I actually have no words for everything that has happened this past week....BUT, good news! I´m still alive and living on the beautiful island of Santo Antáo. God is good!
To start things off, Tuesday morning I woke up to some awesome red dots all over my arms and legs. Initially, Sis Alfaia and I thought I had come down with a case of chicken pox..and you can imagine how calm we were about that. So of course we called the mission nurse and asked how long I had to live... Ha!! But on Wednesday morning when I woke up with more bites, we all 3 came to the conclusion that I had bed bugs. Yay...first time for everything here in Cabo Verde...Luckily Sis Peterson and I were in Praia 2 days afterwards renewing our visas so I didn´t have to sleep in my nasty bug infested bed. The last few days I´ve been sleeping on some foam pads and spraying EVERYTHING in sight with permethrin. We also have some exterminators coming over today to hopefully get rid of them. Just a few of the fun things that happen while in Cabo Verde :,) pray for us.
Also, like i mentioned earlier, Sis Peterson and I were in Praia this past Thursday to renew our visas. We´ve now been illegal immigrants since April 26th and still goin strong!! But no worries, we´ll be legal again once we go back in 3 weeks to grab our visas. It was quite the day in Praia though. We had to take the barco from here to Sao Cent Wednesday afternoon and then our flight left that night at 9:30. We got to the sister leaders house in Praia around 10:30pm and they were so nice to have already set up our beds. We met up with another sis from my MTC group who was also re-newing her visa and then we left with the mission secretary, Holden, the next morning to get everything done. First stop was at the health clinic to recieve a yellow fever shot. Anyone who knows me will know exactly what happened next...yep, I passed out. lol!!! i tried to warn Holden and the 2 other sisters, but they all thought i was joking. Luckily, I was sitting down when the doctor gave it to me, so no harm was done. Except for a little bruise and 20 traumatized people who were all in the clinic that day to receive the same shot...haha!!
The rest of the visa process was long and tiring, especially after passing out. But on the bright side, we all got to eat páo de deus (God's bread) and dried cachupa (a stew) in the padaria (bakery) Woot!! AND I got to see my old area, Tira Chapeu! I wasn´t able to see any of the recent converts, but I did get to see Fatima and the members who make amazing bread. So it was all worth it in the end, and I LOVED being in Praia again.
It was a bit shatu(annoying) coming back to a house full of bed bugs, but it also felt so good to be back on my island again. Ronise and her kids are still doing amazing and will be getting baptized this weekend! SO excited for them! Elton on the other hand is getting there...pouco pouco. (little by little) We´re still working really hard with him, and will hopefully see some changes in his life daqui a pouco. (shortly) Miry and Nelson have also finally decided on a wedding and baptism date! All 4 sisters fasted for them yesterday and they are so excited to prepare for baptism and marriage these next couple of months.
GOOD JOB if you´re still reading this weeks email (it was long)...just know that I love you all and CANNOT wait to see my families beautiful faces this sunday ((: have a great week!
Wow! What a week! You are a tough lady! Hope you get a new matttess! Xoxo
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