August 19, 2013

Our new appartment is a house, and its the biggest in the mission. It has two floors and is gigantic. Its pretty fun. But the work is finnaly mostly done. And yeah, we still have bugs in our house. Mostly just roaches. But we did see a bee type bug the other day that flew into our room that was big enough to eat us both!! It was huge! It scared me pretty good because it flew straigt for my face so I dove out of the way. But that sunds super intense about Emma and the soccer tournament! Congrats with the win!! What else is going on back home?

Heh, last week we played soccer with a homeless guy! It was really fun!!

We are still doing a lot of contacting. This week we had a few more of those days where eveyrthing falls through. But we truly saw miracle right in front of our eyes. For the past two weeks we havent had one single investigator at church. But Yesterday you will never guess how many we had....9!!! AHH! I was awe struck with wonder and excitement! It was, in my opinion one of the best Sundays that I have had since I have been here! And we recieved two refferals from members. And they evey brought more friends to church!! And Elder Clifford and I have been focusing a lot more on the less actives in the ward. We have 9 in our área. 4 of them came to church!!! It was a day full of miracles!

We do have a a recente convert that has been going throught some rought times lately. We have tried to help him but he just wont read pray. He was baptized right before I got to this área. He says he wants help and wants so bad to come back to church, but he just wont read the scriptures or pray. We have told him time and time again. But he lacks the motivation or something. And now he is going through the process of having his name removed from the records of the church. We are still going to try and do everything to help him, But my testimony of the Basics has grown immensly. Without Prayer and Scripture study and Church, Lucifer slowy gains more and more power over us when we neglet the simpest of things. "By small and simple things are great things brought to pass" the scripture says, But it is also by small and simple means that the Devil gains power over the hearts of the children of men.

Most of our investigators are all new now. But the work with the less actives is doing great! We had one lady that yelled at us the first time we passed by 2 months ago. But now is is praying in the lessons and was one of the ones to come to church!!! Look for any oportunity to share the gospel and the Lord will fill your mouths with the words to say!! I know the Book of Mormon is true and that it is blessing the lives of milions around the world! What a work and a wonder!!

Love you all!! Keep the Faith!!

August 12, 2013

Hello you big and wonderful family!

It sure sounds like summer is pretty much over. I remember the days of last min hustle and bustle to get things ready. Good luch with all of that! And dont forget to just sit back and have fun and laugh for a while. First of all thank you to Larena for the email, and for the pictures of Lake Powell and the wedding! They were all great! And Jessiqa is already ready to leave! Wow, that was short. She will be an awesome missionary!

This week was frustrating. So this new house we moved into has a lot of problems. So we have constantly had workers in and out of our house. There have been days that We have had to stay in house most of the day because of the workers. It was driving me crazy. We couldnt just leave them alone in our house and we didnt want to tell them to come back another day and delay the work. So for 3 days we didnt leave the house until 17 or 18. But during the day we did divisions and and would take turns staying in house and going out and teaching. Its a lot of stuff to do with the kitchen. So Monday to Thursday we had workers in our house. And they work kinda slow. We basically only had 3-4 days this week to work. But most of the work is done so we can leave the house when we finish our studdies. Boy am I glad thats over.

Our area is struggling a bit. Out main investigatiors are out of Huambo on vacation and what not. But we are still trying to find more people. Lucas is really struggling, He is never home and his phone is always off so we havent been able to sit with him for a while. I think he is losing interest. He is still pretty young. Who knows, maybe in a few years he will be more ready to accept the gospel. Rosa, is also very busy, but she sill wants to sit with us. Its just a matter of finding a time that she is home that we can pass by.

Our new focus is Less active work. We have been trying so hard to get a hold of all of our less actives in our area. We have sat with most of them and are trying to sit with the rest. Story of success: Edy, a less active, is 19 and we visited him a couple of times and before you know it he brought a friend to our integration night activity, came to churh on sunday and passed the sacrament and is having his girlfreind take the lessons from us! He is awesome. We are focusing a lot more on the Branch so that when we do have investigators come to church they will be well recieved. The people of the church here are still very new and the Branch is still very new. There is a lot of work to do. That is why we are working so much more with the less actives. Like it says in Preach My Gospel. We (the missinoaries) are just here to help the members do their work. And as President Hinckley said. I dont remember the quote exactly but it goes something like: There is no point to missionary work unless we hold onto the fruits of our labors, revent converts. So our goal is to get the Brach as strong as we can, reactivate the less actives and in doing so more and more people will see the Blessings of the Gospel and want to be a part of it. And the members will feel and increased desire to do missionary work. Its going to be great!!!!! Im super excited to see whats going to happen!!!

