Ineida's baptism

Introducing...

So, first off, I really like all you guys. It's a good thing too, because I'm loving my Cabo Verdian friends more and more every day. Which is why today, I'm going to introduce you to a few of them.

Meet Lu. Lu is possibly the best friend any sister missionary could ever have. She knows all the sisters’ recent converts and all the people that the sisters taught but were never baptized. She also thinks we walk around too much and work too hard and makes us come to her house every day (OR ELSE) at 6 for juice and bread. Sister Laimana pours her juice into my cup when Lu isn't looking because it's gross. Haha. Lu is also probably the most generous and friendly person you could ever meet. She'll help anyone and everyone and is super excited about sharing the gospel with anyone who will listen. She was baptized about 2 years ago and she and her older brother are the only members in their family. Her brother is....

Tchilatchy. His real name is Domingos, but no one, including him, would know who you're talking about if you used that name. He's Tchilatchy and he's pretty amazing. Only a few months ago, he's was more or less inactive. With Sister Laimana and Lu's help, he started again coming to church and making a lot of progress. A couple weeks ago we challenged some members to read the Book of Mormon before May 7 (before you know what...) and Tchilatchy has been one of the most enthusiastic. We have literally seen the difference in him. He has an incredible testimony and definitely an added measure of the Spirit with him. He taught with us one day and it was incredible. He's absolutely hilarious and you can't leave a conversation with him without just feeling happy. Unfortunately, we sent him to the hospital this week because he got a headache while reading too much in the Book of Mormon....? Seriously. Haha, but he's fine. Another great thing is that this week, Tchilatchy was able to baptize...

Neida. Whose real name is actually Ineida. We've been calling her the wrong name for about a month and a half and only while filling out her baptismal ficha did we figure it out. :) Ineida is a total sweetheart. Talking to her this week she expressed just how happy she was to be following this decision to be baptized. Most of her family lives in the interior of Fogo and weren't able to come to her baptism, but it was still a great day. We taught her on Sunday and you can see the difference in her--her family can see it too. Hopefully we'll see the same changes in our new investigator named...

Alex. Thursday we taught a boy named Alex (a different Alex) and that night we went up to the church for an appointment. We found Alex 1 sitting with a friend who was introduced to us as also being Alex (2). We invited them in for a mini tour of the chapel and were able to show them around some rooms and the sala sacramental. We also showed them the baptismal font and Alex (1) told us that Alex (2) had never been baptized. We asked if we could talk to them for a few minutes and sat down by the font and taught the first lesson. After explaining the Restoration of the Gospel, we asked if Alex (2) had any questions. He nodded his head and said, 'I'd like to be baptized.' Okay! We marked a date and talked to him about his preparation for baptism. He even came to church all by himself yesterday. It's a huge difference teaching in the chapel than on the side of the road on cinderblocks or in a house with eight screaming children. From experience, I know the Spirit can still testify in both those places, but it's a lot easier to feel when there's a giant picture of Christ's baptism hanging next to you.

Okay, let me introduce you all to Eddy. I think I might have told you a bit about him last week. But he was the first person that we took an earring from. Since then, he's made a lot of progress. Eddy tries to put on a tough-guy front, but you can't fool Sister Laimana and me. One of my first weeks here we saw him look into the primary room and saw the welcome he received from all the kids. From that point on, we realized he's just a big ol' softie. So we put him in charge of all of our little recent converts. Ages 10-13, Zidane, Cuka, Jacira, Carlita, Kaeli, Ronilza, Patrick, Roni--they now all have a big brother named Eddy. We've held two little activities at his house. Last Friday we watched the Restoration film (with popcorn) and this past Friday Eddy and Tchilatchy taught them (and about all the other kids in the neighborhood) about the Holy Ghost. Finished the night with juice and brownies. Eddy is now first counselor in the Young Men's presidency. It's great. Now he'll be able to help all the boys and young men in the branch, including...

