Cape Verde week 40

Boa Noite,

Well week 40 has been one to remember. We had 7 baptism yesterday and the fonts at the church were either out of water or under repair, so the baptisms were done in the ocean. The Elders were so excited to be able to get in the ocean. I warned them to wear their flip flops but who listens to me. So 4 came back with Sea urchin spines in their feet. So Sunday afternoon became spine removal afternoon. We had a wonderful Christmas Choir and Program Sunday evening. Everyone did a wonderful job, unfortunately the attendance wasn't very good.
The DeCosta Neves family: soon to be President DeCosta Neves Mission President
Ex-Elder Reis and Jennifer. Then Sister Waller and Sandra's Mother, MaMae.
It all started last Sunday evening. I was feeling good and getting ready for bed when all of a sudden my back started to hurt a little, the little turned into more and then more and then MORE! Now my stomach started to hurt with sharp stabbing pain, rocking back and forth gave little comfort, soon nausea and vomiting happened. What I am describing is the attack of a “Kidney Stone, at least that is my diagnosis. Being out here in the boonies with few to little medical facilities a hospital visit was not on the list. A blessing was received and in about 20-30 minutes the pain started to ease and, whaaala the pain was gone. A total of maybe a 1 ½ hr of severe pain then I felt like a new man. So I was fine for about an hour then I get this little pain in my back and the whole process starts over again, but not quite as intense. Anyway the start to the week saw me drinking tons of water and become the bathroom friend.

We had a very nice Christmas Eve with the Elders and Sisters eating chili and watching a movie “Miracle”. Then they all returned on Christmas morning for cinnamon rolls and juice. We had a gift exchange, snow ball fight and they watched “Phantom of the Opera”. Then they were all off to call their parents, while we enjoyed speaking with the family. Sister's dough failed to raise! Sad day, but Sister Waller to the rescue!Snow ball fight. Snow balls (socks stuff with cotton) provided by the Pollard family, thanks.
When you sing keep your chin up, good advised from a good singer, Sister Pollard.
We continued with transfers and receiving new missionaries and saying goodbye to others on Wednesday. Plus drinking lots of water!!! We welcomed Elder Johnson and Sister Freitas to the area. We lost Elders Burgess, Ence, Ballantyne and Snow. We have some new Elders coming in a few days from the MTC.

The rest of the week was rather uneventful as we prepare to be transferred to Fogo. Yes the President has decided we are needed on another Island. We get varying reports from the missionaries who have served there and the conditions. They all agree that in Sao Felipe you are either going in one direction; uphill or downhill! Since they have no bus system we should get lots of exercise, a plus, I suppose. We also learn that they speak a different Creole and many don’t speak very good Portuguese. Yikes this could get interesting. We will be with less missionaries there than here in Mindelo. There are 6 missionaries in the city with 4 more on the island. We have one set of Sisters. There are 4 branches on the island with 2 in the city of Sao Felipe. The District has those 4 branches and a branch on the island of Brava.

Well things were rolling along well until Saturday night when I started having a little pain in my back, Oh NO!!! Yep I had 2 more episodes of kidney pain. I talked to the Area Physician and he basically said he would pray for me. The one bright spot about kidney stones, you sure appreciate it when they pass, life sure is great after that! More water and more water now is the course of treatment. When we get to Praia, I’ll go in to the Urologist and get checked out maybe. Unfortunately Sharon has come down sick with a cold and aches. She missed Church today, not wanting to infect anyone else. Kidney stones aren’t contagious! I did give my final talks here in 2 branches. It was on keeping the “Law of Chastity”, they sure need to just say “NO”.

Well here is hoping everyone had a very Merry Christmas and looking forward to a Happy New Year. I now need to go drink some more water.

Love to all,

E/S Waller, Chuck & Sharon, Bama & Bampa

Elder Morales showing off his popeye shirt!!

Sister Silveira sport her new goggle wear, and Sister Alencar with a new purse.

Elder Ray with a very nice new hair curling set!

Elder Monteiro with a new bathmath and I think Elder Waller it is a little small, have you lost weight or is it really tight? Christmas gift from the missionaries, T-shirts.

