It was the best of times...

It has been a week full of the best of things. Transfers were this week and though everything that could go wrong went wrong - including the fact that the Brazilian MTC failed to tell us they were sending two Elders our way. A few extra Elders has a domino effect as you can well imagine and when you are dealing with airplanes and boat rides things can get complicated in a hurry. But we muddled through it. One good thing came from it too. Our new assistants are the dynamic duo from Canada. They grew up in a tiny town in Alberta and have know each other since they were 5 years old. They never dreamed they would go to the same mission, much less serve as zone leaders together and now assistants. Here they are trying to look tough for me. Elder Hill and Elder Dola.

Of course we will very much miss the old assistant, Elder Cruz dos Santos. He has been very good to us. But we can't be sad about it because he is going to the coveted spot of Boa Vista. He is the missionary that gets to start the church up on that island!. He is going to do great there! He is actually a very serious and hard working Elder though you would not know it from the picture. He had scratched his eye and I think he was enjoying those sunglasses a bit too much.

 Then the weekend came. It started off with the baptism on Saturday. I took this picture just before the meeting began. A whole row!Of the sweetest people you will ever meet!

Also last Sunday marked a milestone in Praia. One branch (small congregation) had grown so much that it was officially made into a ward (a complete congregation) and one of the wards had grown so large that it had to be divided. Now when we first arrived here Robert taught a Temple Preparation class to several young couples planning to be married in the Temple that summer. All of the couples were amazing but one caught our eye. We both said that we felt this couple would be leaders in the church one day. Well that day came sooner than we thought as the young man was made the Bishop of the new ward. They are both about 25 years old. Aren't they just so full of light.

Then this Sunday I found out that this Bishop had called the ward Relief Society President (leader of the women's organization). Well last summer I wrote about a couple who we helped teach the missionary discussions to. The man was a return missionary but the woman was not a member of the church. We got very close to them and when they were married last summer, we spoke at their wedding. She was baptized the next day. She was so on fire with the gospel! Well as it turns out she is the new Relief Society President. I meet her in the hallway, smiled and threw my hands up. She doesn't speak English and my Portuguese is still horrible but she knew what I was saying. She ran up and hugged me. We were both laughing and crying. Then she showed me her counselors. Here they are. The first Relief Society Presidency of the Palmarajo Ward.They are going to be amazing.

 Such moments really are the best of times.

Trucks Taxis

There are no regulations about auto safety here so pretty much anything goes. Consequently anything on wheels is considered a taxi. They have nice taxis and big vans to haul people and they also have what I call truck-taxis.. They'll load them beyond the max and they will load them with anything and everything. We often see as many as a dozen people piled into the back of them and all their things tied to the top. But what we saw in the back of this one was a first.

Look closely there are more than people in the back of that truck-taxi - there are also cows.
Two miles later we saw this. We weren't sure we should pass him for fear he would tip over on us.

The funny thing was that just after I took the picture he pulled over and picked up a passenger. Seriously! The passenger, however, was allowed to sit in the cab.
I regret that I didn't have my camera to photograph the funnest truck situation we saw here. Like the previous picture this truck, which was a little bigger, was very overloaded and thankfully not with people. He started to climb a steep hill and the load started to slip off the back of the truck. The back half of the load hit the road bringing the bed of the truck down with it. That caused the cab of the truck to shot up in the air about 10 feet. When we arrived on the scene the poor driver was trying to figure out how to get out. I thought the missionaries with us were going to die of laughter. Needless to say we have yet to hail one of these truck-taxis for a ride.

Our Crazy Routine Here

I just wanted to record some of our routine here because it is so unique. When we come home from the grocery story we fill the sink with bleach water and literally wipe down everything we have purchased. Then with another sink full of bleach water we soak all the fruits and vegetables. Then we rinse them in filtered water. I never thought a dish drainer would come in so handy.

Then there is the laundry. I am lucky enough to have a washer, howbeit in my kitchen. Still it is a good washer. But alas we have no dryer. No one does. So we have come up with some pretty creative ways to dry our clothes in a hurry on our P-day. What we don't care about goes outside.

