Anniversary and First Time at Church in Luanda

We celebrated our anniversary last weekend! It's been 7 sweet years and I have loved all of it! We had a sweet neighbor on the compound offer to watch Alice, so Phil and I went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant near the compound. It's called Casa de Cha do Leste. It really was very tasty!

I got this picture from luandanightlife.com...I forgot to take pictures.

Interesting fact: After the civil war in Angola, China offered to come in a help build up Luanda. The chinese workers have been building a ton around town. Needless to say it is not uncommon to see Chinese people milling around town. Here's an interesting article about it.

http://www.rnw.nl/africa/article/chinese-angola-both-praised-and-criticized

Now to the church here in Luanda. I pulled this from mormonnewsroom.org

Africa

• Total Church Membership | 421,892
• Missions | 27
• Congregations | 1,281
• Temples | 3
• Family History Centers | 193

Worldwide Statistics

• Total Church Membership | 15,082,028
• Missions | 405
• Missionaries | 83,035
• Missionary Training Centers | 15
• Temples | 143
• Congregations | 29,253
• Universities & Colleges | 4
• Seminary Students Enrollment | 397,007
• Institute Student Enrollment | 359,828
• Family History Centers | 4,789
• Countries with Family History Centers | 133
• Countries Receiving Humanitarian Aid (Since 1985) | 182
• Welfare Services Missionaries (Incl. Humanitarian Service Missionaries) | 11,925
• Published Languages | 189

Angola

1,436

Total Church Membership

1

Missions

8

Congregations

Angola

Click here for the Angola Mormon Newsroom

Latter-day Saints have been living in Angola since 1985. However, many had been baptized while living for a short time in France or Portugal. After their return to Angola, they formed the nucleus of the Church there. Records indicate that some 400 members baptized in Europe from 1980 to 1996 returned to cities in Angola.

Needless to say there weren't too many people at church. There were 3 other people there that were expats (not including their kids). The service was in portuguese but there were headsets with a church member translating for Sunday School and Sacrament.

The building itself was in the heart of a more typical area of Luanda. Not terrible...not fancy or nice. It was kind of shell shocking at first, as this was my first time not just passing through an area/building that wasn't at least close to as nice as the US. I don't know what I was expecting though. There was no piano so hymns were being sung a capella.

Everyone was very, very nice and happy. I enjoyed how pleasant they were. There are also two sets of missionaries that seem to all four be from the US. Phil and I are excited to invite them over to have dinner (they probably don't get a lot of "american meals").

Sorry I don't have more pictures...but I'll keep posting as I think of things to talk about!