The African Way is Better!

So Praia....  Praia is hot, really, really hot.  

Our area is on the out-skirts of the city and runs along the ocean.  I feel like I got transfered to Portugal because almost everyone who lives in our area is from there or has lived there in the past.  Everyone is rich!  Sometimes I get a little scared to go inside of a house because its so nice.  Its so different from my old area, and we have to work alot harder to find people to teach.  But the Lord has been blessing us and always have investigators that are progressing.  We have three families that we have been working with, each with their own sets of problems but its an amzing opportunity to share with them how their family could be forever. 

As far as the gas on top of my head, our gas for our stove ran out while we were cooking lunch so we had to go get another on monday.  Seriously, carrying things on your head really does make them less heavy! The African way actually is better!  I promise to teach all of you guys when I get home! Hahaha

The mission is amazing and I am learning so much every day about this gospel.  I have honestly learned that prayer is the answer to everything. Sometimes when we are stressed out of mines we thinkg we need to relax, or work out, or eat something sweet to get rid of our stress, but I have learned that when we have things that stress us out, or we just need to feel peace, prayer is the only way to really feel better. It is our passport to peace!

I hope all you guys are doing well!

Serving in Praia, Progress in Assomada

I cant even start to explain how happy I am right now!

Elvis was baptized and confirmed this week in Assomada!  In the mission we don't have contact with anyone, so this whole week I was worrying and praying about him, hoping that all the way up there in Assomada he still had that burnning testimony I got to see my last week in Assomada.  Many a tear was shed this week on my knees asking God to strengthen him and when I opened my email this week and saw his pictures I literally couldn't stop from crying which I'm still doing right now. I'm just so happy! Literally, this is a hapiness that you can't describe! I just never thought I would actually get to see a miracle like that on my mission.  I know that it didn't have anything to do with me personally, but God gave me a special opportunity to watch Him change the life of one of his children.  I remember contacting him on the street; he was literally almost running because he was in such a hurry, and all I got to stay was that we had a living prophet and that he could come to church on Sunday.  This kid lives in the INTERIOR mountains, but he somehow remembered and showed up there on Sunday.  He had so many doubts and struggles, and he also never spoke a word of Portuguese to us, but somehow we always understood each other.  Watching this from start to finish has got to be the best experience in my life! Thank you, Pai Celestial! 

The short one is Elvis and the taller one is our amazing branch president!

I’m GETTING TRANFERED!

I'm leaving Assomada! I'm so sad to leave. I really love everything about this place, and I've grown so much here that I can literally say I'm leaving a different person and this last week the Lord has given me so many confirmations that I have done the work here that he wanted me to do.

About this time last week I was crying to Sister Capener telling her how when I came to Assomada I felt so strongly that there were people here that I personally needed to help find the gospel, and that even though I worked really hard every day, I felt like I hadn’t done the work that the Lord sent me here to do, and I felt like I must have messed up somewhere because I felt like I would be leaving the next week. I think the Lord always gives us a trial right before the best blessing ever, because this week was chalk full of little miracles that helped me know that the Lord was happy with all the work that I had done, and that I really did need to be right here in Assomada to help some of Gods children accept the gospel.

On Tuesday of last week we went to the house of a member to teach our investigator Elvis (Remember the guy who walked an hour on foot to go to church, yeah him!)  but he didn’t show up. We called and he said that he couldn’t talk with us anymore because he couldn’t keep the law of chastity and he just had too many doubts. Sister Capener and I were so sad! But we both felt like that this wasn’t the last time we were going to talk to Elvis.  Then on Wednesday morning as we were walking to that special training Elvis comes running out of a building and tells us that he had a dream and he needs to talk to us.  We marked to talk to him on Friday and when we sat down in the lesson with him, his whole face was different. He literally looked like he was glowing and he couldn’t stop smiling.  He told us that he had dreamed that a man came to him and told him everything we had been talking about made sense, and that it was true.  And then he dreamed that he saw us on the street and that the same man introduced us, but that in the dream I didn’t know who he was.