And what we care most about stays inside.

Unfortunately nothing we own seems to dry winkle free without a dryer so ironing has become a more consistent activity than it ever was at home. I have to give Robert credit. I think we are at a 50-50 split on who does the ironing.

I also spend a lot of time with this plastic friend. I honestly don't think it weighs 10 pounds. But I am learning to deal with just straight stitch and zigzag and am always grateful when I can get through a project without anything jamming or a needle breaking.

And last but not least in our TV with a 1960ish rabbit ear antenna, which allows us to pick up 3 local channels. I have to admit that when I am doing some hand sewing or folding laundry I do turn it on. The trick when watching TV in a foreign language is to find something to watch in which you already know the plot. Hence ...

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Spring has Sprung - I think

We have no idea what season we are in right now. Technically it is winter, but what is happening around us makes me wonder. It is never colder than 68* and there are suddenly flowers blooming all over the island like this.

Even the cactus are blooming.

And across the street I see this from my window. If you can't tell, that is one of the Brownies with 9! black puppies in tow.

Here is a close up. There are always a few that roam away so I can never get them all togther, but there are nine! We suspect the black lab we named Buddy is somehow involved.

And then there is the sudden influx of sailboats in the bay. I don't know how far they have come from. Some may be just from other nearby Islands but we know of one that came all the way from Holland. I was raised sailing on our family boat so this just makes me so envious.

So we say it is spring. We will see what the weather holds next weeks.

Happy Birthday Elder Mathews

Well today Robert celebrated the twentieth anniversary of his thirty-ninth birthday. I'll let you do the math. We started the day by walking to the store to get eggs. I didn't have any for the cake. Eggs are not refrigerated in the stores here because they are fresh and they don't come in cartons either. So we walked about a half mile, just veering a bit from our usual walk, but still passing the usual herd of cows that cross our path each morning. We arrived at a little store, got our plastic bag, like the kind we put produce in back home, and put in our 6 eggs. My job was to make sure they didn't break as we prodded back up the hill, over dirt paths, and cobblestone streets, all while avoiding the cow patty trail. I didn't break one. Once home we had to follow the health code here and soak the eggs in bleach water. Then I make a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. I actually found a Duncan Hines cake mix and cream cheese (first time on the cream cheese!) I waited until the assistants arrived and then brought out the cake. Holden and our Bishop (who was working on something in the office) joined the assistants as they sang and clapped a crazy rendition of the happy birthday song. Holden taped it on his Iphone and I am still waiting for it to download on my email. I hope it does so I can post it. Then we all had cake.
But after that it was business as usually. We had to get a few things paid and purchased because we understand that for the next two days Cape Verde pretty much shuts down for Carnival - we expect it to be a mix somewhere between New Orleans' Mardis Gras and Rio's Carnival. Everything will be closed and in some areas things will get a bit wild. We plan on staying close to home tomorrow.
But back to the Birthday Boy. I have learned a lot on my mission. The first thing is that I am not as tough or as smart as I once thought. Sigh. Second, I have learned what a lucky woman I am. Robert is amazing. A Bishop once compared him to Nephi in the Book of Mormon because he was large in statue and just so good. But on our mission, I have come to see him as another Book of Mormon hero. I have come to see the Ammon in him. On his mission, Ammon was first a servant to the King. The king was greatly astonished at Ammon's loyalty and his devotion. He said of him: "Surely there has not been any servant among all my servants that has been so faithful as this man; for even he doth remember all my commandments to execute them." Whatever President asks, Robert does it. He never forgets a thing and he doesn't stop till he gets it right. But even more he is constantly thinking of many other things to do that will serve President and the missionaries. It doesn't bother him that he is not in the limelight. He just loves serving. Even when he was mission president for a week and a half, he was so careful not to overstep his bounds and to keep the missionaries pointed to the their real President. When a few tough decisions had to be made, he always brought the assistants in, allowing them to discover through the Spirit what he already knew needed to be done. He gave them the recognition. Like I said, he is amazing. Here are a couple of shots of him on his special day as he does his special thing. Happy Birthday, Robert.

