Oi familia!!!! I am in Cape Verde!!! Week #7

Oi familia!!!!! I AM IN CAPE VERDE!!!!! I know I already told you that... but I had to tell you again just in case you forgot ;) That is so exciting about being our own mission!!!! I had not heard about that or the 58 new missions! The Lord is surely hastening His work!!! Haha and good to hear you are now good buddies with the moms of the other missionaries here :) The elders all went to Fogo so we don't see them anymore... but I live with Sister Wilson! So that is super fun! And my new companion seems awesome!! Her name is Sister Chidester. She is american and has been out here for a while. She is super hardworking and has been great so far :) Haha only now there are 4 of us living in the same tiny house. Needless to say we're trying to move into a new house sometime very soon :) And can I just say I LOVE IT HERE!!! I might only understand maybe %10 of what people say but that is ok! I'll learn fast hopefully. The people here are so great. Whenever we go teach a lesson, Sister Chidester asks who they want to give the opening prayer. They almost always smile, laugh a little, point at me and say the new sister! And if you thought Turley was a pretty normal name, you though wrong! Whenever I introduce myself they look at me as if to say "what the heck just came out of your mouth?!?" Although I guess that is how I feel the majority of the time they say anything to me... so I guess that is ok. So basically I have turned into "Seester Tooerley" and that is at least a little easier for them to say. But things have been so great!! Most of our lessons have basically consisted of Sister Chidester talking for a while and me smiling and nodding my head and saying "Sim! Muito bom!" whenever they answer a question, and then bearing my testimony at the end. But the spirit is so strong in some of those lessons! There is nothing like it! Yesterday we were teaching this young boy - he's either 12 or 14. He's getting baptized this saturday and since he's not an adult we need a parent signature. His parents are both inactive, and he lives with either his aunt or his grandma most of the time I think. But his dad (who has been inactive for 15 years) happened to be there yesterday so we talked with him a little bit. He is SO excited for his son to be baptized and says he will absolutely be there! He also says he'll come on sunday to see him be confirmed! We talked to him a little more and then he told us that the missionaries have been trying to talk with him for a long time but he never wants to or has the time to, but today he did! Something was different! Oh it was so great!! I got to go to my first baptism this last saturday! A man and a younger boy were both baptized. It was amazing!! And just so you know, on Sal they have a baptismal font, but it is really like a tall little swimming pool behind the church building... And guess what I get to do every morning!!! We have no hot running water soooo... bucket showers it is!! Haha. But really. I tried the cold shower my first day. That's just not going to cut it. So we take turns heating up a pot of hot water and that is our shower! It is totally a different world down here though!! I love it!! Here's some things about Sal: All the buildings are concrete or concrete brick and either gray (most of the houses are gray) or super super colorful. All the streets are either dirt mounds and rocks or cobblestone. Sal is the flattest island though, so we aren't climbing up and down all day like missionaries in other areas. At night there is deeeelicious grilled chicken everywhere on the streets. I promise I don't eat the sketchy stuff ;) The people are so friendly and happy. Little kids who have never met you will run up and hug you and say "Seeeesters!!" There are dogs seriously everywhere you look. And they all have super short legs even if their body is a normal size. Haha I'm not sure why. On sunday we were suuuuper packed into sacrament meeting and so us sisters sat on the stairs by the door. We spent basically the whole meeting fighting to keep this little dog from running right in! Everyone up on the stands thought it was hilarious. We eat lots of good bread and we eat it with this stuff they have that is like nutella but better! And this white chocolate stuff. It is fantastic. They are very... comfortable with themselves. Seriously. We were teaching a lesson about prayer and right in the middle THREE women all at the same time start feeding their babies. Woah. And a man showering in the street. Woah. Sorry for the visual there but it was a little traumatizing. And I told you about the wind right? It is SOOO windy!!! All the time!! It's a nice warm wind but the combination of skirts and crazy wind is not a good one! I'm sending a picture of the barricade we made out of suitcases around me at the airport while we waited to be picked up because it was so bad! Although it doesn't hardly do it justice! Haha oh well :) I miss dinner! I am so glad I brought those granola bars! And I really do just love it here!!! :) Well that is all for now! I love you all and I hope all is well back home :) Love, Sister Turley :)