Trabalho Esta a Crescer!! (work is growing)

Hey everyone!!

So good news... WE GOT WATER!! Tuesday we woke up and still had no water. We went through our study and everything and then started our Weekly Planning Session. As we were planning, all of a sudden we heard a shout from the elders next door. Apparently the son of the house owner finally came over and fixed the water problem! We were pretty excited. Ok so I think there are roughly 70 missionaries serving here in Cabo Verde. There are six here in Assomada but some of the areas have a lot more. Also we walk everywhere during the day. But if we ever have to go anywhere, we have to take a Hiace. Man those Hiace drivers are nuts. We took one to go out to Picos, which is a small town that is in our area. We had two drivers literally fighting over us. One had me by the arm and was dragging me one way and the other had my companion and was dragging him the other way. It was ridiculous! Definitely an experience that you won´t have anywhere at home. Sorry, I don´t have any pictures this week. We haven´t really done much other than work and I haven´t had a chance to take any. I´ll try to get some for next week though. 

So this week was really good. Things are really starting to pick up and all of our work is paying off. That reference we got last week, the one who asked how to join the church, they are doing really good. We are teaching everything so fast and they are accepting everything. C, the man, said he still needs to pray more about Joseph Smith but he believes he will receive an answer. The only problem is that they almost missed church yesterday because they went to another church. Apparently some pastor invited them to come so they went!! They did make it just a little late and C started taking pictures in sacrament meeting! So that night we had to discuss a few things and we went over the Restoration again just to make sure they understood some things. They are really excited to be baptized and as long as they feel ready they are planned for baptism this Saturday.

We also had some success with this investigator that Elder Bunderson has had for a long time. His name is A and he was almost baptized in December but then he got sick. They had to postpone it and then when I got here things started going down hill. He was always sick or sleeping when we visited and we never could get anywhere with him. Then, this past Monday we went to visit him. He works as a guard and sits in an unfinished house. There was a pile of cinderblocks in front of the house so as we passed in front we couldn´t see him. But from a distance we saw him standing there. As we came around the other side of the blocks, he was gone! He hid from us and wouldn´t come to talk! We even called him and heard his cell phone! SO we took that as a hint that he didn´t want to speak so we didn´t pass by again until Saturday night. Then he told us that he was confused that we weren´t passing and wanted to know why!! So we explained what happened, and sorted everything out. He came to church yesterday and he even brought a friend! When we went to visit last night he had the baptisimal interview questions and wanted us to quiz him so he could see the things he needed to work on to be baptized! It was quite the turn around but he´s doing awesome again!

The Lord really does have a hand in everything that we do here. This week we found a lady in the house of some of our investigators. The first two visits she wouldn´t sit with us but then we finally got to talk to her. She said that missionaries taught her almost everything two years ago but she never got her answer. However, when we started passing her family, she started praying again. She told us that she believes it is true and is preparing for baptism while we review everything with her. It´s so awesome! The biggest thing we are trying to work on now is getting more members to our lessons. That is going to help us a lot so that the invesitigators can help us with follow up. The members here are so good and they are always willing to help. It is so cool to be here and to be a part of all this right now. 

Other than that, not much else is new. Still working hard and trying to learn as much as I can. Everyday I learn something new that can apply to my life or to the work here. I can see so many blessings in my life that I have to be grateful for and that I need to share with these people. I love you all and it´s good to hear that everything is going well at home. Wish grandma a happy birthday for me!

Está Frio Aqui!! (It's Cold Here!)

Hey everyone!

So it´s great to hear about everything that is going on at home. I´ll try to answer all of your questions but if I miss one I´m sorry. The computers are kind of slow here and it´s hard to go back and forth so I may forget some. It´s been super windy here this past couple days. Without the wind it would be super nice but with it it is cold!!! I wish I had a sweater and I never thought I would need one of those! Don't bother sending one though because by the time it gets here I won´t need it anymore. I´ll survive. Hmm, well we try to rely on references from members but we do a lot of contacting when appointments fall through. We are here in the city so we can´t really talk to people here in the streets because half of them don´t live in our area. We spend a lot of time knocking on doors and trying to follow up with our current investigators. Sometimes this makes the days go long but things area starting to pick up. The conditions aren´t the greatest but they are better than I originally thought; a lot of unfinished houses everywhere and every building is made out of cinder blocks and cement. Only the highways are paved, the rest are all cobblestone. Probably not the best walking surface for my knees but it´s not too bad. Wild dogs are everywhere as well as chickens and goats. Most of the dogs don´t really pay any attention to you but some of them will bark. Usually if you just pick up a rock they will run away. 

The people here are really humble for the most part. A lot of them don´t have a lot but I think most of them have the simple necesseties to survive. Lots of people in the streets are selling fruit and fish and bread and whatever else they can. We haven´t really looked at many of the shops. We get our fruit at the market and everything else at the grocery store. We have had a water problem this week though. We haven´t had running water all week and the last couple of days we ran out of our extra water. We had to buy a bunch today to clean everything up but it´s kind of annoying. Hopefully they fix that soon. I´ve been told this rarely ever happens. 

