Lovin Life!

Another awesome week! Life is good!
We had a really special baptism this last Saturday. I think I've
mentioned him a lot, Felix. He was really excited because he got to
see his best friend Toni get baptized two weeks ago and this week it
was his turn. We always let them bare their testimonies after they're
baptized and bore probably one of the best yet since I've been here.
He expressed how he never would have pictured himself at where he is
right now. I love seeing people like Felix totally change themselves
for the Gospel, there is nothing better.
The first missionary coming out of this branch left yesterday for the
field! His name is Osvaldo and he's serving in Mozambique. So cool.
There is another guy named Claudencio that is preparing to go that
will be a super good missionary. They walk with us quite a bit so they
have a little head start going into the field. It is such a testament
to the church that these guys that have only been baptized for maybe 2
years are now dedicating 2 more years to the church. So cool.
I'm still getting adjusted to having a native companion, it is
definitely something new for me. It's obviously still the same work
and the same message but it's just an adjustment that is going to
teach me a lot! Haha it's funny, now everywhere that we go I'm the
only white guy, it's pretty funny.
We have an investigator named Gervasio that has been being taught for
about a year now. He is a manager at the big grocery store here so he
has a really hard time getting Sundays off. But we had an awesome
lesson with him about courage and the blessing we receive from
obedience to the commandments and since then he has been to church the
last two weeks. He hadn't been a single time since I've been here. I
guess he's made it work so he can start later. So pumped for him.
We're going to pass by his house tonight and see what's up. He's said
he's been praying hard about a baptisimal date, so we'll see!
I love being a missionary so much. There isn't a day that goes by
where I don't see a tender mercy from the Lord. He keeps placing truly
prepared people in our path. This branch here in Lubango is in a
critical stage right now, it needs members that are ready to lead. And
I believe we have quite a few investigators that are going to be those
members.
I hope you are all having an awesome holiday season! Cause I sure am!
I love you all!

Love,
Elder Hyde

Lukey, Nice job on the big win this week bro! I'm excited to talk to
you in a week!
Sam, The dance looked fun! You looked gorgeous!
Syd, You're a champ yo. Hope you get dance off for the holidays.
Con, Breath bruh, finals are over.

Awesome Week!

(Sorry I'm behind! I had finals and forgot to post last week's letter!)

Another awesome week! I can't complain at all.I have a lot to tell you
all about.
 
So on last Monday night we went over to Albertina's house (I think I
talked about her in my last email), and we asked her she had prayed
about a baptisimal date. She then went on tell us about a dream that
she had after our last lesson. Basically in short she had a dream
about the necessity of baptism and decided that this past Saturday was
her day! We were incredibly shocked and excited. She was definitely
more than ready to be baptized. So yeah! Albertina got baptized on
Satudray! Elder Kelsey was pretty bummed that he was going to miss it
because of transfers. The baptism went perfectly, she picked me to
baptize her and I was pretty nervous we wouldn't get it done on the
first go because she is a pretty tall lady, but it all went well! SO
COOL!
This next Saturday my man Felix is getting baptized. He is Toni's (who
got baptized last week) bestfriend. The work is going so incredibly
well down here in Lubango! Felix will be our 4th consecutive baptism.
The Lord truly is placing tons of very prepared people in our path. I
am so grateful.
Yesterday at church Toni and Leonel both received the Priesthood and
were way excited. As was I. These guys are all progressing so well and
absolutely loving the Gospel and the presence of the Holy Ghost in
their lives.
Elder Sande arrived on Thursday and we went right to work. But I think
maybe a little too fast because he was then sick the whole next day...
haha. He is an awesome guy, like I said in my last email he has been
out about 20 months now and is Mozambican. He is a super nice kid and
a great missionary. I am going to learn a lot from him. Especially
language wise. I was wrong about the pretty good at English thing...
haha. He knows quite a few words but we haven't really had an English
conversation yet. There will be a lot of thing I need to adjust to,
but that isn't a bad thing! It'll be a great transfer! We took him to
the clinic on Friday night and it turns out he has "Polydisimo", it's
like the beginning stages of Malaria, but they got him on some good
drugs so he'll be fine. And he African so he's tough. haha
A few weeks ago Elder Kelsey and I met a guy name Julio who said he
was baptized in Germany 2 years ago. We tried to call him for awhile
and he would never answer but this week he called us wanting to meet
with us, so we met! It was such a cool lesson we had with him. He
braught his baptisimal certificate and Aaronic priesthood certificate.
He explained to us how he was lost and that he wanted to come back. He
has lived here for 7 years and had no idea that the church was here.
He asked us if we had that Joseph Smith book, haha, we were happy to
reply yes. He admitted that he has a lot to change, but that he is
ready to do it. I called him Saturday night to remind him about the
Baptism and he sounded a little different and said that he was coming.
He came. Wasted. But it's all good, we're here to help him! And that
we'll do!
This week I got absolutely attacked by the bugs... I counted yesterday
60+ bug bites all around my body. haha. They're not mesquitos, but we
haven't really found out what they are yet. But, we're going crazy on
my bed to make sure they don't come back. I'm still yet to find a
single bug in my bed. Crazy. I'm totally fine though. They just itch
like crazy.
I am so blessed to be able to be out here serving the Lord! It is such
a blessin! There is nothing more gratifying than seeing someone change
their life for the Gospel. This branch down here in Lubango is growing
like crazy and I'm so glad that I am here to see it. THE CHURCH IS
TRUE!
Woot woot for Grandma joining the Mission Field this week! You're awesome!
 
