I have arrived!!!

Oi from the MotherLand!!!!
     How's everyone doing?! I finally arrived in Angola after two days of flying and layovers!! It's so nice to finally be here and be able to get started. We arrived at about 5 am. There was a slight rain and super humid. My clothes started sticking to me as soon as I got off the plane. But it's not too bad.
     First impressions of Angola: Luanda is huge!!! There are some super nice buildings and there are also some that are falling apart. There are people everywhere, walking, sitting, talking. We get some pretty funny looks haha, I don't know if its cause of our suit and tie or cause we're white....
     Right now we're sitting in President and Sister Thompson's apartment. It's actually really nice. Sister Thompson made us fruit, muffins, and cereal for breakfast. After this, we're going to take a little nap, thank heavens! And then we get to meet our companions and get started! My companion's name is Elder Hobbs and we're serving in Luanda Dois!!!!
     I made it safely! It's gonna take some getting use to, but I'm stoked! You all are in my prayers. I love you all so much!

With Love from the MotherLand,
Elder Money

MotherLand Here I Come!!

Oi Familia!
    
Two more days and I'm off to the MOTHERLAND!!!! Sooo stoked!!!
I love the MTC, but I'm ready to get out. I've been here 10 weeks
which is like ancient. I feel like a veteran. Except I met an Elder
yesterday who has been here for a year and a half!!! he's in the
referral MTC mission so he sits on the computer all day. That would
be tough. So yeah I'm ready to leave. So some big news!!! Maybe
you guys already know... But I was looking on LDS.org yesterday
and there was a link that said 58 new missions being created. So
I clicked on it and at the top of the list is Angola!!!!!!!!!!! So that'll
be way cool! I don't know when, but it will become it's own mission!
I'm nervous about the language, and getting sick, but I'm so stoked!
I'm almost all packed... one of my suitcases weighs 49 lbs and the
other weighs about 67 hahaha. So we'll see about that.
"Every day does come." And here it is!! I'm going to Angola haha.
It still doesn't seem real. I can't wait to email you all and tell you
all about it.
Oh my gosh... I got the pics of Charlie.... She is the cutest thing ever!
Ahhh I can't stand it. And steaz energy drink hahahahaha. I've got all
the elders here to say steaz.
We fly from here to Dallas, to London, To Angola. We have a 12 hour
layover in London so hopefully we get to go out of the airport and walk
around!! that'd be sooo sick!
Love you guys so much!!!!
Love,
Elder Money

Last week of the MTC!!!

Oi Familia!!
How's it going?! I hope everything is good and you all had a happy valentines day!!
One Week til i reach the "MotherLand"!!!! I'm so Stoked! Africa here i come!!!!!!!!!!:):):):):)
I'm gonna miss the MTC but I'm ready to leave. It's getting sooooo crowded. There's
3,000+ missionaries here now, which is a record. and it's suppose to double by July or
august. Boa Sorte to all the Elders and sisters coming in :) So this week has been kinda
sad! Most of our district has left... Elder Anderson, Lant, and Lamkin, who were all suppose
to go to Brazil, didn't get their visas so they got reassigned. Elder Lamkin got reassigned
to Philadelphia Pennsylvania mission, Elder Lant got reassigned to Salt lake hahahahaha
and Elder Anderson (who was like my best friend in the MTC) got reassigned to Provo
hahahahahahahahaha. We kept joking that he wouldn't need a car but that they'd just drop
off a bike and he'd ride out the front gate. but it was sad to see him leave. then Another
elder, Elder Horne had to go home because he needs surgery on his knee. its been bugging
him ever since he got here and he's already had surgery once.... he's a big kid 6'8!!! so he
went home. and then the other three, Elder Shumway, Elder Williams, and Elder Bishop
left to Portugal. So its just me Elder Cummings, Elder Fontaine, And Elder Merkley. We're
ready to leave.... It's exciting, but I'm nervous at the same time. I start taking my Malaria
pills tomorrow :/ so that'll be fun. Hopefully i don't get sick! Love You All!!!! you're in my
prayers!!

