February 24, 1014 (24 days to go!)

My email wouldn’t let me send pics so I had to have Elder Tingey send them to me...

1.)  Yes I would still love to go (to Conference)!

2.) Yeah that is probably the main reason i would like to go. (The Families …but more the missionaries, but i would love to meet them as well)

3.)  I am not sure everyone that is living their, but I know Elder Richter is at BYU I would Love to see him and Elder McCallister is there too in Salt Lake. Also Elder Fontain´s Family and Elder Hyde´s family lives in Salt Lake, so maybe we could arrange something with them. I don’t know if Dallon will be in Provo or at home, but if he is there I would like to see him as well!

4.) Maybe (Pres Thompson would come if it was all planned)... I know President Thompson is working again and so I am not sure... here is his email if you want to email him. jerry.thompson@ldschurch.org  This is the one I have for him and he has responded to it... so it should still work.

5.) "Lets Go Bec!! You got this! Focus! If you are nervous then use that nervousness to get energy during the game and then go shove it down the other teams throat! Don´t let the game play you, but GO AND PLAY THE GAME! You got this! CONFIDENCE!!!

(Bec)

Just know that I will be praying for you! You know that I am your number one Fan! I want to be at those games so bad!!  I continue to Pray that the Lord will bless you and allow you to play even better then if I was there since I have made the sacrifice to stay here even when i could have gone home! I love you!!! Just imagine me screaming in the stands! "Lets Go BEC! Take the Charge!!! Get up GO HARDER… LETS GOOOO!!!"!

(Mom) sorry I wasn’t able to write more the picture took awhile.

February 17, 2014 (2 years 5 days)

(Bec)

Nice Job!!! Keep up the great work. Give it your all every single game!! Teams really give it their all in the Tournament so don’t let a team that isn’t very good catch you guys off guard! I hope you liked the pump up video I sent! :) Go out their Play your very HARDEST leave it all on the Court! EVERY SINGLE GAME!! 

Love you BEC I will be praying for you!!!!!

Elder Tilley

The Talk! Watch this one first

Watch this one second if this doesn’t get Becca pumped up I don’t know what will!

Yep I could watch it! That was sick!!! (Some of Bec’s sweet bball clips)

Yes I could watch this one too!

(Dad) Wow! that is nice that all the other good teams are in the other bracket! Sounds like it will be fun.

I am excited to learn more about the system and get more involved here soon :)

Love you Pops!!

Elder Tilley

Yeah I still would like to go! (General Conference) That sounds good! Is there any way could go to Provo as well?

Fam

This week has been little bit devastating. Eugenio did not come to church and we were not able to sit with him this past week. He has not said this, but it seems like he may not really want to sit with us any more. I don’t know why or what happened. Everything was going really well, but then all of the sudden we cant sit with him and it is hard to get a hold of him. I am nervous that maybe he got some anti Mormon literature or something like that, but I have no idea! I felt like he was more then just your normal investigator, I felt like he was more of my friend and now I feel like I may be loosing one of my friends. I continue to pray for him and that his heart will be touched and that we will be able to sit with him again and talk about what is going on in his life.

On the good side. We have a couple other investigators progressing. Chilembo is progressing; he came to church yesterday, which was good. Also we have this other lady named Tania who is doing well and has a baptismal date for the 8th of March, but we may need to push it back a week or two. Also we have another boy named Domingos who is Adolfo and Samuel´s cousin that has been coming to church and he has a baptismal date for the 15th of march, hopefully he will be able to make that date, but we will see!

Elder Fontaine is a great companion! He is a lot of fun and I really enjoy talking with him! He really cares about other people and he is always trying to help other people even when it is really inconvenient for us, he is teaching me a lot how to be a good person!

Well I hope that everything goes well this week for you guys!!! 

Love you!!!!

Elder Tilley

February 10, 2014

1.) That would be way cool!! (If I could see London with S. Catron on 7 ½ hour layover). I am not sure if it is aloud. Could you ask permission for me? :) I might be a little bit nervous to ask :) And it might be better coming from you since you know all the details and things like that. That would be a lot of fun though. I would love to do that. 

Could you send me my flight plans... I don’t know what they are or at least just write them in your next email?

