Bom dia minha familia!
Everything here is pretty much the same. We have the same routine every single day and it feels like we have been here forever. One of the older Portugal/Cape Verde districts just left this morning and they were super excited to be leaving. We only have 6 more weeks!! Ha ha but it has been getting a lot better. Elder N., he's on of the other missonaries in my district, and I have been trying to speak in Portuguese every chance we get because everyone keeps telling us that that is the only way we are going to learn the language. However there are some people in our district who get upset because they can't understand or they don't like speaking so we normally just speak with each other. I can actually speak quite well although my vocabulary is very limited still. When we teach our investigators I still end up doing most of the talking but my companion has been contributing a lot more. So far I have memorized the Missonary Purpose, the baptisimal prayer and recently the First Vision all in Portuguese. Elder N. and I like to say the First Vision whenever we can just for fun.
This week is American Thanksgiving so Thursday we don't have classes or anything. I think we are doing some sort of service project and then we have a bunch of firesides throughout the day. Nobody has told us exactly what is going on yet but it should be good I think. They are setting up for Christmas already and they have lights everywhere. They haven't turned them on but we are pretty excited to see what it will all look like when they are done. Also, I don't think I get to call home on Christmas this year but I will get to call before I fly out. I'm the only Elder in my district going to Cape Verde but there were three elders in the older district who just left for Cape Verde and they all seemed pretty sweet. They said they had to get rid of a lot of stuff in order to keep there bag under the correct weight. Apparently the carry on can only be 10 lbs? So that could potentially make things more difficult. I'm not really worrying about that yet because I'm not leaving this place any time soon.
It snowed a couple days ago and it's really funny to see all of the people who have never seen snow before. It melted the next day though and it has been nice ever since. I don't know how I will be able to send pictures home. The computers won't let me access my camera and I can't get on the drop box site. I may send a couple in the mail but I think I might just have to wait till I'm out in the field and have more internet access. The computers are pretty locked down here. But we do get to watch Mormon Messages and every Sunday we get to watch a movie. So that is a nice break. Other than that though we are constantly studying the language and the scriptures/ Preach My Gospel. We don't really get much of a break other than P-Day and gym time. I've been playing basketball more lately because the volleyball lines are always so long now that nobody can go outside. I even had a dunk in on of the games! It was pretty sweet. Some of their rules here seem a little weird. You are allowed to dunk in a game when someone is guarding you and trying to hack you but if you dunk with nobody guarding you they get mad and kick you out of the gym. I know the rules are for safety but I would think that it should be the other way around. Oh well, it is still nice to be able to play and I'm just enjoying it because after the MTC I will most likely only play soccer till my mission is done.
So if you guys get a chance to send my iPod, there are a few songs that I would like if possible. A Poor Wayfairing Man, Come Thou Fount, and a Spirit of God. Whatever other songs will be fine but those are my favorites I think. It's so quiet without music and it takes some getting used to because I always listened to music at home. And I forgot to say that all of the Lord of the Rings and Gladiator music is on my iTunes library on my laptop. Thank you!
I don't think I really need anything else. I love you all!
Elder Brandon Dola