Message of the week: "See others as they may become, not as they are" -Thomas S. Monson.


Love,
Elder Money

2 weeks left!!!

Hey peeps,
     2 weeks left in the MTC!!! I've learned to love the MTC. the devotionals are the best.
Our teachers are awesome! same with our branch presidency and our branch. I love my
district we all get along great. come Monday, 8 out of the 12 Elders in our district are
leaving. 4 of them are going to Portugal. 3 of them are going to Brazil. and 1, my companion
is going to Cabo verde. He leaves Tuesday, which means i get two p-days next week!!!
haha woohoo!!! i'm not sure how that will quite work out but yeah. then it will just be me,
Elder Cummings, Elder Fontaine, and Elder Merkley. so that will be kinda fun for one week.
But other than that, not a lot is going on! oh! except to deal with all the new missionaries,
they're putting two more beds in each room!!! so our room now has 6 beds!!!! but only 4
closets. we get to host again tomorrow. (that was awesome that you saw a pic of me
hosting haha, what are the chances! you should send it to me:)) So we'll either get 2 new
Elders in our room either tomorrow or next Wednesday.
     Here's some advice for 'The Spartans', or anyone going on a mission:
1. Don't focus on things at home. Leave it all behind. Focus on your work and it will make
it so much easier for you. I think the number one problem in the MTC is homesickness.
2. If you have a girlfriend, get rid of her haha. sad, but true. There are so many Elders who
miss their girlfriends and it just makes it that much harder.
3. Lose your pride. There are gonna be Elders that you're going to want to punch in the face
hahaha trust me, i know. But you have to remember that they chose to serve a mission
just like you and you both have the same purpose. usually they mean well.
4. This goes along the lines of 2 and 3, but one of our speakers said Leave any 'extra' baggage
at home. meaning girlfriends, problems, worthiness issues, anything like that. Make sure
you take care of it before you get home. He went on to say the only baggage you should bring,
are the 2-3 suitcases you'll take with you.
5. The MTC stands for "Make The Change". You should be different when you come home from
your mission. David A. Bednar talks about this in one of his talks called "recognizing the Spirit"
he says 'There is a difference between serving a mission, and becoming a missionary. If you go
home and are doing the exact same thing you were before you left your mission, you did not
become a missionary but simply served a mission." Make sure you become a missionary, not just
serve a mission.
6. Last thing, Make sure its your decision to serve. Don't let people pressure you into serving.
You should serve because you want to. Because the Gospel makes you happy and you want others
to have that same happiness. Make sure you're serving for the right reasons.
7. one more thing, bring a dictionary in your language to English, the ones they give you here, aren't
that great. and it will help you a ton.
I hope this helps!! just some things I've learned while being here. I love you all so much!!! thanks for
the letters and packages. the support is awesome! it makes it so much easier to know that I have
family and friends who support me! oh and if you guys wanna see an awesome scripture, read
Mormon 2:4. not words of Mormon, Book of Mormon :) love you guys and thank you Trish/mark and
fam! i loved the letters, i got them and read them. thanks for the scripts!!! I wanted something like that.
I'm in the laundry room right now, wearing my ninja disguise shirt. and the Elders here love it haha.
it gave them all a good laugh:) love you guys!!! tchau!!!

