February 25, 2013

Answers Mom:

(New Mission and President) I am not sure exactly what is going to happen; we actually do not have a lot of information about it. We do not know anything about him, neither does President or Sister Thompson, but President Thompson said that President and Sister Walton have made contact with them. It was actually really cool and funny, because this is something that us missionaries here in Angola have been hoping and praying for a long time. Being part of Mozambique is really good, but it is just really hard because President Krelty is always in Mozambique and so it is just really hard to communicate everything back and forth and have meetings and things like that. One of the missionaries who has really been hoping that we will become a mission is my District Leader, Elder Richter, he was the Zone Leader who picked me up from the airport when I got here to Anogla and at that time he was more like the Assistant to the President. Anyways Tuesday morning he was in his room with the door open and I heard that he had got a call and it was from President Thompson, so I just stayed by seeing if their was going to be any news for the entire district to hear. Then I just hear Elder Richter just freaking out, but I could not tell if he was freaking out because of sadness or joy. At first I thought somebody may have died that was in his family, but then I heard him say "Thank you so much President!" So then I thought "what else could it be!" and then it clicked in my mind and I walked into the other room where Elder Brown was and I said Elder Brown "I think we just became our own mission!" He kind of freaks out a little bit and then we run into Elder Richter’s room and he has this big smile on his face and says, "Guys we are going to become our own mission!" It was so exciting! It was a long week because we were not going to find out who the new mission president was going to be until Saturday at the baptisms. So we went to the baptisms and when President Thompson got there he gave us a paper that showed a couple new missions that were opening, Angola being one of them, and the new mission president. I was actually really sad when I found out because I as well as many other missionaries really wanted President Thompson to become the new mission president, but that is ok because obviously this is the Lord´s will. But now President Thompson will leave and go back home the end of June, right before President Merrill comes. I was really sad to hear that he was leaving. Originally his date to leave was only one transfer before I left, but now he will leave here in a few months. I don’t think I have told you a lot about President Thompson and Sister Thompson, but I love them so much! They really do care about us and love us and you can really feel their love. They really cared more about us, the missionaries, then anyone or anything else! They really showed their love for us and it will be very hard to say good-bye to them! But if that is what the Lords will is then obviously that is what needs to happen!

(Discussions/Lessons with President Kretly)

Haha the funny thing is that when you said Missionary Discussions it took me awhile to figure out what you were talking about. In Portuguese the word we use is Liçao which means lesson and so we call it the missionary lessons and so when you said discussions I was trying to figure out what you were talking about, but after reading it a few times I finally got it :) yeah the chances were pretty slim. The week before he came I told him about Inacio and Elizabeth and he said that he had a feeling that he needed to pass by them. He is a very powerful man with a very strong spirit! Unfortunately because he is in Mozambique it was really hard to build a relationship with him and him with us. It would feel more like a business meeting when we would have conferences with him I think just because he knew he did not have a lot of time with us so he just got right down to business (he is a crazy successful business man …!!!). It felt more like an employer employee relationship unfortunately, but fortunately when we went to this lesson with him I got to see more of who he really is so that was really good and it helped our relationship! He was the one who taught at the lesson. He did not teach specific lesson really just talked with them and got to know them and then went off the Spirit and when they mentioned something about their family or their life he would find a gospel principle to apply to that, so it was really good and really powerful. After that lesson I wanted to be more like him and teach with more power and authority like he did. There was just so much confidence in his voice and in his spirit. I felt like I got a glimpse of how it says in the Book of Mormon (I cant remember the missionary) but it says that their faith and conversion was so strong that the people they taught could not dis-believe their words (or something like that I cant remember exactly how it goes). But it was a really good spirit filled lesson!

