What a Week!

This week was a great one! A lot of good things are in the works in
our area. There is a new fire in some of the members that is really
helping us out a lot. Every Sunday new people are coming to church,
which makes it so much easier on us.

Two weeks ago 4 new people were brought to church by a few a few of
our new members. Two of them live in our area and the other two are in
the other Elders area. All four of them now have baptismal dates and
will be baptized by the end of May. The work is so much easier when
the members help and do the finding for us! A few of our investigators
are even bringing people to church. AWESOME!

We have an investigator named Julieta that I am super happy about.
About a month ago we got a call from one of the members in Huambo
telling us that her brother just died and that her sister in-law could
really use a visit. So we went over to her house and taught about the
Plan of Salvation and it gave her a lot of hope and lifter her spirits
a little bit. This week she came to church with us for the first (I
think it was the first she had left the house since her husband had
passed away. One of those wierd traditions). It has been really cool
to see the change in her since she found out about the Restored
Gospel. We are super excited for her, she should be baptized towards
the end of May. She has 6 children that are all grown up and out of
the house that she trying to arrange for us to sit with. So far we
have sat with the oldest son and his family. This Gospel is going to
change the life of this family forever!

Oh yeah it was my Birthday this week too! It was an awesome day, full
of missionary work! I was on a division with Elder Pimentel, a
Brazilian Elder here in Lubango, and we had a great day together. Good
stuff! Oh yeah, one of our investigators came down from Luanda and
President Thompson sent some things with him, letters! A bunch from
Camille and one from Aunt Kris! Happy day!

We get to watch conference this coming weekend! I am super excited,
mostly because I’ll actually be able to understand it this time. Haha.
Last conference I maybe got the gist of a few talks… It will be really
good for all of the new members to see it for the first time. I don’t
think they really have any idea just how big the church really is.

It’s going to be an awesome week! Thanks for all of the love and
support! Have the greatest weeks of your lives!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Luke. Get feelin better buddy!
Syd. I'm glad you had a nice relaxing week!
Sam. I hope you had an awesome week sis!
Con. Props on gettin through finals!

Woo!

What an incredible week! Things are really starting to take off here
in Lubango.  There is such a positive vibe here.

Let me start by talking about yesterday. Yesterday was probably one of
the best Sundays I have had thus far on my mission. With both
companionships combined we had a total of 27 investigators at church!
There honestly wasn’t room for everyone in our little chapel. I also
spoke yesterday in Sacrament Meeting about sacrifice. I felt really
good about it, and I hope that it helped at least a few of the people
in the congregation. It was definitely the longest I have ever talked,
I think I went a little of 20 minutes.  The Lord has been blessing our
areas so much, and I am so excited for the coming months and weeks.

I’ll tell you a little more about our new investigator Alex (The
Philipino). He is doing so well! He has only known about the restored
Gospel for about a week now and he is already letting it change his
life. He is a programmer at one of the big companies here in Lubango
and he said that it is an incredibly stressful job, but ever since he
has been talking with us he has been able to stay a lot more calm and
even do things that he’s never been able to do before in the company.
We are so excited for him! He will be being baptized here in the next
few weeks or so.

We have a fair amount of investigators that are progressing very well.
May should be a really good month for Lubango! I am so grateful for
all of the help that the Lord has been giving us. We’ve passed a few
dry months but things are really starting to pick up now.

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes! You are all too good to me!
Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hyde


Luke: Thank you so much for the email bro! And for scoring 5 goals for me!!
Sam:  You looked gorgeous once again!
Squid: I hope you had an awesome B day! Thanks for the email!
Con: Props on the new imprego! That’ll be sick to get paid doin what
you like to do.

Awesome Week!

What a week! Elder Yeanoplos and I had an incredible first week together. It was probably one of the better weeks I have had in quite a while.

We found 4 really solid new investigators this week. Well one of them found us... Two of them are a couple with an awesome family. On Saturday we went and taught them the Restoration and they loved it! We taught the father to pray and I think it was the first time that he had prayed in a really long time. It is always so special to hear/see someone come into contact with the spirit again after being away from it for a while. We have big hopes for this family.

Now let me tell you about the investigator that found us. On Sunday during church someone came in and grabbed me and said that there was someone outside. I went out to see who it was and was suprised to see that it was a Phillipino man. I went out and he started speaking to me in English, it kinda threw me off for a second. He told me that he had been looking for the church for months now and that he was just now able to find it. He said that he has friends that are members that invited him to go find the church and investigate. He has been here in Lubango for 3 years now working as an electrical engineer. He does not speak a whole lot of Portuguese so I translated for him in Sacrament Meeting, after the meeting he said how much he loved it and that he wanted to learn more. So we scheduled to pass by his house a few hours later after church. We have now sat with him 2 times and taught him about the Restoration. He has already done a good amount of research so he already knew quite a few things. It was pretty cool, during our first lesson he put me on the phone with his Mormon friend that is living in Saudi Arabia, she was so excited to hear that the church was hear and the we had finally met Alex. He has already accepted the invite of Baptism and is super excited for the future. He expressed to us how he has always had material things but that that doesnt make him happy, he wants a happy family and real happiness. He has 4 kids and they have great relationships but he wants a wife that he can be happy with. He is totally going to marry the girl that he put me on the phone with. I dont know if he knows it yet but Im calling it. :) Such a cool experience! I will keep you updated on his progress.

