I love Angola.....singing in the Branch Choir.... and Irmao Pedro!

I love Angola, it is such a wonderful place, it drives my stress wall sometimes, but it's home now, and I've grown to love it. I love the people here, everyone loves to talk, and so do I so its constant joy and conversations here. That's what I really like about it, I'm pretty sure that it was the same way in Spain (Mom) and Mexico (Dad).
Yes, Riley there is a piano here and no one in the ward is musical. I sing in the choir each week and we struggle to hit the notes, funny thing, we practice all the parts separate with the first voice and then the second and the third and then when we sing all together, everyone is singing the same note and it all blends in!
This week we were at the Bias family and they made us a frangetei which is a chicken wrap dish here, it was so good! We met with Geraldo and we talked about the Plano de salvacao it was awesome and he is preparing to get baptized next month on the 31st!
We had family night with Joao and Paula, always super fantastic with them, Olivia is getting ready to get baptized next week.
We met Aleshandro and we sat with him on the roof of his apartment building, super cool we were up 8 floors and we could see all of Luanda, we talked to him about how the Gospel can change his life, he is an illegal immigrant from the Congo so he has to get his citizenship in order to be baptized, we had a wonderful lesson with him.
We had a great lesson this week with Teodoro and his family, 7 people and we shared Moroni 7:45-47 and we all shared experiences where we had served and showed charity.
We visited with Irmao Pedro and Tani and read the Book of Mormon with them, we are hoping that he can save up enough money to go to Cuba and have the surgery done and that he will be able to walk in the future, it kills me every time we just get and walk out of his house so we move him into his wheelchair and go outside.  I wish he could walk, we just keep praying.

We are praying Irmao Pedro will walk one day...

Irmao Pedro and his wife Tani who cares for him

We met with Gelson, a 19 year old boy and I bore my testimony about why I was here in Africa and I told him just a year and a half ago I wasn't sure if I was going to go on a mission, but when I discovered that the Gospel was true, nothing mattered more to me and I wanted to be here, that I would not be here if  I didn't believe that it was true.  We could all feel the spirit in the room and it was strong, such a great experience.
On Sunday the electricity went off and so we went over to the church.  During Sunday school I was able to bear my testimony on service and shared Moroni 7:45-46. After church we met with Fransisco and we could tell that he was drunk and so we gave him a short message and encouraged him not to drink and we would meet with him again when he was sober.  This is a huge problem in Angola since the beer is cheaper than the water. We have to buy bottled water to drink. Here is an example of the water filter we just changed in our apartment.

Water filter- Before and After

Irma from the Branch gave us some food for lunch and as we were leaving to go home.  On the way two homeless guys approached us for money, and we gave them the usual response that we don't have any money to give, I went to go offer them a pamphlet in my backpack, then I saw all the food I had in my backpack and I offered them the food which they gladly accepted with the pamphlet about the church, awesome experience. 

Willing to try everything that is served here!

Well that was the week, super awesome, I love it, I hope that you are all doing well and that you are having success and that the Lord is able to accomplish things through each one of you!