Monday, May 19, 2014

I'm a "Lady Preacher Creature": May 19

CRAZY WEEK HOLY SMOKES
Come to think of it I don't think I've had a single day here that hasn't been crazy overwhelming. Lots of really high highs and really low lows.

So let's get right to it and I'll try to cut it down to the juicy stuff.

Turns out Relva only sells pink scented TP which is a really nice compliment to our nasty tap water that occasionally smells like bad breath and poop. WOO.

Also we hired an investigator (Lita) to cook us lunch every week which is AWEsome cause African food is DELISH but she always makes us WAAAYYYY too much and gets offended when we don't eat it all. YIKES! And I drank the juice that she made with unfiltered water and I haven't died yet. YAY! And just as a side note, I haven't gone a single day in Relva without saying "Eu vou morrer!" It's true. Whether I'm hiking down a literal cliff, catching a ride on a hiace (those drivers are insane!), or drinking poison poop water (dooon't worry, we have a sketchy filter in our apartment), I'm protected by God. Everywhere I go. And I know it's because I'm a missionary.

Let's see, what was the craziest lesson I had this week...? OH! Last week we had another crazy lesson with Tchitchi. We sat inside his house and his sister gave me TWO hugs and patted me on the head. Oh my heart. And then we started singing and his other brother, Jose, who also has a mental disability started yelling-chanting as we sung and I couldn't help but chuckle because it was so precious. Then we started the lesson and it was going really well and then all of a sudden walks in a man that looks EXACTLY like Tchitchi! Sooo he has a twin whose name is....drumroll please...Tchitchizinho! Yup. What kind of mother would do that to her twin sons? Speaking of their mom, she walked in and started yelling about how her son is a sinner and yatta yatta, spittle was flying and THANK GOODNESS we had a member with us this time who could interrupt her.
Anywho, Tchitchi and his brother and both going to be baptized! And Tchitchi has gone a full week already without drinking alcohol or coffee and UGH I'm just so proud and excited for him and his brother!

And Chuduko's baptism no mar foi SUPER FIXE! Gosh I love that kid! He's gonna do great things!

Also! We had Zone Conference the other day which means all of the missionaries on Fogo and Brava plus the mission Prez and his wife were all there and I bore my testimony (as is tradition with all first transfers) and afterwards Sister Oliveira totally called me out during her trainamento on how good my Portuguese is which is kinda a big deal. And afterwards my companion said that people kept making comments on how my Portuguese is better than most Cabo Verdeans ahahaha which is all so awesome mainly because it's SOLID PROOF that the Lord is hearing and answering my prayers because I definitely remember failing Spanish TWICE. Yeah. Faith. It works, people.
Anywho, it was an amazing day full of so much goodness and a bit of sadness too because there is SO MUCH that goes into being a good missionary and I don't measure up to anyone here which is frustrating but I gotta keep reminding myself that it's only my first transfer. BUT, I'm looking for all the help I can get so to all of my return missionary friends (or anyone actually), if you have any tips or pointers or some stories or ANYTHING, write me! I need all the help I can get!

I love you all! Seriously though. I love you all.
Tchau!

Sister  Corbette! I LOVE her!!! She's my buddy

Crioulu for "Patience is the work of success" and while I was attempting to make Cabo Verdean gang signs I made some new best friends with the home boys hanging out in the back of the campo.

District fun at zone conference yaaaay

Believe it or not this is super typical. I see people with ginormous bales of hay on their head or gas tanks all the time

My favorite set up in a less active member's home.

Chuduko YES hes SO FIXE AHHHHHH




Mau!! I love this boy and his baby bangs. So cute



My ride over to Mosteiros this morning. This is my weekly experience

...and this was my seat on the ride over. ADVENTURE!

Just a small fragment of our daily trek.


