June 24, 2013

Familia!

How are you all doing? I hear that it is somebodys birthday!!? HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACH!!!! FELIZ ANNEVERSARIO!! I wish you the best and hope that your airplane flys better that it has been yeah!? Wow! I cant believe that you are already growing up! And para bens with the ragnar! Sounds like it was a blast! (by the way I loved the story of Caleb hahahaha!!) Way to go!! That is a long way to run. Forca ai,because I am not a fan of running. I will try to send more pics next time.

Im not sure if the card has arrived yet. I wont know until somebody from Luanda comes up here to Huambo. We dont have mailing system here, just in Luanda. So everything goes there and then comes up to us when someone travels. Maybe it will come with Elder Clifford?

We had a great week even though we didnt have very many lessons. I love Huambo so much and the people here are just amazing!! We had 13 investigators at church (between the two duplas) We had 7 and the others had 6. Our investigator pool is almost more that our members. we had 19 members at church! we found out transferes and Elder Kearney is leaving and Elder Clifford (thats right, my last companion) is going to be coming up here with me! Oh, im going to miss Elder Kearney! He is a Rock of a missionary and of a man! I will admit, I was suprised that we are called to be companions again, especially after only one transfer, but im cool with that. Heh, guess we didnt do something right the last time eh?! It was the last transfer for President Kretly because on the 30th of the this month Presidente Merrill will arrive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cant describe how excited I am that we will be made our own mission! It is a Miracle! Wow, I cant even wirte about it without getting excited!! I love Presidente and Irma Merrill already!!

We met a couple named Martinho and Vando. They are amazing. we knoced on their door said we were missionaries and they invited us right in. We ouldnt even get a word out. We sat down explained who we were and our purpose and left a pamphlet with them. When we came back a couple days later they were ready for us. They had read The Restoration pampleto and wanted to know about The Book of Mormon! We explained the Restoration and The Book of Mormon and gave one to them. Then Elder Kearney asked if they would be baptized if they came to know the gospel was true....... His response. "What do we need to do to be baptized?" Holy Smokes!! I was taken back! We explained that all it takes is that you have testimony and live according to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Martnho had lots of quesions about commandments. He is na insired man. He asked about the 10 commandments. Then asked if there were other commandments that we are to obey. (nobody asks that question) I am very excited to see where The Gospel takes them!

Antonio will be baptized this Saturday if al goes well!! And Linda (the lady in the wheelchair has accepted baptism on the 13 of Julho! Adelinho (the almost pastor of another church that said he knew that our doctrine is more correct) came to church!! It was a week of Miracles!! I know that this Gospel is true! I know that when we exert all of our force to do the will of the Lord he will bless us and the lives of those around us!! The age of miracles has not ceased!!

Keep the Faith! Elder Dredge

June 17, 2013

Hey Family!

Whew! What a week! It sounds like all is well back home! First things first. HAPPY FATHERS DAY and HAPPY BIRHTDAY TO GRAMMA AND GRAMPA DREDGE!! It sounds like it was great day, and week! I remembre those camps and EFY. I loved it all!! "The soggy bottom bunch"??? Thats a new one. Há! I like it! Good luck with Ragnar!

Dos Anjos leaves to Luanda the beginning of next month so it will be the privilege of the other misionaries to teach him and his family. I love this work!!

This week we sat with a man named Angelinho. He is basically a pastor for his church. but after we sat with him on Saturday he told us that our docrine was better than theirs and that as soon as he was done with his commitments that he already has in his church that he will come to ours. Wow! I was not expecting that . He knows so much about the bible, and he knew that there was something missing. And so when we were able to answer ALL of his questions he was amaized. I loved it!! That was one of the highlights of my week!! But I do have to tell you an experience we had with two people of aother church. We sat down and right off the bat all they wanted to do was bible bash. So after we calmed them down we tought The Restoration. It went well, until we ended. They were NOT in favor of our beliefs at all and were sure that we are an apostate church. As soon as they started talking bad about our church and The Book of Mormon AND Jesus Christ I couldn't take it anymore. I raised my voice and told them that they could not talk like that! I bore my testimony almost yelling, but at the same time I felt the spirit literally like a fire that engulfed my whole body. I will never forget that feeling.

I know without a doubt that Christ suffered for our sins. That He is our savior and it is our privilage to help out with His work. I know that Book of Mormon is true! I know it and can never deny it! I love you all so much and am so grateful for the blessing I have to be a part of this wonderful family.

