Missionary Work and Joy and Your Grandpa!

There are many Joys in serving a mission...and I must tell you that having your Grandpa for my companion is one of them!!!  Of course, the highlight for this week has been watching General Conference in bits and pieces as we can in English (while recording it in Portuguese for this coming Sat. and Sun. in the branches).  There are so many great parts to a mission...you will love serving. yours...(and a bit sooner with the Prophet's announcement about the ages of missionaries!) YEA!   

Now you must know that missions are alot of work.  But you will love it because it matters.  We don't always know when or why it matters...but we know that it does.   Like the feeling we had to walk down a street and I stopped to take a photo of a beautiful tree while asking the owners, Manuel and Rosealea, what it was and they could help me because it was a subject they love and I wanted to know more...and by and by... we not only knew the name of the beautiful plants...but we had an appointment to go back and share with them what we love, because they wanted to know more.  We returned and returned and visited and returned...and even gave them one of the Books of Mormon that our Mission President had asked us to put our photo in and write our testimony in.  They would sometimes come to the door.  Sometimes we would visit with them...and sometimes on the way home...we wondered why we keep feeling to go back?!  

While Missionary work...is work...some of it is just plain fun.  Here are some of the fun things we get to do.   Since I am the one with the camera...you will see Grandpa alot...I think he is a great missionary!   

These wonderful young leaders (counselors and secretary in a Sao Filipe branch) came for a short visit as we were just on our way out the door...they really enjoy your grandpa...he inspires them to do their callings and to prepare for Missions and he talks about Temple Marriage for when they return!  Only Bruno (left) has been a member of the church for a whole year and he has been called to serve in Brasil!  (All three are preparing for missions.)  I promised each of them a pancake breakfast before they leave on their mission.  Some of the missionaries from here have tasted pancakes before...others have only heard about them... so far!

Counseling...it is amazing how many come to Grandpa to ask questions...maybe because our hair is gray now...people think we know something!  Mostly, they know we love Heavenly Father and so they are really asking us, what we think, He would think.  While Grandpa was in branch meetings and in interviews yesterday, a very young Relief Society President asked if she could visit with me.  She poured out her heart about some very difficult decisions that she is facing right now. We are so thankful that we have the scriptures to answer the questions. I am so thankful that Grandpa honors the gift of being able to use The Priesthood of God to bless people... and thankful we know about the incredible gift of Prayer, so our Father in Heaven can inspire each of us in our own lives to know what is right and what is not.

Sometimes, the electricity goes off at nights...but phone light (or candle-light) make it possible to finish reading an important chapter during our visit!  

Seminary and Institute Teacher Training...We are very excited for The New Testament Study this Semester!  We hosted an Opening Social in each branch and had a one day training for our 12 Instructors. We have  over 120 students on Fogo and Brava Islands.  They are kind and receptive to us everywhere we go...and we think this year will be a great one.

OK...so now I can tell you one of the greatest Joys of Missionary work and why (at least one reason why) sometimes you will need to go back to a home over and over...even when you don't know why.  

One night we were at the young adult center with about 46 young adults when I noticed a young man that we had not met yet.  I asked him for his name and he said: Luridiu.  He smiled and told us that he has our book.  We assumed he was talking about the Book of Mormon...which he was, and encouraged him to read it...which he is.  "I mean the book with your photos in it...I am reading your book."  Meet a very studious and thoughtful young man: His name is Lucridiu Pires Lopes, the son of  Manuel and Rosalea.  He began reading a book that his father has...with our testimony just inside the cover...He knows that Book is True.  So do we.

Ashley and Avery!

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She is beautiful...just like her Momma! 

It is amazing to be here in Cabo Verde listening to the night sounds and feeling so very far away... 

and then in a moment due to technology and the graciousness of our children...being 'in' the hospital room waiting for... and then watching our daughter hold her little girl.  The calendars in our hometown hospital said that Avery Louise was born October 1st, yet we were already into October 2nd on this Island when she finally decided that earth life was due.  She is precious enough to celebrate for both days!

Thank you Travis and Ashley for letting us spend time with you yesterday, through the night, and to watch Benson meet his new baby sister today.  Thank you for giving us part of your moments so we could also memorize and keep them forever.

We haven't held her yet...yet she is already holding our hearts...

and the night sounds have become music...

It has been two days with much emotion knowing that my Momma, Daughter, and Grand-daughter are in the same hospital with different doctors and under different circumstances...yet sharing the same miracles.  Feeling very blessed...full measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.  We Love You!

Another flat tire...lots of help!

 What do you do early Sunday morning in suit and tie when you are on the way to meetings on the other side of the island and you get yet another flat tire on these crazy cape verdian roads?  You open the trunk to get the replacement tire out and immediately kids come running to help.  They all but push you out of the way to get the jack out and they beg you to let them help...and so you just get out of the way!  (sort of!) So few people have cars especially outside the city...and the young men love to help with anything car.  We love these good people!

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.)

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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...

The Walk...

Six A.M. is early, but we had a ways to go before the Sun really showed up and slowed us up.  Walking and talking with the young adults and a couple of youth made me forget the thoughts of guards and guns and unfriendly ones...

