Alô famíla!
My new area is great! It has a lot of potential for some really strong
family baptisms. Elder Harper is way cool. He's what you call a
''dying'' missionary, and he is very Christlike. He turned 21 yesterday.
Sunday, May 26, 2013
May 20, 2013
May 13, 2013
Família,
Wow! Skype was so much fun yesterday! I liked it a lot. It looks like Luxana is getting REALLY tall.
Well, I got transferred. I'm going to Benfica, the branch that split off from ours only 2 transfers ago. I'll be serving in the 'A' area with Elder Harper... and I'll be serving as a Zone Leader. I'm a little sad to go. Our area was finally starting to see a LOT of potential. We've been meeting some really cool people, and more are starting to progress. But Benfica should be nice. They seem really organized, and I hear that the branch President is awesome. Plus it will be nice to have a companion with more experience than me to teach me just a little bit more before I become the oldest. But the house isn't as nice as the one I'm in now... sigh... hahaha
But Skype was way good. You should all know: I took those parasite pills quite a while ago. As far as I know, I should be parasite free. I haven't eaten anything off the street since I took them, and my trips to the bathrooms are much more pleasant now.
Also, I think I might try and buy some CDs with Angolan music on them. They'll be a little more expensive, because I've decided not to buy street music anymore... I'm going all legal from now on. hahaha no more limewire for me!
But things are still going good here in Luanda. I'm about 99% certain I'll never see a providence while I'm here. But, I'm about 75% sure that I'll get one more area before the end of my mission. I really REALLY want to go to Viana. It'll be the last place in the city I haven't been, plus R and P are out there. It would be the perfect end to the mission. :)
Well, I love you all so much, keep on keepin on!
Elder Alex Hobbs
Wow! Skype was so much fun yesterday! I liked it a lot. It looks like Luxana is getting REALLY tall.
Well, I got transferred. I'm going to Benfica, the branch that split off from ours only 2 transfers ago. I'll be serving in the 'A' area with Elder Harper... and I'll be serving as a Zone Leader. I'm a little sad to go. Our area was finally starting to see a LOT of potential. We've been meeting some really cool people, and more are starting to progress. But Benfica should be nice. They seem really organized, and I hear that the branch President is awesome. Plus it will be nice to have a companion with more experience than me to teach me just a little bit more before I become the oldest. But the house isn't as nice as the one I'm in now... sigh... hahaha
But Skype was way good. You should all know: I took those parasite pills quite a while ago. As far as I know, I should be parasite free. I haven't eaten anything off the street since I took them, and my trips to the bathrooms are much more pleasant now.
Also, I think I might try and buy some CDs with Angolan music on them. They'll be a little more expensive, because I've decided not to buy street music anymore... I'm going all legal from now on. hahaha no more limewire for me!
But things are still going good here in Luanda. I'm about 99% certain I'll never see a providence while I'm here. But, I'm about 75% sure that I'll get one more area before the end of my mission. I really REALLY want to go to Viana. It'll be the last place in the city I haven't been, plus R and P are out there. It would be the perfect end to the mission. :)
Well, I love you all so much, keep on keepin on!
Elder Alex Hobbs
May 6, 2013
Family!
Well, mom, I made it! I now live in the nicest possible place for a
missionary to live in the entire city. Water and power never fault,
and it's nice. So I thought you would like to hear that. We moved on
Saturday, and it was way fun.
It was a harder week. Low lesson count, stress in the house, and a
few other things, but I'm better now. Mother's day this week! I'm way
excited. I'm scheduled to skype at President Thompson's at 6pm Angola
time, which should be 11am Idaho time. If that's wrong... well, you
know what to do. :) But it's going to be so much fun. I'm at a
member's house right now. Her name is B, and she is the funniest
person you will ever meet. She's what you call a 'Mae grande' or a Big
Mama. It reminded me of her when I read Jake's story. But she's very
loud and demanding, and she's pretty much my Angolan mom. She'll laugh
at everything, and you can never make a visit with her without eating
something. Her and her two daughters are pretty much the same age on
the inside though. None of them can wake up until about ten o'clock.
