The background Music of a Mom...

A child can run and play and learn and try better to the background music of a Mom somehow.

(doesn't matter how old the child is!)

As the days go by, I catch myself, my breath, my being, 

and realize more and more what my mother gave to me. 

Indeed, she was the cheerleader of my life...the background music of everything me. 

After I had translated for a one hour presentation last week, my first thought was to call and share my Joy.  

"Momma, it worked!  They understood me!"

I really needed to call her yesterday with the blessed news:

"Amy just had her baby!  He's so cute and he looks alot like...and Amy is doing great!".

("Momma, today is Daddy's Birthday!  He misses you.")

"Momma, I made 120 popcorn balls, they weren't quite like yours...hard to get all the ingredients here, 

but they ate them and seemed to like them anyway. The training went great.  

We love these Cabo Verdianos."

"What should I do with my hair?  

It looks like 'the frizz that is' with all the humidity and heat! 

Was it like that for you when you were serving in the Philippians?"

Just simple little nothing Mom Moments.  

She would talk to me about anything and everything and again.

I hope to be a Mom like that for my children.  

Right now, Amy is holding her tiny Parker 

while her 4 children and sweet husband take turns deciding 

just whose eyes and nose and mouth and toes he has. He is perfect!

. Amy likes foot-rubs after her babies

and she likes a certain kind of cookie right next to her bed. 

It may as well be a Bahama vacation when a young mother has a baby. 

One whole day of being waited on with food you don't make

 and dishes you don't wash, and a bit of rest! (well...sort of).

I told her I was emailing a gentle foot rub and lots of hugs.

I can't buy those cookies here.

So thankful for the miracle of the internet, so we could 'be' there!  

She was sweet to tuck me in: 

"How about a rain-check!  Moms of five-month-olds need foot-rubs too!"

She will get that foot-rub!  Absolutely!

And my Mother already knows my Amy had her baby.  

Maybe she even got to be there when they weighed him in at 7 lbs. 14 oz. 

or maybe it was Momma who helped Amy feel my hug

or who gave a last minute hug to Parker just before he was born?

I don't know how it all works...but I know it works.

Love knows no boundaries.  The Music continues forever.

Welcome to Earth-life tiny Parker Gideon Stanger!

It's Heavenly having you here. 

You have been sent to a beautiful Mother who loves your wonderful Father 

and she loves Music... 

You will love it here!

Rosa's Story in Stone...

Rosa Helena Monteiro Veiga gets up early 

to break rocks for a hour or two each morning 

before going to work to clean casas or the capela. 

When she returns from work she starts the firewood 

to prepare dinner for her family, 

and then she will break more rocks. 

Her goal is to go with her husband to the Temple.

(his health makes him unable to work)

It takes piles of broken rock before there is enough to sell.

The rocks will be used to make cement for the contruction of home foundations, sidewalks, and walls.

 Grandpa along with some of our young adults decided to help. We met at 7 am the first morning, but after a few hours it was very hot, so the next two days we started at 6 am. Some came late and some left early - some came every day and some for one day...but all in all, together, we put in well over 40 man-hours  (with only four hammers and 1/2 (mine kept breaking)! The rocks that we broke during those three mornings will hopefully sell for about 26 dollars.

This is my bucket and the hammer I moved up to when my handle kept falling off!  

It gets a bit easier on the third morning,

Admiration is what we feel for Rosa who has done this for 15 years.



I have just a slight itty bitty hint of a tiny tip of the tongue taste

of the work she has done diligently for so long, oh...and three sore fingers...

one per day when the hammer hit the wrong target. 

You know Grandpa, he will always sing or make them smile and laugh while working!
It was fun to hear them sing: "Put your shoulder to the Wheel" to the sound of hammers on rocks!

Every moment needs to count on a mission, so activities need to be multi-tasked at times!
It is wonderful how little things become big with some Angelic help.
 As Dist. President, Grandpa had three goals for this project:
1.  Help break rocks so this sweet family can pay for a small part of their trip to the Temple.
(self sufficiency is an important principle whether we are rich or very very poor)
2. Help teach the value and joy in work to some young men preparing for missions.
(service is a special kind of work that teaches this quickly)
3. Visiting and friend-shipping the son of this family who needs some good friends.

but in reality 4 things happened.

4.  Grandma fell in love with Grandpa yet again...  (happens alot on a mission!)

I spent three early mornings witnessing my many blessings,
learning how to break rocks, enjoying these young people, and
being thankful to witness the amazing missionary work of your Grandpa.

You will love serving your mission someday!

Cultural Traditions!

I love to learn about the culture and traditions of people.  

There are so many great ones!

Oh how I wish you could all hear the Cabo Verdianos sing!
A song of the heart is a prayer...I understand that better than ever before.
They LOVE to sing! (many times... even on tune!)
Even the young Primary children value hymn books and know their favorite hymn by its page number.
 Singing is a gift of their culture!
Song is free and singing is for everybody and it is loud and it is wonderful and it is felt.
These Primary girls  just finished practicing a song for our District Conference in August.

Something about Children, Music, Inspired Lyrics, and my tear ducts...Oh My!  

Our young single adults had a Noite Cultural (Night of Culture).  Some of them are in the photo above.
They came dressed in costumes of years gone by.  We laughed alot during their fashion show
(complete with judges and prizes!)
The Cabo Verdian traditional dances were danced and some of the young adults sang songs...
including Grandpa much to the enjoyment of the group!
They had a dance off - 4 different kinds of dances and then came the refreshments!

