Week13 Fernando Pó

Well the transfers were announced and this was my last week in Fernando Pó. Tomorrow morning I will go to some area in Praia. My companion will be Elder Champion. I have already met him. He is a Chinese American who only has one more transfer than me. I am pretty excited. We will go an area that had Sisters last transfer. As for my last week in Mindelo it was great. I had the privilege of baptising Josina. She was most certainly prepared for baptism. The members are pretty cool and I will miss them. This transfer I also learned a ton from Elder Brito. Like how to improve my cooking and teaching skills. How to hide your money in different places so not all of it is taken if you are robbed (that hasn´t happened yet), and how to be patient. I truly do love the people of this area, and with all of their problems in life I really want them to succeed. There is this one lady Lígia who is incredibly faithful. She doesn´t go to church right now, and maybe that makes you think that she isn´t that faithful, but when we talked to her she told us that she would come to church the next Sunday and that she would pay her tithing. We had never said a word about tithing before. She is not exactly well-off and to decide to pay tithing like that brought the spirit so strong. I know she will be blessed, and know that God blesses all those who put him first.

Week 12

Well it looks like this transfer is going to be 7 weeks because the President will be in Germany. This last week was pretty awesome because 1, we had the baptisms of Olímpio and Érica, and 2, because we had the visit from Elder Rasband. He and two members of the seventy spoke to us and we had time to ask questions and make comments. It was pretty powerful to be there. He told us not to whine about our areas or companions, and he spoke of using Christ to help others obey the comandments. That same night he spoke to all of the members of the Mindelo stake which includes Santo Antão, and São Nicolão. I saw some old friends from Porto Novo, and then I got to sing in the choir. Elder Rasband left us with his apostolic blessing, and shook everyone´s hand. The baptism of Olímpio and Érica was awesome as well. I almost cannot believe that Olímpio made it, but he made a ton of progress this week. It is a testimony to me that Lord really does change people´s hearts. I had the honor of baptising him. Now we are working towards some other baptisms this next month. Elder Rasband told us to keep our focus on baptising converts and I think that that is very true here. We need to make sure we are helping others in the right direction. Until next week.

Week 11

And another week goes by. Unfortunately Olímpio was not baptised this week but hopefully he will be baptised next week, along with Ericka. I am excited to meet with Elder Rasband this week. He will also meet with the members of Cabo Verde while he is here. I am kind of blanking on what to write because this week was pretty normal. We marked a baptismal date with a guy who just got out of prison. I guess that wasn´t normal. Prison here is pretty bad. His name is Helder, pronounced elder, and he is really changing his life around. He stopped drinking and wants to stop smoking, and he is studying at a night school. Also we finally found this guy Romário again after 3 months. I taught him my first day here and marked a baptismal date, but I never saw him again until now. I marked another date this time and I hope we can find him again. That is about it. Fique firme todos vocês. Sorry this computer will not allow me to upload pictures.

Week 10

We had the baptism of Yasmin this saturday and everything went great. I had the sacred privilege of baptising her. I truly am greatful for that experience. Now our recent convert Sandro, her brother, has a family member in the church. We are preparing Olímpio to be baptised on the 14th of April, but he cannot smoke any more and also needs to solve some other problems in his life. It is sad sometimes because others here will spread bad rumors about him being a mean old man. He is such a kind guy but he gets frustrated with these people. I had an interview with The President this week and he told me that Elder Rasband will be coming to Cabo Verde next week. I am pretty excited. He will talk with the missionaries in Mindelo on the 19th. We are preparing some other people for baptism in April. Ericka the daughter of an investigator for the 21st, and Josina a 20 year old for the 28th. The work is progressing well here and hopefully one day we will have a temple as well. The members just need to start paying tithing. By now I feel pretty fluent in Portuguese and I can understand Kriolo pretty well. I included some more pictures from Monte Verde. My companion likes to joke about everything. In the picture he is prayer to God on the top of the mountain.

week 9

I realize that my titles might be boring but I try to think of creative ones and they just do not come to me. The past two days of General Conference were great, but I don´t need to tell you all that. This time I actually understood it so it was a great inprovement from the last one. The change made in the Priesthood Quorums doesn´t affect Cabo Verde because we have always had combined quorums. As always our old friend Olímpio hobbled his way into Conference(actually he his very fit for his age). He is struggling to give up smoking completely, but he has always been stubborn. He was the first person I taught here in Fernando Pó. On Sunday after the morning Priesthood session all the Mindelo missionaries ate a breakfast and socialized at the Gerritsons apartment. Pancakes, Krepes, fruit, and brownies. This morning we got up at 4:30 to hike from our house to the top of Monte Verde. It was incredible. I will include more pictures next week. Just know that the wind was raging up there. It felt like 50mph in the direction of the edge of the cliff. The city of Mindelo is behind me. Once in a lifetime opportunity.