Por minha família,

   Things have been going great since I last wrote you guys! (no, still no house. You can read about our failure at    angolaluandamission.blogspot.com   also, there's a lot of pics of the people I'm spending my mission with!) But, other than that, I feel great! Fast Sunday was awesome. I paid the first fast offering of my life to the Cassequel branch. 1500 kws!!! That was really cool. Also, the whole day was just plain old spiritual.

   When it comes to investigators, it might take a few weeks, but I think that we'll be seeing the fruit of our labors soon. Our investigators have all started making some very big leaps and bounds. We had one who we had been teaching since before I got here who finally agreed to get married (the process is difficult here), D. agreed to fast today to quit smoking, and we had some investigators come to church for the first time.

   So do you guys remember C? She is quickly becoming the coolest person ever. She has 9 brothers and sisters. Currently, one of her sisters, H, will be baptized in June. Yesterday, C brought 5 of her sisters to church!!! Along with that, we've had lessons with her whole family, and the all have a Book of Mormon that she helps them all read. C is like a super genetically enhanced radioactive spider seed that we "planted". She is also helping another set of Elders fellowship one of their investigators!!! The Lord prepared her and her family, that is certain!

   Alright, mothers day: I'm not sure when your guys' church is, but I'll be on at 16h30 Angola time, so you'll get on at 9:30 Mountain time (I found out it's only a 7h difference because of dalight savings). I've copied down your username, so we'll see how it works. I've never used Skype, but the Walton's know how to use it, so we should be alright.

   I've been eating better. Mostly because I've started to actually spend my money. We get $600 per month, so I can buy grapes at $10 a kilogram! Plus, I buy juice pretty much everday. The juice here is soooooo much better than American juice. I'm not sure why. I've been eating good meat and cheese sandwiches, we found peanut butter for protein (hallelujah). And, our relief society is starting to feed us again!!! (let me know if I told you about that story. It's pretty funny) Also, we found Reeses' puffs and cinnimon toast crunch at a gas station. We will be returning to make a bulk buy today (it's authorized because it's actually cheaper than the other cereals that we usually buy.)

   Life in Angola is very neat guys. I need to take some pictures to show you what it's like here. Some things are super cheap, others insanely expensivo!! But the country truly is beautiful. It embodies Africa in it's own strange way. The people are just absolutely funny! (and racist, haha). Random fact: I'm going to try to find a book and learn Kimbundu.

   I love you guys. A. LOT. I miss you more than you know, and Mother's day will be SICK!!!

Muito de amor para vocês. Continua a ser último, e também, lembram-se sobre nosso Salvador para sempre, porque Ele é todo poderoso. ç.

 -Elder Alex Hobbs

Week 16

Família. Tudo bem?

   This week was very nice. We hooked up our fridge to a new outlet, so now we can have cold foods!!! Awesome. I'm attaching a few pictures for ya, but I guess that I can't attach videos because of some memory limit. LAME!!!

   I think about you all all of the time. Things here in Cassequel are great. We have had awesome progress with people.

   Let's start with D. We were going to drop him. He had received all of the lessons, and was not keeping ANY commitments, including chastity and Word of Wisdom commitments. When we went to let him go, the member that was working with us, A.P., started to tell him that it was time to change. She gave him a baptismal date for us. He said over and over: "imposível". We didn't even think it was possible, but I told Elder Perry that we shouldn't give up just yet.

   We went to his house, and gave him a picture of Christ (one that I may or may not have used in my luggage to deter theives) and some passalong cards to tape up all over his complex for him. We gave him a scripture study notebook, and told him we would check up on him twice a week, and call him each night. We gave him a priesthood blessing to quit alcohol. When I gave the blessing, I had the distinct impression to not say anything certain. So, I said "with work" before every blessing I promised. Well, we called him each night, visited, and asked him about his commitments and scripture reading each time. He changed completely. He dropped alcohol that day when we gave him the pictures. With 1 week of struggling, he gave up smoking. He also took our advice and made it a rule of his house not to allow his girlfriend to be alone with him at home. 