We had 2 baptisms. T and B got baptized, and it was nice.
I'll try and get pics the next time I'm at a trustworthy location.
Bibi came late to his confirmation, so he'll get confirmed next week.
But he came to watch us play some soccar today, so I think he'll be
strong as long as the missionaries walk with him.
I wrote my talk today. It is going to be AWESOME! I really hope
that some hometeaching comes out of it.
I got your letter! Thank you so much for the priesthood line of
authority as well. I've been wondering about that for a while. I also
really liked the story about Grandpa Earnie. And big thanks to mom for
the encouragement. Luxana: YOU ARE AN ARTIST!
Well, I'll see all of you on Sunday! I'm excited!
Amor,
Elder Alex Hobbs
Well, mom, I made it! I now live in the nicest possible place for a
missionary to live in the entire city. Water and power never fault,
and it's nice. So I thought you would like to hear that. We moved on
Saturday, and it was way fun.
It was a harder week. Low lesson count, stress in the house, and a
few other things, but I'm better now. Mother's day this week! I'm way
excited. I'm scheduled to skype at President Thompson's at 6pm Angola
time, which should be 11am Idaho time. If that's wrong... well, you
know what to do. :) But it's going to be so much fun. I'm at a
member's house right now. Her name is B, and she is the funniest
person you will ever meet. She's what you call a 'Mae grande' or a Big
Mama. It reminded me of her when I read Jake's story. But she's very
loud and demanding, and she's pretty much my Angolan mom. She'll laugh
at everything, and you can never make a visit with her without eating
something. Her and her two daughters are pretty much the same age on
the inside though. None of them can wake up until about ten o'clock.
We had 2 baptisms. T and B got baptized, and it was nice.
I'll try and get pics the next time I'm at a trustworthy location.
Bibi came late to his confirmation, so he'll get confirmed next week.
But he came to watch us play some soccar today, so I think he'll be
strong as long as the missionaries walk with him.
I wrote my talk today. It is going to be AWESOME! I really hope
that some hometeaching comes out of it.
I got your letter! Thank you so much for the priesthood line of
authority as well. I've been wondering about that for a while. I also
really liked the story about Grandpa Earnie. And big thanks to mom for
the encouragement. Luxana: YOU ARE AN ARTIST!
Well, I'll see all of you on Sunday! I'm excited!
Amor,
Elder Alex Hobbs
April 29, 2013
Família,
It was a long week. It was pretty hard just because I was feeling a
little overloaded.
We were a little low on money, so I had to
supplement, but most of the money I pulled out was for personal items
and souveniers, and I plan on not pulling too much more out for a long
long time... let me know if it gets to be too much! But I'm better
now. I had some good talks with people, and I feel great and excited
for the coming week. Mom: thank you so much for all the stuff you
helped me with and cleaned for me. I get it now. :) Weston: you owe
mom something for help on your election stuff! Haha! But seriously,
congratulations broski! You are more popular than I was haha!
Success story for the week: H and A finished all of their
documentation for marriage! They delivered everything to our branch
marriage counselor, and they plan to get married on the 31 of May, and
they'll get baptized the next day. Á final!
But other than that it was a slow week. We watched conference,
which was nice, but I didn't get a lot out of it. We were in the back
and couldn't hear, so I'll have to wait for the Liahona to come out to
us. Plus, Moçambique straight up stole our spotlight! haha just
kidding.
Well, I love you all very very much, Owen, you can totally use my
rubic's cube. Á vondade!
Elder Money says hi!
It was a long week. It was pretty hard just because I was feeling a
little overloaded.
We were a little low on money, so I had to
supplement, but most of the money I pulled out was for personal items
and souveniers, and I plan on not pulling too much more out for a long
long time... let me know if it gets to be too much! But I'm better
now. I had some good talks with people, and I feel great and excited
for the coming week. Mom: thank you so much for all the stuff you
helped me with and cleaned for me. I get it now. :) Weston: you owe
mom something for help on your election stuff! Haha! But seriously,
congratulations broski! You are more popular than I was haha!
