The Good Life

Ya know, I am never going to get sick of being a missionary... I have never been more busy or more tired in my life, but I am so content and grateful for this opportunity that Heavenly Father has given me to serve Him and His children here in Angola. People always ask, "But aren´t you losing so much time and schooling during these two years?" We always, with a big smile on our faces, respond telling them how much experience and knowledge we are gaining during these two years of service. I wouldn´t trade these 2 years for anything! I only have 6 months left so Ineed to take advantage of every last second! 

I had an incredible week this past week. I got to go to Lubango! It was SO great to see all of the people that I love so much. The bus ride was quite the experience. The bus was suprisingly pretty nice, the air conditioning actually worked! I was hoping to get caught up on a lot of sleep but that didn´t happen... haha. I don´t know what it is but Angolans can talk and sing all night long without any problem... haha. I was the only white guy on both bus rides and on the way home I was pinned between a new mom and her month old baby and I don´t think she stopped breast feeding the whole ride. This is life! I love it! It was so good seeing the poeple I taught still strong and active in the church. I suprised Albertina and Alex and their reactions were priceless. It was so nice to sit down with them and catch up a little bit. We were thereMonday through Friday and it flew by.. My heart is still in that city! It still felt like home walking those streets. It was a great week! Sorry for the lack of detail...

Thanks for everything! Have the greatest week ever!

Love, 

Elder Hyde

They Keep Getting Better and Better

It is crazy that it is Monday already... I don´t know where the time is going. But, it was still a week never to be forgotten. I am learning SO much. My relationship with my Heavenly Father has evolved over the past few months or so. I still have so far to go but I am so happy right now. These past few weeks we have been focusing a lot with those we teach on Heavenly Father, sadly we realized that that is a point the we too often skip over and don´t give the deserved time too. It is critical that those we teach know who their Heavenly Father is, if they don´t it´s difficult for them to understand the plan that he has for them and their eternal potential. As we´ve focused on it it has been really interesting seeing what people´s beliefs are about God, but it´s also been cool seeing their eyes be opened as they realize who He truly is. 

We had some really cool experiences this week in our area. It was a great. We were focusing a lot on finding and found some very prepared people. One of those people is Princesa. We started teaching her this week and she is already on her way to baptism. She understood the restoration SO well. It is so easy to teach her! When the real teacher, the Spirit, is present in lesson it is so easy to know, because it doesn´t matter what you say or how you explain the principle, they understand. As we taught the restoration I was tripping all over my words but it didn´t matter, the Spirit taught what she needed to know. I´ll keep you updated on her! 

This week one of my old investigators from my old area, Germina, was baptized! She was so prepared. We met her at our investigator Mavinga´s house a little over a month ago. The Gospel was exactly what she needed and and she found it at the exact time that she needed it. I love this work SO much! There is so much joy in it. 

Tonight Elder Mariquele and I are catching a bus to go to Lubango! I am so excited to see all the people that I love so much there. It´s a 18 hour bus ride so hopefully I´ll get caught up on some sleep:) 

Life is good and once again, I´m happy! Thanks for your love and support! Have the greatest week ever!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Great Week

Once again it was an incredible week, full of learning and tender mercies of the Lord. We had a very busy week which made it absolutely fly by. I'll tell you about some of the highlights.

So I'll start with some of our new investigators, Santa and her family. Last Sunday we started teaching this new family that the Elders had miraculously found a few weeks ago knocking doors in our area. They were passing through Santa's little street when she opened the door and asked who knocked on her door. They were the only ones on the street and it wasn't them that knocked it. The Lord works in mysterious ways doesn't he? They took the opportunity to contact her and now we are teaching her and her wonderful family. Last Sunday we just got to know them and this Sunday we went back and taught the Restoration. They have a daughter who is Jehovah's Witness, and quite loud about it. haha. She's about 22. She came prepared to tell us how wrong we were. She read the Restoration pamphlet and everything. We told her that if she would sit through the lesson we would be happy to answer her many questions. It was frustrating her that we weren't really giving her the fight (Bible bash) that she wanted. But by the end she was contently listening like the rest of the family, and accepted the commitment to pray about the truthfulness of the message. I LOVE the message of the Restoration. You can't fight it. It makes so much sense. Especially to those who have been prepared by the Lord to hear it. This family seems to have real potential, I pray that they do our commitments and progress!

This week we got to go on a fun little trip around Luanda with President and Sister Merrill. It was so nice to see some of the beauty of this ginormous city. To give you an idea of how massive it is, we left at 11 and got back at about 7. We were stuck in traffic for a few hours, but still.. We went and saw a few government projects that city is working on to try and get rid of all of the congestion in the city, there are a few big Chinese companies building huge cities of apartments on the outskirts of the city to try to move some people out of the inner city. It's crazy. It was a really cool to see the whole city! 

