Week 18, Transfer #3

I haven't gotten your package, but it looks like I'll be getting it in a week or two. It's already in Praia, but I'm kinda on a different island. So anyways, this right here is Ravidson, or Ravi for short. He is 23 and is such a boss, he is a recent convert, barely got baptized the week before I got here. He had a lot of problems with alcohol but he was able to get over them. He had a couple of fall backs, but he is going strong. I took a pic with him and he wouldn't smile, so I got after him and made him take another pic lol.

Yesterday we had 10 investigators at church!!! I was super happy! This family right here were among them. I'm super excited to keep working with them and help them come closer to our Heavenly Father. Last night was Transfer night, I had my fingers crossed so I wouldn't get transferred, which thankfully, I didn't. We are working with sooo many families, there's no way I want to leave them till they all get married and baptized, lol. One of these families is Valdivinho and Teresa. We had a Family Home Evening with them. Valdivinho is actually a less active and one of the first people to get baptized in the city of Mindelo. He actually found us when he was drunk lol. We were walking down the street and we heard a guy yell "The Church of Jesus Christi of Latter-Day Saints, the one true church!" He was drunk and stuff, but we still made an appointment with him and we went by a couple of days later. We started teaching him and the woman he is living with (who is super catholic) and now she wants to be baptized! I love that family soo much, they all showed up to church 2 times in a row.

So we took this pic on Saturday at District meeting. I love these guys, they're some of the funniest people I've ever met haha. Elder Romano and Elder Hartman are sitting next to me and Elder Burch, Elder Olsen, and Elder Taylor are standing in the back. Also, I'm gonna try forwarding a pic of our zone. 

Well, I don't have any time left, so take care!!! I love you! Buh bye!

-Elder Zuniga

Week 17, FHE

Hey sorry but this is going to be a short email too. I only have like 5 minutes. I actually have tons of pictures to send now but this computer is being super lame and sending them all slow.
This is Bruno's family right here. He's the older son, that draws like a boss. His younger brother is Steven and his sister's name is Luana. The mom's name is Ligia. We had an awesome family home evening last Monday, there was a ton of people in this tiny one-room house. I don't know if I told you last week, but her husband passed away like 2 years ago :/ It's sad cuz they're an awesome family.
And here is all of us at Noite Familiar. Dude! I got a Cabo Verdean to smile on camera! lol. I'll show you next week, his name is Ravidson, or Ravi for short, he's super cool, I love that guy. Well, I'm out of time, I'll tell you abut this week next week along with what happened next week as well, so next week you'll receive next week and this week's pics and stuff that happens during the week. Take care!!! Good luck with school and whatnot. I feel like Venom is gonna be very lonely.
Oh and I haven't received anything yet, but hopefully I will next week. Tchao! I love you!

Week 15

100 Days?? It feels like a month ago that I left, that's weird. And yeah, you should definitely make a list of all the movies I need to see when I get back.
It's hard to sum it all up in one email, our area is flooded with less actives, so we really work harder trying to bring them back to church rather than find new investigators. Although we found an awesome family 2 days ago. It's 3 kids and the mom. Sadly the husband had just passed away a few years back, but the kids are wayy smarter than the average Cabo Verdeans. The oldest is Bruno, who is 13. Him and I just clicked instantly cuz he loves drawing and also loves Dragon Ball Z. He drew a super cool Gohan and Goku on the wall of his house and his mom got super mad haha. This family showed soo much interest when we told them our purpose as missionaries, but the mom works A LOT. We're only gonna get to teach them twice a week so they'll progress pretty slowly.
Well I'll try to write more about other investigators next week, for now I kinda have to go. Take care! I love you!! Tchao Tchao

Week 14... again no pics :(

Hey! I'll be Skyping on American Mother's Day cuz I don't have a Mexican companion, so yeah.
Tell dad there's a letter getting to him in a couple of days, I think, and I'll write to him again soon. I haven't gotten any letters from anyone, but I have a friend coming over from Praia on Wednesday so if I have anything he'll bring it to me.
That cake looks soo sick, tho, I really want some about now. Cabo Verdeans suck at cooking. Nothing here has strong flavors since they don't use high fructose corn syrup on anything, they only use cane sugar, which is probably why everyone is super buff here.
And I'm all good with money, we get 18,000 escudos in like 2 days so I won't need anything. Sorry I haven't used my camera much, I'll probably start using it this next week though.
Man, you're sooo lucky you get to see Spider Man 2. I walked into this guys house and they were interviewing Andrew Garfield (he's my new celebrity mancrush) and the trailer looked soooo sick! I got a little trunky during those 3 minutes lol. Alright well I don't have much else to say, take care of your fingers cuz they are the only ones you have... actually no, you have another 6, but still. Fica bem! Love you tons!

