Apparently I will be coming back to Cape Verde to find a husband

Ola!

study area

Wow, I can't believe it is P-day again! It feels like I had one just last week...and I have been on a mission for two months today. Crazy!!!I am doing so well. A ton has happened this week, but I am starting to think that is the nature of a mission. :)

Well, we did splits this week. Yeah, did I ever mention that there are four of us sisters in Espargos? It is me, Sister Garcia, Sister Sharp (mom probably read her blog before I came here) and Sister De Pina (she is Caboverdian). We all live together. Sister Sharp is the Sister Training Leader. She and I went to her area, and Sister Garcia and Sister de Pina went to my normal area. It was such a good experience, and I really learned a lot about Sister Garcia's strengths and weaknesses, and what I was doing that was making it harder for myself. We worked just fine together during the day, but I didn't really like walking between appointments or being home, which would have made more sense if it had been the opposite way. But I found out this week that I was imagining a lot of tension between us that just wasn't there, but I thought it was there because I needed to understand Sister Garcia better. I have discovered that in trying to resist my natural introvert tendencies even when we were walking between appointments, I was also trying to make Sister Garcia talk when she doesn't like to talk as we walk. I didn't even know that.

Let me explain a bit better. The day after we did splits, I had a really great experience with Sister Sharp and we talked a lot as we walked, and it was a lot of fun. She told me that Sister Garcia just doesn't like to talk as she walks, and I asked Sister Garcia about it later and she confirmed that. So the next day, I just decided to act like everything was fine, and to just kind of go with the flow and stop trying to force myself to be different than I am, especially while I'm also trying to adjust to the culture, the language, and just the feel of missionary life in Cabo Verde. I think I had been trying so hard to do better than my best, without even realizing it. But I have been studying patience, because I have realized that I really need to idevelop more patience with myself, and I have been praying for help in developing that gift. And that study helped me realize that I was trying to push myself to do better than my best and not giving myself any of the understanding/"cutting myself any slack" that I give others. And I decided, through prayer, just to be myself, although still acting on every prompting I receive, being willing to change into who the Lord wants me to be. I think I was taking missionary service way too seriously! I was forgetting to also have fun and to be okay with not being perfect. That is probably the hardest thing about a mission: as you come closer to the Lord and work with Him more and feel Him with you more than you ever have before, you are also blessed to understand your weaknesses better than you ever have before and to see them more clearly than you ever have before. I think I was trying to fix it all at once, so I was driving myself crazy and making everything harder than it has to be.

Haha, it has been amazing what blessings and help and grace I have received in my life as I have decided to be okay with taking baby steps. I understand that better and better every day, and I understand better and better every day how HARD it is to be okay with only taking baby steps when you can see even a portion of how much is ahead of you. But I have really learned that patience comes as we rely on the Lord, trust that He really called us EXACTLY as we are to do what He wants us to do, and as we stop worrying about how much we need to change or do and just take it a little bit at a time. And when we are patient, we are exercising faith and the Lord promises us His grace.

Haha, so about the subject line: one of our appointments fell through Saturday night, so we decided to contact some less actives in the area: the first branch president in Sal and his family. We wanted to talk to his wife, but she was busy, so we ended up talking to two guys outside her hair salon, and it turns out, they are her sons! We got to know them a bit, and one of the sons (his name is Sydney) invited us inside to talk to him more. He told us why they had stopped going to church, and he said he was preparing for a mission and he went to church every week, alone, for a year until his mom threatened to kick him out of the house if he continued to go. He was only a teenager, so he promised his mom that he would never go to any other church and he stopped going. It was a really sad story, and he still has such a strong testimony that the church is true and he told us to come over any time. Anyway, sometime during our conversation, he asked Sis. Garcia if she had a boyfriend and then he asked me. I told him no, that that will all happen after the mission. He was talking in really fast Portuguese/Creole, and it had been a long day so I was even struggling to follow Sister Garcia's really fast Portuguese. But apparently, Sister Garcia then told him that I was going to come back here and find a Caboverdian to marry. He then asked me if it was my plan to come back here and find a Caboverdian to marry, and I nodded yes! Then about 2 seconds later I realized what he had asked me, but it was too late... they had already moved onto a different subject. Haha :) so now he thinks I will be coming back after my mission to marry a Caboverdian.

we sleep in the main room

I have been trying hard to be exactly obedient this week, to really test the promise that "exact obedience brings miracles". And wow, we have seen miracles! One of them was finding Sydney. We also got a reference from a member, to teach a couple who had been taught by missionaries a year a go, but for some reason stopped going to church, and now they wanted to get married and then get baptized! That NEVER happens out here: NO ONE wants to get married! We committed them to get baptized on August 16 (so they would get married on the 15th), and they told us that was the exact same date that the missionaries committed them to get baptized last year. HUGE tender mercy! The Lord really is in the small details of our lives!

Another HUGE miracle: we have been talking to a less active girl named Andrea. She wants to go to church, but she has asthma, so she is sick a lot because of that, and her mom forbids her from going to church. Her mom was pretty scary: one time we were talking to Andrea and to her step-dad, and the mom poked her head in. The Spirit left so fast, and we could tell Andrea was in trouble. Anyway, when we talked to Andrea on Friday, her mom poked her head in, then she ended up greeting us and was nice to us, which was cRAZY: such a diffferent vibe than we had ever gotten from her before. Then she ended up coming in and sitting down, and we had a great talk with her and got to know her a bit. And now we will be teaching English to them, because the mom wants to learn English and wants us to teach her!

We taught them the alphabet yesterday, and she was so eager to learn and I think she really saw how friendly we are. We ended with a prayer and asked if we could start and end with a prayer every time we teach them, and she said absolutely. Then she told us that we could share the word of God each time too, if we want to. We agreed, thanked them, and left. As we were walking away we were both just in shock, both interactions with her. It has been such a night and day difference from all of our other interactions with her!!! Wow, it was just amazing. The Lord truly does bless us, even when we are simply trying our best to be exactly obedient.

Dirse's baptism went so well. She has such a strong testimony already! After I decided to just let go a bit, to stop stressing about whether I was doing all I should be and to just trust that the Lord just asks me for my best and to really be okay with that idea, life was so much easier. I have really been able to be myself again, to just go with the flow, laugh things off, try my best and be who the Lord needs me to be. I'm telling you all this right now because I think Dirse's baptism is the perfect example of that.

She got there plenty early, but a little girl named Mary was getting baptized as well (we taught her the basics of the lesson, but her parents have been members for at least a few years) and she arrived typical Caboverdian style: 15 minutes late. We had called to make sure our branch president would be there so we could open the padlocked font, and he said he would be but also told us where we could get keys/who had keys. But, when we went to open the font, the key didn't work, and our branch president wasn't there. After lots of jiggling and keys and multiple people trying keys, someone somehow got the right key, or the branch president arrived, or something and we got it open, and... there was 2 feet of water in the font! Literally, it only came up to the knees of the adults! So, Mary was baptized okay, but Dirse got baptized on her knees, and it was a close call. Haha, it was so crazy and hectic and missionaries were getting frustrated, but I was able to just laugh about it. We had some good talks with those who are in charge of making sure the font has water and that we can open it afterward, but I just had a sense of peace even with all the craziness. I was so glad.

I love you all! This really sums up what I have learned this week:

Mosiah 24:10-15
10 And it came to pass that so great were their afflictions that they began to cry mightily to God.  11 And Amulon commanded them that they should stop their cries; and he put guards over them to watch them, that whosoever should be found calling upon God should be put to death.
 12 And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.
 13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.
 14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.
 15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.
Love,
Sister Zimbelman