In Angola- Bom dia todo do mundo!

President , Sister Pinto and me

There's so much to tell, where to even begin. Elder Smith and I saw a lot of miracles our last week together, but now it's time to see miracles in Africa! The 2 days of travel went by really quickly because I got to meet my grandparents for a few hours in the San Francisco airport and I got to travel to Angola with 5 other missionaries, so that was really fun. We had some German food at the airport in Frankfurt, German food is goood, but now I get to eat African food.

Key to our front door

When we arrived, we got to eat lunch with President and Sister Pinto at a really nice restaurant. I ate a chicken heart for the first time, those things are weird. Overall, the food was pretty awesome though. My companion’s name is Elder Lima. He's from Brazil and doesn't speak much English, so I need to learn Portuguese really fast. Our apartment is super nice, nicer than the apartment I was in the US actually. We have a lot of space and I get my own bathroom and shower to myself! We also have running water always, which I guess isn't super common. The schedule here is different because of the culture and because of the heat, but because it's so hot and humid, I don't need to iron my clothes, so there's a positive.

The people here are so awesome. Everyone likes us here, or they at least respect us, the security guards pay us the most respect by far. The little kids sometimes call us Chinese, I never thought someone would call me Chinese, but it's pretty funny. There's so many little kids out in the streets, it's crazy, all one big party I guess. My area is called Patriota, it's a super nice area for the most part. Supposedly not as many people get taught and baptized here, but our first lesson we put someone on date for baptism! Jojo is an awesome 14-year-old boy, super receptive and ready for the gospel. We also put Amelia (also 14) on date for baptism too! So now we have 3 people we're teaching that have a date to be baptized, which is super awesome. Elder Lima and I are already seeing miracles here.

The lesson where we invited Amelia to be baptized we taught the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Lima is an awesome teacher but he makes sure I get a chance to teach too. That was my first time teaching about the first time when Heavenly Father and Jesus appeared to Joseph Smith during a lesson in Portuguese, so that was really cool. The first vision always brings the spirit to any room, or in that case, out next to a house.

He[Joseph Smith] described what happened next:

“I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

“… When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Joseph Smith—History 1:16–17)

Amelia wants to be taught all the other lessons, and her date to be baptized is November 9th!

Also, Elder Holland, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, is coming to our mission on November 14th! I think it's the first time an apostle has ever come to this mission, so that's super cool. I've been so blessed to see so many great servants of the Lord on my mission already.

nicely appointed kitchen

Nice biscuits I eat

On Sunday, we had stake conference, a meeting where all of the congregations in Luanda meet together. There's only one stake in the entire country, so tons of people were there, at least 1000 I think. It was held at a giant conference building, but still didn't fit all the members. Almost all the missionaries were there too, so we got to meet each other and take pictures, I should've brought my camera, oh well. The members are so amazing, and the speakers were awesome, even if I could only understand bits and pieces. The stake President compared getting baptized to a honeymoon after getting married, that everything is so amazing at first, but after a while things get harder and we may lose our testimony or let other things come before the gospel. He talked about always trying to strengthen our marriage, or our testimonies throughout our lives, so that we can continue to be converted to the gospel and to be examples to others that are experiencing difficulties with their testimonies.

View from my apartment window

Other things; the sidewalks here are super tall, 3 or 4 feet high. I've seen Porsches and other really nice cars, and then well, what you would expect from Africa. We either walk everywhere or take taxis. (we walked for over an hour after stake conference to get to our lunch appointment!) Taxis are really cheap so that's nice, but there aren't too many, so it takes a while to get one. Everyone is so awesome here, we're constantly teaching members and investigators. I haven't even gotten sick yet, so that's pretty sweet. It was really weird going from snow in Spokane to hot Africa, but now I actually get to wear my short sleeve shirts. Women here carry stuff on their heads, tons of it! I need to take a picture, it's crazy. Also, driving here is insane, yet I haven't seen a single crash, even though they basically have no rules and they don't have stop lights or stop signs. Everyone eats funge here, it's pretty strange, but I'll need to get used to it. I'll send more pictures of people next week hopefully.

Eu amo voces! Ate proxima semana!

Elder Madsen

fletcher.madsen@missionary.org

https://fletchermadsen.blogspot.com/