I AM NOT SURE IF I GET HOME LATE AT NIGHT OR NOT BUT SOMEHTING THAT I HAVE WANTED TO DO SINCE ALONG TIME IS GO THROUGH THE TEMPLE ONE MORE TIME WITH MY FAMILY BEFORE I AM RELEASED AS A MISSIONAY. IF I GET HOME LATE AT NIGHT THEN I WAS THINKING WE COULD WAKE UP EARLY THE NEXT MORNING AND DO BAPTISMS AND CONFIRMATIONS WITH BEC AND PRES AND THEN THE REST OF THE FAMILY WE COULD DO SOME INITIATORY AND SEALINGS AND THEN DO AN ENDOWMENT SESSION! THAT IS WHAT I REALLY WANT TO DO AND THEN AFTERWARDS I COULD GO GET RELEASED. I don’t know if that is possible or not, but if it is I would love to do that!

2.) I started to do handstand pushups and curls, but I have not been as diligent with those as I was with pushups. I will probably start doing pushups again here in a couple weeks

3.) The baptisms went well. I am trying to send pics but it is not working.

4.) Just write one from all of us

5.) If Braden thinks I should toss it and there is nothing that will really help me then probably just toss it! Just make sure it is just MHS papers though and not something else that I might want or that is important... journals or special notes to myself or things like that... I want to keep those.

6.) I am not sure if they will come, but I would love to go even if they do not come.

7.) None (FS experiences) are coming to my mind right now. Eugenio is still doing good, he is sooooo prepared probably the most prepared person that I have taught on my mission!

Fam,

So this week we had two baptisms, which was great! One man named Jacob who I was able to baptize and a girl named Eli who just turned 8!

I had a frustrating experience. So the baptismal service started at 3.00 PM and we were running late and we should up at 2.50ish and the only person that was there was Jacob, also I had yet to fill out some paper work. So I was rushing round trying to get things down. After a while people finally started to show up and Eli and her family showed up, but her dad who was baptizing her was not with them. I ended up calling him and he was at an "Obito" which is basically a party when someone dies, but it is not a funeral. It is kind of a joke in our mission because one of the number one excuses that people give us missionaries for not sitting with us is that they have an "Obito" He was already 20 minutes late to his daughters baptism and he was baptizing her and he told me that he would get to the baptism within 30 minutes! When he told me that I got kind of fired up and told him that he needs to leave and get here right now! He ended up showing up 30 minutes later and fortunately we all had enough patience to wait for him. Before he got dressed I apologized to him and then I felt like I should pray before I baptized someone and presided and directed a baptismal meeting so that the spirit could be there. I ended up going into my office and prayed. I prayed that the Lord would forgive me of my sins and that he would allow this frustration to leave/ help me to be calm (or something along those lines) so that I could feel the spirit so that the others especially those that were being baptized could feel the Spirit! While I was praying I felt really good and I felt the frustration leave me and the meeting went really well and I felt the spirit and us missionaries sang I like to look for rainbows which I have always wanted to do at a baptismal service and I felt like that really invited the spirit!

Love you Family!

I hope you have a great week!

(Dad)

That is awesome that you are sending a video to Shark Tank! Do you think you have any kind of real shot! That would be way cool! I am down to be your assistant coach! That is one thing I have decided that I really want to do is coach a travel team one day... So I am in (as long as it comes with a Ferrari of course:) JK

It is funny that you mention how time goes by so fast. I think it was just today or maybe yesterday that I remembered being in the parking lot while you and Mom were in the Restaurant right before I went into the MTC and I remembered the feelings I had before I entered the MTC and now it is about to all come to an end! really crazy!

Love you Pops!!

Keep up the great work!! 

Elder Tilley

Bec

That is sick!!! (1^st double double 13 assists, 12 points)

Good Luck this week!! (Sectional/Regional Tournament)

I will be praying for you!! 

Have a great week!!

Elder Tilley will be home March 20, 2014

Flight changed since these emails. Elder Tilley will leave Luanda March 19 and arrive in Phoenix March 20. 

February 4, 2014

I thought I would go ahead and send this (itinerary) so you would be aware of the luggage charges, if any.  Also I want you to know that we think Elder Tilley is a wonderful young man.  He has an infectious personality and a caring way about him.  You done good Mom and Dad!!!!! 

