March 25, 2013

Ola! It sounds like you all had another successful week at the Dredge Home! Thanks to the family for all your emails! I love hearing from you all! First of all, here is something that I didnt want to tell you until it had passed. But about two weeks ago I started to get really sick and have crazy fevers and cold sweats. You probably could have fried an egg on my forehead...literally. I was just extremely weak and almost passed out severaly times while we were contacting and such. So we went into the doctor and had a blood test....Yeah...I had Malaria. But its passed now and all good. We cought it before it got too bad. So dont worry, yeah? Everything is good on this end now.

So that Marathon sound like a ot of fun. even though it was pretty cold. Caleb: Congrats with taking first place out of the Dredge Clan. But from what I hear Dad wasnt too far behind... Just between us two, you cant let him win. He is like 45 years old...Heh heh heh. Anyway. Good job to everybody that finished the race and to Zach too. Atta Boy! Congrats Noelle with Cheer and good luch with these new tryouts yeah?!

And yes, I have gotten schooled by some teenage boys playing soccer. They were pretty good. Yeah, Everybody and their dog here plays soccer. Whenever there is a game going on life halts and everybody watches. Especially if it is between Barcelona and Real Madrid. They set up projectors in the street and put it on the wall of some random building and bam! then you have like 80 people partying in the street and watching a soccer game. All the women carry lots of stuff on their heads and babies on their backs. They kinda tie them on with a cloth and walk around and to all the usual stuff. Kinda like a baby backpack. And they sell anything in the streets. Some of the markets smell pretty bad because of all the meat and fish that they have there sitting all day. I have litteraly gagged and almost thrown up because of the smell of all that meat cooking in the sun out on tables in the humidity. It gets kinda gross sometimes. As far as living, Yeah sometimes we all cook together. It kinda depends on who is home at the time of the meal. But so far we haven't had community prayer yet. And it just like the best two years. Whenever a person gets mail or a package it becomes everybodys. Mess wise....Well when we dont have water or energy it gets pretty dirty because nobody can do the dishes. And when we do have water and energy it gets pretty dirty because nobody wants to do the dishes. So I basically end up doing everybodys dishes because I cant take it so dirty.

And this last week it rained...ok ok..it poured. So we got to walk around in the pouring rain all day. It was fun for the first 5 hours or so, then it kinda just got annoying. But yeah. we were soaked.
But our inverstigator Slow is doing really well with the work of wisdom and he has come to church 3 times now! I really think he will go places and be strong member in the church! Alex, well, we haven't seen him for about a month now. And we think its because of his father. He doesnt want him to join our church. So we will wait. But our other awesome investigator Marciano, who has been an investigator for a long time is finally getting work. He needs to be married before he is babtized, but hasnt been able to do so because he doesnt have any money. (it costs like 500 $ to get married) So he is earning money. Finally! Im excited for him!! It is really hard to find people here. We knock on a lot of doors. A lot, because lots of the time our lessons fall through and so we do contacting. And we also meet a lot French speakers, which is a bit strange. But This work is something else. I never could have imagined what it would have been like. It is hard, but at the same time I love it so much! I learn alot and have already had some pretty spiritual experiences with teaching the people here. I love it! Smelly meat and all!! But I cant wait to hear from you all again! Keep the faith and just remember how simple this gospel is. Christ lives and he loves us, all we need to do is love him back and keep his commandments. He has given us everything. We just need to do our part. I love you all so much! Be safe and trust in the lord!

March 18, 2013

Ola! It was so good to hear from you all! Thanks for your Emails!  Heh Caleb, I'll try and not let our electrical box blow up again. I will try and send more pictures in a few weeks when I have good ones to send. And yes, every single house has bars on the windows. People like to steal a lot of stuff here. Most houses have two doors. The first is a basically a big metal slab and the real door is about 5-6 feet behind it. That just how it is here.
But things are really going good here. It was a little bit slower week than usual because lots of our people dropped and we probably won't wont be having a babtism for a while. But our second transfer will be over in like 2 weeks! Ahhhhhhhh! So fast! I am at last done being trained. Time just flies when you are are doing the work of The Lord. It rained a lot and got really really muddy. They don't have drains in the roads here either so there was a lot of water in the roads. It was quite a spectacle to see little 4-door cars try and go through 2 feet of water.

