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.