Frutos dos Nossos Labores: Aug 11

AAAHHHHHH OH MY gooodnessss Cleinita and Zé were baptiiiiiised yup yup yup. Holy smokies what a week of milagressssss ohhhhhhhh I love them so much! We found Cleinita working at a little teeny ghetto store and sat outside and taught her and she has just grabbed ahold of the gospel and has loved it ever since! I thought modesty was going to be a huge issue for her (it is for members too) but wowee! After teaching her about every commandment, she would go above and beyond to keep it! She went out shopping after we taught her about the law of chastity and modesty and she bought a bunch of modest blouses and knee length skirts. She's so classy oh my gosh it almost hurts. Who does that in Cape Verde? WHO? And she came to church every Sunday (even though she had work) and would ask tooonns of questions and she became friends with everyone immediately. She was so nervous before her interview but she kicked it out of the ball park like a boss. Man, I'm so proud of her, and I know that God is too.

Oh! And an update from my favorite recent convert in Relva, Tchitchi! According to the sisters who are there right now, he goes out and teaches with the sisters EVERY DAY sem falta and he's walking around wearing buttoned up shirts (as opposed to no shirts) and he's always on time to church (that's a really rare thing for most people here hahaha) and oh my goodness gracious he is an inspiration to me.

I don't have a lot of time so I'm just gonna bear my testimony.

Eu sei que esta igreja é verdadeira. Eu sei que nosso propósito aqui na terra é para aprender como nós podemos ser como Cristo é, seguir o exemplo dele, fazer as ordenanças sagradas nos templos, e ganhar vida eterna. Eu sei que nosso Pai Celestial quer ajudar cada um de nos com isso, e podemos ter um relacionamento com ele por meio da oração. Tudo é posível com Deus, Cristo, e O Espírito Santo. Sou grata por eles, e deixo esse testemunho em nome de Jesus Cristo, Amém.

My comp got a camera!!!! Hurray!

Cleinita and Zéeeee

Conferencia da Zonaaaa. my hair is getting long

walk by this trippy wall art every day

autocarro

Cleinita is so dang classy

Irmã Agustas birthday! She didn't want to smile cause she has no teeth but those EYES! so green.

random girls in a lesson

they're everywhere

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;

lots of craaazy stuff!: June 23

SSSSSOOOOOOOO lots of crazy things have happened. Claro. Bem-vindo á missão.

So lets see:

-I went on a division with a girl from Tonga who can barely speak the language. And Im still in training! Guess the zone leaders have a lot of trust in me (a division is when two companions switch for a night and a day, so I went to her area which thankfully was only a 30 min drive away, and her comp came to my area), and it went really well!

-Went to my investigators house to invite him to a baptism and he was locked in so he had his friend kick the door down WHILE HE WAS STANDING RIGHT BEHIND IT. There was blood. And he hasnt really left his house since cause he''s so embarrassed about the bump hahahahahaha.

-First SERVICE PROJECT!!! We went and cleaned out a dumpy lot so that the mental hospital can start a little garden. Theres an Elder here that is basically the same person as Kristoff from Frozen and he threw two full grown trees over a ginormous fence like they were nothing! So entertaining. And then we got to hang out with the mental patients and an Elder got kiss-attacked by a crazy woman. So that was fun.

-Osvaldo (my faaaaaaaavorite less active) is going to EVERY church activity now and just started his mission papers! YESSSS yaaaay yes yes hes so great. Everybody loves Osvaldo.

-The other day a man looked out his door and said "Hey, do you preach the gospel?" and we were like "Uuuhhhhh yeah" (nobody says stuff like that here, like `preach´ and ´gospel´). And we went into his house and he told us that he had just finished praying to God for help, because he wants to change his life around (his life is full of gangs and drug wars and jail and half of his ear is blown off holy moly) and the moment he finished praying he looked out his door and saw two "angels" outside of his door :´)  and he knows the bible like the back of his hand! Its awesome!

-I lost my camera :((((((((((((((((((((  please pray that somebody returns it to me. I'm pretty sure it fell out of my bag in a taxi :(((((((

Tchau!

OH VIIIIDA CREEEEDO!: June 16

Quote of the week from my comp: I just wanna find a man that can lead my family to Zion and kick down the doors like a freaking boss

Amém to that.

Moving on. I had an interview with President Oliveira this week and oh man. That man is truely inspired. And I´ll just mention one of the many things we talked about. So I asked him what the difference was between repentance and repentance through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and he said that the difference is between training your mind and training your spirit.

An alcoholic can go to Alcoholics Anonymous, and even though hes training his mind not to return to alcohol, hes always going to have that desire to go back. Through the Atonement we train our spirit, and then there is no desire to return to that sin. And if we strive to have Christlike attributes, our mind will become as a servant to our soul. So cool. Gosh I love the gospel.

Heres a story. so we were walking around the other day when a random lady called us over so we went over and she said, «Sisters, im a slacker. I was the second person to be baptized in Cabo Verde but after my husband died, i stopped going to church. I used to have a strong testimony, I need your help.» Woah! Talk about a dream missionary experience. So we chatted with her and she showed us her practically vintange baptizmal photos and she let us hold her puppies and it was great.

Another cool story! Ran into an old woman, Ana, who lives with her little grandson and we sat down and chatted with her (she seemed really lonely). We noticed she already had a Book of Mormon in her house and then she mentioned that shes a member but hasnt been back to chruch in five years. Then she told us her story. Turns out her husband killed both of her children, chapped off half of one of her hands, took a chunk from her arm and head and now he lives in a crazy home. So sad. We didnt know what to say so we just sang a few hymns and left her with a prayer and a plan to return the next day and the yesterday she came to church! Yes!

And these arent crazy stories. These kinda things are like daily occurances here in the Cabo Verde Mission. If I had more time I would write them all down!

This weeks been pretty slow though because of the World Cup. Every night theres a huge festa going on in the streets and none of our investigators have been home and everybodys drunk and we stopped by a members house to ask the missionaries what to do one night and 5 minutes later we hear sirens and turns out that somebody was killed right outside the members house so we went home.Yeahhhh works been real slow this week.

YO PEOPLE! If you ever think, «Sister Murris probably got tons of people writing her so I dont need to» you are definitely WRONG. I dont care who you are! It would make my day if you wrote me a little something!

They were playing soccer on stilts with that little tennis ball hahaha

yaaaaaay my area.

cãozinho con olhos BEM CLAROS!

That stuff is literally playdough aaaand it's so gross. haha. And that chicken tasted like fish. That ain't right.

My puppy Jonathan! We hang out in this alley a lot.

Jonathan's going blind :(

OSVALDO (in the pink) ooooohhhhhhhhhhh man I love him SO MUCH! We are trying so hard to get him to serve a mission. Nicest guy in Praia.