Weekly Update

Well it was another productive week here in Luanda! Things are going great with our investigators and I´m happy! The Lord has really blessed us with a great teaching pool. I am very grateful.

So this coming Saturday a few of our investigators will be baptized, Cristiano, Mendes, and Manucha. You all know Cristiano, he is continuing to completely amaze me every visit. He will be a great addition to the branch. He is so willing to do what the Lord wants him to do. You can tell a lot about the willingness of a person by when you teach them the Word of Wisdom. Most people react in a "Ah... I guess I´ll try" kinda way. But Cristiano basically just said, "consider it done". He likes his coffee and beer, but as soon as he heard it was a commandment he dropped them on the spot. This man is SO prepared. I´ll send you pictures of him next week. Mendes and Manucha are part of Fulai, Salvador, and Mimi´s family. Manucha is Mimi´s sister and Mendes is their cousin. They are both about 17 years old. They´re super excited! It has been so cool to see the Gospel change their family. The ones that used to be not interested are now seeing the changes in those that are coming to church and sitting with us and want what they have. It´s been a great experience. 

We had a big Zone Conference this week too which was great. It´s always so fun to get together with all of the Elders and get taught. Elder Pimentel (my companion) and I gave a training on working with less actives and recent converts and it went great! I love all of these Elders here so much, they are complete studs.

Today we got to go back to the orphanage that we used to go to! It has been a year since I´d been there and it was so fun to see all of the kids again! I attached some pictures:)

This work is incredible. It is such an great opportunity to be here. My testimony has grown so much as I have seen people completely change their lives to follow the Savior. I now know that the Lord has a plan for us, and that he is always watching out for us. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support! I hope that you all have a great week! LOVES!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Familiar Faces

Well it was another good week here in Luanda. Our area is progressing well and I feel like I´m progressing. Week after week I continue to learn more and more. These people have taught me so much over the past year or so, their humility and faithfulness is incredible. The Angolan people are without a doubt a God fearing people, they want so bad to please Him. 

Last week I talked a little bit about our investigator Cristiano. This man is my hero. He has been doing so well! He is so anxious to be baptized and is doing everything that he can to be prepared. He´s been lost for most of his life and is ready to come back to the fold. 

This past monday I got to see Albertina from Lubango! She was up here in Luanda for a wedding or something and her bus station just so happened to be in my area so we ran by to see her. It was awesome! She is the most amazing woman, the things that she has gone through are incredible. Hopefully one day I´ll be able to tell some of her stories, I don´t think it´s possible through email. It´s crazy that she has almost been a member for a year now... This week was full of seeing familiar faces. This weekend we had District Conference here in Luanda. It was so awesome to see all of the members come together. It put such a smile on my face seeing the people from the first branch that I served in. It has been exactly a year since I´ve seen them. At conference yesterday there was a total of 689 people in attendance. The church truly is growing here, there may not be many members yet, but man are they strong. 

It was a great week! I hope that everything is well on the home front and that you are all happy! I´m happy!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Great Week!

The weeks just keep getting better and better. The Lord is blessing us with a lot of work and we are so grateful for fit. These week was full of a quite a few experiences that I will never forget. Let me tell you about one of them.

I´ll start by telling you about a man named Cristiano. Cristiano was introduced to the Gospel by a friend that he met on a hospital bed. They were both together in the same hospital room for a few days and this man that he met loved him enough to share the Gospel with him. This man´s name is Jose and he was baptized about 4 months ago in another branch. As they layed there together in the hospital Jose told Cristiano of the joy and peace that the Gospel has brought in his life and it motivated Cristiano to want to learn more. 2 Sundays ago he came to church for the first time and loved it. We got his contact and set an appointment to meet with him later in the week. This man is incredible. We went to his humble home where he lives alone with one of his sons (20 years old) and introduced him to the Restoration. We expressed to him the love that Heavenly Father has for everyone of us and the power that the Atonement can have in our lives. As he told us a little bit about is past he started crying, he said that he can´t help but cry thinking back on all of the mistakes that he´s made. He lived and fought through the war and it really took a toll on him. He has 6 kids, each of which is with another woman. He wants so bad to feel at peace with himself and is willing to do whatever it takes to have a clean conscious. Our first meeting ended with us leaving him with the commitment to read the pamphlet on the Restoration. When we came back two days later he had that thing down. It was the easiest lesson that I´ve ever taught. Usually it´s your companion that finishs your sentences not the investigator. It was incredible. As we invited him to baptism at the end of the lesson, he reacted in a way that I will never forget. He just let out a "Halleluyah" and said how he will do whatever it takes. We set the date of the 5th of October with him. I love this man! I am so glad that the Lord has trusted us with him. And I am so glad that Jose had the desire to share the Gospel with him! I feel so bad for the millions of people out there that find themselves in the same situation that Cristiano was in. Absolutely miserable because of their past mistakes, suffering from the weight of guilt, and wishing that they could start over. The Savior has already suffered for all of our sins and mistakes, we don´t need to! I am so grateful for the Atonement! It has changed my life and I am seeing it change the lives of so many people here in Angola. There is nothing that makes us feel the love of the Savior like feeling the peace that comes through repentance. We are so lucky to have the knowledge of the Atonement, we HAVE to share it. 