I love you all and hope that you all are having an awesome CHRISTmas season!
 
Love,
 
Elder Hyde
 
Con. Sa'll good bruh. Hope it's cuz you're studying:)
Sam. I love you sis! Keep being awesome! Have fun with Luke at the
Dance!Drive safe in the snow!
Syd. You're a champ squidster. Loves!
Lukey. You better win your game for me this week! Love you man!

6 Months!

Life is good! The work is moving along so well. I truly can’t complain about anything.

So the first big news is that transfers are this week! I am going to be staying down here in Lubango and Elder Sande from Mozambique is coming down to work with me. I am really excited. He has been out on his mission for about 19 months or so. It is definitely going to be something new for me, working with a native, but I’m excited as well because it is going to help my Portuguese out a ton! Elder Kelsey is the only one that got transferred out of us 4 in Lubango. He’s pretty excited to go back up to Luanda after being here for 6 months.

I’m really happy and content with this last transfer of work. We did a lot of it! The branch is growing like crazy here. Yesterday at church we had 90 people! There wasn’t even close to enough room for everyone to sit. Our two companionships had over 20 investigators all together. LOVE IT!

This weekend was a good one, my man Toni got baptized. This guy has completely changed his life because of the Gospel. He’s shared with us a little about his past and he is definitely in a better place now. It always makes us feel so good, at the end of every lesson he just expresses his gratitude to us and how grateful he is that we spend so much time on him. I’m a big fan of Toni. He is a contact machine! I don’t think he’s ever been to church alone. Haha. He always brings somebody with him, it makes our work easy. His buddy Felix is going to be baptized here in a few weeks. Woot!

We have an investigator named Albertina, she is about 60 years old and she is a champ! She works like 14 hour days at a bakery 6 days a week to provide for herself and her little granddaughter that she brought in. This last week we had an awesome lesson with her, we decided to invite the Violin’s to come with us and we are super glad that we did. We are usually kind of reluctant to be super bold and pushy with baptism on some people but man the Violin’s threw it on! And it’s a good thing that they were, she is going to pray about her baptismal date and probably be baptized by the end of December. She is such an awesome lady, kind of like our grandma out here. Haha. She has been through a lot of stuff with the war and everything and always knows exactly who to thank for it all. Our Savior.

Last Monday we went to a place called Tundavala. So cool! It’s a super beautiful cliff thing that you can go and look out. I’ll try to send some pictures, but lately our internet has been terrible.

This week I hit 6 months! Woot! I have learned so much since I entered the MTC back in May. The most important thing that I have learned and come to realize is the love that I have for our Savior. I have seen so many changes and miracles happen to people because of Christ and the faith that they put in Him. Life is hard at times, but I know that it is all possible because Him.

I love you all so much! Happy Holidays!!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Sorry Sibs I love you all but the internet took away your personal messages! Beijos!

Thanksgiving!

It was another really awesome week down here in Lubango! It is crazy that I have already been here for a month.

This week my man Leonel was baptized, he was so excited.  Iºll try to send a picture today if the internet permits. He is a 25 year old guy that is going to be a great leader for the church here in Lubango.  Funny story. So yesterday when he was getting the Holy Ghost, President Marques said `Receive the Holy Ghost` and Leonel under his breath said, ´Received´. I guess he really felt it! So cool!

I got a call from Elder Hobbs this week telling me that this guy named Dani was baptized last week. I am not sure if I already told you all about him. One day Elder Hobbs and I were walking down the street and this guy with gnarly dred locks stopped us and asked us for something to read, we gave him a pamphlet and 2 weeks later we saw him again and he said he wanted to talk more about what he read. The guy is so calm and chill. Totally Rastafarian. Elder Hobbs said it was pretty funny baptizing him with his huge dreds. So cool!