June 10, 2013

I did have a fantastic week, thank you! And I am sure that you all had a great week as well. You have to speak next week! Boa Sorte! I spoke yesterday in our Branch on the importância das famílias. I usually don't like getting up in front of people but it doesn't really bother me anymore. The only part that I was worried about was that they wouldn't understand me, but it all came out good!

So you took apart the trailer huh? sounds like a project! All the summer activites are making me jealous. Lake Powell, Saint George, High Adventure! Sounds like a blast! Leave some of the cabin for me to work on yeah? Dont get too carried away.

 We had most of our lessons fall through this week every day. So it was a low lesson week and we knocked on a lot of doors with not a lot of positive reaction, but we found some pretty cool people too! One man just showed up to church because we asked him to. Linda (in the wheelchair) had her 51st birthday yesterday and she invited us. So on Saturday night Elder Kearney and I made something like 80 snickerdoodle cookies and brought them to her party. I will tell you right now that Angolas party like crazy! There was loads of people there. Everybody was drinking too, but they were all so happy. (Linda doesn't drink). There was even this little old lady that was sitting next to me that must have bem 70 something that was just chugging down the bottles. I was impressed, but at the same time suprised, shocked, sad, all of those feelings. But it was pretty cool! A party that I will never Forget. They even played American music because they heard we were coming! Heh!

Mas, we met with Dos Anjos this week and after a great lesson on the Restoration he asked us when we did baptisms!!! AHHH I love him to death! We didn't set a date with him yet because he needs to be married to his wife legally. They are married by the church but it needs to be legal as well. I am excited to see where it goes! Our Mission leader of the Branch is named Ilideo, he is Portuguese, He is an amazing man and he helps us out so much!

We met a man named Denish two weeks ago and sat with him 2 times then last week we sat with him again but this visit was a bit diferente. When we first met him he told us that he had been praying for help and then we knocked on his door. He told us we were angels. We went in and taught the 1st lesson (this is the 3rd visit) and he and his wife were asking good questions and were very active during the lesson. We gave them The Book of Mormon and challeged them to read it. After the prayer Denish said "thank you for your help, but me and my family are catholic. Please don't ever come back, I have a wife and kids, Don't ever return. Do not come back to my house." At first I thought I didn't hear right, but he said don't come back several times so there was no mistake. He gave us back the book and told us to leave his house. His wife said she would read it. Without another word we took the book and left.... Few times have I had so may emotions run throught my body and my mind. I was on the verge of tears. I had just poured my soul out to this man. and for some unknown reason he had rejected our message. I know that there is a lesson behind every experience! And I learned a lot from Denish and I still pray for him a lot. The Lord is in our every moment.

I love you all

June 3, 2013

Hey there all yall! I was glad and super happy to recieve all of your emails! I love hearing from you all! I am sending some pictures. I hope they make it. This weekend sounded like a blast and it sure sounds like summer is in full swing.

This week was a crazy one! But I loved every min of it. It was super hard just to keep myself going. Linda the lady in the wheelchair is out of town so we havent seen her for a week or so, but we will for sure go back this week when she returns. Tohy and Gata, well, they have been pretty busy too. But we got 12 new investigators this week and half of them are families!!!! We met a man named Doiz Anjos and sat with him on Saturday and he came to church yesterday. He even bore his testimony! He said " I dont know much about your church, but I know its true, ámen."  Heh! It was amazing!!!

We also sat with Antonio. He lives a long ways out of the city in a mud hut. He is very humble and has 2 children and will be baptized on June 30th.

Oh and Jesse (friend of Denílson) from my old área was baptized on Saturday!! I love him so much and am so happy for him!!

We also saw 2 wild boar just walking around. They had some big tusks and I had the sudden urge to go tackle one , but I decided against it.

I know this Gospel I true and I absoulutly love this work and this people with all my heart and I can't wait to get to know more of them and share the Gospel with them!  Below is a statue of a guy I don't know, but it was full of bullet hole, so I decided to take a picture.

 

 

 

 

 We had a big breakfast with A LOT of pancakes! and some sausage!

This is my bed. If you notice it is above my desk and above the window seal. That is because it is 5 matrasses (Camas)

Here is one of the roads we walked down. Full of mud huts and cool stuff. (This is where we saw the 2 wild boars with tusks!)