August 26, 2013

Whatever you want to send would be fine... maybe just surprise me with something u haven’t sent yet smile face... the smile face is not working on my keyboard right now.

Could you watch the video

No I didnt find (Lorenco) it was Elder Wilhelm and Elder Kearney. They were passing by a Lady who was their next door neighbor and they were passing by this ladies house to do some service for her I think and then I think Lourenco called to them or they knocked on the door I am not exactly sure, but that happened about a year ago.

So Garciaºs wife Fina was a member of the Jehovah Witness church, when I was with Elder Mariquele we pushed her pretty boldly and she started to not like us coming by so it seemed. When we would teach the family she would sit with us, but she would always turn side ways and not look at us when we would teach. So I decided to pull off of her for a while. And we basically just taught the rest of the family, but she was always in the lessons and so every once and I while I would just ask her to read a scripture or something like that and when we would talk about Church she would always would say my church meaning the JW church, but for two transfers I just tried to plant seeds. And after time she started to like us and enjoyed when we would come around. Now she has been to church the past three weeks!!! That is a Miracle. I talked to Garcia once and he said that one time they were praying as a family and at the end of the prayer Fina said I think this church might be true! So that was a big turn around for her!

We are teaching another guy named Wilson he is only 19 years old but he is Denilsonºs cousin. We have been teaching him for a while and he says that he is starting to believe these things are true and he says that he thinks he has received an answer from God, but he is not sure, but this past Saturday he invited two of his friends to sit with us and so we talked a little bit about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon with them and we asked if they had any questions and so they asked some questions. Then Wilson our investigator said I have a question for you two, he was directing the question at his two friends, and he said  Are you guys willing to learn the true gospel!!!  I looked at him in awe, not quite sure if I really just heard what he said, but that is what he said he sounded just like a missionary it was incredible.

That picture where you asked who baptized Isa and Joyce. The bigger

guys name is Martial (Marcial) he is from cape verde and he actually

works with Garcia at Garcias restaurant that he has.

The smaller guys name is Nuno. He is the Branch Mission Leader and he

is way cool. He just went and got sealed to his wife a few months ago.

He is really helping our branch out alot!! He baptized Isa.

Haha what Braden said I thought was pretty funny. I chuckled out loud.

That is funny he said that because I was going to write something very

similar to them, and saying that that is how I did it too. :)

Preston-Those clubs are sick!!!

I hope that you are doing well! Any cool stories that you have for me!

Love you tons!!

Elder Tilley

Hey bec what is up? How are things going with basketball and

everything? I hope that things are going well for you with school and

bball and everything! I got any cool stories for me?

Watch the video sent to Mom I burn my companion pretty bad! (if you

look closely I actually travel though) :)

Love you Sis

Sparkely Buns Power!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you!!!!! 

Elder Tilley

Braden,

Congratulations Man! That is so cool that you got to bless your daughter! I

Love you guys!

Elder Tilley

August 19, 2013

We ended up dropping Nando. He knows these things are true but he hasnt come to church in a long time now. Lourenço and Verónica were baptized last week. I baptized Lourenço and two kids and Elder Wilhelm baptized Verónica. Those were the pics sister Merrill sent you . It was their baptism. (Garcia) has everything ready to go for his marriage, but his wife has to travel to the provinces to get a document so the process might take a little bit longer then we are hoping. Unfortunate we had to drop (Sergio), he stopped coming to church. After we got put together President Merrill called Elder Hansen and Elder Hansen said that this was our second time together and President said something like I must have overlooked that because I didnt see that. (President Thompson liked to keep people in areas for a long time, but President Merrill seems likes to have the max be 4 transfers so I am pretty sure I will get transferred this next transfer.

