The Font

Hello Family!

We had a pretty fantastic week. I don't really know where to start.

How about...with the baptisms! Artur and Cicita were both baptized and it was so great. Super duper. Artur was very excited, especially since he got to be the first person baptized in our new baptismal font! Haha.

By which I mean our new water tank which we found behind the church, turned around, cleaned out, painted over and filled up! You'd think it would be less exciting than going to the beach for baptisms, but everyone was super happy. It's cheaper than hiring a bus to take everyone to the beach and now the baptismal services don't take up our entire Saturdays. And it made us and the Elders feel good that we could do it for the branch. We spent quite a bit of time scrubbing the disgustingness (of years of being unused behind the chapel) out and then we went and picked out a very nice shade of blue and painted it! It looked great. Just add a couple of chairs and people can get in and out. :)

Back to Artur, he's such a good kid. And his mom and brother and sister and little cousin came too which was great. Artur's mom is super less active but she's still really trying to do what's best for Artur and Eduardo (who's next to be baptized) and it's been super fun to get to know the (nutty) family.

Then Cicita's baptism was just as great. Pretty much everyone thought he was already a member since he's related to the most active family in the branch and used to come to church every week before his mom told him he couldn't be baptized. But now he's 19 and baptized! And he pretty much knows everything and is going to be an awesome member and Priesthood holder. It was also super cute when his cousins Gilda and Danilo gave the talks at the baptism.

Side Note: Cicita used to have earrings in, right? Well, one day when we were talking to him about them, Danilo told us that he would just creep in during the night while he was sleeping and cut off his ears! (At the time, Sister Walker and I thought it was a very good idea.) Then Danilo continued to say that he would baptize Cicita, he'd just need to borrow his dad's Priesthood. :)

It was just a super good weekend. After the baptism Saturday, we had a branch activity--'Pela Mao de Mormon...' Sobre o Livro de Mormon. It was super good. We had each of the organizations give a little presentation and then Sister Walker and I brought about 8 dozen cookies--Amy's oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (without the chocolate chips but with swirls of cocoa). And the Elders brought the juice--they brought five packages of the most random flavors and mixed them altogether. But I guess that's how we do things here.

The young women did a skit about Nephi killing Laban to get the brass plates. It was almost accurate--except Laban died quite violently in his drunken sleep instead of getting his head sliced off. But still super funny. I mean good.

The Elders did a skit of Joseph Smith getting the golden plates and receiving instruction from Moroni (that one was actually my idea because I remember it was done years ago at my first youth conference and I've always remembered it). Then there were some other great presentations (through some of them I might have been playing with Bryan...but it was still good.

The weekend kept getting better with the Primary Program on Sunday! I'm not sure if it was really a very 'by the book' Primary Program, but it was awesome. Primary kids are just as cute here as they are everywhere. I did get to play the piano (and they had never practiced with me or the piano and it probably would have been better for them to do it without, but I was happy to do it).

If I could have filmed the whole thing, I would have. Such cute kids.

Speaking of cute kids, Bryan had a wet spot on his pants and we asked him what it was. He answered quite honestly and told us it was 'chichi'. He wet his pants.

Oh. I guess I should tell you about transfers. I haven't really decided how to feel about it. Sister Walker is getting kicked out. She and Sister Turnbow only have half a transfer and they get to go to Fogo to search out the less-actives (awesome). Though it's sort of not fair that I only get one transfer with her. And it went so stinkin' fast! But I'm getting a mini missionary from Fogo! I'm super excited and super nervous. (And I'm going to ask her to teach me Krioulu and how to make catchupa and feijuada...and anything else she knows how to do.)

There's only one catch. The flights between islands have been very troublesome lately because Halcyonair stopped flying and now TACV can do whatever it wants (I'm sure you're all super interested in this). But basically that means that no flights or boats are leaving from Fogo and 'Sister' Vicente won't get to Sal until Wednesday or Thursday. But Sister Walker leaves tomorrow. So...today, we have to find some kind soul to be my mini, mini missionary so I don't die. Fun, fun!

Anyway... I hope you all are doing wonderful! HAPPY THANKSGIVING to you all! Weird to think that I was sitting in the MTC gym listening to Elder Holland last year.

But we had a practice Thanksgiving lunch last week and I'm confident that Sister Vicente and I will eat well...if she ever gets here.

Love you all! And THANKS for everything!

-SISTER Brooks