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 13... no pics :(

Hey yeah I get to Skype home!!!! Just make sure you go visit mom and dad so I can see everyone. And dude, I don't know much Criollo yet. Everyone says you're only able to speak it once you're senior companion. Well, at least that's what Elder Olson said, which kinda makes sense.
They didn't have much of a celebration for Easter. Well, scratch that. Yesterday "Benfica" (which is everyone's favorite soccer team) won the Portuguese cup so everyone and their mothers were out in the street till midnight drunk and yelling and celebrating and whatnot. I think it was the hardest day on the mission so far for me because we couldn't find ANYONE. It sucked, but at least everyone is quiet today cuz they all have hangovers.
I didn't take any pics this past week, so I'll send some next week.
Tchao! Take Care!

Week 12, Transfer #2

Dude I ran out of ketchup here like 3 weeks ago, and Cabo Verdean ketchup SUCKKSSS so bad. So Cryolo itself is actually a language on it's own, so I'm gonna make sure I go home knowing 4 languages for sure. Today is the first day of my 2nd transfer, man it went by super quick. I'm staying with the same companion in the same area.
So I started working out in the mornings but my legs kill me throughout the day. Hopefully I'll at least go home with awesome calves lol. I totally learned how to eat Chinese food with chopsticks! I felt like a total sir eating all fancy.
Oh and about the clothes, Cabo Verdeans only wear like the same 3 shirts over and over again, but nothing African-ish. They are quite strange though.
Here, when someone dies they don't mourn. They just go party at the nearest Plaza and they blast Bob Marley and American music. There's nothing funnier than seeing 7 Cabo Verdean men jamming out to Wrecking Ball, especially since they don't know a word of English.

Eating with two sticks like a Sir.

So I wanted to buy granola but I wasn't a pirate or a princess,
so I couldn't decide. 

I can't get over this nutella and white chocolate mix

The beaches here are gorgeous, the water is super blue.

But the sand in SPI is better, this sand is super hard.

We had Zone Conference last week and I got to take a pic
with my grandpa! His name is Elder Otterstrom, so there's 3
generations here. 

I made a majestic zebra balloon animal without looking at instructions.

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! 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.