I also started driving this week which was an adventure! I was worried that it would be difficult to get back into the groove with a stick but luckily it clicked right back:) The traffic is nuts here... Anything goes. 

Well, it was an awesome week! It flew right by! I'm loving my new area and I'm happy! Thanks once again for the love and support. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Great Week!

It was a great week! Transfer weeks are always bitter sweet because you have to say goodbye to the people that you have grown to love and adjust to a new area. But change is always good as a missionary! I am loving my new area and companion. We have a relatively small area which is cool. I´m really excited to get to know the branch better. I´ve loved what I´ve seen so far! My companion is a champ, I´m sure I am going to learn oodles from him. 

So this week we had some really awesome experiences that I would definitely call miracles. Let me tell you about one of them.. So on Saturday we were walking through our area knocking some doors and we decided to knock on a door that they had knocked on a few months ago and 24 year old girl came and got the door, we told her why we were there and she asked us to come back the next day. So yesterday we came back and had an incredible lesson with her and introduced our message to her. Before we ended with a prayer she opened up to us and kinda let it all out on the table. She said that she knows for a fact that the Lord sent us and that we were there for a reason because just before we knocked on her door the day before she had been praying that the Lord would show her some direction in her life. So cool! She is such a special lady! She then went on to tell us that one of her deep secrets that hardly anyone knows and said that she knew she could trust us and that we could help her. She told us that due to the war she was forced to be moved around a lot and has never been to school, she can´t read or write. We were shocked because she looked very well off. But we told her that we would do what we could to help and reassured her that the Lord sent us and that her life is about to change in a big way. It was such a cool experience! We look forward to working with her this week. 

I am never going to get tired of all of these things that I am experiencing here! It is such a blessing to be a missionary, especially at such a time as this. The church is true! Thank you for all of your love and support! Have the greatest weeks of your lives! 

Love,

Elder Hyde

Pics:

1. Elder Mariquele and I

2. Amelia, a girl that Elder Pimentel taught. She is Paulo´s sister.

Transfers!

Hey! This week was great! I´m not really sure where to start...  So I´ll start with the some fun news, I´m getting transfered! I didn´t see it coming but I´m super excited for the new challenges and experiences ahead. I´m being transfered to the Benfica branch which has only been a branch for about 8 months now, it´s really new but very well organized so I´m really excited. I get to serve with an Elder named Elder Mariquelle, he is from Mozambique and he is a stud. I am going to learn a lot from him. We will be serving as assistants to the president. I am still kind of in shock with the new assignment... but we´ll see how it goes! Hopefully I don´t screw up too much.. Elder Mariquelle has been assistant for a few transfers now so I´m looking forward to learning from him. 

I have learned so much in my 3 transferes here in this branch (Luanda 2). These people have taught me SO much! I think this has been the time that I have grown the most on my mission. As I look back on the experiences that Lord has blessed me with these past 4 months or so I am so grateful... I have truly gained a testimony of the eternal principle of obedience during these transfers. It has been incredible to see the Lord trust us as he has seen that we´re willing to do His work His way. I remember hearing talks and what not about it in the MTC, but I don´t think I really understood it until now. There´s no better way to gain a testimony of something than through experience! The branch that I am getting transfered to shares the same chapel as my current branch so I am really excited to be able to see everyone still. 

My testimony has grown so much as I´ve been on my mission. What would I do without this chance to serve? I love the Lord and am willing to do what ever he asks. Sorry that this email is so short... But I hope you know that I am happy and doing well! I LOVE YOU ALL!

Love,

Elder Hyde

WOW!

Wow. This week was incredible. It´s crazy how much the Lord is at work here in Angola. There were a lot of highs this week and a few necessary lows, but none the less, it was an incredible week. Let me try to tell you about it...

So I´ll start of with the highs. This last Saturday was awesome! We were able to see 4 of our investigators enter the waters of baptism and receive the joy that comes from it. There is nothing better than a baptismal service as a missionary. The great Swing was baptized along with Eliza, Natália and Costa. I haven´t talked much about Eliza but she is the cousin of Flora and a few other members, she is an awesome girl. Natália and Costa are the family of Fulai, Salvador, Mimi, Manucha, etc. We have been working with them for about 2 months now so it was so great to see them make it to baptism. They were both so excited! But, I don´t think I´ve ever seen any one as excited as Swing, this man came prepared. He has strengthened my testimony so much over the past 2 weeks. Yesterday when he received the Holy Ghost he was beaming, and after the blessing was done he jumped out of his chair and gave us big hugs, it was a great experience. I am confident that this guy is going to be a great leader of the church here in Angola. It has been insane to see how fast he learns, he just sucks it all up. He´s already read a solid 200 pages of the Book of Mormon and understands it better than I do. He has been prepared for a long time to receive the restored Gospel, and now that he has it he isn´t going anywhere but up. What an awesome experience it has been to be involved in his conversion. 