Joyce is the Girl on the left and Isa is the girl on the right. They are Garcia's daughters I(well Isa is his daughter, but joyce is his niece but he takes care of her)

(Letter I sent to President and Sister Thompson)

President Thompson,

I am glad that you and Sister are doing well! So I do not know if you remember or not, but Elder Hansen and I were companions in Cassequel and then transfers came and you decided to split us up and have us both train. I had an interview with you and you said you that Elder Hansen and I had been working well together, but you felt like we both needed to be training. Then you said "maybe in the future I will need two zone leaders and I will put you back together" or something along those lines. Well I do not know if you heard, but Elder Hansen is my new companion as Zone Leader :) Also it was interresting because Elder Hansen was in Lubango and he took the bus up to Luanda and when he got here to the area President Merrill called him to see how the trip was and during the conversation Elder Hansen mentioned how this was going to be our second time together as companions and then President Merrill said something like "Well I must not have been thinking and looked over that one!" I thought that was kind of funny and interesting, but it looks like you were both inspired and we are really suppose to be together again for the second time! :) Anyways I just wanted to share that with you!

Sister Thompson!

How are you doing!? I just wanted to write you a quick note and tell you how much I love you! I miss you a whole lot! (Playing games, making bread... ect!:) Thank you for being such a great Mission Mom to me!!

I love you both tons!!!

Love,

Elder Tilley

1.)Yes (Domingas)is Diosta's, the girl who got baptized, Mom. No she is not a member yet. She also has to get married or separate from her boyfriend\husband.

2.) forgot to try my debit card.

3.) Haha yeah :) When the Violins finished their mission the Missionaries moved into the house that they were using, which was a really nice house! (Lubango)

4.) So we went to Lourenço and verónica's house last Monday and Verónica was not able to sit with us, but we sat with Lourenço and we talked a little bit about the baptism as well as the Priesthood and then afterwards Lourenço said he wanted to say something. He then started to tell his conversion story and how he found the missionaries and how his house is deep in a neighborhood and is very inconvenient to get to but some how the missionaries were there. He then explains more about his conversion and how it changed his life and then he said "you guys (the missionaries) have been my good Samaritan!" As he was explaining these things I started to tear up a little bit and I thought to myself I bet he thinks I am crazy for tearing up, but then I saw Elder Hansen out of the corner of my eye who had only met this family maybe twice and I saw him wipe a tear from his eye has well. A little bit later in the conversation Lourenço started to get a little bit teary eyed as well. The Spirit was so strong and I have never had a greater compliment given to me in my entire life. I have never received a greater compliment then when Lourenço from the deepest part of his heart said " you guys are my good Samaritan" When he finished we were speechless. We did not know what to say, we ended up thanking him for his kind words, but there were no words to describe what we felt. It was so marvelous!!! There is no greater thing that anyone can do on this Earth then help other people be happy! No greater thing!!

That was my FS experience this week Mom:)

Love you Tons!!

Elder Tilley

Dad-Wow what a big change!!! For labor day, but that sounds like a whole lot of fun!! I hope that all is going well!!

Love you pops!!!

Elder Tilley

Mom-Tell Bec and Pres I love them so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Tilley

August 12, 2013

This is the family that was baptized! Lourenco and Veronica their son Tavares and their Grandaughter Diosta! They ended up choosing me to baptize them so I did. Elder Hansen is taking the pictures. I got to baptize Lourenco, Tavares and Diosta and Elder Wilhem baptized Veronica.

This past week went really well especially with the baptisms of Lourneco, Veronica, Tavares and Diosta. (As you know) they have been working on getting married for along time, but have been waiting on money. They finally got enough money and then they planned there entire trip to the provinces to get married. It was going to be a long drive and so he worked on one of his cars (he is a mechanic) that he has because it was broken to make the trip with. He worked on it for several weeks and finally it was ready to go.  

They told me that they decided to fast the day before they left so that the trip and the marriage would all run smoothly. They started the trip and they had just left Luanda when something broke in the car that made it stop working. I am not sure what broke but he said that when this thing breaks the car is broken and it is really difficult to repair. But he said that they if God wants us to make this trip to get married and he will help us. He said they came back and he got a few parts fixed the car and made the trip to the provinces and back without any more problems. 

