Strange Coincidence

Transfers are next week! So we'll see what happens. Glad to hear everyones doing good!

This past week was good, we taught quite a bit of lessons. Our area was pretty much white washed so all the investigators we have now are fairly new. They're progressing well, but they wont come to church!!!!! its way frustrating. But we'll keep working on it.

Yesterday we were trying to find this lady, who is a reference we got and shes less active. Addresses are few or non existent here. she lives on road one, house number one. so we finally find road one. but we see house number 178.... So we've got a long ways to go haha... so we start walking and we had been walking for a while when this guys stops us and starts talking to us. he says he wants to hear more about the church. so we got his number, and right as we were about to leave, (we're at about house number 110) this lady comes up to us and tells us that her house is this way. So we are like uhhh ok so we follow her, and enter into house 121. Turns out she was the lady we were looking for!! I always love when things like that happen. these 'coincidences' that happen. A lot of times when we are guided by the Spirit, we don't even know it. Its like Elder Bednar says, ´´Dont worry about it. Just be a good little boy or girl, and your footsteps will be guided, and your utterances inspired.'' I'm grateful for the Spirit. And I love the rewarding feeling that comes from knowing that you followed a spiritual prompting and good things came from it.

I love you all!!!

Love,
Elder Money

 

 

Families and Testimonies

So another week!

This week was pretty good. Nothing too special. I love my area. There are a lot of awesome people in our branch. Two missionaries from Angola are leaving this week. one of them is going to Ghana and the other is going to Portugal!

This week we had a baptism. His name is Itanilson. Hes an awesome kid. Super smart. Hes neighbors with one of the families in our branch. So hes got an awesome support group and will be an awesome member of the church. We have a family night at their house tomorrow night. They're awesome. They're all members. Its cool to see how the church grows. There's this family's house and about 3 other houses around it who are all LDS. they're an awesome family and are always doing missionary work.

One thing Ive been thinking a lot about this week is my testimony and families... My Testimony has grown soooo much on my mission! Theres a scripture in 2 Nephi 5:27 that talks about living happily. Its a simple scripture and one of my favorites. Its when the Nephites separated from the Lamanites and are obeying the commandments and are living happily. This is a huge part of my testimony. I Am grateful for the gospel because it gives me hope. Because of the Gospel I know that I can live with my family forever. I know that we are blessed with happiness when we live and obey the Gospel. We will live, like the Nephites, after the manner of happiness. The Gospel Blesses Families!

Love,

Elder Money

 

http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=2700253803001


Pics from President and Sister Merrills blog

 

 

Light of Christ

Hey everyone!

Sounds like you all had a blast in St. George. I'm jealous. Thanks for the pics Trish!! :)

I got to watch the Sunday sessions of General Conference. All the missionaries in Luanda went to President's house yesterday. It was really cool. I love being with all the missionaries. Especially at this point in time. The Church is growing!! Its not easy to be a member, but its worth it. I definitely have a testimony of that. I know we receive blessings when we go to church, read our scripts, and pray.

So this past week, Elder Stewart and I were heading downtown to a family night. So we get into a taxi and the taxis they have here are vans with a front row, a middle row, and a back row. They fit four people onto each row so its pretty crowded. So we get in, and I'm sitting next to this lady, with her 2 year old daughter on her lap. and the little girl is just staring at me. I smile, then she slowly reaches out and puts her hand on my arm and leaves it there. I smile again then she looks at her mom and points at me. My comp, this lady, and I all start laughing.... As we were about to get off the taxi, I hand the little girl a pass along card with a picture of Jesus on it. She looks at it, shows it to her mom, smiles, and then gives it a big kiss! :) the little girl started laughing and kissed it again. It was the cutest thing ever!! And i thought about it. EVERYONE has the Light of Christ. One thing I have definitely learned while being on my mission is the reality of Christ, and the Atonement. The more I learn about it, the more it blows my mind. We cannot comprehend EVERYTHING about the Atonement. But we can receive ALL the blessings that come from it. It requires a lot on our part. The Atonement is for EVERYONE. NO ONE excluded. That is the greatness of the Atonement. I am so grateful for the atoning sacrifice of Christ. All of us should strive to increase our relationship with Him and to be able to receive the blessings of the Atonement. That little girl has the Light of Christ. She has a Spirit that was once in heaven with our Heavenly Father. Our purpose is to progress and get back to Him. All this is made possible through the Atonement.