After an hour or more we came around a bend and there it was!  The prison of Fogo.  I looked at the wall.  In places, it is the height I dreamed of jumping over on field day when I was in 5th grade.  I loved field day...the  last day of school, the ONE day of the year when we could wear 'slacks' to school, and run and jump, and win ribbons, and have our very own package of Hostess Twinkies.  WHAT?  A Prison wall the height of an average 11 year old?  I have got to see this!  Just then,  Paulino cut his foot on a rock, so Pres. Benedict took him back to Sao Filipe about the time they opened the front gate of the 'Prison'. 

An English Garden gate would be more decorative... and perhaps more secure!  I looked around, was it just me or...

I might have giggled a bit...but the guard at the front gate told us not to take any photos inside the prison and the men and women were separated and things took on a serious tone.  It makes sense that they would scan us for dangerous materials, and I did a quick personal pre-scan hoping that I did not have keys, or any pins holding anything together underneath.  The woman were asked, a few at a time, into a room.  Two young wide-eyed sisters pressed toward me for confidence.  I couldn't let them down.  "Come on," I said, "we'll do this together!"   The guard apologized that they did not have machines, and so she would have to do a pat down.   I was in a movie, right?

I mentioned to her that the only things that I had carried in were the Liahonas (Ensigns) and Livro de Mormons and I placed them on the dusty cockroachy type table as I spread my arms in the air.  "You are welcome to have one of the Liahonas!" I tried to lighten the mood and much to my happiness, the warden lady decided that yes, perhaps, she would like one!  I gave her a choice of April, last November, or the January edition.  "My husband and I would like to come to your home some evening and talk with you if you'd like." I said.

Next, we were lead to a place in the middle of the courtyard where we sat on wooden benches that formed a large circle, and we waited for the prisoners.  When they came, I had to remind myself that we were not in Sunday School.  Each one, came around the circle and shook each of our hands saying: "Bom Dia!" (Good Morning!) Como Vai?  Muito Bem, Obrigado! (How are you?  Very good, Thanks!) until everyone had assured everyone that we were all good... as was the morning.  And then...the most incredible thing happened.  We sang: "I am a Child of God."  I noticed that a couple, of the 20 or so prisoners, sang with us.  Then two of the young adults gave talks...not your normal...we are happy to be here and have a good day talks...

The talks were about heavy duty repentance.  About changing our lives and becoming a new creature. I looked around again.  Most of the prisoners were nodding their heads.  There were two who seemed disconcerted that we would give out Book of Mormons and Ensign Magazines...because we did!  Each prisoner chose what he would most want to read.   "You have time here to read!" was met with laughter.   Our young men then shared scriptures; they spoke of forgiveness and the Plan of Happiness.  Then they asked me to share my feelings.  I could hear words coming from my mouth that I know to be true.  Each one of us is loved with a specific and amazing love...and each of us can choose what we want forever.  And it is not too late.  And after we sang another song, we ended with a prayer and most every head was bowed. It's during these times and these kind of prayers that I bend down to use the hem of my blouse to wipe the tears off my chin.  It was a singular experience for me

Pres. Benedict came back soon, with Paulino and his stitches, to join in the fun.  Everyone played soccer or took turns with the one set of UNO cards that we brought from the youth center and the checkers and board (one piece missing, but we use a pawn from the chess set that no one knows how to play and so it is all good).  I took some magazines to the two men that were not happy with our visit and learned that they do not speak Portuguese, they grew up in and were deported back here from America due to drugs... and they would like to read something in English.  I promised them, in English, that we would bring an English Liahona. which we did a few days later.  The thing I remember was the kindness of the prisoners as they sincerely thanked us for our visit.

It was a hot and long walk back...but we love these young people so much. When we stopped to share some crackers, bread, and juice.  I finally had to ask.  Why don't the prisoners just jump over that little wall or open the gate?   What keeps them from escaping?  I have thought about the simple answer for 4 months now: "Everyone knows them...where would they go?"

Since our visits at the Prison, I think about the eyes of some of the people there.  I think about what they might have been through and what they are learning in the sun day after day.  At times, I wish I could go high jump over the wall or open the gate wide and shout: "I don't remember your past...you are all free...come over for soup and sandwiches on your way back home!  Let's all start over fresh."

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...We can... you know.

White Shirts and Ties!

Some stakes in Portugal sent a box load of white shirts for us to distribute and about the same time we got two packages from home in the mail.  Thank you to our family for the surprise ties!!!  The young men on Fogo who receive them are so excited!  What a special joy for us to gift such wanted items!

We gave the shirts from Portugal to the District Relief Society President, Isabel Teixeira. 
The shirts (a few per branch) were given out within days!  

We are gifting the ties from our family.  I looked across the street from the church and saw Alex practicing the knot on his first tie while guarding Adileno's tie until he returns home. Or maybe he is still trying to decide which one to keep and which one to give to his friend!?!  ;)

Visiting Teaching

If this photo were a painting, it's title would be: Visiting Teaching!!!

Over-all, (for the past 39 years in 14 different wards), I have had some of the best visiting teachers available to womankind!  Even so, there are times when both of us (teachers and me), have so much to do...that we just get 'er done!  Sometimes because we want to, and sometimes because we're supposed to. Sometimes we talk about important things and sometimes we go to lunch and laugh and visit for a long time and give hugs and go home, and sometimes we talk on the phone for 1.3 minutes sending high-fives through the cell tower...done!

and...Sometimes a note takes weeks to get to Cape Verde from the Mill Hollow boundaries of our home ward in America...but my sweet visiting teachers, Ann and Sylvia, write every month.  They miss me...they love me...

...and there are moments on a mission...when those notes are read over and over again...just to make sure.