New Fogo District Presidency

Luis Veira -1st counselor   President J. S. Benedict    Carlos Abreu -2nd counselor

What a Special Day!  Wish you could have heard Grandpa give his talks in the two sessions of conference today.  One in Sao Filipe and the other in Cova Figueira.  President and Sister Oliveira are here and our visiting area authority is Elder Boutoille from France; (who set dad apart and gave him a beautiful blessing).  Each of them inspire us with their kindness and their countenance. How great to work with good people.  

This new Presidency will be a blessing.  Pres. Veira,1st counselor, whispered to me:  "We get to work beside him (grandpa) for a year...but you get him for eternity!")  

Caitlyn's Question...

   Dear Year-Book-staff-writer,  Caitlyn-Clogger-Girl!  Love the colors and options of your question!  (couldn't resist the ornament ear-rings photo with your sweet Momma as well since we are getting closer to Christmas time!)

 In Cape Verde is it easier to teach the gospel to: 

A. Men 

B. Women

C. Children 1-8

D. Children 9-13

E. Teens

F. Grandparents

G. The whole family together 

you can say multiple answers like B. and C.

*****************

Ok, so my answer would be.  A,B,and E. But, the answer we would like the most would be G!
 The reason that it is easier to teach the young people is because most of the people on the island are young people.  (most of the members here are under age 30).  Alot of them are preparing to serve missions.  It would be awesome to teach families together and the missionaries always try to do that...but most of the families here have part of their families or one of their parents who live in America (usually around Boston).  That's why it is difficult to find whole families to teach.   A long time ago, there was a famine here and so some of the parents went somewhere else to work so they could send food and money back here for their families.  It is a tradition that keeps going....but, now it is a sad tradition...because it splits families apart and that makes the children sad.  In America, people get $8 an hour for work and here they get about $1.25 an hour. Over half of the Cape Verdianos don't even live here!

This is a photo of some of the young men that are preparing to be Missionaries.  We have six more young men and 5 more young women who are preparing to serve.  They are changing their traditions little by little and they are going to school and they want to have marriage and families.  They tell me they are going to take care of their families, and not split them up..."abandonar" (to abandon or leave) because they want their children to be happy.

Silas asked Grandpa to help him with his mission papers yesterday when we were in his branch.  He is a wonderful young man, serving as the 1st counselor right now.

We love you Caitlyn!  Send us some of your writing by email!!! 

click click clickscribble scribble snap.

Humanitarian Helping Hands...

This morning the School Superintendent and helpers came to our apt. to receive over 600 school kits.  Can you imagine the excitement for so many children who wish for one pencil of their own...to have a backpack with not just one piece of paper...but real notebooks for school!  It will enable some children to go to school.  Education is so important and The Church of Jesus Christ reaches out to the whole world.    

We also have Hygiene kits in our apt. for the many families (close to 1,000) who will receive water lines to their homes because the Church is helping the government supply the lines to the homes and the training as well in hygiene and water conservation and usage.  The Church has donated many wheelchairs as well as clothes and food, medical supplies and schooling to those in need.  The Humanitarian missionaries help with the physical needs of people. That would be a great mission too and it has been fun to see a small part of their work in these projects here in Fogo! Our friends, The Brodericks are the Humanitarian missionaries right now for Cabo Verde.

Grandpa and Andrade, (a great young man, and a prison guard, who was baptized a few months ago.) 

 Saturday we gave hygiene kits to each of the 103 prisoners here (a towel, two bars of soap, 4 toothbrushes, (the good kind that Ashley likes!), combs, and toothpaste in each).  We spent the morning visiting at the prison.  Our young single adults (just over 40 of them) had a program and activities planned for the visit. The prisoners were very kind and appreciative.

Grandpa talked to them about making wise decisions.  He said that having a good and happy life is a choice each of us must make for ourselves!  Lucindo, also spoke about joining the church after he was released from Prison and the difference it has made in his life.  He is completing his paperwork to serve a Mission.  

