Week 85

Hi! My birthday was pretty dope! It didn't rain during the day, only very early in the morning. It's been pretty sunny all week long, and super humid. So now, because of our house with leaks EVERYWHERE, all of my clothes are growing mold. It's super disgusting and it already ruined 3 ties, my backpack, and my suit. I called Sister Mathews (mission president's wife) and she told me to wipe everything down with vinegar... I just haven't done it yet because vinegar smells bad.

Elder Mortensen was still able to make me my cake, it got destroyed on one side but he did a good job, lol. I'm going to miss Morty, he was one of my favorite comps right after Burch and Welch. Elder Sosa and I get along pretty good, much better than at the MTC.  The first few days were a bit frustrating because I'm not used to his teaching style, but I'm getting him into shape haha. 

Morty and I said goodbye to a ton of people we met together and members that helped us out a lot this week, it was sad but at least I'm still here. 

This is Ivanildo. He is getting baptized this Saturday and he is one of my favorite people in the entire world. Morty and I were having a tough day, we had been walking for a long time and all the people we talked to on the street were blowing us off and stuff. I was frustrated, so as we came around a corner I told Morty "Alright, I'm going to contact the very next person I see and he is going to get baptized" and as we turned the corner, I saw Ivanildo in front of his house pulling water out of a well. I went up to him and invited him to sit with us. I could tell he didn't want to talk to us, but we insisted and he told us to come back later. So we did, and we had the most powerful 1st Lesson of our entire missions. At the end he just cracked open and confessed to us how he had been drinking and using drugs and how it was destroying his parent's hearts. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted. Every time I see him now it just seems like he's brighter and happier. He's really excited for this Saturday, it's just a little sad that Mortensen won't be here to see it happen.

His parents are really well off, but both from different religions. His dad is Catholic and his mom attends a church called "Templo Mayor" both are super active members of their churches, but Ivanildo was never interested in religion. He is 27 years old and spent 2 years at a university in Bolivia, that's where he learned Spanish. He learned English by himself from books and movies and is very fluent... every lesson that we've taught him has been in English because he likes practicing. He's super smart, he is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, English, and a little French. When we found him he was working on getting his driver's license, which he finally got this past week. He is now looking for a job but nothing specific, he just wants to help his parents out. 

His mom cares about him a lot, it's a little sad to see how worried she was. Once we went over for a lesson and he wasn't there, but his mom answered the door and she called him like 10 times in a row and when she finally got a hold of him she got after him and told him to get home right away so we could talk to him. We tried to tell her it was ok and we could come back later and she said "If I couldn't get him to go to church, I'm praying that you two do, I just want him to change." We are going to make sure both parents can go to the baptism, maybe we can convert the whole family, fingers crossed! 

Week 84, 14th Transfer

Hey!!! Man this past week was sweet! I mean, nothing crazy weird happened but we just had a lot of success. So Mortensen got transferred! I am now serving with my MTC comp. Elder Sosa is here as the 2nd Zone Leader now, I'm excited for this next transfer, we should have a ton of success.
So me and Mortensen took a picture to put in the house of a member family that is super tight with us. Here it is, they said they would keep that picture forever, lol. He's still here, he will leave in 3 days, so he can make my cake, lol. And also Burch is in my zone now! It was nice seeing him today. He is going to die in an area called Pedra Bedejo close to Assomada. What's crazy is that I'll be home 3 months after he is, I think I will know my homecoming information next transfer. It's getting soooo close, it's way weird. After Burch leaves, there won't by anybody left that's older than me. I have no clue how time went by so fast, I feel like I just got here.

I'm also in the middle of a flipping hurricane!! It's raining super hard right now. God is just giving me the opportunity to email right now because the power has been going out all day. 

