Dear readers,
This week was fantastic. It started out a little rough, but then it picked up a lot. My knee was hurting a little bit on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I got a blessing on Thursday and my knee has been feeling pretty good ever since. I was also experiencing some feelings of anxiety and inadequacy, but Elder Camargo and I talked it out for a couple of hours, gave each other blessings and again, I have been feeling much better ever since. I am so grateful for Elder Camargo. He is an incredible missionary and a really good man. He is such an amazing example to me of the kind of missionary I want to be and the kind of friend that I want to have. He is always supportive of my weaknesses, doesn't overemphasize my faults, loves to talk but knows how to listen, and is so happy all of the time.
If any of you were wondering, almost everything I heard about Cape Verde before I came was a lie. Not in a bad way, it just is not what I was expecting. Everyone was right that the culture was super laid back and that it was beautiful, but the stuff about not having bugs, was wrong. They have these giant yellow spiders the size of your hand, and flies and mosquitoes. They have fetid dogs in the streets everywhere and lots of people seem to have at least one chicken or pig. It actually feels a lot like Brazil. I love it here though. We took the time to immaculately clean our apartment and so now home is a safe haven from the dirt, sun, and bugs. The people are absolutely incredible. Open hearts, warm personalities, and I am really enjoying changing my accent from a Brazilian Portuguese to a much more Cape Verdian Portuguese. Elder Camargo and I are actually both working on it together.
We had a really neat experience. We had just come out of a very frustrating lesson. The man only spoke Creole, but we are only allowed to teach in Portuguese and so we generally need an interpreter who speaks the specific Creole of that person to come with us, but none were available. So it just felt like a huge waste of time. We walked out of his house into the pitch black darkness of night when we heard a very drunk voice and see the lit end of a cigarette. The voice said "Elders, elders, I need your help. Come with me to my house." We followed him, but we didn't feel comfortable going inside. He told us he needed to get something. We almost decided to walk away in case he came back with a gun or something, but we didn't leave. He came back out with a copy of The Book of Mormon and he said "I have read this book. Help me to understand it and know that it is true like you do." We marked a day to go talk with him. His whole family is really enjoying learning about the gospel and every time we go back to his house there are more people there - a niece, three friends, a cousin. It is amazing. The Lord truly works in mysterious ways. After our first lesson with this family Elder Camargo and I decided that the Lord was testing us to see if we would listen to our feelings (and not to what made sense) and was blessing us according to that obedience. I love missionary work.
Love,
Elder T. Drew Bushman
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