Eu amo vocês! Eu amo Jesus Cristo! Sou grato pela Expiacão em minha vida.

 

(Translated: I love you! I love Jesus Christ! I am grateful for the Atonement in my life)

Love,
Elder Money

 

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-01-010-patterns-of-light-the-light-of-christ?lang=eng#2012-01-010-patterns-of-light-the-light-of-christ?lang=eng&_suid=138120789221804063904526444486

 

Fan the flame of your Faith

Hey everyone

Happy birthday to Charlie Rae!! :)

This last week was a little crazy. I was studying, Elder Stewart was taking a shower, Elder Hobbs was doing dishes, and Elder Chandler comes running in and tells me that our pump is on fire!! so we go running into the back room where our water pump is, and smoke is coming out of it! So we hurry and shut it off. Needless to say, it broke. So we called a guy to come fix it. And he must have gotten lost, cause it took him 4 days to get there. haha. So we were without water for a couple days. But now its all good!

Elder Stewart and I have close to no investigators! so we've been doing a lot of finding. And a lot of door contacting. We got home the other day at about 7 o clock for dinner. and Elder Hobbs needed to go buy some Toilet Paper so I went with him to go buy some, and this kid about 20 years old told us to pray for him cause he had problems with drinking. so we talked to him for a bit, he showed us where he lives. and then we went and bought the TP. We went back to the house, then Elder Stewart and I left to go do some more contacting. We ended up at This kids house again and taught him and his family about the Word of Wisdom. by this time we only had about 30 minutes left. so we decided to go knock one more building. and as we got to the second to last door, a girl answered and we told her who we were and what we were doing and she said she was Muslim but she told us to talk to her brother. So he came to the door, he invited us in and we sat and talked to him about the Book of Mormon. He's really cool. His name is Neves. So moral of the story... The Lord blesses you when you're obedient.

This week I was reading the talk from Elder Holland, called Lord, I believe. Its a great talk. one of my favorites! i would recommend reading it, even though you've probably heard it already. I was also reading a book by Elder Bednar, and both talk about our testimonies. Elder Holland talks about how we will have doubts. and that's OK. But we should address those doubts in belief, rather than unbelief. and that we should always hang on to testimony that we have already gained. Elder Bednar talks about how we may have doubts and there will be little things that wont always make sense to us. But he talks about how we cannot deny the church today. We cant deny all the scripture, all the people, all the testimonies that have come from a man with close to no education, who didn't even live to be 40 years old. The point is that yes we will have doubts, No we don't understand everything, but we cant let go of testimony that we have once received and we cant deny all the people who have testified of this 'Marvelous work and Glory'. I am grateful for the Church in my life. I have seen it change lives for the better. There is not a person on the face of the Earth that would not benefit from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and being a member of His church. I love Him, and I love His Church.

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Money

District Conference

Hey everyone,

So tough loss. But I'd still rather be a Y fan :)

This week was pretty normal. Elder Stewart and I have 1 investigator. And he's getting baptized this Saturday, so after this Saturday we'll have 0. So we've been knocking a ton of doors. Its pretty funny to see people's reactions when two white guys show up at their door in shirt and ties. But other than that, nothing new.

We had District Conference this week. almost 700 people showed up! it was a big turn out. and that doesn't include the members from the provinces. The talks were good. President Merrill is able to use his Portuguese from his mission to talk. Sister Merrill has a missionary translate for her and then bears her testimony in Portuguese. They both gave great talks. I really Liked Sister Merrills, but I thought I'd share something interesting that President Merrill talked about. I read about this story in a book by Elder Bednar. He talks about how their was a man who found a pearl. And it was the most beautiful pearl he had ever seen. So he wanted to show it off to the world. So he paid a man to make a nice blue velvet box that was all decorated so he could show off his pearl to everyone. but to his disappointment he found out that people were no longer coming to see the pearl but to look at the box. Then the comparison was made that often times we focus on the Jewelry box, rather than the pearl of great price. For example Churches are a jewelry box. its the meetings and Spirit inside of them that is the Pearl. He then challenged us to focus on the pearls of great price. rather than the Jewelry boxes.

