On the Road to Mosteiros...

We were on our last trip around the island of Fogo
before moving to the island of Sal just over a month ago,
when we stopped to meet this young girl
(and her grandmother who were on a long walk down the road).
I thanked the young girl for her example to us
as we could see that she was serving her grandmother.

It was so sweet.
The older woman just beamed and nodded her head.

I think of the influence and hope a child can gift to those,
(her friends, family, neighbors),
who count on her,

as well as to strangers...
 who are just passing by.

I think she oftimes makes her grandmother's day.  
I just wanted her know that she made mine.

Seminary/Institute and Dreams

We have enjoyed the Teacher Trainings for the Seminary and Institute teachers
for the islands of Sal and Boa Vista this past week.  My dream is that the students
will love the scriptures and use them everyday.  Scriptures literally guide us to JOY.
They are love-notes and nudges from our Heavenly Father.
While He will NEVER pressure us to accept His love,
we'd have to be crazy not to!  (sorta why we are here on earth after-all!)

The Opening Socials in Santa Maria and in Espargos were really fun too.
A scripture mastery fishing pond game was the favorite...the students loved to find the number on their fish
and see what their surprise was.  A pencil, a toosie roll, some stickers, or a small piece of candy.  

Classes begin tomorrow night.  We have some great teachers.
Gerson is our teacher here in Santa Maria.
He was very introspective the day we went to visit him about his call.
The next day he told us that the reason he had been so emotional is that
before his baptism...he had a dream and saw himself teaching a class.
That was just a few short months ago.  
He is thrilled and amazed and overwhelmed.

He will do a great job!

Feliz Aniversario!

building!

 The past few weeks we have been checking on buildings

 and finally found one to use temporarily for our growing group.
So we have been washing windows and clearing out trash and fixing up!!!
(You couldn't even see through the window above when we started!)

We received 35 more chairs to go with the ones we already had.
I think everyone wants to help, and yet, people get busy.

We had people all lined up to take down a wall that was just inside the front door.

But, day after day and then hour by hour...the plans didn't work out for those

who had planned to come help with it.

Saturday night after a very long day of cleaning, sweeping, mopping, moving, 

it seemed that our wall was not coming down for our first Sunday.

We wanted to take it down... because after 9 trips to the electric company,

and many emails to the owner in Portugal, and getting signatures
and then having them stamped from Praia,

 the electric co. still hadn't hooked up the electricity for light 

and the windows were blocked by the wall.

Yet, just as it was getting dark, the elders said, "Let's get those fellows to help."

and they went out front where two young men were walking down the road.

One of the young men just 'Happened' to be a carpenter...
and he had the tools that we needed!

It was getting late and so the missionaries had to go home,

 and we spent another couple of hours

holding our cell phone for light while the young men 

helped Grandpa take down the wall.

Just words...on computer screens.  But a real miracle for us!

We had window light 

 for our fireside Sunday evening with President and Sister Oliveira.

(In just 24 hours here on this island they blessed so many lives.)

We are so grateful for the many tender mercies that keep this work going.

Sunday was a very special day for our little-ever-growing group!

Finding WATER...

Living on islands, we can see water everywhere.  

It seems the water goes on and on forever.  

You can't see the end of it while walking along the beach

 or up in the plane during the14 minutes that it takes to get to the next island.

With so much water everywhere...

I was interested in a little sign above the sink

in the hotel in Boa Vista.

Look at the English paragraph on the bottom.

"It's so hard to find it..."  ('it' being WATER!)   

WHAT?!  How can that possibly be?!!!

Because some water gives and protects lives and some doesn't,

But, to look at it on the surface, there is no way to tell.

Again, I was drawn to the scripture about 'Living Water'

Without all of the 'extras'  (pictures, props, chalk boards, posters) I am always amazed at the attention 

 children give to the plain and simple words of the scriptures.

Like these little ones, I love to search deeply  for the living water

that truly quenches our thirsty souls.

The 'kind' of water that always comes at a cost

...and 

with life more abundantly.

Prayers, Bananas and Baptism...

We had a wonderful trip to Boa Vista, including a fun training with their Relief Society.
It was so fun to meet Maria, Itelvina, Izy, Helena, Maria, Tanha, e Tataxa and
some of their children.

