great but frustrating week !!!!!

Dear everyone,

We had a great but frustrating week.  We moved from the chapel--a huge
blessing for us, but a hindrance to our work with all the cleaning,
organizing, waiting for repairmen, etc.  So, unfortunately, the work
week didn't go quite as well as planned.  Sadly, Our new house kind
of...  Sucks.  Sorry Mom--it does.  It's not as bad as the chapel, but
it wasn't wasn't well thought out nor well-checked by the missionary
who decided to buy it.  President Thompson wasn't impressed/happy.
But, we're making the best of it and are doing some personal
repairs/renovations.  He's helping us out a lot and feels very
noticeably bad for us.  The sympathy is nice, I suppose.  =)

We recently re-made the boundary lines for the areas within our
district and lost many investigators.  We're hoping to change that
within the coming weeks and I personally hope to encounter many new
families and potential priesthood holders.  We've got some good goals
and a good vision of how we'll do it.  All that said, I'm not terribly
picky about who I teach so long as they're ready.  I'm trying to learn
how to sift through people better and still give them all a fair
chance to progress.  If I find a ready 21 year old woman, I'll teach
her.  I hope my vision's not incorrect, but I don't think it is.  The
gospel's not only for men and families, after all.  I say this because
of a new mission goal that was recently made to focus on families and
priesthood holders--a great goal and one worthy of a fledgling country
like Angola who needs to be established the right way.  My only
problem with said goal is the ideas of a few missionaries who think
that this means that we can no longer teach anyone else--obviously not
true nor of the spirit of missionary work.  Maybe I'm a bit harsh.

This week was a good one, overall.  Hard for obvious reasons, but I
feel like I'm growing.  I'm trying to focus more on Preach My Gospel
and adopt more and more principles of effective and extraordinary
missionaries into my mission and my life.  I'm also making a targeted
effort each week to study and apply a Christlike attribute.  This week
I'll study Charity.

Transfer calls came.  I'm staying with Elder Wilhelm!  I'm super
excited.  I love this guy.  He's a great companion, super easy to work
with, and very willing to do the hard things when they're necessary
(hours of proselyting, etc.).  We're going to rock this transfer.

I had some crazy cool experiences this week.  I started in to 3 Nephi
and was just blown away (again) by Christ's coming and His words to
the Nephites.  If you ever need a spiritual shot in the arm, read
those chapters.  The Book of Mormon is becoming an increasingly large
part of my life.  I love it!  I hope to make this habit a lifelong
one--a lasting love that causes me to ever-increasingly seek
inspiration, solace, counsel, desire, and excitement in The Book of
Mormon.  I'm trying to create that atmosphere in my life so that I can
create it one day in my home.  I feel that it's so important.  By the
way...  How's that challenge I left with you guys to finish The Book
of Mormon before the end of the year?  I hope we're still together on
that.  =)

On Sunday we sang in the district choir.  It was so cool!  We sang a
song in Kikongo (a native dialect from here) and I loved it.  Africans
have soul.

We had a Christmas party at the Reedy's house today and it was very
nice.  We all enjoyed American food and a good-old-fashioned white
elephant exchange.

Mom, I can skype on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and I figure it'd
be easier at about 10 AM your time.  Would that work?  On Christmas
Day?

I love you guys!  I hope all is well.

Elder Cody R. Eckman