   We asked A. P. to verify, and she said that he had been doing everything that he said. He was the only one o f our investigators that came to all 4 sessions of general conference... and payed attention. He isn't the best scripture reader, and he doesn't always understand everything that he does read, but if the baptismal interview goes well on Wednesday, he will be baptised on Saturday. I don't know how strong his tesitmony is of the Book of Mormon, and that does scare me, but I do think that he is trying very very VERY hard to live his life the way the Savior would have hime live it. I am very anxious for Wednesday!!!

   All of our other investigators with baptismal dates are ones that "don't feel ready", but we know that they will be at the times of their dates. They are golden people, and are just a little nervous. So, we tell them that when we give baptismal dates, we KNOW that they aren't ready that instant, but that we want to give them a goal to prepare for it. Then, at our next visits, they are much more excited about baptism.

   Ok... so I might need to find a new Book of Mormon in Português... I sort of gave mine to an investigator... haha. We were on a division with a zone leader, so we were a triple. We went to a woman's home named Natercia. She said she was big into studying religious things, and she was open to anything. She showed us a book on fasting and talked FOREVER about it. She also challenged (didn't discredit, but challenged) everything that my companions said. So, I bore a testimony. It was a strong one. I told her about you guys, and how I don't know Português yet, and that I missed you. Then, I told her that I wouldn't be here if I didn't know that the Book of Mormon was true. We didn't have any give away copies with us, so I told her to take my personal copy and read, ponder, and pray about it until we could meet with her again and get her a new one. She accepted, and we left the lesson on a high note!

   Sounds like summer time is coming for you all! It's turning into the dry season now, but we're seeing more rain than the country has in a VERY long time. I hope all of you are having fun doing what you love: baseball, visiting family, getting sick, etc. haha

   I love you guys. I miss you and can't wait to see you again, but in the mean time, I'll just keep trying to improve myself!

I love you all. Fique bem. Têm força.

  -Elder Alex Hobbs

Week 15

Hey guys!

   So, easter was very fun 2 weeks ago. They celebrate Pasquão here on Saturday, not Sunday. There was Angolan Independence day on the friday before easter, and there was PARTYING everywhere! The President of Angola drove on the street for about 5 minutes, so he had military security on the sides for about 3 hours. Owen: you see police with AK47s and uzis a lot here.
   We had general conference yesterday. D, the investigator that I was very worried about came to all four sessions! It was way cool. Also, I saw Mike Hoover sing in the MTC choir that was there. Crazy eh? Então, things here are just awesome. We now have 3 baptismal dates, and we are very excited.
   Once again, I'm so sorry that there aren't pics and video for you this week (did you get the stuff from last week?), we're trying a new internet cafe today, but their computer doesn't allow hardware! I swear, I need to tell the guys to just go to that first one that we used to, because it's the only one that is reliable.
   Anyway, the week was pretty uneventful other than what I've told you. We've been working hard, all of my house is still way awesome, and the transfer is about to end. I don't think the KFC is open yet, but we're excited.
   I'm really disappointed that I can't get you the stuff I have for ya, because I have some very funny videos. But, I have good news for Mom: you might be able to send me mail. Apparently, the members of our branch that work for the gas companies get a mail service here, and smuggle stuff in for the elders. I've seen 4 packages come in. My biggest problem is that I can't send you guys stuff out. Hmm. One day... haha
   I love you all. I spend time every now and then turning on my ipod, playing "come thou font" on the Reflections of Christ album, and watching the pictures on my ipod. I love seeing your guys' pictures and hearing your voices each week. :)
   By the way: if you ever see the card game "BANG" in the store, I reccomend it. We played it today and it is very entertaining!

I love you all. Lhes-amo muito. Eu penso sobre vocês quasi cada dia. Prometo que vou trabalhar com força, e também, vou obter coisas fisch para vocês.

