July 1, 2013

Ta bala Familia!!!!

WWWHHHAAATTTT!!!!!! I can't believe that Maria has already had her baby! :) I am so excited to see her. Thank dad for the picture of her, she is so cute:) Maria I freaken love you!!! and Lara good luck this week!!! You are getting close also! and don't burn down there in the valley. But thanks y'all for the letters and such.  It was so good to here from all of you!

Our week was so sweet!!! Oh man has it been busy trying to get stuff ready, but totally worth it!!!! I am so happy to be serving here it is just so awesome.

The biggest thing though was presidents arrival!!! At about 3 am on Saturday morning  our heads popped off the pillow with the anticipation to finally have a president here. That night we actually didn't stay at our house, but at the house of the other missionaries that live close to the couple missionaries. So we got ready and met Elder Lopes, one of the couple missionaries, in the parking lot to go and pick up president together at about 4 am ish... So we get to the airport the same time that their airplane lands, but they never came out... We sat there until about 8 just waiting for them to come out. A billion thing were running through my mind like maybe they missed a plane or maybe they never even left the u.s. or maybe they were injured. Tons of thing were running through my head, but then one of the couple missionaries(elder Abdo) talked to one of the  security to see if he could go in and look. So in he went and found president, but with no bags. So president put in a complaint to see if they could find the bags... ya welcome to Angola:) ha ha but they were so excited to just be here it didn't seem to faze them all that much. After we had breakfast with them and talked about a few thing. They are so funny!!! Within the first 5 min of meeting him I felt that I had know him for years. He is also very open to suggestions and loves to tell stories:) I love it so much!!!

So that night we were able to talk to pres about the mission a little bit more and see what his plans are. It was such a cool experience to finally talk to him. His vision of the mission and where we should go, I think, is right on the button. He likes to give people the ability to choose for themselves, to make their own goals and let the missionaries become more self efficient rather than waiting on a command from their leader. In the end we talked a little bit about a mission conference that will be happening this week. We will be bring the whole mission here to Luanda to have the conference to meet president. We all so pumped!!!! After the meeting elder Mariquele and I were walking back to the house when Mariquele looked and me and said, "this is the guy." ha ha we are so excited to have some more direction for our president.

Also we have been teaching a Cuban couple that have learned porto and have there own restaurant (see karen and maria porto. is way better than spanish!!!!) They are such an awesome couple!!! We got them a few books of mormon in spanish and they have been reading pretty regularly. And they also came to church.

Anyways I ran out of time, but I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week!!!  Elder Wilhelm