Busy week and weekend

A week ago we had a special FHE at our apartment. We invited President and Sister Mathews and Elder and Sister Carnell to come over for Mexican food. We had such an enjoyable time eating and chatting with them. This is our balcony. You can see Elder Alvarez reflected in the window :)

Last week we went to teach the first Temple Preparation class to Pipinha and Celino. It was such a wonderful experience. The Spirit was very strong. Celino works as a guard at the Red Cross offices, so he has plenty of time on his hands, and he loves to spend it reading the Book of Mormon. Pipinha is a waitress at a restaurant, and wants to put the scriptures on her phone so she can read them on her way to work and back. They are so ready to be an eternal family! They have a lovely home that they have built up, furnished, and beautified room by room as they were able.

This past weekend we flew to the city of Mindelo on the island of São Vicente. It is a beautiful little touristy city with a beautiful white sandy beach and lovely people. Our main responsibility there was to represent the mission at the stake conference in which Elder Homer was presiding. He is from the United States and lives in Switzerland. Elder Alvarez spoke in the Saturday evening session.

Sport fishing is very popular here.

Walking to a restaurant on Sunday, after conference. 

White sandy beach.

We were fortunate that Elder and Sister Carnell were also there for the weekend. They were able to show us where the best restaurants were, and also the chapels where we had stake conference.

On Saturday we had stake conference in this chapel just a few blocks from our hotel, but on Sunday we met there with other Church members to be picked up by a bus which took us to the other chapel on the other end of town. Here we are waiting for the bus with missionaries and members.

The conference was wonderful. The room was totally full. Probably over 800 members, plus the meeting was broadcast to the branches on two other islands nearby.

This sweet lady was so excited to take a picture with Sister Alvarez. She waited and waited for E. Alvarez to come with his camera. She pulled out a page that she had with the pictures of the First Presidency and all the General Authorities, and touched her heart with her right hand. She isa very loving sister.

During the conference, this sweet elderly lady walked up to the front row of the chapel looking for a place to sit, and another sister gave up her seat for her on the very front row. This sister apparently has some degree of dementia. During the conference she did several things that normally would have been very disruptive, but everyone was so loving and patient with her. We have been so impressed that people are not judgmental at all. They love and accept everyone. There is a "Come as you are" mentality, and everyone is embraced and welcomed.

The bus ride back to the hotel was interesting, to say the least. The driver was going really fast, and the road was bumpy and curvy and the bus was very full. But everyone had a good time. 

This little one slept through the whole ride!

Sunday night concert in the plaza with a live band.

New baptisms

Yesterday we went to the stake baptisms to see our friend Jeremias get baptized. He was so excited. It's impressive that these new converts all got up and bore their testimony after being baptized. They are so strong. Jeremias actually bore his testimony at our last fast Sunday in our group, as an investigator. Today he was confirmed and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. There was a little moment of humor, because he always wears a knit cap that covers all of his hair, but for the confirmation, the group leader pulled the cap off, and since his dreadlocks stand up, everyone smiled, including him. I think he was probably embarrassed, but he stayed throughout the meetings and didn't put his cap back on.

Stake Conference and YSA activity

We were finally able to get a picture with President and Sister Mathews. They are always so busy. They constantly travel to the different islands for zone conferences, interviews, stake and district conferences, CCMs, etc. Busy, busy, busy. They are awesome!

Last week we attended our first Stake Conference here in Cabo Verde. It was amazing! Elder Boom, an Area Authority Seventy from the Netherlands, was our visiting authority. He was so in tune to the Spirit and spoke about subjects that were very needed here. The conference was held in the high school auditorium. Everything was very well organized. The podium, all the chairs, microphones, etc. were all set up with plenty of time to spare. The choir did an amazing job, and the accompanist did an excellent job, even composing his own interlude for some of the hymns.

This is Cynthia. She is a returned missionary and was our Gospel Doctrine teacher when we attended the ward.

The priesthood brethren were asked to fold the chairs after conference and help load them on the trucks. These little boys are preparing well for their future responsibilities.

This is our friend Jeremias. At the time he was taking the missionary lessons and preparing for baptism. He is in our group. He has faithfully attended church every Sunday even though he is very reserved and doesn't seem to make friends easily. He was baptized yesterday.

This is our group leader and his little boy.

This is Claudia, the group leader's daughter. She was disappointed that I had forgotten her name, but she gave me a flower anyway :) 

After conference.

