Praia Cheio!!!!

Hey Everyone!!

It´s crazy how fast time goes... transfers will be here again at the end of the week and I don´t want to leave Assomada!! Sheesh, it feels like we just had transfers. But I´ll go wherever I am needed. Assomada is growing so fast here and I just want to stay here and continue to help the people here! 

This week was nuts!! Probably one of the best weeks of my mission so far. So first, we had Zone Conference of Wednesday!!! AND Elder Kopiscke was there, he´s the President of the Europe Area Seventy and he is truly a servant of Christ. Man, he didn´t really have much of a plan or anything like that. To start, he had us all write down questions that we wanted answered and then promised that all would be answered by the end of the training if we paid attention to the Spirit. He really only did two things during the training: ask us questions and have us ask questions. It was really just a big discussion lead by the Spirit. We talked about a lot of different aspects of missionary work and how to improve what we are doing. We also talked a lot about families because here in Cape Verde, the Church is in great need of families! We have so many young single adults but hardly any families! So we talked about the importance of families and how to help the entire family come into the church instead of just individual members. I don´t really remember specifics of what else we talked about but the Spirit was so strong during the entire conference and I didn´t want it to end. 

Also, I saw Brodie there! It was kind of weird but really cool at the same time. The missionaries from Fogo were supposed to come to the conference with us but there were some problems with TACV and the flights of all but four of the missionaries were cancelled. Brodie happened to be one of the lucky ones who came so that was good. 

That´s not even the best part though about the week. On Sunday they organized the FIRST STAKE IN CAPE VERDE!!! Man that was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. Elder Teixeira and Elder Kopischke from the Area Seventy were both there and there were so many people! We filled up three buses and two hiaces with members and investigators from Assomada. Elder Teixeira, who´s from Portugal, announced the changes and the organization of the Stake and as he was calling the Stake Presidency, I was just filled with the Spirit. We talked to a couple of our investigators who will be baptized this Saturday and they told us the same thing, how they were just filled with emotion and happiness. Christ´s church is firmly established here in Cape Verde, and as the new stake president said, this is only the beginning. This stake is going to bring so many blessings to the members and the people of Cape Verde. The called the new High Council as well as the first High Priests in the country. Assomada is now a ward and we are just waiting for the confirmation from the First Presidency before the bishops will be called. They are also waiting for approval for the first Patriarch. This was such a cool event and a historical moment for the church here. I really don´t know how to describe the feelings that I had during the conference as the speakers spoke and bore testimony but I do know for sure that this is the true church and that big things are going to continue to happen in this country. So cool!

In other news, our investigator with a baptism date for Saturday quit smoking last week after a long battle to do so. He along with two references from one of our recent converts will be baptized on Saturday. Also, one of my recent converts, Ostelindo, received the Melchezidek Priesthood yesterday which was really cool to see. Everything is going really well here and I´m excited to see what is going to happen in the next transfers. I love you all and hope you have a good week! 

Love, Elder Dola

P.S. The monkey is our new friend. He is the neighbour of one of our new investigators and is really funny. He´s got a buddy as well but he wasn´t there when we were taking pictures. 

Qual É Meu?

Hey family!

Man, it sounds like everyone is really busy at home. I can´t believe that school is almost over for you guys. That´s good that Shane is able to play rugby. That would be a bummer to have to sit out your senior year. Hopefully they can win provincials again. Not too much is new here. We´ve got quite a few people that we´re working with right now, but I´m not sure exactly how many. We´ve got some that are really progressing towards being baptized and have really strong testimonies. However, we have others that I think just like talking to the missionaries. But we´re still working with them and hopefully that will change. It is still getting warmer here but it hasn´t yet reached unbearable heat. Unfortunately that could all change in the next two weeks if I get transfered. I guess we´ll just have to wait and see. My companion is from Cape Verde from the island of São Vicente. As Zone Leaders we really just have to lead the zone and try to serve the missionaries the best we can. We have the smallest zone in the mission, with only one district, but we call the district leaders every day in order to follow up on certain things that need to be done throughout the week, such as weekly planning, baptism preparartions and things like that. We also receive instructions from the Assistants that comes from President Oliveira that we have to make sure everyone receives.

