Mandy's Mission

Mandy is serving on the island of Fogo. She will be there untill February. She says Fogo is a volcanic island made up of steep hills. She is basically hiking everywhere so goes. The roads are just rocks, dirt and waste. There are random dogs, chickens, and goates everywhere. You walk outside and suddenly you see five dogs running around and you get chased by a chicken. Yesterday during a lesson a goat walked into the house looked at us then left. The people don't have doors. They use sheets to divide rooms and for the front door. We have water most of the time sometimes it doesn't exist in the afternoon. We don't have any hot water but we have clean beds. The people live without what I would say are the basic nessesities of life, yet they all have t.v.s and cell phones. They love American culture. The women always greet you by kissing your cheeks (think French people). Well I thought maybe it would be like people kid around in America when thy fake kiss your cheeks, NO! They plant wet ones on you. I feel like my face has cooties. On Saturday I got to see my first baptism here. I work in two branches here in Fogo. There are four Elders in the same city as us, one set in each branch and then four other Elders are here in Fogo but a different area. Total of 8 Elders and 2 sisters here. Wierd thing about the work here, it is completely with the youth. Basically all of our investigators are youth.We apparently have a ton of adult members, but most of them are not active. Beacause of this we work a ton with reactivating members. In fact 60% of Fogo has actually been baptized but no one comes to church so now we have to seek out the members and bring them back. I will have my first convert baptism in November. I love being here. It is sooo different from anything I have ever known, but I'm learning and doing well. The language is the hardest part, the people don't speak Portugues, they speak Creole, so I really don't understand anything anyone says. Pray that I will learn fast! Love you all Love Mandy (Be good- it's worth all the blessings in the world:))