Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh

Recently we have added to our list of responsibilities the job of apartment inspections. We are always amazed at the crazy things we find. Missionaries, and especially the Elders, have very creative ideas for how to fix things.
One companionship turned their apartment into what looked like a spiders web. They had clothes lines strung from door hinges crisscrossing down their hall and into their front room. Why? They needed somewhere to dry their clothes as they don't sell dryers here. But I guess they never noticed the clothes racks you can buy in about every store on the island.
Another apartment thought this lovely fan was in no way an electrical or fire hazard. There was no casing on the back where the wiring was and no cage around the blade and the cord was frayed. All we could do is roll our eyes when they said, but it still works, Brother Mathews. Sigh.

This was choice. The shower head in this shower shot water out sideways getting it all over the bathroom. To remedy the problem the Elders took an old water bottle and attached it around the shower head. The water didn't go everywhere but it just trickled down in one spot. It had been like this for over a YEAR! They were amazed it took roughly $6 to replace the shower head and for them to have a normal shower again. Sigh.

And notice the shower curtain. They had it hanging on about 7 shower curtain rings at the top. Why? To make it longer. It took me two minutes to buy a shower curtain in the appropriate length. Again they were amazed. They had no idea shower curtains come in different sizes.

And not to pick on the Elders exclusively. There were two sisters who very timidly come in to say, "We don't want to complain or be a burden, but our toilet seat is cracked. And well ... it ... pinches us when we seat down. Can we get is fixed?" That was an $8 fix and a really good laugh.
But the one that took the prize was from an Elder who called, from a very remote island, to tell us they bought a full gas tank for their stove two days again and its empty now. He asked two questions. "Do you think we have a leak?" AND "Do you think we should be worried about it?" REALLY?! It is a good thing they sleep with all the windows open here. And to ease your worries, we have finally received CO Alarms for every apartment!

Saying Hello to the New and Goodbye to the Old

Robert has been serving on the High Council for almost the whole time we have been here. He has considered it a blessing to be on the first High Council of the first Stake in this wonderful country. But last week we were called into President's office. President had just received word from the Area President in Europe that Robert had been approved to be his counselor in the Mission Presidency. With mixed emotions, he will be released from the High Council. (Howbeit, we will still be teaching the Temple Prep class for the 50 people planing to attend the Temple in Brazil in August)
This new assignment will require we travel to different islands to assist President in the training of district leaders and missionaries. We are excited to do it but will miss our weekly trips to Assomada,, the ward Robert was assigned to as a High Councilor. In our last visit to Assomada, we went with the Bishop to visit a family in a rural area. Oh, the off-roading we do in our poor Corolla.

But the bumpy ride was worth it. We got a great view from their home of Fogo the neighboring island. It is the second largest mountain in Africa and a volcano at that. It is always amazing to see the outline of it in the distance.

We will miss our beautiful Sunday drives to Assomada and all the sweet people there.

Everyday Miracles

My ear has really been  bugging me again. And as you can imagine, I do not want to go home again - especially just for an earache. I mean if you are going to be sent home from a mission for medical reasons, you want it to sound a bit more dramatic than that. So I went back to the doctor here – the one that I went to before as he is the only game in town - and I will admit my confidence level in him and the medical facilities here was low. He showed Robert what  the problem was. There was a huge block of wax or some sort of buildup in my ear canal. I kept telling Robert that I felt pressure on my eardrum and my hearing was getting worse. I thought it was from the inside out not the outside pushing in. The doctor gave me some ear drops (they smelled strong) to put in my ear to soften this mess up. I put the drops in a couple of times and reported back to the doctor - this time at the hospital instead of the clinic. He talked about something there he wanted to share with us. As it turned out this doctor had gone to Europe to get training on how to operate a specific bit of equipment that had just been donated to the hospital. It is this long scope lens that is put in the ear and you can see on a TV screen what is inside – magnified too. So he sat me down and showed me my good ear. Wow, very fascinating. It looks great. Then he showed me the other ear. There really was a nasty looking plug that covered the whole canal. Then he took me into another room and with a tiny suction sucked the whole nasty plug out. It did not hurt! (Just a bit unnerving to have a vacuum in your ear, but they did that to me in the States too) Then we went back into the scope room and looked inside my ear again.  No plug! But … ugly eardrum. It has not healed well. It is blackened in places and the hole is now visible. It was microscopic when I left the States. The doctor said I will need to get some surgery when I go home. Obviously they don’t do that here. The good news is the surgery can wait until we return next year. And what a miracle to have this equipment, with the attended training, now on the Island and to now know I can get the care I need periodically. It is a real answer to prayers