The ward hasn´t been formed yet but it will this weekend. Wednesday we got to Praia for a Zone Conference with Elder Kopiscke, president of the Europe Area Presidency and then Saturday and Sunday will be District Conference. They will organize the stake then as well as all the wards. It´s a pretty exciting time and the members are really looking forward to it. The church is growing super fast here in Cape Verde and the mission goal for the year is roughly 1260 baptisms. President Oliveira has plans to start a stake in Fogo as well as São Vicente before he is finished as mission president. We´ve got a lot of work to do but things are really growing fast. 

Not too much else is new though. We´ve been teaching a lot and have four strong investigators that will be baptized on May 5. We´ve also found some new promising investigators that we are going to start working with. Last week, we had a lady stop us in the street and ask us if we had any council for her. We marked a day to talk to her but her husband didn´t want us to be in their house. She said that we can meet her at the church this week and we´re hoping we can help her and her husband. We are always looking for new families because the branch here in Assomada is in desperate need of them. We´ve been working with a couple of less-active families and it has really helped me see the blessings that the gospel brings to families. We have one family that is getting ready for marriage in a couple weeks. When we first found them, they really had a rocky relationship with each other. However, they started reading the scriptures and praying as a family everyday, and the changes I´ve seen in them are amazing. They are truly living the gospel and have really grown as a family. We have another family though that are all members but have been inactive for a long time. We´re really trying to help them out as well but they aren´t as willing to change quite yet. It´s a little frustrating at times but things are starting to improve. I´m really thankful for the family that I have and the blessings that I have received because of it. I love you all so much and can´t imagine what life would be like if we weren´t strong in the gospel. 

Well, I think that is it for the week. I hope I answered all you questions. I haven´t gotten the package yet but we will be going to Praia this week so I will check. Thanks for the emails and for everything else that you guys do for me. Have a good week!

Love, Elder Dola

April 16, 2012

Hey Family!

I hope everyone enjoyed the break! Sounds like you were all really busy though so that´s good. Kiersten is gonna be huge when I get home! Maybe Shane is right and she will grow to be 6´7". Ha ha that would be really funny. Sounds like she´s enjoying volleyball though so that´s good. Is Shane excited for grad? I can´t believe he is graduating in two months. Time goes by so fast. I have yet to play basketball here because we don´t have a ball. But if we did have one, we would definitely play. The only problem is that you can only find soccer balls here. Soccer is fun but it´s not as fun as basketball. But that´s ok. Today we climbed a large hill in the back of our area to take pictures and to give a blessing for our area. It was pretty cool and you could see the whole city. I attached some pictures of it for you guys to see.

Well I don´t have a whole lot to write about this week. We were really busy but nothing super interesting happened. On Wednesday we did a division with the District Leaders and I went with my trainer, Elder Bunderson.  We had a really successful divison. We stayed in my area and Elder Fonseca went to the other area. We marked three people for baptism, found four new investigators and had some really good lessons. E, our investigator who had a date for baptism a couple weeks ago, still hasn´t been baptized. He´s had some doubts because his girlfriend is mad at him for keeping the Law of Chastity, and hasn´t wanted to commit to anything. We taught him on Wednesday and talked a little bit about some of the specific blessings that we receive because of the gospel. The Spirit was really strong there and he committed to be baptized this week. We have been working on asking inspired questions a lot and I felt that we asked a lot of questions that really got him thinking. It was really neat to see the changes in him, just from that one lesson.

Other than that, not much to report. District Conference is coming up soon and they are going to organize the first stake here in Cape Verde. Assomada is going to become a ward!!! Also, the Conference will be presided by a member of the Seventy. We will have a Zone Conference a couple days before with Elder Kopiske ( if that´s how you spell his name) the Europe Area President. The Fogo missionaries will be coming to participate as well so that means I´ll see Brodie finally! Next week is going to be pretty exciting! The work is going really good here. We are finding a lot of people who have been prepared by the Spirit to receive the gospel. L, our investigator that I told you about last week, introduced us to her cousin this week so we started teaching her and she is going to be baptized with L! We also had some lady approach us in the street asking us for councel. So we marked a day to pass by this week to talk to her.