Luzia, we found out wants to wait for baptism until she feels like she is completely and fully ready to put her heart into it. She will totally be baptized, just not now. Maybe in a month or two. Which is still amazing, and considering our calling here is establish the church we need people that will be strong and continue as good members. We still haven't talked to Alex in like 3 weeks because of school and the fact that he moved. But he is still in our area, we just don't know exactly where he is. And he hasn't been coming to church and I think his dad is keeping him from us a little bit too. We have another investigator named Slow. He is an amazing man. He is about 28 and has been drinking for most of his life, but since we have been talking to him and made a plan with him to quit he has really been trying hard and so far is doing amazing. And he walks for about 40 min every Sunday to come to church. What a champ!! I also want to tell you about one of the members that we walk with a lot, his name is Calvilho. He is such an amazing man and helps us out so much. And he dresses super fly all the time. He speaks Portuguese and French, so at is helpful because we run into a lot of French speakers.

Congrats Jessiqa for deciding to go on a mission! That's awesome! 
Well, that's about it for this week. The language is still really hard and I still struggle every day to speak the language and I hope it clicks soon.

I love it here! Cockroaches and all! Ok,...maybe not the cockroaches. But this work is the best part of my life so far. And also one of the hardest things i have done but The Lord strengthens us because it is his work. I love people here and the other missionaries that I serve with! This is just the best ever! Miracles happen everyday here in our lives and in the lives of the the people. And I know that that it is the hand of The Lord molding and refining us and the people. Thank you all for your support and for being the best family ever!!!

March 11, 2013

Ola Familia!! Thanks mom for those recipies. I dont know when I will be able to print them off but when I do I will let you know. And I am sending pictures to you, hopefully they get there this time. Thanks to the Family for all writing me an email! You are all the best!! I always love to hear the good ol news from home! And it sounds like everybody is doing fine! Mom; there is only one adress for the whole mission, so anything sent has to be sent to that adress. As far as music, just put it on a flash drive. We have these mini DVD players that we watch training films on and they have a slot for a flash drive. So we just got a new announcement from the misisonary department that Misisonaries can email family, friends, and recent converts! So I guess pretty much anybody can email me now. But a good old fashioned letter is always good to get too.
 

So, first of all, two weeks ago Elder Wilhelm and I made a cake to celebrate life and Jessiqa's, Emma's, and his Dad's birthday! But yesterday we met a guy who stopped us in the road and said that he had seen us on a movie and was wondering what we were doing in Angola. We asked him what movie and he said The Other Side of Heaven! ahhhhh! It was great! How often does that happen! So we got his info and hopefull will be meeting with him sometime this week! Also we have had a lot of energy problems and we dont have energy right now. But frinday night our powe box literally blew up! Like it was on fire and everything. It was like 10 feet above our heads so all we could do was throw water on it....yeah I know bad idea, But we put it out and the craxy part was that we still had energy because the wires were somehow still connected..they were just on fire, but still connected. But now we are out of energy. And we had a guy come and pray our appartment with bug killer stuff. So every morning we wake up to 10ish new dead cokroaches...The first morning after he sprayed we had a good 25-30, and they are big too! Edson Was finally confirmed In church on Sunday! He was still really sick and had to have somebody in the Branch go pick him up. But he did it!! Alex was not baptized becaue his dad wont let him right now, so we are going to try and talk to him to let him be baptized. Because he will be baptized when he turns 18 anyway. And Erickson moved away for a while so we dont know what he wants to do right now. But he should be back soon. Luzia (the mom) comes to church every Sunday and is just so awesome. She even befriended one of our other investigators that came to church and was showing him around! and it was only here 2nd time!! She is just amazing! All this news of being made a new mission is just so exciting and I cant wait to see hand of the Lord really take hold of Angola!

This work really is my favorite thing in the world. There is just nothing like helping someone come unto Christ. It is a feeling that I just cant describe! And I love it so much! We are really working alot and we had 9 investigators at church!! bahhhhh!! That is like an all time record! I know that the Lord is in everything and that he is blessing the people here in Angola and everywhere in the world! This work is REAL!! I love you all and will hear from you next week. sorry it is a little shorter because of pics

Check out the bars on those windows...

The investigators

First baptism!

