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.