Nu ka kre kes-li, pamodi es é xatu!!

OI!!

So another week has passed and it is super hot! BUT I love this area and there are so many amazing things happening right now!! Having four elders in your area is awesome and we are getting so much work done! Which is good because Elder C and I are going to be travelling all week starting Wednesday and Elder Hill and Elder G are leaving on Friday for Boavista. Our area has never been stronger though and I know that Heavenly Father is going to protect our investigators while we are gone. We are teaching so many people right now and the members are amazing! That is one thing I have learned here on my mission. I was a terrible member-missionary at home! The members here truly understand what their role is and it has been a huge blessing to us as we try to take care of all of these people. Without the members, we’d be hooped! 

So on Saturday we had a baptism, his name is P. He is a music artist and is in the middle of recording his first album right now. We found him during General Conference and he had been going to church with his friend for almost a month. He was supposed to be baptized almost two months ago but he had a bunch of doubts and some things to work through. However, last week he decided that he was going to make Church and God a priority in his life. He committed to being baptized this last weekend and we worked with him all week. Everything was going really well and he was interviewed Friday night. Saturday about 20 minutes before the baptism was about to start, we found him walking towards the church. We met him in a field and he told us that he wasn’t ready to be baptized, that he had been thinking and praying all night and he wanted more time. I didn’t really know what to say so I invited him to just come to the church and sit down and talk for a bit. We were maybe a minute away from the church and the whole way I was praying for inspiration or a miracle. We hadn’t even entered in the gate when he looked at me and said, "I still want to be baptized today, is that okay?" HECK YES IT`S OKAY! I still don’t know what happened during those few steps to the church but Heavenly Father answered my prayers and P is now a member of the church! I was pretty happy that day.

Other than that, not too much is new. We are teaching a ton of families right now, one of which is a family of 8 preparing to be baptized next month. Heavenly Father is preparing so many people here and I am so glad to be part of it! Tomorrow is Mission Leadership Council and then on Wednesday we leave for Mindelo. We are going to spend a couple days there and then on Friday I am gonna jump on a boat and go to Santo Antão for the weekend. Elder C is going to come back to Praia to prepare our investigator for baptism and to take care of things when Elder Hill and his comp have left. We are being super blessed right now and every day is just awesome!! Have a good last week of May and I’ll talk to you next week!

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Triste go...

Hello everyone!

Sorry I didn’t write last week but I seriously had no time and I did just talk to you on skype so I didn’t really have much to write. Last week was transfer week and we didn’t have a moment to breathe! I went out to the airport to either send off or pick up missionaries every single day starting last Monday and we had new missionary training and teaching so we were quite busy. I received a new companion, Elder Christensen, who I have actually served with already so that’s kind of funny. He’s super awesome though and I’m pretty excited to serve with him again. Elder Hill will be finishing his mission on the island of Boavista, an island that has never had missionaries on it before. So he’s pretty excited about that and it is now my job to train the new assistant. We’ve got quite a bit of work to do though so I’m gonna be busy this transfer.

This week was awesome though! Elder Hill hasn’t left yet because there are still a few last minute preparations that need to be done before we send them off so he and his companion have been working in our area here in Praia and it is exploding!! We found 19 new investigators this week and almost all of them are from families! We are really strengthening our area again because it was getting kind of disorganized with us travelling so much last transfer. We are going to be doing some travelling again this transfer but not quite as much. We are being really blessed though and I have been finding some of the most prepared people that I have ever seen on my mission. Our ward is growing like crazy and the members are super excited!

This week we lose eight missionaries in our mission since they are finishing their missions. They served good missions though and we will definitely miss them. I just hope. I don’t really have much else to write. I did get my package though, thanks! I don’t think I will need anything else from now until the end. I can just wait until I get home. 

Funny story, one of my recent converts recently bought a little scooter and has been driving around without a license and registration. He got pulled over on Friday and for some reason they sent him to jail. He has to go to court and everything, which seems really ridiculous to me. Just give him a fine and take his scooter away! Ha ha, but everyone is super worried about him and he was supposed to help us out with our baptism this week. He should be out today though and then we’ll put him back to work.

Well, that’s about all that I have today. I hope everyone has a good week and I hope to hear from Shane next week as well! Love you all!

Nha Bida Sta Fixe!

Dear Family,

So sounds like your week was pretty exciting. It is still weird to think that Shane is in the MTC already. I’m super excited for him though. I can’t believe that we have Spanish-speaking missionaries in our ward, which is now huge by the way! I’m definitely going to go out teaching with them and I’ll either just speak Portuguese or Crioulo which at times is really similar to Spanish. The work is growing in the entire world but definitely in our little islands here in the middle of nowhere. On Sunday the second stake in Cape Verde, this time in Mindelo, was officially organized and President told us that it was an amazing experience. I couldn’t be in a more amazing place right now to be sharing the gospel, the Lord is blessing these little islands and the Church is growing like crazy. 

So life as an assistant continues to be crazy as ever, it’s amazing sometimes that we ever have time to work in our areas. Last week we had Mission Leadership Council and Zone Conference in Praia, both of which were awesome. Our mission is moving in the right direction and we are making the adjustments to help all of these new missionaries that are coming in. We are losing a lot of old, experienced missionaries these next couple months and we are working to help strengthen the leaders here so that the work doesn’t slow down. Everything is going well though and we are really excited for what’s to come. 

So we are in Fogo right now and we are going to spend the week here. We have zone conference tomorrow with President Oliveira and then I am going to the North side of the island in order to go on divisions with the missionaries in Mosteiros. I’ve never been to that part of the island before so I am pretty excited. Plus the missionaries out there are really young and really awesome so I am looking forward to be working with them.

Other than that though, not much else has changed. E was baptized on Saturday and other than him walking into the font accidently before getting changed, (he thought it was the door to the bathroom and didn’t look before stepping in), everything went smoothly. We are on the last week of the transfer again and we have to get everything ready for the changes and the new missionaries that will be coming in next week. Lots of work to do but I’m super excited for all of it! 

I will try to call home on Sunday at 8:00 pm our time. I’m not really sure what time that is at home but I think it is just after you will be getting home from Church. We will try to use Skype if we can but if not I will just call. I love you all and hope that you have a good week!