Bribery in Branch Counsel

Hello Family!

Thanks for the news of the reception; it sounds like it went really well. Goodness, I would love a bundt cake right now. :)

Mom: I did have an old Portuguese bible, but it was lost a few months ago. Sister Laimana and I had both been waiting forever for the shipment of bibles to come in. Ha-ha. I guess my love of the bible is growing on my mission. :)

This week we are enjoying pouring rain, flowing mud and burning sun! I love Cape Verde! I'm pretty sure I've seen worse rain storms about a million times in Utah, but rain here just seems so much crazier! It's also pretty destructive, which is ironic because the thing this country needs the most is rain! But the rain erodes streets, walls, houses, everything! And then the water and mud just sit there because there's no efficient drainage system. There's a good size lake near our house --maybe Dad and Dan and Jackson could hike out here and check it for fish.

The mud is also ridiculous...ly awesome. I quite enjoy it. The Sisters here (myself included) use these great China-made plastic sandals which make the rain and mud a piece of (bundt) cake. All you do is rinse it off that night and they're ready to go in the morning! We did have some trouble making it up to Fernanda's house though, since there was literally a river of mud coming down the hill by her house. Ha-ha. It's been quite the week.

Goodness. What else happened? We had an excellent 10 hour training on Wednesday with President Oliveira. It was, of course, very good. I feel completely overwhelmed, but also excited to move the work forward.

We had another hard week, but it was a good week. I got to give another impromptu talk in church yesterday and this time I talked about service/missionary work--of course.

Our super cool investigator Na came to the baptism on Saturday, and came to church on Sunday! We met him through another investigator--Claudia. We went to teach Claudia and Na answered the door...and...we figured out we needed to teach Claudia about the law of chastity and invited Na, the boyfriend, to sit with us. Well. Since that time, Na has made several friends in the branch, including Jamanta and Milenyu, two great members, he's attended church, a baptism, a couple family nights and now he's moved out so that he and Claudia aren't living together anymore! Awesome!

I brought cookies to branch counsel which made us instantly the most popular sisters in the world, but what the members don't know is that it was a bribe! I'm resorting to all sorts of measures to get the help of the members. I made them each take an invite to pass out to a friend for the activity we're having on Saturday with their cookie. :)

Mom: your favorite, best, wonderful chocolate cookies have now been introduced to the African public.

Um...last Monday we got to go to a Futebol game for our Zone Activity! It was pretty awesome. The Elders in their white shirts and ties and us in our skirts...we fit right in with the crowd. Ha-ha.

Well, that's about it. I hope everything is going great! I love you all!

Love,
Emma -- Whoops. I mean Sister Brooks