He said after he woke up he cried and couldn’t stop.   He said he didn’t know why he was crying except because it made him so sad that I didn’t know him in the dream.   He told us that he knew this was an answer from God, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon was true. You could see it in his face that he knew. It was such a miracle!  We asked him to be baptized and he just smiled and said he would.  It was amazing to watch God take his doubts away and change his heart.  He broke up with his girl friend of three years like it was nothing because he knew it was true.  He just said, ''It’s like God turned my love for her into love for him, I just love God now." And then he thanked us for having such strong testimonies. He literally thanked us for helping him find the truth! It was such a tender mercy from the Lord and a confirmation that I had done the work the Lord sent me to do. The dream was an answer for Elvis, but I think it was also an answer for me.  When I saw how sad it made him that I didn’t know him in that dream it made it obvious how much I had personally influenced his life. Tender mercy prop!

I know that the Lord has power to change hearts because I saw it first-hand! I have so much confidence in Him and His love for each of us. This mission will always be sacred ground for me because I was able to come to know him so much better here.

But anyways I'm getting transferred to Praia where I've been told all the rich people live!  And I'm going to be serving with Sister Cibambi who is from the Congo! 

Assomada

Yesterday was seriously the most perfect day ever, I cant even begin to describe whats its like to be here in Assomada and teach the gospel to these people! Yesterday we went to Gil Bispo and it honestly felt like I was dreaming it was so beautiful!  Just imagine this little African village on the tip top of these rugged, green mountains, surounded by banana and mango trees.  And on clear days, it sits high enough in the mountains that you can see all the way down to the ocean, WAY WAYYYY down there.  Its seriously SO beautiful! 

But its not just how it looks, teaching these people is an amazing expreience that I wouldnt miss for anything!  Sometimes I just have to sit back and wonder at how the Lord does his work.  Its true! If the Lord wants something to happen, He always makes sure that it does. If that wasnt true, none if this would be possible. It wouldnt be possible for us to teach and understand people who only speak creole if it wasnt for the Lord. 

 This week we had one of the best lessons of my mission with a young man who never speaks portuguese. Somehow we always understand him, and he always understands us. His name is Elvis and we found him on the street.  We just walked up to him and asked him if he would like to learn about how we have a living prophet today.  He was in a supper hurry, but something really did change in his face when we said that.  Becasue he was in a hurry all we got to say was when church was. We left and honestly forgot about him.  But the next sunday, there was Elvis, having walked over an hour from where he lived just because the spirit touched his heart when we contacted him. Hes amazing, but  hes been having alot of doubtd, and we read with him the Joseph Smith story and bore our testimonys of Joseph and the Book of Mormon last time we taught him. I could see it in his face that he felt the spirit.  He learned forward and asked me the most inspired question EVER (in creole lol) "how has the book of mormon changed your life" It seriously shocked me because it was such a great question that me and my companion loved to answer.

I want you guys to know that the Book of Mormon has chsanged my life. I can honestly say that I know  where and how to find happiness that will never leave because of this book.  That might sound like a simple thing, but read it again, because it honestly what every person on this planet wants.  I know that no matter what happens in my life I will always have this happiness, because I know my Savior, and that blue book is a testimony of Him!

I want to invite all you guys to think about how the Book of Mormon has changed your life and tell me!

Sister Capener and Sister McClellan!

First of all, my new companion, Sister Capener is the most amazing human on the planet and I'm supper blessed to be serving and learning from her.  We both have a really strong desire to do the work and give it our all every day and we saw a lot of blessings from the Lord because of our diligence.  WE WORK SO HARD AND DONT STOP! I've never been so tired in my life but I've never seen so many blessings either.  

I can’t even write all the blessings we saw this week.  I feel like God just dumped them on us all at once!  We literally found 20 new investigators this week and a lot of them have real potential to progress! 

Text from the Mission President!

We found a new investigator named Beto, who is TOTALLY prepared to hear our message.  He was a reference from a different investigator, and the first lesson was good, but when we taught him plan of salvation we really got to see how prepared he was to receive the Gospel.  He said that he had been taught in Catholic school that babies had sins and needed to be baptized but he always thought that was wrong.  He said that when he was reading the Book of Mormon (yes, he read between our visit!) he came upon the chapter that talks about infant baptism!  He said that he knew the book was true and that babies don’t have sins. Such an amazing blessing!

