May 28, 2012

So normal typical day we wake up at 7.00 and then do our normal morning thing, pray, exercise, shower (when we can) and then start with our Personal Study than companion study. Then we do another hour of companion study, but we do this thing called the “first 12 weeks”, and it has a bunch of things the new missionary should do. Braden could tell you more about it. Than we do language study, eat and than we are out the door.

Investigators. We probably on average teach 3 or 4 lessons in a day. We are trying to focus on our new investigators and helping them to progress, because we have found a lot of people recently but we are having a hard to helping them to progress and keep their commitments. We are teaching alot of people right now, but one ladies name is Mifi and she is really sold all she is waiting for right now is for her documents to get finalized for marriage and than she will be baptized. We have another guy who is in the same situation and his name is Alberto. Another lady we have is Rosa, she is soo awesome she is a great lady and has a really strong testimony…and has a deep desire to do what is right. We also started to teach a family, but they all kind of lost interest except for one of the daughters and we had a family night and one of the members houses last week and we taught about the book of Mormon and we invited her and her brother to read and pray about it. We went to her house a couple days ago and we asked her about her reading (ohh her name is Adriana) and she said she was at 1 Nephi Chapter 4 and her favorite verse that she read was 1Nephi 3.7! That was really cool she than said that she prayed but has not received an answer yet. So that was exciting so hopefully she will continue to read and pray. The complicated thing is that she is 18 and we have to get special permission to continue to teach a girl who is under 21, so hopefully we can get that permission from President. We do have a few more main investigators, but I will have to tell you about them next time!!

Language is going pretty well. I am still having a hard time understanding the Natives, but a member told me the other day that my Portuguese is getting alot better so that was good to hear! For the most part with the language I can get what is going on, but I miss a lot of the details.

We got to go on (the Safari) because the Walton’s like to take everyone once so all the Missionaries who did not get to go on the last one got to go on this one. (that was only about half of our Mission). (There are 26 missionaries in Angola)

Right now I am studying the Conversion and I am going through the Book of Mormon right now just studying that. Also I am doing a study on the Life of Christ. But one of the main things I have learned about conversion is that we have to go through trials and tribulations for real conversion to take place. But we not only have to go through trials, but we have to turn to Christ through the Scriptures and prayer during our trials and when we do that our conversion becomes deeper and deeper.

When I got here in Angola I went through a really hard time, probably the hardest time of my life, but because of that experience my testimony has grown so much and my conversion has been deepened especially in regards to the Book of Mormon. There is no way that book can not be true!! …I have thought that many times about my future spouse and I have thought several times that I need to marry someone that has gone through hard trials and struggles and has turned to Christ during those times, that way I know her testimony is strong and is deep!!

So you know how sometimes you start thinking about the eternities and about things like that and your mind goes crazy thinking about it. So I had one of those experiences, but I was not thinking about the eternities I was thinking about you and how awesome you are! I am not just saying that to make you feel good although I hope it does! That really did happen to me the other day right as I was about to go to bed! I love you so much Mom!! Keep up the great work!!

Love you son!! Elder Tilley

May 23, 2012

… my companions name is Elder Rainbolt and he is American. I am living in the city right now, so not much of a Jungle really, but we went on a Safari today and saw wildebeest elephants, zebra and a giraffe so that was pretty cool. Still working on getting a new house.

Thanks Dad for the letter! Your letters always keep me going! I told my companion about some of the letters you send me and how they always pump me up!  And now he always asks me, did your dad send a pump up letter? And I pretty much have always responded yes!!! Don’t think that there is any pressure on or anything, I just wanted to let you know that your letters really do help me press forward thanks so much!! I think I am going to have to respond to your questions this next Monday, so maybe remind of those questions that you have thanks!! Love you!! Elder Tilley

I am doing well, things have been frustrating with the house we are living in because one day the generator doesn’t work, than we fix that than we run out of water, than our air conditioner breaks, than once we get everything figured out generator breaks again, so tonight will be hot night! But the work is going well we have 5 people right now that have a baptismal date! So that is really good we have 4 people for the 16 of June and 1 for the 23 so that is really exciting! This week we have also taught the plan of salvation more and I told about the Atonement and I just felt really good and I was definitely feeling the Spirit! I have been praying for you very hard this week that the Lord will help you and lift your Burdens and I hope you have been able to feel my prayers. Yeah I am adjusting pretty well, but some days are harder than others. The Lord has definitely been helping me and blessing me though!

