Domingo's Baptism!!

Domingo's Baptism- Elder Money and I

President Marques and Domingos and I

Domingos

One of my favorite spots in Lubango is the road in the picture I sent last week. It has the best view and scenery and one of my favorite members lives out there…Rui, he is really fun.  I do feel way far away from home but at the same time I feel closer to my home each day…Angola. It just feels like where I am supposed to be.  The people here are incredible, especially the members, because there is more temptation here than anywhere I have seen…even more than Las Vegas! Anyway the members here fight for the church and stand up for it and the Angolans are very religious and are proud of their religion.  It is really cool when you get a fully converted Angolan in the church because they help out a lot.

So it’s true that this mission is not for whimps! We also have some new Elders in our mission and one is from Samoa…they have never seen an islander before so it will be a neat experience.  So the only vice that the Elders have is food…food is the best thing on the planet! But here in Africa…sometimes they don’t always have the best food I can’t wait for American food!  Jensen…one year until Chick-fil-A!!

We had our first baptism down here in the city of Lubango, Domingos was baptized on Saturday.  It was such an amazing experience.  President Marques baptized him and then the next day on Sunday I was able to confirm him.  It was the first time I had confirmed someone   It was great to see the fruits of our labors since being here for 2 months.

We had a guy show up at our little branch who lives in Fort Worth Texas…what are the odds?? He was an American and spoke Portuguese and had served a mission in Portugal in 2003.  It felt like a piece of home was there with me at church!

Also finally our member friend who is close to one of our investigators, Jorge returned from a military project.  We will be working with him to be baptized on the 22^nd of this month.  Keep praying for him.  We also met with a man named Miranda and has lived in Angola for 60 years he was given to us as a reference from someone in Luanda. He has a daughter with a mental disability and he is concerned about her, we had a wonderful lesson with them and taught the Plan of Salvation.  We are hoping to unite the family again so that they can be sealed.

We worked hard this week but it seems  like everyone here seems to be getting sick, as well as I. This week I felt like I had Malaria, on Thursday night I got hit with bad chills and a high fever.  I was a battle of trying to stay warm and cold at the same time, truly one of the most miserable nights on my mission.  I do not ever want to get sick again! The next day I was not able to go out in the beginning and I tried to sleep it off but I kept feeling fluish, I called Sister Merrill and she told me to take some Tylenol and if I didn’t feel better the next day to go and get a Malaria test.  So later on that day we managed to go out and teach a recent convert, that was a difficult lesson, still being sick but that night I said a prayer and took some Tylenol and I woke up feeling a little bit better in the morning and I was able to continue working.  I felt a little bit of it here and there the last few days but thank goodness I don’t think I have Malaria.  I think it was some form of Dengue Fever or something like that, which is common among the Elders here.

On Thursday we tried some of our appointments and they kept falling through so the Lord had another plan for us in mind.  We went and visited all of our recent converts and less actives which just happen to be the only people that could meet with us.  It was a wonderful week of growing closer with the members.  Which relationships will last through the eternities.  I love the members here they are so wonderful and fun.

So much fun playing with the kids in the Neighborhood!

We had a lot of work and lessons this week, working through the members and references is the way to do missionary work.  I am realizing that in Lubango and it is something I will continue to do for the rest of my mission. We have had a lot of youth show up for seminary and institute.  We are seeing a lot of growth in the members here in Lubango.  We work well with President Marques and are able to communicate well with him and the members, which is exactly what i think the Lord intended, and its exactly what we wanted to happen to make sure we would have a sure foundation.  So that it can one day support 2 branches or even a Stake in the future.  So Lubango is pretty much the most beautiful part of Angola, I think from all the mission areas, the people here are way nice and want to listen to the Gospel message.  They are a super humble and amazing people.

So super exciting news...Elder Money and I are getting bikes! It's been approved by the Mission President, we already found a good pair...so be expecting photos of me on the bike!  It will be amazing and it will help with the work because taxis here do not take us where we need to go and there are only 3 routes so we will be on bikes a lot.  The roads here are wider an less people and it's a lot calmer, and that is why the President is allowing it.

We met a group of kids in the neighborhood that we played games with and chased them waiting for our recent convert to get home, it was fun, I ripped the pocket on my shirt though.
Don't stop praying for Africa! Elder Dunkley

Wanted to try on my glasses!