Bishop, Thatcher PT

Hello Everyone! This week we had the incredible opportunity to hear from Elder Christofferson! This is his second visit to Angola, the first being when he dedicated Angola for preaching 14 years ago. We had two devotionals with him, one just for the missionaries and one for everyone. It was amazing to hear from him, and we even got a Q&A opportunity with him! Some highlights that are a combination of quotes and notes: It's important we give the right attention to the Sacrament. Some people misunderstand that the bread and water clean us of sins by magic, that is not true. It's the grace of Christ that takes sin; we need to repent to receive that. The Sacrament reminds us to get our lives in order. And as we repent and renew our covenants, we can receive forgiveness. So we should be repenting at least once a week; President Nelson says every day. Don't take the Sacrament without thinking. In response to: How can we have free agency if God knows what we will do and choose...

Hello Everyone! This week our friend Alegria got baptized. It's been a bit of a challenge to baptize him as we couldn't get super frequent lessons, but we finally got through all the lessons and got him prepared for his baptism! It's super awesome to help people work up to covenants and finally make them. We've been having a ton of family nights with members, and it's been really great! We always get to leave a spiritual message and we play and teach new games to the members. This helps us build closer relationships with the members, and they've been helping us in God's work by giving us references. Family nights are awesome because they are both spiritual and fun. I hope everyone has a great week! Elder Thatcher Bishop

Hello Everyone! This week we baptized our friend José! He's a security guard for our chapel and ended up receiving some lessons and went to church on Sundays. I'm getting a better hold on the area now. I've led a division, and I'll be leading the area again with a companion that has a couple of months less than me! In less important news, I got an accidental buzz cut. I asked for a cut, but I guess there was a misunderstanding, so all the hair got buzzed off. So yeah, surprise new hairstyles—how fun. I have found a new love for magic. The members and little kids absolutely love it, and I've even made up one that they love! Little kids all gather around before shouting "feiticeiro" and backing away. I learned an Angolan board game that's very similar to Sorry and is loved by EVERYONE. They're actually kind of superstitious about it and have special rules and traditions to use while playing. It's super fun and more frustrating than Monopoly. Anyw...