This week was a lot better though. Tuesday we went to Praia for a Zone Conference. Praia is about an hour away and so we had to take a Hiace. It´s basically like a Hutterite van and they pack it full of people and the drivers are crazy. As soon as they see a group of elders, about 3 of them will swarm us and try to get us in their Hiace. It´s nuts!! Then when they drive, they just swerve and honk. They only stop if absolutely necessary. Zone Conference was really good though. It was all in Portuguese and I understood almost all of it! They focused a lot on working with the members as well as using our resources more effectively. Then we talked about sacrifice and faith in the Lord in order to have success. After lunch, we watched the movie 17 Miracles. I don´t know if you guys have seen it or not but it is really good. It talkes about the handcart companies and some of the miracles that happened to the Willie and Marting Companies. If you haven´t seen it you should. 

Other than that we´ve been working really hard to progress with our investigators and find new ones as well. M, he´s the Nigerian I talked about last time, is slowly progressing. There is something that is holding him back though and we think we might have found it. We are going to talk about Plan of Salvation and our purpose here in life. He´s really cool though and he was a boxer. We´ve committed some more people to baptism though and now just need to get them to church and keeping their commitments. Sunday morning was really good. The speakers finally spoke in Portuguese so I understood them AND after church, the Branch President introduced us to this couple. We went to talk to them and the first thing they asked was, "What do we need to do in order to join the church?" Crazy hey??!! We explained a little bit that we need to teach them first and help them get ready for baptism but they are scheduled to be baptized on Feb. 4. The Lord really does know where these ready people are and He provides ways for us to find them. We are pretty excited. 

Other than that, not much else is new. I don´t envy you guys and the cold weather you are having. And I think we got rid of most of the cockroaches. We have only seen the occasional one this past week. They are nasty though. I am here at such a cool time. The church is growing so fast and within the next couple months they are going to start a stake here in Praia!! I think Mindelo is close too but it´s so cool to be a part of all this! I haven´t received the letter yet but that doesn´t mean it´s not here. It could be in Praia at the mission home and they just haven´t brought it to me. I´ll let you know when I get it though. Anyways I´ve gotta go! Love you all and I love hearing from home. 

Tudo Fixe!

Hey everyone!!

All right so this past week was kind of an up and down week. The beginning was really good and we had a lot of lessons with our investigators. However, we are really having some troubles getting them to keep their commitments. This makes it hard to progress with them because we have to keep going over stuff again. We have one guy though who I think is really close to baptism. He is Nigerian and speaks English. We’ve been teaching him quite a bit and he comes to church all the time. On Saturday we had a really good lesson with him about the importance of baptism and the blessings that come because of it. We had a recent convert who bore really strong testimony of why he was baptized and the difference he’s seen in his life. It was so good! Now we are just waiting for him to pray to get and answer. He hasn’t done it yet but I think he’s really taking it seriously because he says he needs to make some time so he can really pray and search for an answer. He’s so close though!!!!!

Yesterday in the evening we contacted this one girl who seemed really interested. We taught the Restoration and she asked a lot of questions about why we are out here and stuff like that. She said that some missionaries talked to her family when she was a kid but she didn’t really pay attention and she didn’t remember anything. Unfortunately, she leaves in two weeks for Brazil for school. We’re hoping to teach her a few more times and then get her information so we can send it to the missionaries in Brazil.  Other than that though we knock a lot of doors and are really trying to help some of our current investigators to keep their commitments so we can teach some more stuff.

Cape Verde is super awesome though!! There have only been two days where it was hot. Not even that hot though. Apparently I am in the coldest part of the country right now during winter. It’s rather windy here and it hasn’t been too bad temperature wise. Not sure how long that will last though. It gets cold at night!! The people are really nice and almost always will let you in to talk. The people here are pretty short, although there are some tall people, just not very many. Crioulo is still very confusing for me. I have been mostly working on improving my Portuguese and I still can’t understand them when they start rambling in Crioulo. I’m sure it will come though. Someday. I’ve seen my mission president twice now since my first day. Although I think that is rare. He travels a lot. He came on Sunday with his wife for a house inspection and then he was here the week before for a baptism. Tomorrow we have a Zone Conference in Praia so I don’t know if I’ll see him there or not.

Today hasn’t been the most exciting p-day. We have to de-contaminate our kitchen because the cupboards are disgusting and we had an infestation of cockroaches. NASTY!! Apparently the house was even worse when my companion first moved in but we are almost done. We do have a fridge and we found some boxed milk last week. We probably won’t get it that often though because it is more expensive. I like my companion. He’s helped me a lot and he understands Crioulo so that also is good. We get along really well, and right now we are trying to change our teaching approach in order to find more interested people.

