Teixeira's Tesouro (Treasure)

Music wafted through the thick air that Wednesday evening, past the roosters untimed attempts at waking the world at irregular intervels; past the dogs sleeping on rough hewn lava rock. Lyrics drifted past the hanging clothes, grabbing the last rays of sun, into the small cement home of a young boy named Adilson Luis Pires Teixeira Cardosa.  He glanced down at his watch...the one he had saved for...one escudo after another for many many months...the one that gave him courage to walk across the cobblestone to the Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias and look through the window at many youth smiling, laughing, singing, and enjoying an activity together.

One kind missionary noticed the young boy peering through the window and invited him to join them.  Imagine!  He was invited into such happiness!  Sometime during the activity, his special watch fell to the floor. The tiny pin that held the watchband together was missing.  He looked and looked for the tiny pin but it was nowhere to be found. He felt like crying.  As the youth were leaving, he was still hunting for the pin.  The missionary with a kind heart asked him what was wrong.  Teixeira Cardosa explained through sad eyes that his watch, the one he had saved so long for, was broken.  The lost pin became important to the missionary as well as he looked into the eyes of the young boy and he said gently:  "There is a person who can help you."  He then taught the boy about Jesus Cristo.  They both knelt down... and offered a prayer.  Shortly after the asking, the teensy pin was found. Teixeira felt something in his heart that day; he learned of a treasure even greater than his watch that held time...he learned about a Savior who held Eternity.

Teixeira attended church every Sunday and never missed an activity.  After four or five years of begging his parents, they finally allowed him to be baptized.  He is 29 years old now.  He has a sweet wife, a 9 year old daughter, and a baby boy, who light up his eyes.  He works long hours on his farm and has a dream of one day opening a business (a garage with things to sell), but for now...he is saving one escudo at a time to take his family to the nearest Temple (Recife, Brasil).  Every Sunday, including yesterday,  he walks two hours to the Church, and opens the building and helps put the hymn books out. And when the members sing here...they really sing and the music fills the air and the windows are open!

We wanted you to meet our humble, salt of the earth, happy, busy, and kind, Presidente Teixeira...

.  He is the Branch President over the Fonte Aleixo Branch in Sao Filipe, on the Island of Fogo in Cape Verde.  180 members attended yesterday and they all sat on metal folding chairs in a beautiful building... very different from the small house where he looked through the windows some 22 years ago.