Branch Activity, Floating Bookstore, Special Visitor, Dressed in White, Home Town Folks

BRANCH ACTIVITY. Our first big branch activity was on Tuesday, November 1, the Day of the Dead in Catholic country (Memorial Day back home). The activity started with a couple of hours of visiting the less active and non-members and inviting them to the activity. Then there was a spiritual portion, with a hymn and prayer and a talk by the branch president. 

  
The Young Women and Young Men sang a beautiful song. We love to hear the people here sing. They sing with all their heart, and they have good pitch and lovely voices. They love to sing! They know the hymns by heart and even without a piano or a pitch, most start the hymns on basically the same note. :) The Primary children also sang, but we had to leave to go get the food, so we didn't see them.

Hauling in the food. We fed about 100 people, double the amount of our Sunday attendance. We had yummy chicken legs, white rice with veggies, and mashed potatoes (Sister Alvarez' favorite), with ice cream for dessert. Yummm! The Alvarez went to fetch the food while they finished up the spiritual meeting and watched a church video.

Lovely and loving Primary girls!

Baby Cristiana. Sister Alvarez played babysitter during the activity. This baby sleeps through anything and everything!

Cleanup crew! This is Yasmin, Cristina's daughter, that turned eight not long ago. She is being prepared for baptism.

FLOATING BOOKSTORE. This was a Senior Missionary FHE. It is the largest floating bookstore in the world! This boat is called the Logos Hope. The whole crew, including engineers, etc., are Christian volunteers. They sell books at a low price. A portion of the books are self-help and Christian, but they have all kinds of books. We think they are sponsored by the Baptist Church. 

On the ship, in the bookstore.

Andersons, Lunts, Carnells, Alvarez.

Ice cream for treats after the FHE outing. Enjoying each others' company. Blessed to be joined by Mathews.

CHURCH CALLING. Elder Alvarez preparing to teach Gospel Doctrine.

HOUSING TRAVELS. We went to the town of Pedra Badejo to deliver a new washing machine to Elders Estigarribia (Brazil) and Malula (Congo via Utah).

ZONE CONFERENCE. We had the largest Zone Conference that anyone can remember in Praia. We had all of the missionaries from the Island of Santiago (where Praia is), plus the missionaries from the islands of Sal and Boa Vista. This was because Elder Patrick Kearon, of the Seventy (and our Area President), was doing the mission tour. It was awesome! Elder Kearon gave wonderful, inspired counsel to the missionaries. This picture was before a lot of the missionaries arrived. We had about 90 missionaries there.

We were well fed, both spiritually and physically.

For the evening meal, the senior missionaries were invited to the Mathews' condo to visit with Elder Kearon. He is such an English gentleman, a very humble and loving servant of God. You may remember his last General Conference address about the refugees in Europe.

DRESSED IN WHITE. Elder Alvarez' first baptism as a senior missionary. This is Jessica. She and her sister Melina bring fruit to our place three times a week. Jessica just graduated from high school and is waiting for the construction of her next school to be completed so she can continue studying. As she started coming with her sister after graduating from high school, Elder Alvarez started talking to her about the church, and eventually she chose to listen to the missionaries. It was such a privilege for Elder Alvarez to baptize her yesterday. She is a pure soul.

This is Melina and her family with her sister Jessica and the missionaries who taught her: Elders Cosmo and Hingano.

This is Jessica and Melina one of the times they came by to sell us fruit. They have the most beautiful posture we have ever seen, typical of the women here. Maybe we should start carrying big tubs of fruit on our heads back home to improve our posture :)  

HOME TOWN FOLKS!! This is Elder Gricius, from HIGHLAND, UTAH!!!!

And this is Sister Jorgensen, a new missionary from HIGHLAND, UTAH!!!! Highland is well represented here!

Busy two weeks

Teaching with the Assistants, Elder Santos (Portugal) and Elder Veitch (Canada). Bad photo but wonderful experience teaching and testifying.



Elder Santos and Elder Veitch (Assistants). With Elder Alvarez searching for an apartment in São Domingos to open this town to missionary work.

