Christmas and New Year in Paradise (very late post)

I love Nativities. This is one that I found in Mindelo. It's actually quite small, but I love it because it is made locally out of banana tree and corn stalks, which are two of the main products of Cape Verde.

CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL
On December 18, the stake had a Christmas Devotional with the stake choir. They showed a couple of Church videos and a couple of the talks from the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. Bishop Pires and his wife and new baby were Joseph, Mary, and Jesus during one of the songs by the choir.

Part of the choir. Elder Lunt sang a duet with one of the young adults.

The full stake choir, mostly made up of young adults, both single and married.

Elder and Sister Alvarez next to one of the few Christmas decorations in town. This is at Cruz de Papa, which is up on a hill with a beautiful view of the ocean. The Christmas tradition here is that the family gets together at midnight to have dinner together. They prepare lots of food, dishes they normally don't have during the year, and they spend the time together. Some families give a gift to the children, but no Santa Clause.

ZONE CONFERENCE
On December 20th, we had a combined zone conference for all of the missionaries on the island of Santiago, including the senior missionaries. The food was very yummy!

Sister missionaries so happy to be together!

Awesome elders!

For the program, each district performed a skit. Ours was "I'm Gettin' Nuttin' for Christmas", with words adapted by Elder Carnell referring to missionary obedience, which was the theme of the zone conference. It was lots of fun! Elder Lunt and Sister Anderson really like to ham it up :) They're awesome!

A skit by one of the Praia districts.

Another Praia district. The two elders on the right are the missionaries in our branch: Elders Holmes and De Jesus.

BRANCH CHRISTMAS ACTIVITY
On December 22, we had a Christmas activity in the branch. The branch president painted this mural covering the back wall of the chapel. We had a Nativity presentation, in which Sister Alvarez was supposed to be the Star (literally the Star), but she came down with the flu and wasn't able to attend.

Branch members at the activity.

Kristina's girls: Jasmin, Lennifer, and Cristiana

YOUNG SINGLE ADULT SERVICE ACTIVITY
The young adults and stake choir had an activity at a rest home. Elder Lunt is entertaining the residents while the choir gets ready.

Residents of the rest home.

The choir.

NEW YEAR'S EVE

For New Year's Eve, the missionary couples went to a nice restaurant in the afternoon, before the crazy crowds.

While we were at the restaurant, a race went by. Apparently racing is a big thing on New Year's Eve. After that healthy activity, many people party all night (unhealthy activity). Many people have a family meal that ends about midnight, after which many adults go to a dance that lasts the rest of the night.

At this restaurant, the specialty is a tuna filet cooked at your own table on a very hot lava rock. It gradually cooks as you watch. When the bottom half is cooked, you turn it over, and when it is fully cooked, you eat it. :) Sister Alvarez is still not partial to fish, but gets by because everywhere there are other options.

Setting up for a big New Year's Eve party next to the beach.

The races.

NEW YEAR'S DAY
On New Year's Day we were invited to visit and eat with two families. The first one is the home Edson, of one of the guards on our street. His partner (most people are not married here) is a less active member of the Church, and they have a beautiful 3 year old girl. Her name is Cibele. We ate a Capeverdean dish, kind of a stew, with potatoes and other vegetables and pork.

This is Edson's family. His wife's name is Leisa.

The second family that invited us to come over is Melina, the lady that brings us fresh papayas and bananas three times a week. This is her daughter.

Sister Carnell does not speak Portuguese, but she is SO loving, that children just flock to her. Everyone loves her.

This is the stairwell to the upstairs of their home, although the upstairs is just a roof right now. Eventually they will build additional rooms. On the bottom right is the entrance to the house. They just recently poured the ceiling.

We went up to the second floor (roof) to see the view of the city from there.

This is Melina's precious family.

Melina's mom. On the right is Jessica, Melina's sister, who was baptized a few weeks ago. This papaya plant just started growing in their house. Now that they have poured the ceiling, they think it will probably die.

This is the kitchen. We are so impressed with Melina and her family, because even though they earn very little money, they live on less so they can get ahead in life. They are gradually adding on to their home, and she is also saving to buy a little truck so she can expand her business. Most people here do not ever get in debt. Even though they have very little, they make do with what they have.