Thanksgiving was an awesome day! We worked all morning and then went over to the Violins for dinner. Sister Violin cooked all of the meat and then we each cooked our only little something, with my wide span of cooking skills I whipped up some rice. Haha. While we were there she also told me about Camille´s mission call!!!! WOOT!!!! Long Beach is one lucky place!

It is going to be another really good week. Toní is getting baptized on Saturday and couldn´t be more excited. If anything is ever happening at the church he is there without fail. He is about 25 as well. He has a friend named Felix who usually is in the lessons with us that should be getting baptized here in few weeks as well.

I love it down here in Lubango! The field is so white!! The church is true!

I love you all! And hope that you all had an amazing Thanksgiving!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Con, Holla at the shred yo. I hope youre using my board. Do it. Lamar aint got nothing.

Sam, I always love getting your emails! Go cats!

Syd, I hope youºve enjoyed your break from dance yo.

Luke, I love you so much buddy! Im thankful for you!!!

LUBANGO

It was a really super good week! A lot of awesome things happened. Let me tell ya about them!

 

President Kretly was here with us until Thursday so we had him come with us a to a few lessons. I'm so glad that we did! I learned a ton of really awesome things. We took him to a lesson with one of our investigators name Leonel, and it was so cool. Leonel has been being taught for about 2 months now and has been progressing really well, just for some reason we hadn't set a Baptismal date with him. President Kretly changed that. haha. Elder Kelsey's teaching style is one where you teach very slowly and in depth to make sure they understand, where Presdinet's is more of boom, boom, boom, boom style. He says teach what Preach My Gospel says and then move on, there is no need for more detail at this point of conversion. I agree with him. So basically in that lesson we taught Leonel the Word of Wisdom, Chastity, and Tithing which usually would have taken us 3 lessons, and now he is getting Baptized on Saturday! Woot! He is super excited! He will definitely be a leader here in Lubango. (I think he was in that video I sent)

 

We also had an awesome opportunity to just sit and chat with President for a few hours the night before he left. It was really cool. I have a lot of respect for that man.

 

Last week I told you about our investigator Toni, he is doing awesome! We see him twice a week and every time he is so receptive and just loves it. Haha it's funny last few times he's come he's brought us something, one time he brought us some bread and this last time he brought a bunch of chalk for the church. He's such a champ. He should be getting baptized here in the next few weeks.

 

 Yesterday at church we watched a big Africa wide Stake/District conference. It was super cool! The Prophet spoke along with Elder Christopherson and a few other people. We had a solid 9 investigators there and 80 people in total! It is always good for the members here to be able to see and hear the Prophet, everyone always is so happy after. As of right now I think our branch here has about 40 or 50 members here. I don't know the exact number.

 

Oh yeah another really cool thing! One of the members down here got his mission call this last week! He's going to Mozambique! He will be the first missionary out of Lubango. It is so cool/inspiring to see all of these people down here so willing to serve the lord so soon after baptism. They get it!

 

I 'm not sure what it is but I have kind of been under the weather this past week or so. It's not too bad, I can still go out and work and stuff but it's just annoying cuase my nose is constantly running. Good thing there are tons of huge African leaves around to blow it:)

 

I love this work so extremely much and I am so glad that I have the opportunity serve in this part of the Lord's vineyard. My testimony is streangthened every single day as I see all of these people changing their lives. The Savior knows and loves every single one of us. I know it.

 

Congrats to Alex and Morgan!!!

 

I love you all so much! Keep on keepin on!! Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hyde

 

Con- Sounds like you had a blast! Plan on doing that again here in about a year and a half!

Syd- I hope you had an awesome week! Love ya!

Sam- Glad to hear that school is keepin ya busy! Keep it up!

Luke- I'm rootin for ya buddy! Pop some 3's for me!

What's Up?!

Life is good down here in Lubango! I had a really great week, full of teaching and learning.

 

Our area had a baptism on Saturday! His name is Henrique, Elder Kelsey and his old companion had been teaching him for the past few months. He is a very cool guy, he bore his testimony in Fast and Testimony Meeting last week just saying how excited he is to be baptized. So cool. He brought a lot of his family to the baptism and they all really enjoyed it. We are hoping to start teaching them as well:) It was so cool to see him come out of the water with tears in his eyes, full of the spirit.

 

Elder Kelsey and I have a lot of investigators that are really coming along and progressing very well. We should be having quite a few baptisms here shortly. We have one investigator named Toni who is so cool. He's about 23. We have been teaching him for about 2 weeks now and he is still yet to miss an appointment with us. (Rare). We always teach him in the chapel and he is always prompt and ready to go. Last night we taught him about the Priesthood and it got him really excited about the opportunity he has to be baptized. At the end of the lesson we asked him how he was feeling and he went off for abou 5 minutes telling how much he enjoys being with us. We explained to him that it isn't us, it's the spirit. He's so awesome.