Week 11

I finally had Cachupa!! It's soo good but super heavy, it fills you up quick! About 3 times during transfers zone leaders, the mission president, and other important people travel between islands so they bring mail and packages with them. Well, I don't really have much to say so I'll just send a few pics.
Oh yeah, and this is the last week of this transfer, so I might be going somewhere else this weekend.

So this is the famous Cachupa.
Cape Verdeans put a fried egg over everything, btw. Its funny. 

Elder Olsen and I at the tiny restaurant.

You know you're mexican when you're cutting up veggies and this happens.

Me being too lazy to cook or wash dishes.
I finished like 3/4 of this cereal box in one sitting.

Week 10, Meu Primero Batismo!

My first baptism!!!! I was soo excited all week for him, and I'm still excited two weeks later. He's super goofy and always smiling, but all guys in Cabo Verde try to look tough and serious in all the pics they take. All the girls try to pose super seductive, which is kinda weird. Anyways, he's a total boss, I love him. During the ceremony, after he was baptized, he was invited to share his testimony. I have never seen him soo serious and focused in the 3 weeks I've known him. His testimony was small and simple, but it came 100% from the heart. He was tearing up trying not to cry and so was I. He told everyone how he felt like a completely new person because he didn't want to do drugs or drink anymore. He said he finally felt free and he thanked me and my comp for being his friends and changing his life. I feel so happy to have met him. It was a great experience, especially since he doesn't know Portuguese, just cryolo. Well I have to go, the internet dude is kicking us out of his store cuz it's closing. TCHAO! Love you both!!!

Week 9

Wow mom. I left you one job! To take care of fluffy, lol. And lucky!!!! I miss Mexican food, although I did make tortillas like a boss. Como un jefe. My companion was very happy  because of it.
And well, P-Days are kinda long. First, I wake up, clean the dishes and mop the floors, stuff like that. Then we go play soccer for like 2 hours, come back, eat breakfast, then go email (now), then go shopping, come back to the house, make lunch, chill there or chill at other missionaries' houses, then we are back to work. Nothing that special.
So I'm sooooooooooooooo excited!!! I'm getting my first baptism this Saturday. I'll write you a letter about him later. And well, I didn't take a lot of pics this week, just a few.
So here's the best thing about Cabo Verde (not really, but it's still pretty good). They love white chocolate, so they decided to mix it with nutella. It tastes awesome with bananas. Oh and here's me making tortillas.

White chocolate with nutella!

Making tortillas like a bawss

Elder Olsen was quite excited about something Mexican

And well, you said to tell you if I needed something sooooooo, I need my contacts. And also, I'm scared of this pen running out of ink. It's my favorite of all time. It has a crazy fine point and it's used to mark scriptures and stuff. It's awesome cuz it writes really smooth and it doesn't bleed through the pages. I bought it at the MTC, so I don't really know where else they sell them. It would be awesome if you could send me like 2 or 3 more of them. 

Oh and if you were thinking of sending me food, just make sure it doesn't go bad, cuz I won't get the package till like a month from now. Well, I don't really have much else to say, so take care!!! Love you!!! Ate' a segunda! 

 

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For those wondering: I wrote him about how my mom forgets to take the cover off Fluffy's cage every morning. Fluffy is his pet parrot. Here she is: 

Week 8

I still have the 5X5 Rubik's cube with me, I actually timed myself and I cut my time from 15 minutes to 7:32 which I'm extremely proud of. And Elder Olsen is awesome, I taught him how to do a rubiks cube and he learned like in 24 hours, super fast.
Here I can devote an entire hour of just e-mailing and not doing laundry at the same time so I have heaps of time to reply. Mindelo is actually the nicest city in Cape Verde, it's a lot like Matamoros so compared to the rest of the islands it's really 'advanced'. I didn't have a lot of time for pics this week, I only took a few.
I really like it here. It's kinda sucky having to walk 3 miles uphill every day, but I'll get used to it. Seriously, when we leave the house in the morning, we walk uphill, then when we get back at night, somehow we are still walking uphill. I think we broke logic. I'm not serving in the city part of Mindelo, I'm at the outskirts of it so everyone I teach is poor and humble. I like the food here, all they eat is rice and beans and fish, I haven't had cachupa tho. So far I'm surviving with ramen, tuna, cereal, and fresh bread every morning.

Here are some pics:

The last time we were together before we were sent to different islands </3.
Elder Cordova is on Fogo and Elder Young is here in Mindelo but at the other side of the city so I cant see him.

Cape Verdean Escudos are cool looking and colorful

I basically live off cereal and rice. This chocapic is actually pretty good. 

And well, rice is rice. 

So Elder Olsen and I climbed this mountain for like 10 minutes just to take a pic,
 and then we climbed back down. Fun huh? 

Also, I'm not that fat, it's the wind that makes the shirt look puffy.