I love you all and miss you :) keep in touch.

love,

Elder Money

 

Rivalry Week

Hey everyone! so, rivalry week!! haha Im wearing my BYU gear. so hopefully they don't disappoint!!

This week was a little crazy. President Merrill pulled a fast one on us and did transfers a week early!! so we had to scramble to get all ready for them. Elder Tingey has been walking with Elder Stewart and I because his comp hasn't gotten here from Lubango yet. But he should be here tomorrow. We flooded our house again :) but not as bad this time. Church was really good this week, except we've been without energy for the past two or three weeks. so no piano or microphone. it makes things a lot harder!!

This week i just have a small little message. Last week when we had interviews with President Merrill he said something interesting to me about 'Spiritual Promises'. He talks about how we may have made spiritual promises in the pre earth life and how sometimes the Lord will guide us and help us to know what some of those promises were and its our responsibility to fulfill those promises. I fully believe that. I think about that all the time. Maybe when we have to go knock an entire building and i don't want to, but i think to myself that maybe theres someone in there that i promised i would find. it relates in all aspects of our lives. And I love being given those little insights or promptings by the Spirit that let us know what we should do or what we may have promised that we would do. Just something to think about.

I love and miss you guys!! keep in touch!!

love,

Elder $

GO COUGS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Safari

Hey everyone. So this was a pretty good week. a little crazy! I never thought id be in Africa, knocking random peoples doors and walking into random peoples houses on my birthday haha, but it was a good way to spend it. Happy birthday to Kylie!! Hope it was as good as mine ;)

One funny story this week, the way water works here in Africa is that every house has a water tank. and its connected to water from the city, which will fill up the tank. well, the city isn't very reliable here and we hardly ever get water. Lucky for us, we have a neighbor upstairs who is a member of the church who has a giant water tank and will let us steal some of her water. So in order to do this well ask her, and shell drop a hose down to our window, and we pull it in and stick it in our tank, then she turns it on and it fills up our water. our tank is 500 liters, so it takes a little bit for it to fill up. so Elder Stewart and i were sitting there waiting, doing studies and getting ready for the day and then I stopped reading and thought, i wonder if that's almost done? so i got up and walked out, Elder Stewart was in the bathroom, shaving. So i ask him if its almost done and he says ''i dunno, it should be close, go check'' and then we just hear splashhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! hahahaha so i bolted upstairs and asked her to turn it off. so we kinda flooded our house :) but no harm no foul.

We also went on a safari today with our zone, and President and Sister Merrill. It was a blast. We saw some monkeys, Giraffes, wildebeest, (the guys on Lion King who killed mufasa), and some antelope and little dear that look like Bambi. it was a blast!!

My mom sent me a book by Elder Bednar called Act in Doctrine. I just got done reading it and really liked it. It brought up an interesting concept that I had never given much thought. it talks about ACTING in doctrine haha. I often find myself trying so study as much as I can and learn as much as I can. But for what? it doesn't matter if we don't act on what we know. For example, we all know the phrase that goes something like ''Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime'' but even if you teach him how to fish, and he refuses to go fishing, he'll still be hungry! We have to LEARN, and then ACT in what we learned. Its not enough just to know that Christ was humble, and charitable, and loving, and etc.... we have to act on that, and become like him. When we listen to the General Authorities in Conference, we need to apply what we learned in our lives.

We had interviews this past week with President Merrill, and he told me something interesting. he said ''You know, I wasn't the best missionary, but I showed up for work.'' And that's really true. We don't have to be the best, and if we are, that doesn't really matter. What matters is ''Showing up to work'' So next time you learn something new, don't just listen and think oh yeah that's great.... Apply it, act on it. That is where true progress and success come from :)

Eu Amo vocês!! Obrigado por tudo. (I Love you, Thanks for everything)

Com Amor,

Elder $

 

 

(Pictures taken from Elder Tilley's blog)

 

 

Hey everyone

Hey everyone,

So another week, we had a baptism this past week and things are going pretty good. I heard BYU lost, but oh well, that just means they'll win more, when I get back :)

Things are going good, Elder Stewart and I are trying to manage two areas, because the other Elders are still waiting on their visas. So we have to take care of their area and our area. But things are going good. I love the people here! They're way nice. We have a family that we teach, and every time we leave their house, they give us some food to take home, its usually left overs from their dinner, but shes a way good cook, so we heat it up and eat it for our dinner :) And we have a recent convert who Loves learning about the Gospel, its awesome! hes been baptized for probably 3 months and he might already know more about the Gospel than I do haha. But hes even an example to me.