Success story for the week: H and A finished all of their
documentation for marriage! They delivered everything to our branch
marriage counselor, and they plan to get married on the 31 of May, and
they'll get baptized the next day. Á final!
But other than that it was a slow week. We watched conference,
which was nice, but I didn't get a lot out of it. We were in the back
and couldn't hear, so I'll have to wait for the Liahona to come out to
us. Plus, Moçambique straight up stole our spotlight! haha just
kidding.
Well, I love you all very very much, Owen, you can totally use my
rubic's cube. Á vondade!
Elder Money says hi!
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
April 22, 2013
Família,
Wow! What a good week for email! Do this more often!
I loved that talk. I was tearing up. Go ahead and use as many
examples of Angola as you all want! Things here have gotten a lot
easier with all of the challenges of temporal things, but... it's
still pretty intense, haha people need to know that! And you should
all be happy to know that Elder Money has made a full recovery. It was
just some virus, according to the clinic. I felt bad that he was so
sick, but it passed, and we're ready to hit it hard this week!
Well, we were going to have a baptism, but our candidate didn't
show up. Pretty annoying. We're going
to have a few chats with mister BB about this one. But other than
that, I'm really excited for the coming weeks. "..." finally came
around with living the law of chastity, so we'll see his baptism soon.
The thing I'm WAY excited for is this family that we're teaching.
The mother's name is M, and her and her four kids are set up for
baptism on the fourth of may. M went to the Universal church (the
one that got shut down), and never felt that her baptism was valid
because the spirit that she felt went away. She knows doctrine
amazingly well. She understands everything, and she's felt the Spirit
in church, so we think that she's ready. The really cool story here is
that of her daughter, E. On the first
lesson, she said: ''to be sincere, I don't believe in God... He wasn't
there when I needed him.'' So we invited her to read and pray about
the Book of Mormon, and to ask God if He was there. She did. It was
very surprising, because most people don't understand or don't read at
all, and she understood it perfectly, and read quite a bit. We asked
her to read one chapter, but she read 4! Then she prayed and felt a
''relieving feeling''. They all loved church, so... baptism!
But other than this, the week went pretty slowly. But I LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Elder Alex Hobbs
Wow! What a good week for email! Do this more often!
I loved that talk. I was tearing up. Go ahead and use as many
examples of Angola as you all want! Things here have gotten a lot
easier with all of the challenges of temporal things, but... it's
still pretty intense, haha people need to know that! And you should
all be happy to know that Elder Money has made a full recovery. It was
just some virus, according to the clinic. I felt bad that he was so
sick, but it passed, and we're ready to hit it hard this week!
Well, we were going to have a baptism, but our candidate didn't
show up. Pretty annoying. We're going
to have a few chats with mister BB about this one. But other than
that, I'm really excited for the coming weeks. "..." finally came
around with living the law of chastity, so we'll see his baptism soon.
The thing I'm WAY excited for is this family that we're teaching.
The mother's name is M, and her and her four kids are set up for
baptism on the fourth of may. M went to the Universal church (the
one that got shut down), and never felt that her baptism was valid
because the spirit that she felt went away. She knows doctrine
amazingly well. She understands everything, and she's felt the Spirit
in church, so we think that she's ready. The really cool story here is
that of her daughter, E. On the first
lesson, she said: ''to be sincere, I don't believe in God... He wasn't
there when I needed him.'' So we invited her to read and pray about
the Book of Mormon, and to ask God if He was there. She did. It was
very surprising, because most people don't understand or don't read at
all, and she understood it perfectly, and read quite a bit. We asked
her to read one chapter, but she read 4! Then she prayed and felt a
''relieving feeling''. They all loved church, so... baptism!
But other than this, the week went pretty slowly. But I LOVE YOU ALL!!!
Elder Alex Hobbs
April 15, 2013
Família,
Weston's ads are so funny! I love the Edgar Allen Poe ads. That was
clever. That really is too bad that you have to run against a friend.
