May 27, 2013

Hey mom how are you doing? I am on!

Hey Pops!!

How are things going! I am doing pretty well! As I read your letter I was so filled with gratitude for my parents! You said that because of me and Braden you forgot how to be parents, but I would say that the main reason we were how we were is because of you and Mom. When I was with Elder Mariquele he wanted to know more about our family and our family rules and things like that because he said he wanted to have a family just like mine. Also before Elder Rainbolt (my trainer) left for home I called him and talked with him and he said how my family was such an example to him and he also wants a have a family just like mine! I think it is interesting that two of my companions who are converts who have not been raised in the church and they do not have families that are members who are trying to figure out how they want to raise their family both said that they wanted to have a family just like mine! Thank you so much for all that you do for our family!

The other day some missionaries were talking and they talked about how some missionaries parents had been divorced and things like that and I thought about those people as well as the people that I know that have been divorced and about their kids. And I have heard of some other stories where the parents are just staying together for the kids and then once the youngest one leaves they will probably get divorced! Anyways I just wanted to thank you for the love that you and Mom have for each other! You are great examples to me! I could not image a home where my parents were divorced or where my parents did not like\love each other and wanted to be separated! I just could not image that and I thank you so much for allowing me and us to be raised in a loving home!

Sorry for not really responding to your last letter I did not have a lot of time! But thank you for sharing with me what you did and also talking a little bit about how you did not feel like a great man. Sometimes I feel like the members of our family are so perfect, I know that they are not, but it sure seems like they got everything figured out and they hardly make any mistakes and then I see myself and I feel like I am nowhere near how good my family is and sometimes I get discouraged because of it, so thank you for saying some of your weaknesses! It helps me remember that nobody including our family is perfect and we learn things one step at a time!  But thank you for the invite to think, talk, and act like a great man! I will accept to start doing better to have thoughts, to talk, and to act like a great man would!

Love you Pops

Yeah mom so can you do me a favor? Can you look up what chocolate liquor is.

This may seem kind of funny, but we went to a store and they had some American cookie mix, so we bought it and then afterwards I saw that in the ingredients the chocolate chips had chocolate liquor. I decided that I was not going to eat them, but then a missionary made them and offered me one so I ate it. That may seem kind of dumb, but if you could that would be great! :)

I think that you are right. If we did not have temptations there would not be a purpose for us here on this earth. One time I had an interview with President Thompson and we talked about bad thoughts. And he said that our purpose here on this earth is to be tested and how can we be tested if a bad thought never entered our mind. Now that does not mean that we should linger on that thought, but bad thoughts and temptations will always come and we just have to learn to overcome them, which a lot of times is a lot harder then we think. And I think a lot of times we do not realize that it is a trial we need to go through and so it is a lot harder. So just so you know I am going through trials and being tempted just like everyone else in the World!! :)

Investigator update!

Jesse: He had a baptism date for the 13th of July and we were planning on talking about it with him to move it up to a sooner date but we did not want to push him, but he is more then ready to be baptized! Anyways so I brought up that his baptismal date was pretty far a way and I asked him why and he said that he just wanted to know more. And then his buddy who is a stud who just got baptized two weeks or three weeks ago said " but you do not need to know everything you can learn afterwards" then Jesse said I know that is why I wanted to move the date up earlier, so I pulled out my phone to look at the calendar and I told him all the dates of the baptisms (every one of the Saturdays) and he said June 1 will be good! That really took me by surprise but he is definitely ready!

It was a cool experience with him as well because he used to be Elder Cliffords and Dredges investigator and the Sunday before transfers I saw Jesse and I felt the Spirit tell me to talk to him about being baptized (at that point he did not have a baptismal date) so i said do you have a baptismal date and he said no, and then I said you are going to follow in your buddies footsteps right? (His buddy denilson was baptized the week or two before) and he said yes! Then transfers came and Elder Cliffords and Dredges area was dissolved and so we had to pick it up so Jesse became our investigator! So he is going to be baptized on Saturday

Nando: He was going to be baptized on Saturday but he did not come to church on Sunday so he probably wont be baptized.

Garcia: We were not able to go to the place to start the whole marriage process with him last week, but we are going to try and go tomorrow! Please Pray that everything will go well!

Lourenco e Veronica: we set a goal with him to be married in 1 month! So we are praying that that will happen!