Food here really actually isn’t very scarce here, and the food is actually really good for the most part. I eat a lot more when I am at a members house for dinner than when I am at home. IT is really hard to make good food on our own because of our house issues and lack of time, but food is not really a

big concern.

…I wrote a response last week and than the Internet shut off and erased that part and all I had time for was to log on send what I had and than it turned off again, sorry! I am learning so many things all at once it is pretty crazy! One of the main things i have learned though is apply the scriptures in our

lives. For example a lot of times we have a scripture study and we learn about some principle and after the study we close the scriptures and maybe right down what we learned and than we walk away and do not really thing about it the rest of the day. I have learned that after we learn something we need to think of a way that we can specifically apply that principle in our lives that day or that week etc. And maybe we can not do that everyday or even after every scripture study, but I think we need to do that often. I learned this a few weeks ago when I was having a hard time and I would read the scriptures and find something that would help, and while I was reading it I would think sweet this is going to help me, but than an hour later I would forget about this principle and I was still having a hard time, so I leaned that I needed to write down specifically what I was going to do that day to apply that principle. I hope that makes sense, (I do not have time to proof read it) The Safari was awesome! IT was way fun! We did not see any predator type animals, but we saw a giraffe, zebras, elephants, wildebeest and things like that! Also we got to feed wild monkeys so that was fun!! Also my camera battery lasted the entire time so I was able to take pictures, so that was good!!

I think I was able to answer all of your questions this time! I hope I did not miss any! I love you so much Mom!! Thanks for all you have done for me and for all that you have taught me!! You are an awesome, wonderful mother!! As I hear about other missionaries mothers, I continually think "man my mom is sooooooo Awesome!!!" I love you Mom, keep up all the great work you do for our Family!! Love you!!! Elder Tilley Love you!!!            Logging off

Quicama Park for Preparation Day

We first visited Quicama Park back in January with the missionaries who were serving in the Luanda area.  Since that visit, we have more new missionaries and they had the opportunity this week to visit the wildlife park for themselves.  It was quite a surprise when we entered the park to find this beautiful giraffe off to the right side of the road quietly munching on the tree leaves.  We were ecstatic and took more than our share of pictures of him eating.  The giraffe let us photograph him as long as we kept our distance.  Elder McAllister quickly handed me his camera for a more personal picture.  We were hoping this was a good sign that we would be seeing lots of animals in the park that day!

Once we got past the electrified fence (just like Jurassic Park) ... All was ready and waiting for us, so Elders Perry, Tilley, Richter, and Hansen climbed aboard for the window view.  Little did they know that they would constantly be whacked on the arms and legs by passing tree branches. ...What a ride!

In addition to the giraffe, we saw two different herds of zebras with some giant sable antelope, and two elephants that were throwing mud on their backs to escape the heat of the sun.  The truck we rode in was noisy, but we were able to get to places remote and choked with vegetation to find all the animals we saw.  It was the best preparation day yet!

After the safari tour, we stopped and ate our lunch with a view to die for.  We were up the hill from the Kwanza River.  The blue of the water and the green of the surrounding fields and trees were all stunning.  Elders McAllister, Tilley, Wilhelm, and Hobbs relaxed and enjoyed the view.  Elder Kearney and Elder Hansen successfully got the monkeys to eat out of their hands. ...All the missionaries had a great, memorable day including (back row) Elders Wilson, Wilhelm, Perry, Hansen, (front row) Elders Kearney, McAllister, Richter, Tilley, Hobbs, and Chandler.

After a full morning of touring the park, we left the animals behind and stopped at this huge Imbondeiro tree.  It towered over us and is the icon tree of Angola.  Elders McAllister, Chandler, Tilley (at trunk of tree), Wilhelm, Hansen, Perry, Kearney and Wilson all had a great first safari in Angola!

May 14, 2012

May 14, 2012 From Elder Tilley

Answers for Mom:

(Elder Tilley has to tell his President if he is staying longer or leaving early because the transfer schedule is changing). Yeah I am not really sure yet. I think once I get to that point I will want to stay. The thing that is kind of holding me back right now is that if I decide to come home three weeks early I will be able to watch the end of Becca's Senior year of Basketball, but if I stay three weeks later, than I will miss it. So that is kind of the struggle that I am going through right now. But I think I might tell President I want to stay three weeks, but I am not sure yet.