Thank you so much for praying specifically for her. We have invited her a few times (President Kretly being one of the few times) and she has accepted to baptism without problems, but she still goes to her church every week. So we asked her about her church and we found out that in her church they are allowed to be members and be baptized in any church they want to (kind of weird). So in the end we basically told her that if she wants to be baptized she has to drop her other church. That one was a little bit harder to accept for her, but she has already read 1 and 2 Nephi as well as Mormon and Moroni. The hard thing I think for her is that she is a health leader in her church (what that means exactly not sure) but I know if we have faith the Lord will touch her heart just like Inacios. So if you could continue praying for her specifically and the entire family! Including the kids Evani and Miguel and their other son in Houston Texas (I forget his name) Thanks. Also this week with them we were a little bit nervous because Inacio had to work all week until really late so we were not able to sit with him, but he said he would be at church. So at church after the first hour he was not their so I called him and he said that Elizabeth´s father had died in Brazil, so they had to figure things out with that, so he was not able to come. So after church I felt like we should pass by to see if they were there and to comfort them if they needed it. We got there and talked about it and they said that it was not a big shock because he was already getting old and he was sickly, so they were not too sad about it. (Good that they were not sad, but I was kind of hoping that they would have been sad and then we could teach about the Plan of Salvation and then possibly give them a Priesthood Blessing if they wanted) But I guess that is not what the Lord wanted which was obviously better, and instead we had a fantastic lesson and got everyone on board and we re-marked with the entire family for baptism for the 23rd of March. Inacio will definitely be baptized on the 23rd, Elizabeth I am still not sure, I am hoping and praying that she and the kids will be ready by then and receive an answer and have a real mighty change of heart!

We had a few new investigators, but we will probably drop them.

We are both staying her in Viana C.

(Dad)Thanks Pops for the Love and Support I am definitely needed in your prayers. Please continue to pray for me! Thanks! Thank you for the thoughts and quotes you shared with me they really helped! Elder Tilley

Preston!

What is this already have your own email!! Keep working hard with basketball and everything! You are doing great! Don’t forget your prayers and scripture study though everyday!!! I have really come to know that through Pray and Scripture study is where we can find really Joy!!!

Love you Bro keep it up!!!!

Elder Tilley

Angola Missionary Mom's

Missionary Mom's went to lunch at Chase... WE LOVE OUR SONS!!! and love meeting together !

February 18, 2013

Answers to questions:

(Elder Eckman) is a great Missionary and is very happy. He is a big singer (he likes opera style :) He is a really good kid and good missionary and I like him alot!

We have 38 missionaries now. From what I have heard we have 3 coming next week and then we have another one coming at the end of next transfer, but we have a bunch of Missionaries that will leave starting the end of next transfer so we should be receiving more new missionaries soon as well. No, (I didn’t do anything for my 1 year mark; that is not really a big thing to do in our Mission, also President Kretly asked us not to do dumb stuff like burning tie etc.

I think my release date now is March 6th give or take a day or two. Elder Montgomery will go home 1 transfer after me.

Still (no package) yet, I told you I got the other package though right? That one took a couple of months to get here so who knows.

Could you just send normal envelopes, just whenever you send another package. I can get them here, but it is just a little bit harder to find the normal ones and they are kind of expensive. I am pretty sure it was Elder Brown who just got that package after 6 months:) Speaking of which, Elder Browns Dad served in Ecuador I think Quito, so maybe Dad should send him an email and see if they have any connections! Love you Mom!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep (Braden told me) they are having a Girl!!!

What is this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) the Tilley Boys just cant produce Boys or what!!! :)

Haha just kidding :) Sort of :)

Do you know what the date is for the Championship game?

Have you already put it up on YouTube? (Rebecca’s recruiting video) I can probably get permission from President if you just send me the link to it...

This week was a really good week! So we found this family that lives in our neighborhood a few weeks ago the Dads name is Inacio and the Moms is Elizabeth Inacio is Angolan, but Elizabeth is Brazilian. They have three kids, one who is studying in Houston Texas right now and two other ones still live at home their names are Evani and Miguel. We were just walking in the street and Inacio called us over and he said that he had taken the missionary lessons several years ago in Brazil and would like to continue. He was also studying with some people of the church of Seventh-day Adventist and Jehovah witnesses. So he had a lot of doubts and liked to look on the internet for information.. :) That was fun! It was actually really funny because one night he said I have some questions for you that are really going to test you to your very core and might give you a shake! Us being missionaries were ready for some big hitter questions or something! And the first question he said was "There are so many people in the world and there is no way you guys can preach to everyone and also there are places that you missionaries can not enter into because it is too dangerous! So what happens to all those people that do not get to hear this message? So with ease we responded to that question then his second one was why we worship on Sunday and not Saturday. So we explained how it is not a big deal what day it is on, however the reason we worship on Sunday is to remember Christ’s resurrection, which is what the Apostles did in Acts after Christ was resurrected. They partook of the Sacrament on the fist day of the week! So after we responded to that pretty easily he said well those are the questions for you.

