N´sta Li na Boa Vista

Hey family!  - July 29, 2013

So Brodie should be getting on the plane right now and soon he and Zach will be home. Time goes by way too fast and it was weird seeing Brodie for the last time yesterday. I have been transfered and I have taken Brodie´s place here in Boa Vista! I am serving with Elder G, from Angola, and for the first time since my second transfer I am just a normal missionary. I’m not gonna lie, it’s kinda weird but I’m so excited to be here and to continue the work that was started on this island. Yesterday President Oliveira organized the branch here and now it’s our job to build it up. I’ve got three months to perform what the Lord has prepared for me here and my last two transfers are going to be awesome! 

My last week as an assistant was busy as normal with last minute transfer preparations and a division out in Assomada. We had a baptism as well and overall things went really well. It was sad to leave my area and the people there. I’ve seen so many miracles in the last six months and the Lord has blessed me so much. There are people waiting for me in Boa Vista though and I know that this is where I am needed right now. 

Other than that though I don’t have very much to say. I just want you all to know how much I love you all and how grateful I am for the gospel in my life. Jesus lives and He is our Saviour. I know through Him our families can be eternal and we can one day return to live with our Father again. He loves all of His children, and I see the miracles that He does for them every day. Have a good week!

N ta sai kel semana li!

Dear Family:

This week is now over. It flew by super fast and the transfer is almost over. But, we had an amazing week and we saw a lot of miracles in our area. J, one of the most amazing investigators I have ever seen (she actually uses mormon.org and she knows everything), was baptized after almost four months of teaching her. She came up to me and Elder Hill once while we were sitting at the chapel waiting for someone and the first thing she did was ask for a Book of Mormon! She had some things to work out but everything ran smoothly and she is now a member of the church! She has been bringing her friend to church for the past couple weeks as well and this weekend the zone leaders will be baptizing her too! It´s amazing how much the Lord prepares His children for us when we are ready to help them. 

We went on divisions with the zone leaders in Praia this week and I went back to Achadinha, my old area. I saw a lot of people that I worked with and a lot of them are still strong and active. It was kind of weird being back there but we had a really good day. We also had an amazing experience last night as we taught this guy who contacted us in the street earlier in the week, (that seems to happen a lot here, people just come up to you!) We only taught him for about 20 minutes but the Spirit in the lesson hit him strongly. He was asking a lot about why we are here and why we leave our families and everything to teach the gospel. We just bore our testimonies of the Atonement and of how much the gospel has blessed our lives and the lives of our families. Then our recent convert, C, bore his testimony and this guy was almost in tears! He told us that he just wants to straighten his life out and make things right with God. We marked him with a baptism date and he is super excited to start learning. The Lord is watching over His children and He will literally send them to you if you are ready and willing to help them.

Other than that, we’ve just been getting stuff ready for transfers. Elder Hill is causing a lot of craziness because he leaves a week early so there will be some early changes this weekend before the actual transfer, which doesn’t take place till next week. Not too much else is new here though. We are going to Assomada this week to work with the zone leaders there and we’ve got a ton of work to do for transfers and in our area. A lot of work to do and this week is probably going to pass by just as fast as the last one. Have a good week! 

Tudu na Brun Brun??

Hello! 

Well... summer has officially arrived and it is scorching hot out again! It wasn’t too bad for awhile there but once we got back from our trip we really started to feel the heat. This week was pretty crazy and we once again did not spend very much time in our area. Monday night we flew out to Mindelo to spend a day with the zone leaders there and from Wednesday to Friday we were in Santo Antão with to do the same thing with the other zone leaders. Txeu trabaju! But it was a really good week and we are really excited with what we saw in both zones. 

Our flight back from Mindelo was pretty interesting though. It started off by being two hours late, then we took an unexpected pit stop in Boa Vista to pick up some more passengers. Definitely not originally on the plan but it happened. It took our pilot two tries to finally land the plane because the first time he came in way too fast and had to take off instantly and try again. We got a really nice view of Boa Vista though as we circled around and it is really a beautiful island. The beaches are huge and they looked very inviting. I don’t know if I’ll ever serve there but at least I got to see it! 

