Amor de Cabo Verde: Bom Dia from Fogo!

Yes I am on the volcano island of Fogo serving in São Filipe! You can Google it and see where I am walking around every day!

We took a pic with our teachers and our district before we left the MTC on Monday. We arrived last Tuesday and even after a 8 hour flight we were so excited to be here! (not to mention the 5 hr flight from SLC to Boston and then a 6 hr layover at the airport) I sent a picture from the plane and of all of us in the huge 15 passenger van they had to use to pick us all up from the airport. We spent the day in Praia and some people left that night. It was hard saying bye to those who we had been with every day for 6 weeks, but we have work to do! I sent of pic of Sis. Biggs and I. Sis. Willey is on São Tiago in Terrafal, Sis. Biggs is in Praia and Sis. Nelson is slothing over on São vicente in Mindelo! She is also slothing in the van picture! haha.
Wednesday morning I flew to Fogo with my companion Sis. Graça. The flight was literally less than half an hour ha! Sis. Graça is awesome! She is from Portugal and has been in the field for about a year and has been in Fogo for 3 months so she knows the people and the place well. Her parents are actually from Cape Verde so she can understand and speak creole. Huge blessing for me because I can not understand it at all! Haha the members tease me when I tell them I can't understand creole so they just speak it more! But then I start speaking english and it levels the playing field. ;)
There are four sisters on Fogo including me. Sis. Llano is from the Philippines, her comp Sis. Alvarado is from California. They live just down the street from us and we have lunch with them everyday, we take turns making it! The pic of us in the street is silly but there apartment is in the background next to the Orange one.
This place is crazy! It is not like anywhere else I think. It is not like Africa, or Europe, and I see american things everyday. I don't even know where to start with describing the people. I have never seen people like this before. Brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes, black, brown, blonde even red hair and a range of skin tones! They are great. They are so unique and lovable and crazy all at the same time! The only white person I see all day is myself in the mirror! haha. There is this old man we walk past everyday and when we wave he yells ´Americano! Portuguesa!´ haha its great.
I sent a pic with me, Sis. Graça (she snuck in last second) and two of the young women. With the purse is Eldimira who got baptised like 2 months ago (she is always wanting me to teach her English so I taught her to say ´whats up?´ haha) and in the purple dress is her sister Juelma who is getting baptised this saturday. (I love Juelma she really reminds me of Randi Dandi actually!) The missionaries have been teaching her for ages and she finally accepted this week! They are hilarious and when they speak creole it is beautiful and sounds like music.
I sent of pic of the view from our apartment. Our apartment is WAY nice! It is huge and new and has a filter and washer and all the things we need! In the pic you can see the Island of Brava off in the distance, it looks kind of far but it is actually really small and really close like only 30 minutes by boat. The pic of the sunset was from last night and was gorgeous! The little bump on the horizon is this TINY uninhabited Island that is really close to us too. I am not used to seeing the ocean everyday, it is beautiful. Our area is not the part by the sea which is good because it is a lot smaller which means less walking :) There is a pic of me be the sea today on p-day and I hope you can see a little bit of the black sand beach, and the cemetery behind me is a ´Branca´cemetery so if I die I will get to get buried there haha!
It really is great here, I love Fogo. I love this gospel and being able to see it change lives. And most of all I love all of you and am so grateful for all the love, support and prayers. Let us all press on in this work of salvation.
Until next week,
-Sister Turner