It did rain one morning. Saturday morning around 8:30 it started raining really hard. It was funny because everyone in the streets were running for cover. However, it lasted less than half an hour and was all dried up by the time we left at 11. Well I hope everything continues to go well and I love you all! Have a good week!

Happy Easter

Man, I can’t believe another week has already past. Time just seems to go by so quickly it’s ridiculous. Thanks for the emails! It’s nice to know what’s going on at home. Is Orlando doing good at least? Sounds like you guys have been pretty busy at home. I bet it is nice to have a break this week. Our Easter wasn’t really all that different than any other day. We had pancakes for lunch in our house. Nothing really exciting. I do kind of miss basketball. We only get to play soccer here, which is fun, but it’s just not the same. I wasn’t born to play sports with my feet. Also dad thanks for the parts of that book that you sent me. I used one in a training that me and my companion did a couple weeks ago in District Meeting. We talked about using the Book of Mormon with our investigators and how they need to have real intent while reading and praying about it. It worked really good. I think I want to read that book when I come home. Other than that, not much else is really new. Easter here for most people is really not what it should be. Everyone goes to church, the Catholic Church was packed, but afterwards it is just a big party. It’s really unfortunate how a lot of the holidays that have real significance, have just turned into another excuse to party.

So we had two baptisms this week, and six in total for our zone! So A was baptized this week. She has really grown since we first started teaching her and it has been really good to see the influence the gospel has on our lives. The other guy that we baptized is named O. Man this guy is a stud! He’s a reference from a recent convert and he is the smartest guy I have taught. Everything we taught, he understood perfectly! He told us that he had two dreams that confirmed everything that we were teaching and has had a testimony for over two months. Something was holding him back though and he never wanted to commit to a date. We kept trying and praying and on Saturday before Conference, he came to us and told us that he would be baptized on April 7. So we got everything ready, he was baptized and confirmed and then just after his confirmation, they announced that he would receive the priesthood and be called as Young Men’s president! He’s super excited and I know he is going to do a great job. His counselors are two recent converts who we have been working a lot with. One of them was the guy who introduced us to O and the other was a less-active that we helped return to church. It was a really good feeling seeing the changes these people that we have been working with have made because of the gospel.

We did have one other cool experience this week. A couple weeks ago, before N´s baptism, we came to N´s house to teach her. While we were waiting, there was this lady who was getting water from the well by N´s house. She had a lot of buckets of water to carry and they were pretty heavy, so we helped her carry all the buckets to her house across the street. After that, we didn’t think much of it and went to teach N. On the day of N´s confirmation, this lady came to church with N and then asked us to come teach her. This past week we finally had time to pass her and so we went in and the first time just talked to her. We kind of just asked questions and got to know her a bit better and she told us how important Heavenly Father has been in her life. She told us about the day we helped her carry water to her house and how she was exhausted from work and school and it was late and she just didn’t want to carry water. She said we were and answer to her prayers and that as soon as we had finished helping her, she knew that she needed to talk to us. So we left her a pamphlet on the Restoration with some questions and marked our next appointment. When we came back, she basically taught us the Restoration!!! We hardly did any teaching, and she had already prayed and received an answer. So we marked a baptism date and set up a plan and she’s doing really good! She came to church yesterday and is really excited! It just really showed me that we really are being led by the Spirit, even if we don’t recognize it at the time.

That’s about all that is new. They will organize the first stake here in Cape Verde at the end of the month in Praia. That is going to be really cool. Assomada will become a ward and we will get a bishop. The church is growing more and more every day and I’m right in the middle of it. We went to Praia for a wedding of one of Elder Fonseca´s old investigators. After, we went and ate with the new married couple. I can now say that I have tried something foreign. Goats Blood! I’m not exactly sure what they did with it, put some sort of spice in it or something, but it was disgusting!!! They eat it like ice cream!!! Elder Fonseca wouldn’t even try it, but one of the other missionaries that we were with tried it and loved it! Weird... Anyways, I love you all and I hope you guys enjoy your Easter Break!