As for the work, being away from your area for so long definitely takes its tolls and we’ve got some work to do these next couple weeks. We aren’t going to be travelling until the first week of August now so we’ve got some time to strengthen our area again and get our investigators back on track. We have quite a few people preparing for baptism but we haven’t been able to teach them as much as we would have liked. Heavenly Father has been watching over them though and this week is going to be a good one. We’ve got a lot of work to do though because we are going to be starting transfer prep this week. 

President just got back from his tour of the mission, visiting all of the islands to do interviews. This week he is going to be doing interviews here in Praia and then Assomada and then he will be done. We have had a few changes because one missionary finished his mission and another one went home early due to sickness but other than that things have been pretty calm. We do receive another 14 missionaries in the first week of August though so that will be exciting. Other than that, we have just been really focused on our area and on strengthening the zone leaders. It’s kept us busy but I’ve learned a lot and seen some amazing things. 

I hope you all have a good week. Enjoy the summer holidays! Love you all!

Ayum...

Hey everyone!

I don’t really have a lot of time to write today. We are getting ready to go out and teach right now before we jump on a plane to Mindelo. We will be spending tomorrow in Mindelo and then on Wednesday we will be going to Santo Antão for two days to do divisions with the zone leaders. We had a bunch of work to do today so we haven’t had much time to sit down and use email. However, things are going really well here and we had another really good week. 

This past week we went and spent two days in Sal with the zone leaders there. It was my first time in Sal and it was definitely a different experience. All of the islands I have seen have been covered in mountains but Sal is super flat. There are a few small hills but that’s about it. It’s a very beautiful island though and I really enjoyed my stay there. It’s really cool to go out and work with all of the zone leaders and be able to help them with their work. It’s very tiring though with all of the travelling we do but it’s worth it. 

Sounds like life is pretty exciting at home. Boa Vista is doing really well and the church is growing really fast there. There are a ton of members there who were inactive simply because there was no church so Brodie and his companion have been busy reactivating people. From the sounds of it they have seen a ton of miracles during their time there. There are still two islands without missionaries, Maio and São Nicolau, and I don’t think I will be here when they receive missionaries. The church is growing here really fast though and we are almost ready to organize another district that would include the branches in Sal and Boa Vista.

Praia is still hot but I am pretty used to it. I think I may freeze to death when I come home though... I haven’t really experienced cold in a long time. Everything is going well here and we are always super busy. It amazes me how much we get done and how everything just falls into place when we need it to. Heavenly Father has blessed us so much and we would be lost without Him. I love you all and I hope you have a good week!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!

This year’s Canada Day wasn’t quite as exciting as last years since I didn't have a Canadian companion, but that’s okay. Tomorrow is mission leadership council so all of the zone leaders are flying in to Praia and we have been making trips to the airport to pick them up as well as getting things ready for tomorrow. There is always something to do, even on p-day. We also had to bring four missionaries to the airport that are going home today... it’s always sad to send missionaries home and it makes me dread the day when it happens to me more and more each time I see it. Brodie and Zach will be going home at the end of July and then it’s just me and Chris left from our group. 

Last week was nuts and we did not get a single minute to rest. It was transfer week and there were quite a few changes in the mission to accommodate for the sixteen new missionaries that we received. We were blessed though and we were able to do divisions with the travelling missionaries all week. It allowed us to work in our area every day, even when we had other things to do, and we found some amazing new investigators. We are going to be travelling every week this month and visiting all of the islands to do divisions. This week we are going to Sal so we needed things to be prepared so that the work in our area doesn’t stop. We have been very blessed by Heavenly Father and despite all of our absences we are seeing a lot of miracles. 

Sounds like the work is going pretty well in our ward at home as well. Have there been a lot of baptisms these past two years? The church is growing all over the world and apparently there are more than 70 000 missionaries throughout the world now. It´s amazing to see the way the Lord works. Every mission is different but they all have the same purpose. I love you all and hope everything goes well this week.