man! That is way cool!! Sorry dad that you can't get into the water, but if i can't dive, then you can't, I guess:) ha ha

I may not be diving, but I sure am having the time of my life here:) I definitely prefer to be here than there:) Our week was way cool!! We are really in a finding stage in our area.  It is really nice to have all of the new converts to help us out though. They are so gung ho for helping us out and giving us references. We already received one from Irma Rita's family and the guy is way cool. We still haven't had an opportunity to talk to him, because we just got the reference, but we met him and he has a wife and kids... so you know... I am ways excited!!! Mariquele and I also came up will some goals for contacting and such that we hope will help out to. We will see this next week what comes out of all of them.

So on Wednesday, Mariquele and I went over to Rita's house and had a really cool family night, ya I know family night is on Monday, but that was the only time that they had:) Anyways, after the massage and what not, Telma, the second to the oldest daughter asked me "how do you say family home evening in Russian?" I looked at her and just started to laugh, because I thought that she was kidding. She look a little puzzled and then asked again a little bit more seriously... I then told her that I didn't speak Russian but I could tell her it in English:) I have been teaching this family for about 3 and a half months and all the kids thought that I was Russian!!! Ya, sad I know:) They said that I had told them that, and I might have, but it is funny that they believed me:)

On Friday night though we went out with president and had a party!!! Didn't even get back until about 1 30:)... well, it wasn't a party, but it was a governmental presentation thing that the church had to get a little bit more known by the government. As some of you man know, we have been having a few visa problems, so we are just trying to let the government know what we are doing here and that we are here to help. It went way good!! After, we went ate at the most expensive restaurant I have ever eaten at. Each plate was 150 dollars!!  Ya, crazy, I know!!!

Anyway I love you all:) have a great week!!!

Elder Wilhelm

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