Week 81

My week was very interesting and busy. On Tuesday was Council day, we had to wake up at 5AM to catch an hour-long ride to Praia, but I woke up at 2 in the morning because of a HUGE roach crawling on my face. I don't know if I told you, but our house is INFESTED with roaches. I have never seen so many in my life. But yeah, I felt something on my face, woke up and slapped it away and it landed on my pillow. Then I realized it was a roach so I grunted "freaking roaches" and slapped my whole pillow off my bed, but it landed on Mortensen and woke him up, lol. Then we kept trying to kill it and it kept running back and forth between our beds, so I lost a good 45 minutes of sleep there.
But the actual Council itself was awesome, it really opened my eyes to how much planning and stuff goes on behind the scenes. It was awesome seeing people again, especially Elder Young and Romano and Burch. We got back to Assomada around 8:30ish at night so we were exhausted by then. Wednesday was a normal day, except we stayed up late finishing up all our plans and trainings for the next day, which made us lose a few more hours of sleep.
Zone Meeting was sweet! Or at least it was for me, lol. Everyone seemed to like it, and it was nice seeing everybody from the Zone again.
Right after Zone Meeting I left on a division with Elder Sosa to a city called Calheta, he's still soft lol but it was way cool being able to serve with him again.
I didn't get back until Friday, when I came home to see that our apartment had been sprayed with poison for the roaches. There were THOUSANDS of baby roaches all dead throughout the kitchen. I thought that was going to end the roach problem, but I think it just made it worse. Now they moved out of the kitchen and into the rest of the house. So now there's even more roaches in the bathroom, study room, closets, EVERYWHERE. I hate this house, lol.
Yesterday was awesome, the zone all came together and more than doubled the number of investigators in Sacrament Meeting. Two Sundays ago the number was 13 (I know, super low) and yesterday as a zone we had 27 (more than we have had in 3 months) so I'm super excited for Zone Conference in 2 days, we are going to keep pumping up the zone so we can keep improving.
Also, Burch and Elder Lopez (the APs) are coming over tomorrow for a division, so that should be fun.

Random Pics: Elder Mortensen still doesn't smile, haha.

Week 79

One of my biggest fears in life is having my testimony become weaker after my mission and go inactive. I know I was never really "spiritual" back home, I never studied, and I hardly ever prayed, but my mission has opened my eyes to life. One of the most sacred things to me right now is the Book of Mormon, it literally changed my heart. Boyd K. Packer said that "true doctrine, understood, changes attitude and behavior". 

 When President Matthews called me to be Zone Leader he told me that I need to inspire the missionaries here to be obedient and serve not only with might and strength, but also with heart and mind. It's been a tough first week, I felt like a huge load of responsibility was dropped on my shoulders.
Getting sick didn't help, I had a really bad stomach virus for 5 days, but I'm doing better now. I have no idea what I ate, but it was BAD. I joined the club.
Being a Zone Leader is tough sometimes, but at least I have a boss of a companion who helps me out a ton. Here are some pictures of us, we climbed a small mountain this morning.
Assomada is sick! Sooo much better than Chao Bom, lol. This city is always way colder than other cities in the island because it's so high up.

They are starting the construction of a chapel here, that's the sign we are standing in front of. It will be done in 14 months, sadly I'll be home by then. 

So here I am standing on a cliff with 150+ foot drop on the other side. It was scary standing there because there was a lot of wind. 

Also, you made it on my planner. I need more family pictures, I'm running out because I keep putting them on my planners. I've been studying a lot about Peter, he's like my favorite missionary ever because he matured and changed so much. He even walked on water, a miracle that a lot of people only ever remember Jesus doing. 

I hit my Sister Mission this past week! 18 months! I celebrated with shawarma and a Monster. 

Week 78: Thirteenth Transfer, Fifth Area, & Zone Leader

Yes, so I got transferred and I am now a Zone Leader. I am currently in Assomada, which is like 45 minutes away from Chao Bom. I feel nervous, to be honest, but it'll work out. I'm serving with Elder Mortensen, who is on his 9th transfer, way younger than me but he is a total boss. He is actually one of the people in the mission that I have always wanted to serve it.
So I left Chao Bom and Elder Barros to Elder Santiago, from Mozambique. I first met him in the beginning of my 3rd transfer, when I got called to be district leader for the first time. Everyone in the district was way older than me so I was always super nervous to give trainings and stuff. He would give me so much attitude for everything, basically saying how he could have done better than me giving trainings. Elder Barros is a hard worker, but he is also super humble, so I hope that it works out between them.
So I took some pictures of the members I really liked, plus I finally threw out my Easter egg "contact cases".

This is my favorite family, the dad's name is Nito and he is one of the most converted people I have ever met. He got married a couple of years ago with another member, Sylvania. Now they are working to go to the temple and get sealed sometime towards the end of this year.