June 17, 2103

This is me and Elder Wilson (new companions) after playing soccer.

Grandma!

Hey I just wanted to write you quick email!! thank you for the great example that you are to me and the great lady that you are!

I was thinking about all that you have gone through and I have realized how strong of a person you are!! Thank you for your strength and your support! You are one of the greatest examples to me and unfortunately I may not have realized that before my mission and I wished I would have gone to your home more and had more one on one time with Grandma!!

I guess we will just have to do that when I get back!! Thank you so much Grandma for your example and your love!! I love you so very much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Tilley

1. I wrote dad, but I will have to write grandpa next week I think. So he said that their is a high chance that he will not come to Africa and be baptized. The thought that came to my mind was "so your saying there is a chance!!!" :) I think probably only Joe and Josh will get that movie quote :)

2. (My companion) is elder Wilson and we were in the MTC together for three weeks before he came here to Angola. So he will go home one transfer before I do. He is a really good missionary! He is from Wyoming and grew up on a farm his entire life, but you would not guess that he grew up on a farm! We are doing pretty well and the work is moving forward!

3. We have two senior couples as well as the Assitents. We are still in contact with President Kretlly and Mozambique so it is not too bad. Things are going pretty well.

We are really excited for President and Sister Merrill to get here. This week I went on a division with Elder Wilhelm and we had a good conversation about our mission vision and what things we can talk about with President merrill to help resolve some of the issues that the mission has.

Hey bec, go tear it up at basketball camp!!! But above all keep your standards!!!!! You will not regret it, but if you do not keep them you will regret it!!

Don’t forget about personal prayers and scripture study!! You are going to share with me next week about the atonement right!?

Love you

Tear them to pieces

Love Elder Tilley

Sparkly Buns Power!!

This is a letter I sent Sister Heilman...in case she doesn't get it.

June 10, 2013

We ate caterpillars this week:) 

I will try and send more (pictures) next week!

Yep it will be a great experience for them!! (Missionaries as Branch Presidency in the new Huambo Branch)

So we went over with President Kretly on Thursday night and he challenged Elizabeth to pray to see if she should be baptized. And he challenged her for the follow Tuesday right before he left back to Mozambique. So at first I was fine with the situation, but I was a little bit nervous because she has not been taught all the lessons and she had only been to church once and she was still a leader in her church. So I was not really liking the situation and as I prayed I told Heavenly Father that I was not liking the situation, but if President Kretly was really inspired to invite her to be baptized on that date I would follow! Then on Saturday night I got a call from the Elders who were teaching them and they said that Elizabeth and Inacio called them (the missionaries) and came to the conclusion that it was too fast and that Elizabeth was not going to be baptized on Tuesday. The Missionaries said when they heard that they went over to their house to talk about it with them, but apparently it turned out to be a through down lesson and apparently they called Elizabeth to repent and be baptized and from their was kind of a scuffle of words... I do not know all the details but when I heard what happened I did not like the situation even more because I felt like Elizabeth was just under all this pressure and if she ended up accepting to be baptized I felt like it would be because of pressure not because not because she was converted! I was planning on talking to President Kretly about it, but then on Sunday the missionaries called me and said that Elizabeth was going to be baptized on Tuesday. She said after the missionaries left she prayed and she felt like she knew what she needed to do. I was still nervous about the situation, but we went along with it. I told the missionaries to make sure she was converted and make sure she was not doing this just because of pressure! Also I talked with the Elder who was going to give her the interview and he said he was a little bit nervous about the situation as well and I told him the same things to make sure she was converted and not just because of pressure. After the interview I talked with him though and he said that it was a really good interview and he felt like she had a change of heart. So that night Elizabeth and their three kids including the 21 year old who was here in Angola for the summer break of school (he was studying in Houston Texas) were baptized.That night I felt bad and I went to my knees to ask forgiveness for not necessarily believing that this baptism should or could happen! But as I started kneeling I had the thought came into my mind that said "Do not feel sorry or bad that you wanted to make sure that someone was prepared for baptism". So they were all baptized and then confirmed yesterday and Elder Chatwin sent me a text last night and he said that they are doing great! So that is good!!

So that was the experience. We learned a lot of things (From President Kretly). One thing he hit hard on was that we need to be finding teaching and baptizing all at the same time. Not just at first finding and then teaching the people and then baptizing them and then starting the process over. We need to be doing all three all of the time! I hope you have a great week mom!!!! So Grandpa still has not written me back! Should I write him and just tell him some experiences I am having or should I wait for him to respond? I love you!!

June 3, 2013

Elder Tilley, Elder Clifford (from Mesa, AZ), Jesse and Denilson 

Hey Mom sorry I wrote you a letter, but then the internet went out, so then I saved the letter, but now it is not here. Jesse was baptized. He was not going to get baptized because he had a test on Saturday during the baptism but Friday afternoon he texted me and said that his test got moved so he was able to get baptized on that date! So we ran around on Friday trying to get everything ready for the baptism!

Lourenco and veronica are doing really well they marked a date to be baptized on the 28th of June which is a Miracle in it self, but a lot of things could go wrong! So please keep them in your prayers!

We learned a lot of things but on Sunday night we had a fireside about the 7 habits of a highly effective person! Which was really good! I feel like if Braden was there he would have been going nuts!:)

Haha I am just kind of like whatever and laughing that you were worried about it! :) that boat sailed a way along time ago and fortunately too!!! :) You can tell me any girls that get married its more just kind of fun to know! 

So this week we passed by Inacio and Elizabeth's house with President Kretly and President Kretly invited Elizabteth to pray to see if she should be baptized this Tuesday! (Tomorrow)  this was a three or 4 days ago. She said she would pray about it... long story short a lot of weird drama stuff went down and she is going to be baptized tomorrow at 8. I am really nervous that she is just going to be baptized because of all the pressure and not because she is converted. I am really nervous about the hole situation, So please pray for me and President Krelty and Inacio and Elizabeth!

Love You Elder Tilley

Nope I think I am good love you so much!

Did Bec tell you that we are studying the scriptures together …? if you want to join in.

Love you mom

Logging off!!!!

Com Amor

Elder Tilley

(Preston) Love you Bro!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry I could not write more!!!

Bec! 

Haha I did not do very well either this week. But I have been studying about the Atonement the past while. One thing that I have learned from the District President (Stake President) is that God can’t do EVERYTHING/ANYTHING and just do what he wants. For example God cannot sin and things like that. Also if it were not for the Atonement God would not be able to save his children, Us! God is a perfectly just God and so if it were not for the Atonement God could not just save us... pretty interesting! Also I have learned little bit about the Laws of Justice and Mercy! God has to be perfectly Just and Perfectly Merciful, but it is impossible to be both without a mediator!  That is where Jesus Christ comes into play! He fulfills the law of Justice so that God can be merciful to us! But that still does not mean that we can do what ever we want and God will save us! God set up rules and guidelines (the commandments) for us to follow and if we follow ALL of them not just most or some of  them we will receive Exaltation if we do not then unfortunately we loose out! Obviously we all make mistakes and so that is why we have repentance so that we can be cleansed from our sins! Maybe this week we can both do better at studying more about the Atonement and find more scriptures to share with one another? Love you Becs!

I hope that you are doing well!

Keep being a great Girl!!!

Love you !!

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!!!!