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Waterfall at Tunda Vala P-day at Tunda Vala |
It was wonderful to
hear from you guys on Christmas and also another email today…it makes me feel
connected! So you guys are in Park City!
You must be having a blast! I wish I could see snow, it will be another year! People here have never seen snow, I served
with Elder Francisco and he is Angolan and he went to the MTC in Provo and saw
snow for the first time and he was amazed! He sent me some pictures, super
cool, Anyways another trip to visit the
relatives, I miss those times, sometimes I feel like I took it for granted…But
hey then I am home and then we can go up for spring break or something- right
mom?! And Happy Birthday Mason! I wish I
was there!
So there are two Elders
here that are going home soon. Elder
Wilson and Elder Wilhelm which means we should be getting someone new missionaries
next transfer and the following. I am
sad because Elder Wilson is my running buddy and he leaves this month. We run through Lubango and up by the train
tracks and up the mountain, it is so cool!
Hopefully they will send someone down who likes to run. I keep on taking the Vitamins but I have no
arm strength...I just do cardio!
Here in Lubango it is pretty chill, I love the
work here, the people and the atmosphere.
The work is going devagar…slowly... getting to know the area. Here in Lubango everyone is so nice. We get
huge rainstorms and they don’t leave their house if it rains. It is cool it’s
like tropical rainstorms! Way awesome. We got stuck in our member’s house for 2
hours the rain was sooo bad!
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River by Tunda Vala |
Well the festivities
are pretty normal here unless you are in the tribes. I am glad you liked my
singing on the video that the Merrill’s made.
I will try and download some more pictures; the internet is really slow
here. I know the Skype was frustrating and
cutting out but we did some good connecting and yes mom that was section 4 I
quoted in Portuguese. I just wanted to memorize it. I can read the Spanish off
of the cereal boxes so I can understand it.
I am sure that you can understand a lot of Portuguese as it is similar.
Hopefully my future wife will speak Portuguese that way we can talk without the
kids knowing like you and Dad did. I
think I want to teach my kids Portuguese also.
Our Mission is getting
small because the Visas are taking so long.
There are only 3 Elders that are younger than me! So the Elders from Huambo a province about 8
hours north came down by bus to stay with us for the holidays since it was just
4 of us here in Lubango... We met up
with them on Tuesday and we all got a Taxi and paid 50.00 to take us to Tunda
Vala which is like a 7 wonder for Angola.
It was amazing, a mountain, thousands of feet up…it’s indescribable! It also has famous waterfalls, it was too bad
we could not jump in…but so cool to see!
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Elders from Huambo |
We also got burritos at this place call Habibis. The only place open on Christmas Eve.
The next morning we
all opened up Christmas present from our families and we also did a gift
exchange for one another. I got a light
saber…so cool! Then we all skyped our families which took like 6 hours because
the internet is so bad here. Everyone looked so different especially my younger
siblings, it is so crazy! We had a
Christmas meal at President Marques house it was so good. On Thursday we said goodbye to all the Elders
and we got back to work. No one could
meet with us because it was the day after Christmas and we ended up contacting
that whole day. I took the Elders out to
lunch with the money I received from Christmas.
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Gift exchange with the Elders...Light Saber |
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Presents from Family Christmas Package |
Elder Wilson and I
were walking on Christmas night and we saw a homeless man carrying a trashcan
full of his stuff so we offered to help him carry it for him. He was so happy and smiled with his 6 teeth.
It was a wonderful feeling to be able to help him out.
So for New Year’s they
light off fireworks at the Cristo O Rei estatua...Christ King Statue, so Elder
Wilson and I watched the fireworks and then everyone went running into the
street and started chanting something, anyways it was way cool. On New Year’s
Day we hiked up to the Cristo O Rei Estatua! It is so big and huge up close!
And we found a chameleon bigger than my hand!
We took pictures of it and it also changed colors depending on what
color your shirt was! I loved the hike it was awesome! We grilled hamburgers on our new grill that
we bought and we met some new people this week, one of which was Jose. He is the advertising manager for Coke here
and his Boss is Mormon and that is how he came in contact with the church. He
also speaks English and has a wonderful testimony; he is a humble awesome guy
and wants what is best for his family.
He came to church this past Sunday. Lubango needs a great member like
him in the branch.
At church we had an
amazing turn out! So many people came,
the chapel was overflowing! We had over
93 people there. The primary teachers were not there so Elder money and I
taught primary. So it was hard to get
the kids to get focused and listen and 2 boys kept trying to fight each
other. It took both of us to try and
break them up and they were jumping on us and we were picking them up trying to
get them away. I thought about how I was
in church sometimes when I was younger and can relate to the teachers. I guess
I am getting a little taste of it now.
We played musical chairs and sang songs and had them draw pictures it
was fun but a lot of work.
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Primary Class- all ages in one small room |
Elder Money
and I are still doing a lot of contacting in this new area, the days and weeks
blend in so much I can’t possibly remember everything that goes on, but it is
the spiritual moments that matter, the
Lord is working through us like never before,
I am stronger with Him on my side, the best feeling is seeing the fruits
of our labors. It is a wonderful time to be a missionary and I couldn’t be in a
better place in the World! I hope you have a wonderful New Year’s celebration! Prospero
ano para voces! Amo Voces! Love Elder Dunkley Chau Chau!
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