Tobacco and Tatuagens

March 21, 2011

Familia!

Boa tarde! Missions are the BEST!

Andy! I don't remember when you leave, but I know it's coming up. Be so excited! Love every day and the MTC and the Field. I know you'll be great. Just love the people and the country and everything about it! And come home with a British accent. :)

Happy Birthday Livi! We saw a pirate ship in the water this week! (I think Captain Hook has Tinkerbell locked in a cage on it!)

Happy Birthday Stasia! I would send you Cheese Balls, but that's one thing you can't actually find in Cabo Verde. :)

What an incredible week. Seriously. One of the greatest/craziest weeks ever! We've been finding so many amazing people! I know talking to drunk people isn’t the wisest thing we can do, but this week it paid off!

The other day we passed a house on the way to one of our appointments. Sister Turnbow felt that we should go back there, so this week, when one of our appointments fell through we went and did a contact there. The owner of the house was pretty excited to talk to us and also COMPLETELY drunk. It was pretty funny but also sad since all his little kids were out there playing and laughing at him. So we were a little disappointed and Sister Turnbow was sort of like, "Well, I guess that wasn't inspiration." but then we talked to another man who was sitting next door and he invited us in and we talked to him and his niece. They were both amazing! The niece especially.

Marcia is sixteen years old and one of the sweetest girls I've met here. She understood us perfectly (she actually speaks Portuguese!) and was very kind. She's also about eight and a half months pregnant. Her mother and younger brother are in Portugal and she's living with her very Catholic grandmother. Her mom doesn't have enough money to come back to Cabo Verde and her little brother has a heart problem which is why they're there. Anyway, she's so wonderful. She received an answer about Joseph Smith and came to church on Sunday and turns out she's a really good friend of our recent convert Maria! God has definitely been preparing the way for her. We love her already.

We've also been teaching a woman named Lolita and her friend and two little kids. They came to District Conference last week and turns out that Lolita's oldest daughter is a member! She lives with her grandma and Lolita is the sister of a good member in Ramo 4. It was crazy. And really good. They're such a sweet family. And their friend is hilarious and speaks absolutely no Portuguese. And his Creole is even hard for our members to understand. :) But they're awesome.

Our recent convert Nene gave a talk in Sacrament meeting on Sunday and it was so good! He was so nervous. He made us listen to it like four times beforehand and then would grin really big when we told him how great it was but then just shake his head and say, "Oh, I don't know". He's so funny.

There was also another really good talk in Sacrament meeting (No, not me!) about enduring to the end. I was paying better attention because I was trying to translate for Elder Adams. It's definitely the hardest step of the gospel, but something we need to do for our whole lives! It really is a blessing to be given this time to work and prepare so we can be ready to live with our Heavenly Father again. And here again, we see the perfect example of our Savior who endured right to the very end, praying and atoning for our sins. We are so blessed by the knowledge of these things.

We were teaching Zezito about the Priesthood this week (Isa didn't come to church again! It makes me want to cry.) and I felt very impressed to share an experience when Dad gave me a Priesthood blessing and how incredibly blessed our home and family has always been with worthy priesthood holders within it. There really are so few people in this world who grew up with their father and brothers able to hold the priesthood and bring those blessing to their home. I'm so grateful for all of you and the restored power of God on the earth!

This week we got to wake up at three am to welcome a new sister from Portugal to the mission! She stayed the night with us before flying to Sao Vicente. She's very nice and it reminded me a lot of my first bizarre night in Cabo Verde. It seems like so long ago!

We also stayed out until midnight this week! I know, I know. I think that's against the rules. But we got permission from our Zone Leaders to go to the Adams' house and help Sister Adams translate her power point presentation for the next day's Relief Society meeting. I'm not going to lie: I loved it. Late night with the Adams and I got to use a computer! And the internet. I can't believe how much I miss my laptop (I know, Paul, I'm a nerd). But it was a lot of fun. But we're still exhausted. Missionaries need their sleep!

I hope you all had a great St. Patrick's Day! I'm glad I didn't get to see Mom's four dollar green pants. Ours was great. We were studying in the morning and I suddenly gasped and said "It's St. Patrick's Day!" Then we both look at each other--Sister Turnbow was wearing green and I wasn't. So I leap across the room, over her bed and run into our closet to try and pull on something green, but she caught up with me and pinched me first. But then she didn't have green besides her crazy tie-dye dress so she hid a fake tatoo on her arm which really only kept me from pinching her since no one else celebrates it, but I pinched her anyway.

We went to teach a woman the other day and she hurried to the door and said she couldn't talk to us because she was cooking tobacco and if she left it it would burn.

We're going back this week to teach Palavra de Sabedoria. :)

I love you all! I love this work! Be safe and well!

Love,

Sister Brooks