May 7, 2012

So this week has been pretty good! We are doing a lot more finding right now especially around the chapel. We have several investigators right now and some of them are in a lot of complicated situations, so we are trying to resolve those things right now. The work is really growing here and it is really cool to see.

Mission Blog:  Birthday time singing and sharing included Elders ...Tilley, Rainbolt, ...had their anniversaries  (or their companions) sometime over the past few months or in the month to come.

So we have been living without energy for a while now so it has been difficult to keep clean and eat healthy because we cannot really store anything. We did have a little miracle where during Companion study my companion just thought we should try turning on the generator so we did and it worked for about 30 minutes. So we did as many dishes as we could and did a load of laundry and stored up as much water as we possibly could. Also President came by our house the other day with another man from South Africa who is in charge of finding land and housing for missionaries and for chapels and things like that. He came and looked at our house and he was like this is unacceptable. Meaning who ever put us in this house did not know what he was doing. Than he said "man you guys will get blessed for living here" Also President did not know that we did not have energy and he said man if I would have know that we could have stayed at our house. So we actually spent the night last night at Presidents house! It was a really cool experience because I was think right as I was about to go to bed that my family is probably fasting for me right then or were about to break their fast and for the first time here I was sleeping in a comfortable bed with Air conditioning. So just so you know Mom your little boy was sleeping well while you were fasting for me:)

I am not sure when we will be able to find a new house though. President and Sister Walton went to look at two this week but they were not going to work out, so I am not sure when we will be able to move. Last night Sister Walton said we are going to find you a house this week, right President Walton? And he kind of shrugged it off like they would definitely try, but it is not going to happen within a week. So we will see how it goes. It is pretty cool though because I can now say that I can live for a extended period of time with out energy. Definitely pretty good life skill. Also I am getting really good at going to the bathroom in the dark! Well at least I think I am... I guess I do not really know:) (Hey mom maybe you should not put that one on the blog:)) (We left it and decided he would never knowJ).

Ok so if we can Skype at 9:30 PM (My time) on Sunday that would work out perfectly. I am not allowed to get on my email to see if that is ok so that is what we are going to have to do. So that is when I will be on. Sunday 9:30 PM my time.

I love you all and hope you have a great week. The Lord has definitely been blessing me and helping me!! Thank you so much for your Love support and Prayers!!!! Elder Tilley

Love you all signing off!!!

Talk with you on Sunday!!!!!!

(Note from Mom)

President Walton ended up picking up Elder Tilley and his companion and bringing them to his home to shower and “face time” us. It was so fun to see him. I asked if he had mosquito bites on his face (red dots we could see), but he said it was from shaving (they hadn’t showered/shaved for a week) J. He said they found a milk carton and cut off the top and found water dripping out of a pipe off the top of a building and that’s how they had been collecting water. He said they buy milk and cereal every morning at a cantina outside their front door for breakfast, but the milk won’t keep without “energy” (that’s what everyone says when there is no power). For lunch the eat rice and beans and if they want dinner they have rice and beans again, but he said they are tired and it’s too much trouble to fix dinner. Once they went to a member’s home for dinner and he was served a whole boiled fish…still wholeJ. On Mother’s Day he had been in Africa for 3 weeks and lost 10lbs. Even through all this, he was happy and sounded just like his self. We can’t wait for our CHRISTMAS call! J