New Years

 The food on New years was for real at the Bishops house!

More Food!

 sabio-- cute little 13 year old always at church but cant get baptized because his parents wont let him

Mission Selfie

 My favorite baby in cabo verde!! Ba Bella!!!!!! love her. she is soooo cute and perfect

Baptism of Rivi!!!!!!!

More photos

Rivi

 She is getting baptized this week :) it is marlene!

Dear familia e amigos!

This week was THE TRUTH! It was full of miracles and fun and adventures. So let me begin with the miracle. 

Soooo tuesday i think it was. Tuesday was a great day. So idk if i mentioned this but we had this investigator. His name is Rivi. He wanted super bad to get baptized and he has all the lessons but he really wanted his best friend, Stivan, to baptize him. But sadly stivan is not going to be back in town until next week. So we had a goal for him to get baptized on the 3rd... yesterday... but then we decided since he really wanted Stivan to baptize him he could get baptized on the 17th. So last week at Aritsonºs baptism we were talking to Rivi and saying how "this will be you in 2 weeks." He looked all sad and said... "21 days" And then i said. " well you could get baptized on the 3rd but Stivan wont be able to baptize you." And thought about it for a minute and said "yeah"... then that conversation was over. So then the next day we were passing Rivi on the way to another appointment. WE get talking about when we are going to meet with him next and all that stuff... We discovered Stivan would be back before we thought. So we asked him if he would like to get baptized on the 10th.. and then he said the best thing ever... "Or i could get baptized ont he 3rd and Clovis (another one of his buddies) can baptize me!" ummmmm SURE YOU CAN!! hahahaha it was soooo great! 

SO then we meet with him... reteach all the lessons this week and he got baptized... on the 3 of january and recieved the Holy ghost yesterday! It was so great. It showed he really wanted to get baptized because he was willing to get baptized by someone else instead of his best friend. After the baptism they asked him to bare his testimony. He had tears in his eyes... Rivi is the type of guy who jokes around a lot.. it was soo great to see him filled with the spirit and having tears in his eyes. And then after he recieved the holy ghost he has this HUGE smile on his face. Solid. Moments like this is what missionaries live for! I really learned how important it is to set goals too. Because during weekly planning the week before we were thinking of who could be a baptism of Faith this week and couldnºt think of anyone.. then Rivi popped into our heads and we just wrote him down. And it turns out he really was prepared. The Lord knows even when we dont!

Ok so for the other great things... NEW YEARS! Ok so something about new years in cabo verde... oh my goodness they know how to party here. For real. So we go to bed on New years eve with this loud music next to our house... i am thinking at least by midnight we should be good... at least. Well boy was i wrong. I woke up at 4 a.m. to Gongham style... i dont know how to spell it but i know you all know this song. And they were screaming and yelling. hahaha anyway this isnºt it. When i finally can go back to sleep i wake up again to our alarm... and guess what... the party was still going. The party went until about 7:30 when we returned from our exercise. Haha they can party here. And they dont leave all the festivities for just new years eve. They also have a new years party too. So two days in a row of all night partying. 

Well i thought this was just the other people and not the members... haha no. The members had an even better party. They went from 11 pm until 9 am and they played futbal starting at 12... I have to come back to cabo verde for a new years eve party someday! OH and the bishop fed us for new years lunch! phenomenal... refer to the pictures. and no this time i did not have coke.

Ok so back to spiritual stuff. We have an investigator named Anna. i might have mentioned her. She is amazing. And finally this week she commited to baptism! Incredible!!! Her family is super catolica so she is really worried about what they will think. But we had this lesson with her about the book of mormon. It was powerful. We asked her to ask God if it was true. She didnºt do it when we came back to follow up with her the next lesson.... That was rough. I think she was afraid of getting an answer. So then we start baring our testimonies and the spirit was super strong... sister zimbelman asks her if she would say a prayer right then and there and ask god about the book of mormon. She said yes without hestiation. WE knelt down and her prayer was simple but so powerful. She paused after she asked the question. The pause was so powerful and i knew she got her answer right then. It was amazing i could not stop smiling. She finally closes her prayer after some silence and we ask her about it.... She got her answer. She still had doubts about getting baptized though... but the rest of the lesson was truly guided by the spirit because we worked through her doubts. She really understood that this church has the authority. And that we werenºt trying to take away the truths she already had but add to them. She felt much much better and commited to baptism! it was phenomenal. It is amazing to see the change in people. A year ago she said she didnt beleive in god until she started praying. now she prays everyday and her prayers are so powerful! 

The third miracle is Marlene. She is amazing. She is the one who does all the extra studying and stuff from the pamphlets and is super far in the book of mormon. We had a lesson about the law of chastity this week. She had a few earrings in her ear. We talked about modesty and immedietly she asked to go to the bathroom to take out her earrings. This right here is true repentance. Once she knew... she had no desire to do wrong. only a desire to do right. 

I love seeing the way the spirit works in people. The HOly ghost is the true teacher and i know this to be true. Thank goodness too. Because most of the time i know i make soo many mistakes but someone the message gets across and they feel the truth. 

I love you family! this week was amazing! Keep up the missionary work at home. Hastening :)

Love Sister JOhnson