A list of all the good things happening ...

First, about two weeks ago Paul C. Johnson the commissioner of church education came to Cape Verde. It was big news - we rarely get that kind of a visiting authority here - so we wanted to involve as many of the seminary and institute youth as we could. That meant Elder Mathews spent days with a brother here in Praia trying to figure out how to make the church webcast equipment work. Success!! That night we webcasted Elder Johnson's talk to all the other islands. In Praia he spoke to a full chapel - actually an overflowing chapel. Here he is with his translator and some pictures of the full house.

Second, we had an amazing baptism a few weekends ago. We focus on baptizing families but families are often scattered or not complete here. So when we have a baptism like this one we get excited. This is a father with his 6 sons. All of the sons were baptized and the mother and father will be soon. I was able to get the white shirts and ties for them from some donations that were sent. The next day at church one of the sons sought me out and thanked me for doing that for him and his brothers. These young men are so gooood.

Third, we had the fourth stake conference of Praia just last week. They announced they had 36 missionaries serving and 6 more waiting for visas. Here are four who got their visas and left the week before conference to begin their training in Brazil. The Sister with the name tag had been serving as a "mini-missionary" in our mission just to help us out when one of the Sisters went home.

Mindelo Stake also has about that many missionaries serving and the Fogo District has even more. I can't wait to see what this country will be like when all those missionaries come home. It is booming now but then I think it will really take off. They are still learning so much and it is rewarding to see the maturing of the stake and wards we attend. The leadership is all still sooooo young but they are so humble and wanting to do the right things. They just need some more experience. Can you imagine being so stranded out here and never having seen how things are done and then be expected to do it right.The other week we found out that a branch in Fogo had called a brother to be the Primary President. Read the manual - it never actually says you can't call a man. But this is a little example of some of the things they still need to understand and learn. And by the way, the brother said yes and was doing a great job!

And last but not least. Our biggest news is that this week - just two days ago - we officially opened the island of Maio. It is the island to the east of the one we are on. It will be part of the Praia Stake. The Assistants went there two weeks ago with President Oliveira and rented two apartments - one for the missionaries that would be sent there (Elder Christensen, one of the assistants, and Elder Rice) and one apartment to be the church. It is amazing to me how ready these people are and how great our missionaries are.  The first day they arrived Elder Christensen was in a taxi with Elder Bruce (the other assistant) when they saw a man walking down the road. Elder Christensen felt this overwhelming feeling to tell the taxi driver to stop. He did and Elder Christensen jumped out and ran to the man not knowing why. When he got to him the words just flew out of his mouth, "You know who I am and you know why I am here." The man nodded and began to weep. He was a member of the church but when he moved to Maio, because there was no church there, he had gone inactive. But the Spirit had been calling him back and he had been praying to know what to do.  Wow! They have also had others come up to them and say they too are members. The "group" opens officially this Sunday and we hope it will be a branch in no time. We have spent days getting everything ready - missionary supplies, hymn books, sacrament trays, manuals for SS and RS and Priesthood,etc etc. This is us with Elder Rice trying to get all the stuff on the boat that would take the Elders back to Maio. First the missionary's beds.

 There go the mattresses.

 Now the crate full of boxes filled with missionary supplies and household items they might not be able to buy on this small island.

 I love all the safety regulation at the port - oh yeah I forgot - THERE ARE NONE! A while back, I almost got hit in the head by one of the cages as they hoisted it up. Holden pushed me out of the way - and just in time.

 Helping these Elders get ready to go reminded us of the experience we had Boa Vista just last February.

We went there because President was not able to go - it was when Robert was acting Mission President. Anyway we had people coming up to us in Boa Vista so excited that the church would be opening. Many were inactive for the same reason the man in Maio was. Others had listen to part of the missionary discussions and had not been baptized yet. They literally asked if they could be baptized now. Others had family members who had joined and asked to know more. Boa Vista has boomed. They had nearly 100 members at church last week.

This year around Thanksgiving (not that they celebrate it here) we will be going to Sao Nicolau - a northern island - and doing just what we did in Boa Vista and what the President and the assistants did in Maio. We will go with the assistants (now Elder Bruce and Elder Fogulburg) and gather all the members we can find and hold the first sacrament meeting.  We will also look for an apartment for the missionaries and a church site so that island can be opened. Once it is open then 9 of the ten islands of CV will be open!

We have been able to open Boa Vista, Maio and Sao Nicolau because of the huge influx of missionaries. Keep them coming! Our mission has double in size since we arrived. It has made for double the work in the office - double the accounting, double the apartments, double the mail, double the shipping to island with anything from cases of Book of Mormons to mattresses to washing machines, double the amount of missionaries traveling by plane or boat or haice - and it is catching up to these two old people. But we LOVE it. 

Do we look tired? If not we feel it!