April 5, 2013 (pictures from Angola)

Kathy Ryan sent these pictures to us...She is a WONDERFUL Christian woman whose husband works in Angola. She serves in the orphanage in her spare time and thought we would like these pictures!

April 1, 2013

Title of the video: Hey Mom sorry I forgot your birthday!!!!!!!!!!!

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April Fools!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didnt forget!! :)

Just so you know this was only a five week long transfer. So transfers are this week and I am being transferred to Terra Nova and I am going to be a zone leader with Elder Mariquele (he is from Mozambique)

(Answers):

Yep I am excited! (about the transfer)I am really sad though because I really like Viana especially the branch! The members here are so great and the branch has grown so much! My first Sunday here I think we had 67 people at church and this past Sunday we had 119! It has been so much fun to work here in Viana it has been great! But it will be great to move on as well! No it is not far away, it is closer then Viana. Yes I will still see the Thompsons! Fortunately!

Yes he will train me to be a zone leader! We got here in Angola at the same time, but he is a transfer behind me because he was only in the MTC for 3 weeks. But we lived together in Lubango and in Cassquele!

(My Health) It has been about the same... I think I need to start eating a little bit healthier. It is just really hard to eat good food when you don’t always have energy and all the fruit can be bad sometimes!

Yes, (other missionaries will be in my apartment) but I am not completely sure who yet!

We are going to try and watch the priesthood session as a mission on Sunday. Then we are going to have to wait to watch the rest of the sessions!

She is coming along really well. Her name is Camila! Her nature is to be a little bit more relaxed, so sometimes that is a little bit hard to deal with, but it is going well. Her story is really cool though because at first she did not like us at all, and then she came to church one Sunday and she said she felt something that she had never felt in any other church! So she asked to sit with us!

Also Adilson got the priesthood this Sunday which was great, but he is in a sticky situation with school and he is probably going to have to go to Namibe (a city about 2 hours away from Luabngo) for school and the church is not established there yet and he will be there for about a year and a half. He tried to get transferred here to Luanda, but it was denied! We were praying for a miracle experience to happen so he could stay in Luanda where the church was and I had the thought to call a lady in Cassquele who works for the government and she pretty much can do anything (when Pres Thompson was waiting for his visa she went in and pretty much approved it for him) anyways so I called her and talked with her and it sounded like she could help so I gave her Adilsons number and they talked about it, but it just seems like Adilson is not trying very hard to stay here in Luanda. I am pretty sure that this was an answer to our prayers to call this lady from cassquele, but I guess you can lead a horse to water, but you cant make it drink! (Frustrating principle sometimes!) So I think he might have to go to Namibe for a while.

We found one guy who’s name is Rodrigo! He is awesome! He is a very strong in his church! But he is so willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it!! We were reading the introduction with him and the he said that he really liked the part that said to ask God! He said he loved that because it did not say that we should ask a pastor or ask a religious person, but that we should ask God! He has not come to church yet, but hopefully this Sunday he will come!

(Our normal schedule): Wake up in the morning at 6:30 and get ready for the day and eat! Personal Study from 8-9, companion study from 9-10, then 10-11 language study. After that we try and make lunch and eat and then we go out for the day and teach knock doors and that kind of stuff. Then we come home at about 8 at night and have dinner and then plan and get ready for the night. Relax a little bit and then go to bed at 10;30, However on Wednesday we have district meeting which is about an hour and a half and then on Thursday we have weekly planning which is about 2-3 hours. So that is a normal day!

Counsel? (Recently I have been thinking about) some of the important things that we need to do and things we should not do when somebody makes a mistake! And I think some of the most important things are to LOVE THEM and to NOT JUDGE THEM. I remember when I was in Lubango we had a recent convert who started to break the law of chastity. We talked about it with him and then we talked with the branch president to figure things out. But during that whole process he felt like the church was kind of pushing him away. We did our best to love him and try and help him, but slowly he started to fall away. He ended up having to work on Sunday so he could not come to church and things like that! I do not think that we as missionaries or the ward gave him as much love as he needed to feel like he could repent and be forgiven and because of that as far as I no he is a less active member! The other part about judging is that (sometimes we judge) a lot of people without really trying to, (our weakness!) We know we should judge and try not to), but it was almost like second nature. At one point in my mission I was in a situation where I felt very judged by the people around me! I was doing the best I could, but I just felt like I was not good enough and I felt like others were judging me! As I went through that I thought wow being judged stinks!!!! It does not feel good and it does not help me in any way!! It just kind of makes me want to be worse! So from there I decided that I did not want to judge others because I really don’t know their circumstances and what they are going through and if I judge them it is only going to make it worse! This principle I felt was confirmed when I talked with My district leader and President Thompson. I told them some of the struggles I was going through and I did not feel one sense of judgmental feeling from them! They did not tear me down in anyway or think bad of me in any way! They just supported me told me my strengths and helped me to continue on!! I will be indebted to both those people for the love and help and they gave me!! to help me move on and continue to do better! 

