Week 107

So we had another baptism this week!!! It was really tough working though, since Carnaval has started here in Cape Verde, and Mindelo is known to be the most iniquitous city in this country, so it gets pretty wild. For the past 3 days it's been super hard finding people to teach since everyone is parting. But the final and worst day of them all will be tomorrow, and then we can get back to working normally. We were going to have another baptism, but he partied all night long and was too tired to go to church the next day -.-'
Also, on Friday I will be at my final Zone Conference, where I will bear my final testimony in front of the zone, it's so weird knowing that it's my turn to go up there when I saw so many of my friends do it before me. Elder Romano is home!! He had a tooth infection and needed surgery, so he actually went home like 3 days ago.
I will be traveling on Sunday to Praia and spending my last few hours there, since I need my final interview with Pres Mathews. I'll probably email, but not for long.

Week 95

So Zone Conference and Mission Leadership Conference were way cool. I liked MLC better though, Elder Dyches is a really spiritual guy, but doesn't make you feel horrible for not being perfect like other leaders, haha. He's a nice man.
This next week will be transfers, and I'm pretty sure I'm leaving. It's a bittersweet feeling knowing that I won't be a ZL. I can finally not be stressed and just worry about my own area and investigators, but I'll miss seeing the work from that point of view and seeing how individual missionaries progress.
I don't have pics this week, but next week I'll have a ton since I'll take pictures with members I'm going to miss a lot.

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 31

So this past week I didn't really email you much so I'll go over that too. It was probably the shortest week in my mission. We stayed in our area on Pday and Tuesday and then left on Wednesday right after lunch so we could get to Sao Vicente Thursday morning for Zone Conference. It was awesome getting all the trainings from President and seeing everyone else again since I've been stranded on this island for a while. So we were supposed to take a boat back to our area Friday morning, but apparently there was this huge party going on in Santo Antao so EVERYONE was traveling over there. Enough people to take up all the tickets for the next few rides. We didn't end up coming back to our area until Saturday night. A pretty cool thing about all this is that I got to chill and do splits with the Zone Leaders and another couple of Elders. So it was the end of transfers, and Elder Montes was told by the Mission President that he was leaving the island to go train on his last transfer. Ever since day one here in this Zone, Elder Montes has been my Zone Leader and a pretty awesome friend. Him and my trainer basically taught me everything I know. This was the last time I was with him, and now he is in San Tiago in the middle of nowhere training a brand new greenie haha. That's pretty awesome.

Our district all thought it was going to change a lot, that a lot of us were gonna get transferred and whatever, and everyone ended up staying together, haha. Our district is awesome, the sisters make good food and cake.

Speaking of transfers, I'm already at 5! It's still a super small number, I know, but compared to when I had only one planner, I've been here a while.

Also, I found this fluffy dog in Mindelo.

So this past Monday we celebrated the birthday of a member, her name is Julia. It wasn't a big thing, just a get-together with a bunch of crackers and stuff. It was way fun though, this branch reminds me of Port Isabel so much. We are all one big happy family. There's more pics of it but they are all on Elder Burch's camera. I'll forward them later. And well, I guess that just about sums it up for this week. We are working a lot on helping less active members become active again, I think that's what we are going to focus on more than baptizing this transfer.

Hey! Remember the lady that beat me with a stick??? She's the old one next to my comp in the last picture haha. She's super funny and everyone loves her, but she isn't afraid of hitting or slapping anyone in the face. One time we were eating at an activity and I was stuffed from eating so much, and she came up to me offering cake and I said no.... big mistake lol. She literally shoved the cake in my mouth haha. The same happened to Elder Burch. She's crazy but everyone loves her. Her name is Eugenia.

Well, that's it for this week, I love you!!! Bye!!!

Week 16, now with pictures!

Hey what's up! Yes I totally get to skype again (on Christmas), and don't let mom send sunscreen, I really wouldn't even use it. But at least I look like a Mexican again, all that time in Utah made me look super white. {not really}
I didn't get much time to talk to everyone, and yeah it was super nice seeing everyone and stuff but don't let dad invite sooo many people over next time, I feel like I didn't have a conversation with anyone. Man, you should have let me see Venom, I've yet to see him in more than just pictures.
So man, this past week was pretty crazy. On Monday night I was super excited because I finally realized I was Skyping with you all that Sunday. Then we got a call from the APs saying that we're giving a training Thursday morning at Zone Conference. I was like, Crap lol. Zone Conference is when all the missionaries in the zone get together along with President Oliveira, the APs (assistants to the President) and other important people. We all have an 8 hour meeting learning how to become better missionaries and stuff. I wrote you a letter about how that went, so I guess I don't need to write tons more about it.
So I actually took pics this week! These are a few pics of "Barrio Lata" (neighborhood of tin), it's like one of the poorest places in the entire city of Mindelo, it's kinda sad. All the houses are made of tin (hence the name) it's one of the areas that me and elder Olsen work at.

Sorry the pics aren't that great, but it's a super sketchy place and I would get robbed if I start looking like a tourist. But it's not all bad, I like that they make the most of everything and they decorate the house. Like this poem here, tell me if you understand it. And also, an epic Gohan. 

This epic old lady was carrying sooo many eggs on her head. This is actually pretty common. All the ladys carry huge things on their heads. I just thought this one was impressive cuz she was old lol. 

Also, Peter Pan bro, Peter Pan. 

Well, that's about it for this week. Expect a letter in like 2 weeks or so. It was nice seeing and talking to you yesterday! Tchao!