August 27th

Família,

  Home sounds good. I was very happy to hear that Jake is doing
better. That picture had me worried because it was the first email I
opened! But I'm happy that he's doing better.
  My companion is doing well. He is very cool. He doesn't say much,
but he is very funny, and is very hardworking. He's learning the
language well, and likes the culture very very much. He is allergic to
chicken, however, which does present a little problem... that is about
90% of what people cook here for us! haha. Luckily, there is usually
something to substitute, and he's not a very big eater.
  Elder Hyde is a very nice missionary. He's from Salt Lake, and has
a girl waiting for him at home. He also has an adopted brother (I
can't quite remember from where), and his family sounds very funny.
  Things are good here. We've started commiting more people to
baptism. We now have 4 marked. I. missed her baptism though. She
isn't quite sure that it's what she needs right now. Although she is
very spiritual, she's really swamped a lot. She has two kids and works
a graveyard shift at a bar. Also, the father of the kids told her that
if she ever wanted a chance with him again, she could not be baptized.
He's a chump. But she's told us that she would pray and fast to learn
of what she should do. She's unfortunately falled away a little bit.
We'll keep working with her though.
  The branch could use some work. We have the most dysfunctional one,
haha. But the District President told the companionship before me: "do
anything you can to keep this branch from falling apart!" So, we kind
of have free reign to do what's necessary, haha. I've been personally
trying to train our branch mission leader. He's a 12 year old in a 25
year old's body. He's a great guy, but he's a lazy one too! haha.
  Our branch President is amazing though. I came to him with a member
who doesn't have a job and needs money in 2 months to pay rent. The
branch's fast offerings are empty. But, he went and found 2 or 3 job
options, and bought her family some food. President Pedro Batista is
awesome. Please pray for him!
  I've been eating... alright. haha. This branch hasn't established a
missionary feeding schedule yet (but it has come up multiple times
these past few  correlations and they're going to start one in a week
or two). Also, I've been a little low on cash since the card change we
had. I used $103.50 of personal money when we went without cash for a
while, and I may need to use just a little more. Don't worry, I get it
all payed back to me, and I should be fine with money this next week.
(Don't stress about this, I'll be fine mom!)
  I pretty much always have water and electricity now. It's election
week, and so the government has worked hard to make sure that nothing
faults. It will be an interesting week. 2 days before and 2 days after
election day, missionaries will come home at 6 pm as a safety
precaution, and we will not work on election day itself. We are the
first missionaries to be here during elections, and so no one is sure
about what will happen. We do know that tomorrow, Cuca, the main beer
here, will be 1/2 off for the President's birthday (campaign tool!).
That means a bottle of beer will cost 30kw. That is basically free.
Hmm.... Well, I guess we'll talk with more drunks! haha
  Our typical day is filled with a lot of walking. I've felt really
bad because I've only been hitting about 15 lessons a week, when 20-22
is average. We split the area, and all of the people we contact drop
through on their appointments and disappear. We've been working hard
at getting more people. Our current investigators are mostly pretty
far from baptism, or just live VERY far away. We've been given
instruction to work close to the chapels, because if someone who is
very faithful and ready to be baptized can't find the funds to get to
church, they can't be baptized. So we've been working closer to the
chapel to find more people.
  Sorry, the pics and voice messages won't upload here... this café
prohibits them. :(
  As for the pickpocketing: that's ancient history. It was just some
money and a phone card. Não faz mau. :)
  Yes, I got the package. The pen and blacklight are cool, but...
why? haha. I'm also very excited for my camera charger. THANK YOU
THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!! Packages are taking about a month to get
here now, and no one has lost anything in the mail, so I think just
about everything is safe to send. :)

  I hope that that letter was sufficient for you guys this week. You
have to make sure to tell me everything about home in the next one.
Hey, how are Owen and Luxana? I have not gotten a letter from them in
a very long time! Que isso?!
  Weston, you rock man. You ROCK. Take it easy on the Xbox though, ok?
Mom and dad, I hope that school starting will be good for you all. I
hope that everything in your lives runs smoothly. Stay well, and
patient!!!

I love you all so so so so so much.