The stake president asked both of us to be a part of the stake YSA council, so here we are at our first YSA activity. They had a small meal, then a short devotional when Elder Alvarez gave a spiritual message. Then they had a movie, with popcorn and an intermission with a sandwich and drink for those that had come late (quite a few), and then the rest of the movie. We had 71 YSAs there, and they had a great time. The great majority of the baptisms in this mission are YSAs.

Missing our grandkids!

Training, family, and friends in Spain

 We just returned from a week in Spain. First we spent a couple of days in Madrid for AAA training (Assistant Area Auditors) with the AA (Area Auditors), the Area Controller and his team, and the AAAs from Spain and Portugal. It was so great to get a better picture of the things we need to do. We are so impressed that the focus of the church in every one of its departments and leadership positions is on the individual. We have seen a focus on this quote by President Monson: "Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." In everything we do, we need to make sure the people we work with feel loved and appreciated, no matter what!

After our training was over, we were so blessed to be able to spend a couple of days with friends and family. Our wonderful adopted family that lives in Madrid, Brent and Frankie (Hanson) Huber and their children Kaiya, Morgan, Mason, and Kamree came over to visit for a while. It was so good to see them!

And for a super extra wonderful Mother's Day celebration, Robert and Tiffani flew to Madrid to spend a couple of days with us. Thanks so much to Javier and Helen Benito and their family for their awesome hospitality. We always feel so welcome in their home in Alcalá de Henares, the birthplace of Cervantes.

We went to walk around Alcalá and visit a few sites, and IT RAINED AND POURED! We were so cold and soaking wet when we got back. We should have taken more umbrellas :) 

At church we ran into our good friend Peggy Ryskamp. Several years ago we went to Spain with her and her husband George to do Family History work with a group of BYU students. Great friends!

Robert's and Tiffani's flight left early Monday morning, and ours left late that same day, so we took a train to downtown Madrid to re-visit Puerta del Sol and Plaza Mayor. Notice how many people are on their phones on the train. :)

After all that cold rainy weather in Spain (hmm, we thought Spain was supposed to be sunny), it was great to return to our home in lovely, warm and windy Praia, where the stake president welcomed us with a new assignment: to be a part of the YSA committee in the stake. So fun! So grateful to feel needed. :)

Fast Sunday with our group

Today we had Fast and Testimony meeting in our group. It was awesome! We were impressed that everyone truly bore pure testimony, without frills or fluff, just testimony. And they were brief, and not preachy. It was wonderful!. We had low attendance because it was a national holiday, but even with the few of us that were there, there were no moments of silence. Almost all of the adults got up and bore their testimony, including Elder Alvarez and me. Yes, Me. Sister Alvarez. I was so brave! I did it all in Portuguese, or at least Portuñol (mixture of Portuguese and Spanish). It looked like people were understanding me. :) Here are some more pictures of our ward members from today. This first picture is of Elder Rodrigues and three young boys that were baptized yesterday.

This is Celino, who we are teaching Temple Prep to.

All kids love to play in the dirt, right? Well here, parents let them.

On the left, Elder Rodrigues, next is our group leader Irmão Gualdino Sanches. Next to Elder Alvarez is the young man who taught Sunday School today.

Later this afternoon, Sister Alvarez met with Irmã Vera to go visiting teaching. They taught a less active sister that has a two-month-old baby girl, and Sister Vera's niece, who is just beginning to come back to church after being less active for some time. We hear there are about 100 less active members in the area, and we are working hard to bring them back now that the church meeting is in their neighborhood. This is the visiting teaching companionship Sister Alvarez and Irmã Vera.

Elder Alvarez, Sister Alvarez, Vera and Lucindo.

Some neighbors from across the street.

I want to tell you Vera's story. She and her family lived on the island of Fogo and she converted to the Seventh Day Adventist Church there. When they moved to this island, Santiago, she got a job and told her boss she didn't want to work on Saturday so she could go to church. But he never did let her have Saturdays off, so she became inactive in her church. After several years, she felt bad because she felt like she should be going to church, so she prayed and told Heavenly Father that she wanted to go to church and to please help her. Soon after, she received the missionaries and learned about our church. She went to Sunday meetings two weeks in a row, but still had questions because she didn't understand why we worship on Sunday instead of Sunday. The next Sunday was Stake Conference, so she prayed and went. All the time she had a prayer in her heart. During the conference, one speaker spoke about why we worship on Sunday and not Saturday. She understood, and at that moment she felt something wash over her whole body, like water pouring down, and she knew, without a doubt that this is the true church. She had told the missionaries that she would only join the church if she knew it was a church she could stay with forever. And now she knew this was the one. That was nineteen years ago and she has never missed a church meeting since unless her health kept her from going. She is a very faithful pioneer, and a wonderful example.