Tourista!

Hey Fam, how's it going? This was a LONG week. Seriously, it feels like our Family Night last Monday was about a year ago. And I think it's just because we did SO many things! I was looking through my planner and it's just packed with lists of things we needed to do, did, and still need to do. But it was a good week. I thought the mantle of the missionary was going to push me right through the cobblestoned streets, but we made it. And, the best way to measure if we're fulfilling our purpose ('convidar as pessoas a achegarem-se a Cristo...'), Eduardo and Lavinia were successfully baptized.

Eduardo. Piece of cake. He wanted to be baptized and follow Artur's example weeks ago.

Lavinia. The little twig of a girl gave me three ulcers and a heart attack and a half.

Lavinia's smart. She attends seminary more than any other member and she's only thirteen. But she's also got an attitude. Haha. Man. The Young Women in the branch seriously might kill me. But I love 'em anyway. But Lavinia, we pass by her house to walk with her to her baptismal interview and we find out that her family has moved.

People do that here--they decide they don't like where they're living so they up and move. That very day.

So we had to track her down, walk half way across the island (exaggeration) until we found her new house. We knocked on the door and she said, 'Oh, I went to the church but no one was there so I came home.' (That's what you get for being on time!) But then we all skipped happily to the church, she had her interview, things went about as smoothly as a Hiace ride, but she was baptized (and confirmed). Yay.

And I'm tired. Haha.

But it was a good week. We ate cake twice at Artur's house (once for Renata's sixth birthday and the other for Eduardo's baptism). We might as well move in there. We teach Artur, Eduardo, help them both with reading, we're teaching another relative that lives there, Sani, and one of Soraia's sisters wants my help with English. We generally walk/run out of there with headaches, but yet I still love that family.

We also found another fun family this week. We contacted a man who was over at Bela and Tio Toi's house. He marked a date with us and Friday we went to teach him. He lives with his woman (hee hee) and two kids. We were able to teach him and his daughter with the five year old running around like a nut. Denil, the little boy is so cute. He kept bringing things in to show us. Then after the lesson they invited us for a snack. I'm not good at refusing so we sort of mumbled some sort of excuse and headed for the door, but then Denil grabbed our backpacks and hung them on a chair and made us sit. Then while Carlos was fixing the snack, we talked to Denil who told us all about preschool and his English class (which he does NOT like--though made me sing several Christmas songs in English). Then he wanted to see us without our glasses. Sister Vicente took off hers and then I lifted up my glasses. Denil's eyes got big and he pointed his little finger at me and shouted, 'TOURISTA'! Haha. I can't help that I'm white.

But they were very nice. The snack was tea and bread and cake. Sister Vicente made sure it wasn't against the word of wisdom to drink the tea (though I later wished I had had that excuse to refuse it) and he poured us some very interesting herbal tea. I couldn't tell you what flavor it was, even though I recognized the taste and smell. All I know is that it was all I could do to not plug my nose as I drank it. I don't like tea. At all.

It didn't help that as I choked down the tea, Denil was eating a bowl of chocopic. And telling us how we were both the size of high school students. Ha.

What else happened this week? Little Joao showed us to a member's house. This kid is maybe two years old and Cisa told him to show us where Zuleica's house was. He grabbed our hands and we were sure we were going to end up back where we started but he led us across the neighborhood all the way to the member's house so we could teach Florindo. Joao was even quite well behaved after he stopped trying to bit us. Ha.

I guess that's about it. We had good lessons, bad lessons, hard days, long days, crazy days and windy days. Also, everyone is now freezing. Except me. It's winter which means it's about the temperature of a morning in August at home. Though it definitely feels colder than it did when I got here last December. I've seen some Christmas lights and a few Christmas trees. S. Vicente says they don't really have much of Santa Claus here because they don't have chimneys! No wait. I asked her if they use stockings and she said no because they don't have fireplaces. So I asked how Santa Claus gets in (Grover's worry) and she said they don't really make a big deal out of Santa Claus. Yeah.

Anyway, we're been enjoying our advent calendars. Though my angels got mocked because they are UGLY! Ha.

All right. We've got a flight to Mindelo at five for a training tomorrow. Tchau!

Love,

Sister Brooks