Week 75

I had some sucky nights this week. First of all, the lights went out on Monday night, and we couldn't open any of the windows because there are swarms of mosquitoes during the night here in Chao Bom. I was literally sweating all night long and couldn't fall asleep to save my life. THEN on Tuesday I made pizza, and I found a very sketchy piece of ham at a Chinese store here, it wasn't refrigerated or anything, but I thought it would be good putting it on the pizza.... WRONG!!! It is the sickest I have been in years, the rest of the day I was very miserable but I managed to work, but when I got back home I started shivering and shaking like crazy, I was freezing but burning up at the same time. I asked my comp for a blessing and I managed to fall asleep, then I woke up at 1:00 in the morning to rush to the toilet. Worst diarrhea I have had in my entire life. I literally did not sleep all night because I was still burning up and had to rush to the restroom every 30 minutes. By the time the sun came up I was completely dehydrated. My entire body was in pain and I still couldn't sleep. It sucked big time.
But... enough of that, I still managed to work for a few hours on Wednesday and then got back to work all day Thursday. Simonica got baptized on Saturday, and she wanted me to do the baptism, I felt super happy to do it. She went through a lot to be baptized, now part of her family hates her for joining another church, but I have never seen her happier now that she's been confirmed as a member.

So this morning we went exploring in some super cool tunnels near Chao Bom. We went in one end and 2 hours later, came out in a city called "Ribera Esprata". It was pitch black in there so we took flashlights. Some parts of the tunnel were super tight and we had to crouch and squeeze to get to the other parts.

We came out onto the beach at the other end, so we stayed for a few minutes. I tried climbing a palm tree but broke gravity instead, lol. 

Week 74

So this week wasn't interesting at all... nothing happened really. But we should be having another baptism this weekend. Her name is Simonica and she is one of the most (if not the most) prepared people for this gospel. She reminds me a lot of Araci back in Ribeira Grande, and she had problems with her family not wanting to get baptzed too, but her mom supported her right off the bat and convinced the rest of the family.
Hey I'm back! I left for a little bit because we had house inspections. The missionary couple comes about every 3 months to make sure our house is clean and we are taking care of it, so we cleaned it extra good this morning lol. I'm actually a pretty clean guy, most Americans are super dirty haha. Gotta go!

Week 73

I actually had a really good week. We had another baptism! His name is Isaias. Remember my first baptism, Helder? He was SUPER slow, but Isaias is even slower. I mean, he is borderline special needs, but he was still enough of a boss to give up smoking to get baptized. The guy who baptized him is Ealton or Chuku. When I first got to this area Chuku was inactive, but we have been working with him a lot for the past month. He is now the Sunday School teacher and helps us out so much by giving us references and teaching with us. This was his first baptism so he was super excited. Isaias is the short one, btw. We baptized in the same place as last time.

Today we went to this place near the beach in Tarrafal, it's way pretty. 

I tried kicking Barros into the water...

We also had this activity that the YSA put together this past week, it was a fashion show. So whoever went the best dressed won. There was a winner for the guys and one for the girls and I gave Chuku a tie and let him my suit so he could go and he won. He was way happy about it, even though the competition wasn't hard at all, lol. 

Week 72, Transfer 12

So transfers were yesterday, nothing happened in our district, only Elder Dominguez left and Elder Ayala from El Salvador was sent here. Remember Elder Burch? He got called as the new AP. Nobody in the mission was expecting it, especially him.
We had an awesome last week of transfer. We had a baptism!! We have been working with Sofia for about a month, she is 19 and has 2 kids from different men who both left her. Her life is rough at the moment, but she's becoming a whole different person now. Remember the story about the drunk guy saying he didn't want to live in the Celestial Kingdom because the sun is too hot? Well he is her uncle and he has been doing some crazy changes as well.
He had dreadlocks like Bob Marley, and a pretty big beard. We showed up to teach him one day and he cut off his dreadlocks and has a nice, clean shave. He looks completely different now. We are trying to help him with alcohol, he still drinks very often, but he is starting to change. He showed up to church two weeks in a row now.
So at the baptism I gave my camera to a member to take pictures... he took like 20 of them and they all came out blurry lol.

I'm glad we are finally able to see our work pay off. We have another baptism for this weekend and another for the 27th. 

So here's a picture we took at the last Zone Conference in Assomada. Assomada is like 45 minutes from here. Chao Bom is a part of the Assomada zone. 

The place where we baptize here is really pretty. Here are some blurry, dark pictures. 

Week 71

We had a great week, although there was a huge 3-day party in a nearby town, we were able to teach a lot and get 5 investigators to church. Still no baptism, but we have a lot of investigators that are progressing and are showing true desire. I'm really tired of baptisms falling through though, It looks like we won't be baptizing for the next week either, we basically need a miracle for that to happen.
Oh, also, MEMBERS SUCK!!! Many of the members went to the party and didn't show up to church -.- It was the equivalent of Spring Break back in South Padre Island. It was at the beach nearby and they had nothing to celebrate, they just wanted to throw a big party.

Transfers are this Sunday. You know how many I have after this week??? Only 5!!!!! I'm dying!!!!

We played soccer this morning and took some pictures afterwards.