Cova Figueira

Hello everyone! It seriously feels like a few months have passed by since last Monday because I have been jamming my brain with so much new information and so much has already happened. It's been the slowest two weeks of my entire existence. But the other sisters told me that once I start getting the hang of things, the months go by like weeks. Now lets just see how long it takes me to get the hang of things. hehe

First off, let me talk about Cova Figueira. Cova Figueira is the prettiest little town on this volcano (in case you didn't know, Fogo is an active vocano). I have a constant view of the volcano and of the ocean. Always. The sunrises are unreal. It's SO clean (compared to Praia) and smells SO fresh and nice. And the weather here is the best in all of Cabo Verde! Even though the winds are really strong here too, it doesn't kick up dirt here. It's all black volcanic rocks and brightly colored houses and random donkeys and roosters and piglets running around the streets and mountain side. And because the town is built on a mountain side, that means I'm gonna get super muscular thunder-calves! Woohoo!

Now let me talk a bit about my trainer Sister Wilson. She's amazing! I wanna be just like her! Seriously! She's an amazing teacher and she's so patient with me! She's cute and funny and comes from a big family in Provo. We live with two other sisters in our apartment and it's a blast!

And now a few things about my past week here. I had my first baptism! His name is Erickson and even though he looks like he's 8 years old, hes actually 14 ahhahhah he's precious. We had to do the baptism in a church building that's an hour away and we drove in a hiace (pronounced "yahs") and usually they only seat about 10-15 people tops inside and we packed over 30 people!!! I lost count after thirty honestly. That was quite the adventure.

I also have an english class here which is way fun but I'm out of time to write! More next week! I love you all!

Sister Wilson and I

Praia dogs are nasty. I also taught an investigator in this alley

Tira Chapeu in all of it's glory. Sometimes the trash makes for nice scenery.

Cova Figueira! My new area

AFRICAAAAA

Ohhhhhhhhh minha vida! I've been here for a week now! How crazy is that?

Where do I start? Well, I spent my entire first week in Praia in the area of Tira Chapeu with two sisters. Sister Pitts from Las Vegas and Sister Muhangueno from Angola. And they are soooooo awesome! I didn't get to meet the mission President for the first couple of days because he was on a different island so I just tagged along with them until I recieved my actual first assignment and trainer.

TIRA CHAPEU oh my goodness what a culture shock! The smell is definitely not the greatest and the SUN! OH THE SUN just beats down on you for every second of every day. I totally came in thinking it was going to be dry heat but it's not! It's kinda humid here! The winds are so strong here too. 24/7 night and day I and my stuff are all covered in a layer of dirt. There are Praia dogs everywhere! EVERYWHERE. And there is a huge difference between house dogs, dogs, and Praia dogs. One of my companions literally counted 80 Praia dogs in just one hour of walking. Oh and not just dogs but there are also random goats and the occasional cow just wandering around the streets. It's pretty cool. Eu gosto. The ice cream here is comparable to gelato and the bakeries are to diiiieeeee for.

I've gotten some mosquito bites on my legs that have been swelling up like crazy (my poor delicate white skin) but the Mission President's wife gave me ointments and medicine that have all helped so much!!!

Aside from all of that though the people are AMAZING!!! Oh my goodness I love them so much! Everyone is so friendly and so open and so beautiful! There are tons of people here that have either blue or hazel eyes and it's super fixe. AAAALLLL the women kiss cheeks and it's kinda rude if you don't, so I've been like super awkward with that, but I'm trying! Something about the people here is that they all speak in Crioulo. I've only met a few that will speak in Portuguese for me and it's pretty difficult for me. I can't understand hardly anything anyone is saying ever except for the sisters because they speak in Portuguese. So during lessons, the sisters speak in Portuguese and the people will respond in Crioulo so for me I only ever understand like 1/4 of whats going on and then I'll try to teach. It all sounds so good when I say it in my head and then I start speaking and it's all broken up and mispronounced and just yuck. hahahaha. It's more about how others feel rather than how well I say it so I try to keep my head up and not be discouraged. And I'm really not discouraged! I know I'm doing the best that I can. And my Portuguese has improved so much since arriving so I know the people can at least understand me, I just can't understand them. But I love them all. They're so kind to me. I especially love the kids. Oh my gosh they're so precious!!!!!

Just a little fun fact for you all, I don't go a single day without hearing some little kid call me "China" (shee-nuh). Seriously. Sometimes I'll have little herds of children running around me yelling "chinesa chinesa chinesaaa!" IIIIIIIIIII don't even know anymore. hahaha. And then when I start speaking in Portuguese, all the adults ask me if I'm from Brazil. Hhhhaaahahah good one.

So right now I'm actually in Cova Figueira (on the island of Fogo) and I arrived just an hour ago and this is my official first area!!!! Hurray for me cause it's actually the coldest area out of all of the islands so yaaaaay! So far what I've noticed here is how clean it is compared to Praia and how GORGEOUS my view is! The ocean is on one side and the volcano on the other. So cool. My trainer's name is Sister Wilson and so far I think she's amazing! She's gonna be a good momma. I can feel it.

I love you all! Chau!!!

AHHHHHHHH

It's happening! I leave tomorrow morning for Africa! And I'm so excited and nervous and excited and oh my goodness gracious.

My faith and testimony and conversion unto the Lord have grown SO MUCH I am hardly the same person that I was on my first day here. I have felt such extreme emotions in such a short and condensed amount of time, I can't imagine how crazy it's going to be once I get out into the field.