Now, I´m sure you´re all wondering about Necat, our Muslim friend. Let me tell you about the crazy week that we had with him. So I told him that I would be getting back to him on Tuesday after I talked to President about his situation and on Monday night he sent me a text saying, "I´m hope to hear good news from you tomorrow. I hope JESUS will accept me." That cut me to the core! This man wants so bad to know Christ and be accepted by him! Little does he know that Christ waiting for him with open arms. So on Tuesday I called him scheduling the interview that he needed to have with President for Saturday afternoon and he was excited and said that he´d be there. But then on Wednesday I got a call that rocked my world. Necat called me telling me that his work had found out about his meeting with us and that they now could not trust him and that he was being sent back to Turkey the next day.... WHAT!? I felt so bad... I appologized and appologized but he reassured me that it was him that called us and that we were just doing our jobs. He said that it is all for the better and that now he gets to return to his family and continue his search. So with that news we quickly scheduled a meeting with him the next day before he flew out. Us and President sat with him to show him our support but really the support of our Heavenly Father in his search. President explained that he will need to go to a country where the church is accepted and from there we can teach him and help his family become eternal. He realizes that it is going to be hard to get out of Turkey, especially as a Muslim, but he isn´t going to give up. This man is incredible! I wrote him a quick letter of encouragement and gave it to him as he left. I pray that everything will work out for him! It makes me wonder how many Necats there are out there... How many people are thirsty for the Gospel but don´t know where or how to find it? Thank goodness that God´s plan is perfect and merciful! I am so grateful that I was born into the circumstances I was born into and that I have had the Gospel my whole life! We can´t take it for granted! I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for Necat and that everything will fall into place for him. What an experience! 

The mission is so full of life changing experiences such as these. I don´t know what I would do without out these 2 years.. The Lord has been teaching me SO much. Thank you for your love, support, and prayers! I love you all so much! Have an incredible week!

Love,

Elder Hyde

Pics:

1. SWING!!

2. Eliza

3. Natália and Costa

Great Week!

Well it was another great week! The Lord has been blessing us with some really great experiences these last few weeks and I am so grateful. He´s been teaching me so much through the people we work with, it´s been incredible.

So my week  had quite a few highlights. I´ll start with one of the most prepared people I have met and taught my whole mission. I talked about him a little last week. His name is Swing. We have sat with him everyday since last Sunday and he is getting baptizedon Saturday! He has been literally eating right up everything that we have taught. He is SO ready for the Gospel. It has been an incredible experience to see it. He will be a big leader in the church one day. His day basically consists of work, reading in the Book of Mormon, and meeting with us. And the good thing is is that he loves it! His son lives here in Luanda, his wife and 2 other kids live in S. Africa still but they´re working on saving money so they can be together again. His son Junior is living with his sister in another part of the city so that he can be close to his school but this weekend he went and got him and brought him to church and he loved it! He´s 10. It´ll be so cool to see Swing baptized his son here in a few weeks or so. It so cool to see these people find the truth and then want to share it with everyone, Swing has committed himself to bring all of his family into the church. He´s the man. Last Monday we had a really special lesson with him. We taught the Plan of Salvation to him right after I heard about Grandma Claire. I think that was the first time I really taught the Plan of Salvation, the spirit was so strong! I am so grateful for the knowledge we have! 

We also had a really special experience this week with a man that stopped us on the street last Tuesday. So as we were walking down one of the side streets in our area a white european looking fella called us over and said that he wanted to talk to us, but that he couldn´t right then and that he would call us. He spoke English but had a strange accent and you could tell english wan´t his first language. Anyways long story short, on Saturday we met with him and he just let it all out on the table. He is Turkish, Muslim, and wants a new life. I was kind of in shock as we was talking... He said that as we walked by something told him that we could help him. He has been looking for a way out of the muslim life and culture for 10 years and hasn´t found how yet. He has family in Turkey and wants to be happy with them. I told him that we would do everything we could but that we couldn´t promise anything. President Merrill is going to need to chat with him before we move forward. It was so cool though! The light of Christ is truly in all of us! Even those who don´t know anything about Christ. I hope and pray that we can help this man! I directed him to Mormon.org so hopefully he can start doing a little on his own. I´ll keep you updated on him!

Everything is going great and most importantly I am happy! I am so grateful for this time I have to serve the Lord. I have been learning so much from the Angolan people! I don´t know what I would do without my mission! I love you all and am so grateful for all of you! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hyde