Mosies: This is a man whose wife passed away 3 months ago and then his house caught fire a few weeks ago and burn a lot of stuff (everyone’s house here is made our of cinderblocks so fortunately it did not burn to the ground) He is a great guy and has a desire to learn!

Sergio: He was a drunk man that came into the church after church and just sat down. President Miranda (the district President) talked with him and now we are going to start teaching him and helping him. We passed by his house and he has two little boys that are living with him and a daughter, but she does not live with them. They do not have any food and only have the clothes on their back! It will be an interesting road with him, but please pray for him! and Us to know how to help him!

I know pres probably will not get this but I will be praying for him!

Elder Tilley

President Kretly is here for the last time this week so we should get some good training!!!

Love you Mom I hope you have a great week! I will definitely be praying for you and the family and the girls you will be over!!

Love you tons!!!

Elder Tilley

The Thompson's "Good-bye"! He has been like the Mission President to he missionaries in Angola!
THEY ALL LOVE HIM SO MUCH!!!!

May 20, 2013

We were so excited when Sister Merrill (soon to be Elder Tilley's new Mission "Mom". She came by on her way home from Phoenix and got to meet some of Elder Tilley's siblings and Nephew!
(Behind her is Elder Tilley's missionary wall with pictures from their Mission!

May 20, 2013

Elder Wilson just made up a lot of funny phrases for being a zone leader and one of them was "if you do not know the answer to the concern an elder has just say to him have you prayed about it?" Kind of the same thing :)

Yep we have yeast and flour to make bread. Flour was pretty easy to find, yeast was a little bit more difficult, but we were able to find it in the street. Yeah you have to knead it. We basically had to do the same thing as we do with our bread, but it was just another recipe that it pretty easy.  Yeah you taught me how to make bread :)! Thanks

(Elder Wilson) is a really happy missionary! He is always smiling and is a lot of fun! It has been a little bit stressful this past week because we had more meetings and we are also getting a lot of pressure to have better numbers and Elder Wilson … goes with the flow, which is good because their is not a whole lot of resistance…. But it is going really well, I think I am suppose to learn how to be happy even when things aren’t going well!

I am still in Terra Nova. Terra Nova is a big neighborhood inside of our area so that is why it is called Terra Nova, but the missionaries also call it Luanda 1 because that is what the branch is called and our Zone is also called Luanda 1. kind of confusing  :)

Yep (Elder Rainbolt) flew home on Wednesday. Apparently his sister lives right by Navoo and is now sitting with the missionaries and so he is excited to go back and help her out!

Nando and Sisi they are a couple that we are teaching that are married. they live pretty far a way and so it is hard to sit with them, but they are progressing pretty well. they have a baptismal date for the 1 of june but we probably will move it back two weeks.

Lourenco and Veronica they are an awesome couple, but they are not married so they are working on that!

Garcia also awesome guy that has a strong testimony. One time we went over to teach him and he said that he knew the church was true 5-7 times just within our visit! But he is also not married, but we are planning on going to the "conservatorio" I do not know what that is in English but it is a place where you deal with all the government stuff. Anyways we are going with him their on Thursday to start the process of marriage!

Jesse: Since we lost two missionaries and did not recieve any we had to close down an area inside of our branch "Elder Cliffords area" and basically Elder Wilson and I took it over! Our area was huge before and now it just about doubled it size!! But anyways we inherited Jesse from their area! He is super prepared is 20 or 21 years old! He is just solid!! He has a baptismal date for the 13 of July. It would be sooner but he does not feel ready yet! But I think we will talk with him about it and probably move his date up!

We also will hopefully start teaching two new families this week I am not sure the wives names but the one husbands name is Valter and the other one is Paulo!

we are also teaching a lady named Vina, but she had not come to church for about three weeks straight so we might end up dropping her.