Thanks mom for everything!!! I Love you so much!!!!!!

Elder Tilley

Love you guys!!

Logging off!

March 25, 2013

Yep I can hear it (music on the drive)! Listened to it all this morning! :)

Thanks so much

Sorry I forgot to tell you last week! Yep Inacio got baptized on Saturday as well as Adilson!! Inacio is the shorter one! I love those guys so much!!!

On the far left is someone else that was getting baptized I think then Elder Chatwin then me then Inacio then the guy on the far right is a member from cassquel but I can not remember his name.

Adilson and his fiance and I after Adilsons baptism.

Mmmmm....Mmmmmm.... Mmmmm. I love my green drink!!!!!! :) I definitely did not like it before! I am actually starting to like it :)

Hey Pres!! How are things going?!!! I hope that things are going well!

So Mom told me about your camporree experience and I do not think I had an experience like that on a campout, but I remember one time Me Braden and Mason Anderson were driving in the car once in Oak City and I had to go …really bad!!! So we pulled over and i went by a tree, but there was nothing around to wipe with!! So i grabbed a stick to try and wipe with!! :) That did not feel good :) then what made it worse was that Braden and Mason saw me using the stick and then started to kind of make fun of me!! Not so funny then, but pretty hilarious now!! I bet if you tell Braden that story he will still remember!!!!!!!! Anyways keep up the hard work and have a good attitude!  And just listen to what Mom and Dad say! :) I know that sometimes it might not make sense or you may not really want to, but the only reason they may want you to do something that you do not want to do is because they love you!! If you really think about it Mom and Dad do not want to make you unhappy and just make you do things because!! They really want what is best for you and a lot of times they can see things that you nor I can see!!  So just remember to always do your best to obey Mom and Dad even when it does not make sense! I remember one time I got into an argument with Dad and during the argument I was pretty certain that I was right and Dad was wrong! Looking back now I realized that I was actually dead wrong and Dad was dead right! Dad could see things that I could not see because he has already been through it and because he is a Father and has responsibility and right to help direct his Kids!!

Just want to tell you that I love you so much!!! Remember to be Humble and do your very best and think about others more then yourself! that is something that I am learning right now and makes life so much better when we are thinking about others rather then ourselves!!!

Love you Pres!

Elder Tilley

… I just wanted to share an experience I had with you!

So I think you probably noticed from some of the letters home that I was struggling a lot, but the reason why I was struggling was because I felt like my testimony was (shaky)! I remember that I was in a lesson and I was testifying to a man that I knew that President Monson was a Prophet of God and the guy said to me " You can not have a certainty like that about this man!" When he said that it really shook me and it made me think, "Do I really know these things are true or am I just making it up!" "Do I really believe these things or am I just on my mission because that is what I was told I was suppose to do all my life and so that is what I did" Those thoughts and feelings kept building and building until it was a constant feeling and pressure that was on my heart and soul. It was a literal physical feeling that just weighed me down that I could not get rid of! I prayed and prayed and prayed and read the scriptures and sometimes I would feel better for a while, but then they would just go back to the way they were. I felt like a thick darkness came over me and I could not see or feel my testimony! It was so hard to teach people and testify because I felt like I did not know. I felt so lost. I found myself doing things that I would not normally do! I remember one day that was really hard for me, we were coming home from somewhere and the taxi that we were in wanted us to pay just a dollar more a person because of how far we went, which he was correct on the amount of money, but I just chewed that guy out pretty bad!!! …Afterwards I felt really bad not only because I chewed that guy out, but also because the next time somebody sees the two white missionaries instead of thinking Wow there are two humble nice looking guys I wonder why they are here, they will think " I remember those guys one of tem chewed out a taxi guy that one time and made a fool of himself for no reason, I definitely do not want to talk with them! " I found myself in this position and aftertime and a lot of prayers and scripture study and prayer I started to get over  it…I know that repentance is real and we can all become clean of our sins because of Jesus Christ! But repentance is not just not doing what we did wrong we have to have a change of heart and do what is right and continue to read the scriptures and pray if we do not we will fall. We have to have to have to do those things!!! Scripture study Prayers Church attendance and Temple attendance.

In the Book of Mormon in Lehi’s Vision he talks about a mist of Darkness and when I hear the word mist I think of a fog and the fog is really humid and went. Now picture an iron rod going through it. The iron rod is bound to get wet and it is going to be really hard to hang onto that is why we have to grasp to the iron rod (the word of God, scriptures) or else we will fall.