Love, Elder Alex Hobbs

August 20th Use Google Translate

o my family,

  Esta semana correu muito bem. Estavamos a trabalhar muito para
achar pessoas. Infelizmente, muitas delas escolheram para faltar em
nossas lições. Mas, encontremos três pessoas novas. Um deles é um
pessoa de polícia. O nome dele é Gabriel. Nós ensinamos uma lição a
ele, e no fim ele disse: ''posso removar uma coise no meu bolso para
que posso orar?'' Dizemos: ''Sim, claro.'' Ele tirou uma pistola de
bolso dele. haha foi ingresado. Vitoria Angola!!
  O Chris e Summer parecem muito feliz, especialmente com o novo
trabalho dele. Desculpa para ouvir sobre Jake. Espero que ele vai
melhorar embreve. Vou fazer um jejum por ele. Têm que ter fé no
Senhor. Ele sabe o que é certo por ele.
  Escola, escola, escola! Boa sorte para toda a família por isso.
Espero que este ano vai passar suavemente! (Inclusive de você Pai!
Continue e não perde fé, ´ta bom? Você é muito intellegente. Vai
consegir!)
  Meu sinal não é muito bom hoje. Então infelizmente eu não posso
entregar mensagems de voz para vocês. Mas, tenho. Também, não recebi o
packote. Espero que ninguém roubou! :)
  Muito de amor, (boa sorte com o tradução),

Elder Alex Hobbs

P.S. O President Thompson deve chegar esta semana que vêm. YAY!!!!

August 13, 2012

Minha família,

   Wow. Chayden and Jordan are back? School starts in two weeks? Geeze, your guy's time in America sure is going fast! Things here seem to be slowing down! haha. I'm glad to see you all hiking again. You should all skip a baseball game or two and go up to Yellowstone! But I also hope that things will also calm down for you all as well. I miss you all and having fun with you all like that. I also miss the temple very much. I can't wait when other people see me with you there and call me skinny and happy! haha

   Things have been a little slow this past week. We're short on our investigators right now, and are doing some finding. It's coming really well. We should be back up to a full pool very soon. The training is also very nice. Elder Hyde is a blessing, and is teaching me more than I am teaching him. Thank goodness! I need it! We do have a baptism set up for next Saturday. Her name is I and she's really cool. She has a job as a bar tendor and she works very late nights. She gave up alcohol, and came to church very well, even after working the entire night before! She's missed church the past 2 weeks, so I hope that you guys will see some white pictures in 2 weeks. Cross your fingers! (and pray... in fact, if you have to, don't cross your fingers, PRAY! leave behind vain traditions of our fathers!) ;)

   We've been having a lot of fun though. Our district is full of very cool people, and our zone leader is doing much better than before, stress-wise. I also think that my language might be improving, as less and less people are going ''huh?'' when I speak. :)

   I'm having a hard ! I hope that you all stay super happy and enjoy life to the fullest and learn from your trials!

Love,

Elder Alex Hobbs

August 6, 2012

Malembê!

 

   I figured that the robbing thing would freak someone out, haha. Yea, about 2 or 3 pdays ago, Elder Chandler and I were riding some taxi trains home. I had some groceries in my hands and we were waiting at a big taxi stop. Some drunk guys came up and asked us for 10kw. We told them no and then proceeded to catch the taxi next to us. Some guy came up to me and stuck his hand into my pocket and stole my cheap wallet from the MTC. It had 40$ and a Saldo card in it (phone minutes). Then we caught the taxi home. Elder Chandler didn't lose anything, and no one got hurt (although, if I had yelled ''bandito'' when he stuck his hand in my pocket, the crowd would litteraly have ripped off the guy's head. Angolans hate theives.)

   That's the story. No more, no less. The only reason I told you was because I'm supposed to. But let's get to the good stuff:

 

   Elder Chandler went to Huambo, a province that held the past capital of Angola. He is so lucky. Provinances are so cool! But let's be on the same page: Elder Hyde is very cool! He is speaking Portugês better than I did when I came here. He's very nice and ready to learn. I'm just happy that I can be an influence in mission culture. It is going to be a great blessing.

 

   I'm very happy to hear that all is well at home. Keep praying Owen. He listens. Also, we will so totally watch Falling Skies in 17 months! But only if we hike table rock the next day!

   Weston is finally done with Boy Scouts eh? Time to move to Man Scouts! (Aka use your Eagle card to get out of car tickets and to get a job! haha) Good job bro. Scouts is a big acheivement, and it was always worth it in my life.

   I hope you all stay as happy as I am, and keep doing the primary answers alright?

 

   Amor,

 

Elder Alex Hobbs