 I just got my first Cape Verde haircut and I’ve never had my hair this short. But I don’t have to do anything to it so it will be a bit easier to keep. Other than that I’m doing good. Just trying to learn the language, study hard and help as many people as I can. I still miss everyone and want you to know how much I love you all. I know this church is true. There is no other reason on earth that I would be here if it wasn’t. I’m so excited to serve and help the people here learn about the gospel. I hope everyone is doing well and I enjoy hearing what is going on at home.

Love, Brandon

PS I sent a letter last week. Let me know when it gets there so I can see how long it takes to send mail.

CABO VERDE!

Bom dia minha família!!

So I´m pretty sure you are all still asleep but I´ve been up for 5 and a half hours now. It´s really weird to think that I´m on the opposite side of the world right now but it´s really cool here. I´m in Assomada right now. It´s the area on the opposite side of Santiago, where Praia is. It actually isn´t that hot here. It gets cold at night! I never thought I´d be saying that. Not super cold but still cold enough that you need an extra blanket. I love it here so far though. My companion is pretty cool. He helps me a lot but apparently I speak pretty good for someone who just arrived. A lot of the members think it is crazy that I only got here last Wednesday. I still get completely lost though when they start speaking in Crioulo. Not a big fan. Good thing is we are not supposed to teach in Crioulo so I don´t have to learn how to speak. Only understand it which apparently just comes with time. 

We are teaching quite a few people and we have a few investigators that are progressing. However we still have to do a lot of contacting. The people here are really friendly and we rarely ever get denied but we usually only get one visit and then when we go back they are not there. I can help pretty well in the lessons though and yesterday we had two really good lessons with the family of one of my companions current investigators. This was good because his family was the thing keeping him from committing to baptism. He didn´t want to do it without his family. So hopefully we can help them all progress now! I haven´t seen anything too weird yet. We´ve taught a few Catholics who basically let us in just out of kindness but they told us straight out that they wouldn´t change. Yesterday we were teaching a lady who was Catholic but she said she was open to learning. The lesson was going really well and then her mom came in and lost it on us. She was yelling in Crioulo so I couldn´t understand anything but Elder Bunderson, my companion, said that she was basically telling us to get out because they were Catholic and they didn´t want anything to do with us. It was too bad but we had to leave. 

Last night we had a FHE activity at a members house which went really good. I gave a spiritual thought and then they played some games. We got 4 referals out of the activity so that was really good. The members are really nice. There are actually quite a few who are leaving on missions soon. They aren´t supposed to speak Crioulo in church but yesterday all three speakers in sacrament meeting did so. I didn´t understand a thing. They all tell me that I need to learn Crioulo but I think I will just focus on Portuguese. 

Our house isn´t too bad either. We have running water and plumbing and we even have a heater for the shower. The water is all filtered pretty intensly for us so that we can drink it and there are some rules we have to follow but otherwise it´s not too bad. Food is basically whatever you can make with the ingredients that you can find here. We´ve had pancakes, soup, pizza and chicken and potatoes so far. It´s not too bad as long as you get creative. We do have to use powdered milk though which is disgusting!! I´m definitely going to appreciate real milk in two years. We even made ice cream one night!

Today in the morning we went to this big tree. It is massive!! We took some pictures and I will send the pictures next week. Anyways we went to this tree and we took a local member to help us out and show us where it was safe to climb and stuff. I didn´t go very high but it was pretty cool. However one of the elders slipped while trying to climb a more difficult area and hurt his ankle. I didn´t see what happened but apparently he fell about 10 feet. He should be ok but we definitely need to be more careful. We decided that maybe the tree wasn´t as good of an idea after all, no matter how safe we tried to be. I made sure I didn´t do anything crazy though. Kind of a bad way to start my first p-day. 

It´s so cool being on an island. We are basically isolated from the rest of the world and surrounded by mountains and water. It´s an amazing place here. Brodie is in Mindelo right now I think. It´s on the opposite side of the islands so I don´t know how long it will be till I see him. Thanks for the emails, it´s always good to hear from home. I miss you guys but I'm having a lot of fun and I know this is what I´m supposed to be doing. I love you guys so much! 

Fica fixe!!

January 4, 2012 Eu estou aqui... em Cabo Verde!!

Olá famila!! So I´m just emailing quickly to let you guys know that I arrived in Cape Verde safely. Our flight was delayed 3 hours so we didn´t end up leaving the airport until after 12:30 am, Boston time. We arrived here at 11:30 am Cape Verde time and just finished the orientation meeting. I got my new companion, his name is Elder Bunderson and my new area. I´m not entirely sure what else I´m going to be doing today but it´s going pretty good so far. It´s pretty nice here and kind of cloudy. I got the window seat again, right on the wing. You couldn´t see much though because we were on top of a huge pile of clouds for most of the trip and then it was super cloudy flying into Praia. It´s really sweet here though and I will have to tell you more about it on my next p-day. Not sure when that will be though. Also there were no problems getting onto the plane with my stuff and everything is all good. Love you lots! Talk to you later.

Brandon