Zidani. I love this little guy. He was so completely sweet and meek while we were teaching him, but from the moment he got baptized he's started sassing us. We know it's just because he loves us. Yesterday, I wore my gray dress to church (We'd had a long discussion about whether or not that dress is actually cute--it was cute in the MTC, but that was a long time ago and things have changed. I've worn in about 6 times since I left the MTC. The only thing that's still practically brand new.) and Zidani walks up to me, looks me up and down, stops and says, 'You're ugly today.' Haha. Thanks Zidani.

Oh man, I could go on all day and introduce you to everyone in the branch. They're all crazy and they're all amazing. I love Fonte Aleixo. They have a talent for saying the most awkward things possible in the most awkward ways. We've actually been trying to teach them that word: AWKWARD.

It was a great week. I love you all! I hope you had a wonderful Easter (it more or less passed us by without any notable difference) and that Grandpa's birthday was good too!

Love,

Sister Brooks

Lifelong Wish!

Hey Family!

Conference was awesome, but unfortunately because of normal Cabo Verdian technical issues and eventual internet failure we weren't able to see all the sessions and I only watched parts of some in English.

(No, my Portuguese is not perfect and yes, it does take a lot more brain power to focus when you can hear your native language in the background and have a deep dubbed voice with a Brazilian accent playing over it.)

But, the parts that we were able to watch were awesome. Sister Laimana and I even snuck in for the Priesthood session Sunday morning. (We had an investigator come who came to prove to me that he didn't drink the night before and was able to wake up early that morning--I've become slightly...straight forward, we'll say, in my old age. If I see a member drinking, he's going to hear something from us. And our wall of earrings is getting bigger by the day.)

I loved Conference. Mom mentioned the 'active in the church but not in the gospel' and that's sort of Fogo in a nutshell. The sacrament room doesn't have enough chairs for all the members, but...the number who are partaking of the sacrament is very few.

I also appreciated Bishop Edgely (?) speaking about less actives (in Priesthood session?). There have been so many inactives who we've taught and given them up as a lost cause, thinking that they might as well stay where they're at and it won't hurt anyone. But then I realized that if they stay where they're at, their kids and grandkids and great’ grandkids will also stay there and none will enjoy the blessings that God has for them. Oh! We have so much work to do in all parts of the world.

I also about died of sadness hearing the words that Elder Bednar spoke of his father, asking why we, who claim to pertain to the only Church with the power of God, do not fulfill our duty more willingly and fully than those of other faiths. Why don't we? When are we going to start? That was something I definitely needed to hear and wish that every young man in our branch had been in attendance to hear it as well. Thank you to all the worthy priesthood holders in my life!

On Friday, we got to spend some time with Augusto who both Sister Laimana and I taught in Praia. He's originally from Fogo and came for a visit and walked with us, introducing us to some old friends. Granted, most of his friends are very old or drunks...but it was still fun. We met one family who had so many animals! They had dozens of little chickies on the roof and I caught one! Fulfilled one of my lifelong wishes.

Anyway, it's getting hotter. Just want to remind you all that...'m in AFRICA. And loving it.

Love you all!
-Sister Brooks

Sorry, no pictures today, but I do have lots of pictures of someone's pet monkey.

Hey, someone tell SAMANTHA PEAVLER that I received a spiritual prompting that she owes me a giant news flash. That's all.

The wedding

Elvis and Zidane (the little ones)

Cheers

Hey Family!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day. I had to look up the Portuguese word for 'to pinch' again--looked it up last year too. I pinched everyone who wasn't wearing green even though it's not a real holiday here.

Beliscar = to pinch

I guess I'll start with Elvis and Zidane. Elvis is a member's younger brother (I think there are five young men in that family now that are members) and Zidane is the nephew of some recent converts. They're both super funny little guys and it was fun to teach them and see them baptized. We walked down with them to their baptismal interview which was exhausting since they both walk way faster than we do, but they had a good time playing together. Right as we got into the chapel, Elvis tells Zidane: 'Whatever they ask you, just say no.' Sister Laimana and I both looked at each other and kind of started freaking out ('Will you live the Word of Wisdom?' 'No.'). We found out Elvis' brother Alex (who baptized him) had told Elvis that before he came with us. Haha. Don't worry, they both passed.

