Week 25, A Baptism!

Sweet!!! Scuba diving is awesome and it's nice hearing you had a good week. I had an amazing week as well, full of miracles. As a starter, I got to baptize in the ocean!!!! It was flipping sweet! His name is Danildo and man did we have to work and pray hard for him, but it strengthened my own testimony soo much. He was actually supposed to be baptized like 2 weeks ago but he was still 17, so on the day of his baptismal interview he didn't show up so we were like, "what's up with that??" So we called his phone and his mom answered very angrily saying "Danildo was already baptized!! He's catholic he's not gonna get baptized again!" and hung up. His mom and older sister just stuffed his head with soo much crap for about a week and wouldn't let us talk to him. Then we visited his mother at work and asked if we could sit down sometime and talk. She was a lot nicer and she agreed to do it. Danildo's birthday had passed by now and he was already 18 but we still sat down with him and his mom and talked about it. We told her we didn't want her son disobeying her and do something against her will and stuff like that. The Spirit must have slapped her in the face cuz only after 5 minutes of talking she said "Danildo is old enough to make his own choices now" then she asked him if he felt this is something he wanted to do. Then he answered "I'm not sure anymore." Those words were like a knife to my heart. We had been working soo hard with him to have it end just like that. So we invited him to pray that night and ask God if baptism was something he should do. He agreed and we sat down with him the next day and asked him how it went. Without hesitation he said "I want to get baptized, I know this is what God want's me to do." I know for a fact that God listens to and answers everyone's prayers. It was amazing how the Holy Ghost works with the hearts of everyone.

And well I guess it's not entirely in the ocean. There's only like a pool made of lava rock but it was still flipping sweet!! This morning we also made some killer cachupa in like the middle of the forest. Man it tasted soo good!! I also had a chance to visit Sao Vicente again for our interviews with our new mission president, President Matthews. And guess who I visited while I was there? Helder!!! He is still going strong and already received the Aaronic priesthood. He passes the sacrament every week now. As soon as he saw me he screamed "Elder Zuniga!! My Brotha!!" and hugged me lol. I love him soo much. 

Week 23

Haha yeah, I know about Mexico. A lot of people in the street talk to me about it. Surprisingly, I stand out here as a Mexican too. Everyone asks me where I'm from cuz they know I'm not from the U.S. they usually guess either Brazilian or Chinese. I don't even look Chinese.
Anyway, sorry I didn't take any pictures this past week, just of my companions. So Elder Sanchez went home!!!! He's sooo dead!!! It's crazy that he's not even a missionary anymore, and then, Elder Burch replaced him! He's the last person on earth I thought I would serve with, haha. Him and I are good buddies and we get along great. Also, he's the first companion I serve with that is shorter than me, so I no longer feel like a midget next to people. And no, thank gosh nobody asked me to marry them this week, but I saw something that made me loose it. I was laughing sooo hard haha.
So Elder Burch and I were hiking up this hill on our way to an investigator's house. We were just talking and we started smelling weed like super strong, so we started saying stuff like "man, someone's smoking up a storm" and stuff like that. We were curious to see who it was. So we passed this old building and we saw this old lady sitting down on some rocks with a pipe in her hand and a HUGE sack of weed on the ground in front of her. I know it's terrible but she looked like the most innocent old lady ever and she was stuffing pipe and getting ready to smoke it haha. It must have been like an entire pound too, it was a huge bag.
We didn't contact her because there's a ridiculously huge amount of high and drunk people walking around like every hour of the day, and if you talk to them they go off for like hours and they will not stop talking. Like, ever. So we do our best to only talk to sober people. I'm super pumped for tonight, we have a Family Home Evening planned out. I'll take pics and show you our investigators next week and all that good stuff.
Alright gtg, take care!! Love you!!

-Elder Zuniga

Elder Zuniga & Elder Burch

Elder Sanchez & Elder Zuniga

Week 22, A Beautiful Island

I have no clue why they transferred me out here but I love it. Really the only think I don't like is not being able to play soccer -.- but whateves. Oh and there's so many dirty women that try hitting on missionaries. A few days ago one of our investigators asked me to marry her! She's like 30 years old and has 3 kids. She's like "if I stopped drinking and made myself look beautiful, would you take me with you to the states and marry me?" I always used to say "I already have a girlfriend" and I was about to say that but then I realized that I don't anymore, so I was like crap! haha Me and my comp just ran away haha.
Oh and I didn't even tell yo about my comp did I? His name is Elder Sanchez, even tho he's not Mexican at all haha. We get along pretty well and he goes home in like 4 days!! Crazy huh?
Man, I'm loving my area so much. It's sooo beautiful! But it's way hard on your legs. We hike up mountains a lot when we visit other smaller zones in our area. People are so humble, a lot of them just grow and harvest their everyday food in their small gardens.

Sundays here are rough. It's sad when only 32 people show up to sacrament meetings. It reminds me of the good old days back in Port Isabel. I also gave a class in Elders Quorum. There's so many people here that have the most ridiculous excuses of why they don't want to get baptized. There's this one guy that goes to church, keeps the commandments, but ONLY wants to get baptized after he dies. Like, baptism for the dead in the temple. I was like WTF mate?? Thanks to whatever Elder taught him that lol.
Hey speaking of Old Spice, they don't sell that in this country!! And I ran out, so it would be pretty cool if you sent me some whenever you can. Along with ketchup, I love ketchup.
Well I hope you're doing great, I miss you tons and thanks for everything!!! Buh bye, love you!!

-Elder Zuniga

Week 21, Emergency Transfer to Santo Antao!

Lol gosh dang your emails are always my favorite to see on P-Days! The gif worked here and I just cracked up about the basketball one in the middle of a tiny internet shop packed with a ton of people.
And man I had the craziest week! I got emergency transferred to the middle of nowhere! It's a super beautiful island called "Santo Antao" (Saint Anthony). I got a call Tuesday morning around 12ish telling me I was going on an emergency transfer, so I went home and packed and got a call at 2:55 that my boat was leaving at 3! I was in such a hurry but I somehow managed to get there on time. I was super sad to leave all my investigators :( but still very excited to work here, not a lot of missionaries get a chance to serve on this island. To get to my area (Ribera Grande) you drive down this road that looks like a desert for about an hour; it just keeps going and going for eternity. Not really, just an hour, but yeah, a very long time. This area is sooo beautiful, these pics can't really compare to real life, especially since I suck at taking pics.

There's mountains all around my area; these pics were taken from our window in our house. The branch here is actually pretty dang small. This Sunday the attendance was only 36, but without a doubt it will start growing.

This area is gorgeous, it's called "Figueral." It's basically a trail up the side of a mountain, it kills your legs soo bad tho haha. It's a good workout.
Well I g2g or else I won't have time to email mom lol. And send more spicy ketchup! I finished it all, lol.
Thanks for everything you do, you're the best!! Love you!! Bye

-Elder Zuniga