Holy crap. well this week has been crazy so the elders ended up being sent back but i think they got to cape verde on saturday but since we are in sal we will not being seeing them until transfers. There is about two islands per district and one or two areas on each island. We didnt see the other portugal elders in portugal because they didnt get there until about the time we left. too bad.
So in sal i am in santa maria. sal is one of the main tourist islands so half of our towns are resort things. so its a pretty cushiony area but the downside is it is also an expensive area to live in. Seeing as ive never been out of the us coming here was a huge shock. especially after staying the night in portugal. cape verde is warm pretty much always except in the mornings for me. its pretty chilly. we live about a 5 min walk from church if its just us missionariels walking. and from the church you can see the beach which is where we baptise our investigators. in fact this last saturday i have a story about that. ill leave that for the end though. save the best for last right?
My trainer is elder zuniga. he is a mexican from texas but also spent a ton of time in mexico. Hes a cool guy and is teaching me quite a bit. he has been out a year. in fact out of everyone i met he has been out the shortest. pretty much everyone i have met has been out a year and a half..... it sucks. not that i dont like the mission but they are all experienced and have been out for awhile and go home pretty soon. so i cant speak portuguese and i dont have much experienced and its pretty frustrating but it is really fun.
another pretty annoying thing is im not suppose to speak creole. but people love to speak it. and sometimes they use portuguese and sometimes creole. when the conversation is all portuguese i can usually understand most of it. but when they start mixing them i get confused very fast. my speaking isnt all that great but the members are awesome. and when i dont understand they just laugh and try english. the people here are soooo nice. you can say hi to everyone and they talk back.
There are a ton of bars here. like if you walk down any street you will see some. they are just like one room bars with a table or two and some people drinking. in fact one of our investigators (liandra) is 14 and her parents own the bar so we have to go in there to talk to here and its pretty funny.
We have quite a bit of investigators because everyone here is so nice that if you ask them if they want to here your message they almost always let you in their house. since ive been here ive invited 2 people to be baptized and they both accepted. the most tricky things here are the word of wisdom, the law of chastity, and then staying active in the church after being baptized. that one is probably the most frustrating but we are working on it.
a couple complaints though.. the day i arrived a rule was put in place that we can not eat anything from the members. anything. it sucks! so we get to cook all of our meals and buy everything and we can only make what we know how to. we also only have two meals usaully. breakfast and a big lunch because everyone else takes one.and then we work through dinner. its fun but i wont be much of a big boy when i get back thats for sure.
I am lucky enough to be in an area with hot water. it was broken until today but now i have hot water. the house is pretty nice too. and when i say house, i mean apartment because thats what most people live in.
so we baptized kevin last week. my comp baptized and me and another elder witnessed. that means we had to go in the water. well tide was low today so the rocks were sticking out. he had to try it like 10 times before he could get everything to stay under. well while we were trying to find a place to baptize i cut my foot and didnt want to interrupt so i didnt mention anything until we were back on the beach. well by the time we got back i was bleeding a lot. like it was pouring out. the members noticed and suddenly everyone was making sure i was okay. we walked back up to the building and by then my sandal was filled with blood. they clean my wound vigorously and bandaged me up. i said i was fine to go back to the house and they said i still needed to go to a doctor so we started walking home. part way through blood got through
the tape and the bandages and was pooling in my sandal again. the clinic for our town was closed so we had to go to the next town over. the elders gave me a blessing just in case. they were worried because i lost a lot of blood and we went over. the doctor said it wasnt too deep and sealed it with adhesive and a bandage that i cant take off or get wet for 5 days. so i have had the joy of proselyting in my sandals. so its been quite the eventful week. The members were the coolest part though. all of them wanted to help even though it was bleeding and what not. they are a very kind group of people. everyone here is pretty much. oh yeah speaking of which a drunk guy hugged my companion. it was super funny.
well i think thats it for the week. i love you all and thanks for the updates. talk to you in a week!
love
elder mcmullin
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