March 4, 2013

Ola Familia!! Como Estas! Bem, I hope!
Thank you for all the email I got this week from Jessiqa, Noelle, Emma, Zach, Mom and Dad!
     Sorry thost pics didnt send, but I don't have my cord with me and they didn't save on my last email so....sorry....but I wont be able to send them until next week.
Emma: nah I didnt shave all my head, just really short, Its really easy because now I wont have to do my hair for like 2 more months. I save a whole 3 min in the mornings!!
I can get mostly anything out here, but the good stuff is really expensive.
So I sent a letter a few days ago and you should get it...ok I dont know when you should get it, but know that I sent it.
This week has been awesome! We only have one baptism this week, Alex, because Erickson didnt make it to church. So he will be babtized in a couple weeks. We do a lot of contacting. Because lots of our lessons fall through every day. Lots of door knocking and talking to people. But I love it!! The Branch is really taking leaps and bounds. Lost more of the peole in the branch are fufilling their callings! It is still really hard to get references from the members. Its is taking a while, but as soon as we get the Branch on board with missionary work the work here will explode! References are so much more reliable than the contacts, so as soon as we get that going, It will skyrocket! And we are already seeing little changes here and there so that is really good!. Luzia has a babtismal date on the 23 of this month and she is so ready! She understands everything we tell her and comes to church! She literally is my mom down here in Africa! Elder Wilhelm's head is fine so no need to worry there, he has a nice little scar. I know that this work is true and that the lord blesses the people here! I know that my savior lives and that he loves all of his children! This is sacred work!! And the lord oversees everything!! Love you all and thank you for your prayers and support, they are greatly appreciated!!

February 25, 2013

Hello! I am doing half of my emails know and half of them later. Yeah, we kinda knew about Angola being made a mission for a week or so! It is so awesome!!!

Elder Wilhelm is doing fine, and yes, I washed my hands before I took the stiches out. It really wasn't a big deal. It only took less than 5 min. Alex and Erickson are doing great and are very excited for their babtisms on the 9th of Marco! As are we!! Luzia is doing great and just soaks up everything we put in front of her. Her ability to understand everything we teach her is astounding! She is a very smart woman! We had 5 investigators come to church yesterday! That is a pretty good number compared to what we have been getting. Getting people to church is one of the most difficult things to do here. Well Im going to finish this email later today, and try and send some pics.

Anyway I guess the big news for this last week was that Edson got
baptized!!  And he asked me to do it!!  It was so amazing!  But he is
an awesome guy!  He came down with polydizimo (pre cursor to malaria)
the day before babtism. But he still wanted to be baptized. And then
on Sunday he got really sick. So bad that he couldnt even leave his
house.  So he will be confirmed next Sunday.   Everything here is
going great and the work is moving along very well.
     So I sent some pictures. One of our room; kitchen, One of me on
the roof, One of use and Edson and babtism.  The one with all the
teenagers is Erickson on the far right and Alex with the pink shirt in
the middle.!!  Love you all!  This gospel is true and Our savior loves
us so much!!!!! 

February 18, 2013

(Elder Dredge's grandpa passed away on Valentine's Da,y only six weeks after his diagnosis of bone cancer.) 

Hey Everybody! So, I didnt know about Grampa until just now... I have tought the Plan of Salvation so much here and it always amazes me at how simple it all is, but at the same time how incredibly complicated and perfect and wonderful it is! I know that He is in a far better place and I wont lie, I am a litle jealous of him. Heh, He is already there with Christ and all of the rest of the family. I love him very much as well and I would love to be there for the funneral but I know that he would want me here. But something we have to always remember is that everything is in the hands of the lord. And I cant think of a better place for us to be!

Heh, Well they dont really do adresses here. But we live next to the Ariport in a place called Matrez on street 18. Good luck finding it. About out investigators, Edson is still good to get baptized this Saturday and he passed his interview!! Woohooo! But Alex and Erickson (16 years old) are teenagers...any way they missed church on Sunday but we already talked to them and we are going to have to delay the babtism. But it is better this way because now they know of the importance and seriousness of babtism. When we told them that we would have to delay it, I literally thought they would cry a little bit. It made me so happy to see that they had REAL desires to be babtized. They are basically LDS already, they even didnt start dating until they turned 16! heh! awsome! It will be on the 9th of Marco. We do babtisms every other week here because it takes so long to fill the font because we have to do it by hand. Which I got to do on Saturday for the other Elders. We have to throw this bucket 10ish feet down into a well and pull it back up with a metal wire. Then put the water into other buckets and carry it about 50 yards to the font. My job was to throw the bucket down and haul up the water. After a while my hand got really wet and soft so that wire made some nice blisters and cuts. But it was fun! Yeah, Elder Wilhelm is fine. I took his stiches out last night actually. Ok so I didnt shave shave my head. But it is super short.

