Sunday, February 24, 2008
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Cape Verde Week 48
What a good week this has been! We started with a visit from Steve Jorgensen over the weekend that continued through Monday. I was able to visit some farms and tour the island. We had a slow drive around the island that took most of the day. The roads are all cobblestone so traffic goes slow. We were able to stop in Mosteiros on the other side of the island and visit with the Branch President for a few minutes. They have a lovely rented chapel that over looks the ocean.
Tuesday Sharon began teaching a new student, Paula. She is also going to start teaching another sister. So things are picking up in the music department. We still need to get someone from the Fonte Alexio Branch to take lessons.
We noticed that Sister Maria Antonia wasn’t in church on Sunday, so we decided to make a visit. It was a nice long visit. She basically told us her life story in 45 minutes. We understood some of what she said and the rest of the time just said, uh huh, sim. She seemed pleased that we cared enough to visit and we plan on visiting again each month.
We began preparing for Zone Conference and the arrival of President Kearon of the Area Presidency. President and Sister Tolman arrived back in Praia after their Conference ready for a whirl wind tour of the mission. They are to hold 4 Zone Conferences in 3days, so President Kearon can be heading home on Sunday. This is a great exercise in faith, as TACV (local airlines) is anything but reliable. We had a very nice conference and enjoyed the spirit of the meetings. The basic topic was “Enjoying the Spirit in Your Life” this coupled with “Teaching by the Spirit”. The sources were all from “Preach My Gospel”. This was Elder Mendonca’s last Zone Conference. He will be missed as a full time missionary, but will be a great asset where ever he lives. The Church needs more Elder Mendonca’s here in Cape Verde.
Our weather has started to turn hotter, and hotter. We do cool off in the evenings and early morning hours, but mid day is rather warm. So we keep our activities limited during the hottest times of the day. We received word that our Christmas package from Erika, has arrived in Mindelo and is being forwarded over to us. Wow, it only took 2 ½ months to get here!!!
We had a nice luncheon with the Tolman’s and President Kearon. We learned a little about him and his family. 1st he knows some friends of ours from Britain, Mike & Patricia Beere. He is married and his wife is from California. They have 3 girl ages 11, 8, and 4. They live outside of Bristol, England. He works as a Consultant in a Computer Communications firm.
We received from Sister Tolman, some recent Church News, and noticed they are starting to announce Mission Presidents. We are anxiously awaiting the announcement of Joselita DeCosta Neves from Mindelo, especially where he will serve. He will be wonderful as a Mission President, and Mafalda will be great as Mission Mom.
Well that is about it for this week. Hope this finds everyone happy and looking forward to spring weather. Oh Sister Marinho is doing well, MOM, we got her on the right medication and the cellulitis is resolving nicely. Sorry to worry you. Other Missionary news, Sister Vaterlaus is in her last transfer, and what a transfer. She is having remarkable experiences. She is not walking out the last transfer but running full steam, great example. Elder Mendonca is getting ready for our visit to Brava in a few weeks. For those who don’t know, Brava is the “End of the World”. When you go to Brava, you have to stay for 2-4 days, depending on when the next boat can bring you back. Also there are few places to stay, the missionaries assure us there is a nice Hostel, but we have learned to be wary of missionary recommendations on accommodations.
Ocean view just outside the Chapel in Mosteiros. Below is the Chapel in Mosteiros and Brother Lourenco of the Ashby Foundation.
Volcano on the return trip, white clouds are gas escaping from vents around the mountain. There has been two major erutptions in the last 50 yrs. The worse was in 1959, and caused most of the lava flows seen today.
View from the ridge on the road home. Note lava flow to the left, village at the bottom is abandoned.
Zone Conference Fogo: bottom left to right Elders Dos Reis, Mendonca, Fortes, Thompson; 1st row President Kearon, Sister Tolman, Waller, Elder Waller, De Cruz, Hernandez, Da Cruz; Back row Elders Da Luz, President Tolman, Sister Duarte, Marinho, Elders Silva & Kinghorn
Sister Waller & Tolman checking out the pictures of England & France
Sisters Marinho & Duarte enjoying the Dinner at Clube Tropicale. Below Elder Mendonca all smiles for his last Zone Conference.
Sister Marinho enjoying the conversation at dinner. Below President Kearon and Elder Hernandez.
Tchau to everyone, hope you have a great week. Love to all.
E/S Waller, Mom & Dad, Bama & Bampa
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Cape Verde Week 47
It is interesting to watch the change in people’s lives as they accept the gospel principles. The change can be very dramatic. We continue to watch the people here in Cape Verde, unfortunately many fall by the way side and fail to persevere to the end. We are having a difficult time getting people to accept callings and if they do accept to fulfill their callings. I have been working all week on a Branch President’s training program to present. I believe the problem here lies not so much in the willingness to serve but just basic knowledge on how to. So my presentation gets rather simplistic.
It seems we have to keep things simple and develop later on in the training process. For example; I need to get the Branch Presidents to recognize the need for a Presidency meeting, PEC and Branch Council meetings. They look at these meetings as just a waste of time, plus they can’t get anyone to come to the meetings. Well anyway it is a challenge.
