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!