Lembram-se: Vocês podem orar qualquer tempo de qualquer dia. Nosso Pai Celestial ouve orações, e Ele sabe sobre suas afflições. Lhes-amo,

Elder Alex Hobbs

Three Months

Well, we've had some bad luck today. We went to the "good" internet cafe today, but the computor won't let me attach anything today. I have everything with me, but the cafe is pretty terrible today. Next week I'll ask Elder Perry to go to the other cafe so that we can attach stuff to our emails. Sorry guys. :(

On the other hand though, we had an awesome week. We got permission to use the generator at our appartment/chapel, so we have power when we really need it. Cecilia got baptised too! It was very nice. It was also really funny because we told her that she would be wearing white clothes and she showed up all in white! She also baked everyone in our appartment this HUGE cake. It was awesome. We have 2 more men with dates now. Satiro and Domingo. I really hope that they follow through with their commitments.

I got all your pics and vids though! They didn't take long to download at all! I loved it! I see that you're all doing very well and having fun! As for conference, tell Weston that I was watching President Uchtdorf's talk at the same time he was... sort of. It was about 7:30 at night here. But you know what I mean. We have this couple in our ward, The Weggelands, and they feed us this HUGE American dinner every Sunday. Brother Weggeland works for BP, and they had us over to watch conference with them. It was only one session, but I'll see the rest of it in Português in a week or two. 

So, mom: I am being fed! Granted, I have to have a peice of bread every now and then, but we usually get plenty of food for the week. They're opening the first KFC here in Luanda. I'm pretty sure it's the first American restaurant in Angola. We are all very excited!

How's owen doing? I didn't hear a whole lot from him this week. Tell him I'm excited to beat him at arm wrestling, because we have a branch missionary here who's name is Adão, and he loves to arm wrestle me. ;)

There's one street here that we walk down to get to an investigator's house where all the kids think that I'm magic. One week, I went down and did a few easy french drops with some coins for them and they loved it! A few weeks later, and a kid came up to me and said "oi! magia!" I didn't have any coins with me, so I figured that I would give him some cheesey trick and give up my reputation. I did the little trick where you "remove your thumb" from your finger, thinking he would just laugh and call me a phony. To my surprise, when I did it (I made a popping noise as I did), he got the most disgusted look on his face and screamed and told everyone to look! haha he actually thought I took off my finger! It was great.

Ok, this next part is for Weston: All of the Elders in the house that I live in (this includes me) sit together each night and talk about anime, twighlight, and most recently, pokemon. (We talked about Avatar too.) Boom. I'm still awesome  bro. ;)

Tell Luxana that her pictures are very good, and that she looks beautiful.

Mom, dad, I love you both so much. (Mom, you do luxana's hair just as good as the Angolans do) :)

I love you all, I can't wait to hear from you again and get my stuff out to you.

Amor,

 -Elder Alex Hobbs

(P.S. we were eating at a member's house and one of the kids was trying to pronounce my name and the name of Elder Sande.... what came out was Bob Sagget.) Literally. XD

Baptisms Scheduled

Well, howdy family!

   Ok... I swear on my life that I DO have voice recordings and pictures for you guys. However, the way our P Day has been, I don't currently have my camera and recorder for you with me. :( I'm super super super super sorry. I really did try to get that for you all. But, lacking this, I'll give you a really big email.

   Baseball is up again eh? Haha let's hope you all have a good season. I kind of miss the nice, cool weather and the soft grass. In Cassequel 2 (my area in Luanda), the place is very similar to New York in the way of crowdedness, haha. LOTS of people here. Someone was saying that Luanda was built for 600,000 people before the Civil War, but it now has somewhere from 1.5-5 million people! This makes for a lot of investigators too. We have a lot of people to teach during the week. So many, that it gets hard to do street contacting sometimes!

