Week 49, Being Santas

Hey what's up! Sorry for emailing super late, we were doing service in one of the member's house so now I only have 30 minutes to talk. 

So anyway, Christmas was sick! I'm not gonna lie, we didn't get home till like midnight on Christmas Eve because Gooch and I bought a TON of gifts for everyone we knew and we took forever wrapping them and giving them out. 

This is our room, btw, it has been like this since I got here, the only lights we have are christmas lights, haha. 

And this is us being Santas. Our bags were FULL of things to give away. 

We both spent about $70 each on gifts, and all of the kids we gave things to it was their only Christmas gift they received. These are about half of the gifts we wrapped. 

So we were super tired the next day because we got home at midnight and then stayed up till like 4 watching movies and then woke up at 6 as a normal day. 

Week 48

A FREAKEN MONKEY!!!!!! I've only been here a week and I've already seen 2 monkeys, they are the coolest things ever!!! I will make it my goal to have one on my shoulder for next week.

 So this week was super sick!!! We had a baptism at the beach Sunday before Sacrament. Her name is Jemely, she's a total boss and super funny. I only taught her 3 times so I don't know her too well, but she's awesome. This is us coming out of the water after the baptism.

The water was super cold!!! My comp is Elder Gooch, I'll be killing him, he dies the first week of February. We had a super sick Christmas party at church. Cabo Verdeans sure know how to Christmas!! They don't give everyone gifts, but they meet up twice. Once like a week before and then again the day of the party. The first time they meet up they write everybody's name in paper, then everyone picks someone blindfolded and you only give a gift to that person. It was sooo much fun opening the gifts. I've only been here a week but I got a beach towel! It was pretty awesome. Elder Gooch got a jersey with his name on it. 

Week 47, Eighth Transfer!

I got transferred!!!!! I'm going to Sal in a few hours, I will be serving with Elder Gooch in Santa Maria. I'll be leaving in a few hours so I won't email long since I need to pack. I had a sick week though!!!! 4 baptisms, christmas party, transfers, super busy!!!!
So much stuff happened this week!! First of all the Christmas party in Sao Vicente, and the best part is, most of our district from the MTC were there. Well, except Elder Sosa and Cordova, but it was great seeing everyone else.

Lol all 3 Mexicans from the zone

Also, our branch president got his mission call!!!!! He is going to Brazil in April. 

And probably my favorite moment in this week, SPAM tower is complete!!!! 

4 Transfers in the making, lol. 

We baptized a family from Mocho!!!!! (The area Elder Welch and I discovered). I baptized the dad (Joao) and Elder Reid Baptized Paulina (the mom) and another member baptized the 2 daughters, Janira and Helida. 

And these are just my favorite members in the world haha. Hinzaguy and Sandino. 

Week 46

Well this week was pretty chill, the weather is finally changing!! I've been sick for a few days though, but I'm better today. I had a sore throat and was sneezing a lot.
So there's no way I'll get the package you sent before Christmas, but that's ok, I don't mind getting it next year. I think this week was the last time we were able to get packages because nobody else is coming from Praia until next year.
So remember that one donkey I found a few months back?? I met the owner, lol. This was in a walk back from a service project we had.

 

Oh so the service project.... Sorry but the member I gave my camera to take pictures did a horrible job, she only took one, lol. We made new wooden tables and chairs for a little cafeteria. We tore down the old cement chairs which were supper flippin heavy, here's a pic of one of them. 

Also, look at this epic flower, it looks fake. 

Dude!! This is the last week of this transfer, so I'm pretty sure I'm leaving after this Sunday :( I'm sad, all the members here are like brothers to me, and I already have the record for spending the longest time in Ribeira Grande, 6 months and like 2 weeks. 

Week 45

So this week was super sick!!! First of all, check out this pic of me with this baby here. So I showed up to one of our member's house and she's like "ah good, you're here. Here, take my 2 month old child and climb this mountain with him in your arms and give it to my husband's mom to take care of it" lol.

It turns out she slipped with him a few weeks earlier and ever since then she's been scared of climbing up and down with him so she gives it to other people to do it for her.

This week we had 2 baptisms!!! We baptized in Ponta del Sol, which is said to have the prettiest sunsets in the entire mission. The day was super cloudy and rainy, but we still managed to have a super beautiful last 3 minutes of the sunset. 

The people we baptized are actually a couple. Their names are Dany and Carine. Dany is 18 and Carine is 30... I know... it's kinda weird, but it's not too rare here in Cape Verde. The hardest thing for them was keeping the law of chastity, but they are total bosses. Dany left coffee in a heartbeat and Carine still got baptized even though her mom hates Mormons and is super mad at her. 

Araci is doing a lot better now, she is the one who invited Carine to church. It looks like her older brothers calmed her dad down so she's moving back into her parent's house. 

(Araci is the middle one)

I got the watches!