Hey y'all:)

Hey everyone!
     So not a lot has happened this week... so this letter won't be very long!
One of the elders in our district, Elder Cummings, started having stomach
pains. He said he thinks he might have appendicitis, which was kind of
random. then our teacher told him he thought that he should go to the
hospital. so he did. and it turns out that he did have appendicitis! and had
he waited two days, it would have ruptured. So that was a blessing that
he got there in time. Always obey the promptings of the Spirit.
     I jammed my finger playing basketball :( some guys get all the luck ;)
We got a new elder this past week. His name is Elder Merkley. He came to
the MTC about 9 months ago and went home after a week. But now he's back
out and in our district. He's going to Angola. so He'll be leaving on the 25th
with me and Elder Fontaine.
     Lets see what else.... Some elders from our zone leave today which is
sad. I love those guys. they're going to serve in Demoines, Iowa until they
get their visas. then to Brasil.
     We kinda got in trouble this week for pranks haha. Me and Elder Nelson
put an alarm clock in some elders' room in the vent! haha we set the alarm
for 2 am. then we put another one in the next night in their closet and set the
alarm for 2 am. the next night, we were in our residence, and i was in another
room and i walk out into the hall and it stinks wayyyyy bad!!!! i go walking into
my room and it is even worse!! its coming from our room!!! they put a stink
bomb in our room hahaha. it stunk but only for that night. either that, or I'm use
to it by now. but our zone leaders got mad at us but we didn't mind too much
haha we thought it was funny.
     Me and some other elders have started a new club at the MTC... to be in it,
you have to have crocs. so far there's two of us:) Me and Elder Shumway. he's
in my district so that's who the pic is of.

Love you guys! I miss you! keep emailing and writing me! :) Adeus!

I forgot a couple of things:) haha
one is that sisters are taking over the MTC!!! they
are everywhere!! Its ridiculous. and we're only
getting more. Tomorrow we get to be hosts for
the new missionaries. Last week we had 700 come.
This week 1500!!!! its insane!!! and more and more
of them are sisters! I'm glad there aren't any sisters
in Angola.... Just a distraction haha
second is that I've gained 13 lbs!!! hahaha I guess
I'm stalking up for the MotherLand. And that's about
it:) love you guys!

Hey y'all

Hey everybody!
     How's it going? Brade got his call to Mexico?! that's awesome!! can't wait to speak
Portuguese/espanol together. I'm stoked for all my friends. you guys are lucky in that
you'll know a ton of peeps in the mtc. Elder Malugin is here now! haha so i see him
quite a bit. but that's about it. but at the same time its good cause it forces me to
meet new people.
     NEW YORK - so this past week I went to NY. What an adventure. Two weeks ago,
we got a letter that said we would be going to NY and that was it. So we show up when
we're suppose to and they took us to the Salt Lake Airport on Wednesday at 9:00 pm.
they just dropped me and elder fontaine off. so we walk in and had no idea what to do.
haha. luckily we figured it out and got our tickets and got through security. we barely
missed cafe rio. so we had to settle for MCdonalds which we were still pretty stoked
about. The food here isn't too bad but i miss outside food. then we got on the plane
flew to NY and arrived at 6:00 Am. got a ride to the church office building which is
also the temple! oh and we gave a Book of Mormon to our driver. then we got breakfast
at a restaurant right next to the temple. best omelet i ever had! then we got to sleep
on the floor from 8-10. haha. then we went to the angolan consolate. got finger printed
and turned our stuff in. then drove back to the airport. we got the airport at 1. and our flight
wasn't til 3. but it got delayed til almost 8! but we kept hearing "last call for flight to Salt Lake"
but it wasn't our flight. at least we didn't think so. so we ran across the airport which is Massive
and made it to the gate before the plane left. the men working there said "oh elders are you on
this flight or the later one" so we were relieved that there was a later one. and told them. then
they said they could get us on that flight. which we were stoked about. so we got on that and flew
home. we got home at about 8. which meant we were in time for CAFE RIO!!!!!!!! best meal ever.
so that was awesome. and as we were standing in line some ladies started talking to us and asked
us where we were going and all that and bought our dinner! then we drove back to the mtc on the
express shuttle but we had to drop another lady off and the car got stuck in her driveway because
it was so icy. so we got out in our suits and were going to push it haha but the driver wouldn't let
us so we got some chains from off the top of his car and put them on the tires. and were able
to get out. we got back to the MTC at about 11:30 pm. we were exhausted!!!!!!!!
     It was kind of depressing flying back to Salt Lake but not flying "home". but at the same time,
I was sooooo glad to get back to the MTC! back to my bed, back to some people that i know. I
love Utah soooo much. so yeah, that was the main point of this week.
     Being district leader is pretty cool. I get to get the mail from the post office. i have to go to
leadership meetings on Sunday with the branch presidency and the other district leaders. and
just things like that. the branch presidency tells me things and i tell my district. and then we talk
about how our zone is doing. if anyone has any problems. Cool Story: one elder had some bad
symptoms so they took him to the hospital and found a tumor that they thought was cancer. so they
had him come back and run some tests on it. our branch presidency called a surprise meeting one
night and we had a group prayer for this elder and any other elders in our branch that were sick or
needed help. later that week he got the test results and the tumor was gone!!! pretty amazing
miracle. the Lord does watch over and bless his missionaries.
     I love you guys so much!!!! i pray for you every day! i miss you all. but I'm glad I'm here. Every
day comes eventually and i just take it one day at a time. love you!!! Adeus!!!