   Owen is into paintball now? Que fisch! Owen: the best feeling in the world while playing paintball is called "taking someone prisoner". It happens when you sneak up on someone and get close enough to stick your gun in their back and say "drop it." Then they just go out rather than get shot, haha.

   Sounds like IF is starting to change. The Lewis family moving to Texas? É mal-loco, na? Disse ele: "Oi, chef: Volte aqui denovo eh!"

   Weston, Owen, Luxana: never ever ever ever ever ever ever complain about dinner ok? Last week, we never got our lunch schedule, and we were without power for most of the week. I usually just had bread and a multi-vitamin for lunch. But I've had 3 REALLY big meals in a row now, so I'm good. ;)

   And now... to Weston: I hope you are happy about having hot water. Because, I NEVER get hot water anymore haha. Last week, I didn't even have a shower! (We used a bucket) haha. But it was really fun. It was kind of like we were camping, but we were at home. :)

   I continue to miss home... A TON. But, I also love it here very much. The members are the nicest people that you'll ever meet. The people on the street are the second nicest people that you'll ever meet. (Even when they're drunk.)

   Investigators:

 We have 2 people with baptismal dates all set up! Next week, we'll baptise Secilia. She is a miracle. She had a date before I came, but they met her one night when she offered the elders a ride. She had just left the Catholic church because she said that the Jesus on the Cross that was everywhere in the churches freaked her out, haha. The elders told her that we didn't have any of that in our church, and they invited her to come. Later, she got a Book of Mormon and read very quickly, understanding EVERYTHING, even the Isaiah chapters she said. She came to church every Sunday, and now participates in Institute! She was prepared by the Lord, and when she found the gospel, she just ate it up!
 With Secilia, we had another Elder tell us: "be thankful for her, she's the last person like that you'll get. Your miracles are over!" he said jokingly. The next day, we sat with a man named Satiro. He had been taught all of the required items for baptism, but then he just stopped coming to church and hearing the lessons. His girlfriend had told him that she didn't want him to be baptised. We were able to sit with him once and invite him to church. He came, and we were very excited! We sat with him again, and asked if we could sit with him and his girlfriend so that we could explain the church to her. She had dumped him. We told him we were sorry, but he told us that it was a good thing, and that his biggest doubt from being baptised just disappeared. His date is set in April.

   We're hoping to get 2 more people with dates this week. Last week was a lot of fun for me.  He knows the Old Testament very very well. He is also the master of parables! He'll whip out parables during lessons that I've never heard or thought of before! And they're always different!

   I really can't wait to see you all when I come home. I miss you all. But I've still got some work to do. ;) I love you all so much, and I'm continuing to learn a lot each day about... well, everything!

I have pics and recs for you. I promise I'll send them ASAP (I might be able to before P day ends... I'm not sure). I love you all,

    -Elder Alex Hobbs

Eleventh Week

Por minha família,

Angola is still just this awsome place. But, unless they transfer me down to Lobongo, I won't need to use my waterproof stuff. Mozambique is jungle, but Luanda is urban jungle. Lots of city, although it's broken up from war and degredation. I love the members and people here. I talk to many people everyday. They just want to FEEL something. Many people are disappointed when we tell them that church is only on Sunday, because they want to have a spiritual experience and then go back to drinking or other stuff.

    So do you remember when I said that you just find space to drive or to walk? haha I was in a taxi, and we were on a 2 lane road... that was being used for a 4 lane road! to make things interesting, one of the middle lanes was heading the opposite direction haha. But,we're always careful with everything we do. We work hard to teach as many people as we can. From what Elder Perry has told me, the missionary work here is growing faster than the branches can keep up. We´re hoping to establish a stake soon, but it could be a while off depending on what happens on the branch side of things.

   I'm not sure, but I might end up hating techno by the time I come home haha. We live next to a dance club. They are very lound and they play very heavy bass all night on Saturdays. haha. On Saturday, I decided I was finally adjusted to the time change, and then I was up all night with the dance club next to us haha.

