Hello Todas!!!

Well this week was a pretty good week though. It was the best with the work alot of our investigators and people canceled on us but it ended up being pretty well. Weds My birthday it was a good day! 20th birthday in Africa i dont think it can get better than that right or i guess just any birthday in general! But it was a good day. We had Zone Meeting that day. Everyone before the meeting they sung Happy Bday to me so it was just like my family doing it ha! But the meeting went really well i enjoyed it also. It was a training on recognizing the characters of God and Jesus. And also making sure those we teach they understand who God is and the role He and Jesus Christ can play in our lives. I really enjoyed it, because it is so true without knowing that God is our Heavenly Father and because of him we are here then honestly whatever we teach, there is no point. It starts with him!! After the meeting though we all went to lunch it was good. That almost took up most of the day by the time we got back to Viana. We tried to teach some other people but they canceled or they didn't have time. But that night we had dinner at one of our investigators house, she pretty much is a member just needs to be married she has been investigating the church for 3 years her son is a member actually the Deacon quorums presidente. It was fun though and ate some good food some type of casserole! Then we taught one more lesson and that was the day It was a great day!

Next day the 14th hit my year mark. wow talk about time flying by!!  It really doesn't feel like it has been that long. But it was a pretty normal day. Everyone though we tried to sit with they would just say noo elder im busy ha! okay thank you. But we got to sit with Durval and his brother Antonio they are super legit! Antonio speaks English he studied in the US and Canada for 3 years.  But wow only have one year left super weird. I still  feel like i have so much to learn and do! but i still have a year for that. So this last year im going to do that learn learn learn. But by Helping this great people of Angola also!

          love you all!!!             Elder Banta

                   

New Church Building

   

Elder Banta, Elder Ferguson , Elder Dunkley, Elder Domingos, and Elder Dredge

Ciara was baptized

Hello Everyone!!

This week it was a pretty good week. First thing great that happened during this week is on Tuesday IT RAINED!! During the day it was all fine we actually left our house to go teach early in the day. We taught a girl named Alaina Campos she actually was really cool just had some beleifs of a Jehovas Witness so she didnt except everything we said but we still got to speak more with her. Then sat with Adão. He is still doing amazing and is progressing really well. He knows for a fact he will be baptised at the end of this month the 30th im really excited for that! Then we taught one more person then Elder Kearney who went home this week was in Viana and we had to go take him to some old Members houses which they werent there. So that took more of the day so we ended up not getting home till later than expected to eat lunch. It was actually dinner by the time we ate ha! but luckly we went home because it started Pooring rain! But we had some other lessons to be taught so put our rain jackets on and went outt! yeahhh we were walking though water up to our ankles and we were just getting soaked(Ruined my dailey planner). All of the lessons canceled but great experience!:)

The rest of week went well also. One thing i forgot to say in last weeks letter is that we have one more person in our house. Elder Francisco he is just from another branch here and is waiting for his visa to the United States to learn english he will serve in Ganna. But he is with Elder Dredge and Elder Dunkley he is fun. But went on a division with him and Elder Dredge it was fun and a good day. Friday we set another baptsimal date with São for the 14th of December she is 15 and already has a baby but her dad is a member and she is progressing well also! That was pretty much my week i enjoyed it and it went super fast!

I hope all your weeks went well also and this week is great too! i pray that the lord is with you all during the week, I know he loves you all, and i surely love you all! Have a great one!

Love you Elder Banta

We went to an orphanage! It was fun!!

Hello Everyone!

How is everyone doing? And the week how was that?  

I hope all is going well I haven't really heard anything new going on??

This week it was a really good week, honestly I enjoyed it!  It seemed like it went by really fast and it was full of work!  By the end of the week we had taught 23 lessons which is really good I don't think that has happened since like my first couple transfers here so it was really great and felt productive!  But  everything I felt went well we didn't really have that many people cancel on us which was really great! But i feel like our area it is really starting to grow little at a time we have been trying to contact more people on the side of the streets and we also have been receiving a ton of references! So that is really great it helps the work alot! 

Nothing super crazy happened though during the week we taught some really great lessons i felt. We also had a division and I walked with Elder Dunkley.  It was fun!! We taught a really cool family and the wife only speaks french so we had to have a member come and translate, It was fun!!  But Saturday Ciara she finally got baptized after being an investigator for over 2 years. She is only 21 but she is really awesome and she was prepared. The Baptism it went well and she was super excited. Then Sunday i had the great oppurtunity to Confirm her. That was my first time and it went pretty well i think!  It was a great experience to do that though!  Now i hope she can stay strong,  I have a feeling she will and she is actually helping her friends come now.  Like we are teaching her friend now and she seems really great! 

So the week it went well we have some people who we will be marking more baptsmial dates with them this week so that will be great!  I can't believe though this transfer is over though we will know next monday who is going or what?  I hope I stay because I actually really love this area.  Ohh and this Saturday we are moving into a new church hope it is bigger than the one we are in because there is no room anymore.   We also get to watch Priesthood session and Conference this weekend!   I'm super excited for that!  It will be great!

Today our district we went to an orphanage and we got to teach English and we did math with the kids!   It was really fun and the kids were really great.   I didn't want to leave!!   There are some really smart kids I was really amazed.  Yes,  we were only teaching simple English and Math in English, but some would just speak like they knew everything!  I though it was Awesome and a great experience!!  Wow I can only say I am grateful to be serving here in Angola!!   It is such an amazing place to be!   I can see the work improving everyday!   I know that this is the work of our Lord and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to help these great people here come unto Christ!!   ITS AMAZING!!!!:)

Well i hope you all have a great week and may the Lord be with you all!! Love you all tons!!

Love Elder Banta

 I cant believe this week is the last one of the transfer. Next monday we will know if there are any changes. Wow it honestly FLEW by!! I feel like i just got here last week. Soo it's going good though!!

SAFARI

Hello Everyone!!

How is everyone doing?  We noticed this week that our area yeah it has slown down so we set a goal to try and get references from people and try and get contacts. We have been praying for it all of the week. And then all of a sudden we found two new, and 3 new investigators who seem really cool and we set a baptismal date with one of them. I hope they work out. And we also stopped by a house of a investigator who has been searching the church for 2 years and we marked a baptismal date with her so it went really great, and after her she gave us a reference! It was a day full of miracles!! Then sunday 6 of our investigators showed up to church including Stela and her Family!  I am hoping this week though it can continue on and we can continue to encounter the people who are prepared and willing to hear our message.

Today P-day we had the aweosme chance to go on a Safari. It was quite amazing seeing all of the scenery and how green Angola actually is. But as we first arrived to the location, we pulled in to go get in a truck so we could go out, and right when that happened a group of giraffes popped up with their babies and everything it was really sweet to see. We also saw a ton of monkeys and they would come steal food from us, ha they were kind of annoying but great at the same time, kids would love them. But we got to go out and we saw More giraffes, elephants and just some type of deer and Wildabeast. We didnt get to see like Zebras which would of been more awseome, but that is okay! It ended up being a great day and a great experience after we returned after a long day! I sent some pictures through email so hopefully you guys will see some of the things i saw!!