Week 20: Especially the Elephants

Dear Family and Friends,

First off, Happy Father´s Day DAD! Thanks for always being there for me and supporting me in my decisions and throughout all my life. You are such a great example to me of dedication, hard work, and humility. I love you!

Also... Happy Birthday to my beautiful sister Kristy! You started the trend of playing lacrosee in the family but I kinda of killed that one, but I did continue the trend of serving a mission. I´m so greatful for your decision to serve and it really did help me decide to serve as well, and I am so greatful that I did. Love you!

And last but definitely not least, Happy Birthday Tasi! Your the best semi-adopted sister that I´ve ever had! I really don´t know what I would have done my first year of college without you. You were always there to support me when I didn´t feel like I had anyone else. You are always there when I need a laugh and to just loosen up a bit. I love you!

Sorry that everyone had to read those, but I think they sound better together, instead of in personal emails. I dont know. I like it. SO yeah. OVer it.

Okay so this week was CRAZY! But also super depressing, but I still love my mission. We started off the week great, but my foot had been hurting, but i thought i could just walk it off... haha bad idea. it just got worse, to the point that i was limping and could hardly walk. so then we spent two days in the house applying ice and such. Ooops. my bad. But my foot is all better now and I haven´t had any more problems. 

The rest of the week is where it goes real bad. So obviously we didnt have any lessons those two days, but also the day after we only had one. We walked for 5 hours without sitting. A miracle that my foot survived that! Saturday was better, but then sunday was a bomb. Man! We didnt have any investigators at church. Bummer. Then we only had one lesson, our english class, which only had a few kids and one member. Last weeek was much more successful. So we also walked for 4 hours without sitting on Sunday. Not to mention it´s pretty dang hot. I love sweat. haha

Me with my Hurt Foot

The one thing that brings more light into my day is freshquinhas or sorvette. Its like a creamy popsicle in a little plastic bag thing that you bite off the corner and suck out the stuff. super good. I´ll learn how to make them for you guys. Yum...

On Saturday, we went to the baptism of one of my old investigators before I got transfered, Vacé. It was actually pretty funny because they had to baptize her like 5 times because they couldn´t get her all the way under the water! Whoops! But she´s awesome. Love her.

Okay so it was sister corbetts birthday on sunday so I made a cake and it was delicious! But the candles melt really fast here so by the time we got them all lit there was wax ALL over the cake and we didnt even sing. Just took pictures of her blowing out the candles while they lasted haha super funny.

Sister Corbett's Birthday Cake

Then today we went to lunch at probably the fanciest restaurant in porto novo. so good. we got a steak and cod. super delicious. Food here is so cheap! it was only like ten american dollars for each plate. and it was like a perfect portion. oh how i love cabo verde.

Lunch at the Fancy Restaurant

One funny thing about living here. No matter where you go people stare at you! haha the cabo verdeans stare at you because your white, and the white people stare at you because... well who really knows! haha I dont know if i´ll ever get used to it.

Okay so we also discovered that the apartment below us is where the owner stores all the food for his grocery store and they bring in new shippments every sunday. And every sunday our house becomes infested with massive baratas (cockroaches if you dont remember) Its so nasty! So we have this killing spray in our house and we decided to try it out. So there was one that crawled under the over so we sprayed under that oven and it went crazy! It was running all over the place and then it ran into my bedroom! We have the funniest video. But we couldn´t find it so we ended up searhcing the room in the dark with a flashlight because the light is burnt out and we never found it! Then sister Corbett decided to take a shower and all i hear is her screaming so loud. Turns out there was another barata in the shower and it crawled out right next to her foot. So we tried to kill that one, but it crawled by the window so we shut the window, and it got stuck! But it was still alive so we just tried to open and close the window till we thought it fell out. Super crazy. We ended up bleaching the floor that night till midnight because we were so grossed out.

View from Our Window

The next morning we woke up with another barata in out kitchen. Killed it. Then found the other one in the middle of my room still freaking out. Kill it. I still hate baratas.

Okay so the subject line is for stephanie. becuase i know she loves elephants. go look up Ether 9:19. Its great. 

Okay so for the spiritual part of this forever long letter is about a part in doctrine and covenants. In section 81 verse 5 it says, `wherefore, be faithful; stand in the office which I have appointed unto you; succor the weak, life up the hands that hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees.` I found it interesting that it says hands and knees, two things that we use to pray. I may have been walking a lot this week, but every night I find myself on my knees with the hands together pleading with the Lord. This is when I have found the most strength,as I ask my Heavenly Father to help me find the energy to stand up and walk another day. This is also our calling, to lift the hands and stregthen the knees. I know that the Lord has placed people in our path who were on their hands and knees praying for help. I am so blessed to be a servant of the Lord to lift these people into the light, to bring an answer to their prayer. I love my mission, it may not be easy, but it is definitely worth it when you see the lives changing.

I love you guys! Till next week,

Sister Kohlert