Good Times!

I love this work. I truly don´t think there is anything better than it.

I had another really good week. The work is coming along super well. Let me tell you how.

First off I got an awesome call from Elder Kelsey this last week (He is currently working in my old area) and he gave me an update on Kifika. He said that he is doing really and is at church without fail every single week. What a champ. He also told me that this last week he made T-Shirts. The week before I left that area I gave Kifika a picture of Christ to put up in his house and I guess he used the picture to make some t-shirts. haha. He said they have that picture of Christ and underneath it says, "The People of Nephi".  A phrase that he loves. haha. I was so happy to hear that he is on the right path. The Book of Mormon completely changed this guys life. So cool!

Elder Sande and I have been teaching a guy named Cristiano for the last few weeks, he is a reference from one of the members down here. He has been doing super well and he is going to be baptized here in two weeks or so. He is a super awesome guy. He has a pretty lonely life and he has loved all of the support and love he receives from the branch.

Albertina, the woman that was baptized a little more than a month ago, told us a cool story this last week as we were teaching her about Fasting. I guess that she fasted for 2 days leading up to her baptism! She is such a spiritual lady and will do amazing things for the church here. Such strong faith.

We are working super hard on strengthening the current members of the church. We really need a solid foundation before we can grow to much more. Tonight me and Elder Sande are going to have a branch family night that we will start doing every monday. There are a lot of members who don´t really have a solid family or anyone to do Family Night with so we thaught this would be a good way to help them.

Yesterday was another awesome Sunday. I love Sundays! I feel like every Sabbath we have more and more people at church and the spirit keep getting stronger and stronger. I taught Gospel Principles yesterday and it was my first time so it was a little nerve racking but I got through it. haha.

I am loving life! I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord here in Angola! I hope that all is well back home!

I love you all so much! Sorry the email was a little short, it took a little while with the pictures.

Love,

Elder Hyde

Con- #SGS!! You da man!

Sam- You looked gorgeous at Prom!!

Syd- Love ya sis!

Lukey- Keep killin it on the court buddy! I´m your biggest fan!

Awesome Week!

It was another awesome week! You guys are probably getting sick of hearing that at the start of every email... haha

Let´s talk about what happened! It was a pretty normal week work but definitely had some highlights! The first highlight is how awesome Julio and his family are doing. I think I talked about him a few weeks ago, he was baptized in Germany 20 years ago and has been VERY lost for the last 10 years. Since we started meeting with him about 2 months ago he has completely stopped drinking and now he brings his "wife" and two kids to church every Sunday. We are teaching his wife and him together and they are loving everything! She is super excited to be baptized, they just need to get married first. Which should happen here in the next month or so! I am so excited for them! You can see a totally different light in his eyes, and we all know that´s becuase the Holy Ghost has started to enter back in his life. This Gospel is one powerful thing!!! They are going to be one awesome eternal family!

I also gave my first talk yesterday! I won´t lie I was pretty nervous cause it was my first talk in Portuguese and I was asked to talk for 20 minutes... Luckily the spirit helped me out a little bit and I felt super good about it! I spoke about the Plan that God has for everyone of us. It was a really good topic because there were a lot of people in the congregation that are going through some real tough times and I think it was reasuring for them to know that God truly hasn´t forgotten them and that these dificulties will only make them that much stronger in the long run. Good stuff!!

I am loving this work so much! There is not a day that goes by were the hand of the Lord doesn´t have an influence on this work. I am also super pumped about all of our recent converts! They are all there with out fail every single week. Lubango has a very bright future!!

Transfers also happened this week......... and nothing changed down here in Lubango, we are all going to be staying. Which I am super excited about! I am content staying down here for a long time!

It sounds like it was an awesome week in B Town! One amazing Sister is being added to the ranks this week!

Keep on keepin´ on!!!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Con Thank for all the pics bruh. Keep it rulll

Sam Have fun at Junior Prom!!!

Syd Props on the competitions!!!!

Luke You´re a stud bro!!!

It's A New Year!

What is up everyone!? It was a super awesome week here in Lubango.

New Years Eve was pretty fun, we were able to stay up until midnight and bring in the new year. Elder Montgomery and I stayed up and the other 2 older elders went to bed. LAME. We sat outside and watched fireworks that were going off by a big statue of Christ up on the mountain. Super awesome way to bring in the New Year. I can´t complain at all. I am so excited to start this new year that I truly will be able to dedicate 100 percent to the Mission and these amazing Angolan people.