We also got to help out with the Elders' investigator's wedding. He's been living with a member and a couple months ago they blessed their baby girl in church. Friday, they got married! A little bit out of order, but they're on the right track now. Andrade got baptized on Saturday along with his mom! That was awesome. While the Elders were teaching Andrade here in Sao Filipe, his mother was being taught in Mosteiros and they were both baptized together. His mom is quite elderly with silver gray hair. We talked to her a bit at the wedding and her Creole is awesome. Apparently she's been smoking since she was six years old (she's got to be in her 70's) but she was able to stop and was baptized with her son. It was just a really cool thing.

The wedding was pretty cool as well. They gave us a call that morning and we went over and blew up about a million balloons, attempted to make a big balloon arch and then peeled a fifty pound bag of potatoes. We missed the actually wedding, stayed behind to finish with the preparations, but we still got to eat and see the bride and groom return. It was fun until the alcohol came out (it's not a party if you're sober!) and then the missionaries just sort of huddled in a corner, finishing our food and then we left. But apparently after we left, they offered champagne to Andrade and Codei and Andrade shook up the bottle and popped it open so it all got wasted and then they threw away the rest of the alcohol! I can definitely see him as a future bishop once the stake is here in Fogo.

3The whole alcohol thing is a pretty enormous problem here in Fogo (as in all of Cabo Verde), but it's a little bit ridiculous how many members you see drinking on a daily basis. Earlier in the week we found one young man drinking in the neighborhood bar and we talked to him for a minute. It was so sad. It was really hard for me to see. He has a brother on a mission and two other semi active brothers here in Fogo, but he's stuck. We tried to get him to leave, but there wasn't really anything to do.

Friday night though, we found him again, in the same bar and we managed to get another member to take him over to his house away from the bar. I felt really grateful for that member--who recently overcame his alcohol problem--and his willingness to help. It was completely a miracle that we found him. We just happened to cross paths and we asked him if he could watch over his friend for the rest of night and he did. Heavenly Father isn't just leading us to those prepared to hear the gospel, but to all those that need our help and whose help we need.

We also had an investigator in church this week named Neida. We've been working with her for a couple weeks and Sister Laimana and I have just felt really good about her even though up until this week we haven’t really seen her making much progress. But this week she moved to a different house with her sister and it's quite a bit closer to the central concentration of members and we were able to pass by on our way to church and she was there waiting, ready to go with us. She got a good reception and enjoyed it. Later that day as she was talking to us she said that she felt really good and she'd told her sister about church and her sister said she'd like to go as well. We sort of continued with the conversation and then Neida kind of interrupted and said, 'I think this really is a true path.' It was great. We're teaching her sister Joana as well and it was definitely an impression from the Spirit to keep going back to her.

Some funny things: I forgot to tell you a couple weeks ago the Elders baptized identical twins. They're super cute but pretty mischievous--when it came time to confirm them, Elder Go confirmed the first one and then there was a pause and Elder Go called him back and asked him which one he really was. Turns out they had either switched of just gone up in the wrong order. Everyone got a good laugh out of it though. Hopefully it wasn't too irreverent.

Also, we took an apple streusel cake to District Meeting--genius and completely delicious. Sister Laimana and I are really getting the hang of gas stove and oven baking. Well, during district meeting, an extremely large quantity of ants got under the plastic wrap onto one side of the cake.

And we all still ate it.

I'm not sure if that means the cake was really good or we've just been in Africa too long.

Life is good in Cabo Verde. The gospel really does change lives--over and over again if necessary.

Love you all lots,

Sister Brooks

Patrick's baptism