The second miracle occurred in front of a sewing machine. We had six new missionaries report this week. When they had just barely arrived, looking fresh in their new suits and ties, one of the Elders caught his suit coat pocket on the stair railing at President's home just as he bounded up the stairs. It ripped his brand new suit by the pocket. I wasn't there, but the missionaries called and asked if I thought I could fix it. Ummm. I asked if it was ripped on a seam. Answer: Well, ugh, sort of. When I got back to see what the situation was, I about died. This coat was ripped down the front starting at the corner of the pocket and going down about 2 and 1/2 inches. Nobody can fix that!

But I could tell this missionary really did not want to write home and ask his parent to spend the money on a new suit. So I went upstairs and said a prayer. Then it came to me to try a few things. Suits have seams going down the front in the middle of the pocket. So I fixed the vertical part of the pocket and then made a seam that went down from the corner of the pocket all the way to the bottom of the suit. I just pinched the fabric where it wasn't ripped and then sewed the rip together. I ironed it and was amazed by the result. 

You could hardly tell it had happened. And since he will only wear the coat for one hour every week in Sacrament meeting, I think it will do him for the remainder of his mission.

      When the Elders came to get it I was laying down with drops in my ear and Robert was so disappointed that I did not see and hear their reactions. The missionary was dumbfounded. He was so prepared to tell his parents he had ruined a brand new suit and they would need to send him a new one. Elder Dola, the assistant, just beamed and said. “See I told you she could do it!” But I know - with my limited sewing experience - it was not me. It was another everyday miracle. 

     

      The next miracle happened a few days later when more missionaries arrived from the Brazilian MTC. All four were Cape Verdians. They had gone to Brazil to get their missionary training and were back to serve a mission in their own country. President likes to do a big production of where the new missionaries will be sent and who their trainer will be. Well one of the Elders was excited to find he was going to one of the northern Islands with - drum roll - Elder Orten! Elder Orten bounded into the room ready to embrace his new companion. His eyes went to him but then suddenly to the Elder beside him. President redirect his attention to his companion who he hugged, but then he turned to hug the other Elder as well. Both were near tears. What none of us knew was Elder Orten had baptized this Elder one year ago. But as things go here and you are transfer to another island with limited communication with those you left behind, he did not know if this young man had remained active or even where he was. It was an emotional moment and a miracle as it might have taken months for Elder Orten to even know this man was serving inn the mission. The missionaries are so spread out and barely in touch with each other.  Here are the two of them standing in front of our baptismal goal chart.

     

   

And that brings us to the last miracle. Imagine having 1,609 baptisms as your yearly mission goal. But the miracle is a baptism, much like the one pictured below, happens every Saturday on every island in almost every chapel.

     

Weekends of Historic Events

Last weekend marked an historic event here in Praia. The Praia Cape Verde Stake turned one year old and held a Stake Conference!! None of the church buildings here are big enough to house all the wards (congregations) in the Stake at once, so it was held in the civic center. There were about 1700 people in attendance from all over the Island of Santiago.

On the evening of the conference, they decided to hold a specially meeting for the young single adults. The theme was marriage and they asked Elder Mathews and I to speak - in Portuguese. My talk was 5 minutes long but they understood it! (Some of the young women, including Sandra, were smiling at me and giving me the thumbs up as I was speaking. That was an historic event for me.) I have to admit that I practiced the talk at least a hundred times making sure I had the pronunciation down. Whew. To my surprise Sandra brought her mom and grandma to the meeting.