An All Ameriacan Store!!!

There has been this rumor going around the mission that there is a store somewhere in Praia that sells American food items. We have heard about this since we got here but every time we cornered one of the missionaries about it they would struggle to tell us where it was. They said they had heard about it too but had never seen it. Was it a joke? Just a rumor? Well Robert persisted until we found a missionary (who doesn't even live here anymore) who had actually been there and he told us where it was. It is a good thing because we would never have found it. In a tiny neighborhood, in the middle of Praia, on a short rarely walked street, without a sign of any consequence above the door, is a store that does indeed sell some American food. We would have bought more but we had walked there.

I have never seen anything close to salsa or salad dressing the whole time we have been here. And a big thing of oatmeal is never seen. Check out the refried beans! Oh we are so excited and my family needs to be too as it means we will be requesting fewer care packages. Hey they even had Oreos!

Boa Vista!!!!!

Our reason for going to Boa Vista was to gather (with the help of a returned missionary there named Luis) all the members we could find and hold a Church service on Sunday.  It would be the first Sacrament meeting held on the island and seeing as it was discovered in 1460 that seemed significant to us. Luis had done a lot of the ground work by locating as many members as he could and getting their phone numbers. We were also to  explore the area for a place to house the missionaries that would be sent there February and to find a place big enough for them to live in and to hold a church meeting in. The first thing we did when we arrived was to rent a car - a tiny one.

We had no idea what we were getting into. All we knew was that the island was just a bit smaller than Santiago, the one we live on, and it was not so mountainous. We also knew that only 4000 to 5000 people lived there compared to the 250,000 who live on Santiago. That sounded odd as 4000 is about how many students went to Kingwood High School on any given year.

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This is one of the first things we saw - a temporary earthen bridge. The next picture shows why. The rainy season was especially tough on Boa Vista this year. This river swelled so high with water and debris that it took out the bridge. That was our first clue as to the infrastructural on the island. 

 Because the return missionary we wanted to meet with was working at one of the all inclusive resorts on the far end of the island, we decided to spend the day exploring. I stood on a hill between two hotels to take this next picture. That is nearly a quarter mile of white beach between me and the ocean. It was beautiful!

Now getting to such places takes patience. Some of these roads are 300 years old. I thought the bolts on our tiny car were going to come loose.

We laughed when we saw this. We were only going 40 and thought the fillings in our teeth were going to rattle out.We couldn't even imagine doubling our speed.

And there is not much to be in a hurry to see. Except for some tiny towns, this island is deserted.

 At the far end of the island, in the middle of nowhere, literally with nothing around it, we found this. This is where Luis works. He and about a thousand people on the island are bused to these resorts to work. 

The guard, assuming we were guest, let us in with no question. After all what nut would be out there in the middle of no where if they weren't staying at the hotel. Later when he saw us just waiting around for Luis to arrive, he realized his mistake and nearly panicked. Once you are in, everything is free. We could have had lunch or whatever we wanted. He asked us to please wait outside the gate for our friend. He was very nice to us especially when he realized we had not taken advantage of the situation.

On the way back we saw another all inclusive resort. This one is close to the airport and looks like a giant sand castle.

This is where we stayed. It was on the outskirts of the town, the only one of any size on the island, Sal Rei.

It was very quaint and clean and looked a little like the Alamo to us Texans. In the front you will see the outdoor restaurant that was really good. And these stair lead you to the hotel rooms. Robert had only one complaint. He barely fit in the shower. In fact one morning he dropped the soap and I heard, "Suz, I'm going to need help." There was not enough room for him to bend down and get the soap.