Oh also this week a lady I taught in Cassequel was baptized! Her name is Zinobia! Her husband was baptized in Canada when he went there to study and so we started teaching her, but she was never baptized. then I got transfered to Viana and then her and her husband moved to Viana, but in Elder Richters area and they started teaching her  but was never baptized and then I got transferred to terra nova. So I showed up to the baptisms this week because our zone was in charge of it and I saw her in white! I saw her and she saw me and her eyes as well as mine got really big! Both of us surprised to see each other there! ~

After her baptism she bore her testimony and she said how one time when she was in cassequele the missionaries were passing by her house, but apparently she did not really want them to be their. She would always accept them but yeah... So one time she told them to pass at 7 but she was actually working at that time and so they called and she said she was on her way, but she was still working and she stayed at work for about an hour or so trying to "escape" the missionaries but she said when she got home the missionaries were still out side of her door waiting for her! Anyways it seemed like that had a little bit of an effect of her and as I was listening to the story I remembered that the missionaries were Elder Hansen and I. But   I think it was very interesting because I remember when that happened and the only reason why we stayed that long at her house waiting for her was because we had a member with us. If it was just Elder Hansen and I, we probably would have left, but we didn’t because of the member was with us! It was really cool just to be a part of that experience as well to see how the Lord will guide us and allow little things like that (having a member with us) to happen to help save his children, because he loves us!

Pizza party because Elder Mariquele was leaving!! :)

Hey Bec so happy Birthday on Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope that you have a great 17th birthday part!! Don’t do anything stupid!! haha just kidding I know you wont !:) …

Continue to do your very best and when you think you can go no farther find the strength and energy physcially and spiritually inside of you that you did not know you had to continue to go farther. And the way we find that physical and spiritual strength is through Jesus Christ through Him and only Him can we find the strength and REAL peace to continue on!

Love you Bec!! Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sparkley Buns Power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Jayce Tilley

May 13, 2013

May 13, 2013

Elder mariquele really wanted to learn from sister (Thompson) how to make bread so we went last week and made bread (a couple really simple recipes) 

So I am trying to send pictures but the computer is not reading my card, I will keep trying though. So Elder Mariquele is getting transferred to Benfica and is going to be the Assistant with Elder Whilhelm and then Elder Wilson is going to be my new companion... just so you know 

2.) Yeah I guess it is kind of like checks and balances sort of. I was Elder Cliffords Zone Leader but he was my district leader.

3.) Rice and beans, hamburgers, spaghetti, bread, soup and that kind of stuff.

4.) yeah i am taking them (vitamins)

5.) Yeah (Mariquele) he speaks English pretty well, but we pretty much only speak Portuguese.

6.) The family night we had fell through so we ended up just knocking doors and doing some contacts.

 

Picture of us looking cool in our matching uniforms! (It is a telephone company a member got them for us) :)

Mom,

So I am sitting here trying to figure out what to write, nothing is coming to mind.

The past week has been a little bit stressful just because we have had alot of meetings lately because there has been a few issues going on and the zone leaders have been the middle man between us and Mozambique. But it has been good, if nothing else I feel like it is teaching me some good business skills!

I had a great time talking with you, afterwards I realized that we did not really talk about anything, but I really just enjoyed seeing you guys and being with you! I hope that your meetings went well on Sunday!? We also went to a museum this morning with all of the missionaries so that was fun. It was a museum of Angola animals! That was pretty cool!

I am really excited to start working with Elder Wilson we were in the MTC together, so that will be fun!

(Bec)

Thanks for the emails!

The house I am in is really nice, it probably is about as nice as the apartment I lived in in Virginia. Haha dont worry ill hook you up!...

oh what the heck does guchi mean?

I hope you have a wonderful, spirit filled week! :)

Love you tons!!

Sparkly buns power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Tilley

Braden! that is so cool that you are taking  Portuguese! It is actually pretty similar to Spanish. The rules are all pretty much the same, there are even a lot of words that are the same or similar.

Love you so much man!

Elder Tilley 

Entao eu estava a pensar que eu devo enviar uma mensagem para voce em Portugues, porque ja falas portugues! estou a brincar contigo! Espero que fales antes eu voltar para que possamos falar! :)

Te amo! 

(Google Translation: So I was thinking that I should send a message to you in Portuguese, because you already speak Portuguese! I'm playing with you! I hope you speak before I get back so we can talk! :)

Love you! 

(Sorry I did not use any accents or anything!)

Elder Tilley)

 (Rachel) Thanks for the quick note! I love you so much as well! Sorry that you had to get up so early to talk when you were sick! I hope that you are doing better now!

Love you tons!!

