Pictures from the Mission President

New Pictures from Angola and E-mail February 11

                                                              District Conference
                                                     

Our apartment building

                                                         

Elder Kelsey on the way to our apartment

Ola, this week was a little better! we did a lot of work like always.  It was kind of a short week because we had conference and training. The training was really good. Elder Cook of the 70 came and spoke to us and to the people of Angola. It was really good I thought it applied really good here. Also Presidente Kretly spoke he spoke in Portuguese so haha I didn't understand a ton of that, but he is a really awesome president and he has the spirit with him. But this week me and Elder Kelsey have been trying to get everyone to do what they need to do. it has been better than last week more people showed up to church and I think we have more Progressing investigators, so that's good. We are still working on Kifica he keeps falling back into his ways and drinking a little? which is horrible but hopefully soon he will recognize what he is doing and fix it. But everything is going good here. It is still hot and I don't think I'm used to that and the humidity, cause I still sweat a ton. But I haven't got sick yet, except I did kind of have a little cold which is weird I don't know why? BUT!!!! my parents packed me with 2 year supplies of medicine and vitamins so I took that haha!! It is getting better no worries. The power never really goes out but the other night it went out all night and in the morning I took my first shower in the dark it was weird. Our apartment is lucky and always have energy and water just on occasions it will go away. The food like I said before isn't bad just a lot of chicken, rice, beans, and noodles. Also, and my secret recipe is egg sandwiches if i'm home and i'm hungry. Simple and fast. The eggs and the milk here can last for months sitting on the shelf it is really weird, good thing I only drink milk with cereal. Oh yeah and the cereal hah corn flakes every morning, yeah they pretty much have no flavor its great!! but usually we drink a lot of pop, juice, and water.  Usually if we go to someone's house and they offer a drink they will give us a Coke or Fanta they are pretty good.  The little kids here are super awesome you will be walking down the street and they will yell AMIGO!!!! and you just give them thumbs up and say FIXE (cool). yeah its great.

Well I hope you have a great week I pray for you all back home everyday. I know you all will get blessed for having a missionary out, Elder Cook even said so. I love you all so much and God be with you!!!

Love you all,  Elder Banta

Email From January 28th

Ola Everyone,

how is everything going back home?? bet you all are loving the nice Cold weather!!! This week was pretty good went by pretty fast as always! it just keeps getting hotter and hotter it is so crazy!! Constantly im sweating like a beast!! it doesnt feel to great but sooner or later im sure ill get over it maybe! but this week was good we had 8 investigators come to church so thats good the week before only like 2 were there! But this week we dealed with a guy named Kafica he is a really smart guy. He has problems with drinking. So one day we went over to his house and he was drunk and he was getting in a fight with another man. My companion luckly stopped it from going on and we gave him a big talk. Elder Kelsey has been working on him for a while but he keeps going back to his old ways. But this week after all this happened i think he finally noticed what is going on in his life. He finally stopped drinking and went to church, so hopefully he will keep doing that and will stay strong and wont fall back in his old ways. Palavra de Sabordoria is a big problem here because beer is cheaper than  water so pretty much everyone drink. It is definatly difficult here i feel like my language has worsten. Just casue people talk and im like WHAT??? and i feel kind of retarded sometimes cause they just start talking and i dont know what to say back. But everyone says after  your first couple transfers i will beable to understand way more and talk better. Right now i try to teach as much doctrine as possble but i mostly stick to the simple things like testifiying and explaining things sense im not grand at Portugues. It is going fine! the members treat us pretty good here we got fed a couple times this week, always rice and chicken but it taste amazing honestly!!! it kind of reminds me of Dads Wakefields chicken, because they charcoal cook everything here so it has a similar taste. definalty not as good as his but it works. I ate i think its called flunge first time this week. it is defiantly interesting. its like doesnt really taste like anything and has a really chewing tecture its interesnting but you just put sause on it and it taste fine! We go to this old ladies house a couple times a week she is a member but not active her name is adalina. She is super nice everytime we go by she gives us soda called Blue and some cookies called maná. the cookies are so dang good they will make you have a better day ha!! and one last crazy thing one of our progressing investigators got put in a mental hospital that was pretty sad he was doing great and wanted to talk to us everyday i dont know what happened but ya. but other than that nothing to crazy has happened this week just trying to stay positive. This week we have Zone Conference and sometime this week President Kretly and President Cook are coming to Angola so that will be cool to meet preidente kretly for the first time. Well i hope all is going well for you back at home and everyone is heathly and standing the cold. I hope the lil kids are staying good and arent being to crazy! im glad everyhing with bres wedding is going great and things are getting planned hope it all works out! its awesome to hear that everyone is getting readdy to head out on their missions like Tay and courtney i wish them luck they are going to be great missionaries! Well until next time i love you all and hang in there!