Itelvina (colored stripes) made us Bolaches de Chuva (yummy donut holes)
when we visited her home,
Izy gave us some sea shells that her family had collected
when we went to her home for FHE,
and someday you have to hear Helena's story
(she is the RS Pres. on my right with the red and black striped skirt and black top,
but today I want you to meet Maria (everyone calls her Edna)
she is in red above holding her daughter next to me. 

Maria de Jesus Semedo Fernandes moved to Boa Vista hoping
for more opportunity to work and feed her family.
She had a great desire to take her children to church,
but could not find one that felt like the one she had attended
a few times when she lived on Sal.

One day while she was selling bananas,
her neighbor, Tataxa (Conceicao Dias Garcia), came rushing over.

Tataxa (tatasha) wanted to buy some bananas and she said, 

"Rapido porque eu estou com um bacalinho de pressa para eu ir a igreja"   

"Hurry, because I'm in a bit of a hurry to go to church!"

Maria asked her what church she attended.
Tataxa said, "A Igreja de Jesus Cristo dos Santos dos Ultimos Dias."
Maria's eyes sparkled.  She said that she had attended that church
before moving from Sal, but she didn't know it existed on Boa Vista.
(It had opened on that island just a few months earlier.  
At first, church was held in a motel room and now they meet in a rented building). 
So they hurried to
get the children ready and they both attended church.

Last weekend when Grandpa and I went to Boa Vista, the missionaires called us
just as we were getting off the plane and ready to find our hotel,
they asked if Grandpa could be at the church at 7 pm to give a Baptismal Interview.
We found the church first thing and that is when we met Maria.
It was wonderful to attend Maria's baptism the next morning,
so full of exquisite color and emotion!  

Maria handed me her story on a small torn piece of paper after church the next day.
Though written in Creole, I can understand much of what is written.
She wrote about her banana story, and then says that she is very happy! 
'contente'
She knows the Church is true and 
she is happy that her children will be blessed by it also.  

 
I am thankful we got to be there on such a special day
for such a special woman, Maria--the sweet Banana lady!

Gerson Jorge Rodrigues

You would love to meet Gerson.  What a wonderful young man!

Five years ago, he was playing at the dock with his friends, jumping and diving
into the cerelean ocean and having a great time--when one jump went wrong.
Gerson was lying in the water for a minute with a broken neck and no ability
to move any part of his body.  His friends helped him out of the water.
He was completely paralyzed (except he could move his eyes).
He was taken to Praia, and then to Portugal where he lay flat in a hospital bed
for 9 months.  After the first 5 months, he was becoming very discouraged
when the doctor told him that he would never be able to move again.
But his mother would not listen.
She said, "Ele e o medico, ele nao Deus!"  
"He is a doctor, he is not God!"

Those words filled Gerson with new forca (resolve) to count on a miracle.
He worked very hard to do whatever he could along with the blessings
he was given and very slowly...bit by bit...
he could move his fingers... and then his arms.
Today he is in a wheelchair and gets along just fine. 

He volunteered his frontroom, bedroom, kitchen, (all in one room)
for the new 'group' here in Santa Maria to hold Church meetings in.
People arrive early to move his bed, table, and set up chairs and even then,
some stand to hear the meetings.  This coming Sunday we will move into
a larger building.   Grandpa is helping haul chairs there right now!
Plus, we just got 35 more chairs from off the boat today
and hopefully we will get a chalkboard too.

I am thankful that we moved here at the beginning of the 'new group'.

It is fun to watch the growth, to hear the stories, to meet in Gerson's home.

After he told me his story, he added:  I am very happy!

Thanking him for his attitude and example, I asked him why he was so strong.

He shared another quote that his Mother would often tell him:

Tristesa nao paga a Renda!

(Sadness doesn't pay the rent!)

And so he wheels himself to work at his internet company and pays his own way.

To work is such a blessing, to do hard things makes us happy and strong.

Then he told me about the greatest happiness in his life, 

the best part of the whole story to him.  

He received a phone call from his mom in Portugal this past May.  

She told him that she had found the original Church of Jesus Christ 

with the same power and promises! 

She had called leaders on Sal 

and wanted him to listen to them when they came to his door.

Gerson had no trouble trusting his Mom 

because she had saved him many times,

and he waited to hear this important message.