KusKus (koose koose) is a traditional treat made with corn flour, water,
a tiny bit of sugar and cinnamon.
Edy (Young single adult Pres. and Francisco (Dist. Sec.) will add a bit of milk to soften it.
It is comparable to a tough cornbread (they steam it in a pan above boiling water).
(These served over 50 happy young adults!)

Dried corn kernals are placed in cement urns and women use wooden mallots in synchronized,
even melodic movements to mash it into flour.
It is fascinating to watch this tradition of family and friends helping to prepare the flour.
Corn flour is used in many of their meals.

Each country has it's cultural traditions that makes it special and unique.
In every country there are some traditions that must be changed along the way to welcome better ones.
I hope they never lose these sweet traditions of  singing, dancing, smiling, and sharing..

The people here are trying to overcome the bad traditions of alcohol and drugs.
We have witnessed many tears of children who have been abandoned by fathers and/or mothers and we have seen these youth try to teach their parents and brothers and sisters the importance of standards.
It is very common for these young people to have many brothers and sisters by different fathers and different mothers and live with someone else.

Often couples have to marry first when they have a desire to become baptized.
I have been amazed at how much joy they feel to obey that commandment of Heavenly Father
 and how much joy it gives their children when they are married!
Many are learning the importance of a family tradition!
Many want a culture where marriage matters, where parents love each other and their children.
They long to have education, jobs, enough food, and hope!

We talk openly with the youth of the church about their traditions and their decisions.
The good ones and the bad ones.
The ones that must be kept forever...and the ones that must be thrown away yesterday!

And then we listen to them sing!!!

So Much Good!

There are so many beautiful people and ideas and inspiration in this world.  

These are a few internet images that I especially like...sent to me from friends over the past year.  

"This is what the world needs...people that care about others."

"You can always change your story."  
(I love that we can become better than we are!)

"Never stop learning.  Life never stops teaching."

The work of Hope

Thank You Elder Benedict!

We spent our 40th Anniversary in Praia, on the Island of Santiago.
We had dinner with President and Sister Oliveira, (who made Flan!)
Elder and Sister Mathews,  (the office couple who made us home-made Root Beer Floats!).
and Elder and Sister Thompson, (the new Humanitarian couple who came when
Elder and Sister Broderick completed their mission in April.)

We had a wonderful time and have been and are blessed to know and serve with such great people. 
Since we live on a different Island, it was a rare treat for us to be with all of them.
We had some good meetings, trainings, and enjoyed our time together there.

After the meetings, as we were preparing to go to our hotel, we happened to meet some journalists from California. One was writing for the Huffington Post about little places in Africa.
When they saw our badges, they had a question: "Why don't some people in your Religion like being called: Mormons?  What do you want to be called?  Should we call you L.D.S.ers instead?
We answered rather quickly. "You can call us about anything you'd like!  'Mormons' will work just fine
We have been called many things by many people!"  They laughed with us.

We tried to answer their question: "The reason some prefer not to be called Mormons is that
it doesn't give out the important information that we are Christians.
The full name of our Church is: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints.
We are followers of Jesus Christ and belong to His Church.
Our glad message is that He has once again restored His original Church to the earth!
That once again, Prophets and Apostles are living on the earth and we can know God's will for us!" 

The journalists had been robbed the night before and it made me wonder what 
their impression of Praia was like because of that experience.  I wish they could meet the people that we know and love here, so their essays and articles will reflect the good that we have found here.
It was fun to visit with them and fun to read some of their work on the internet.
It would be difficult to sum up a people with a few days or encounters.

A few months ago, we had a fellow from France look us up, asking many important and interesting questions.  He was a journalist studying Religions on small Islands.  It is something how people have an interest in knowing a bit moreabout what 'Mormons' are really like and what they really think and believe.

It is easy to know what Mormons believe. 
 http://mormon.org/ and http://www.lds.org are beautiful websites with the basics.

What 'Mormons' are like is about as varied as one could possibly imagine if writing a novel!  http://mormon.org/people/find 
From every walk of life, with all kinds of interests, hobbies, talents, dreams, and jobs, 
Mormons are just people who know that we are all Children of God. We know that we lived with Heavenly Parents before we came to this earth. We know that this earth was created for us to learn and grow and to be tested. We know that Heavenly Father sent His Son to this earth with an important plan of Forever Happiness for His Children and that our choices here will determine where we will live forever.  We study The Bible and The Book of Mormon. We value Scriptures given to Prophets through Revelation. We know that this life is an important time to learn to repent, to forgive, and to love.

To be a Covenant people just means that we make promises and God makes promises to us. Temples have been built throughout the history of the world for this very reason.  It is an organized way to count on what matters most in our lives; to stay on track of the very reason we came to earth.   
The amazing part is that because He is our literal Father in Heaven and loves each and every person every born to this earth, no one has to be left out of this Joy...unless they choose to.

What a blessing to serve here and to witness our brothers and sisters as they learn about our Heavenly Father's  Plan, (The Gospel of Jesus Christ). 
Any person who has:
1. a Sincere Heart
2. Real Intent
and 3. Faith in Jesus Christ 
can know for himself if these things are true. 

WE CAN GET ANSWERS TO SINCERE PRAYERS!
All kinds of folks teach all kinds of things, but asking God, who does not lie, is the way to know for sure.

****************
I just think everybody that possibly can, should serve a full-time mission.
It is a great time to study and share the Gospel, a wonderful time to meet so many beautiful people,
a reverent time to feel our Savior's Love and to understand the love of family,
a blessed set apart time to understand why we are all on this earth
and what we should do about it!  We are learning and witnessing miracles as we try our best to serve.

I can imagine many great places to spend a 40th anniversary,
but none more lovely than being in the Mission field with a Companion like mine.

Thank you Elder Benedict!
I love you!