I don't have much time but I'll share a short little experience I had this week with you all. Last week I was hosting (when you are a host and guide to newcomers on their first day), and a random elder came up to me and said, "I just want to let you know what an impact you've made on my life and on my father's life. My father doesn't like the church and didn't support me going on a mission. And one day, I was watching videos on youtube of mission letter openings when my dad decided to join me. We watched a ton, but when we got to yours, he became so excited. He said he loved your video the best and after that he didn't seem so against me serving a mission. I think your video really brought the Spirit into the room and softened his heart. So thank you for that! Goodbye!"

OTÍMO

I love you all! Seriously, all of you. ALL OF YOU.

Happy Easter!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU&feature=youtu.be

The next time you will hear from me will be when I'm in Cape Verde!

Tcháu!!!!

                                                           "be and do good"

4/8/14

Seis Dias and Counting!

Hooooly moly I only have six days left here! I can't believe it! There's a part of me that feels so ready to just GO and another part that's like "whoah whoah hold up i hardly know anything yet wait a second slow down", mas, estou pronto.

I committed one of my investigators to baptism! I was so happy I started tearing up. Ahhh. Muito otímo. I love my investigators so so much even though it's not actually them and they're actually in portugal and mozambique and i'll never get to meet the real people. 'ta bom. it's all good.

Soooo let's see, I got my itinerary! Turns out I'm flying out by myself. Hurray hurrah. I also have to report to the travel office ready to go at 2:30 tuesday morning. Super otímo hahahaha. and I fly over to Minneapolis and then to Boston and then I have a 4 and a half hour layover there and then I fly out to Cape Verde and arrive at 4:30 in the morning. I wonder how this is all gonna turn out hahahaha.

The Executives of The Boy Scouts of America came into our class the other day because they were taking a mini tour of the MTC campus. Some of them were LDS but a lot weren't so the pressure was on! It was awesome! They were so incredibly impressed with our language skills and our dedication to the Lord and the Savior. It was a really cool experience.

Ummm...so my companion calls for me in the night like every night hahahah i swear. It'll be like 2:30 in the morning and she'll start saying "hey sister murri!!! sister murri we gotta go" amongst other random things hahahaha.

General conference was amazing! I loved loved loved Holland and Uchtdorf's talk. But most of you probably watched to so I wont reiterate anything. But I will say that General Conference as a missionary is amazing. Just amazing. The Holy Spirit filled me to the brim with knowledge and insights.

Let's see, what else? I suppose I could tell you what an average day looks like for me.

6:30 wake up

7:30 breakfast

8:00 personal study

9:00 companion study

10:00 teacher will come in and teach us a lesson on whatever

11:00 teach our "investigators" we usually get about 25 minutes to teach.

12:30 lunch

1:00 language study

2:00 another professor will come in and teach us for several hours

4:30 teach more investigators

5:30 dinner

6:00 gym

7:00 additional study

9:30 return to residence halls

10:30 lights out

Yup! Lots of studying going on! And this week our professors put up a rule saying that we can no longer speak english in the classroom but that surprisingly hasn't hindered us too badly! Hurray!

Anywho, just to give you all a heads up, I'm only allowed to write emails AND physical letters on P-day (which will be on mondays) so I do receive all of your mail, it just takes me a while to write handwritten responses because i'm only permitted once a week. Desculpa! So keep sending me your wonderful letters and be patient with me!
natalie.murri@myldsmail.net

I love you all!

-Sister Murri

 April Fools Day! We switched tags. Kinda lame. I know. That's as hardcore as you can get as a missionary

                             Zone Leaders. Conference review. It was a long day.

Hi!

Sssoooooo this week has been long, but amazing! I'm such a changed person already and I haven't even gone out into the field yet! I can't imagine who I'm going to be when I return from my mission.

So this last Sunday would probably have to be my favorite Sunday in all of existence. Even though we didn't eat food until 5:30 at night. But Devo. Deeeevotional was so crazy. And I was so incredibly lucky because I was an usher for this particular devo and my district and I got amazing seats like three rows from the front.

 We had two guests. The first one was Brother Elliot. THEE BROTHER ELLIOT the man who plays the organ for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! He played like three or four amazing songs. Just incredible. So much so it brought tears to my eyes. And I'm beginning to realize how close music can bring me to God. Ah. So amazing. And the last song that he played he played with only his feet while snapping his fingers and his feet were flying all over the place and it was such a fun and amazing song that we all stood and clapped. ON A SUNDAY. That doesn't happen on a Sunday, but it totally did.

Then the second guest ended up being Brother Archuleta! Yup, that's right, Thee David Archuleta. Who just returned from his mission in Chile about 6-7 days ago, and he talked to us a lot about missionary work. He is an amazing speaker! Almost a better speaker than a singer I'd say, but anywho, he sang a few songs and they were beautiful and ahhhhh it was such a good night.

A sister in my district was asked to say the closing prayer for the Devotional and when they were announcing it on the stand I did a mini fist pump for her and the elder sitting next to me told me that David Archuleta looked at me when I fist pumped soooooo yeah. I guess you could say I'm pretty special. Hahahahaha. After Devo when he was shaking hands with the girls in my district, I noticed how incredibly small he is. He's literally like 5'3". Not even kidding. Just a little thing I noticed.

Anywho, I'm improving with the language everyday and my "investigators" are all progressing and are all keeping their commitments and I swear I've never laughed more in my life than here at the MTC.

I love you and miss you all! I will try to respond to all of your letters as soon as I can!

Portugal Portuguese accents are insane

Como se diz Lederhosen??