I remember, when I ran, pretty much all of the class offices only had
one competetor, so most people just signed up and got elected! I won't
lie though: as I read the ones of the last airbender, I said to
myslef: ''nub''. hahaha!
Things here are all going well. We had a baptismal interview for
BB, and he'll be getting baptized on Saturday. He's a weird one. But
he keeps his commitments and goes to church, so he's good to go!
News is slow. The week was good, we had a lot of lessons, and I got
to go on a division with Elder Wilson. He was with me in the MTC, and
we get along really well. President Thompson has his birthday
tomorrow. We were at a member's house, and they showed us a facebook
post. On the facebook page ''kuduro de Angola'', the page owner took a
picture of some missionaries walking out of a store and wrote: 'I
always see these two guys walking in white shirts, two by two, and
with backpacks on. Who are they?' We read some of the comments and
thought that they were really funny. The good news is that all of the
ones that were false never got any likes, while the ones where people
said: hey they're nice got about 6 likes each. These were some of the
comments: 'I don't know'. 'They're missionaries! Here's a link to the
lds.org site.' 'Are they terrorists?' 'They believe in polygamy and
they're all pediphiles!' 'Mit Romney is their leader! He's racist
too!' 'Their headquarters is in Salt Lake City. The church made
millions of dollars when the olympics were there in 2002!' 'I talked
with them once. They were really nice guys.' 'I see them a lot in the
airport around 10pm.' 'Don't worry about them! The muslims are the
ones that are invading! We need to stop the real threat to our
country! Stop the muslims!'
We were just laughing and laughing. But the member we were with is
Lassalette, the governor-senator, and so she was mad and is going to
put an ad about us in the local paper! That will probably help with
contacts a lot!
But I'm doing well. No complaints. I love to hear that good things
are going on back at home. Keep me updated on EVERYTHING! I'm excited
but scared. I remember telling Elder Walker how crazy it was that he
only had 9 months left... and now he leaves in 5 weeks! That's where I
am!!!!! I can't wait to come home, but I don't know how I can leave. I
definately am excited to share advice for Weston and his mission, and
I also have some plans to party it up with Owen once he's left.
Paintball anyone? What do ya say Owen? Plus, I still have my list of
things to do with Dona when I get back!
The heat is down, but the humidity is up! I love you guys!
Elder Alex Hobbs
Weston's ads are so funny! I love the Edgar Allen Poe ads. That was
clever. That really is too bad that you have to run against a friend.
I remember, when I ran, pretty much all of the class offices only had
one competetor, so most people just signed up and got elected! I won't
lie though: as I read the ones of the last airbender, I said to
myslef: ''nub''. hahaha!
Things here are all going well. We had a baptismal interview for
BB, and he'll be getting baptized on Saturday. He's a weird one. But
he keeps his commitments and goes to church, so he's good to go!
News is slow. The week was good, we had a lot of lessons, and I got
to go on a division with Elder Wilson. He was with me in the MTC, and
we get along really well. President Thompson has his birthday
tomorrow. We were at a member's house, and they showed us a facebook
post. On the facebook page ''kuduro de Angola'', the page owner took a
picture of some missionaries walking out of a store and wrote: 'I
always see these two guys walking in white shirts, two by two, and
with backpacks on. Who are they?' We read some of the comments and
thought that they were really funny. The good news is that all of the
ones that were false never got any likes, while the ones where people
said: hey they're nice got about 6 likes each. These were some of the
comments: 'I don't know'. 'They're missionaries! Here's a link to the
lds.org site.' 'Are they terrorists?' 'They believe in polygamy and
they're all pediphiles!' 'Mit Romney is their leader! He's racist
too!' 'Their headquarters is in Salt Lake City. The church made
millions of dollars when the olympics were there in 2002!' 'I talked
with them once. They were really nice guys.' 'I see them a lot in the
airport around 10pm.' 'Don't worry about them! The muslims are the
ones that are invading! We need to stop the real threat to our
country! Stop the muslims!'
