Week of Milagres: Aug 4

Soooo as some of you might not know I was super incredibly sick with a parasite last week and spent most of the week lying around in pain, but I'm all better now!

The hardest part about that week was spending it all indoors while my investigators were out there not getting the spiritual nourishment they needed. Plus being sick as a missionary is THE MOST BORING thing in the world. You can't read books or watch movies (and I didn't have any music) so my comp and I literally spent an entire week sleeping and reading the scriptures. Don't get me wrong, I love the scriptures, but it gets a little old after 6 or 7 hours! Anywho, Sister Pitts and I just daydreamed all week about going out and walking around in the baking sun for hours getting stood up and teaching lessons and helping random people. And it sounded so good. The work is hard but we MISSED it! Every single aspect of it. Good and bad.

So this week I finally got better! And we went hard. We worked so hard and we could care less that we had sweat dripping down our faces cause we were outside again! We didn't care that we had several hours of contacting to do because that meant that we could actually talk to people again! We didn't care that we had to give a training on repentance for a Zone Meeting because we learned so much in the process and felt the Spirit so strongly and we had the opportunity to spread that knowledge and spirit around to other missionaries. Gosh, we have never been happier to go out there and work hard because anything is heaven compared to lying on your back in pain all day. And man o man. We have seen some serious miracles this week.

First off, two of our investigators are getting baptized next week!!! WOOO!!!!! Secondly, our relationship with the ward has never been stronger and they have a new found fire for missionary work and we have the help and support of so many families in the ward. And thirdly, The Spirit has been guiding us to what at first seems like random people hanging out at random houses in areas we don't know very well and then whoops, turns out that they're all less actives from Fogo and they want to re-strengthen their relationship with the Lord again. Or how yesterday when we were walking around waking up people for church we find a lady (Monica) walking around (we had only spoken with her once and invited her to church) in church clothes with her two daughters and she said «There you are! I was just looking for your church and we got lost. Can we come with you?» Uhhhhhhhhh....of course!

And Sunday, we had 5 investigators and 2 less actives come to church. That's SEVEN people. My comp and I cried. It's like the windows of heaven opened up and blessings are just raining down.

I know that the Lord is looking out for us. I know He hears and answers our prayers. Just because He doesn't always answer them right away, doesn't mean He won't. We just have to have patience meaning that we have to endure with hope, and show our trust in the Lord.

My new favorite scripture:

D&C 19:23

 Aprende de mim e ouve minhas palavras; anda na mansidão de meu Espírito e terás paz em mim.

I hope everyone in having a wonderful week!

Ami é swag: July 21

Olaaaa everyone!

Took an investigator to the hospital this week! That was....uhhh...stressful. But she's all good now!

We had a lot of investigators that weren't progressing (kinda sad) but also have been contacting up a storm! We've found some really solid investigators.

One day this week was a particularly hard day (no need to go into detail) but anywho, my comp and I were so frustrated and tired and I said a little prayer in my heart for something to lift our spirits and in no later than a minute, my comp stops and says, «Do you hear that?» It was a drum beat. So we followed it and found a nice shady area with six ladies sitting on a bench by themselves playing these African drums with one lady dancing like a mechanical bull! They invited us to sit and watch and it was amazing! They sang songs about Cabo Verdean life and beat drums and danced and oohhhhhh man. What a tender mercy. Plus they think were awesome and want us to come watch them again. YAAY!

Also this week, we've been focusing a lot on our relationship with the ward and it improves every single day! And now we have people asking to come teach with us! Hurray hurrah!

We also had THREE investigators come to church this Sunday! We haven't had any investigators come to church in about 2 months now. What a week of miracles.

I just wanna say that God really does hear and answers our prayers, and that miracles happen when we have the faith that they can. Prayer is a privilege. We can talk to the most powerful being in the universe whevever we want, and I think sometimes we forget that, and we forget that we can ask him for help, even with the little things in life. I'm so grateful for prayer in my life. For the opportunity to have a relationship with my Father in Heaven.

Birthday for my zone leader! He's super swag so we made him a really gross looking but actually super delicious cake. woooo

The African Sun: July 14

Gosh it's SO HOT here. It's SO HOTTTT. Man oh man. Vida credo! It's crazy.

