Monday, December 27, 2010

Week one in Praia

This is going to be an entirely new way of life!! I’m so excited to get started and full of the spirit to begin teaching.

So we were delayed from Salt Lake to France. When we arrived in Paris, the whole city was completely fogged up and you could not see the hand in front of you. We had to wait 4 hours in a line to get a hotel.

We get to Portugal...bags lost.

By miracle...and I mean by the grace of our Heavenly Father, we met again with the rest of our district that is headed to Portugal for their missions and who left a day later than we did. We met again on the flight from France to Portugal. It was the encounter of a lifetime. When we got to Lisbon, we went with them to meet their mission president. The mission president took all of us to the mission office and got us pizza (Which was awesome because we had not eaten for 2 days...the airplane food was not good at all~)

The mission president got us tickets to PCV, and we got there at 3 in the morning a day later than anticipated

I have finally received my new companion today. He seems pretty cool.

The people here speak very easy Portuguese to understand because they speak it very slow. They also speak Creole which I have no clue what they say, but in the city, everyone can speak Portuguese

There is almost no AC anywhere, so that is something that I am going to have to get used to. Somehow, it is not as troublesome as I thought it would be. There is music in the streets everywhere and tons of people.

There are a lot of Chinese people here who open up stores and what not. You can find anything here. There are tons of stores of clothes and small electronics and toys.

What is great about the place is that these are some of the nicest people I have ever met. No one is in a rush. It’s an island and the people act that way. They think that it is so cool that Americans would come to Cape Verde. Most of them recognize us but not as Mormons. They know us as Elders, and they call the Church, A Igreja de Elder (The Church of Elder)

Sleeping is a bit difficult because the mattresses are hard. Luckily, the island gets cool and windy at night so that is not so much a problem.

There are not many bugs here because it hardly rains.

The time was nice this last week with the APs. It went by very slow because I could not start working yet - as I had to wait until today to receive my companion. We will finally start working tonight. The APs seem to be really nice. I like them both a lot, and I think we would have worked well together, if I were to be put with them. One is also from Brazil and the other one is from Utah.

Okay more next week.

Ate Mais
Elder Cuestas

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Hey everyone

K so I have been so busy, and my blog posts are going to be pretty short until I get on the field.

I am comfortable speaking Portuguese now. I read my scriptures in Portuguese and pray personally in Portuguese.

The temple in Provo is amazing!!!

I conduct classes for my district and teach them, so that they can get ahead and understand our teachers better.

The weather is so awesome. High thirties low forties.

My time here is going by really fast. 6 weeks to go! Life has been great, and I would not be surprised if Elder Gunter would be my best companion on the whole mission. He is awesome. He is an answer to my prayers!! One of the most diligent missionary in my district.

The showers are getting better. Guess enough people aren’t complaining about them, ha-ha


TO EVERYONE

I don’t have time to write VIA email. I'm not ignoring you. Write me through Dear Elder, while I am at the MTC, so that I have time to read your letters. I would love to hear from you. I only have about 1 hour of free time a day, so it may take me a little bit of time to respond.

I love you all. Keep your faith. It's all we've got, and I am a personal witness of the divinity of his majesty, Jesus Christ. He is our savior and redeemer. Know that!! Remember it. God bless.

Ate mais tarde!

Elder Cuestas

Monday, November 1, 2010

Hey all

Don’t have much time (2 minutes)

Showers are scalding hot one day, freezing cold next

Food...not so good ha-ha, but its bearable

EVERYONE SEND ME YOUR ADDRESSES. That way I can send you letters. I only have 30 min on computer and I use it to write family.

It's been great, and I am loving the mission. Days are super long but good. I am now fully fluent in Portuguese, and I can read the scriptures in Portuguese. I'm helping my district, and it is awesome!

Write me on dear elder.com my mom has the instructions. DONT EMAIL ME while I'm in the MTC. Write me on dear elder. That way I can take the time to read your letters.

I love you all. I’m doing so great, and I've got a great future ahead of me

Boa Sorte

Elder Cuestas

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

To send a letter...

If you would like to send a letter to Gianluca while at the MTC, please go to DearElder.com

Here is the link if you haven’t used it before http://www.dearelder.com/

It provides FREE same-day letter-delivery service to the MTC in Provo Utah (Monday-Friday)

It is a great service, and it is FREE of charge.

You will need the following information:

Elder Gianluca Cuestas

MTC Mailbox # 83

Mission Code: CAP-VDP 1222

Missionary Address: 2005 N 900 E

Estimated MTC Departure Date: December 20th.

You will be sending the letter to the MTC in Provo

Thanks!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Hey everyone!

Hey everyone!

I don’t have much time. It has been so amazing here at the MTC. My companion is Elder Gunter and he is from California. He is the best companion ever.

The days are super long but amazing. I have never in my life been able to focus on something so well. I know it comes from Heavenly Father and the setting apart. I am being 100 percent obedient, and the blessings come one by one. My companion and I are extremely spiritually in tune.

The language is super easy, and I am able to help out my class a lot. I am the only one that knew some Portuguese prior to coming out here. Portugal Portuguese (which is what I'm learning) sounds awful and I don’t like the pronunciation compared to Brazilian Portuguese. But that's just my opinion! Ha-ha. They say that Cape Verde speaks more Brazil-similar Portuguese, so that's a relief.

My district is awesome, and the classes are incredibly amazing. I'm loosing track of days and time here. Every second of my time at the MTC is planned out with free time only after 21:30. Bedtime is at 22:30 and we wake up every day at 6:30.

I'm loving every single moment, and I feel the spirit stronger every second here. I want to be nowhere but here. My life was called to this and I know it. Every one here teaches me something new, and I like my companion like a best friend only after 3 days. That's the power of the spirit.

Write me!!!! I love you all. I hope you all are doing your best back home, and I will have a new post next week.

Ciao!

Elder Gianluca Cuestas
Cape Verde Praia Mission
A Igreja De
JESUS CRISTO
Dos Santos Dos Ultimos Dias