We made a number of visits this week. We went to President Barros home, he is BP for the Fonte Alexio Branch and he basically told us he has never been visited. He does live a few miles out and it is expense to hire a taxi to go that far, but we made it and had a nice visit. We also visit his counselor’s family for FHE. They get so excited to hear you are coming to their homes. We had a nice visit and I gave the lesson and showed pictures of our family.
Sister Marinho developed an infection on her ankle this week. She had a mosquito bite that she scratched and developed a large cellulitis up the leg. Her ankle was quite swollen and luckily we could get a good antibiotic. After staying off of it for a day it is looking much better.
President & Sister Tolman are off on vacation this week. I hope they read this! Cause England this time of year is probably no vacation, cold and damp. They have Mission Presidents Conference with the West Europe Area. They will be returning this week only to face a whirl wind tour of the mission with the 2nd Counselor in the Area Presidency, President Kearon. We are looking forward to his visit and instruction.
We had the good fortune of having Steve Jorgensen visit us this week end. He was here checking out the farming situation. He wants to set up test plots with local farmers to use chemical to control insect and fungus; hoping to increase production and quality of the vegetables. I was able to go around with him and visit some farms, very small, but they were well run. They were using some chemicals but need to be more efficient. We plan on going around the island on Monday to check for additional sites. Steve is a long time friend from Moses Lake, a farmer, and grows the largest potatoes you have ever seen!
A field of cabbage on Jose Fernandez land. He had a good variety of crops.
Steve Jorgensen with President Piries family in Cova Figueira. Church today was good. I did my 1st training for BP. It went okay but I think they were a little overwhelmed. So I will go back in 2 weeks and monitor their progress in holding a good BP meeting. Hopefully I can get around to all the Branches and assist them in functioning better. We are scheduled to meet in Mosteros next week on a District assignment. It is on the other side of the island and takes a good while to get there and back; so a new adventure coming up.
We had a visit this afternoon by Elders Da Cruz & De Cruz. It was interesting trying to figure out what they were saying. We fed them carrot cake and loaded them down with cookies. They were happy when they left. The carrot cake was a first for them, they weren’t to sure about it at first, but were all smiles at the end.
FHE with Jose's family; Deborah, Nina, Jasy
Jose and Sandra's family. They were able to attend the Temple in Recife, Brazil, last year.
Sister Duarte from Brazil.
We found out the Elders from Cova Figueria were coming into town for their Preparation day so we hurried up and invited them to lunch, they were all smiles. Elders Silva from Mindelo and Elder Hernandez from Palm Desert, California.
Well after 3 mission our sheets are starting to wear out. So Sharon is in the patching mode. We now feel like we are sleeping on quilts, but they should last till we go home. The sheetwill not be coming home with us. Ashby Foundation is setting up sewing classes and Sharon was able to use one of their machines.
Well hope everyone has a good week, and are happy and healthy.
Love to all
E/S Waller, Mom & Dad, Bama & Bampa
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Cape Verde week 46
This has been a busy and sometimes frustrating week. It all started with transfers on Monday. Sister Delgado was heading home and Elder Badesso was being transferred to Mindelo. They arrived at the airport on time to find the plane had arrived early and was just leaving, an hour early. Their seats had been given to standby passengers. So they were without seats and had to wait till the next day. They were lucky to get standby seat on Tuesday. Sister Duarte was transferred here from Praia and she too missed her flight because it left early; so the office was scrambling to book new flights, and of course pay the new charge for a ticket transfer. We finally got everyone here by Wednesday, except the new missionary to serve on Brava. He would not arrive till Friday.
City of Sao Filipe Mural
We held FHE with President Goncalves family. They have a little 2 y/o named Melissa, she is a cutie but going to be a handful. We have officially started our cookie making and the missionaries are becoming aware that a visit usually ends up with a few cookies. So we get visitors quite often. This week it was oatmeal, walnut and chocolate chip cookies, hmmmmmm good! 
Some Local foliage around the apartment.
We are slowly getting the general feel of the city. We walk just about everywhere except the Fonte Alexio Chapel. It is quite a ways up the mountain and a taxi is a nice change. Monday through Wednesday was Carnival here on Fogo. Most of the stores, as well as the schools were shut down. We have heard how bad the Carnival is on other islands, but the members here said it was good. The main parade was on Tuesday in the afternoon. So we went over one block and watched the parade. The costumes we good, the dancing okay and in general everyone was well behaved. They had a few floats and the children dressed up like Halloween; we saw, snow white, princesses, ballerinas, batman, superman, and zorro. There was one girl on a float who was doing dancing moves I thought impossible, I have the video, I made the Elders cover their eyes. But in general it was much like the 24th of July Parade, except the music was more African drums. Check out the small slideshow at the begin of this weeks blog. The people were friendly one lady even leaned on Sharon's leg for awhile!!
Sharon started piano lessons with Solange ( BP’s wife) and she feels she will do well. The Branch Presidents are looking for 2-3 more people to take lessons.
