Normal transfer, eh?

Well... let’s just say this week wasn’t your average week as a missionary. My companion and I basically played the role of district leader, zone leader, assistant and a bit of mission president. However, it still ended up being a good week. It all started on Tuesday when President O and the assistants took a week long trip to Fogo. They left Elder S with us, who is waiting for his visa to go serve in England. So we were in a tripla for three days, which was ok because Elder S is awesome. Then, on Thursday, one of our district leaders went home because of health difficulties so we took his mini-missionary for a day until he caught a boat back to Fogo. So we now had two extra companions and we took control of that district. We had some other crazy things happen. 

We had a baptism and our zone all together had 10. We had a really cool zone meeting on Saturday and we read Alma 26 together. All these crazy things that have been happening have really opened our eyes to the miracles and blessings that we are receiving. Our zone is still baptizing, our missionaries are working super hard and the work hasn’t stopped. My testimony has really grown this past while and although I am exhausted, I’m super happy.

We went on a zone activity to Cidade Velha (Old City). It’s a historical site where the Portuguese used to house the slaves and fight off the pirates. There is a huge castle, that we were not allowed to enter because it wasn’t open yet, and cannons and everything. Also a lot of old Catholic churches and seminaries and stuff like that. It was a nice break and we had a good morning.

So last week of the transfer, don’t know if I’ll be staying or not but I’ll be happy with either one. We have two solid baptisms for this week and a third potential. Everything is going well now and things are slowly settling down. Hope everyone is doing well and talk to you next week!!

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189!!

Hello everyone!

So this week was pretty awesome. Just your typical week as zone leaders in Praia. I went back to the airport for the first time since arriving here in Cape Verde. Unfortunately it wasn’t to go to another island. The assistants were in Mindelo all week and a missionary had to go home on Wednesday. So that meant a lovely trip to the airport at 11:00 at night. And since he was still a missionary, we had to stay until he got on the plane. So we didn’t get home until roughly 1:30 in the morning and we were very tired the next day. So much fun! Not... 

Our week went good though. We didn’t have any baptisms unfortunately this week but there were 4 in the zone. That meant that the zone of Praia officially passed the yearly goal of 288 baptisms!!! We are right now at 289 and we are just going to keep going. The Church here in Praia is growing so darn fast and they are already talking about splitting three of the wards and turning the one branch into a ward. Craziness!! We have one baptism this week, her name is J and she is the sister of V, the husband of the family that we baptized last transfer. She is pretty solid and is getting really excited for her baptism. The missionaries in our zone are working really hard and great things are going to continue to happen here.

We found a new family last week and they are amazing!!! The father is less-active member and the mother just has this huge desire to go to church. They have two children, a 17-year-old girl and a 20-year-old boy. We’ve been working a lot with them this last week and yesterday the entire family came to church. They all loved it and are preparing for marriage on the 28 of December and baptism the day after. They’ve already started to gain a testimony and it doesn’t look like church is ever going to be a problem. They are being integrated in the ward and are a huge blessing to us at this time. We’ve got two weeks left in this transfer and I just hope I get to stay in Praia for one more. So many awesome people!!

                                                                                                                                                             

Hi, we´re missionaries... do you want something to read?

November 12, 2012

Hey Family!!

This week was pretty darn awesome!! So first off, Z was baptized! She is the aunt of B, the 16 year old that Elder Hill and I baptized at the end of our last transfer together. She has a super strong testimony and understands everything we teach her. I’m not quite sure how, but we ended up teaching her about the organization of the church and some crazy stuff. She just has such deep doctrine questions and just wants to know everything!! So she was baptized and now has decided that she wants to serve a mission in a year! It’s so amazing to see how the Spirit is preparing these people. She is going to be a strong member and is already sharing the gospel with other people.

So that happened on Saturday along with 10 other baptisms in our zone. We are 3 baptisms away from meeting our zone goal of 288!!! We are going to pass it this next week for sure and now we just need to keep working so that we finish the year off strong and start the New Year on a high note. The missionaries in our zone are working super hard and the Lord is blessing us so much because of it.

The other awesome thing this week was the two references that we received which turned into two golden families!! We’ve only taught each family one or two times but they have a really strong desire and are really excited to learn and receive a testimony. One of the families came to church this Sunday and just loved it! She talked about the difference she felt between our church and her old church and how she just felt so much happier there! Her husband is a less active member and they need to get married but they both came to church and both were very happy afterwards.

Other than that, not too much is new here. Our baptism for this week didn’t come to church because he had to stay at the baptism party for his sister’s kid. There was a huge baptism and confirmation in the Catholic Church this weekend. Only three weeks left in the transfer already!!

Not too much else to report. I hope everyone has a good week! Love you all!

                                                                          ComAmor:

Elder Brandon Dola

               Missão Cabo Verde Praia

P.S.  This picture is of  the water that one of our members brought back from one of the water places. Thank goodness for filters!!

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Ka têm água, Ka têm luz... I love this place!

Hey Everyone!

