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. 

Week 77

Hi! This week was pretty good, it definitely had it's ups and downs. Zone meeting was this past week, it was way sweet. It was the first time I got to see Elder Reid since we stopped being comps back in Santo Antao. I finally got your package! I now have 5 contact cases, lol. And freak you sent a ton of cookie stuff! Thanks, those things are worth their weight in gold out in the mission haha. Also, we had interviews with President Mathews yesterday, I feel like I trust him more and more every time I talk to him. He helped me out a lot with some things that have been bothering me for the past few months.
Transfers are this Sunday! I only have 4 more after this!!! That's nothing! It goes by like in a month!

Also, here's a random picture of me and Elder Kabanako the one time we went in the caves.

Week 76

Food poisoning sucks sooo bad, it's the worst I've ever gotten sick in my life haha. My comp had it pretty bad for a day but not as bad as me.
So sorry I didn't do anything new this past week, so I don't really have any pictures to send. The package you sent has been in Assomada for a week and a half now, but nobody has traveled up here to Terrafal for a while. The 9th I'll be going over there for a Zone meeting so I'll be getting it then.

Week 75

I had some sucky nights this week. First of all, the lights went out on Monday night, and we couldn't open any of the windows because there are swarms of mosquitoes during the night here in Chao Bom. I was literally sweating all night long and couldn't fall asleep to save my life. THEN on Tuesday I made pizza, and I found a very sketchy piece of ham at a Chinese store here, it wasn't refrigerated or anything, but I thought it would be good putting it on the pizza.... WRONG!!! It is the sickest I have been in years, the rest of the day I was very miserable but I managed to work, but when I got back home I started shivering and shaking like crazy, I was freezing but burning up at the same time. I asked my comp for a blessing and I managed to fall asleep, then I woke up at 1:00 in the morning to rush to the toilet. Worst diarrhea I have had in my entire life. I literally did not sleep all night because I was still burning up and had to rush to the restroom every 30 minutes. By the time the sun came up I was completely dehydrated. My entire body was in pain and I still couldn't sleep. It sucked big time.
But... enough of that, I still managed to work for a few hours on Wednesday and then got back to work all day Thursday. Simonica got baptized on Saturday, and she wanted me to do the baptism, I felt super happy to do it. She went through a lot to be baptized, now part of her family hates her for joining another church, but I have never seen her happier now that she's been confirmed as a member.

So this morning we went exploring in some super cool tunnels near Chao Bom. We went in one end and 2 hours later, came out in a city called "Ribera Esprata". It was pitch black in there so we took flashlights. Some parts of the tunnel were super tight and we had to crouch and squeeze to get to the other parts.

We came out onto the beach at the other end, so we stayed for a few minutes. I tried climbing a palm tree but broke gravity instead, lol. 

Week 74

So this week wasn't interesting at all... nothing happened really. But we should be having another baptism this weekend. Her name is Simonica and she is one of the most (if not the most) prepared people for this gospel. She reminds me a lot of Araci back in Ribeira Grande, and she had problems with her family not wanting to get baptzed too, but her mom supported her right off the bat and convinced the rest of the family.
Hey I'm back! I left for a little bit because we had house inspections. The missionary couple comes about every 3 months to make sure our house is clean and we are taking care of it, so we cleaned it extra good this morning lol. I'm actually a pretty clean guy, most Americans are super dirty haha. Gotta go!

Week 73

I actually had a really good week. We had another baptism! His name is Isaias. Remember my first baptism, Helder? He was SUPER slow, but Isaias is even slower. I mean, he is borderline special needs, but he was still enough of a boss to give up smoking to get baptized. The guy who baptized him is Ealton or Chuku. When I first got to this area Chuku was inactive, but we have been working with him a lot for the past month. He is now the Sunday School teacher and helps us out so much by giving us references and teaching with us. This was his first baptism so he was super excited. Isaias is the short one, btw. We baptized in the same place as last time.

Today we went to this place near the beach in Tarrafal, it's way pretty. 

I tried kicking Barros into the water...

We also had this activity that the YSA put together this past week, it was a fashion show. So whoever went the best dressed won. There was a winner for the guys and one for the girls and I gave Chuku a tie and let him my suit so he could go and he won. He was way happy about it, even though the competition wasn't hard at all, lol.