Christmas Kiss, Elders and Sisters got a kick out of this!

Tchau everyone!

Cape Verde Week 39

Bom Dia,

Well an interesting week what with all the practices for the choir program. We have been kept busy with FHE and visits with investigators. Sister Waller has been spending time with the Sisters as we lost Sister Bikhazi this week. Everyone is excited about transfers coming up and also the opportunity to call home on Christmas day. We are planning a chili cook off on Christmas Eve with all the missionaries. They have to come in early as there will be a lot of parties going on so they will be in early on Christmas Eve.

We also are going to do a gift exchange and have a movie. On Christmas day everyone is coming over for cinnamon rolls and will play games until time for phone calls home. Hopefully everyone will feel welcomed and have a good time.

We had 7 baptisms yesterday. The font was under repair so the missionaries were excited to baptize in the ocean. I think there might have been some body surfing coming in to shore. Of course they say the waves were just too big! Unfortunately they did follow counsel and wear foot gear so today I had to take out a whole bunch of sea urchin spines. Elder Ence had around 30, I took out the major ones and will watch the others for problems.

This evening we had out Christmas Program and everything went well. The choir was great, with about 50 singers. We also performed last night at the community cultural center. They had a number of groups also performing, nice evening.

Well the big news is that we are being transferred. President Tolman says he needs us in Fogo. So around the 1st of the year we will pack our bags and head off to Fogo. This is the island with the active volcano. We will be living in Sao Felipe. So there might be a lag in the email for a week or two.

Well everyone have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Love To All,

E/S Waller, Mom & Dad, Bama & Bampa

Cape Verde Week 38

Bom Dia,

Well we have had a busy week. It started with Zone Conference and all that goes with having 22 Elders and Sisters around the area for a day or two. We had a very nice Christmas program during conference. A quartet sang a Christmas number which was very good.

We have 3 missionaries returning home this coming week, so lots of tears and pats on the back. Elder Campbell, Wood and Sister Bikhazi will leave this coming week. They are amazing missionaries and we look forward to seeing them at the fall reunion.
Life size mural of how things were unloaded off ships here in Mindelo around the 1900's.
We are now in the process of finalizing our Christmas activities. The District is putting on a Christmas Fireside, with choir and reading of the nativity. We sure are lucky, when they call for choir practice we have 30 youth show up. Some sing really well, and they all sing with enthusiasm. We are using a program that Sister Webster emailed to us with a few musical numbers from the “Forgotten Christmas Carol”. The Elders and Sisters have been practicing for a couple of weeks now and they sound really good.
We had lots of dinners this week with Missionaries. Sister Waller got a surprize when she washed the chicken, two feet sticking ou the neck hole.

Sister Waller had an interesting experience the other night. Sister Alencar and Pollard invited her to go with them to the hospital to visit a new mother and baby. So off they went to the hospital. Sister Waller has been there a number of times and so she went to the back entry. The guard let them in but escorted them to the front desk. There they were put on a waiting list to visit and required to pay 50 escudos or about 65 cents. After a 20 minute wait they were directed up stairs where they were asked for their pass card, which the desk guard didn’t give them. They informed the guard there that they were from the church, he finally said okay and they were admitted to the maternity ward. Evidently they have had problems so they really watch carefully plus make you pay to see patients.

We had 4 baptisms this week in the Ramo 2 & 4 area. Our new convert Jose has been given the Mel. Priesthood after only being a member 3 months, he conducted the meeting as the new branch mission leader. He did a really good job. We can see great things from him in the future.

Sister Bikhazi & Silveira with soon to be newly baptized members.
The last two Sunday’s we have had Primary programs in Sacrament meeting. Wow, have the children done a good job. Some branches are better prepared but all did well. The future lies in these little ones who will grow up and strengthen the church. It isn’t hard to imagine that in just a few short years, there will be a large missionary force from Cape Verde.

We received our 1st Christmas package from Neal & Connie. Sharon was excited to hear the rolling around in the box and guessed correctly, gum balls. We opened it for the cards for our Christmas tree. Thanks Neal & Connie!!
Our Christmas Card tree! Sister Bikhazi on her final day in Mindelo, all smiles.