Hey Peeps!

Hey everyone!
I've got a ton to write so I'm just going to jump into it!
Every Tuesday is our p-day. but at 7 every Tuesday night, we have a devotional.
This last week, we got a new MTC presidency. President Brown left and now its
President Hally, i think haha. But last Tuesday was the day that they switched
the presidency. So Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was the speaker of the Tuesday
devotional!!! He gave an amazing talk! He talked about how important it is that
we convert ourselves on our mission. He said "If you serve a mission, then come
home and get a tattoo or braid your hair, don't meet me in a dark alley" hahahaha.
his point was, that no missionary, if they truly serve a mission, should come home
and go inactive. How can you preach to people with all your heart of how important
the gospel is and then turn around and go inactive. He then talked about how the
2nd coming has already started. It started when the church was restored and is a
work in progress. don't think that you'll repent when the 2nd coming is almost here,
because it is almost here. it's already started. Then he gave a dedicatory prayer
for three remodeled buildings at the MTC. it was an amazing talk. And i heard they
talked about it in the church news. it was on the 15th. you should go look at it!
Everything else has been pretty much the same, except for this past Sunday....
We go to Sacrament and we sit down. and Brother Brough, a member of our
presidency, came up to me and my companion and asked if he could talk to us.
"oh great! what did we do this time" he takes us out into the hall and says thanks
for our service but that we were being released as portal masters... I was super
bummed and so we walk back in and sit down. We had only been portal masters
for two weeks! then Brother bartholomew comes up to us and makes a joke about
how I'm always late hahaha. i love bro bartholomew, he's hilarious. then bro. brough
comes up to me again and says president hodges wants to talk to me out in the hall.
So now I'm thinking "oh great! what did i do this time?!" so i go out into the hall, and
he tells me that Elder Lamkin is being released as District Leader and he was wondering
if I would be the new District Leader. I smiled and said of course! so I'm the new DL!!!
so that's pretty cool! and that's about it!
I'm working on writing you all back:) we don't get much free time! and we're suppose to
read the entire BOM while we're here in the MTC. i mark up my scripts a ton so it takes
me forever! but I'm working on it. these pics are from my companions camera... i fell asleep
in class haha and the other one is from a while ago. but i really like the pic!
 i love you guys! thanks for all your support! miss you
guys so much!! i pray for you every night!! love you:) tchau!

I almost forgot!!!!!!! Huge Shoutout to:
@max_metcalf25 (max Metcalf)
@AllSportHanker (Hunter Hanks)
@LurpyNoodle81 (Cory Pinegar)
@KarateMaster (Jake Ostler)

All of your guys' calls are awesome!!! I am So stoked for
all of you! And I'm so glad you made the decision to serve
a mission!!! Its super hard but you'll love it at the same time.
Make sure you're ready! prepare yourself now! You guys are
going to make great missionaries, i wish we were all going
out at the same time. but you guys will love it! Love you All!

