ASSOMADA DISTRICT CONFERENCE
This is the room where all the members meet for the conference. It was packed.
Sister Amo, Sister Alvarez, Sister Portela, and Elder Portela visiting with a sister from Assomada.
Members piling into the van to return to their towns.
These two returned missionaries were our trainees as district auditors. They have a special place in our hearts. Bruno and Jair.
Outside the church building just after conference.
The Assomada church building. It is a rented building. There is a nice big chapel being built not far from there, which is close to being finished, but we don't know the finish date yet. It will be so nice when it's done.
Elder and Sister Souza (senior missionaries) are standing next to the blue column talking to a lady missionary. Elder Souza is the district president on the island of Sal and he and his wife were visiting.
Sister Amo, Sister Alvarez, a sweet girl from Assomada, Sister Portela.
Presidente Miranda is the branch president in Calheta. He and his sweet wife and children just returned from the temple. They are so excited. They loved the temple.
The van to take the members back to Calheta.
Elder Peterson is the branch president in Pedra Badejo. He played the piano for the Saturday meeting. We are so blessed when we have missionaries that can play the piano.
FRIENDS
Every morning on our walk, we pass these sweet Chinese gentlemen. Many, many stores in Cape Verde (possibly most of them) are owned by Chinese people. They are hard workers. They work long hours and every day of the week. These gentlemen are always very friendly and smiley. Liu, Elder Alvarez, Ta, and Liu.
This young man in Achada Mato just had his baptismal interview. He is excited to be baptized.
The Assistants are always so helpful. Elder Cox and Elder Cannon. We love them!
PRAIA STAKE CONFERENCE
After Saturday evening session of the Praia Stake Conference. Elder and Sister Alvarez both spoke in the meeting.
After the Sunday morning session of the Praia Stake Conference. The girl in the middle was one of the youth in Sister Alvarez' Sunday School class in Achada Mato, and the sister on the right (sorry, very bad photo) is Vera. She is an anchor in Achada Mato. She and her husband just returned from the temple and bore their testimonies this morning in stake conference.
A FIRE
We have commented many times that homes don't burn here because they are built with cement block and covered with plaster and tile. If anything, the contents might burn, but not the building. So we never see firemen around, and never hear sirens. But this was apparently a wooden shack, and it burned to the ground. So sad.
COUPLES DINNER
We have a new senior missionary couple: the Portelas, from Brazil. They are seated on the right next to Sister Alvarez. They are Self-Reliance missionaries. This is a birthday/welcome dinner at the mission home. The couple on the far left, standing, are investigators that Pres. Amo invited. We had typical Brazilian food that Sister Amo prepared and other side dishes that the other couples took. Always yummy!
Sister Amo standing on the left behind the investigator couple.
VISITING FRIENDS
Friday we gave Melina a ride home. She is our fruit lady. She and her family just returned recently from their first visit to the temple to be sealed as a family. She works in Praia and lives there during the week, but on the weekend, she goes home to Belem, where her husband and children (and many relatives) live. She invited us to visit her home. On the way, we took a detour and drove to the town of Porto Mosquito, on the coast.
The bay of Porto Mosquito.
Butchering a cow at the side of the road. Needless to say, we don't eat beef here.
The children are lined up to take the public transportation to school, which is in the next town.
BELEM
On the road to Belem, we had to climb high up into the mountains, and there was Belem down in a valley. The cluster of houses on the left is the main part of town, where Melina's house is.
THE ARTIST'S HOUSE
On our ride to Belem, when we got to Cidade Velha, Melina asked if we could stop and give a friend a ride, so he rode with us most of the way. He talked the whole way there. He has an interesting story and is very opinionated regarding the politics of Cape Verde.This is his home and his property in Belem.
The artist.
Wow! That is a cachupa pot, from way back during the days of the Portuguese.
As you can see in the photo, he has drip irrigation. There has been no rain this year, so those who are dependent on rain lost all of their crops, twice. They planted once, and it didn't rain for a long time, and then they got some teaser rains, so they planted again, but then the rain stopped. It's very sad because everyone is selling their animals because they don't have anything to feed them. If there is drought again next year, most of the people living here will have to move to the city.
His art is everywhere in his house: on his walls, on the tables and shelves. He doesn't sell it because no one will pay what he feels it is worth. Since they don't have electricity in Belem, he doesn't have a TV, and everyone goes to bed as soon as it gets dark. He says instead of watching TV he will just sit and look at all of his art pieces. :)
The artist. People in town think he is crazy, because he talks a lot and because he spends so much time creating art but doesn't sell it.
Melina and Sister Alvarez pretending to grind corn.
MELINA'S HOUSE AND FAMILY
These sweet people are part of Melina's husband's family. The girl on the left is 5-years-old and is deaf and mute. We don't know if she is deaf from birth or if something happened in her infancy, but when it was time to start talking, they realized that she was deaf. It's possible that all she needs is surgery, but the family doesn't have the means to get her the medical care that she needs.
Melina's husband's extended family.
Her daughters and nieces and nephew.
THE MEAL
The family can't afford gas, so they collect wood and cook on a fire. Melina had asked her husband to prepare a chicken for us, but he wasn't able to get one, so he killed one of his ducks and had it ready for Melina to make a stew. Here she is peeling potatoes.
Melina cooking duck stew.
Melina's niece and daughter.
Melina's two daughters, with her niece in the middle. The girls have learned to communicate with her with hand signals and with different expressions.
TOYS
We have so much fun with the children with small toys that Crystal and Tiffani brought when they came. We gave these kids rubber poppers and plastic jumping frogs and they had so much fun!
LUNCH WITH MELINA AND GUSTAVO
Melina and Gustavo were so gracious. The meal they prepared was wonderful. Sister Alvarez ate duck for the first time. The stew was very flavorful. They also loaded us with mandioca to take home with us. They are so giving.
I love the story that she told about their trip to the temple. When it was time to return home, they went to the airport, but the plane had a mechanical problem and their flight was cancelled. The airline put them up in a hotel and fed them, but they said they were so bored with nothing to do, FOR 8 DAYS!!!! After 8 days the airline rented a plane from another airline and finally they were able to go home. In the interim, on Sunday they went to the nearest church, and the members were so welcoming. They even focused most of their lessons and messages on them and their plight. In one class, they were shown the video of the group from Manaus that had to travel 3 days by boat and then 3 days by bus to reach the temple, and then 6 days back home again. At that point, Melina said that she cried and realized that she and her group didn't really have it that tough, that others had sacrificed so much more.
Just so you know the sacrifices that Melina and her family make for the gospel, they walk for more than 1 hour in the hot afternoon sun, on rough cobblestone roads, to get to the town where they can take public transportation to Praia to go to church, which takes another half hour. Fortunately, their meetings start at 3 pm, which gives them time to get there. Then they all spend the night in Praia, and Gustavo and girls go back home early the next morning so the girls can go to school. They are the only members in their town and probably in the whole area. They are such awesome pioneers!
PORTUGUESE FRIENDS
The Capitãos are friends we met while walking in the mornings. Lunts also made friends with them on their walks. They are going back to Portugal soon, probably for an extended stay, so we invited them over for dinner. It was a very pleasant evening. We were very surprised that they had never heard about our Church.
