August 6

FYI-Elder Montgomery (the one he mentions) is the missionary Dad, Braden and I met in the temple the day before he left for the MTC and Jayce left for Africa. (He went to Highland High and they have several mutual friends).  He has been in New Jersey waiting for his visa. His mom called this morning and said the consulate office of Angola called this morning and said the visas are in. She called the mission home in New Jersey and they said they didn't get that message, but would send them right over to pick them up. So hopefully the President and 2 missionaries will be arriving in Africa soon! (Those boys are in New Jersey so they are close to the consulate office and don't have to wait for the visas to be shipped anywhere). Here's the letter...

August 6, 2012

Hey mom Internet went out last time, so I could not write. We are having problems today too so I hope this and my other letters will go through!

His name is Seba. we went to the hospital this week to visit him because he had to go back again, and hospital was very interesting. There were about 5 other people in the room with him and they do not feed them a lot and it is not very clean. He is doing a little bit better though.

We went and visited (Moses) the day we fasted for him and he was still kind of the same and he did not really want to sit with us. Than on Tuesday we got a call from him and he asked us to come over. He said that he had been struggling, but he is ready to change and he said he wanted to have the same desires that he had after his baptism... to do what is right. He told us that he knew that he was the one that needed to change and that we could not do it for him, but we would be there it help him. Also he said that he was thinking about serving a mission too! Wow!! What a change of heart!! I am really starting to see the power of prayer and fasting as well as the powere of the Lord to help change people!

We were not able to sit with (Antonia) this week so that was a bummer and she did not come to church.

Paula is about the same still looking for an answer. Addilson’s story is complicated but his dad is always out of town and his mom is always gone, but his dad came back for a day or two so we talked with him and he said that he wanted to sit down with his wife and Addilson and talk about it (that is what he said last time) But he said that they would all be home this Saturday and they would talk about it. So we are praying that they for one will sit down and talk about it and two that their hearts will be soften to allow him to get baptized.

Nelsa we continue to teach her, her husband is not around a lot so it is hard to talk with him. So things are kind of on hold with her, but we continue to teach her.

(Bella’s) husband is building their house right now and he said that wanted to wait to get married until their house was done. So that may take another few months, so we just continue to teach her and try to help her build her faith.

We do have some others but I am not sure how serious they really are we keep going to their house but they are always busy or are not their, so we are not really sure.

One though her name is Bete and she lives really far away and she accepts the message for the most part, but it is really far so it is really hard for her to come to church because of the money to get their. So that is the issue we are having there.

(Talk on Tithing) It is coming along I just have been a lot of thoughts about it, but I have not sat down and really thought about what I am going to talk about. Yes I remember J.

Yes I was able to see it! (Movie of Jailey and Jacey) But we cannot get sound here so I could not hear anything

My companion is pretty good. Definitely a little bit different, but good. Yep it’s been 6 weeks already. So honestly I do not know a lot about my companion because there are normally 4 missionaries down here in Lubango and my companion and another missionary got transferred. So my companion got here, but guess where the other Missionary’s companion is? Yep his companion is Elder Montgomery!!! (when he gets here). So right now we are walking in a three some and we have to cover two areas instead of just one until Elder Montgomery gets here. It has been very stressful trying to combine the two areas and deciding when to work in one and when to work in the other! It has been a very stressful week! Also my companion and the other Elder are really good friends so... yeah I do not really know my companion yet. But his name is Elder Borden and Elder Montgomery's companion’s name is Elder Kelsey. Haha yeah . . . every companion is marriage prep!

I still didn’t make gravy . . . not yet... right now I am just kind of in survival mode. (Not really worried about making good food, just what fills me up)

President emails and responds to emails pretty much every week. His wife has her visa, but he still does not have his... so yeah.

I do not think they have the perpetual education fund here, but I am not really sure. Yes they have seminary and institute, but just one day a week.

I am trying to upload pictures but it is not working for some reason!!

Love you Mom!!

I hope you are doing well!!

Love Elder Tilley

…Hey mom sorry I tried to send some pictures, but they would not upload! I will try it next time!