Also another thing I leaned during this time was with the Brother of Jared!! They made boats and crossed the ocean and when they crossed the ocean God caused a great wind and tempest to come upon the waters! Now they were in the boat for about a year and I am sure there was someone that complained in that boat and said why is God making these tempests why are the waters not calm!! If someone really did say that then the thing they did not understand was that it was by those very tempests that were pushing them to the Promised Land. Now that man had two options. Jump out of the boat and end the trial or continue on with HIS FAMILY and get pushed to the Promised Land or the Celestial Kingdom!!! Now what do you want to do!!

 (If anyone out there feels they are) lacking a testimony then I would say... get one!!!! It may not come all at once in fact it probably wont!!! But it will come line upon line precept upon precept here a little and there a little! But the way you are going to get a testimony is by really wanting to know and then living the things that the church, the prophets, (your) mom and Dad and Jesus Christ say to do... the basics scripture study, prayers, church attendance, temple attendance, Tithing, fasting and all those types of things!! Also the other thing is do not let Satan tell you that you do not have a testimony!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is what he did to me and he made me think like it was me that was doubting, but in reality it was him that was giving me these doubts, but … I did not recognize it!! …Remember the feelings that are the Holy Ghost!!! You may think well I just felt like that because that is what I have been told all my life and so that is why I felt like that!!!  That is a complete lie!!!  You have a testimony!!!! You just have to remember!!! Remember how you felt at Church, Remember how You felt at Seminay remember how you felt at the Temple!!!!!  Remember Remember Remember~!!! Strengthen your testimony and build it, but Do not let Satan tell you you do not have a testimony!!!!!

I just want to bear My testimony and say that I know that these things are true!!! I know they are!!! It is the only way we can be truly HAPPY!!!!!!!!!! real happiness!!!! I know the Book of Mormon is true because I have studied in it and prayed! It took a lot of study and a lot of prayer. It was not just a one time thing it was a consistent study and consistent prayer! And here a little and there a little I received a testimony! But testimony is not enough after a testimony we have to become converted!! Living according to the things that we know! Living according to our testimony!!!!

I love you all so much !!!!!!!!!!!

I will be praying for you every day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you!

Elder Tilley

PS-The medicine we take for Malaria makes our skin sensitive to the sun! No (the sunburn) it was not too bad at all

I will think (of a good name for the new Filly)

March 18, 2013

Normally the pics dont take anytime to load unless they are really big!

So I got the package!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I put the pin drive into a little tv we have and  I saw some pictures and a video from Rach or something, but I was not able to see them. So I brought the pin drive with me so I could watch it and see the pictures, but I can not find them on the pin drive when I put it into the computer. Do you remember what you saved the pics or the video as so I can search for it! Or do you have any other ideas?

Love you :)

The Violins leave for Brazil Tomorrow! So we had a little party and played soccer! :). She (Sister Thompson) made a special call :) (about Rachel’s baby)

I made smoothies for me and Elder Chatwin! (They definitely were not bad...definitely not the greatest though, I am going to have to make some adjustments this week!

So this is the story. So Last week I thought they were inducing Rachel at the end of the week and so that is when I thought we wanted the Baby to come. So I had not specifically prayed for Rachel at that point. Then I think it was on Tuesday night Sister Thompson called and said that my prayers were answered (I was thinking what prayers?) and then she said my sister had her baby and how she felt that she had her baby because I had prayed for her. When I heard that my heart almost broke and I felt so bad because I had not prayed specifically for her. That night I was kind of beating myself up and I was recalling the things that I prayed for in my prayers that day and the day before. As I was thinking about that I remembered that Tuesday Morning, I prayed and I finished my prayer and I started to get up and I had a prompting that I should pray for my family but I did not know why. So I said another quick prayer for my family in general … I hope that was a little prompting I had that helped Rachel. Also Rachel had definitely been in my thoughts. In fact one of our investigators we sat with right before I got the call from sister Thompson and she is Pregnant and is due in two months and I told her that my sister was going to give birth in about a week. A little bit later I got the call from Sister Thompson that told me she had her baby! So I know that the Lord answers and desires of our hearts as well!

Tell them all (everyone in Thatcher) hi and that I love all of them!!!!

Do you know any smoothie recipes? :) Or at least the basics of our to make a good smoothie? The last one I made was really brothy and did not have a lot of flavor :)

This is a picture of a picture of our district before Elder Brown went to Benfica and Elder Fountain came!

(Pictures of temple with President Merrill) That was really cool!! The pictures were kind of small and they take along time to make them big, so it was just hard to really see the faces, but I am sure they do!

ok the first one off the top of my head is " what the heck is Joshy boy doing with a Mohawk!!!?"

