Well, can you believe it, I have been out for 7 months! And Christmas is in 9 days! As you can imagine, I am a little excited but let's be honest, I am not the only one.
So, this week was a wonderful and full. This week had a lot of difficulties but also a lot of miracles. One thing that made this week difficult was the fact that Elder Conduanhe was sick for a couple of days. It's really hard to work when you aren't feeling up to moving. So, because of that and because other Elders have been sick, we have been doing a lot of divisions so that the work can continue in all of our areas.
But we were blessed with the opportunity to have had 2 baptisms this week. They were kind of unexpected because they are young; Paula (age 12) and Paulina (age 11). So their story is this: their parents have been investigating the Church for a long time... the Elders before us were teaching them. They want to be married so bad but at this point aren't willing to make certain sacrifices to do so. Well, all of the sudden their 3 kids got super interested in the Church and started going without their parents. This last Sunday they said to me that they wanted to be baptized. The youngest of the 3 is only 7 so he has to wait but the oldest 2 are ready and were baptized. It was so cool to see them be baptized and I hope that they can help their parents understand the blessings of the gospel.
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| Baptism of Paula and Paulina (little brother Zenilson) |
So like I said, Christmas is in 9 days! Because of that, we had our Ilha de Santiago Christmas Party and that was a blast! It was only 4 hours long and was during our study and lunch time but it was still super awesome. All the missionaries that were here in Praia, Assomada, and Terrafal came to the party. It started with us going to one of the chapels here and we heard from President Oliveira. He talked a lot about the importance of Christ and the Atonement and about how that is the real purpose of why we give gifts for Christmas. Christ gave us the greatest gift of all. After that, we got to hear a little of the Christmas Devotional and that was cool. I had to translate for Elder Conduanhe which was interesting but possible. After that we had an awesome lunch with everything homecooked and it was just super good. After that we broke up into districts and we went caroling. To be honest, it didn't feel the same as when I did it with my friends in Placentia but it was still super fun. We found some new people to teach and spread a little bit of Christmas cheer. After that, we came back and had a whole bunch of cake. It was super good. We got to go and sing for kids in a school and other places. We then were all together again and we sang for everyone else and talked about our experiences. Afterward, we all hung around eating more cake and taking a bunch of photos. It was a lot of fun and it was great to see so many people that I knew in the MTC and in Fogo.
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| Being cool! |
Well, I am certainly enjoying my time here and as the Christmas season arrives, things are getting a little more hectic with the people. Everyone here is prepping for family but not like you are Mom. They are repainting, fixing, and some cases, demolishing and then reconstructing their entire house (made of cement blocks). It's pretty crazy...
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| Achada Grande |
Então, I love you all and I hope that everyone has a great week of Finals, Christmas Prep, and the craziness of the season! I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I am grateful for his sacrifice that he did for me so that I can live with my Heavenly Father again. I am grateful for my opportunity to sacrifice these two years to help others learn about Heavenly Father's plan.
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| Praia Beach, where a baptism was held |
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