 

President Kretly has been here for the last 4 days or so, it has been so good to be able to learn from him. He's a wise man. He alse brought with him Elder and Sister Hartman who are serving a mission helping missionaries with their mental health. They cover like half of Africa. Elder Hartman is the guy that came up witht the whole personality color thing, and he gave us a super cool training on how we can be our best selves. He is an awesome man. President Kretly also gave us another motivating training on the necessary things we need to do in order to build the church here in Angola, but most specifically Lubango. It was an awesome opportunity that the 4 of us had down here.  President Kretly also did a seminar thing for anybody that wanted to come on Sunday Night. The seminar was on "The 7 Habits of an highly effective person". He was the CEO of FranklinCovey in Brazil so he incorporates a lot of that stuff into our trainings. It was such an awesome thing that he did. We had about 30 people come and they all loved it. He talked to them about how they can be more effective/successful in every aspect of their lives, professional and spiritual. It was very cool. He also spoke on Sunday about the importance of living the Culture of the Gospel and not the crazy African culture. It was really good for them to hear because there are some crazy traditions that people have down here.. I am so blessed to have been raised in the Culture of the Gospel!

 

Every Monday we play soccer with Elder Violin and a few of the members in the ward, but this Monday was a Holiday so we had about 20 people show up to play. It was so much fun! President Kretly was also there with us which was fun cause he played professionaly for a while in Brazil. I may or may not have scored a goal on him... Not sure if that was a good idea or not. haha. It was so good to get everyone together though and have a good time. We also got quite a few investigators there, which was awesome.

 

I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve here in Lubango. The church is still so new here. I get to see such joy in these people's lives as they make changes in their lives and start living the Gospel. I love it!

 

Thanks for everything everyone! Shout out to Jim and Michelle I got their letter this week:) Thank you!

 

I love you all!

 

Com amor,

 

Elder Hyde

 

Sam It sounds like your thing was blast! That's so cool that you put that together!

Syd: Love you yo! Keep workin hard!

Con: Have a fun trip! So cool

Luke" I love you buddy! Keep on being cool!

Week Two in Lubango!

 It was a really awesome week! I am getting adjusted to life here in Lubango.

It was nice the other day Elder Hobbs gave me a call and updated me on all of my old investigators. Kifika is a champ! He said that he hasn't drunk since the day I left. I asked Elder Hobbs to call me next time he's with him so I can chat with him. He said that everyone else is still kind of where they were at, but that there should be a few baptisms in the next few weeks. Woo!

Elder Kelsey and I have some really awesome investigators that we are teaching. We have a guy named Henrique who they had been teaching for a few months but then he went out of town for about 3 weeks and we got to sit with him this week. We had a really awesome lesson with him and he is going to be being baptized on Saturday, he is more than ready. That will be the first baptism in Lubango for the past 3 months. We also have a fellow named Antonio who is a way cool guy. We have sat with hime about 4 times since last week. He is about 30 years old and found the church by seeing someone with The Book of Mormon and asking them for our number. He should be being baptized the first part of December. We also made a lot of good contacts this week. We have a thing that President Kretly started called "Qualified Contacts", it basically helps us narrow down the people that are really going to help the church grow. Priesthood holders and families. A few of the contacts that we made throughout the week even showed up to church yesterday without us even sitting with them yet. Super cool.

Church was awesome yesterday. I love getting to know all of the members here. Yesterday we had about 70 people at church, it was awesome. Funny/Embarrasing story.. So I was giving the closing prayer in sacrament meeting and at one point during the prayer I said "Tambem" (also) and a few people thaught I said "Amen", so like half the congregation said amen and I looked up wondering what was going on and then just went back to my prayer. haha. It was super funny. I don't think I 'm going to use that word in my prayers for the next little while.

 It rains a ton down here in Lubango, I have gotten some good use out of my rain jacket. As we speak it is raining so hard that I can barely hear from the rain hitting the roof. Haha.

It was a very spiritual week this week. We saw some major tender mercies. For instance, the cell service was down so we couldn't call the guy we were meeting and we had to find his house on some random street and we were literally guided right to the guys house. The spirit is such a powerful tool, if we use it. The Lord truly is mindful of each and everyone of us. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve these people and help them realize that they have a loving Savior.

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Luke: I love you big guy! I hope you're shooting those 3's!

Sam:That is so cool about what your doing with World Joy! I hope the event goes well!

Syd: You're almost to High School! haha. You're awesome.

Con: KONY 2012. Have fun on the cruise ya turkey.