 We were at the right place though. The first person we meet at the hotel was a woman who had been baptized with her ten year old daughter a year ago in Praia. She was so excited to hear we were going to start a church here.
Saturday was spent working with Luis. We visited members and called others. One of the missionaries in Mindelo called Robert about something (he was still acting mission president) and when he found out what we were doing he gave us the name and phone number of a man who had moved there. Costa had been baptized several months ago. We called him and told him of the meeting that would be held on Sunday. He said he couldn't wait and came right over to the hotel to meet with us. We found out that many of those that would come worked at the resorts and some of their schedules conflicted so we decide to hold a morning and afternoon Sacrament meeting. We were also a bit disappointed to find out that some of the members were visiting other island that weekend.
But we also tracked down a man and his family (his wife and two sons) that lived in Povoacao Villa. It is a tiny town about 20 miles away. They had no way to get to Sal Rei so Robert volunteered to pick them up in the morning. With the car so tiny I could not go with him.
Sunday morning I stayed behind and got the room ready. We couldn't find a place to meet on such short notice so we meet in our hotel room.

The first meeting began with an opening hymn, How firm a Fountation, with Mario giving the prayer. Robert spoke of the plan to open up a branch of the church here and gave those present an idea of when that might take place. Then Luis blessed the sacrament and Costa passed it. Following that Luis and Robert gave talks and the remainer of the meeting was opened to the bearing of testimonies. All the members present bore their testimonies, including me and in Portuguese. This is a picture of us at the close of the meeting. The little girl in yellow was the daughter of the woman who worked at the hotel. She was working and could not attend.

We gave each family there Bibles and Triples, containing the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. We also gave each one a copy of the November Liahona, containing the latest conference addresses of the Leaders of the Church.
The next meeting went the same as the first and again all bore their testimonies. Luis and Costa had come to the second one as well to help out with the administration of the sacrament. We were surprised that Itovina had also chosen to come to both.  Here we are at the close of the second sacrament meeting..The young girl holding the baby is named Susie. I won't forget her name or her brothers standing behind her. His name is Abinadi, the name of my favorite prophet in the Book of Mormon.

It is hard to express the spirit that is felt on such occasions. The love that was felt and the instant friendships that were formed are hard to explain. The gratitude we saw is also hard to express. These people have gone years without their church to attend. They are such good people and I can't wait for the branch to be formed there for them. Sunday night also came with a sweet peace as all of the sudden Robert's phone stopped ringing. We knew then that President had arrived in Praia and Robert was officially relieved of his temporary mission president duties.
Monday we looked at apartments and found two that will do perfectly. They are both on the main road about a block from the central praca. We are just waiting for word from the realtor to know which one will be available in time. The rest of the day we spent walking all through the town mapping out where things were such as the hospital, pharmacy, bakery, grocery store, bank and various other things the missionaries will need to find. It is a great little town and you can walk to everything. It has a bit of a tourist flare, unlike Praia, because so many people come to the resorts on the island. They are bused into Sal Rei to see the town and get native souvenirs.
We loved the little port there. And were shocked to meet a young couple who had just sailed there in a 26 foot sailboat - from Holland. It took them 6 months. Amazing.
Our last night there was spent walking on the endless white beach. We got caught up in it and walked two miles and then had to walk it back. I'm not complaining. It was beautiful. Here is the sunset.   

The next day we flew to Sal, the next island over. It was my kind of flight - 15 minutes. There we meet with the four missionaries on that island and took them out to dinner. We got a quick tour of the church and an apartment they are to move into this coming week. Then we sat in the airport until nearly midnight waiting for our flight to Praia. We love Praia, but we left a bit of our heart in Boa Vista. 

