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.