And this weekend marked another historic event. The second Stake in Cape Verde was formed in Mindelo on the Island of Säo Vicente.That is the second island from the left at the top. The stake will include the 5 big northern islands - those three little ones next to Säo Vicente don't count because they are not inhabited.

 That is two Stakes in two years! We are hoping Fogo will be made the third Stake before we leave in April of next year! Fogo is the second Island from the left at the bottom. The small island to the right of it is Brava which would be included in the Fogo Stake. Praia is the third Island from the left and we live at the southern tip of it.

Improvising

Today we went to visit one of the families we Home Teach (meaning we visit them monthly to see how they are doing). We noticed they were not at church so we decided to drop by with one of the Liahonas (church magazines) that were handed out today at church. The brother answered the door and explained why he was not at church. He had something very important come up with his work so he had to take care of it. Elder Mathews wanted him to know that we understood that things like that happen and sometimes we do have to miss church to take care of them. He wanted to say some Biblical thing like the ox was in the mire. Unfortunately he did not know the Portuguese words for ox or mire. So he basically said the donkey was in the hole. (And I thought my Portuguese was the comic relief of the island) At first the man looked confused and then smile and nodded his understanding. Isn't it amazing how the gift of tongues works! As the conversation continued it was clear that the man had understood the improvised analogy. He took the magazine and thanked us for thinking of him. And we left with a new Mathews-ism - the donkey is in the hole.

Sandra's Baptism!!!!

In an earlier blog I wrote about finally being a real missionary. Sandra, our neighbor, who I met taking out the garbage, was listening to the missionary discussion. Just as we finished the second discussion, some of the Sisters I was working with were transferred. That left me with two Portuguese Sisters and an American. This would prove to be very helpful in the next discussion.
We were teaching the Plan of Salvation. I was understanding a little of it for I have read it in Portuguese but I was struggling to understand what Sandra was saying in reply. I know at one point she said she got chills when we read some of the scriptures we shared. I know she said she felt it was true but I was wondering why the lesson seemed to be stalled. So I leaned over to the American missionary and asked her for a quick recap of what was said. She told me that Sandra felt she wasn’t perfect and that she was scared that if she got baptized she wouldn’t be able to stay with it. Satan always knows when to come knock is how she put it and she actually knocked on the table. While the other missionaries were addressing her insecurities and concerns, I suddenly felt like I needed to say something. But what? With so little language skills I wasn’t sure what had been said already. And I knew I couldn’t say all I was feeling in Portuguese. Well I finally thought I had to say whatever came to mind and I needed to do it then. So I asked the American Sister to translate. I hate bearing testimony that way because you have to stop in mid sentence and wait for the translation. But I muddled through. I told Sandra baptism wasn’t a destination but a gate to a path. I told her if she would show the Lord she was willing to obey Him and do this thing He had commanded – be baptized – then He would give her two things to help her on the path. I talked to her about the Gift of the Holy Ghost and then about grace. I testified that there was real power in both of those things and that they would help her to stay strong. I told her I had used these things many times in my life to help me stay on the path. When I stopped she looked right at me and in English said, “I will be baptized."
I wasn’t sure by that if I had misunderstood the previous part of the discussion and that she had already said she would be baptized but just wanted me to know. But after the discussion, the missionaries told me they had tried all they could think of to get her past her worries and insecurities.They said that they could tell my words were what finally reached her and that is when she committed. Once she had, the rest of the lesson was amazing. The Spirit was so strong as the missionaries committed her to the next discussion and coming to church for General Conference and a baptism in 3 weeks. At the end she gave the prayer – a long one and she cried through most of it.
When we came over to teach her the next lesson the Sisters thought we would teach the Word of Wisdom or what most people call our health code. Since Sandra had committed to baptism they wanted to move forward and make sure she would be ready in three weeks. I wasn't especially convinced of their plan. We had only taught her half of the Plan of Salvation. I remember when I was a young woman the missionaries teaching me about the resurrection, the judgment day and about the three degrees of glory. But the Sisters determined that we would come back to that. So we came to the door and Sandra opens it looking very different than the last time we saw her. She was dressed like a missionary! She told us the day before she threw all her "little clothes" away and decided she should dress more like us. We had never said anything to her about modesty – it is an island and everyone dresses a bit immodestly. So that was the first shock.
Then after the hymn and prayer, the Sisters asked if Sandra had any questions before we started the lesson. She pulled out her notebook, where she records everything, and her Book of Mormon, which now has little sticky notes coming out of the pages. Then in a matter of fact tone she asked, "Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith. But he was dead and we aren't resurrected until Jesus comes again. So how is this possible?" Shock number two and it was a major one!!! In Cape Verde the faith of the people is very simple. They are spiritually sensitive and accept the truth readily but they don't dig deeply into the scriptures on their own. (Some struggle to read. Because creole is not a written language their scriptures are in Portuguese and if they have not gone to enough school where they are taught Portuguese you can imagine how difficult it is.)
The question showed how much she had been reading and studying. Anyway in order to answer it fully, we ended up teaching the rest of the plan of salvation. Sandra was so receptive.
That weekend she was able to attend two sessions of General Conference. In President Monson's talk she picked up on the phrase, wickedness never was happiness. She explained that she has always felt that to be happy you had to keep the commandments. Then she said we were the first church she had gone to that actually taught and expected its members to keep the commandments.
The next couple of discussions went well. We invited some of the sisters in the ward to join us in those discussion so Sandra could make some friends. And being such a cheerful and sweet person she made friends fast. Last Monday night we had a group of the sisters over for a Family Home Evening. We went around the room sharing our conversion stories and talking of how much the Gospel has changed our lives. Here is a picture of all of our friends at the Family Home Evening.