Also, we found a couple named Josepha and Regino.  We started teaching them and in the middle of the lesson he told us that we should know that they were about to leave before we knocked on the door, but their grandson came up to them and said someone was coming to talk to them, and they needed to hear what they had to say so they didn’t leave the house. He said he had no idea what the little guy was talking about because they never have people come by the house but they decided to stay because he was so insistent!  HOW DID HE KNOW!! 

I don’t have time to even write all of the blessings and mericles we saw this week, but we saw so many!

I love this work so much and I'm so excited to be serving with someone who loves it as much as I do.  This week President Mathews actually texted us because of all the success we are having! 

Love all of you, have an awesome week and don’t forget to read the scriptures!

My Companion's Fatal Hour!

My companion finished her mission this week!  And in mission language, that means I killed her! And also, this mission, and maybe every mission, has a tradition of taking a "death picture" of how the other comp killed the one who's going home.  I RAN HER OVER WITH A YAS!!! 

But on to missionary work, this week had its ups and downs.

Firstly Carla, our scheduled baptism this past week, as well Mica and Eneida, our other progressing investigators, moved out of our area without any notice! It was pretty depressing going to their house planning on teaching a lesson and finding beds missing and hearing that they had left. Pretty heart breaking to be honest!  

Next of all, we found an AMAZING investigator! Her name is Joice and she might be the first person I have taught that really WANTS to know if our message is true. Like hungering and thirsting after these things. Basically, she has real intent!  And now that I'm typing this, I realized that we found Joice because our lesson with Carla, Mica, and Enieda fell through, and we went knocking doors.  I guess the Lord works in mysterious ways, right?

Also, remember Mica and Eneida? We have been trying to decide if we should drop them or not, because we're worried they were becoming eternal investigators but this week we taught them and we really tried to find our their problems, and what they wanted in their lives.  After asking a few questions, Mica told us that he knows that everything we have taught is true! He bore his first testimony!!! Inspired questions are so important! QUE BENCAO!!! 

So this Tuesday we walked out of our house and saw the scariest thing EVERRR!! Okay, just imagine a group of men, painted with black tar wearing only loin cloths carrying spears walking towards you. I'm not exaggerating; that’s EXACTLY what we saw! We freaked out for a good 2 minutes and then realized that today was CARNIVAL! And they were just dressed up. 

And also, speaking of shocking experiences.....

My companion, Sister Neto,  and I were sitting in church last sunday, minding our own business when my companian’s MOM walks through the door!!! My companions eyes about popped out of her head. Her mom came all the way from Angola, found out where and when our church was, and just popped in! TALK ABOUT SHOCK!!!

Portuguese!

So I basically love Portuguese.  I'm not sure when this happened, because when I first got here I was convinced that it was the worst thing that had ever happened to anyone, but after 3 months of talking, I understand why people call it the Tongue of Angels! And in honor of my new found love, I'm going to tell you guys all the funny things that I've learned.

1. People here don’t give birth.  They, "dar luz" Which means, "to give light!"

 

2. Man = Homem.  Husband = Merido  Women = Mulher. Wife = Mulher.... Anyone else see a problem??

3. They have four different words that all mean, "to be" in English.

4. Constipacao.  This is some malfunction with your body that is very uncomfortable... THE FLU! Hahaha but it sounds just like constipation!

5. If you get angry fast, they your skin in made of flowers!

6. They have the same word for inhaler and bomb... 

7. They dont give repremads, they knife you! Literally, "dar um faca" or, "give a knife"

8. They have two words for EVERYTHING. Two words for hair (human and animal) They have two words for chicken (dead and alive) They have two words for ears. Trust me, everything!! ... Which probably makes the fact that they don’t have a different word for “wife” even funnier.

9. My favorite thing ever is that Portugese people like to use "There" (la) to express how far away something is. "Fica LAAAA,, LLLLAAAAAAAA lllaaAAAAAAAAAA." Its supper funny to listen to :)

10.  I have a longgg way to go before I'm going to be fluent in this language but each day, and grace by grace I'm learning!  Even by study and also by faith right??   #D&C 88:118 

BTW:  You can see from the picture they have really tall grass here!