Trip to Mindelo and Santo Antão, Wedding, and New Baby

The island of São Vicente is about an hour flight from Praia. 93% of the people who live on this island live in the city of Mindelo. This is a beautiful Mindelo sunset.

A fairly new bishop and his lovely family. We have a cool story about them, which we will post later.



Elder Alvarez presenting training to stake audit committee and auditors.



Sister Alvarez participating in the training.

Mindelo very much depends on tourism. They have deep sea fishing, sailing, diving, etc.



Mindelo Stake clerk and Stake President.



The ladies who sell fish at the market are here waiting their turn to buy fresh fish from the fishermen who just got in.

The fish market in Mindelo.

Sister Alvarez had to wait half a block away while Elder Alvarez went to take pictures, because the smell was so strong. :(

Ferry from Mindelo to the nearby island of Santo Antão.

It's about an hour boat ride. The ferry arrives at the port of Porto Novo, where we spent the night. After checking in to the hotel, we took a taxi ride to the other side of the island to do some training in Ribeira Grande.






On the island of Santo Antão, on the road to Ribeira Grande, we passed these small buildings which are used to process goat cheese, a very popular product from this island. You might be able to spot the goats nearby.

On the seaside road from Porto Novo to Ribeira Grande

This is the only airport/airstrip on the island. There used to be a small government plane that would fly here, but one time several years ago, the winds were too strong and it could not land, so it tried to make it back to the nearest island, but the pilot didn't think he had enough fuel to fly around the island and decided to fly over the mountains, a more direct route, but it was foggy, and the plane crashed into the mountain. The plane was never replaced, and the airstrip has been closed ever since. Now the only way to go to the island is by boat.



                         Ribeira Grande.
Wonderful branch president and clerk in Ribeira Grande.








On our drive to Ribeira Grande we passed an area where they cut rocks out of the mountain at the side of the road. These rocks are used to cobble the roads. The oceanside road we took to Ribeira Grande was paved, but the road we took over the mountains to go back was totally, completely made of rocks--- cobblestone; not only the roads, but also the side rails were made of rocks. We can't even imagine how many man hours went into making that tortuous road through mountains that rise quickly from sea level to 5000 ft. The highest peak on this island is Topo do Coroa, which is 6500 feet above sea level.

Road from Ribeira Grande to Porto Novo, over the mountain tops

Estrada da Corda, the cobblestone road between Ribeira Grande and Porto Novo, over the mountains. This road was built by hand in the 60s.





Farming on steep mountains.







Among pine trees, high up in the mountains of Santo Antão.



This is the crater of at least one of the volcanoes that formed this island. It is very fertile. We are told that anything will grow there.

Back in Porto Novo

Looking out the window of our hotel room in Porto Novo. So beautiful!




We were so excited to visit with the lady missionaries in Porto Novo. Sister Jorgenson is from our stake back home, and Sister Kinikini is also from Utah. It was fun to deliver a Christmas package to Sister Jorgenson from her family. Notice their darling Christmas tree between Sister Jorgenson and Sister Alvarez. These two sisters are tops! They are so friendly and cheerful!

A wedding in our branch!

This is Steveen and Katia. This was the very first wedding in our branch. Steveen is our branch clerk, and Katia is our Relief Society president. We have kind of adopted them.

The wedding luncheon at the church.

The beautiful bride.



Elder Alvarez was asked at the last minute to say a few words to the bride and groom. Thank goodness for his many years of experience in the Church. 

A new baby!

João Andrade is the go-to-guy whenever we need repairs in the missionary apartments in Praia. This is his lovely family. Taish is 3 years old and just received a new baby brother into their family (Tiago). She is so excited.

This is Tiago. He is 3 days old.



Taish and Sister Alvarez just met for the first time. She came right over to sit on S. Alvarez lap and chatted and chatted with her, even though she speaks Kriolo and S. Alvarez sort of speaks Portuguese. They became fast friends. When the Alvarez' got up to leave, Taish was so sad she could hardly say good-bye. She said she wanted to go with Sister Alvarez to her house.