(he can’t send pictures unless he is on a “safe” computer). Ok I will do my best, I think the next time I will be able to will be the first Monday in June. So hopefully I will be able to send some then.

(My companion) is a great companion and really strives to be obedient and work hard. We get along pretty well. He is a convert and was baptized when he was 15, but none of his family are members, but he is great and definitely has his head on straight especially for not being raised in the church.

We actually have a lot more people we are teaching. We have about15-20 investigators right now, but only about 6 of them are progressing investigators. So we are teaching a lot and than when we have time we do finding, but it is crazy because we are always getting new investigators so that is fun. Actually right before I talked to you yesterday we met a security guard that works at the Apartment complex that President and Sister Walton are at, and he lives in our area and he has read a little bit of the Book of Mormon and really likes it. So we will go and teach him this week. So we do a lot of teaching, but yes we try and do at least one weekly appointment with each of our investigators, but we don't always get to them all have cell phones here and we have a cell phone to, so it is just pretty normal.

May 7, 2012

So this week has been pretty good! We are doing a lot more finding right now especially around the chapel. We have several investigators right now and some of them are in a lot of complicated situations, so we are trying to resolve those things right now. The work is really growing here and it is really cool to see.

Mission Blog:  Birthday time singing and sharing included Elders ...Tilley, Rainbolt, ...had their anniversaries  (or their companions) sometime over the past few months or in the month to come.

So we have been living without energy for a while now so it has been difficult to keep clean and eat healthy because we cannot really store anything. We did have a little miracle where during Companion study my companion just thought we should try turning on the generator so we did and it worked for about 30 minutes. So we did as many dishes as we could and did a load of laundry and stored up as much water as we possibly could. Also President came by our house the other day with another man from South Africa who is in charge of finding land and housing for missionaries and for chapels and things like that. He came and looked at our house and he was like this is unacceptable. Meaning who ever put us in this house did not know what he was doing. Than he said "man you guys will get blessed for living here" Also President did not know that we did not have energy and he said man if I would have know that we could have stayed at our house. So we actually spent the night last night at Presidents house! It was a really cool experience because I was think right as I was about to go to bed that my family is probably fasting for me right then or were about to break their fast and for the first time here I was sleeping in a comfortable bed with Air conditioning. So just so you know Mom your little boy was sleeping well while you were fasting for me:)

I am not sure when we will be able to find a new house though. President and Sister Walton went to look at two this week but they were not going to work out, so I am not sure when we will be able to move. Last night Sister Walton said we are going to find you a house this week, right President Walton? And he kind of shrugged it off like they would definitely try, but it is not going to happen within a week. So we will see how it goes. It is pretty cool though because I can now say that I can live for a extended period of time with out energy. Definitely pretty good life skill. Also I am getting really good at going to the bathroom in the dark! Well at least I think I am... I guess I do not really know:) (Hey mom maybe you should not put that one on the blog:)) (We left it and decided he would never knowJ).

Ok so if we can Skype at 9:30 PM (My time) on Sunday that would work out perfectly. I am not allowed to get on my email to see if that is ok so that is what we are going to have to do. So that is when I will be on. Sunday 9:30 PM my time.

I love you all and hope you have a great week. The Lord has definitely been blessing me and helping me!! Thank you so much for your Love support and Prayers!!!! Elder Tilley

Love you all signing off!!!

Talk with you on Sunday!!!!!!

(Note from Mom)

President Walton ended up picking up Elder Tilley and his companion and bringing them to his home to shower and “face time” us. It was so fun to see him. I asked if he had mosquito bites on his face (red dots we could see), but he said it was from shaving (they hadn’t showered/shaved for a week) J. He said they found a milk carton and cut off the top and found water dripping out of a pipe off the top of a building and that’s how they had been collecting water. He said they buy milk and cereal every morning at a cantina outside their front door for breakfast, but the milk won’t keep without “energy” (that’s what everyone says when there is no power). For lunch the eat rice and beans and if they want dinner they have rice and beans again, but he said they are tired and it’s too much trouble to fix dinner. Once they went to a member’s home for dinner and he was served a whole boiled fish…still wholeJ. On Mother’s Day he had been in Africa for 3 weeks and lost 10lbs. Even through all this, he was happy and sounded just like his self. We can’t wait for our CHRISTMAS call! J