Cockroaches, the Plan of Salvation, and the Cabo Verde Death Cry

I LOVE IT HERE...Minus the cockroaches that are everywhere in our apartment... Whenever we get home the first thing we do is smash all the little baby "baratas" that are on our study table. And for some reason our Area Book is ALWAYS full of cockroaches. EVERY DAY. We also have bed bugs  Hahahaha #VidaDeMissionaria

But honestly, I love it here! It was a little hard to adjust to mission life at first, but now that I've got the hang of it I love it! I love teaching people every day and helping them come closer to Christ.  In the MTC Elder Holland gave a talk called, "missions are forever". He said in that talk that you shouldn’t go through your mission waiting to go back to, "real life". Because your mission is the closest thing to, "real life" you'll ever have.  When he said that I literally had NO IDEA what he meant, but after teaching the Plan of Salvation a million times I think I'm starting to get it: The purpose of this life is about preparing to meet God, and helping other do the same.  And thats exactly what I'm doing!  And I'm loving it!

Speaking of the Plan of Salvation, let me tell you what happens in Cabo Verde when someone dies: Everyone, like EVERYONE goes to the house of the person who died and does a, "death cry" (like think moaning and crying and yelling all at the same time) and guess when your supposed to make this visit? SUNDAY MORNING.  I don't like it when people die. It makes it really hard to get anyone to some to church, members and investigators! And... I'm sorry to say, but I swear someone dies everyweek! 

Charity

Things are so great at the MTC! I think something finally clicked here with the language because people talk in Portuguese and I can understand.. sometimes without even thinking about what those words mean in English, and as I teach lessons or talk with my companions the words just come to my head! I'm going to give all the credit to the Gift of Tongues because there's no way this is just me. But Portuguese is so beautiful!! People call it the tongue of angels for a reason! Its also apparently the "purest" of the Latin languages and (I'm quoting my teacher on this) you can understand 80% of Spanish and french  and 50% of Italian if you know it! I'm so lucky to be learning it!

1 Corinthians 13:1 - Though I speak unto you with the tongue of angels (Portuguese!!! jk haha) and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all the mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity I AM NOTHING. 

I have learned so clearly that Charity is the only thing that is really important. Who cares if you are good at teaching, who cares if you are fluent in Portuguese or know the scriptures cover-to-cover. You will be a failure as a missionary if you don't have charity, and a perfect missionary if you do. And that goes for being a good human as well! 

Today we visited a HUGE tree for p-day! So big and gnarly. It looked just like that tree on Lion King that the crazy money lives in! I couldnt get a very good photo because the whole tree wouldnt fit in my camera but I tried! ITS SO BIG!

My new companion

One thing I have learned on my mission is to always follow the Spirit. We have a little family that we're been teaching who are progressing SO WELL.  I remember when we first found them I was out knocking doors with my companion and I saw this little house out across this super sketchy ditch/pile of boulders, and I knew we should go knock it. I was a little scared it suggest it because it would be so hard to reach it but I did anyway.  This week the husband told us that he spends all day thinking about our church and he is ready and hungry to have the same testimony of it that we do. SO GLAD I KNOCKED HIS DOOR!

Hmmm... which one is Krysta??

This is the beginning of my second transfer of my mission and I’ve been serving in a place called Assomada! Its on the biggest island and is WAYYY up in the mountains.  Its so beautiful and green! There are obviously lots of Cape Verdeans here, but there are also tons of people who have moved here from all over Africa. Because of that we have run into some seriously CRAZY things.  Like one time we were talking to a member and he told us that his neighbors were cannibals from a tribe somewhere in Africa! What!! We also run into Muslims a lot too.  And also, whenever people hear the name of our church (Latter Days SAINTS) they think we worship saints like the Catholic church. Its so annoying!

Things here are... different.  Like for example, no one has addresses, but everyone knows where everyone else lives. If we need to find the house of someone, you can just walk up to any random person and ask, "a onde mora Eder??" And everyone knows! Can you imagine trying to do that in the United States?? Credo!

Also, because the people are so poor here and their food/houses aren’t very clean we can’t eat dinner with the members...and so.. we just don’t eat dinner.   I'm literally always hungry but its fine!