Sup Peeps!!!

Hey y'all!!!
so lets see what went on this week... for the most part its the same. eat sleep study every day.
but one thing that was a little different this week was that our zone leaders and their district left
the MTC for the field! it was kinda sad. I'm super stoked for them but I'm gonna miss them. Its
crazy how close you grow in such a short amount of time. I loved them. But its cool to see them
leave for the MTC. On a happier note, my friends from Waterford, Parker and Jacob both came in
this past Wednesday and I've seen them quite a bit. This morning we did a session at the temple
and they were in our session so that was cool. I learn something new every time I go to the temple.
also, i saw Tim Glenn. He went to C-wood, and was a senior when i was a sophomore. he just got
back from his mission and now he teaches here. so that was cool to see him!!

funny story: so every week we have to prepare a talk for sacrament, IN PORTUGUESE!!! The
branch presidency gives us a topic to talk about and that way when we enter the mission field,
we'll have about 8 or 9 little talks that we can give. then come sacrament meeting, the branch
presidency calls on one elder and one sister to give their talk. so as i said before, this last Sunday
was our Zone leader's district last Sunday. so Saturday night we were all like oh crap we need to
write our talk but we decided that they would probably be one of the ones get called to talk so none
of us prepared a talk. this weeks topic was about the Book of Mormon. and no one in our district has
had to give a talk in sacrament yet. so we show up to Sacrament
and sit in the back row. then our branch president comes up to us and has us move up the front row.
so we're all waiting to hear who's getting called to speak and you can probably guess where the story's
headed by now. the branch president says "and following sacrament we'll hear from elder Money."
hahahahaha ohhhhh man. i didn't have anything prepared so i turned around and asked the elder behind
me for his Portuguese Book of Mormon and i talked about Mosiah 2:41. all in Portuguese. it went about
as good as it could've gone haha. thank heavens for my Spanish.
So i go to New York on January 23rd! I'm so stoked for that. to be able to get outside of the MTC and
eat some real food haha. So that means i am for sure going to ANGOLA. so that's cool to finally know.
and yeah that's about it.
I loved your guys's letters! and i LOVED the photo book! thanks so much!!! i look at it every night.
the pics crack me up! they're so funny! i almost forgot what you guys looked like;) jk but i really
do love the book it is awesome!!! Thanks for the Flag and the coat. I've worn it like every day.
its freezing here. and it'll be super nice for New york. love you guys! keep in touch! tchau!

Week 3

Oi familia!
How's everybody doing? Hope its all going good! Anything new going on? Things here are
pretty much the same. Every day we do the same thing. its wake up, study, eat, study,
eat, study, eat, study go to bed. and do it all over again. Sundays and Tuesdays are my
favorite days because theres some variety in them. Today we get to go to the temple and
do a session. So that'll be cool. Let's see... what else is new. I didn't get the stomach flu
that's been going around so that's good! I think we start our malaria pills this Wednesday.
we have a meeting with the Health Clinic. So things are going pretty good.
Time here is so weird. The days are so long, but they all blend together. The weeks go by
pretty fast. There's not a whole lot new that's gone on. My Portuguese is coming along
pretty good. My Spanish helps a ton. Remember how in school I would get super bored
when I learned something really quick and we were still going over it? I haven't had that
feeling in a while but that's how I feel when we study Portuguese. But It's a blessing. I'd
rather have it be easy and be bored than have it be hard. Its super hard for some kids.
Oh one new thing that happened this week, Me and my companion, Elder Nelson got a
branch call. We're the "online portal masters". hahaha. So all we do is teach the new kids
that come in how to work the computers. But its cool cause we get to go to all the leader-
ship meetings with the zone and district leaders. That's about all that's new and going on.
I hope everythings good at home. I love you all. miss you guys. let me know how you're
doing. love you guys!

January 6, 2013