Elder Tilley

Love you so much Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope that you have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you

Elder Tilley

 

Elder Tilley making bread at the Thompson's. We got this off her blog!

Pictures from the Thompson's blog: Missionaries on P-day; we think Elder TIlley is on the far left!

President and Sister Thompson

President Thompson is a counselor to President Kretly and has been over-seeing the Angola Region. Angola will become it's own mission in July and get their own Mission President (Danny L. Merrill), so the Thompson's will go home at the end of May. Elder Tilley LOVES them both so much and will miss them greatly! We call Sister Thompson his "other mother"...she is AWESOME!!!

Mother's Day - May 12, 2013 5:00am

May 6, 2013

Is the cell phone thing a parent or child problem???? :))))

In response to the Picture: The funnier thing is that you probably took that picture with your phone :)

So I am trying to figure out Mother's Day and I think that we can do it at 1 pm my time so I think that is 5am your time? The only other option would be to do it on Saturday or Monday, but Sunday at 1 pm my time will be good for me. FaceTime would be better and I will call you but just have your phone and email on so if I need to contact you I can, but you do not need to get up much earlier then 5 because we have church that goes until 12 my time and then afterwards we have to travel to presidents house which will take (depending on traffic) 30 minutes to an hour. Which iPad should I call and what is the address? Missionary hand book says 30 to 40 minutes.

When you said " 'we are all all here'  here comes the tears" were you talking about your tears or did you happen to just predico mine?

So I already got the three packages!! That was really quick! And a good thing too because the Thompson decided to move their day that they are going home to the 22 of may only about three more weeks. I am actually doing email at their house right so I will give them the package here soon! We came over to their house to make bread and play phase 10 one more time before they left!:).

Ok…(I’ll keep a list of things to talk about)

So Elder Clifford is a district leader in our zone (actually my district leader) so I went on a division with him and Elder Montgomery is not companions with him but he lives in the same house  so that is why he was there. Haha we didn't talk about anything really special just "deep doctrine" stuff for a while and talk a little bit about the temple and how we miss going to the temple and how much more meaning the temple has now that we have been on our missions for a while.

(All Elder Tilley’s friends (that are girls) are turning in their mission papers; his response?): Hmm looks like I will just have to marry a return missionary…

I know them both. I have been able to talk with Elder Tingey a few times. I have not been able to talk with Elder Garn very much but I have met him a couple of times. Looking at Elder Way's photo here in the mission home:)

(Dad) Thank you for your testimony! I love you so much!!!!! 

Elder Tilley 

(Braden) Thanks for the update! Sounds like things are going pretty well. Thank you for our example to me! I look up to you so much! Love you man!:) Thanks for the time you spent with me right after your mission! I tell my companions how we became the best of friends during those three months right before I left! I was thinking about it the other day and I remember thinking right before I left on my mission wow Braden is so cool he now is really starting college and work and dating and stuff. Then I thought to my self the other day wow Braden is soo cool he has a wife and a kid on the way! That is solo nuts! Anyways thanks for everything that you do for me love you! Elder Tilley 

(Bec) Wow that sounds pretty crazy! Keep working hard and doing your best but remember to take care of your body as well. Sometimes missionaries here they get sick and instead of staying inside for a day and resting like sister Thompson told them to they get up and say no I am going to work anyways so they do waste a day (the initial thought is wow those are dedicated missionaries) but honestly in my personal opinion those are sometimes the stupid missionaries because  they decide to go out and work and then they get more sick and then have to stay in bed for three days and waste three days instead of just one. Anyways I am not saying every time you get bumped or hit hard that you should take a break! Definitely not !! just saying be careful with your body when serious things like concussions happen because sometimes we can not see the consequences  and sometimes we think "I can play just one or two more games and it will be alright "and it probably will put us out of the game longer in the future (maybe a week or a month or a year or the rest of our lives who knows). Anyways keep working hard and being smart! Finals are coming up pretty soon aren't they?? Study hard! Study more then you think you need to and The Lord will help and bless you if you ask for His help! Love you so much!! I hope you are doing well and putting your trust in The Lord! With The Lord all things are possible! Love you  Sparkely buns power!

So I have been studying the tree of life and have found some really cool things but I will have to tell you about it when we talk on Sunday!!!

I love you so much mom you are the greatest!!!!!!!!!

Love your son 

Elder Tilley