São Domingos is a farming community about 20 minutes north of Praia. It is a very peaceful and friendly community that is just waiting for the Gospel. 

This is the apartment that was located for the missionaries, on a steep hill. But missionaries here walk up and down these hills all day long, just like the locals. They don't gain much weight in this mission.

The lucky elders that get to open São Domingos: Elder Karl (Calgary) and Elder Nery (Brazil). They are both so pumped. As we were driving them to their area, we heard them chatting in the back seat, and they both agreed that they would rather be regular missionaries than mission leaders. Elder Karl just ended a stint as an excellent zone leader. I love that in this mission there is no escalation of positions. The next step for a zone leader might be trainer or junior companion or whatever. The important thing is to serve with all your heart, no matter the calling or assignment. And the missionaries seem to get it.



Auditing work in Riberão Manuel (Assomada District).

Auditing work in Calheta (Assomada District).

Calheta Branch President Miranda and his beautiful family.

On the left, Elder Neville, just released as Office Elder. On the right, Elder Bannerman, also just released as Office Elder. We are so blessed to have Elder and Sister Anderson (senior couple) here now to take over the office so the young elders can go back to their areas to teach the gospel. In the center: Elder Toledo (Ogden, UT).

Quick trip to Lisbon to escort a sick missionary part way home.

Auditing work in Tarrafal (which we have probably mentioned is our favorite spot on this island) :)

Crops are planted everywhere, even on steep hillsides, and along the highway. The rains have been providential. The island is covered in green.

A new baby in the branch. This is Cristiana, Kristina's daughter, and a sister to Lenifer. Kristina was in the hospital for 10 days before they finally delivered the baby by C-section. Both mom and baby are well. The whole family was in church today, after being gone for a while with all the problems they've been having.

Cristiana and Kristina.

 We love our branch missionaries: Elder Holmes and Elder De Jesus. 

We had an 8-year-old birthday party! Last Thursday Jasmin turned 8 years old! She is Lenifer's sister. Her dad is out of work, and they couldn't afford a party, so we told them we would bring a birthday cake. Then later we found out that the branch president and other members of the branch were also planning on going over to have a little party. We decided to arrive a little early because we had a present for her to open and we didn't want everyone else to see. So far we have never seen presents at a birthday party. When we got there, the house was dark and we couldn't see anyone. Elder Alvarez climbed up the small hill to the house and saw that the girls were there watching television in the dark. It turns out the television is the only light in the house. The girls were alone because their dad was at the hospital with their mom, who is due to have a baby soon. She apparently was having some complications, and we're not exactly sure what is going on.

So anyway, we went inside, and a few minutes later the rest of the branch members arrived and we had a little party with pizza, soda, and cake. Oh, and balloons, which the children really enjoyed. The funny thing is that the flash on the camera made it look like there was light, but we were celebrating in the dark :) 

Jasmin, Sister Alvarez, and Lenifer

Our branch president and his wife. She was due any day and walked about 3 or 4 miles to the party. She actually had her baby today, Sunday!

Nate. Single guy, still looking.

The neighborhood.

Jasmin's dad is Lenini (red t-shirt). He finally arrived home from the hospital and doesn't have any idea when the baby will be born or when they will allow Kristina to come home.

Parabens para voçe! Parabens para voçe!

The wick was broken off the candle, so the branch president lit a match for her to blow out.

The tradition is that the birthday person cuts the first piece of cake and gives it to someone who is special to him/her. She gave it to her dad.

 There were no lights outside either.

Nate asked for the camera and then took this picture of us.

Every month or so we have a missionary couple FHE. Last month it was hosted by the Lunts. We also invited the Davidson's. Mike Davidson is head of security at the US Embassy, and they are here with their two teenage sons. We had a great time. The Davidsons are a very fun family.

We have new couples in the mission. Elder and Sister Souza are from Brazil and have been assigned to the island of Sal. They are also Member Leader Support missionaries and will be helping to strengthen the district there. We don't have a picture of the Souza's.