So, I have big news... something you for sure don´t know... I have been gone for over a year now!!! Crazy eh? Just kidding. Not gonna lie, November 2 wasn´t that exciting and I´ve never heard of hump day from anyone. We taught a few of my recent converts, I ate a piece of cake and we bought ice cream. I didn´t burn a tie but my companion burned a toy car the next day. Does that count? Also, Z and D were interviewed that day and baptized the next day! Way more exciting than hitting a year on my mission. Man, these two are cool. It was such a blessing to see the Spirit working with them throughout the past couple weeks. When we first taught them they were "Catholic" and were never going to be baptized. But we invited them to pray to find out if what we were teaching is true and they did. They slowly started developing a testimony and it was all smooth sailing from there. It´s amazing to see the power of the Spirit in action! They are so happy right now and are already starting to share the gospel with others. We are going to start working with D´s family this week and we have already received a few references from them. SO COOL!!

Other than that, work keeps on going. No we didn´t feel any affects from the hurricane. You´d think that a country of random islands in the ocean would have some sort of wind but that doesn´t happen here. Just nice, calm and hot. Work is going good although we need to find more people to teach. We have one baptism this week and she´s pretty amazing. She understands stuff that more people take years to learn. She´s gonna be an awesome help to the ward. We´ve got quite a few progressing investigators right now and we just marked two wedding dates for next month. However, December is Christmas and the Spirit seems to be able to touch a lot of people during that time of the year. So we´ve got to start preparing right now so that next month is just full of baptisms!! 

Sounds like life is going just the way I left it a year ago. That´s exciting that Shane started his papers! Maybe he´ll leave before Ryan!?! That would be crazy. Well, we have no power right now and as a result we have no running water. Other than that, life is awesome! We´re gonna get our baptism all ready for this week and keep finding new investigators. I love you all and hope your week is awesome! 

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October 29, 2012

So this week, we are going to be super busy. We had Zone Leader’s Council on Friday and we made plans for this upcoming month and now we need to start implementing these plans. Our zone is huge now so we split the districts and now have three. We have a meeting with the district leaders this week in order to talk about the transfer and how we are going to work together to meet our goals. Then on Wednesday, we are running our own Zone Conference so we’ve got to get everything ready for that. Thursday we are doing a division with one of our district leaders and then we have two baptisms to prepare. So we’ve got lots to do. It’s good though because I don’t like it when we have nothing to do.

Not too much happened this week. First week of the transfers so we had to help the new duplas get into their areas and get going. This transfer is going to be amazing and the Church just keeps growing here in Praia. We had a meeting with President Oliveira and the Stake President this week and they are looking at dividing a bunch of the wards and creating some new branches. The Work is going strong and we just need to keep working hard in order to be ready for the people that the Lord places in our paths. Have a good week and enjoy the end of volleyball season!

Holy Hotness!!

This week went by way too fast. We didn’t finish off the transfer quite as well as we had hoped but we still had a good week. Time goes by so fast and it seems like you don’t have enough of it to do anything! It’s crazy to think of how long I have been here already and yet, I still have so much more time to go. Transfers came and went and they were really not that exciting this time around. I am staying for a fourth transfer here in Achadinha as zone leader with Elder R. Also, other than the two elders who came in to re-open a closed area, our entire zone stayed the same. Not one missionary left. Not sure why but we’ve still got a lot of work to do so we’re pretty excited for the transfer! I’m starting to wonder if I will ever leave this island but I love it here so I’m okay with it.

Alright, best news ever. After 3 transfers of sacrifices, hard work and miracles, V and N were baptized!!!!! I’m not gonna lie, out of all the people I have baptized on my mission, this was by far the sweetest. I still remember the very first lesson we had with N when she felt the Spirit so strong that she started crying. The exact same thing happened the very first time we taught V. This family has gone through so many trials and have grown so much in the last 4 months and it was so amazing to witness this special day. I was privileged to be the one to baptize them and they were so happy! It was such a blessing to see as they left the water, beaming with joy and happiness. The Spirit was so strong and they both felt it. Everything that we went through, all of the struggles, all of the set-backs, all of it was worth it just to witness this special day. They were confirmed in church on Sunday and this week we are going to work to baptize their nine year old daughter.  V received the priesthood yesterday and he is so excited for the chance to baptize his daughter. I feel so blessed for the opportunity I had to work and grow with this family and I know they will make a huge difference to the church here in Cape Verde.

Other than that, we’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got some people getting ready for baptism during the first three weeks of the transfer and we’ve got to find some more to be baptized the last three weeks.  This transfer is going to be amazing and I’m so excited to keep working with these people. We found this man named A this week while walking in the street. I just had a feeling that we needed to talk to him and we made the contact and marked a day to teach him. He is a Christian Rationalist, whatever that is, but he felt the Spirit very strongly during our lesson and committed to be baptized at the end of November. We’ve got some work to do but he is very certain that Heavenly Father is going to answer his prayer and he is ready to change. It’s the little miracles like that that just make your mission such an amazing experience. I love this country and I love these people. This mission is so blessed and I feel so privileged to be here at this time. I love you all and hope you have a great week!