Daily Work...

Magnificent!

We are thankful for this incredible experience to serve a mission together in Cape Verde. What a blessing in our lives! We love you and hope your days are wonderful!

We love reading your emails when you get a moment to type. With love,  brenda7k@msn.com

Schematics for our roller-coaster lives...

Hey my Ethan-Engineer-Man!  We liked your question: What are we teaching the people here on our Mission?  We also liked Asher-Reader-Man's request for us to "come to your house and for you to come to our house for dinner".  Thank you very much for your emails.  They sure make us happy.

Do you remember when you were building your roller-coaster and you had pages of plans so it wouldn't get all messed up?  I loved observing you. It was alot of work, but you knew just what to do, and when something didn't fit, (or was way upside down!) then you could figure out what went wrong and redo that part...all because you had the right plans to look at.  When you think about it...everyone in the whole wide world is building something.  Every single person is building a "life" ...the one that they will have for ever and ever.

On our mission, we get to teach people about Jesus. He loves all of us and wants us to build the very best and most happy life possible, which is called a 'Celestial' life.

'Schematics' is just another great name for 'plans'. Schematics teach us how to put things together in the right order.  Some people already have the Celestial Schematics, but there are lots of people who don't even know that those plans exist.  Missionaries get to take them the plans!  Guess what the plans look like?  They are the scriptures! You have the plans right on your dresser!  When we follow the scripture schematics, then our spirits smile.

Jesus created this world so everyone could learn about Heavenly Father's plans and try them out! You should see how happy people are to know that Heavenly Father has already designed a plan for all of His children.  He will help us make awesome designs in our lives.

Ethan and Asher...You will love being Missionaries!  

We love you so so so so so much...and we miss you...and when we get back...we will come to your house and you can come to our house...and we will build lots of stuff!  (in fact, just ask your mom...maybe she will let you just move in!)   Hugs and High-Fives!

Holidays and Celebrations...

McKenzie, piano player, ice-skater, wonders: "What holidays do people celebrate and how do they celebrate them? 

Hi My Kenzie! What a great question.  I love your family tradition of making gingerbread houses... MMMM-Yummy... the smell and taste of fresh out of the oven gingerbread!  

The traditions here are fun to know about too.  You'd like their Children's Day in June!  It is a day when children receive small gifts.  The children here do not usually celebrate their Birthdays.  One young man told me it is because they do not have money to buy a Birthday cake...so I think that Childrens' Day is when everyone celebrates together instead. 

Carnival is in February and the children dress up for a parade.  Every island does it a bit different.  They don't have Halloween or Thanksgiving here like we do there.  Memorial Day is November 1st and it is called 'All Saints Day'. The last whole week of April they have lots of contests and fun...like horse races, contests of checkers, chess, who can grow the biggest vegetables etc.(kind of like a county fair I think).  We were on another island when they had that...so I will try to pay better attention next April.

It will be fun to see what Christmas is like here. It's coming very fast and I will let you know what we discover! 

This is a list of holidays in Cape Verde.

Date	English Name
January 1	New Year's Day
January 13	Democracy Day
January 20	Heroes' Day
February	Carnival
May 1	Labour Day
June 1	Children's Day
July 5	Independence Day
August 15	Assumption (Day of Our Lady of Grace)
September 12	National Day
November 1	All Saints' Day
December 25	Christmas Day

There are also many Catholic  'Saints Days' (about 12 more)  which means...they have alot of days where they celebrate people from long ago that were special.  The sad part is...instead of doing good things, those parties usually turn into drinking alcohol and then forgetting the people that they are celebrating.   

The good part about the regular Holidays is that families and friends get together (just like in America) ...and the Cabo Verdianos love to sing and share their food and visit... and often clear into the night we can hear their music and happy voices.   

What are some of your favorite Holidays?  
What family traditions do you like most?