01-17-11

Hey everyone hows it going? Things are going just great out here in
> santo antao.... we headed out here this morning and will be staying
> until tomorrow night. We had our zone activity today, and then
> everyone from our zone will be headed back this afternoon while E.
> Olson and I stay here to do our division with the elders here, and
> then we will be taking a night boat back tomorrow.
>
> Our activity was awesome, it felt like I was in another country for a
> little bit. We headed up to the tops of the mountains here and then
> hiked down for the day. A very rare thing happened up there too, i
> actually felt a little bit cold during the morning while we were up on
> top, it was incredible. Its up in all the pine trees and for a little
> bit i felt like I was up af canyon or somewhere. If i ever decided to
> just not come back home and stay out here, i think that that is where
> I will live!!!! haha but dont worry i dont think we will have to worry
> about that. So we hiked down the canyon all the way to the botton and
> got to a city called Ribeira Grande which is a way nice little
> peaceful city right on the coast on the other side of the island.
> There arent missionaries there now but it doesnt hurt to dream to open
> it up one day! I think its actually the most north eastern point of
> any of the islands so you know what that means? It means that
> distance wise I was closer to home today than I have been at any other
> time since september of 2009 ( but time wise I was the farthest, to
> get home it would take a 45 minute car ride to the main port of the
> island, a 1 hour boat ride back to mindelo, a 15 minute ride to the
> other side of the island to the airport, a 45 minute plane ride to
> praia, an 8 hour plane ride to boston, a 5 hour plane ride to salt
> lake, and a 40 min drive to the home) so there are a few extra facts
> for you guys.
>
> So besides that we had a pretty fun week. Sandra is getting baptized
> this coming saturday and is doing awesome, she will be one of the
> strongest people I have ever taught! The branch is really excited
> about her and they are already talking about getting her a calling
> right after she gets baptized. We also met another way cool guy that
> we started teaching last tuesday and we have already taught him 3
> times. His name is Danny and he was born and raised in cabo verde but
> at 17 moved to a little city outside of boston. He is now 27 and just
> came back for his first time to visit in december and will be staying
> until about march or april, and his wife from america will be coming
> out in a little bit to visit. We just randomly contacted him and
> right during the middle of our conversation he stopped us and asked us
> if we spoke english ( thats how we found all that stuff out about him)
> so now we teach him in english. He shows ton of interest and is
> really excited to start coming to church out here. He wouldnt really
> be a big help to the church here since he doest live here, but he does
> have brothers that live here that we could start teaching because of
> him. So that pretty much sums up the week, besides that it was just
> the normal stuff.
>
> This next week should be really good and go by way quick. Once we get
> back to mindelo we already have all of our lessons planned for every
> hour of every day until the end of the week and members to teach with
> us. Then we have our next p day planned already (it could be my last
> in mindelo) and then right after we will be going down to praia for
> zone leaders counsel again.