This week was incredible! I wish so bad that I could tell you everything... But time doesn´t exactly permit. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for you constant prayers and support. Have the greatest week of your lives!

Love,

Elder Hyde

What A Week!

Well this week was a swell one. It was probably one of the most progressive weeks that I´ve had in this area. The Lord is really blessing us with some very prepared and elect people to teach. I cannot express how great it is to teach someone that is ready to hear that we´re teaching, they absorb it all in and apply it. Let me tell you about some of this weeks experiences. 

So awhile back I talked about an investigator of ours named Betinha. We started teaching her and her 3 kids about a month ago (her husband died a few years ago). Her sister is a member in Portugal and somehow got her contact to us. Anyways, they are probably one of the most faithful families that I have met here in Angola. They know their Bible well and they have been raised with great standards. It´s rare to see a son hug his mother here. Betinha´s kids hug her and love her, I love it. Last week they made it to church for the first time and we were so excited. They hadn´t been able to come the previous 4 weeks because they are super strong in their baptist church and have some responsibilities there. But this week we had 3 really powerful lessons with them and committed them all to be baptized the 5th of next month. They all accepted under the stipulation that they have to receive a confirmation that it is what Heavenly Father wants for them. We reassured them that He most definitely will confirm it to them. They are reading the Book of Mormon daily and understanding it better than I do. It´s incredible. She made it to church again this week. There are great things in the future for this family! I´ll keep you updated. 

This week we also started teaching the women that I talked about last week. (The one whose son was baptized in Portuga) She is so incredibly prepared. On Saturday night we sat and had a lesson with her and she just broke down in tears expressing to us her needs and problems. She has a 15 year old son that is giving her a ton of grief, he got kicked out of school, leaves the house when ever he wants, and never talks to her. Her father passed away last month. And she just doesn´t know what more she can do. We bore testimony of the power of the Gospel when practiced properly and promised her that this is exactly what she needs right now. She was so grateful and you could tell that a part of her burden was lifted off her shoulders. Yesterday her she showed up with her kids at church and loved it! Even her trouble child came. And I think he really liked the Young Men in the branch. I´m super excited for this family! We are going to teach them again tomorrownight. I´ll keep you updated on their progress!

Also Mimi was baptized this week! Woot! She was so excited! Her whole family came to watch too which was so cool. Even her dad Mateus came. It got him really excited for his baptism in a month. He had kind of a tough week, he relapsed once, but we´re not losing hope on him. At church yesterday he walked into the Gospel Principles class right as they started talking about alchool and he took that as a big punch in the face that it´s time to stop. We´re so excited for him and his family. He has 3 other daughters that are all wanting to follow Mimi´s footsteps and be baptized too. Cool stuff! 

Well anyways I hope that helps you have a little idea of what´s going on! I hope that you all had an awesome week! Keep on keepin´ on! LOVES!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Here are some pics of the baptism. Mateus is the man on my left.

Howdy!

I had a really awesome week! I learned a lot, and we a lot of tender mercies of the Lord. 

First I´ll tell you about something really cool that happened yesterday. So yesterday about an hour after church got out we met this woman that was driving around looking for the church. We were out on the curb waiting for a taxi and she pulled up to talk to us. She said that her son was baptized in Portugal and that he has been nagging her for the last month to go and find the church. She said he is happier than he has ever been so she figured that she should go check it out. Anyways, she ended up getting out of her car to talk to us and she was beaming, you could tell how excited she was to meet us and to finally find the church. It was super interesting, for some reason it had taken us a lot longer to get out of the church than usual, and it just so happened that as we were walking out of the church´s big gate she drove by. The Lord works in mysterious ways! If worthy of it he will always guide our steps and use us as his insturements.

So Mimi wasn´t baptized this week, due to her dad´s work. But this week she made it clear that daddy or no daddy she is getting baptized. She is such an awesome girl, she is being an awesome example to her family. Through her example and the example of Fulai and Salvador majority of their family is now sitting with us. Her and dad and aunt both made it to church this week and have already accepted baptismal dates. It is so true that our example really speak so much louder than our words. I talked a little about her dad last week, Mateus. He has a drinking problem but has decided that it´s time to change, and he knows that the Gospel is what is going to make that change. Yesterday we had a real heart to heart with him and he expressed how much he wants his daughters to love him and respect him. He´s a single dad and hasn´t necessarily been the greatest poppa. But now he´s ready to step up his game. He asked us to start passing by everyday so that he can get rid of this stupid addiction that he has. I am so excited to see the change in this man! He has already shown a big change and I´m confident that it´s all up hill from here for him and his whole family. 