When he said that those were the big hitter questions, I thought that that was pretty funny because they were not very hard at all thanks to modern day prophets and a knowledge of the plan of salvation:) Also during that lesson we were following up with their reading in the Book of Mormon and I had the thought to apply the scriptures to our lives, so I saw 1 Nephi 1:20 I think it is and we read it and I applied it to our lives by saying that here in this scripture people are trying to kill Lehi, however at the end of the verse Nephi says that he will show us the tender mercies the Lord gave to us. So I told them that for me if people were trying to kill my family I would not say that the Lord was blessing us and showing us tender mercies, however Nephi does. Even though his family is persecuted he still sees the blessings of the Lord in their lives. SO I told them that even when we have problems and trials in our lives the Lord is still blessing us, even though sometimes they are harder to see they are always their. After that we moved on in the lesson, but a little bit later we found out that Elizabeth’s father in Brazil is getting old and is sick and they are worried about him and they told us "I do not know how you knew our problems, but that verse applied specifically to us!" So it turned out that that experience was one thing that really softened their hearts! Obviously we had know idea about their problems and to tell you the truth I did not even think it was the spirit that told me to tell me to apply that scripture, but obviously it was because I had absolutely no idea about their problems, but the Spirit does and I am so grateful that I listened to the prompting.

Also I told President Kretly about this family and he said he wanted to meet with them when he was here. So last Monday he came with us and taught the lesson. Unfortunately, Inacio could not be there, but it was a really good lesson that really helped Elizabeth. Also Inacio went to the District Conference on Saturday and he told us that he liked it, but we were not able to talk alot about it with him. However this week we were able to pass by him and teach him again, but unfortunately Elizabeth was not their this time, however we talked about it for a while and I am not sure exactly what happened with him, but his heart was completely changed. Before he had a lot of doubts and questions, but the spirit touched his heart and he has started to have a change of heart. So during that lesson we committed him to be baptized on the 9th of March! And he accepted with no problem, which probably a week ago he would have had a problem with it. The problem now is that Elizabeth is still pretty attached to her church. She is reading the Book of Mormon and I think is in Mosiah already, but she still has not come to church yet! So many miracles happening!

If you could keep them in your prayers that would be great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you

Elder Tilley

Love you too Dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Bec I just want to say how Proud of you I am! When Mom told me that you hardly had the energy to get onto the Bus I got so fired up and I thought

"Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is what I am talking about Bec!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is what I am talking about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

That is me yelling and screaming of course!!!!!!!!

Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I do not think I ever had to have help to get on our bus after a game because I did not have any more energy! You really did leave it all out on the court!!!!!!! I will be praying that you will recover quickly!!!!!!!!

Love you, Elder Tilley

Thanks for the pics rach!!!!!!!!!!

Love you guys and miss you guys so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Logging off mom

Love you Everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you Mom!!!!!!!!

Elder Tilley

February 11, 2013

(Pic of Jayce with Elder and Sister Cook from S. Thompson), it was kind of funny because there was like a line of missionaries who just kind of kept jumping in between them to get a picture!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (In a couple of days!!!!!!) :)

We received so many trainings this week end. We had a Mission Conference on Friday and then District Conference on Saturday and Sunday. One thing I leaned the most about was love! Elder Cook was so happy and you could tell he really cared and loved us even though he did not know us personally and becasue of that literally every missionary is trying to do exactly what he said because of that love that we all felt from him. One thing we learned was that our personal study should be focused on our investigators. He said when he was a mission president he would ask his missionaries, what are you studying and they would respond oh the Old Testament and Elder Cook would respond, “Oh how selfish of you!” :) Then we all practiced doing a little personal study and focusing on an investigator and practicing. This is something that I definitely need to do better. So my gift to the Savior this year instead of being reading the Book of Mormon focusing on the Savior, I am going to read and study and look for specific scriptures through out the Book of Mormon focusing on my investigators. (So if you could change that for me that would be great!)

4 of 5 Arizona Elders: Montgomery, Tilley, Wilhelm, Chatwin

Top- Elders Montgomery,Tilley, Wilhelm, Chatwin
Second - Moms- Montgomery, Wilhelm, Tilley, Chatwin
Third- Elders-Montgomery, Clifford, Hyde
Fourth - Moms- Clifford , Chatwin , Tilley, Wilhelm 

Yep I got to see Elder Montgomery and all the Arizona boys, our entire Mission even the missionaries from Huambo and Lubango were there which never happens. That was the first time that all the missionaries in our mission had been together since anyone can remember! So that was a lot of fun! It was a lot of fun to see Elder Borden, he is still in Lubango and has about one transfer left on his mission, so it was fun to be able to see and talk with him again.

