Monday, November 25, 2013

Thanksgiving

Happy thanksgiving everyone!!!
Things here are going pretty good. We've been without water for 3 days, so that's no fun. But hopefully we'll get it soon. I am however grateful that we've had energy. This past Saturday, President advised all missionaries to stay inside for the day. Apparently there were some protests going on and they didn't know how it was going to turn out. so we stayed inside all day on Saturday. We played chess and some card games. This Thursday we're all going to President's for thanksgiving.
So with Thursday being thanksgiving and all. I figured I'd talk about giving thanks. And I'm stealing this from my comp. Yesterday at dinner, we shared a spiritual thought. It was my comp, Elder Caffertys turn. He shared a scripture in D&C 98:1. Verily I say unto you my friends, afear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give bthanks; So we went around and we all said one thing that we're grateful for. It is always a really cool experience and i would advise you to do the same. Also Brother Weggland showed us something that he had done. He and his wife had made a list of everything they're grateful for. When we do so, our eyes will be opened to more blessings that our Heavenly Father has given us, and we will be more easily able to see the hand of the Lord in our Lives.
Eu sou Grato pelo evangelho em minha vida. Por cause do evangelho, eu sei que eu posso viver com minha familia para sempre. Todos nos podemos receber conforto por meio do evangelho. Tambem sou grato por minha familia. E Pais que me ajudam nesta vida. Sou grato por Jesus Cristo e a sua expiação. Este é o evangelho do Senhor. Amo Vocês!!
Com Amor,
Elder Money

Translated: I am grateful for the gospel in my life. Because of the gospel, I know I can live with my family forever. we can all be comforted by the gospel. I am also thankful for my family. and parents who help me in this life. I am thankful for Jesus Christ and his atonement. this is the gospel of the Lord. Love you!

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=911161818001

Monday, November 11, 2013

Hey Everyone

Glad to hear everyones doing good at home. Congrats to madeline... shouldve looked for a guy from BYU, but utah is alright ;)
So things are going good in our area. Theyre starting to pick up. we've been doing a lot of door contacting, which is frustrating but funny at the same time. We're working on finding people who really want it. We've really been working with the members and it helps a ton!!! I cant remember who it was, but someone gave a talk this past general conference that talked about how much the church would grow if every member would share the gospel with at least 1 person. 1 person can lead to 2 and 2 to more. Its crazy how much of an influence we can be in peoples lives, and us having the knowledge of the true gospel, have the responsibility to share it with others.
Yesterday, after eating dinner with Brother Weggland, we left a spritiual message, and he said how he really thinks that living in Angola is like living amongst the Gadianton Robbers. This morning on our way to soccer, we saw a fight, which happens all the time, and a cop was right there, he walked by and looked, then just walked away. then some people broke up the two teenagers that were fighting, but the one wasnt done, he wanted some more. so he went after the kid again, but a big guy got in between them. and the little kid was still gonna fight him! then we heard everyone screaming, and we out the window of our taxi and the kid pulled out a knife... theres cops around, but they dont do anything. i dont know what happened cause our taxi drove off. But I thought about what Brother Weggland said. It really is like living amongst the Gadianton Robbers. It seems like everything here contradicts the teaching of the Gospel. Beer is cheaper than water. people hang up posters on the walls with half naked woman on them, people have bars on their windows and big metal gates on their doors, because there are so many robbers, the cops are corrupt and just want money, etc. I really thought about it. About the nephites and the Book of Mormon. All the things we can learn from the Book of Mormon. It truly is the keystone of our religion. As missionaries we are constantly studying it. constantly telling others about it and inviting them to read and study it, and because of all of this my testimony has grown. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon, for the things that we can learn from it. I know that its true. We can receive spiritual strength if we study it and live its teachings.
I love you all,
Love,
Elder Money

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-03-08-testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng#2010-03-08-testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng&_suid=1384199500476009371555014161753






Pictures from Sister Merrill's blog








Monday, November 4, 2013

Transfers

So this week we had transfers. Elder Cafferty is my new comp. We're living with Elder Tingey and Elder Yeonoplos. Its gonna be a fun transfer :) Cafferty and I are getting a long great. this week was pretty crazy. We had transfers on p-day. We decided to move houses. there are two houses in our area, one road away from each other. and 6 missionaries. so 2 live in one and 4 in the other. the house i was living in had 4. it was small, and we always ran out of water. so with transfers, we decided to move into the other house. so we did. best decision ever!!! its awesome. the room is way bigger. they always have water. so we can take normal showers now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and wash our clothes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mine were starting to stink even after i put them in the wash! but its really cool. i put up some African paintings. way cool. this should be a fun transfer.... Elder Cafferty and I made transfer goals.... our goals are 100 lessons and 2 people baptized! we're shooting high, but hopefully well get it.

Our area is pretty new. We dropped all of our old investigators who aren't doing well. We had 4 investigators at church yesterday. One that had been investigating for a while. His name is Benjamin. So it was way cool for him to finally come to church! We were way excited about that. So elder Cafferty and I will be doing a lot of door contacting and finding. and a lot of dropping. Everyone loves to listen to us, but not many like to act.
That's way cool you went to dinner with Yuki. i bet she loved that. shes a really cool girl. Lasallette is awesome as well. i tried to weasel my way out of playing piano, cause Elder Stewart would play it normally, but he left, and before he did he made sure to tell everyone that i play. and so Lassalette made sure that i played during sacrament. haha. shes like the mom of the church in Angola. you cant say no to her. so i did. it went alright. I played praise to the man to start, and i messed up a couple times haha it was pretty embarrassing. and i was way nervous!!! cause president Merrill and president Miranda (district president) were both there sitting right next to me. i played Jesus of Nazareth for the sacrament hymn, but i never practiced it before so i just played the right hand... but it was on the organ setting so you couldn't really tell :) and then i finished with God be with you til we meet again. and that one went well. it was a humbling experience that's for sure. but it was one of the best sacraments ever.
The highlight of my week was moving into the new house.
the worst part was.... i dunno there wasn't really a bad part. maybe the fact that we only got 6 lessons this week haha. transfer week is always crazy!

but things are going good. Ohhh funny story. i dunno if i told you or not. but this happened a couple weeks ago. this guy came up to me and was like hey do you know this guy, showed me a pic and it was a pic of max!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i started freaking out i was like how did you get that pic!! he said that his sister fed the missionaries at her house. she lives in Denmark!!!!!!!!!! how crazy is that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha.
I was thinking about the whole ''ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened up unto you'' scripts this past week. And i was talking to some of the missionaries about it. And i said that i don't have a super strong testimony about that. And one of the Elders responded, well maybe the answer isn't always yes.... it could be no. I had never thought about that before. Sometimes I would ask Heavenly Father for something and I never got it. It wasn't that it was a bad desire or anything like that, but it just never came. Well, my answer was no. :) haha. We might not always like it. but we do always receive answers to our prayers. Sometimes its yes, sometimes its no. And sometimes its nothing. When that happens, its because Heavenly Father trusts us to make the right decision or its not time yet. I have a testimony of this. Heavenly Father does hear our prayers. We just have to work on recognizing the answer and accepting His will.

I Love you all and miss you!! Keep writing. Support from home is the best thing you can give a missionary.

love,
Elder Money