Hey Family!
I'm writing this on a computer in Praia...the same computer that I wrote many of my emails on for the first nine months of my mission. :) Luckily it's one of the better ones. And there's even electricity today!
This week was pretty full. Lots of things going on. The Festas de Sao Filipe finally ended on the official holiday, May 1st. We woke up at midnight to watch the fireworks. They were really loud and pretty impressive. The city probably puts all of its funds into this one (week long) party. We saw one of the events--some sort of horse competition. It was pretty boring, but it still drew all of our investigators and members away from their houses. :)
We got to have our zone conference on Thursday. No general authority, but it was really good. Now that the stake is all established in Praia, President and Sister Oliveira are half moving the mission home to Fogo. Next step: Fogo Stake. The entire conference was on families. Finding, teaching and strengthening families. Right now, Fogo definitely has the numbers for a stake, but without any married men to hold ward or stake level callings. Also, with the extreme amount of youth, the branches are in desperate need for some more mature members to help with retention.
During the conference, President was giving each missionary counsel for their particular areas. He got to the end of the line where Sister Laimana and I were. All he said was: 'Voces, casem-se por favor.' I think you can probably figure that one out. Everyone laughed pretty hard.
Highlights: we had a Cabo Verdian music group sing to us. Haha. By music group I mean two local boys who happen to have a song on the radio. It was so ridiculously awesome. The song's in Krioulu and pretty catchy, but I'm pretty sure we've done a contact with both of the kids and they don't really look the popstar part. Haha.
Gerson was baptized! Yes, I know I spelt his name Jelson, but it's not. It's Gerson. Everything went super smoothly. He's a smart little kid. The best part was that his mom came! We were bugging her all week about going but the day came and she was locked out of the house and couldn't get ready to go. We knew President was going to be there, so we had to get started on time so we just went up with Gerson and Etson. Well, right as we were going in to sit by the font, his mom walks into the chapel. Perfect timing. It was so good. And because of District Conference, he was confirmed afterwards as well. It was a great baptism, but then afterwards, we were able to be there for Samila's setting apart! It was awesome. Goodness, I love that girl.
We went to Samila's house Friday night for her farewell party. Everyone's going to miss her, but it's so good--all of the boys in the branch need a little kick so they'll get out on a mission too. She's really amazing.
I'm writing this on a computer in Praia...the same computer that I wrote many of my emails on for the first nine months of my mission. :) Luckily it's one of the better ones. And there's even electricity today!
This week was pretty full. Lots of things going on. The Festas de Sao Filipe finally ended on the official holiday, May 1st. We woke up at midnight to watch the fireworks. They were really loud and pretty impressive. The city probably puts all of its funds into this one (week long) party. We saw one of the events--some sort of horse competition. It was pretty boring, but it still drew all of our investigators and members away from their houses. :)
We got to have our zone conference on Thursday. No general authority, but it was really good. Now that the stake is all established in Praia, President and Sister Oliveira are half moving the mission home to Fogo. Next step: Fogo Stake. The entire conference was on families. Finding, teaching and strengthening families. Right now, Fogo definitely has the numbers for a stake, but without any married men to hold ward or stake level callings. Also, with the extreme amount of youth, the branches are in desperate need for some more mature members to help with retention.
During the conference, President was giving each missionary counsel for their particular areas. He got to the end of the line where Sister Laimana and I were. All he said was: 'Voces, casem-se por favor.' I think you can probably figure that one out. Everyone laughed pretty hard.
Highlights: we had a Cabo Verdian music group sing to us. Haha. By music group I mean two local boys who happen to have a song on the radio. It was so ridiculously awesome. The song's in Krioulu and pretty catchy, but I'm pretty sure we've done a contact with both of the kids and they don't really look the popstar part. Haha.
Gerson was baptized! Yes, I know I spelt his name Jelson, but it's not. It's Gerson. Everything went super smoothly. He's a smart little kid. The best part was that his mom came! We were bugging her all week about going but the day came and she was locked out of the house and couldn't get ready to go. We knew President was going to be there, so we had to get started on time so we just went up with Gerson and Etson. Well, right as we were going in to sit by the font, his mom walks into the chapel. Perfect timing. It was so good. And because of District Conference, he was confirmed afterwards as well. It was a great baptism, but then afterwards, we were able to be there for Samila's setting apart! It was awesome. Goodness, I love that girl.
We went to Samila's house Friday night for her farewell party. Everyone's going to miss her, but it's so good--all of the boys in the branch need a little kick so they'll get out on a mission too. She's really amazing.
Well, Saturday we headed off to Praia. I forgot how
big Praia was. Of course, by that I mean...I forgot how small Fogo
is. Praia's still a tiny city compared to the rest of the world, but it
seems huge. We were able to visit a bunch of peope in Praia 2 and then we
went to both the Praia 2 WARD and the Praia 1 WARD (Emphasis on the WARD.
Haha.) on Sunday because now Praia 1 starts at 3 in the afternoon. We
were able to see pretty much everyone we wanted to. Little Maisa and
Andre are still very cute. And Maisa's mom is now married to a returned
missionary! Praia is now full of married families. It's
awesome. And all the babies I saw a year ago are all grown up.
It's been nice to visit here in Praia, and we'll probably spend some time in Sucupira, but I'll be very happy to get back to our area in Fogo tomorrow. I miss Fonte Aleixo like crazy.
Anyway, love you all.
Love,
Sister Brooks
Denial? Yes. Just kidding. I love you all. I'm excited to see you. :) Tchau!
It's been nice to visit here in Praia, and we'll probably spend some time in Sucupira, but I'll be very happy to get back to our area in Fogo tomorrow. I miss Fonte Aleixo like crazy.
Anyway, love you all.
Love,
Sister Brooks
Denial? Yes. Just kidding. I love you all. I'm excited to see you. :) Tchau!
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