January 21, 2013

Whew! Well that flight sure was a long one! I dont think I have ever sat down for so long. The plane food isnt that good but at least it was something different than what the served us in the MTC. Well my new companion/trainer is Elder Wilhelm. He is a super studly guy from Arizona. He has been helping me out a lot with all of the language and culture stuff. Oh, Segunda-Ferra is my P-Day from now on. The people speak like a million miles an hour over here! ahhhhh! I just want them to slow down so I can better understand what they are saying. But it will come, I´m not too worried about the language. Everything here is expensive, but not too bad. One Quanza (thats what the money is called) is worth one penny. They dont use change, it is all in bills. The smallest bill they have is a 5. So 1000 Quanzas is 10 bucks. We went shopping and played soccer today! It was super fun! The Juice here is super tasty! And the soda, they have this stuff called Summol that is amazing! Its a soda drink thing.
On my first day here we got pulled over by the police, Elder Wilhelm got smacked in the face by a drunk guy and then had a lady ask him to marry her...Heh! It was a super crazy day. Not to forget that I had no idea what in the world anyone was saying. In the last 5 days we have done every type of missionary work that I know. Knock on doors, talk in the streets, taxis, stores, walk for miles every day etc... Yep, we dont have bikes or a car, we walk everywhere. Its not too bad, and I dont mind it. Sometimes it just gets super hot, like 90 something with crazy humidity. So we basically sweat, then sweat some more. Heh, I love it!!
This place is super dirty too. literally piles of garbage everywhere and nobody really cares to pick it up. People sell meat, food, drinks, shoes, towels, cloth, even toilet paper in the streets. And when I say in the streets I literally mean in the streets. They walk up and down the road between the zooming cars and try to sell stuff to people in their cars. When anybody wants to cross the street you just walk out and hope the people slowdown for you. It is do disorganized and all the people on the motorcycles go crazy! they wiz through all the cars coming within literally inches of hitting a car. When we need to get to somewhere farther away that would take forever to walk we take a taxi. The taxis are 100 quanza for a ride. They are big, super old white and blue vans with nothing but seats inside. They pack people in there like crazy! Sometimes people even sit on top of each other.
On more of a spiritual note, we have tought 25 lessons since I have been here. Talk about throwing into the fire! Nah, I love it! In the lessons I can uderstand where the conversation is going but I dont know exactly what is being said. But I told the first vision a few times and invited a few people to be babtized! They said yes!! wohooooo!! I sure hope they follow through as we continue to teach them. One guy, named Edson, said he would be baptized the next day if he could and that was only after the first lesson!!! It was so cool! Church on Suday was nice too. Its not a bad looking building, but there are getting to be so many members that they are looking for a bigger building. We had something like 112 people to church! So that is actually a pretty good number for this area! I gave a blessing to a recent convert that found out he had a heart problem. That was a bit nerve racking. But it all turned out just fine and he was really thankful. The people here are so humble. They have hardly anything. Most people in the city have a house. But lots of them are very small. We even have a member that lives in a 10 by 10 cement box (basically) Big enough for a bed and a TV. Heh, He said that I look like eminem-the singer. So he now calls me Elder Eminem. And he calls Elder Wilhelm, Elder Lincoln Park. Ha! They love American music over here! I will hopefully tell you more about it next Monday because I am running out of time. We are in an internet cafe thing and you have to buy your min. I have about 10 left and Im a slow typer.
Well I love you all so much and I know that this gospel is real and that the gift of tounges is real because there have been lots of times where I have said something and not even known how to say it but it just comes out right. Christ lives and He loves us all so very much! The field is white, already to harvest here and I am super excited to serve the people here!

Com amor
Elder Dredge