Was I called to Angola or Heaven? This place is so awesome and absolutely crazy! I hope that I`ll be able to get some pictures off... well see if I have time :)
So let´s see, we arrived in angola at about 4 in the morning and then waited in line to get through customs for about an hour and then were picked up by Elder Violin and his wife and the zone leaders. Elder Violin and his wife are a senior couple that are kind of doing all of the president´s stuff before he gets here. They´re super cool. The zone leaders are awesome too! Elder Richter and Davis. And the best part is that Elder Hobbs (My companion) and I live with them. I´ll talk about all that good stuff later. So when we were picked up we wwere taken to the mission home where we were given some breakfast (we were told it would be our last real meal in a while which scared me haha.) But, we ate and then were given some instructions and training. I was told that Elder Hobbs would be my trainer and that he is super cool. And he is!
So the zone leaders took us to our house and I met my comp. He´s a really cool kid. He´s been here in angola for 5 months or so and is already really good at the language. He is from Idaho Falls. Our house is basically what you would expect in Africa. I´ve been showering out of a bucket and have only had power about half of the time so far. The power is really weird. Sometimes it will work and others it won´t. There hasn´t been a day yet where it hasn´t gone out for at least a little bit while I´ve been here. But thank goodness for candles :) So yeah the four of us live in the house together and it is awesome! We have so much fun together. We all get along really super well.
So let me talk about what the city is like... Nuts. Haha it is the craziest thing ever. Cars flying everywhere, everyway, and people dodging cars at the same time. It´s so cool! Angola has the two extremes, super rich and super poor. We teach the poor:) All of the roads are dirt except for the main ones which are "paved". I don´t really know how to explain it haha. I´ll try to send some pictures that will give a little visual. So the kids... They are the best thing ever. Mom you would be in heaven. Even though I can´t really talk to them all that well, they are so fun to play with. Elder Hobbs and I taught like 10 kids one night because their dad didn´t show up for the lesson. It was sweet. Oh another thing about Angola, beer is practically cheaper than bottled water. Haha there are so many drunk people! We kinda stay away from them, but I´ve had some fun run ins with them already.
Now let me talk about my week. Wednesday was a monumental day, I had my first coke in almost 3 years.. It was great! haha I figured there was no better time to break my streak. Haha but now to the stuff you actually care about. I walked with Elder Hobbs and his old companion Elder Chandler who flew to Huambo the next morning. We taught a solid 4 lessons and it was awesome. These people are so ready. It was nice to see how good Elder Hobbs and Chandler were at port. after only being out for 5 months. There´s hope for me :) It was a great day. I was in shock the whole day because I was walking the dirt roads of Luanda and not really knowing what anyone was saying but it was stlll super sick. It hit me that night that, the actual mission had started and that this was home. Crazy feeling. It´s definitely taken some getting used and definitely still need to get used to a lot but it is awesome. Thursday was Elder Hobbs and I´s first full day together and it was great. I was super tired the whole day though, and I´m still tired haaha but it´s just something that I´ll need to get used to. If were tired were doing it right. Thursday we taught a few lessons and I tried to contribute as much as I could, basically just bore my testimony on whatever we were talking about. Elder Hobbs has been great, he´s super patient with me and answers all of my questions. At this point I´m probablu understanding about 65% of everything which is good I just need to get to the point where I can say what I want to say. haha but it will come fast I´m sure.
I don´t have a whole lot of time so I´l just talk about a few things that have stood out. (Even though everything has). So on Wednesday the very first lesson that I was in we set a Baptismal date for a women named Ida. I don´t really know her at all but it was cool that in my first lesson we already had someone ready for baptism. The taxis are pretty crazy. Theyre little toyota vans that they cram 10 people into and it´s a dollar a ride. There´s a guy with his head out the window yelling where theyre going and if it´s where you want to go you just signal them over and then cram in. They´re a good place to meet people. On one taxi ride we made 4 contacts which was cool. Usually we just give them a pamphlet or a pass along card and then see if they call us. That kinda filters out the "Elect". Since we are pretty busy we are only focusing on focusing on families, priesthood holders, and the elect. That keeps us pretty busy. Let´s see.... Oh yeah drunk people. So we met one guy on crutches as we were walking back to our house and we could tell he was drunk but he wanted to talk to us at his house that was close by so we walked back with him. He was mumbling way bad so I couldnt really understand him. But long story short, after about 10 minutes he pulled out his bottle of whiskey and said that it was his last drink and then chugged the whole thing right in front of us. (It was actually kind of impressive...) He then kinda coughed up, through his bottle, and then fell right towards me, I jumped out of the way (not sure if I should have caught him) and then we helped him get up and talked him into sitting down and then got out of there. Interesting for sure. It´s sad how many drunk people there are...
It really has been awesome though! Super weird adjusting to everything, but I have had Elder Hobbs and the zone leaders that have helped me a ton. They´re awesome. Sorry this email has been all over the place, I´ve been trying to fit everything in. Today was awesome, ( p-day) we got up early and went and played soccer at the president´s house were Elder Violin and his wife are living. Super fun. It was nice to meet all of the other missionaries. Everyone is super cool! Oh another good thing, since we live with the zone leaders and since they have a truck. We get to ride with them some of the times. President´s house is like a half hour away, which would be crazy in a taxi.
Church was way cool! There are 3 branches here in Luanda. Ours has about 80 or 90 members. 100 people came to church which was awesome. The people are so awesome!~
I´m kinda figuring out where I am and where we´re going now. Everywhere kinda looks the same so it was hard for the first few days but i´m getting the hang of it.
The food, there is some crazy stuff here, but i´ve been able to avoid it pretty well so far:) We went shopping today, and I got some good stuff that I´ll get by on. Oh and we found a gas station with recess puff. So i´ll be going there a lot:)
Letters and packages are getting here. I think it talks about them on the mission blog. Oh and the mission address is on there as well with the directions on how to send stuff.
I´m doing good, don´t worry about me! The church has to be true if picky old Keato can survive a 5 days now in Angola.
Viva Angola! This place is awesome and crazy and new and awesome. It is going to be a fun two years!
Love you family!!
Elder Hyde
No comments:
Post a Comment