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