1. Elder Kelsey hiding from the rain.

2. Nossa Casa (garage)

3. LUBANGO 

LUBANGO!

I have a new home now! This place is so awesome/beautiful. Let me tell you about my week.

 

Tuesday was a really good day. Elder Hobbs and I went around to all of our awesome investigators/members to say goodbye to them. I am so glad that I had a day to do that. It was kind of a bitter sweet day, because I was so excited to go down to Lubango but then at the same time I was very sad to say goodbye to all of our awesome investigators. They'll be taken care of:) I'm excited to hear about their progress from the other Elders.

 

Then Wednesday was the big transfer day. We had spent quite a bit of time getting all of my things together and things like that making sure that I would be able to fit it all into my suitcases. Slightly typical of our house the power was out so I was only able to wash half my clothes:) But, it's all good, I just put the gross/stinky ones in a plastic bag and it was all good. One of the Senior Couples (the Abdo's from Brazil) came and picked me up at about 9 to take me to the airport. It was nice as I was getting checked in and everything we didn't have any problems, they didn't even care that my bags were over weight. Then I waited for a bit before I went through security because President Thompson was coming to give me some stuff to take down with me. Also some Elders came and said bye to me. It was really sweet. Then it was time to go through security... They gave me grief at about every place they had to see my passport (we only care around a notarized copy just to be safe) but they weren't stopping me. I usually just sat there for a few seconds and pulled the missionary card and then they all let me through:) I won't lie it was super wierd being alone! But I made it safe and sound. The flight was only about an hour long and when I landed Elder Violin (Senior Couple down here) and my new companion Elder Kelsy were waiting for me. It was awesome. Elder Kelsy has been out for about 18 months now and is super experienced. He is in the Marine corp which is really cool. He works like he's in the Marine corp. haha. It will be really good for me. We are working HARD. This place is really awesome! It was so nice to fly in and see green mountains! So epic. I feel like I'm actually in Africa now! (Scenery wise).

 

This Sunday was really good! They played conference this week instead of last week so I got to doses! Basically, just another try to try and understand. Haha. It was really great. The chapel here is tiny! Our house is basically the garage of the chapel. It's awesome. We are in the process of finding a new chapel because it doesn't really fit all of the people here. We'll see what happens.

 

This place is awesome and from the few days that I have had to work here I am very confident that we are going to find lots of success! Sorry this email isn't incredibly uplifting... I'm lovin' life! Thanks for all of your support!! I love you all!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hyde

PICTURES:

1. Me in the rain here in Lubango. It rained a ton!

2-3. Elder Kelsy and I and Elder Montgomery and I.

4. Us watchin conference in our cute little chapel.

5. Me saying goodbye to Luanda.

6. President Thompson and I.

Transfer Week

I think I say this every week, but this week was absolutely incredible! I'm a fan of this whole Missionary thing. 

I'll start with the big news. I am being transfered down to a provinice called Huila! The main city is called Lubango. It is located in the center of Angola (about an hour and half plane ride away). I am so excited! The area is still fairly new and as of right now the branch has around 50 members. I should be flying down there on Thursday to meet up with the other 3 Elders that are there. From what I hear it is absolutely beautiful, and not nearly as hot as Luanda. Thank heavens! It is starting to get very hot... To be honest, I thought that I would be staying here in my area for sure and that Elder Hobbs would be leaving, but I was wrong! There is a little sadness that I will be leaving behind all of my awesome investigators but I'm sure they will be taken care of. Woo!!

This week was really awesome. All of our investigators never cease to amaze me. We have an investigator named Orlando who found the church through Mormon.org. He is an incredible guy. He saught out the church because he realized that he needs a change in his life. He is about 45 and has been separated from his wife for about a year and wants to make the changes necessary to go back to her and his two little kids. We taught him the Restoration about 2 weeks ago and ever since he has been progressing like a champ. This week we taught him The Plan of Salvation and he really loved it. It all clicked really well for him. He expressed to us that ever since we had started seeing him and ever since he has been reading The Book of Mormon he has been feeling a real change in his life, he says he feels something different inside him (the spirit). I am some what bummed that I have to leave him but at the end of the day it isn't me doing the work it is the spirit so it really doesn't matter who is there teaching him. 

We got to see General Conference this week! It was so awesome! How it works here is that the branch aks as if Conference was this week and plays Conference on Sunday instead of usual meetings. We had 131 people there on Sunday! New record! And everyone of them got to hear the words of their Prophet. So cool. We had a lot of investigators show up and they all really enjoyed it. It was all in Portuguese, so to be honest I didn't understand a ton but the things I did understand were awesome! It seemed like it was focused a lot on Families. They must be important or something.... Also, Aunt Meg had some nice shots! That made me so happy to see!

