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 69

I just had one of the most successful weeks out of my entire mission. This week was awesome, we taught non-stop and the sacrament meeting attendance has been going up bit by but in the past 3 weeks. Yesterday it was 51... still needs to grow more but it's good progress. Last transfer the average was like 38. God is blessing us so much in this area, and we should have a baptism this Saturday. 

So this is a picture of my district, it's super diverse. From left to right: 

Elder Barros - From Cape Verde

Elder Kabanako - From Kongo 

Elder Dominguez - Republica Dominicana

Elder Stone - Utah of course

Elder Cassule - From Angola

Me - From South Texas/Northern Mexico haha!

Also, we got fed Cachupa yesterday and I took this picture and was shocked by how freaking big my mouth is lol. Everyone has always told me that I have a huge smile but for some reason it stood out to me a lot here. 

I still call McMullin every once in a while, the family that him and I were preparing to baptize back in Santa Maria was baptized yesterday! I was super happy for them. 

Oh and so I ate a new fruit! It's called pinhao. It's sooo weird, it's a mix between a mango, pineapple, and a pear. It tastes super acidic but I liked it a lot. 

And a funny story: Yesterday we were teaching an investigator and his drunk uncle cam in halfway through and sat down. We were teaching the Plan of Salvation, about the 3 kingdoms of glory and we compared them to the sun, moon, and star. And at the end my comp asks them "In which kingdom would you be the happiest?" and the drunk uncle is like "I don't want to go to the sun, it's going to be too hot". Lol drunk people say the stupidest things sometimes. 

Week 68

[VERY SHORT EMAIL BECAUSE HE JUST SKYPED HOME YESTERDAY]

Lol, energizer bunny? I'm not gonna lie, that's a pretty accurate way to describe him [his companion, Elder Barros] lol. He works nonstop all day, but I love him. I had trouble keeping up the first week but now I'm used to it and I love coming home tired.
I'm the senior companion, but I see Elder Barros as a future leader, he is humble, unlike some other missionaries.
I do miss home a lot, but talking to you guys yesterday made me want to stay here. The only times I ever want to go him is to make sure that everyone's ok and stuff like that, but seeing everyone yesterday was relieving. I thought about coming home last night and I got depressed.

Also, I'm getting used to the wildlife here. There are sooo many animals everywhere that I ended up trying to contact them:

Week 67, Now In Chao Bom!

Chao Bom has been quite the little adventure. First of all, I arrived in Praia on Monday night, around 10ish, and they stuck me and another 2 Elders who were also traveling in a house with only one extra mattress. You can do the math and use your imagination lol. It was SOOO HOT sharing a tiny mattress, so I just threw my pillow on the tiled floor and slept there.
The Southern islands are VERY different, the culture changed like crazy. I couldn't understand the Creole here to save my life for the first few days, but now I get most of it. On Tuesday morning I got on a car at 11ish and took a 2 hour car ride to get to my area. I couldn't take pictures in the car because they crammed 20 people into a small van and I didn't want to get robbed or something. I told the hiace driver to drop me off at the church building, but there was nobody there when I arrived and it was locked up. I had no idea where to go, so I just stood outside with my two suitcases talking to people on the street. After about an hour, one of the people I talked to had a friend who was a church member, so he went and got him. I then used the member's cellphone to contact the elder in this area, who, it turns out, was waiting for me at the next city away from here.
I am way in the ghetto side of Cape Verde, everyone is poor and Chao Bom is super undeveloped. There are no paved roads, only the main one to get here. There are pigs running around everywhere and everything smells like poop lol. But I still love this place.

Here is my last picture with Chevy, btw. I have another one with McMullin, but he was in a rather compromising position so I'm not going to send it.

My new comp is Elder Barros, he is way cool and a super hard worker. We taught 36 lessons in less than 6 days, I'm excited to serve with him, we are gonna destroy this area. Here he is next to a cow.

This is the view from our balcony, if you zoom in you'll find a pig lol.

And you were right about the packages, I do get them a lot sooner. You sent a ton of granola haha thank you sooo much! I'm gonna enjoy this next month diarrhea-free! And gosh dang it I have never laughed so hard reading a letter. That Nacho Libre pic made me crack up for a good 5 minutes and my comp had no idea why I was laughing lol. 

I also got a package from mom and dad. Dad apparently sent me Sponge Bob pajamas, here is me rocking them lol. 

So remember how I had that rule about food, that if I can't pronounce it's name by the third try I won't eat it?? Well, I broke the rule today.... and it was the worst decsicion....dessestion....decition.....choice I've ever made. I helped a member make "Borrorre" which is a vegetarian dish from Senegal. It was fun helping her make it, my comp took a video of it but it took me a lot of tries to say it. When it was time to eat, it was probably the hardest thing I have ever tried to put down lol. Never again. I can't pronounce any of the ingredients lol and it looks good, but it has a super salty weird taste. I don't know how to describe it, but here is no way I'm ever going to be vegeterian lol. 

So I'll be using Skype to call this Sunday at 7ish over here, which would be at 2 in the afternoon over there. What's your Skype name again? Mine is christian.zuniga81.

I gotta go now, talk to you Sunday!

Week 66, Fourth Area!

I got transferred!!!!!! I'm going to San Tiago, to an area called Chao Bom. I'm leaving in a few hours, I hate saying good bye to people, I fell in love with this branch :(
I'll arrive tomorrow, it is a one hour car ride from the city of Praia. My new companion will be Elder Barrus, he is Cape Verdian from Fogo but I've never met him. Should be fun though, I'm excited :)