One fateful statement

We had been here about two weeks when Robert made the fateful statement. "Hey I think we have caught up. Things should go more smoothly now." Two minutes later we received a phone call from President. Sister Oliveira was still in Portugal having medical test. The results were in. She needed surgery - now. President said he was leaving the next morning and we needed to check our email. The email started with him, went to President Texeira, the European Area President, then to Elder Rasband, of the Presidency of the Seventy, and then to Elder Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve. It was the approval for Robert to be acting mission president until President returned.
So now we were scrambling to determine what of the financial stuff I could do with my limited Portuguese so Robert could focus on the missionaries. For the next few days we just ran!
The first morning I paid three bills at three different places and was able to muster enough Portuguese to do it right. Robert said he was not surprised. He has always felt I could spend money in ANY language. HA. The rest of the afternoon I spent at a doctor's office with one of the Elders, while Robert welcomed two new missionaries to the mission. Later that afternoon two more came.
The next day President called in a panic. He had forgotten that this weekend was the Mindelo District's Priesthood meeting. He told Robert he would need to do some interviewing for Priesthood advancement and would be speaking at the meeting. Now we were scrambling for plane tickets.
The next day, Friday, the Assistants were able to get a plane ticket - A plane ticket. Robert would go alone to Mindelo. No worries. That night we had the privilage of taking Sister McKnight out for her farewell dinner in President's behalf. That was easy duty. It was at a very nice place in the same building as President's condo.
Saturday was not much of a P-day but we managed to get groceries bought and laundry done enough that Robert could pack. (Hey we don't have dryers here) He left shortly after the baptism where 6 people were baptized.
Sunday he did the interviews and spoke at the Priesthood meeting. Puling a talk out of your hat is one thing. Pulling it out of your hat in Portuguese is another but he did well.
Monday I did all I could in the office and took Sister McKnight out to buy some souvenirs for her grandchildren. Robert was still in Mindelo doing interviews with missionaries until that evening when he flew to the Island of Sal and meet with the missionaries there. He came home that night.

Tuesday was a Zone Conference for the Santiago South Zone here in Praia. Robert spoke while I went to CV Movel. I had to buy some things for the phones called Sim Cards. You put them in the phone to activate the phone with a phone number. I needed ten of them. I went in and said, “Eu presico dez sim cartoes.” Now you say sim in Portuguese something like you say sing in English. And cartoes is pronounced something like cartowns. I worked so hard to say it in perfect Portuguese and once I did the clerk smiled and said “Sim Cards” just like you would say it in English. Apparently they say Sim Card. I said, “Como se diz?” pointing to the cards to verify and she said, “Sim Card.” We both laughed. While there I also handed her a written request for the phone records of a certain missionary. That was no laughing matter.

The next morning started with Robert calling the Zone Leaders in Mindelo and sending them to collect said certain missionary's phone. That was a real drama but they have to learn to live by the rules. I was also having drama of my own. I spent the afternoon trying to place an order of supplies for the mission. Nothing was working right. I finally emailed our friend, Florian, in Germany. He came to CV last November to train us all. I told him how nothing was working and I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong. I felt so stupid. He told me that all the glitches were because I needed to change the country from US to CV, an option down at the bottom of the page. I tried and tried but I couldn’t get it to work. He wrote me back about an hour later to say that the tech guys said it was happening to everyone and that it was not my fault. He told me not to despair. He is such a nice man. I guess I will try again tomorrow.

Thursday I did get the order off and we finished as much of the finacial stuff as we could with all the interruptions. Robert recieved 50 phone calls that day. I didn't believe him so we counted them on his phone. Exactly 50! So many pulls. But one call was to tell us President and Sister Oliveira would be returning Sunday!!She was doing much better.
Now we just needed to get through the weekend which would be spent in a very special way  - a trip to Boa Vista.

A much needed R and R

We hadn't been here but a few days when we were told that both Sister McKnight and Sister Cassita were being reassigned. It was determined that this mission was not meant for single adult woman, especially those that do not speak the language. It is a tough mission. In the future the church will be sending couples only. This was sad news as we have grown very close to Sister McKnight and Sister Cassita. As a good bye we decided to go to Cidade Velha or old city. We spent most of Saturday just looking at all the sights. Some of them date back to the 1600s.

 This is the old pathway leading to the very old church.

This is the three musketeers just outside the old Covento de Sao Francisco church -Sister McKnight, Sister Mathews and Sister Cassita.

 This is Robert in the church. Reading of the history of this area written in the church was a real education. We Americans have always heard great things of Sir Frances Drake the explorer. Umm. Well the Cape Verdians refer to him as a pirate. After he attacked and pillaged Cidade Velha twice they built the fort on the hill that we went to next.

 Going into the fort.

Inside the fort.

 And a view from the fort.

On a side note, this town receives many visitors every year. One of the treats that is famous here is fried eel. Yum.

We wish Sister Cassitta good luck in the Marshall Islands and Sister McKnight well in the Genealogical and Family History Center in Salt Lake City.