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!