I got the Christmas package you sent with the scripture covers and that stuff! Thanks!!! I stiff have not gotten the other one for my birthday yet though!

This is a video for bec to pump her up before her game and DURING THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One story that Elder Cook told us that was really awesome was (he was speaking in the Adult Session of District Conference) and he told us about how one time General Conference was about to start and everybody was in their seats, but President Monson was still not there and he said he wondered if they would start without the prophet, so the time came for the conference to start and it started right on time without President Monson. He then said about half way through the meeting President Monson came through one of the side doors and took his place. Afterwards they said they were wondering where he was and after conference they found out that President Monson and his wife were getting ready and Sister Monson fell and so President Monson waited with her for a while until he made sure she was ok and then he came to conference afterwards. Then Elder Cook said, "Even for the Prophet his wife was more important then General Conference!" Wow I thought that that was really powerful!! I am not sure if you have already heard that story, It sounded a little bit familiar to me, but I can not remember! Also he said that one time before general conference all the seventy were gathered and receiving training from the prophet and apostles a day or two before general conference and President Packer said "Oh there is one more thing that you need to do better!" He then said all of the seventy pulled out their notebooks again and were ready for more instruction and then President Packer said "You are not treating your wives well enough" Then he said no matter how good you treat your wives, your wife deserves better!!!  Definitely some powerful instructions I felt!

 Violin's (Lubango couple missionaries) Kretly's (Mozambique Mission President),  Abdo's (Luanda couple missionaries), Thompsons (Mission President Counselor over Angola)

Elder Cook makes up part of the Area Seventy of this part of Africa and he said that they received a call the other day from Elder Holland and Elder Holland asked specifically about Angola! And he said they talked for along time about Angola, then he just told us that the twelve are definitely aware of Angola and the people here and they are aware of the number of missionaries that are here in Angola as well! That is all he said about their conversation, but it was really cool to hear that Elder Holland talked with them specifically about us, the people and missionaries, here in Angola! 

So this week we had one of those crazy missionary stories! So we went and taught Stela and we talked a little bit about temples and the importance of families and things like that! At one point she asked us what we thought about dreams. I responded and told her that me personally I have not had a dream that I really felt really came from God, but I said that there are a lot of people who do. She then told us that the morning of the same day that we knocked on her door (we found her knocking doors) she had a dream and in this dream she said that she knew that she would encounter some "foreigners". Then she said that that afternoon we knocked on her door. She then explained and reminded us that when we knocked on her door we explained a little bit about the Book of Mormon and she told us that she had heard of the Book of Mormon before, but she did not know where from, she thought she may have heard about it when she was in South Africa, but she was not sure. She then said she thought about it for a while a remembered that somebody in her dream told her about the Book of Mormon in the dream she had!!! Pretty awesome! We did not give her a baptismal date then, but the next time we visited we gave her one. It is still very interesting though because she believes the Book of Mormon is true and she believes Joseph Smith was a prophet, but she does not know if this is the ONLY true church here on the earth today! Hmm a little bit interesting... so we have to help her understand that if Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book or Mormon is true then this is the only true church here on the Earth! But it was so awesome with the dream because she said that normally she would have shut her door for people who believed in things other then the Bible, but she let us come back because of the dream she had!

Hey Bec I just want you to know that I am your number one fan!!! Literally!!!! I know you already know, but if I could be there I would be in the stands yelling so loud cheering my hardest for you and your team, probably to the point where I would make a fool of myself and Mom and Dad would make me sit a way from them :) But that is ok that is what Older Brothers are for right!!! :) I sent you two videos Mom said that she got one of them, but I do not know if the other one went through. If it didn’t here is your pre game talk!

Here you go Bec!!! State tournament!!!! Right from the tip off, go as hard as you can!!! Give it all that you can! No regrets! Leave it all on the court!!! Do your very best!!! Eye of the Tiger!!! Go rip them apart!!!! Fist on top of the head... Remember!! :)

And Have Fun!

Good Luck I will be Praying For you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Tilley

Bye Love you

Logging Off

I hope you have a fantastic week!!!!!!!!!!

