Mission Adventures in Cape Verde: February 2017

Island of Sal

The sweet branch president in Santa Maria, Island of Sal. Santa Maria is quite the tourist place. We had a hard time finding a hotel. Most were fully booked with tourists from all over Europe. This is a popular place to vacation during the cold European winters, even though it has been sweater cold here. But even so, vacationers are wind surfing, diving, swimming, and having a great time. Of course we spend most of our time with wonderful priesthood leaders and members.

A Nativity inside the Catholic church in Santa Maria. Catholicism is the majority religion in Cape Verde, but not many people actually practice the religion.

Elder and Sister Sousa, from Manaus, Brasil. They are serving an MLS mission. They are assigned to the Island of Sal. He has been called to be a counselor in the District Presidency, and they work a lot with reactivation. They walk everywhere. They also take good care of the missionaries and their apartments.

This young man, Danilo, is finishing high school and getting ready to go on a mission. His father, on the right, is a counselor in the District Presidency.

Next stop: the Island of Fogo, the Volcano Island
Elder and Sister Martineau are the "mission parents" on this island. They are MLS missionaries and work a lot with reactivation and cleaning up the membership records. They also take really good care of the missionaries and their apartments. And as you can see, they also took very good care of us.

This is where they used to keep the slaves when the slavers would stop on this island.

Slave quarters. Later it was turned into a prison. Those are beds.

We went to Church meetings in the Cova Figueira Ward. Two cute Primary girls.

The Cova Figueira church building. On the other side of the building it drops off down to the ocean. So the church is next to the ocean, but it's a pretty big drop :)

Between church meetings. Amazing that no matter where you are, you see that cell phone pose.

From Cova Figueira, high up in the mountains, we went down steep roads to Mosteiros, which is sea level.

Mosteiros chapel, right across the street from the beach.

Mosteiros bishop and family at their home.

Seaside close to Mosteiros.

Standing on the lava from the volcano.

Meetinghouse in Relva. These towns are all on the east coast side of the island. We could have gone all the way around, but there was a mud slide, and the road is totally closed at one point, so we had to go back.

We had flown to Fogo, but couldn't get a flight back on the day we needed it, so we decided to go back on the ferry. It goes from Praia to Fogo, then to Brava (an island close to Fogo) and back to Fogo, and then heads back to Praia. The Martineaus were coming back from Brava on this ferry. They had lent us their car while they were gone so that we could go to the units around the island. So we were waiting for them with the keys to their car, and then we were supposed to board the same ferry to go to Praia. But as it was coming into port, the winds were pretty strong, and it crashed into port. We stood around for 4 hours in the sun waiting to hear whether the trip was cancelled. At last they told us they would not be taking cargo, but they would take passengers with their luggage.
But then the cargo people got very upset and started yelling and making a fuss, so after a while the company decided not to take passengers either. Then we had to find a flight back to Praia, and had an extra day to hang out with Martineaus. They were so kind and gracious and took us to the beach in the area where converts are baptized in the ocean. This is the ferry after it crashed.

While we were waiting, Janice (in the middle, 11 years old) became close friends with Sister Alvarez. She kept hugging her and chatting with her. We agreed to visit her when we got back to Praia but have been traveling a lot and haven't been able to yet. She is a very loving girl.

The lady next to Sister Alvarez is from Holland. She is single and every year chooses a different country to visit. She stays in cheap hostels because she loves to be close to the local people and get to know them and their culture. She speaks excellent English, but we had to help her communicate with the locals because she didn't speak Portuguese. She is a very kind and friendly lady.

The lady on the left told us that she is a member of the Church. She had been active for about 6 years, but then became less active about a year ago. We run into people all the time that call out to us "Sister", "Elder", and tell us that they are members but no longer go to church. We are in the process of implementing a Rescue program on the Island of Sal to locate and reach out to less active members. Elder Alvarez is assigned to work with the District there as part of his calling as counselor to the mission president.

This lady was very upset when the trip was cancelled. She takes her produce to Praia to sell in the market. So she had been waiting with her fresh produce and cheese in the sun for four hours, and now she wasn't going to be able to sell any of it. So sad.

There is a really cool story about these two young men. Elder Barros was headed to Praia for his release interview. He and Elder Alves are both from Fogo. Elder Barros became a member of the church, but then became less active. Later, his friend Elder Alves became a member, so he activated Elder Barros. Now they are both missionaries in the same mission and have been companions on the island of Brava.