We were just laughing and laughing. But the member we were with is
Lassalette, the governor-senator, and so she was mad and is going to
put an ad about us in the local paper! That will probably help with
contacts a lot!
But I'm doing well. No complaints. I love to hear that good things
are going on back at home. Keep me updated on EVERYTHING! I'm excited
but scared. I remember telling Elder Walker how crazy it was that he
only had 9 months left... and now he leaves in 5 weeks! That's where I
am!!!!! I can't wait to come home, but I don't know how I can leave. I
definately am excited to share advice for Weston and his mission, and
I also have some plans to party it up with Owen once he's left.
Paintball anyone? What do ya say Owen? Plus, I still have my list of
things to do with Dona when I get back!
The heat is down, but the humidity is up! I love you guys!
Elder Alex Hobbs
April 8, 2013
Family,
The rain fell this week... literally. We had a HUGE rainstorm that
pretty much changed the face of Luanda. I heard that some people in
some of the deeper bairros died. All missionaries are alright though.
We did some service and helped some of our neighbors bail water out of
the house.
We taught a lot this week. We saw H and A two nights ago...
I forgot how much I loved that family! Their marriage is still a
little far off, but they've set the goal to have all documents
completed by April 20, and I've mentally set a baptismal date for the
4th of May. But they are so cool. We had an awesome lesson with all of
them. Their family reminded me a little of what ours was back in the
day, so I had a lot of fun.
We have a couple of investigators with baptismal dates that are a
little on the weird side... T is a man who claims that dark spirits
follow him, and then followed his ex-wife when they separated...
because of this, he wakes up at 2 and 4 in the morning to pray... and
he had a dream that all the missionaries got around an imbondeiro tree
and burned it down... but he loves coming to church, so we'll see what
happens!
As for my painting, I'm not going to get it from the Benfica praça!
Elder Money had them do one of the first vision, and it looked like a
4 year old drew it! It turns out that most of the vendors don't even
know any of the artists whose paintings they sell! haha. But that's
alright. I've been doing good.
We saw the priesthood session of Conference yesterday. I really
liked Elder Beck's talk on becoming a better minister unto others
through your words and actions. That's what I'm going to work on!
Well, I would say have Owen join the choir! I remember him having a
really good voice! Plus, there are benefits from choir... trust me on
that! You get to do some cool stuff. Do it Owen!
Well, I love you all so much. I'm excited for mother's day soon!
Keep on keepin' on!
Elder Alex Hobbs
The rain fell this week... literally. We had a HUGE rainstorm that
pretty much changed the face of Luanda. I heard that some people in
some of the deeper bairros died. All missionaries are alright though.
We did some service and helped some of our neighbors bail water out of
the house.
We taught a lot this week. We saw H and A two nights ago...
I forgot how much I loved that family! Their marriage is still a
little far off, but they've set the goal to have all documents
completed by April 20, and I've mentally set a baptismal date for the
4th of May. But they are so cool. We had an awesome lesson with all of
them. Their family reminded me a little of what ours was back in the
day, so I had a lot of fun.
We have a couple of investigators with baptismal dates that are a
little on the weird side... T is a man who claims that dark spirits
follow him, and then followed his ex-wife when they separated...
because of this, he wakes up at 2 and 4 in the morning to pray... and
he had a dream that all the missionaries got around an imbondeiro tree
and burned it down... but he loves coming to church, so we'll see what
happens!
As for my painting, I'm not going to get it from the Benfica praça!
Elder Money had them do one of the first vision, and it looked like a
4 year old drew it! It turns out that most of the vendors don't even
know any of the artists whose paintings they sell! haha. But that's
alright. I've been doing good.
We saw the priesthood session of Conference yesterday. I really
liked Elder Beck's talk on becoming a better minister unto others
through your words and actions. That's what I'm going to work on!
Well, I would say have Owen join the choir! I remember him having a
really good voice! Plus, there are benefits from choir... trust me on
that! You get to do some cool stuff. Do it Owen!
Well, I love you all so much. I'm excited for mother's day soon!
Keep on keepin' on!
Elder Alex Hobbs
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