The Light of the Gospel is real! I know it! The good times and the bad times are all wonderful. Ma«ybe not in the moment but if we endure it well those around us will be blessed. That is the beauty of the Atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Its infinite!! We can overcome any challenge with which we may struggle. I heard once that the distance from God is merly the distance from your knees to the floor. Prayer is real!

Keep the faith!!

Love Elder Dredge

August 5, 2013

Hey family!

How are you all doing!? I cant believe that Jessiqa is already at the MTC! Im so happy for her! But I don't have a lot of time and I'm a slow typer so this may be a bit short. Internet here is a bit annoying sometimes. But thanks for the Emails everybody! Emma and Caleb and Noelle and mom and dad!! It was great to hear from all you! School is starting up already! I can't believe it! Good luck!

This week most of our lessons fell through every day so we did a lot of door knocking and contacting. Rosa came to church this Sunday! We will sit with her on Tuesday! I'm excited to see what she thought. I think she liked it because she stayed after for like 20 min just talking to people. Lucas didn't come again and we dont know why. But he is a trooper! He is trying so hard to live the commandments.

We recieved our transfers today. I am staying here in Huambo with Elder Clifford and Elder Mccune is coming down here with us! It will be super fun.

This week at chuch just as the sacrament was starting I noticed that nobody was at the door. And the door is near the road so the cars get loud sometimes. I jumped up and shut the doors and stood there just I used to do as a Teacher. It sounds like something small but it hit me pretty hard how important every single position is. Wheather it be bishop or usher. Every calling is important , because every calling in the church is a calling of the Lord. It's his church. I know it. I know that He loves every singe one of us and that he would never forsake us. He is here to guide us though the darkness. all we have to do is take a step of faith into the unknown, into the darkness. I love you all and my time is up

Keep the faith!!!

July 29, 2013

Hey family!

Thanks! I did have a great week! And it sounds like you all had a blast at Lake Powell and Panguitch! 10 people behind the boat!? It pulled them up! Holy smokes that's awesome! I need to see some pictures of that one. Grandma!! Congradulations!! From what I heard the wedding sounded like it went very well. Out in the meadow and everything! Congratulations! Zach!  Nice catch with the big ol fish! Did you eat it yet? Jessiqa, good luck! Its already here! I cant believe it! AHHH! I'm super excited for you! You will LOVE the MTC! and your teachers and companions! It will be amazing!

Our week here was quite uneventful. Other than the fact that I got kissed by a drunk lady! We were talking with Linda (in the wheelchair) outside sitting in plastic chairs when this lady that was completly intoxicated came over to us. She started talking to us then turned to me and puckered her lips. I knew what was going to happen next. I tried to avoid it and even tried to push her away but she was already on the way to falling over and just fell right into my lap and gave me two big old bejjos! One on each cheek! Oh it was nasty. (at least she didn't get my lips) Yeah, laugh if you want...ok yeah, I guess it was pretty funny, but only after. During the moment I was completly shocked. On a different note we also saw a gang fight. It was pretty crazy. We were across the street a good distance away. We even got a contact out of it. One of the boys (20 years old) had stopped us and we were talking to him when the fight broke out. Elder Clifford said " See, thats why you dont hang out with guys like that." We left pretty quckly though.

Lucas is really hard to get a hold of. His phone has a lot of problems and he didn't come to church this Sunday. We met another lady named Rosa that is probably the most honest seeker of truth that I have met so far. She has already been baptized 5 times I think. And she says that she wants to leave all of this ( the world and what not) and follow the True path of Christ. We have very high hopes for her. She has already read past chapter 15 in The Book of Mormon in less than a week! LInda is out of town so we don't really know how she is doing. But we have a new couple. Farreira and Lilia.  The first time we went over there they wanted to talk about Eternal Marrage and what they had to do to get to the Temple!! It was amazing!

We are moving houses today to a gigantic house because the one we are in has a few holes in the roof and it is nearing the rainy season. Yes! We did hear about the visas! We all said a prayer of thanks as soon as we found out! The Lord is ready to harvest Angola!

I love you all! and wish that this week will be one never to forget! Keep the faith!