We fumigated the apartment on Thursday as we started to be invaded by tiny black ants and an occasional cockroach. This required leaving the apartment; so we wandered the city sat in parks and visited with the locals. They are very friendly and about one in every 6 person is a member, although most are inactive. 
Three youth we stopped and talked to for awhile; Joselle, Joselma, Zenlita
I spent some hrs preparing for HT assignment and training meeting coming up this Sunday. We have Branches that don’t hold any Presidency meetings, PEC, or council meetings. They basically just try to get the Sunday meetings done and that is the extent of their calling. So major training this weekend! We will see how it is accepted.
Thursday we had Elders Kinghorn, Mendonca, and Fortes over for lunch. We enjoyed a nice visit with them. We had a nice lunch of spaghetti casserole (singles ward recipe), jello, carrots, rolls and chocolate cake. It is good we only do this once a week or I would be putting my weight back on.
Sharon studying in the park next to our apartment, Aguadinha.
Saturday was a VT/HT day and we spent the day visiting with members. We did a lot of walking. Sharon went with Solange and I went with the Branch President, we both were able to put in our two cents. We understand more and more Portuguese each day. Today in Elders Quorum the lesson was given by Alberto (a Cuban) and his Portuguese was slow and deliberate, so I understood much of what was said in the meeting. Nice change.
Well must close for now. Tchau
E/S Waller, Bama, Bampa, Mom & Dad
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Cape Verde Week 45
Another week has flown by here in Sao Felipe, Cape Verde. We had the opportunity to attend the Cova Figueira Branch and speak in Sacrament Meeting. Everyone was nice enough to speak in Portuguese instead of Creole which helped immensely. We had 2 baptisms on Saturday of youth. On the ride over to Cova Figueria we had a flat tire but managed to get it fixed quickly. The tire was almost bald, the spare was bald. The driver, Pedrinho, had fairly good tires on the back but the front tires were badly worn. I told him he had it backwards and that he needed the better tires on the front for traction and steering. He would have none of it, so on goes the no tread tire.
Our beloved Prophet, we will miss him and his wonderful example and sense of humor.Monday we spent getting the screens up in the house and attending District meeting. We were all a little somber over the passing of President Hinckley, but at the same time happy for him, as he is now back with his lovely wife. We were up most of the night Sunday with a sick Elder. Elder Alexander called at about 1:30 am with low back pain on the left side, severe pain, that came on all of a sudden. I knew the feeling ( Kidney stones) and gave him some counsel. He received a blessing and struggled through the night for about 5 hrs. Finally at around 6 the pain subsided and he was able to rest. I told him to drink about 2 liters of water each day for the next couple of days. Well if 2 liters is good, 7 must be better, at least that is what he thought. I was a little worried that he had so much water, but he had been in the bathroom most of the day, emptying the 7 liters. Monday night he passed another stone, again a sleepless night. I reemphasized the 2 liters only and got Elder Brewer to take him to the Doctor and get an ultrasound. That was finally done on Friday and did in fact show stones still in the kidneys. We are waiting for the Area Medicals advice. Of course all the Elder’s and Sister’s are drinking lots of water, now.
Sister Waller distributing some newborn infant kits at the clinic.We had a nice visit on Thursday with Solange. She is a return missionary who is married to the branch President. They have one child, Melissa, who is 2yrs old. She is quite the young lady. President Goncalves is suffering from Hepatitis A, which he has had for a number of years. He has been over to Praia get the correct diagnosis and treatment. Solange is Sharon’s new VT companion and they should be getting their list of Sisters to visit this Sunday. She speaks very little English and so we have a good time communicating but seem to do okay.
This is our favorite restaurant "The Tropical Clube".We met a few youth in town the other day they were from Mosteiros, a city on the other side of the island. They stopped and talked to us while we were taking a breather from walking the hills. They were inactive members but we invited them to church, and we shall see. We also met a gentleman who has had family here since 1741. He spoke a number of languages including English. He has been away from the island for years living in Angola, Italy, and Germany. He is back in town to sell his home and move back to Angola where his wife is from, she doesn’t like it here. We continue to meet people and try to remember names, but they are starting to run together.
This coming weekend is Carnival here in Cape Verde. The school children had been parading around town in costumes, which has been fun to watch. Hopefully it will stay that way over the weekend.
Kids playing plastic jugs for drums and costumes, makes carnival fun for everyone.Today we are preparing for the funeral services of President Hinckley. We are setting up the internet for the broadcast so the Missionaries can view the proceedings. So our week has bee relatively full. We hope all is well with you all. The Lord lives and this work of spreading the gospel is so important. Lives change so dramatically when people repent, accept and make covenants. We were glad to see Doug and Connie, John and Peggy in the MTC. We know both you couples will do great things. We sure need more couples to lay aside the things of the world and seek for a better in the mission field. You will never regret the time spent serving.
Sister Marinho stays to help us with English and Portuguese, yipppeee.Love to all
Carmalita and Laureni members of the Branch here in Sao Filipe.E/S Waller, Mom& Dad, Bama & Bampa