January 31, 2014

Brother and Sister Tilley;

I have submitted the travel plans for Elder Tilley.  He will be leaving Luanda on March 17 and arrive at the Phoenix airport. 

Sometime within the week I will receive confirmation of these flight plans and will forward them to you.  You may also receive a copy of this itinerary from the Missionary Travel Department.  Please review this itinerary and let me know immediately if you need to make any other changes.  We have a 24 hour period to make changes without additional charge. 

Each returning missionary is allowed 2 bags weighing 50lbs each, one carry on and one personal item.  If the missionary takes additional luggage or if his bags are overweight, it is the missionary's responsibility to pay out of their own funds.  Elder Tilley has been made aware of this policy and will plan accordingly. 

I hope you know how much we love your son and what an asset it has been to have him here.  Our lives will forever be enriched because of this very special young man.  This will be a difficult day for us to say good by to such a great Elder.

Thank you for sharing your son with the Lord and for the sacrifices you have made to have him here.

Sister Merrill

Angola Luanda Mission

"...I will go before you and be your rearward; and I will be in your midst..."  D&C 49:27

February 2, 2014

1. Elder Fontaine and myself. He is really tall :) he says he is 6 foot 4

2. The Thompsons said they are not sure if they are going to go (to general conference) or not. They want to, but don’t know if they are going to be able to.

3. (We are) getting in shape, not having a competition (with pushups), all of us our district were doing it. Elder Whitaker and I have stopped for a little bit. Elder Tingey is still going, I will probably start pack up in a couple weeks again.

4.  It is just the way of presentation. A lot of times people do not understand that if our church is the true church then that means that other churches are false. Sometimes people think that since they are already baptized they don’t need to be baptized again. So sometimes you have to be really direct with people and tell them how it is so that they understand.  When Heavenly Father and Christ appeared to Joseph Smith, Christ told him that all other churches were false. Also when I said that we would tell him that his church was false, I did not mean to actually say that word for word, I just meant tell him that This is Christ´s church reestablished here on the earth... the only church that has the authority to baptized and perform ordinances. And by saying that what am I actually saying... I am actually saying that all other churches are false. So that is what I meant.

5.) As of right now yes (Eugenio is still getting baptized March 8). He came to church again this past week so that was great!

6.) Yep we actually have Jacob who will be baptized on Saturday. We were not sure if we should baptize him because he can only come to church every other week because of work. We were fasting and praying that he could change work, but then I talked to President Merrill and he counseled us to baptize him if he is coming to church every week that he can. So we had his baptismal date for the 15th and confirmation on the 16th but he had to work those days so we moved it up to the 8th and 9th of February. Also one of guilherme and florença´s daughters turns 8 today and so she will be baptized by her dad on Saturday as well.

7.) Unfortuanly the two people we were hoping for (possible Branch President’s) will not be able to. We were hoping that one or both of them would be moving here to Huambo this month or next month, but now neither of them will. Really sad...

8.) Dont worry about me (don’t send anything). Honestly I might not even get the package before I get home.

9.) Nope not yet (Grandma’s package)

This week we had several Miracles. One we had was with Eugenio. We got to his house he opened up the Book of Mormon and he had read all of 1 Nephi! He also marked several scriptures and we went through almost all of the scriptures he had marked and he explained to us why he liked those verses and sometimes even explained them to us! That was really cool. Then we had a lesson with a lady named Tania and we taught her and she is a very emotional lady and she had tears a few times and if I remember correctly she told us that she felt like God was kind of giving her another chance. Although my favorite of the week was we had a lesson with a guy named Chilembo and we taught the Plan of Salvation the second part of it "life after death" at one point we talked about how we can live with our families forever after this like and then he asked if he would be able to see his mother again (she apparently passed away) and then told him that he could and when I said that I saw a tear roll down his cheek! I also explained to him about Grandma Tilley and how I feel like I have a connection with her and that I know her really really well even though I have not met her on this earth and I told him that I knew I could live with my Grandma again! The Spirit in the lesson was very strong!!!

Love you guys!!

Elder Tilley