Monday, May 12, 2014

Helllloooooo one and all!: May 12


 First off, Skyping my family was SOOOOO GREAT and I'm feeling a little homesick but it's all good because I've got my delish fresh baked bread and nusco duo to comfort me.
Meu sono foi relizado!!!!! I can literally check "hold a baby goat" off my bucket list because I got to hold THREE! That's right people! Three in one week! That's what dreams are made of. They're so soft and fluffy with gangly legs and they gave me milky kisses on my cheeks and oh goodness I was in heaven!
Alright! Now for the crazy~ish stuff (I actually don't believe there's ever even a semi-normal day here). The other day I said "boa tarde" to a random rapaz and we started talking. My companion and I asked him what his biggest dream in life was and he said "follow Christ" and we were like "oh yeah we can help you with that". At first we thought he said that just because we're sister missionaries (We're like celebs here. Everywhere we walk we hear people yelling, "Sisters! Sisters! Come teach us!" and it's kinda absolutely insane). Anyway, we went to his house and, first off, he has two older siblings with disabilities and they were slapping our arms and trying to hug us and steal our stuff, and then there were chickens were running over our feet, and then we finally sat down in his house (he has the SWEETEST little baby daughter). Then when we started teaching his crazy Adventista (that's a church here) mother came out and was shouting, inches from my face, something about everyone being sinners and a lot about the blood of Jesus and I was just trying really hard not to wipe the spittle off my face and that lasted for about 40 minutes, but we squeezed in a tiny lesson with him and it looks like he's gonna get baptized in a few weeks! He's definitely ready!!!
Well that was all great except it made us late for our baptism with a rapaz named Xote. He doesn't understand any Portuguese and has the attention span of a 7 year old (actually that's pretty much everyone here in Relva) but we brought over activities for him to learn and his whole family is full of really strong members, so that's my Xote! He was beaming! Even though he was basically tossed into the two feet of dirty water that was prepared for him. Yay!
Right now we are absolutely going crazy with how many investigators we have and the less-actives we need to take care of. We have to end our lunch way early sometimes just because we don't have enough time for even half of the people we have. Especially cause so much of that time is taken hiking around the volcano which, I'm not kidding you, that little village is built on a vertical incline. I swear. My comp and I have mused that tha'ts why they've never had sisters in Relva because it's just so hard on you. I just about die every night, BUT, the Lord is with me! And I know that because if He wasn't, I would already be dead by now or be back home in California. I know that with faith in him, tudo é posível!


Random village close to Mosteiros

The little meninos just love us

CABRITOOOOs



Check out her arms! yeah. Everyone here is crazy buff, even the old ladies

Baptismal font!

XOTE!

First, observe the steepness. Now, observe old man with cane. That's Relva for you


Monday, May 5, 2014

Emergency Transfer!!!!!


Alright, so here's the deal. I stayed my first week in Tira Chapeu (which is in Praia), got shipped out to Cova Figueira (which is on the island of Fogo) for a little over a week, and was emergency-transferred to Relva!!! And I've been in Relva for the past few days. Will I ever get to settle? Who knows!~
 
Relva is soooo so so gorgeous! One man called it "O Lugar da Fruta". Claro! They have a bajillion huuuge papaya trees here with papayas as big as your head! Giant mango trees too! And this place is even steeper than Cova Figueira. Mainly because it's the closest village to the volcano (so if it erupts we'll be the first to go! woo!)! It's also even closer to the ocean than CF. So basically picture the island that Link lives on in Wind Waker, except with black sand and a volcano right in your face, and you've got Relva. Also, the Crioulo here is even weirder than CF if that's even possible. All the Rs are rolled and all the Vs turn into Bs. And plus I mean it's a whole other language in general. For example, «Você não quer?» in Portuguese turns into «A bo ca crei?». It's pretty dang difficult but the people here are all SSOO excited to have sisters because we are the first sisters that Relva's ever had! It's insane. WOOO!
 
Alright, crazy stuff:
1. Last week we got locked out so I had to climb up our balcony. So I'm pretty much Indiana Jones now. I'm so fixe.
2. Last week I got super sick and now I know how horrible it is to be sick as a missionary. It's THE WORST.
3. Our house here in Relva is INFESTED with cockroaches so if you're ever wondering, «What's Sister Murri up to right now?» I'm either smashing cockroaches or I'm out teaching. Adventure! Onward Christian soldiers! Turns out you can relate a lot of gospel principles to cockroach infestations. Really. It's quite interesting.
4. Teaching an English class here was an adventure in itself! It was fun until a drunk neighborhood homeboy wandered in with a posse of young kinds trailing behind him hahahaha.
 
Alright, that's all for this week. I love you all! Tcháu!


Cova Figueira Sisters!

Relva! And volcano

Relva

Typical Cape Verde pose. Puppy in one hand, gang sign in the other.

Mosteiros! where we spent our pday

Most.

Most.

Most.

View from my window

The family that owns our house has a little farm! Ugh! I love it. The volcano is covered by clouds

Look at those green eyes. My goodness

Mosteiros is SO PRETTY!