He received the same answers to his study and prayers 

that his mother had and then with a big smile he told me 

that he had been baptized in June.  

Another family that had discovered the gospel

in Mindelo had moved here and also wanted to start a group 

in Santa Maria and Gerson volunteered his home.  

I don't know if great people see themselves that way,

probably not, because they are too busy serving others to notice.  

But, in my book, This is a GREAT young man.  

At the end of our conversation, he said, "I know that 

someday I will walk again. I just feel that I will!"  

With his gratitude and faith...I think he will too.

D&C 64:33

Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, 

for ye are laying the foundation of a great work.  

And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.

We live in a Postcard!

We live in a Postcard!
(View from our apt.)

The Days are full of Sun And Blue-just Beautiful!
(In fact, so warm that the water drips from our elbows at times)

Fresh Shark from the Ocean for Breakfast 
(We just cut up everything good to go with it and throw it in the pan!)
Are we spoiled or what?!!!

And now we are on our way to Boa Vista, the next island over to visit the branch there.  
We get to visit each member in their home and give a training on Saturday and 
share our talks on Sunday and then a fireside Sunday evening.  Monday we will finish our visits
and return to Santa Maria on Tuesday.  So I will pre-program this for Monday's family home evening.
 
If couples knew what missions were like, they'd sell everything they have
(except the kids!!!) to get going on one.  
After raising a family-- which is the greatest thing of all,
We think serving a mission is the best, hardest, easiest, most fun, difficult,
trying, educational, amazing kind of roller-coaster-wonderful-blessing ever!
You don't want to miss it!

I love the different colors of the ocean and sky each morning and evening,
the white sand, the beauty all around us,
and the variety of flowers and faces,

However, these photos don't even show the best part of a mission.  
The best part is the eyes of the people when they learn
that they have a Father in Heaven who is real
and who loves them perfectly!  Words cannot touch that moment.

Over and over the same question trickles through my thoughts.

Why would we ever padlock our homes and our treasures here

when we can look up and compare what is prepared and waiting for us there?
Life's real treasures are family and friends.  And those are for keeps!

Little ones...

It is the little ones that keep all of us going!
That each child can retain the JOY he/she was sent to earth with...
is the work of the GOSPEL of JESUS CHRIST. 

The bright eyes of Innocent Children help us to know
that we are all part of a grand plan of Happiness.  We are literally
Children of a HEAVENLY FATHER and MOTHER who love us PERFECTLY!

We learn so early to choose.
(The purpose for which this earth was created!)

And it doesn't take long to remember how important FAMILY is!

and good friends and cousins...

Because our Spirits know that life is much much more than just spinning our wheels!

No Wonder Life is so WONDER-FULL!

Fishers of Men...

Octovio was baptized in the Ocean on Saturday.  His brother is a member and lives on another island where
Octovio first learned about the Gospel as well.
He came to Santa Maria to work as a cook and found that the church has
just been opened in this city.
We meet in the garage of another member named Jersom.
Already the space is too small and so we have spent part of our week looking
for larger spaces to rent for the church here.
What a blessing to know Octovio.  What a kind and good young man.

Last Wednesday while we were walking around checking out buildings to rent for a church,
a bicycle pulled up right next to us.  We visited for a minute.
Meet Djila ('G-la') His full name is: Hermanegildo Nascimento Espirito Santo.
He said that he felt something.. some 'energy' and he motioned to a feeling in his arms,
We explained that we are Missionaries and that we do have a message of great importance
if he would like to hear about it.
So far, we have met with his family twice and what a great family!
They have 6 children including a newborn, (born the night before we met him).
We have visited many homes here and also in Espargos about 20 minutes away.

You may remember Avelino.
Well, he left Fogo many months ago and we have wondered how he is doing
and we have called him here and there.  He moved to SAL!
Yesterday, while we were checking on records in a branch in Espargos,
we found someone who knew someone who might know someone who would know where Avelino lives.
We found him, and it was a moment of joy and some sorrow as well.
But that is for another blog and we will meet with him again this Wed.
What amazing days and miracles a mission holds!

I was so intrigued this morning by the colors and mending of nets where we buy fish here.

After watching them for quite some time,
I learned again the parables of the fish and of the nets,
and of the long work and obedience that yields great miracles like when Peter said:
I go A-Fishing!