Feb 22- Letter Home-esta semana foi brava!‏

Hey everybody whats up? Well as the subject said, this week was pretty wild but really good at the same time. First thing that went down was carnival on Tuesday. They celebrate that more than any of the holidays here, its kinda like halloween, 4th of july, and new years eve all in one! From about 3 o clock on all the streets were just blocked off and covered with people! Lots of people were dressed up and there were parades and music and everything going on. Everytime one of our appointments fell through it was kinda easy to know where they were, and it was pretty hard to get appointements with our people. We worked extra hard though and still got some good lessons with people that didnt care to celebrate the carnival. The next day after carnival was the complete opposite though, it was Ash Wednesday and im still not exactly sure what that means, but there was hardly a soul in the streets and all the stores were closed down, it was more dead than christmas. Luckily we were still able to get all of our lessons that day too.
>
> But thursday is the day that was the craziest! We were in divisions with elders in our zone, so i stayed here and an elder from layton came and stayed with me while my companion went to the other area. The morning went pretty normal but after lunch it picked up. Our first lessons was with a less active here that came and stopped us in the street once and told us to come by. He served a mission in portugual in the 90ºs, but lately just hasnt been going to church even though he still reads the book of mormon and everything everyday, so we are trying to get him to go back. He has the crazies job in the world though... Praia has a secret police group called BAK that is pretty much like the fbi of america. They walk around in normal clothes on the streets alone and just look like a normal citizen, but they always know where each other are and they are completely armed. They go and investigate all the drug networks and then go take them down. During our lesson he pulled out 4 different guns that he always has on him to show us. He has to walk with a .38, a glock, a 9mm and another. When i said i bet he had some crazy stories, he said yeah but lots that he tries to forget...(i think that is code for he has killed people but i didnt ask). He told us that just the day before, a nigerian drug dealer pulled a gun on his friend and shot him, but he had a bullet proof vest though so nothing happened and he shot him back. Pretty crazy and there are only 14 of them in the country, but he told us that now he is looking for a calmer life where he can be active in the church and just wants to teach history or something.
>
> So about 2 hours after that lessons we were headed down to the chapel to teach english (we teach english 2 times a week to about 25 people and its sweet) but yeah so we have to walk past this place called sucepira which is like a flee market, its just tons of shacks that sell stuff and its huge, its like there mall and we usually go there every p day cause they have everything there. But yeah so anyways as we were passing, we got to see the secret police in action! This guy tried to still a taxi right in front of us and all the sudden this guy in normal clothes grabs him and pulls a gun on him right on the spot. The robber kept trying to get away and everything, but the guy with the gun was holding on to his shirt just screaming at the robber, i though he was going to shoot for sure. So they are fighting for about 1 minute when all the sudden 2 other guys in normal clothes run up behind him and through him on the ground and hand cuff him. They were all about 25 years old but thats there job, they just go around patroling that stuff and they arrested him. I felt like i was in a scene from cops.
>
> So on a lighter note the work is going awesome. We have a couple named Carlos and jilmara that are in their mid 20s with 2 kids and they are progressing a ton! They are coming to church now and english class and are telling us they are fighting out that the gospel is true when at first they were having their doubts. I think they will be getting married and baptized pretty soon. We are also teaching a young guy named denny who told us he prayed about joseph smith and feels that its true and he is already friends with tons of members. Then that guy from sao tome (other islands by africa) will be getting interviewed for baptism this week and he is ready.
>
> Well that pretty much sums up the last week. These week all the zone liders in other islands will be flying in here cause we have our zone leaders counsel tomorrow where we talk about everything going on, it should be cool. We will also be having our transfers this next week and i heard some rumors that i might be going to another island, but you cant really believe them till they happen. I think i will just be staying here and getting a new companion.