First Week in Cape Verde

Kiana in Cape Verde

Houses in Cape Verde

Baptism


ola familia and amigos

the first week in the mission... it was great! my trainer is amazing. she said she was just like me when she came out on the mission so we relate well to a lot of things. 

my biggest problem right now tho... THE LANGUAGE.... This stuff is sooooo  not portuguese. i am in Santo antao, porto novo area and they speak creole here more than any other area... i have no idea what is going on... i thought creole would be super similar but it really is not. it is completely different. so i am trying to be super patient and positive. this way i wont know what anyone is saying for a while but once i get portuguese down i can understand creole and not have problems later in the mission if i get transferred to a place of much creole.

so i have needed to rely on the spirit a lot here.

the first thing i would say i need to improve on is that i need to be more direct with the baptism invite. i have invited a few people in all our lessons and i notice they look at me and either don´t understand what i am saying or do not realize it was actually a question for them to answer. sister zimberman then has to step in and help me out. but i think the highlight of my week was yesterday when we taught a menos ativo and her family. she has 8 children but only 3 or 4 live with her. there were 3 of her kids there last night and 1 friend of the older boy. they were speaking so much creole i did not get anything out of it. but after a few minutes i realized sister zimberman said something about scriptures to the mom and about reading just a verse everyday. so i thought to share a scripture with them and ask them how they felt. it took me a few moments to have the courage to actually say something. i was going to keep my mouth shut and wait until i really knew what was going on... but then i knew i would regret it if i didnt say anything. so i did and after we read the scripture, ether 12:4, we asked them how they felt. and they all said good. the one little boy said he felt something in his heart. and my comp asked if it was good or bad. and he said good. he had tears in his eyes and i was amazed at the strong spirit.  we asked them to describe that feeling and we talked about the holy ghost. i think paulina (the menos ativo) realized that she can just read a verse a day and still feel the spirit. she does not have to read the whole book of mormon in one day to feel the spirit. so i think that was good. even though i had no idea what was being said i know they felt the holy ghost like i did.

Church yesterday was good... i think it was amazing. i mean i felt the spirit even when i didnt understand much. but i was asked to bare my testimony so i did and i mostly expressed my love for the people. i really do love them. these people are so strong and have strong spirits. they are soooo humble, but confident in what they have. 

basically everyone looks like me... so i thought they would all assume i was cabo verdian... well i was wrong. they all know i am american or something else. i do not know how. they must know once i start speaking that i am not from there.

but the people are great. a lot of members are willing to go out with us. they are all so young. the average age of members here is super young. i think it is in the 20s. 

so what are some cools things about cabo verde... they have cobblestone streets everywhere so it is super hard for me to walk. so running in the mornings outside is out of the picture. but we walk to the chapel and run around the little parking lot. that is pretty fun. the food... not like the mtc but i am getting used to cereal.. haha.. and spaghetti... umm what else? yes it is africa, but it is not the normal africa. people have concrete houses and keep them nice. the funny thing is they build their houses and if they do not have enough money to finish them they just do not finish them... so there are a lot of houses, a lot a lot a lot of houses, that aren´t finished and just sit there waiting to be finished. but i think it makes this place beautiful. 

in the area i am in we can see the mountains and the ocean at all times. it is super cool. and we can see the other island across the way. right now it is 11 almost 12 o clock so idk what that means the time difference is. 5 hours maybe?

Well that is about it. i love it here. i just need to be patient with the language and love the people and serve them. i think i am still in that new missionary daze that people get into. i have this glazed over look in my eyes i know it... but all is well. the lord is on my side and this is what keeps me going. read the scriptures, even one verse can change peoples lives

i love you all so so much

tchao!

Sister johnson