Our area is doing great and we are loving the work. There are a lot of bright things in the future for our little branch of Lubango!

I hope you all have an awesome week! I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Luke! Happy B Day Brotha! I am a big fan of the birthday blessings by the way!

Con! Sick email bruh. You are a champ.

Sam! That is so cool about the fundraiser you are guys are going to make such a difference!

Syd! I am glad that you are planning on settling down this next year, Î think its a good decision:)

Awesome Week!

This week was a super good/busy one! 

So for the first part of the week it was just Elder Hansen and I working both of our areas. It went super well, it kept us super busy. We had some super cool experiences while we were together. There was a baptism this week with a guy named Isaac, it was probably one of the cooler baptisms I have seen yet. Let me tell you the events leading up to the baptism. So Elder Hansen and I met with him about 3 times this week making sure that everything was good to go and that he was prepared and every time you could just see how excited and ready he was. He is definitely one of the more spiritual guys I've ever taught. But... on Saturday he gave us a call and told us that he wanted to talk to us, so we ran over to his house(8X8 room) and he told us that he wanted to move the baptism back a bit, that he wasn't quite ready. He said that a doubt came up and that he didn't want to tell us what it was yet, that he wanted to wait for the right time... We were pretty bummed but just prayed that we would be able to say the right things and maybe answer his question. We were with him for about an hour. Oh yeah his brother was there too (probably the source of the doubting). But after the prayer he followed us out the door and told his brother that he would be back. He grabbed my by the shoulder and told me not to change anything, that he would be being baptized. I didn't know what to think! He said that everything he needed to know was said and that the spirit told him that this what he needs to do. 6 hours later he was in the water being baptized. It's always nice to have a reminder that the Spirit really is the teacher in this work and that he really does work through us we are obedient and worthy. He asked me to Confirm him yesterday and it was an incredible experience. 

Right before the baptism our companions got here! My comps name is Elder Yeanoplos from Tuscon, AZ. He is a super cool kid and super excited to start working. He speaks really good portuguese already too. Also here's the big bonus. He's a huge U fan! Woot. We're pretty few here on the mission...  It was pretty cool for him to see a baptism right after he landed. I'm sure that I am going to learn a lot more out of this training experience than him. It's going to be fun! I've forgotten all of the crazy things about Angola that he has brought up. 

I'm super excited to watch conference! It sounds like it was pretty awesome! We should be getting it here in the next 2 weeks or so. 

I love you all so much! Thanks for all that you do! You're awesome!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Pics:

1. Baptism of Isaac

2. Elder Yeanoplos and I

3. Albertina always wants pictures

4. Look what we found!

Happy Easter!!

What a great week to be a missionary! I hope that you all had as good of a week as I did.

With it being the week of Easter I decided to really study the last week of our Saviors life. I dont think I ever realized just how many things happened leading up the Resurrection and Crucifixion. It is crazy how every single day I am growing closer and closer to He whom I am representing. This is such a special opportunity. It is especially special on days like Easter and Christmas. 

So for the past 5 months ever since I have gotten here we have been working super hard on finding the families that need this branch and that this branch needs, and we havent seen oodles of success up until this point. It is especially difficult because I think about 3.5% of the country is actually married legally. But this week we were super blessed to start teaching 2 awesome/married families. One of the families that we started teaching lives FAR away... but luckily they are pretty well off and have the means to get to the church. I am pretty sure that Elder Sande and I were the first missionaries to ever make it out there, it is a place called Kewawa. When we finally got out to their house they gave us the treatment! Cold drinks, the works... It was nice. Two weeks ago we were called by a member in Huambo to go and meet with her family here in Lubango who had just recently lost a family member. We told them about the Plan of Salvation and the hope that it gives us. They were thrilled to have us over to their house again to learn more. We pray that they will do what we ask and receive the blessing of the Gospel!

Yesterday was an awesome Sunday! We almost had a new record for sacrament meeting attendance with 95 people. It was great. Elder Sande and I had 11 investigators there which was so nice to see! 

This week we are losing 5 Elders from the ranks. I think these will be the first Elders that will have gone home since I have been here. It has been cool to learn from them and see how they have dedicated themselves to the work. This week is also transfers and we are going to be getting 2 more Elders down here. I will be training which should be a super awesome experience. The only problem is that the new coming Elders still do not have their visas... So it will just be me and Elder Hansen down here working both our areas until they get here, his companion isnt coming down until the new guys get here. Lets hope and pray that it is soon!

Well I hope that you all had an awesome Easter! I sure did. Have a great week! 

Love, 

Elder Hyde

Con. Dont have to much fun at disneyland...

Syd. I hope you have a nice relaxing week sis!

Sam. That goes for you too! 

Luke. I heard about your sick goal last week in Soccer! Try to control con at Disneyland for me.

I hope that you all had an awesome Easter!