Mission Leaders Conference

Mission Leaders Conference yesterday. This was lunch with all the zone leaders and sister trainers. This generation is so awesome! They are so prepared and self-confident and happy! There were two missionaries whose families are from Mexico. Fun to speak Spanish for a little while :)

Cidade Velha (Old City)

I know it looks like we are on vacation, but we really are working. This was our P-Day. We visited the "Old City", which is about a half hour from Praia. This was the first cathedral built in West Africa. It was huge! It was started in 1556 and finished in 1700.  The stones were brought from Portugal.

We went to the top of the mountain to the fort, and looking down from there, we saw this beautiful fertile valley. We still don't understand why the valleys are green compared to the rest of the island. But gratefully there are areas that produce year round.

In 1585, English privateer Francis Drake attacked the island. Following that attack, this fort was built up on the mountain overlooking the sea. The construction was from 1587 to 1593, and the stones were brought from Portugal.

This is downtown Cidade Velha, a quaint town. It was abandoned In about 1712 following a major storm and repeated pirate attacks. They relocated further inland up in the mountains, away from the danger of pirates.

We love the happy colors!

FITNESS IN CABO VERDE

Don't you just love the colors? Every morning we walk 3 miles and go up a total of 234 steps and down 150, including the steps to our apartment that is on the third floor.  What a workout! But you can't ask for a better location! The weather has been awesome, always with a cool breeze. But every day gets a little bit hotter. Summer is not going to be much fun for exercising outdoors!

Here in Cabo Verde we have noticed a huge interest in physical fitness. Most people walk miles and miles every day. Here they are setting up spinning bikes for an exercise class next to the beach.

This is an aerobics class we see about 3 times a week. 

There are permanent exercise machines set up for anyone to use.

These are more basic exercise facilities on the boardwalk.

If you watched the video "Land of Light" that is in our March 12 post, you may recognize Sister Beatrice Lima. She was the first R.S. president in Cabo Verde. Saturday we went to look at an apartment for some sister missionaries to move into, rang the wrong doorbell, and there was Sister Lima. She was very sweet and welcomed us into her home. This is the same apartment that you see in the video. It's so much fun to meet all these awesome pioneers!

Every Saturday there are stake baptisms for convert baptisms. Yesterday there were about 9 or 10 baptisms. The father in this picture was baptized yesterday. His wife, Ani, was a member, but inactive. The missionaries helped her become active again and her 9 year old son Edson was baptized recently (the boy in the red shirt). The dad was upset and wouldn't go to the baptism. He almost kicked out the Elders, but didn't. Gradually he changed his heart and became converted. They say he is a new man. After the baptisms, they have time for the converts to bear their testimony, and he was the first to bear his. So brave! This little sweetheart likes to smile and give hugs. She is so beautiful!

This is Pascual. He was also baptized yesterday.

In the Land of Light video, you may have noticed Brother Lucilino Mendonça who was featured as a recipient of the PEF. He was the first bishop in Cabo Verde. Today he is the Self-Reliance Director for the islands and a counselor in the mission presidency.





After the baptisms, we saw this lady carrying all of her grocery shopping in a tub on her head.

This little sweetheart stole our hearts in sacrament meeting today. He was sitting right in front of us, and apparently was with his grandmother. He was so reverent, but every so often would reach out his hand to touch one of us or to give us a low five or a thumbs up :)

Today the stake president came to our ward and announced that they are starting a dependent group that will meet temporarily in the group leader's home. After sacrament meeting, the bishop told Carlos that we have been assigned to that group and will be in charge of getting couples to the temple to be sealed. What an enormous opportunity. That area has a lot of inactive members, and we hope to be able to help activate a lot of them and build up the group until it becomes a branch.









During church I noticed a sister wearing this beautiful reversible African necklace. After church I told her I thought it was pretty, and she took it off and gave it to me. She said her daughter makes them and that she will have her daughter make her another one. Such a generous people!

 The rounded corner of the building on the right is our church house. If you look closely, you can see a golden plaque with the name of the Church.

 On our trip around the island today, we saw these terraces where people plant corn and beans together. The beans wrap around the cornstalks as they grow. Right now it's really dry, but in August and September the rains come, and the crops grow. They harvest in November. These crops are totally dependent on rain. When the rains don't come, which happens occasionally, and happened a couple of years ago, people go hungry.

The landscape reminds me of Mexico.

Cabo Verde is a series of ten islands that were formed by volcanoes. The terrain is very rugged.

People carry things on their heads a lot. You see it everywhere, in the city and in the country.

A reservoir in the agricultural area of the island.

Agricultural area of the island, surprisingly green compared to the rest of the island right now. They apparently use the water from the reservoir to water the crops.

People here generally have wonderful posture. I think we should all grow up carrying things on our heads :)

At this time of year, they gather the cornstalks, etc., from the fields to start preparing the ground for planting. Apparently they take these plants home to feed their animals. We saw houses with lots of these stalks up on the roof.

A beautiful ocean inlet.

Today there were lots of people hanging out. I guess they were still celebrating the results of the election for Prime Minister yesterday. One party had been in power for 16 years, and yesterday the opposing party won. We heard all the celebrating late into the night.

Red tile roofs, reminiscent of Mexico and Spain.

This is the branch president of Calheta. The Carnells, humanitarian missionaries from Alberta, drove us to Calheta where they had to deliver a screen to a school where they had donated computers. Because of the elections yesterday, the school was closed, and we couldn't find the missionaries' apartment. "Coincidentally" we stopped by the side of the road, "coincidentally" right in front of the business where the branch president works. "Coincidentally" he saw us from his office and came down to talk to us. He called the principal of the school, who met us at the school.

It's interesting how the Lord uses "coincidences" to further His work :)  This is the school where the computers were donated.

The principal of the school, Arlindo, with Sister and Elder Carnell, and Sister Alvarez.

And Elder Alvarez.

Women carrying bundles of cornstalks on their heads.

This is a beautiful bay with a nice sandy beach, which is quite unusual on this island. Most of the beaches are quite rocky. As you can see from the lines in the sand, the boats had just been pulled in from fishing and the people were doing whatever they do to the fish. Downtown we saw women sitting by the side of the road with tubs of fresh fish for sale.

The same beautiful bay with our new friends, the Carnells. They have been so gracious to show us around the city and today around the island.

I think this was my favorite spot of the whole tour.

This was an interesting house. It looks like it was built into the part of the mountain that had those big rocks on top.

View from the top of the mountains. On the highest mountains there are pine trees.

I believe this is Assomada in the background.

The political poster in this picture is of the candidate who won the elections and is now the new prime minister.

Lots of papaya trees.

Carnells have stopped here several times to take pictures, especially because the lady has lots of beautiful children. But the children were gone today. She was outside doing her laundry by hand.

After a long drive, yummy Italian food back in Praia. This is vegetarian lasagna, with cooked vegetables covered in a yummy green sauce.

Cachupa, the typical meal of Cabo Verde. We thought cachupa was a stew, but at this restaurant is was dry. Apparently, this is a version called "cachupa frita" (or fried cachupa). It's made mainly of a corn similar to hominy.