Love, Elder Dola

P.S. The first picture is A and O at their baptism. The second is Elder Fonseca and I. 

Conferência Geral!!!

Well this week has been a very busy week and we had a lot of lessons. No baptisms because of conference but that’s ok. We have three baptisms lined up for this week already so it’s gonna be awesome!! Other than conference, not very much happened this past week. Just a lot of teaching and finding new people. That is our biggest focus right now, finding new people. We’re still working with the people we have right now and almost all of them have a baptism date for sometime this month but we still need more people. They just divided the branch so we need to get the branch in Assomada growing again! It’s kind of weird being a zone leader but it’s really good and I’m learning a lot. I’ve also got the chance to serve the zone more and Elder Fonseca has taught me a lot. I think Assomada is starting to catch fire and really grow. What we really want to do right now is find some families. Our branch has maybe three married couples and the rest are single adults and single parents. The first stake is going to be formed at the end of April and Assomada will become a ward. But we don’t really don’t know who is going to be the bishop because they have to be married!! So that is our goal this transfer, find some families. It’s gonna be sweet!

We did have some really good things happen this week though. A is doing really good and came to conference Sunday night. She’ll be baptized for sure next week, which is good. We also have an investigator named O. We’ve been teaching him for almost two months and he has had a testimony since probably week 2. He knows everything is true, comes to church and activities, reads the Book of Mormon, and says he has had two dreams confirming everything we teach. He should have been baptized a long time ago but something was holding him back. We tried to mark dates with him forever and he never would commit. He wanted to read the entire Book of Mormon first, or he wanted to be baptized in May because that’s when Joseph Smith was baptized. We worked really hard to try to find out how to help him overcome whatever doubts he had but nothing seemed to be working. So we prayed and studied and talked to him every week until Saturday night, he showed up at conference and before saying anything else, he told me "I’m going to be baptized on April 7." So to this day I still have no idea what was holding him back but Heavenly Father was obviously working with him and helped him overcome his doubts. The other good news we received is that one of our investigators is going to get married!!! Her future husband is a less-active member who we stared working with a couple months ago. We started passing him and something sparked in him and all of a sudden he wanted to do everything possible to come back. So we started teaching the woman he is living with and talking about marriage. They never really wanted to commit to marriage until one day last week we read and explained the Proclamation to the Family with them. The next visit, they told us that they already went to wherever you have to go to apply for the marriage papers and they will be married this month!!! That means that his future wife will be baptized at the end of the month as well!! We’re really excited and they have such a sweet family. It’s going to be good.

Conference was awesome!! Except, I missed half of it. We watched all the sessions live through the Internet except for the priesthood session, which we watched Sunday morning. They had a TV hooked up to a computer downstairs in the chapel to watch it in Portuguese and then the missionaries and our English speaking investigators watched it upstairs in the secretary’s office on the computer. We missed the entire first session because we were trying to help them set up the TV. We got to watch the second session Saturday night, which was good. Then Sunday morning, the LDS.org site was down so we were late watching the priesthood session. The power went out half way through that one so I missed President Eyring and President Monson. Then we watched the Sunday morning without any problems and Sunday night the power went out half way through. Assomada has so many electrical problems it is ridiculous. But what I watched was really good and I’m going to download the sessions onto my iPod and listen to what I missed. I really liked Elder Scott’s talk Saturday Afternoon. He talked a lot about personal revelation and listening to the spirit. Pretty much everything he talked about is exactly what we have been focusing on here in the Mission. I’d have to say that was my favorite out of the ones I saw but I’m really looking forward to listening to the rest.

Other than that, not much is new. We have a full week ahead of us with lots of lessons, special training and interviews with President Oliveira, and three baptisms!! We are also going to Praia to watch one of Elder Fonseca´s old investigators get married. It’s going to be a busy week but I’m excited!! The busier the better! I hope everything is going well and I love you all!!