So this week was crazy, as always. No more crazy accidents, But awesome just the same. We had most of our lessons fall through everyday. So most of our days was spent contacting and trying to get lessons with people. But we have met so many cool people! There is this one lady named Luzia and she is like the nicest lady ever. She has two daughters and her hsband and brother died. But she is very interested in the church and our next lesson is the Plano de Salvacao! I am super excieted for that one! She is the kind of lady that would be equivilent to like...the neighborhood mom, ya know? Its awesome to just knock on somebodys door and they just let you in and allow you to talk about the gospel with them! The people here are so nice and friendly! I do see some pretty sad stuff thought. There are a lot of crippled people that walk aroud. lots of them dont have arms or legs or walkd on their hands and knees or have contorted faces, and they are usually begging for money. I wish so bad to do something for them but we arent allowed to give them anything. It breaks my heart. But I also know that our Heavenly father Loves them specifically and wants the best for them. They are in his hands. I'm running out of time so I will make this quick. This experience has already changed me so much and made me aware of how little I know and how much we all have to learn in this life. Life here is simple. Nothing like I have seen before. But at the same time very complicated, just like the Gosplel. I love to be able to testify of Jusus Christ! One of my favorite lessons so far was one on Temples! I know Christ Lives and We are all in HIS hands and her carries us in times of trouble (footsteps poem) Love you all!!!

February 11, 2013

Hey Yall! First of all I would like to say thank you to Mom, Dad, Noelle, Caleb and Bishop Peterson for writing me! Thank you all so much! In answers to Noelles questions, heh, yeah, Im getting pretty tan, and I also just shaved all my hair off this morning so I look a little strange (at least I think I do).  Heh I havent eaten a lot of wierd stuff yet but i have eaten some exotic fruits. I cant remember what its called but its a little bit biger that my fist, green, has thorns on the outside and is shaped like a heart. It was really good...until I found out that it had maggets in it...yeah...I ate maggets.  Our house runs out of water ever now and then, but the energy goes out several times a week for about half a day. So im getting good at "spit baths." We have a big house but no furniture. I will have to send you some pictures some time, when we find a place that we can. Heh, yes, they give us plenty of money for food and to live. but we do have to budget a little bit. I usually spend about 60-70 bucks a week on food. Its pretty expensive. We eat a lot of rice and beans and spaghetti. The basic cheep stuff. A half gallon of Ice cream is anouit 21$. As far as the culture, they are a very relaxed people and party all night and sleep for half the day and drink beer. Heh, thats just the roudy crowd though. All of the women carry stuff on their heads and sell stuff in the streets. There are alot of different curches here. But for the most part it is quite normal. I'm in the city right now so I dont get the classic Africa look with some black guy standing there with a spear and a lion in the background. Life is just very simple here. Heh, no we havent tought the "get away car guy" yet. But hopefully soon! Heh, yeah, no more drunk guy stories...sorry... heh. But a couple of days ago we were walking out from underneath a bridge and somebody threw a generator frame (yeah the metal bars that are welded together that go on the outside of generator) off of the bridge and it kinda nailed Elder Wilhem. Not a generator, just the frame. But anyway we went to the clinic and he got 5 stiches in his head. It was super wierd. Not in a million years would I have thought of that. He is fine now though. Gets the stiches out in a few days. Maybe be a little conservative on the packages until I find out how much they cost. We have to pay for them when they get here, and it differs by wieght...I think.
Anyway. Just an update on our investigators Edson, Alex, Erickson, and Adielson are doing great! They are all excited for babtism! and We have a few more that are willing to be babtized also! Elder Cook ( of the 70) Came this last week for 3 days to our mission! He tought us so much that we need to know and got us all super excited for the work here! "Now is the time for Angola" he said! I love it! We also had Stake Conference, or what is equivelent to it. Elder Cook talked in both meetings and talked and tought exactly what we needed to hear! I never realized how much of an effect working with ward leaders had until I got here. (this is what he talked about, along with ward missionary work, families, and meetings). It is to important that the Branch Presidency knows everything that is going on with the missionaries and visa versa. We walk with a member as much as we can! They are all so amazing and have such amazing conversion stories. One of my favorite members is Guilierme! He is the same age as us, walks with us all the time, knows his scriptures front to back, (he hasnt even been a member for a year), and he is preparing to serve a mission!! He is so amazing!
Speaking is geting easier and I feel comfortable now with talking to people. It is a lot easier. We do a lot of contacting and door knocking. Classic huh. Because most of our lessons fall thurouh every day, mostly because of the laid back attitude and they forget a lot. But we usually have the lesson another day. But I know that this work is true! And that the The lord really does watch out for his missionaries! Jesus Christo is our savior and redeemer! Thank you all for being so amazing and im sorry this isnt very long and a lot of words may be spelled wrong but know that I love you!!