He kept telling us that there is no way that the car should be running. He said “ you go talk to a mechanic and he will tell you that this car should not be running” He said that it was a Miracle that the car made the trip there and back without any more problems!!

More baptism photos. 

The Girl is a family member. Her name is Neeka

Neeka again and the next photo is Domingas she is Diosta´s Mom.

We are also having three baptisms this Saturday. thier names are Slow, Isa and Joice!

Yeah I got both packages. …President and Sister (Merrill) are not going to South Africa until next week. She told us she could get us garments, which do you think would be better having you send then or sister Merrill getting them for me???????????????????????

Elder Domingos from Mozambique got here! And Elder Chatwin is training him! in an area that Elder Chatwin does not know. I told Elder Chatwin that he knows how I felt now :)  There are other Elders waiting for their visas still. Apparently they have been approved, but are still in the mail going to the MTC, so we are not sure when they will get there. This was about a week ago and as of what I know the MTC still has not gotten their Visas yet. I don’t know all their names I think Elder Way is one of them as well is Elder Rigby (I think there are 4)

Did sister Heilman just get my letter?? … I sent it a long time ago!

Mom!!! I had several FS experience this past week. Thank you for invite to do that! 

Wednesday Elder Chandler and I had to wait at our house for our new companions because we were not sure when they would get there. Elder Chandler (way different than me), he likes motor cross, big trucks and girls! :) before both of our missions I am pretty sure we would have hated each other:). Since we have lived together we have gotten to know each other pretty well. While we were waiting for our new companions we just sat and talked for probably 2 -3 hours! It was a really good conversation!! We just talked about life!

Two Saturdays ago I felt I should read the talks of President Monson from this past General Conference. In his first talk he said he wanted to go the one of the celebrations for the opening of a new Temple, but he said that is was his Wife’s Birthday and he FELT he should spend the day with her. I read that and then realized that that was the last birthday Sister Monson had on this earth and was her last birthday to spend with her husband. I is a good think President Monson following the Spirit! 

Dad-That is fun that you get to coach again! That sounds like some pretty funny trash talking :) So question. What is the difference between what you are doing and what Infusion soft is doing? That is basically what you are doing right? You have software that you will sell to companies and then the companies use it to work more efficiently. Is that correct or not? If so where did you get this software from? Did you get it from infusionsoft?

I hope it goes well this week getting it up and going!

Love you Pops!!

Elder Tilley

Hey Bec!!

So why did you like those Scriptures!?

I really like Alma 32! It talks about how Faith is like a seed. It does not happen all at once. It comes step by step little by little! Also in the Bible dictionary is says that Faith is a gift from God, but A gift that we have to work for! Also it says that it is a principal of Action and Power! Also Faith has to be centered on Jesus Christ to bring Salvation!

Also I like that it says Miracles do not prduce faith... (I would add) but faith produces Miracles!!

Keep working hard bec!! with Basketball and School and most important the GOSPEL of JESUS CHRIST! The only thing that can bring us REAL happiness!! No fake happiness just REAL happiness!! You know what I mean? Basketball and friends are cool and fun, but in the end it is not real happiness!! Think of when we are dead and looking back on our lives, what things are we going to wish we would have done or maybe what things are we going to wish we wouldnt have done!

Anyways

Love you tons bec!!!

Sparkley Buns Power!!

Love your Favorite older brother that is on a mission!!! 

Elder Tilley

Mom-You asked about how I feel about being “recruited”! :) I have thought about it a lot this past week and I obviously still do not know, I really want to stay at ASU and hopefully become business partners with Dad one day, but I also feel like I should go to BYU so that I can help Becca... You know what I mean! 

But I am almost out of time!!

Love you 

Elder TIlley

This week Elder Hansen and I will be preparing for the Zone Meeting as well that will be happening on Wednesday as well!