The Stake Clerk

Hello Family,

Well, I can't forget to wish Dad a HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! I hope you have a wonderful day and know that I would totally call you if that was allowed.

Also, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to Grandpa Hall and Dan and Randers! Love you all too!

And...HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENJAMIN! Wow! I hope you have an amazing birthday on Monday! You'll have to let me know what kind of cake you ate and what presents you got! I love you!

Speaking of birthdays, our district celebrated Elder Ryan's birthday. Elder Ryan is one of the financial secretaries and Elder and Sister Adams planned a little surprise lunch after District Meeting on Wednesday. Sister Laimana and I supplied the cake. Apparently, everyone's favorite cake is the 'Fun-fetti' cake mix which is impossible (thus far) to find in Cape Verde. So we made a silver white cake --from scratch!--and added sprinkles (a very lucky find here in Africa). From what I was told it was a pretty good copy of the original. I thought it was good. But of course, the decoration (see attached photo) was awesome! We made a tie out of airheads and the tag out of a dark chocolate piece and then wrote a nice birthday wish in Krioulu. It was pretty awesome.

I've discovered that one of my favorite things is celebrating others' birthday. Maybe it's because I can help make their day super fun and a little bit special.

Or maybe it's because I get to eat cake.

For whatever reason, it was fun. We also gave him a couple receipts to be reimbursed. We're such nice Sisters.

Our sad news of the week is that Sister Beus is gone--not like gone, just transferred. Presidente doesn't want three sisters in the office (two is bad enough) and since her health is fine and dandy now, she's moved the Ramo 2 in Praia. So we still get to see her, but it's still sad. It was one very fun week. But now I'll probably get to serve with her again someday. Woohoo.

During one of our adventurous days with Sister Beus, we made a giant pot of chili which was very good and we also had corn bread and Sister Laimana made cinnamon rolls. I'm pretty sure we ate more than we would have with two plates from Segundas.

I'm not really sure I should have confessed that. I'm sure no one needs to know about Sister missionaries' eating habits.

But it was really good chili.

Our recent convert Augusto is still amazing. He helped us the other day teaching Beto and he's just very straight forward--he knows it's true and he doesn't see why in the world anyone else is waiting to accept the gospel as well. He was letting Beto's wife know how great church is and that she should come and see how it is and then she'll be ready to marry Beto and get baptized. It was awesome. Then he was giving Sofia and Anildo tips, too, about how they don't need a huge party to get married--they should just sign the papers and get baptized and then they can have a party.

I agree.

He's great though. I remember our first lessons with him and I really didn't know if he was that interested in changing his life, but now it's so clear how much the gospel means to him and he wants to share it with everyone! He also wants to rent a Hiace to take everyone up there in Alto de Gloria to church on Sunday! He's amazing.

We taught Beto's wife the other day and she's definitely not as excited about the gospel as Beto (though I don't know if anyone could be) but she's really sweet. She doesn't speak Portuguese either, but she was telling us that when their little boy went to church with Beto he came back and said, Mom! Church is SABI! I don't know the exact translation of sabi, but it's basically really cool--or really tasty in reference to food. They have some really cute kids. I love the little ones here so much!

Well, I think that's about it. The office is still as crazy as ever. Yesterday, we just brought snacks and worked through lunch because we had five visas to renew. But now we don't have to go in today, so it was worth it. And since part of what we do is help the Caboverdian missionaries applying to serve missions, we now have access to the Missionary Recommendation site--we're listed as stake clerks. :)

I love the mission. I love the gospel and I love my Savior!

Oh. And I love all of you too!

Love,
Sister Brooks