Cidadela, Praia

My new companion, Sister Cerqueira

Oh my goodness, I cannot even tell you how in love I am with this new area. Sister Cerqueira is just darling and Cidadela has so much potential.

I am once again being called Sister Turner. Haha. This is another area in which she served and I´m receiving the confused faces all over again. 

My new apartment is so little and cute. It´s just Sister Cerqueira and I who live there and I like just having two sisters, probably because I love Sister Cerqueira. It´s two bedrooms plus the bathroom so our kitchen is also our study room which makes it hard not to just snack all day long. But I love it, it´s bright, located in the center of our area, and it´s easy to clean.... blessings. 

My new apartment

Sister Cerqueira is a doll. I love this girl! As I said last week, she´s from Portugal so she can help me with Portuguese (whoop whoop!) but she speaks perfect English. She´s been out for one more transfer than I have but two in the field because she was only in the Brazil MTC for two weeks (her MTC companion was my mission mamma Sister Friaça). Both Sister Cerqueira and I have birthday´s in the beginning of October and so we have decked out our apartment with Happy Birthday banners and such and we´ll just celebrate all month long! She´s also a foodie so we´re going to be best friends, and we´re also in deep trouble with that fridge in eyesight at all times and so many good pastry shops in the heart of Praia.

We both have October birthdays

Praia has literally everything. I walked into the grocery store here and didn´t know where to start. There´s fruit lojas (shops) and makeup lojas and paper lojas (happy day) and everything in between. We´re also right on the ocean. I can´t see the Atlantic from my apartment but I can see it when we´re out in our area and in the mornings.... boardwalk runs!!! Yes, we can run right on the edge of the island and stare at the ocean the entire time. It´s heavenly until about 1 PM when you´re drenched in sweat and breathing in more water than air, but besides the heat and humidity Praia is the place to be. We are also only a ten minute walk away from the mission office, so if we need more Livro de Mormons or hand sanitizer, it´s just a few minutes away.



Running by the ocean

Even though Praia is only an hour Hiace (Yas) ride away, I feel like it´s a completely different island. I feel like the people here are more eager and willing to talk to us which makes contacting and finding new investigators fun. People in Praia also speak Portuguese more than in Assomada, which is a blessing because I can actually talk to people. How cool is that (insert question mark here because I can´t find it on this keyboard), I can talk with people in Portuguese! Getting to know members (we´re Palmarejo ward 2) and investigators this week were so much fun because I could actually get to know them. We´ve also traded Assomada´s cockroaches for Praia´s flies and mosquitos, my legs are constantly itchy from bites. One morning this week I was washing my face in the bathroom and felt a tingle on my ankle, I thought it was just another mosquito bite so I let it be until I finished washing my face... only to look down and see a giant cockroach the size of a golf ball on my ankle. That was really fun.

Well I hope you all just love your air conditioning, and have a great week!

 

Love,

Sister Hanzel

Praia Zone