Tell the fam I love them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a video for bec to pump her up before her game and DURING THE GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

February 4, 2013

We were able to pass by Victor and Lioneth again. I am not quite sure what their deal is. They seem interested, but they just aren’t really acting. They seemed really nice and really wanting to know and learn when we pass by, but it is really hard to sit with them and they seem to come up with some lame excuse to not come to church so we have not passed by them for a while.

Tchimba probably will not be baptized on the 23rd. We wants to be baptized but he does not understand yet or have a testimony that this is the only true church here on the earth and that all other churches are wrong.

Adilson I really hope so. He lost his phone a couple of weeks ago and so we just have to pass by his house to see if he is home and he disappeared this week and could not find him at all and his family did not know where he was either, but on Saturday he called us from a phone and said he was in the city working. So he came to church on Sunday and said that he was having a lot of family problems and that his family was not talking with him partially because of things with our church. So after church we gave him a blessing and it said that if he put God first in his life everything would be ok. After the blessing he said that he felt like a burden had just been lifted off of his shoulders. He said that before he felt like he had this heavy back pack on but he felt like that heavy backpack was taken off of him. So we are praying for him especially with his family situation. So as of right now he is still marked for the 23rd of February, but we will see. But he will be baptized here in the near future I feel. We had an Awesome lesson with Stela these past two times! One of them the Spirit prompted me to invite her to be baptized and she accepted the invitation when she knows these things are true and that this is the only true church here on the Earth, but we still have not set a date with her yet. We then had another lesson with Stela and one of her doubts was that the Bible does not talk about the Book of Mormon. So first we explained how the people in the Book of Mormon were descendants of Joseph in Egypt, then we read Ezekiel 37:15-17 and the first time she did not understand so then she read it a second time and the light bulb clicked! Then I explained it to her, how the stick of Judah is the Bible and the stick of Joseph is the Book of Mormon. Then I put the Bible and Book of Mormon in my hand and then repeated the verse in my own words how the two sticks would be put together in our hand. As I did that I got the chills up and down my back because I realized that I was fulfilling prophecy as I was doing that! It was so cool and the spirit was definitely present. Then I told her about how Christ said how there are other sheep which are not of this fold and then we read in 3 Nephi where Christ explains how the people in the Americas are those people. After we explained that she told us that she has had a question about that verse (other sheep that are not of this fold) for a long time now and she asked a preacher once about it, but the preacher did not give a very good response. But she said that that makes sense! It was so awesome to see the Spirit direct the lesson and how the spirit helped us answer questions we did not even know she had.

Also the other day I was thinking about Ammon and Aaron and how King Lamoni and his father both asked, what do I need to do to receive this happiness... and I thought to myself "wow that would be sweet to have an investigator like that!" Then with Stela in that same lesson we had we talked about how she was doing with her prayers and she basically said that she was praying but not specifically to know if these things were true and she said that she wanted to study it out more before she came to a conclusion. So I told her that she needs to continue to study and that is an important part, but what she really needs is a confirmation from God that these things are true! I then explained about how Laman and Lemuel saw an Angel, but they were not converted because they had hard hearts and rejected the Spirit when it arrived to their hearts. So then after I explained that she said "So what do I need to do to receive that answer!!!" Wow what an awesome question!! Just like Lamoni and his father!! So I told her that she needs to do three things! She needs to Study the Book of Mormon, Pray and come to Church! It was such a Powerful lesson and a real testimony builder for all of us! It was even cooler because we had planned to teach her the Plan of Salvation that day, but the Spirit took the lesson in a different direction, which obviously was the better option. The Lord´s way is always better then our way, we just have to trust him and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost and we will have miracles come about in our lives that we did not think were possible!

IT got really complicated with Marieta Yeta and Lala because Marieta and Yeta moved, and they were not living in our Branch any more, but their family attends here in Viana. But we just got permission from President Thompson to baptize them, so I hope they will be baptized on the 23rd as well, but we will see! 

The man in the picture is Gaspar The Champ!!! Just kidding about the champ part :) his name is just Gaspar but he really is a champ!

Just so you know I bore my testimony on Sunday too. Normally I don’t because the members need the chance and i am always in these peoples houses bearing testimony to them, but before church and during the sacrament I felt that I should so I did! :)

I love you Mom and Hope you have a great week! 

Oh by the way we have a Zone Conference this week with President Kretly and with Elder Cook of the Seventy and we also have our District Conference again with them as well so it should be a great week of training!

Love you Mom! you are the best!!

Elder Tilley