LOVE, Elder Banta

Email From January 15th!

ola familia! I am here!!!!!! for what I have seen so far it is so crazy!! but beautiful. All of the flights went good kind of long but I slept for most of them. Sitting in London was super boring the airport is HUGE it is like a mall inside kind of boring when you are a missionary, plus i was super tired. still am! but everything is going good just at Presidente and Sister Thompsons apartment I think we are going to be here till 11 then our new companions are coming to pick us up im super nervous for that its going to be crazy! i don't really know anything about my companion yet we haven't talked about it yet but all i know he is a District Leader and is from Utah, i think he is almost done here so he will be experienced which is good. Its going to be super crazy going out and doing this for reals! I cant wait to be able to talk to the people of Angola they look sweet already! Well they told us to just let you guys know we made it so we did! I'm so thankful for all of you guys and it was really great talking on Monday i loved it! well until next time keep up the good work. I love you all much!! your the best!

Email from the 15th Continued...

well ola family I don't have much time cause the computers are gay but it is going pretty good here just still trying to recover from lack of sleep so I am really tired. It is super hot here, I walk outside and start sweating! super humid it's crazy! But its great at the same time. My new companion is Elder Kelsey, he is a marine and is really cool, he is a hard worker. Him and Elder Hobbs, the one from IF were companions before. He is the district leader and I live with the zone leaders so its sweet! We have taught a lot this week and I got to seal anointing oil in Portuguese,  the language is difficult, well I love you all! Have a great week sorry bout this email.  

well I lied they fixed it and I have more time so now I can write maybe a little more detailed email. Well we got here Wednesday and sat in the hot airport for 1 1/2 hrs it wasn't too fun, then President Thompson came and picked us up and went back to his house, there we got to take a hour nap then our companions came like i said in the other email. After we met out companions we left and it was time to go to work. It was so nerv-racking going into lessons and not knowing what is going on, it's difficult! I feel a little bit more calm now but it still is weird cause the people talk and i'm like HUH???  But my companion helps. so for now I just try to teach as much as possible and communicate as much as possible some people look at me like I am stupid, but oh well. You guys should see the taxis here they are super ghetto! they are really old vans or seater cars and they yell stuff out of them which is the location of where they are going. but they Cram as many people in it as possible so there is like  10 people in a van that only should sit 7 or 6 its intense. Its really sad to see some of the places here. There is standing puddles all over in the roads which is sewer usually, so it doesn't smell the best. OHH and tons of garbage all over, most of the people are really nice though you just say bom dia or bom tarde and they respond back all happily usually some people change. The little kids here are super awesome you walk past them and they yell amigo!! its sweet. i haven't ate at any houses really except one and we ate chicken, rice, beans it was really good actually and then I also ate a hamburger which was good tambem. the drinks here like juices and sodas are great they taste amazing especially when it hotter than crap. probably the weirdest thing I have seen is just the women breast feeding anywhere they go, it's super weird but I'm used to it. but everything is going good just still trying to work hard and learn as much as possible! is there anything new with you guys??  Well i hope you have a great week and everything goes well. I will also continue to! well I love you all. until next time Choa!!