The Spirit was especially strong this week

Everything is going well as usual.

P day has been great so far. We got almost all the young members in our branch to play soccer this morning, which was amazing. We had a great time.

It’s really funny that Pillow has a little brother who is a replica of him. We call him Pillowzinho (inho is Portuguese for ito like gatito little cat...we say gatinho. ho makes ñ sound)

Oh I forgot to mention that I'm teaching English here in Tarrafal. I have about probably 15 students, I teach Tuesday and Thursday. I also have to teach Institute here.

On P days, my favorite part of the day is the mornings. That is when we usually do fun things like play soccer or stuff like that. On teaching days, my favorite part is nighttime. It is very strange but usually, our more spiritual lessons will come at night. I have no idea why.

Steven had it really tough this last week. On Wednesday, he told us that he didn’t want to see us anymore. It turns out that his Grandpa talked to him and scared him out of getting baptized. We told him to read the scriptures from Wednesday to Friday and pray and give us a final decision on Friday whether he would be continuing with us or not. Wednesday my heart just about stopped when I heard that and that kind of killed our day. We left very sad.

However, we prayed for him and on Friday it was completely different. He was happy to see us, offered the first prayer of the lesson and said that he wanted to continue preparing to be baptized. He just did not feel ready. We could not have received a better answer. First, we know he has a true desire, and second, we are not going to baptize someone who is not ready, so they can turn less active later. The Lord truly helped us there.

The Spirit was especially strong this week for me. On Tuesday we had an exchange with the elders in Assomada, and I was with elder Nyaguambo from Zimbabwe in my own area. I directed the work that day, and we had 9 lessons, and one new investigator. We usually have 6-7 lessons a day.

Something else. I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about the Temple. My Portuguese was perfect. The Spirit led me in what to say, and elder Fonseca says that I no longer have an accent when I speak Portuguese. I sound like someone from Portugal.

Portugal Portuguese is a world different from Brazilian Portuguese. I sound nothing like Brazilian and even the way to conjugate verbs is different. For example:

Estou dizendo(Brazil)
Estou a dizer(Portugal)

Oh, so there is this store we go to sometimes and there usually is a monkey just sitting. I was wondering, if it's possible to have a pet monkey in the US. Just curious...

I love my life here in this little village, and all the young people in the branch are friends with me. They truly treat me like one of them. They are a lot more physical here. They’ll do things like walk next to me with their arm around my neck, or constantly be high fiving me. You just do the same back.

I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I'm so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I'm grateful for the time that the Lord has granted me here.Elder

Gianluca Cuestas