This week was probably one of the best since I have been here. I love this work so much! The church is true! This Gospel is a very powerful thing.

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Syd- Get that U up sista! Thanks for the email!

Sam- You're a champ! It sounds like you had an awesome week.

Con- Holla at Crimson Nights. Thats dope that youre so involved.

Luke- You're the man bro! I love you so much! Have a good game this week!

Weekly Letter

This week was awesome! Life is so good here in Luanda.

I'll start with a Kifika update. This guy is changing his life. I mentioned in last weeks email that he had relapsed a few times but that we weren't giving up on him. After emailing you all last week we went over to his house to chat with him, it was really good but he told us that he had had a little wine in the morning, and as we were walking away he told us how he also had a problem with weed. We told him that it wasn't a problem and that we would just focus on one of them at a time. As we walked back to the house that night, Elder Hobbs and I decided that it would be good for us to start passing his house daily, he has hardly none support, so we need to be that support. On Tuesday we told that we would start passing by every day, under the stipulation that we would only pass by if he hadn't drank at all that day. It has now been 7 days since Kifika has touched both Alcohol or Weed. Miracle. Everyday that we pass he tells us about the temptations that he had and the strength that he had to turn away from them. This man is a testament of the veracity of the Gospel! Yestarday he said something that really hit me, he said "I don't have food to eat and I'm hungry but that doesn't matter because I have God." Boom. How true is that. Does anything else really matter in this life? If we have that faith in God, that he truly does love us and know us, we can get through anything. 

This upcoming week we have two baptisms planned but as of right now I'm not really sure if they are going to happen. Their names are Carlos and Nice, Carlos is dating Nice's sister. They are both super ready but realize how big of a decision it is and want to make sure their making the right one. I talked to Carlos yesterday at church and he expressed his feelings about it all with me. He'll be baptized, it's just a matter of when. He speaks really good English which I love! We're good friends, he's the man. 

We have water! It was a rough last few weeks for all of Luanda but it seems to be better for the most part now. Energy still is off and on but we get by:)

Go Woods Cross! That is so sweet! I wish you could have all seen my reaction in this cyber cafe. haha. 

Also, shout out to Grandma on her Mission call! That is so cool! You will be awesome Grandma!

Thanks for everything! I love you all!

Love,
Elder Hyde


Lukey!! Dude!! Im so proud of you!, it sounds like you had a killer game! Please tell me that at least one of the tds was for me:)
Sam! You are an inspiration!
Con! Get better you. Thanks for the pic!
Syd! I love you sis!

Great Week!

What a week! A lot of really awesome things happened. Let me tell ya.

 

First off we had two awesome baptisms! One of them was a man named Sebastião, he´s the coolest guy ever. I feel like whenever we teach him he usually ends up teaching us. haha. The other was a woman named Aida, she´s a single mom with 3 awesome little kids. I have seen such a change in her life since I got here. I will try to send some pictures of the baptism:)

 

I also had the opportunity of confirming Aida yesterday at church. SO COOL! I was super nervous about what I would say with my fairly limited portuguese vocabulary. It was actually one of the coolest experiences yet on my mission though. I love the spirit. Once I started the blessing my nerves were gone and the words just kinda flowed.

 

It sounds like General Conference was awesome! We were only able to watch Priesthood Session. President downloaded it and we went and watched it last night. It was so good! Every single talk was so powerful. It definitely was my favorite Priesthood session yet. We will get to watch all of conference in 2 weeks when they send out the dvds. I´m stoked!

 

So basically the whole country of Angola is out of water right now. Luckily we´ve only been without it for about 4 days, there are some people that are going on weeks. Luckily we have nice neighbor that lets us come and get some out of her huge tank. We´re kinda on the shower every 3 days schedule here:) I´m not complaining at all though! Life is so good here! We have a ton of investigators that are making real solid progress!

 

Kifika update. He came to church with us yesterday and it was awesome! We also had a really awesome lesson with him this last week and I think he is really making real good progress. He actually just called me and said that he wants us to come over so right after this we will be heading over to his place. Keep praying for him because he has a ton of potential!!

 

I love you all so much!! Thanks for everything!

 

Love,

 

Elder Hyde

 

Syd. loved the email yo. Keep dancin.

Sam. LOVE YOU!

Con. Nice chat.

Lukey! You da man!!! Keep bein a stud!

This is Ventura from our branch that left on his mission to Mozambique this week. Super cool!

Elder Rainbolt and I filling up the font

Sebastião and his daughter

Aida

WOW

This week was incredible. I learned so much and my eyes were opened in a big way. I´ll cut to the chase.