Sooo this week I did divisions with Sisters on another island! It was so amazing! Maio is sooooo beautiful! It's all white cobblestones and white sand beaches with crystal blue water. Every island has an animal and Maios is the galinha (chicken). They have a bajillion gorgeous roosters running around all over the place there! (Fogo is the donkey and Santiago is the zombie dog). It smelled like fresh ocean breeze and the atmosphere was so tranquilo. I loved it. Sleeping there wasn't that great though. At night there was a light outside that burned with the brightness of a thousand suns and shined RIGHT on my face. All night. But yeah. It was awesome.

We got one new sister in the mission! Yaaay! I'm no longer the baby! Hahahaha

The other day I ate three WHOLE fish. Heads, spines, tail and all! And directly after that I ate a GIANT bowl of slimy soup and then I ate a chicken leg like a boss. Wowee. I nearly exploded hahahaha.

Went on two more divisions with the Sister in the sort of nearby-ish area! I feel like this whole transfer so far has been allll divisions.

Thank GOODNESS the World Cup is over oh my goooosshhh now we can really start teaching again! hahaha.

Yesterday after church I saw a lady slit a pig's throat, soak it in gasoline and throw a match onto it and it burst into flames. Then she was chasing us around with her bloody pig hands oh gosh hahahahaha.

I wish I could tell you all some amazing spiritual miracles but the work has been SO SLOW in my area lately. We are working our tails off but we haven't been seeing the fruits of our labors. Our lessons with our investigators have been AWESOME and they truly have desire to follow Christ but none of them ever come to church! It's frustrating, but patience is a virtue! So I think God is trying to get me and my comp to work on that attribute some more. 

Gosh I love the mission so much. I love the people, I love my comp, my leaders, my mission president, my family, friends, my trials, the Gospel, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and the relationship I now have with my Heavenly Father. I love everything about the mission except for the smell.

I love you all too!

allllmost done with transfer 2 aka training: June 30

I swear there hasn't been a normal day of work since I've gotten here in Praia. Every single day the APs call us. Every. Day. Cause they're always dropping Sisters off at our house last second and we have to last minute change our entire schedule around. It's hectic. We're basically the Sister APs here cause we are in the middle of it all. Any transfers that happen for the sisters pass through Praia, and they'll usually stay at our house. Hectic, but fun. I looooove getting to hang out with the Sisters in the mission!

We haven't had food or money for a whole week and a half now, but we've been so blessed! We've never actually had to go to bed hungry because:

-A member gave us two mangoes

-I found $3 in my bag one random day when I didn't know how we were going to get home from waaaayyyy out of our area

-Sisters currently living with us bought too much bread

-The Bishop invited us to eat lunch at his house on Sunday.

SO BLESSED. What a humbling experience. And it's all good cause today we got money again. yaaaaay

In other news, I helped with interviews for the sisters in Praia this week. Yeah, kind of a big deal for me cause that's definitely a Sister Training Leader job, and I'm definitely still in training. I'm surprised with how much responsibility the Zone Leaders have been giving me. Anywho, the interviews went really well. One of them was the Tongan sister that I read about on Sister Bradford's blog. She's still having a really hard time, but the interview was reeeaaaallllly good. I prepared a special message for her. And the other was a native from here in Praia.

President Matthews and Sister Matthews arrived this week!!!!!! And I've already run into them three times! They're soooooo awesome. Every time I see them I can feel their love for us missionaries. I'm super excited to get to know them better.

The other night Sister Pitts and I got cornered by a pack of aggressive/aggressively diseased Praia dogs and my comp was so scared she used me as a human shield, and they were so close to me that I couldn't bend down to pick up a rock, so I just waved my arms around like an idiot and scared them all off like a freaking boss. I was terrified though. I thought I would be going to the hospital that night with rabies. Goooooooodddd times.

Update!

-In one night, Alcides (the guy who calls us his angels) read the first 14 chapters of 1 Nephi and practically quoted the whole thing.  That was CRAZAY

-We just got another wedding to plan! yay!

I love this Gospel soooooooo much. I LOVE being a missionary, and I love you all!

-Annnnnd my camera was stolen. Great. Sooooo great. Sadly super common in this mission though D;