Hopefully it will fill out this week.
Well everyone have a great week in preparation for Christmas. Love to everyone

E/S Waller, Mom & Dad, Chuck & Sharon, Bama & Bampa

Cape Verde Week 37

Boa Noite,

I keep getting later and later on my news letters. Maybe I am just hoping something really exciting will happen to put in the news letter. No such luck this week. So here goes with the up to date happenings in Mindelo.

We have had lunch week, if it is not the Sisters then it was the Elders. Some times we invited them, sometimes they invited themselves, but the last 4 days we have been busy feeding people. President & Sister Tolman are here for the weekend, we have Zone Conference tomorrow.

We are finally moving forward on a few Humanitarian projects, and hope to have final approval in the next week or so to progress. Sister Waller has been out tracting with both sets of Sisters and having some interesting experiences. But she always comes back feeling it was worth it. FHE found us with the Sisters and a family or 2 of 6 children of varying ages. I taught the lesson and had an object lesson also. They really like the object lesson. We then played a game and finally it was time to leave. Outside we all said goodbye and I reached back to grab Sister Waller hand and started down the alley. I walked a few steps and turned around and no Sister Waller. I had one of the teenager daughter’s hand and she was faithfully following along. Sister Waller was right behind her. She then said in broken English to us both “ you will be my friends forever?” How sweet, yes was our reply.

Today in Ramo ( Branch) 1 we had our Primary program. They did a wonderful job and sang beautifully. Sometimes they were at least one measure in front of Sister Waller’s playing, but they just kept going and eventually she caught up. We also had Branch conference in Ramo 3. I was called out of a meeting to do a setting apart of a new Elders Quorum President. I did the setting apart in English and the blessing in Portuguese. Everyone said I did great. There is improvement in our language skills.

Tomorrow is Zone conference and we are excited for the Christmas program. We have some special numbers planned.

Thanks for the cards and letters that keep trickling in.

Love The Waller’s , Mom & Dad, Bama & Bampa

Cape Verde Week 36

Boa Noite,

Well another week has slipped by with much happening here in Mindelo. Monday found me on the ferry to Santo Antao. I spent the day in Ribeira Grande on a humanitarian mission. We dispensed about 150 new infant kits to the hospital. They were supposed to have all the new mothers there but they decided to just have a small ceremony with the hospital Administrator and staff instead. Not what the program called for but it worked. The ferry ride over and back was rough but no real problems. Presentation to the Hospital Staff in Rebeira Grande.Elders Wood & Monteiro in Rebeira Grande

I am still doing the medical thing with the Elders & Sisters; this week a lot of Flu going around. We had one Elder hit by a taxi last Sunday but he is doing well, just bruised. A few sprains and as always many with diarrhea and stomach problems.

We had a number of luncheons this week, with both sets of Sisters and today with Elder Ballantyne and Morales. It is always fun to have them over. There has been and increase in tourism going on here in Mindelo, all the northerners trying to get out of the cold weather. So every day there seems to be a new cruise ship in the harbor and lots of old people walking around. Many of them look as if they are on their last legs, some walking with canes and limping severely. They are pleasant though and we stop and talk too many of them, trying to answer questions about Mindelo. Many wonder what we do here and that gives us and opportunity to share a little about the gospel, but most aren’t interested in lengthy discussions.

We had 3 baptisms this week; two young twins and a young sister. Elder Hill & Snow baptized the twins, who they consider golden. They are about 10-11 and are really smart and fun to be around, great testimonies. The elders continue to work with the rest of the family, with hopes.

Today was a busy Sabbath; we attended 2 sacrament meetings, had Elders for lunch, helped with an investigators discussion and attended choir practice. We then rushed home and webcammed with Scott and family.

Well that is about it for the week. Hope everyone is getting things ready for Christmas. Our few decorations are up and the Christmas music playing.

Love to all

E/S Waller, Bama & Bampa, Chuck & Sharon

PS: Thanks to all who sent Christmas cards, they are starting to arrive and I am making the Tree. Steve & Cath Parsons get the honor of being on top, as their card arrive from Australia 1st. Thanks to everyone.