This last Sunday we got a call from a man named Engersio saying that he wanted to meet with us and something about reading the whole Book of Mormon. We didnºt really know what to think cause he sounded pretty crazy on the phone, but obviously we were going to meet with him. I remembered talking to someone named Engersio but for the life of me I could not remember. We called him and planned out a time where we could meet and he could walk us to his house so that we could chat, Tuesday night. Tuesday night came around and we had waited there for about 15 minutes and were about to call it quits on the guy but then he ran up to us. I instantly recognized him. Before we could say anything he told us that his friend that read the whole Book of Mormon was right behind him, and said that it was the man on the crutches. Flashback, the man on the crutches was the drunk man that just about fell on me my first week here in Angola. The second we saw him Elder Hobbs and I both looked at eachother with that ´Oh boy..´ look. We honestly had no idea what to think. He came up to us and we could tell that he was sober which eased us a little bit. And the started saying how he read the book and he wants more, he told us about Laban and Nephi and his brothers. WOW. I will never judge a man again. We asked them if we could walk to their house so that we could talk more about the book. As we walked into their complex thing with two 1 room shacks the memory of that day came back to me, this man was so incredible drunk/high/I dont even know what and now he was standing there with us having an actual conversation. Engersio was the man that day that came over and talked to us and told us to leave, that the man didn´t have any hope. So long story short, Kifika read the whole Book of Mormon in about a month and told us that he was done drinking and doing all of that evil stuff. I was so close to tears you have no idea. This man that we just gave a Book of Mormon so that he would stop bothering us has made the decision that he wants change in his life, and he sees the necessity for that change all because of the Book of Mormon. During the lesson he started talking about stories that I don´t think I can say that I even know all that well.  The book is true. How on earth could any other book cause a man to do such a thing. He had absolutely no help from us or from anybody. You could see it in this mans eyes, you could see that light of Christ that we teach about, you could see a change. The last time we saw him you could see absolute sadness, you could see Satan within him. I am still in shock. The Book of Mormon is true. 

Now, it´s kind of sad. This last Saturday Elder Hobbs and I decided to take a different way home, and we happened to come across Kifika. Drunk... My heart dropped.. We walked him back to his house and had a prayer with him. I´m not a big fan of Satan and his temptations. This man literally has no support system, he lives alone and his only friends are the ones that get him drunk. We didn´t get to discouraged because we know that relapse is pretty probable when this man has been drinking every single day for who knows how long, but now is where we need to step in and help him. It is a miracle in and of its self that he was able to not drink for almost a week. I´ll be sure to keep you updated on his status. This man WILL change. Pray for him.

We have a really good week coming up. We have 2 baptisms maybe 3 on Saturday and a lot of good new investigators. I´m super excited!

Life is great here in Angola! Thanks for everything everybody!

I love you all!

Elder Hyde

Sam. You looked gorgeous for Homecoming! It sounds like you had a pretty awesome time with an awesome guy!
Syd. Thanks for the email yo! Get feeling better and keep being awesome!
Con. Youre the man. Looks like that group date was a parrrtay!
Luke. I love you buddy! It sounds like you have a pretty wicked new room!

ELECTION WEEK

Whoops, I'm slackin. I accidentally forgot to post this on the 3rd. Sorry ya'll!

Man! I can´t believe that I have already been here for a month! It has been the fastest/slowest/craziest/awesomest month of my life. I truly have learned so much already about this Gospel and about myself.

President and Sister Thompson got hear on Saturday! Woo! All of us missionaries were really excited! I only got to meet him breifly but he seems like an amazing man!

This week went by really well, we were all kind of curious as to see what elections would be like, but they turned out to be fairly calm. We made sure that we avoided any possible trouble, and the members were good to let us know about anything that was going to happen. Like I mentioned in my last email we were in the house a little earlier for a few days just to be safe and then on Friday we all stayed in our houses and from what I hear so did the rest of Angola. haha. The people that we talked to said that Friday has been the most calm day in a really long time. But hey, better safe than sorry!

Even though the week was kind of slow we still had a lot of cool experiences. This last sunday (yesterday) we had a member of the 70 at our branch which was so cool! It was Elder Bricknell, from South Africa. Super cool man! He was just what the branch and us missionaries needed to hear. During Priesthood he spoke to the branch about missionary work and it should be done on their part! Woo! We definitely could use some help from the members. He talked to them about the importance of simply just getting them to church, if they can do that then they can introduce them to us and works a lot smoothly that way. He really just got them pumped up and helped them realize the importance of it. It was also good for the members to see someone a little higher up in church, most of them are really super new and haven´t had the opportunity of hearing from someone like him. He also spoke to us a little about truly giving everything that we have to this work. We need to serve 24 month missions and not 22 month missions. And what he meant by that was don´t waste any time. It really got us pumped and ready to go out and work 10 times harder. 

