From small things...

   What I am learning is that I don't have to be Wilford Woodruff...to be a missionary. I owe alot to him for being the missionary that shared the gospel with my great great grandfather in England and I would love to be that kind of a Missionary...but, I just have to do the things that I can do. Somehow, Heavenly Father takes our small part and makes it bigger than we could have imagined.  Anyone can serve a mission...it just takes love...and that part is easy when you get to know the people. All we have to do is pray and plan, and then amazing things happen when we tie our shoes and show up.  It's like being on the front row and watching the scriptures promises take place in people's eyes!  

Twenty-five (one of a kind scripture bags) were made in 3 afternoon/evenings with the new humanitarian sewing machine, and some miracles!  (Sewing their own bags was the first time using a machine for most of the young women). The same project is happening in Cova Figueria now as well.  We hope this helps  the youth to take their scriptures to and from Church and Seminary...The thing about new scriptures is: they are only good when they are used. 

First Relief Society Activity for the new Sao Filipe 2nd branch and before they it was over...they had already planned the next one  We wrote our favorite scriptures on pieces of wood and painted flowers on them.  Simple. But what better decor for homes than to remember our favorite scriptures! There is something great about learning together, playing together, creating together, and loving to be together.  Really Great.  A taste of wanting to be together forever great.  Like how I want to meet Wilford Woodruff someday.  He used the same scriptures that I am using...we both believe in  the same words and message...so little by little...who knows...maybe someday...my small part will help someone's family too!

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.

auto suficiente (self sufficient)...not really....

We plan and plant, hoover and harvest, seed and store, wonder and work, all in an effort to become self sufficient so we are prepared for whatever comes our way...

and then comes a day bigger than us or any our preparations and then...

we pray.

Tears make it difficult to focus on the email...but I have read it many times...my Momma has cancer...

The Rains have Arrived!

Living Water...a parable I understand more clearly now...

 Meet Raiana and Ravidson, children from Mindelo on the Island of Sao Vicente. I watched them hand tiny yellow 'just-picked' flowers in trade for filling their containers at the home of our friends, the Brodericks, (humanitarian missionaries here in Cabo Verde).  The church is starting a water project here on Fogo that will provide water to over 900 homes. The Brodericks are staying with us for a week to open up that project.

The sound of laughter and heavy rain drew me to the window early one morning to our neighbors playing and bathing with delight!

Many people take containers to the water stations and wait for their water. (photo of water station below was taken by Brodericks' daughter, Elizabeth.)

.

WATER...comes to Cabo Verde two months of the year in the form of heavy rains that fill the streets, the buckets,  the cement cisterns, and the hope of this people.  Seeds have been planted up and down the volcanic hills for the past two months.  Many live off the land, praying for the water that will miraculously open tiny seeds into hard work and eventually food.  The water stored will be used for the next 10 not-a-drop-of-rain months.  It is a celebration of sorts to witness the joy of the rains.  Children run under the spouts, laughing as they jump in and out of the full water barrels; they float sticks and leaves in the flooded streets that have become mini-rivers just for the wading!  Cabo Verdianos wash themselves in the water and collect it  as a limited edition for the treasure that it is.  They throw open their arms and embrace it.  They dance in it with umbrellas and we all mop out our casas from the lakes and leaks that are part of this place. We had water running through a leak in the roof into the bathroom and out the electrical sockets in the living room. The electrician put a bit of packing tape over the pipe on the roof which helped the flood in the frontroom a bit for now! (Ha!) He told us we need a new roof when the rains stop...(we smile and nod all the time!) and in between "the sun comes up and dries up all the rain".  

                        To 'hunger and thirst' after righteousness is a profound invitation.

Doctrine and Covenants 10: 66
Revelations 21: 6-7

Daily Votes...

What pet, what color for a doorway? 
Daily decisions are insightful... 
Each of us know that having a 'choice' 
(by definition) is delightful. 

And there will always be peddlers 
with various coisas (things) to buy...
Should we pause before a purchase
and pergunta (ask) ourselves: why?

We vote with our money, time, and thoughts, 
We trade these for whom we become; 
We must learn which choices are Eternal
and which choices are simply for fun.

Little Ones...

 We are always drawn to the little ones...Our 26th grandchild, Miss Avery, is on her way to earth-life in October!  We have not held Miss Brooklyn who was born in May!  We picture our children and their beautiful children in the eyes, sizes, mannerisms, and characters, of the people here.  At times, I catch a quick breath at a random memory moment and wish I could reach out and touch that specific grandchild right then...and I make myself breath out slowly and take another step...



We love teaching about the Plan of Happiness for Families...because:

WE LOVE OUR FAMILY!

Maos que Ajudam (Hands that Help)

Sao Filipe 1st Branch...very fun cleaning morning!

 President Viera leads the way!  He is a great leader and we love him very much! 

                   

ESTRELLAS!

Hand-made Kites of grocery sacks and sticks fly high in Fogo!  They are named: ESTRELLAS (Portuguese for STARS),  It takes faith, figuring, time, saving materials, planning, and patience to make Estrellas, but when all those come together...with the REQUISITE GIFT of GENTLE BREEZE...the kids smile and the Estrellas SOAR!

life is awesome like that...