This weekend the Thompsons and another Brazilian couple from Luanda came down here and have been with us for the last few days or so. It has been so fun! I have so much respect for President Thompson he is an awesome man. On Saturday night we were all able to sit down and just chill with and we each got an interview. He had some awesome advice for me and how to best deal with my current companion. Today we spent most of the day with them. We went to Lunch at a really nice restaurant. AWESOME FOOD. And after that we went and saw some sites. We went to a place called Serra de Leba, that is absolutely beatiful. I think Sister Thompson will post some of the pictures on the mission blog. And next week I´ll try to send some pictures. After that we went to "Cristo Rei" which is a big statue of Christ up on the mountain it was super cool to just chill up there and look out over our kingdom, LUBANGO. I love it here so much, we have a lot of amazing people that we are working with! Here in a few weeks we should have a few baptisms.

I love Fast Sundays! Fasting as a missionary is such an incredible opportunity. We had a solid 7 investigators at church on Sunday, and that´s a good thing because the Testimony meeting was incredible. So many people bore such powerful testimonies on the power of the Gospel in their lives. It is so cool to see the progress of these people that were baptized such a short time ago. 3 out of the 5 doing the sacrament are investigators that Elder Kelsey and I baptized, so cool! The other 2 were Elder Montgomery and I. haha. It was fun to get back into the sacrament passing game.

I´m sure you are all getting sick of hearing how much I love this work, but you´re going to have to deal with it because that´s not changing. The power of the Gospel is something incredible. As we truly focus our lives around it and it´s principles we are promised such amazing blessings. It is going to be a good year! God bless us, Everyone!!!

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Hyde

　

Luke- Swag alert!!!!!! Dude you look so good in your b-ball stuff. Keep scorin for me man.

Con- Loved the snowboarding pics. Happy semester!!!

Sam- Awesome email as usual! Keep killin it!

Syd- You looked awesome at Art with Heart! Keep bein awesome!!!

I love Christmas! I love it!

One of the best weeks so far on the mission for sure! So many awesome things happened and are continuing to happen.

Lets talk about Christmas first. AWESOME! We had such a good time and really felt the TRUE spirit of Christmas. The 4 Elders from Huambo were here and that was super fun. We all had a blast together. On Christmas Eve we went to Tundavala (that huge cliff), and just hung out and took some pictures. One of the coolest places ever. Then after that we went over and had an incredible meal at the Violin´s house. While we ate we watched a slide show of pictures from everyone in the mission. Super cool. (Momma could you insert the link to it here?). Christmas morning we all woke up and did White Elephant. Since we are all the stranded ones down here away from Luanda no one had packages yet so we did our own gift exchange. It was so fun! I ended up with fun little chess set. Then after that we went Caroling to a few of the Member families. It was so cool! After that we went and had a little BBQ at the Violin´s and just hung out and enjoyed the awesome day. I got to call a few of my old investigators/members up in Luanda and that was super nice to talk with them! Christmas night was alright I guess... Seeing the fam was cool. IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! So good to see and hear all of you! You all look so good and happy! Best Christmas present for sure!!! I love you guys!! It was so special to be able to celebrate Christmas here in the mission field. The spirit was so strong the whole day! I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve our Savior here in Angola!

The rest of the week was also awesome! We were able to get in some really awesome lessons. I think I´ve mentioned him before, Julio. He got baptized in Germany about 20 years ago and just found us a few weeks ago. We have been trying really hard to help him, cuase he has quite a few problems right now cause he has been so far away from the church for so long and just now realized it was here in Lubango. But since we´ve first started meeting with him we have gotten him to stop drinking and he has been to church for the past 3 weeks. We had an incredible lesson with his family yesterday, his wife isn´t a member and he has 2 little boys. So cute. He brought his wife to church yesterday and this next week they´ll bring the boys. So cool to see the spirit coming back into this guys life!

Sorry this email is a little short... Just know that I am extremely happy and loving what I´m doing. This message that we have is so incredibly powerful and is changing people´s lives here in Lubango! I am so grateful that the Lord has put me where I am right now. I love Him.

Have a Happy New Years! 2013 is going to be an awesome year!!!! I love you all so much and am so grateful for all of the support!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Con. Holla bruh. Thanks for the sic email. Shred hard.

Syd. Love ya yo. So good to see you! I hope you had fun boarding!

Sam. Thanks for the email! You rock! I hope your body heals okay!

Luke. I hope that new iPod is treating ya good buddy! I love you!