Elder and Sister Martineau are most recently from Cedar City, Utah, and they are Member Leader Support missionaries. They have been assigned to the island of Fogo, which is a volcano, and will be working to strengthen the wards and stake there. 

And then we have Elder and Sister Anderson. They are from Utah. When they retired they sold their home so they could go on lots of missions. This is their third one. They went to England, then to Brazil, and now to Cape Verde. As soon as they get home from one mission, they already have their papers filled out and almost ready for the next one. In between missions they live with their children. They are our new office couple, and we are so happy to have them. They will be replacing the young missionaries that are currently taking care of the Finances, Vehicles, etc. We miraculously found them an apartment just two houses away from ours and from the mission office, but there have been challenges getting the apartment up to par, which have kept us very busy. I'll tell you about one miracle that happened yesterday.

The apartment didn't have a regular water heater, but had a small on-demand shower attachment water heater. Well, it turned out that it wasn't working, and after trying unsuccessfully to fix it, we went out and purchased a regular water heater. But it turned out that it couldn't be installed because the plumbing wasn't right in the apartment.

So at about 11 am on Saturday morning, knowing the stores close at 1 pm, Elder and Sister Alvarez set out to locate another on-demand shower attachment water heater. But our efforts were to no avail. Every store we went to sent us to another store, and when we were at the end of the list, we had almost decided to go home, but then thought, "We need to be able to say that we looked everywhere". And guess what? That's the store that had one! Probably the only store in all of Cape Verde that has them. And it was 10 minutes to 1 o'clock. It reminded us of President Uchtdorf's talk about the fourth floor, last door. This was definitely the last door!!

This is a lousy picture, but it was taken quickly in the dark. Elder and Sister Alvarez went with the Assistants to the President (Elder Santos and Elder Veitch) to teach a sister. We helped teach the second lesson, and it was so totally awesome. Andrea's 11-year-old daughter passed away and she has been so sad and has had so much pain. She is finding joy in the gospel message. The elders are so awesome! We loved teaching with them and feeling the Spirit so strong!

Activity with the new branch

Guess what? We now have a new branch. Our tiny little "group" was finally made into a branch, and this past Sunday our attendance was really good. Lots of people who haven't been to church for a while are coming, and we had investigators too. Last Saturday we had an "Atividade de Integração", or Integration Activity. The whole purpose of the activity, which happens almost every Saturday, is to invite less actives and investigators to come and have a good time with the branch members. It's also to help recent converts make friends in the branch and hopefully stay and be strong. First we have a mini-spiritual meeting, with a hymn, prayer, and spiritual thought. Then we play games, and then we all clean the church and have refreshments. It's a blast! We played fun games we had never played before.

Above, the girl in the black sweater is our new Relief Society president. She is only about 20 years old, and has only been a member since January, but she is one of the pillars of the branch. She is amazing. She knows the gospel well, and is always finding ways to friendship others. Her fiancee, sitting next to her, is the branch clerk, and is another pillar, together with his sister next to him, in the blue shirt. Our branch president is the man with glasses in the lower left corner of the picture. He is also pretty young, as are most of the church leaders here in Cabo Verde.

Above: These beautiful girls come to every meeting and every activity, even though we haven't started the Young Women program yet. We were told that the Sunday after General Conference we will have enough rooms to have our 3 hour block. We've only been meeting for Sacrament Meeting and Sunday School since the group was formed about 5 months ago. There is the branch president again on the right. His wife, next to him, is expecting a baby in October.

Playing ªPretty kittyª. :)

Beautiful brown eyes! This is Marcelina. Her mom was one of the first sisters I visited as a visiting teacher, and the baby was a newborn. She hadn't been coming to church for some time. But recently she has come a couple of times.

After church on Sunday, we gave Lenifer and her family a ride home. She got a piggy back ride to her house! Look who the piggy is. Hahaha! Lenifer now has a small cast on, and will next progress to an orthopedic boot. Once her foot has completely healed, they will operate on the other foot. Most of the school girls have newly braided hair with colorful beads now that school started.