There are good things in the works! I am so grateful for the fact that we don´t have to do this work alone. It would be impossible without the Spirit´s guidence. It´s all true!!!!! 

Love,

Elder Hyde

Cause This Is Africa!

This week was a special one for sure! Not only did the work progress but we got a little taste of Africa as well. Let me tell you about it.

So first off the important stuff. This week we had Flora´s baptism and it was awesome! She was so excited and ready. Mimi´s baptism we moved back a week so that her Dad will be able to attend it. It´s acutally a pretty intersting story with her dad. He was the first one of all of his family to start taking the lessons, but then after a little while he kind of took a little detour and got into drinking and all that not so good stuff. But since he started taking the lessons 5 people from his family have been baptized. But anyways, this week we started teaching him again and are trying help him find his way. We sat with him yesterday and he really opened up and expressed how he just kind of lost himself and that he does know how he is going to get out of the rut he´s in. We assured him that we have just the tool to get him out. He expressed how he has seen his family change as they´ve been going to church and as some of them have been baptized (Fulai and Salvador) and how he is kind of jealous. We are really looking forward to working with him and helping him get out of this rut. It´s pretty incredible how the Gospel truly can fix any problem that we face in this life. This Saturday his daughter Mimi should be baptized and then after that it is going to be all uphill for his family. It was great, as we left our lesson with him, his name is Mateus by the way, his daughters came up and thanked us, they hate the route that their dad has taken and they want a responsible father figure again. It was even greater that they realized that the Gospel is just what he needs. I am loving this area!

Now I´ll talk about the other less important stuff. We went on a safari today!!!! It was awesome! We went to a safari park about 2 hours outside of Luanda. About half of the mission went with President and Sister Merrill and Elder and Sister Lopes, one of the brazillian couples. I think the rest of the mission is going next week. But anyways.. It was so cool! As we drove into the park there were giraffes welcoming us, standing in the middle of the dirt rode. That got us pretty excited! It was about a 40 minute drive from the entrance of the park to where we would meet the truck that was going to be taking us on the safari. Once we got to the trucks they took us out and we started our journey! We first went back and saw the family of giraffs that had migrated a little bit more into the bush and they took us up real close to them. Way cool. Then from there we kept going and then we found an elephant up in the trees a ways of the trail. The truck driver had no fear, the second we saw it he started climbing the hill in the truck, driving over trees and what not. He got us right up close to the elephant. Beautiful. After that we kept going and found a group of wildabeasts and their friends the onix. The wildabeasts let us take pictures but the onix got out of there pretty quick when they saw us. It was so beautiful!! There is no way I can come close to explaining what it was like in this email. Sorry... Hopefully you can get some idea from the pictures. We unfortunately didn´t see any zebras or anything else, but we were all satisfied. It was nice to get out of the big city and into Africa. 

Well it was another great week! Thanks for all of your prayers and support! Have a good first week of school!

I love you all!

Elder Hyde

Howdy

Well, it was another great week! Let me tell you about some of it.

So a while back I mentioned something about one of our new investigators named Bela. I thought I would give a little update on her. Her and her family are probably some of the most prepared people that I have teached this far on my mission. So the family consists of Bela and her two kids, Isangela and Cicilia, Bela´s nephew Wilson, Bela´s brother Martins (he´s the one thats bed ridden), and Bela´s neice Luana. They are awesome. About a week ago we started reading the Book of Mormon with them just to give them a little push and now they are loving it. They read together nightly and actually understand! It is incredible, Cicilia and Luana are only 12 years old and are understanding the Book of Mormon better than I do. Unfortunately they haven´t been able to make it to church yet because of wedding and funerals but they´ll make it this week. We started teaching them the Plan of Salvation this past week and it has been so cool to see the light bulbs go off as we´ve taught. It is so easy to feel the spirit when we are there with them. It makes our job so much easier when they want  to feel and learn from the spirit. We plan on committing them to a baptismal date this week.

This week Elder Fontaine and I had the opportunity of helping with the districts big Helping Hands activity. This year they did a blood drive and a lot of people showed up to help. There is a huge lack of blood here in Angola and a huge need for it. It was cool to see the members so willing to help in a good cause. There was a clinic that came to do the blood work and it was a great opportunity for mission work. They were all given Book of Mormons and we explained a little about it to them. It was cool, I talked to the head doctor who is from Cuba for about 15 minutes, he spoke spanish and I suprisingly understood mostly everything. It was a super cool experience. There is nothing better than service!

This week Mimi and Flora are getting baptized. I don´t know if I have mentioned anything about Mimi yet but she is the neice and cousin of a few members in the branch. She is cousins with Fulai and Salvador that were baptized at the camping trip. They are both so excited for their baptisms! As am I! It has been super special to see them change over the past month. I´ll be sure to send pictures next week.

The work is going great and I am loving life as a missionary! Sorry this email is kind of lame... There is just no way to explain everything in a short email. 

I love you all and hope that you have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Hyde