Climbing mountains and playing the piano

August 25, 2014

Had a very solid week from Cova Fig.  I freaking love this place.

Power Problems

Saying that we had some power problems this week would be an understatement.  There was a stretch in time where we went two and half days without any power. And the other days we had it for maybe an hour or two. Whenever we got it we had to run back the house to charge the phone so it didn't die. The work was a little rough around 730, when there is no light at all in the town.  The word village would probably be a little more appropriate, this place is tiny.  Its not too big of a prob not having power because most of the time were out of the house anyway.  

Hills to Climb

Whats that country song? "The good Lord gave us mountains, so we could learn how to climb?" or something like that.  Super true. Up until now, I have served in 3 of the 4 biggest cities in the country, and havent really gotten the little town expierence. But our area consists of mountains, and volcanic rock. Which pre mission Elder Jarvis would have no problem getting up those hills. After being in Africa a year, Elder Jarvis, struggled a little getting up some of those hills haha.  I love it tho.  

Piano

One of my goals for this place was to be able to learn the piano a little more. There is no one to play in Sacrament, so I figured I'd practice and learn.  My thought process was "I've been in this country for over a year, and served in 4 wards, and not one of them has picked the sacrament hymns until ten minutes before sacrament." So I figured if I could learn four songs, I could tell the bishop ten minutes before sacrament and I'd be good to play those four songs.  Go figure, Cova Fig is the only area where they pick their hymns BEFORE Sunday.  And even when they told me they had already picked the hymns, I still felt pretty safe because we sing the same 4 hymns, every week, in every ward. Come to find out, none of the four songs were any of the five I had learned... So Ill let you guess how me trying to play the piano went.  Feel free to use your imagination, and you probably won';t be too far off.  It actually wasn't terrible, just a little amusing.  

The Work

The work is going great.  I love it here, and wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world.

Until Next Week

There are 20 missionaries on the island of Fogo.  The church is big compared to the town. Idk if you can find it on a map, but the area I work is call figero pavon, and its up this big mountain. I wouldn't go up there if we didn't have to, because I don't think its too efficient to walk all the way up there. But we are baptizing two families up there within the next little bit, so that's what we do.  Yes, its an insane amount of volcanic rock. My shoes are literally getting killed, but Ill last them out. Having shoes that are destroyed is kind of part of the mission experience so Ill last them out.  My greenie is sweet. He had a really rough past with gangs and stuff, and has a couple of tats.  He is also very "willing" to share his past history and stories. And by saying that, I mean we walk around, and he just talks and tells stories all day.  I listen just enough to say "oh really" or to ask another question that could lead into him talking more.  I'm sure you guys had that on your mish, but he likes to talk about himself and his past. So I kinda listen, just enough to keep him talking haha. Sounds weird to say, but I know you guys know what I'm talking about.  Dan and Jess are seniors, that's insane to me.  I hope everything is going well with school, its really nice to hear from you guys! 

(later in the week)

Hey so i have to play some songs in our zone conference next week, with that general authority coming, and the only one I don't have in the simplified version is "Nossa Lei e Trabalhar" Or in English, "Put your shoulder to the wheel" And I cant find a simplified version. Do you think you could look and see if you can find one for me somewhere and send a pic of something? Thanks a bunch! 

 Ive been practicing everyday, its exciting haha.  How funny is that.  there's 26 missionaries in the zone. 26 Lds missionaries, and Iºm the closest thing to a piano player haha.