Thank you so much mom for the letter it really helped me out! The example you gave about being on your faith mountain and falling and trying to hang on and not being able to and then feeling like Heavenly Father was not helping you and then feeling like you tried to climb the mountain and would make some progress and fall back down was exactly how I was feeling! In your letter you said I do not know if this makes sense to the person that is reading this, well it made perfect sense to me and I know that we were going through different trials but I felt like that example was exactly how I was feeling also! Thank you so much for sharing with me!!!

If you would like to... I am sure they would love them!! You spell President, Presidente, and you spell sister Irma but with Irma there is a little squiggly mark over the "a" that looks like this "~" if you look it up on google and think it should tell you alittle bit better…oh but here in Angola sometimes sister missionaries go by sister (then their last name) instead of irma (and then their last name) Sister Walton had  always like to be called Sister Walton instead of Irma Watlon and so that is what her (name tag) says. Sister Thompson likes to go by Irma Thompson so she has a tag that says Irma Thompson. So you could make one for sister Thompson that says Irma, but I am not sure which one you should do for Sister Merrill (I am not sure if that made sense) 

Yep I have met elder Money! :) I will have to tell him I know Shawn and Janae! Will he know them ?

Hey bec!!

Sorry I do not have alot of time to write again!!

But I just want you to know that I am praying for you !!!

Love you 

tell pres I am praying for him too!!!!

Hey Rach I heard you had your baby!!!!

Congrats you are in my prayers!!

Love you!!

Sorry Mom I did not have alot of time to write to day!!

But I love you and I am doing well!!!!!!!!

March 11, 2013

I'm sending a journal entry of a really cool experience I had this week!

Two missionaries came in Elder Money and Fountain. Elder Pimentel entered the MTC about the same time as Elder Chatwin, but he started serving his mission in Brazil while he waited for his Visa. He got here the end of January I think it was. He is a convert of about a year. He baptized his Dad and I think his brother or sister before he left, but his mom is still not a member. Their is another Elder from Mozambique his name is Elder Mariquele. Him and I got here at the same time in Angola, but he will leave a transfer after me because he was only in the MTC for 3 weeks because he already spoke Portuguese. (I lived with him in Lubango).

No package yet. (Are you eating live foods and exercising?) Define Live foods :) I probably need to do better. I am sill have some multi vitamins that I am taking! Our district is doing this push up work out and we walk around all day everyday:)

(Do you need anything sent?) Hmm, I think I am doing good for right now, the only thing that came to mind was garments, but I think I am doing good with garments. I do not think I need new ones yet.

(Do you want me to as President Merrill anything?) Not anything that I can think of... maybe just mention to him to start on his visa as soon as possible (you know Angola with Visas :)

(Mom) Love you too! Do you need anything? Did Sister Thompson email you or call you? I just printed out your letter to read later thanks!!

Thank you for your prayers I really did feel them this week!! Thank you so much!!! I had several experiences that helped me a lot this week!! Thank you so much I will have to tell you all of them in person :)

So I have decided that when I get home that I am going to have to continue my studies in the scriptures, Personal Study Companionship study and language study. So I was thinking that you could be my companion and then we could study Portuguese and Spanish Together what do you think? Love you Mom

Sorry if I made you and the family worry this week! Thank you for your prayers and I just want you to know that I am doing well! Thanks!

Love you to Mom!

Elder Tilley

Hey Pres!!!

How are you doing!

I hope you are doing well and I hope you have a great week!

Love you tons!!!

21 champ

(Rebecca)

That is way cool!! Keep up the great work!

This week went really well thanks for asking! I really felt your prayers this week! Sorry this is so short! I do not have alot of time!!

Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sparkly Buns Power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Tilley

(Josh)

Hey man!! Thank you for the letter. I really mean it. I am not going to lie it did kind of hurt to read, but after I read your letter a talk came to my mind by Elder Christofferson and he tells a story of that man who was growing a current bush and one day this man cut the current bush down and the man thought in his mind that the current bush said "why did you cut me down? I was growing so well and beautiful" the man replied. I am the Gardener I know what I want you to be and I want you to be a current Bush." That same man was in the army and wanted a some high rank and he qualified for the high rank, but the problem was, was that he was Mormon and so he was rejected that high rank and the man went home and was angry at God for doing this to him and then the thoughts came to him that said " I am the gardener I know what I want you to be!" Then he got on his knees and repented and later in that mans life he looked back and said "Thank you God for loving me so much to cut me down!" "Thank you for loving me so much to HURT me!"

So now I just want to tell you thank you so much Josh for loving me so much to hurt me! Thank you Thank you

Love you

Elder Tilley