    Mom: don't worry about me being fed! We get fed by members for lunch every single day! And it is so much better than cafeteria food. The only weird thing I've eaten is a dried seaweed dip.... it was ok, but very bitter. But I still miss your food mom. :)

    I don't have any pics vids or voice for you all yet, but I absolutely PROMISE that I will for you next week. It's been a little crazy here, plus I don't take my camera out proselyting because we're not allowed to take pictures of police, government buildings, or statues, and there are days where there are police EVERYWHERE, so I just don't want them to get the wrong idea. But, I'm gonna muster up some courage to take my camera out one of these days. I got your voice stuff, so keep sending it. I like to hear your voices.

     I'm just about out of email time, but remember that I love you all so so so SO very much. Owen, keep up on your grades, Weston, don't demand perfection, it comes with time (go watch on lds.org "mens hearts shall fail them" by Elder Russell M. Nelson. He talks about how perfections does not come in this life, and that all we need to do is to do our best to improve daily. Don't sweat it bro! :) ) Tell Chris that the AC DC cup is here in Angola with me, and that by George, it's coming home with me! haha. Luxana, you be good for mom and dad, and I'm excited to hear your voice! I love you mom and dad. I miss you so much.

              Love,

    Elder no-way-in-heck-weston-will-be-as-cool-as-me-Alex Hobbs

First letter from Angola

胵a para Angola!
I arrived safe and sound, and it is amazing here. The country is very diverse: there are places with millionaires, some places with buildings from the 70s, and other places with haition-esque shacks. I love the people here. They are very funny and very nice. They're also a little racist (they can't tell the difference between whites and chinese) hahaha. It is also sweltering hot in Luanda, so for my christmas present coming home, I want a coat. :) Sorry I haven演 gotten to the voice recorder yet, but I will have voice and pictures for all of you next week. The country really is beautiful. As soon as I become fluent in Portuese, I feel that I will fit in just fine here. The mosquitoes are very different from Idaho: There aren't very many at all. I have not used repellant since I've been here, and have not been bit, nor have I seen any. :D
To get around, we use these big "taxis" that are big blue and white vans. It usually just costs 100 kwanzas for a ride. (100 kwanzas~1 dollar) We're taught many people, but it seems like the biggest problem for our investigators (and for all people in general, members included) is keeping their appointments and getting there on time! haha. Sorry that this email is so scattered, but everything here is so different from the U.S. that I don't even know where to start! Traffic is crazy. Remember how you wait at a crosswalk for a car to stop or for a walk now sign? That is not the case anymore. you find a spot anywhere on the street, and wait for a gap in traffic. and then you go. Pretty much, you just find a path, and if you can walk there, you walk there. It may be on garbage or other things. I love it here. Everything is just absolutely amazing! Tell Chris that in 2 years, we're dropping rootbeer at the guys nights and bringing out "Blue", a soda here that just got bought out by Coke. Hopefully it comes to america, but if not, were getting it online. Any how, tell me about life at home and how everyone is doing. I have a lot more time to write email here.
When it comes to missionary work, this place is awesome! People will walk up to us and ask us about our badges. I believe that Angola truly embodies the scripture that speaks of people "not knowing where to find the gospel". They are very interested. The devil has had a lot of time to work here, and the people are tired of it. They are ready for this gospel. They had a big civil war a while ago, and they never want to go back.We don't have to shower everyday because we don't always have power. I have only have had 1 day in 3 with a full days worth of power. Its a lot like camping. I love it so much. I still need to learn how to barter though. You buy a lot of things on the street just not meat, loose leaf veggies, flavored water, or yogurt. These could kill you. but every thing else is good, and the food is great! Even the fake milk is good. It tastes like a cadburry creme egg after the chocolate taste goes away. mmmmmm. Any how, i need to write the branch pres now. I love you all so much!! email me!
Elder Alex Hobbs