And the really cool thing is that this week we get another 70! On Tuesday we are having a training with Elder Renland of the 70 and President Thompson. President Kretly was going to come from Mosambique but he had Visa problems. But I think he is coming here in the next few weeks. The training will be with all of us Elders here in Luanda, I think there are about 20. I´m super excited! In the MTC we were blessed to hear from a 70 almost twice a week. So it will be really nice! Elder Renland is also going to have a devotional for all of the members on Tuesday night, it will be super good for them. We are going to try super hard to get a lot of our investigators there to feel the spirit that will most definitely be there. 

We have been making some really good contacts lately, like I said before, everyone is super open to hear what we have to say. 

This week I also went on a few divisions cause my companion is District Leader. And it was really nice to see how other Elders teach and do things. I really got an idea of what potential Elder Hobbs and I have. 

With us having to stay in the house a little more than normal I have been able to get a lot of good studying in. I love the scriptures! I don´t think I really appreciated them as much as I could have before the mission.

Oh yeah! Somehow we got a little keyboard in our house and I am killer on the piano... Not really.. But I can play a few hymns haha. Fun stuff. 

Go UTES!!!!! I´m happy to hear that we got our first win of the season!

Big shout out to Connor and his B-day this week! 22! 

That´s all from me here! I love you all! Keep on keepin´on!

Fica Bem,

Elder Hyde

Luke- Keep workin hard at football buddy!
Sam- Props on making Varsity!
Squid- I´m jealous you got to go to that concert!
Con- 22 never looked so good!

Weekly Letter

Is it really Monday again? Time is really starting to pick up!

It was a really solid week here in Luanda! Elder Hobbs and I were able to get a lot of lessons in and make some really good progress with our investigators. Also, this week we had a baptism! WOO! It was such a special meeting. The girls name is Loreana, she´s 15 and just moved to Angola about a year ago. Her Dad is a super strong member of the church and served a mission in Congo. It was so cool to see him baptize his daughter and then the next day give her the Holy Ghost. We´re now going to start teaching his wife who isn´t a member but has been coming to church with them for the last few weeks. This family is awesome and pretty soon is going to be eternal! At the Baptisimal service on Saturday we had 12 baptisms! It was so cool to see all of these people absolutley beaming after they were baptized. There is only one font here in Luanda so we all get to do them together, which is acutally super cool. The church is on the move here in Angola!

This last Tuesday we also had another awesome Zone (mission) conference. President Kretly and his wife flew in for a mission tour and were here for about a week. They are so awesome! We had some really awesome trainings with him and President Thompson. They are both so inspiring and loving. President Kretly talked to us a lot about potential, our personal potential and the potential of this country. He reiterated the 4 things President Hinkley said were key to being a good missionary. The one I liked the most was to smile. There is incredible power in a simple smile. That is something I really have discovered here. A simple smile and a thumbs up to either the kids or anyone on the street will just make them beam. It´s something I have really been working on doing since I´ve got here and it has actually helped us make some pretty good contacts. SWEET! We also talked a lot about we need to focus on the most here in Angola to build a strong foundation for the church. Families. This Gospel truly does bless families so much and they are the strongest forces in the branches here. He introduced something called Qualified Contacts to us. Basically just looking for married (legally.....) men, 25+, that are already Christian. We are already seeing some awesome effects from it. President Kretly is an incredibly motivational man that made all of us feel like we can conquer the world. It was a really awesome conference. 

Our branch has been doing so well this last month! Yesterday we had 120 people in Sacrament Meeting. WOW! The house that we are using as the church doesn´t even fit all of the people anymore, which is a pretty good problem to have. We need chapels!

My Portuguese is making good progress! I´ve found that the more and more I step out of my comfort zone and don´t worry aobut making mistakes the better I do. Our teaching as a companionship is probably about 50/50 now. Which I love! I teach a lot more simply obviously but as long as the spirit is present it really doesn´t matter. I truly have seen some amazing blessing from the Lord in the 2 short months that I have been here. It´s all about trust. If we truly trust in him he WILL bless us.

The next few weeks are going to be really good! The next baptisimal service, 2 weeks, Elder Hobbs and I should have about 4 investigators being baptized. I love this work!!!


I love you all! Keep on keepin´on!

Com amor,

Elder Hyde

Sam~Good luck this week yo! I´m so proud of you!
Luke~I heard about your awesome game dude! I hope that interception was for me!
Con~Holla bruh. Thats dope that your so involved there at the U.
Syd~I hope you had a good week sista!!!