Then came Saturday - the day of the baptism. This is Sandra arriving with her mom, niece and her little girl, Elle.

This was right before the meeting began. I was so happy I fought tears through the whole meeting.

 After the baptism she is encircled by her new friends in the ward.

 And this is her niece, Sister, nephew, Mom and two friends.

After the baptism she wanted to have a celebration so a bunch of sisters gathered at her home for a feast of fish, rice and beans she had made for us.

The funniest part to me was just after the baptism when I was giving her and the two Sister missionaries a ride back to her house from the church. About half way there she says to the Sisters, "I am so happy I want to scream but I don't want to scare Sister Mathews while she is driving." The Sisters told me what she had said so we decided on the count of three we would all scream. Yippee! Later at the end of the lunch we did it with all the sisters there. I think we rocked the neighborhood. This whole experience has been an answer to my prayers and Sandra's. Isn't it amazing how the Lord can turn such a chance encounter - while taking out the garbage - into such an amazing experience and friendship.

Another great P-day Adventure

Every P-day we are trying to find some adventure to go on. This last week we went to the Botanical Gardens of Santiago. We really weren't expecting much because there has been a 40 year drought on these islands but we were pleasantly surprised. The garden was really quiet and quaint.

Though it may not seem like much to you, that is a lot of vegetation considering this is what surrounds it - a near desert island.

 And while out there we found the lettuce farms. I was wondering why the lettuce - which is always leaf lettuce - always came with the roots still attached. It is because they grow it in water - long thin water tanks. So that solved that mystery for me.
Then another mystery was solved. On the way home, Elder Mathews decided to take a new route home. (We got a little lost - rolling my eyes here - but we made it home safely)We had always been told that you could see Fogo, the volcanic island just to the west of us, from this island. We have driven all over this island and have never been able to see it. But this time we did - on some far off the beaten path road.

 You have to look carefully but that shadow in the sky is Fogo, the second largest mountain in Africa.
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