One thing I've been noticing lately, is how hard life is here. Its amazing to me to see some of the trials that people here have to deal with. No electricity, no clean water, little food. Living in cement houses. Working all day for hardly anything. They are a super humble people. Life in the states would be like heaven for them. I cant tell you how many times people have come up to us and asked us how they can get into the US. They deal with sooo many challenges, but at the same time, these challenges are good. Because of these challenges, the people are humble and selfless. And those are two things Ive been striving to work on. I believe that the problem with ALL evilness is selfishness. People who do drugs, are only thinking of themselves, People who steal, kill, etc, it all starts with selfishness. I started reading a book, that my mom sent to me, called Act in Doctrine, By Elder Bednar. And it talks about one of the distinguishing traits between The Savior, and any other human being, is that when the normal human being would turn inward, the Savior turns outward. We have Christ as our example. We know that he is the way. We can choose to follow his example or not to follow it. But i know, that when we follow the Example of the Savior, and look outward, and think of others before ourselves, we are blessed in every aspect of our lives. The Lord will bless us, He will bless our families. We will be happier. And we will Make our Heavenly Father happy. so with that said, Stop thinking of yourself, And be grateful for all the blessings you've been given, and use those blessings, and your life, to bless others.

I love you all!!! Thank you all for the support and birthday wishes.

Love,
Elder $

Same old same old

Hey y'all!

So every things going good in Angola. Nothing really new. Sometimes I don't really know what to write. haha. Its kinda the same thing over and over again. We wake up at 6:30, study, teach lessons, eat and sleep. That's the life of a missionary haha. So yeah if any of you have questions.... Those would help :)

But yeah I figured I'd just copy somethings I wrote to my mom:

I love my new area. I miss the people of Luanda 2. but Cassequel is beautiful!!!! ill try and take some pics and send them to you. We actually have two areas in ours, cause the other guys didn't get their visas. Our house is really nice. A/C and everything, except i broke our bunk bed this past week. haha. we had a super long day. and we got home at 6 to eat dinner, and i asked elder Stewart what we were gonna eat and he told me that we had to leave in ten minutes to go meet someone, and i was exhausted so i told him i was gonna go lay down then, and so i went to lay down for 10 minutes and i climb up on the top of the bunk bed and let myself fall, and the bed broke hahaha, no sleep for missionaries!! Elder Stewart came running in laughing and I just laid there. but yeah the house is nice, we have to conserve water, but we've actually been getting quite a bit of water lately. so its not too bad.

I feel like I've finally reached that point that every missionary goes through where they finally become 'weird'. haha. My mom use to tell me that missionaries have a lot harder time going home then going out. I always told her that she was wrong haha, but turns out shes right! Angola has finally become normal life for me. Cops and Soldiers walking around with guns everywhere. kids playing soccer in the streets. walking in between two lanes of oncoming traffic. walking through mud, sewage, and who knows what else! haha. I turned to my comp the other day, and it just kinda hit me. i said ''Look where we are. Did you ever think you'd be in Angola serving a mission?!'' haha. its sooo different but its awesome. I love it. Sister Weggland told us that if she was our mom, and saw the stuff we go through, shed probably be throwing up haha. (Don't worry mom :)) Its a different world here. But i have learned so much. Ive learned to always be grateful for what i have. Ive learned to be happier, especially with the simple things. And I've learned to be grateful for imperfect things. I've really learned to love life.

I'm grateful for all of you, and your support. I'm grateful for the Gospel. It really does bless lives. I see it every day. I'm so grateful that i have the opportunity to be apart of the church here in Angola. I love you all and miss you!!

Love,

Elder Money

Pictures from the week

Last picture taken from Elder Montgomery's blog