Cape Verde Week 61

Boa Noite,

It has been a busy week which started with Zone Conference. This was President & Sister Tolman’s last Zone Conference here on Fogo. It was a special meeting and we all enjoyed the spirit that was felt. One highlight was Sister Duarte bearing her testimony in English. She did a wonderful job and her smile was so beautiful.

Tuesday President Tolman and I visited Cova Figueira. We held meetings with the District President and his counselor, and then traveled to Mosteiros for a meeting with the Branch President. By the time we were through with the meetings it was late afternoon. President Pires said if we didn’t get him something to eat we needed to take him to the cemetery. I suppose he was hunger. So we stopped for cookies and soda which kept us going till we got home. This is our new Temple in Curitba Brazil. How we wish we were there for the dedication. It is a beautiful Temple in a beautiful setting.

Sister Waller & Tolman played host to the Sister missionaries for lunch and had a great girl’s afternoon just visiting and chatting. Both Sister Waller & Tolman need the time together and enjoy each others company. President Tolman and I arrived home, hungry, so we went out to eat at the Xaguate Hotel restaurant. We had a nice meal and a great visit. We will miss the Tolman’s as they head home in 6 weeks.

Wednesday we held FHE with Lilina’s family and had a good lesson about the Plan of Salvation. We played a game of guess the question and get a face full of water, and I got lucky. They all thought it very funny when I got my face splashed; it was rather refreshing, actually!

We held a District meeting on Thursday and music lessons. Plus I began preparation for the District Training meeting on Saturday. I was responsible to train the clerks and secretaries. I keep repeating much of my training because they are slow to make changes. I have one Branch President who I think has a learning disability. Actually he just likes to do things his way. I train and train and train but no change, no change, no change; hmmmm, am I learning patience? I am trying!!

Saturday was the big training session that went well in Cova Figueira. The rid on the very crowded rented bus was fun. Every seat filled with enthusiastic young people, the future of Cape Verde! During the week I went with the District President and bought paint for the Elder’s apartment in Cova Figueira. It cost well over $400, I was shocked. The paint alone was 30,000 escudos which is about $420, yikes; you think it was paint for the Taj Mahal. It was just a water based paint!

Today we traveled to Mosteiros for Sacrament and training of the leadership. We took along Elder Day to do some translating, but once I got going I didn’t need him very much. It was a good meeting and hopefully my talk in sacrament meeting will get the members to think about serving in the church.

We helped the Sister’s with a meeting this evening with a less active family. Two of the young ones were just baptized but the mom is not very active. So we went and had a nice visit, and I gave a lesson on Faith and the need to keep the commandments. This is our ZoneConference lucheon at the Club Tropicale. Everyone enjoy the time together and the food! Elders Fernandez, Da Luz, De Cruz, Da Cruz, Kinghorn, Day, Reynolds, Luthi, Ellis, Silva; Sister's Skinn, Duarte and President & Sister Tolman.

Well we hope everyone is doing well and in good health. We love and appreciate you all.

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

Cape Verde week 60

Boa Noite,

We have seen some of the tender mercies this week, here in Fogo. We have a number of couples preparing to go to the temple and the Lord has intervened in their behalf, helping them prepare. Alberto & Zita have been trying to locate the father of Zita’s 1st child to be able have her sealed to Alberto. This was difficult as he is in Portugal and they have not been in contact for well over a year. But a little miracle, his brother dropped by one night and gave her his brother’s telephone number, they hadn’t even asked yet. So they contacted him and the papers are on the way.

Danny & Nea are also getting ready to go and are well on their way to being prepared for the temple trip in July. They have even saved a good amount for the trip, which is usual here in Cabo Verde.

We have continued to endure the election and noise which should end this weekend. We attended our 1st Cabo Verde wedding on Monday. It was a nice affair and the couple looked happy. They had many quest and the ceremony was simple. The Bride was elegant and all the bridesmaids looked beautiful. We enjoyed the ceremony but didn’t attend the reception as they had plenty of quests. I was called on to direct the young women’s special number. They did really well on the new hymn they sang. They are so use to singing a capela so their timing and just following the notes is off sometimes. But they have great enthusiasm!!!
Young womens singers. LoLo & Zeneia wedding picture.Brides maids all decked out.

We began teaching a less active family, I believe I mentioned this last week, and we held FHE with them. It went very well and they are excited about us returning with another lesson. We spent much of the week preparing for Zone Conference. We are presently some medical charts for the missionaries to follow. We are also formulating a list of groceries for each mission to use every week. We hope to improve on the nutrition and diet. The Sister’s do really well but the Elder’s are into junk food and fix it quick stuff, like eating a whole box of cereal in one sitting. Carmelita, Lourenco and Lorena at the wedding.
Sister Waller and Ariana and her son at the wedding.

It has been a good weekend as the Tolman’s are here for the last visit to Fogo. We enjoyed having them over on Saturday and catching up on the mission news. Unfortunately the President has been under the gun, so to speak, with many problems over the last two weeks. He looks tired and I think is really looking forward to July and being released. Elder & Sister Killpack left the mission, after serving only 4 months, they had an extremely difficult time adjusting to 3rd world conditions and the mission. So I have assumed the medical role again. We wish them well.

We seem to be doing better each week and are having success in meeting people. They are starting to understand, slow down when they speak, and we go away understand a good portion of what was said. At least I understood what I said, sometimes though; Sharon just shakes her head at my verbiage.

Our grand-daughter Mirra passed away after 7 weeks of mortality. The funeral and services were held this week. It was hard not to be there and try to be supportive. We recognize the blessing she has been already in her parents lives, and hope the little miracle she was continues to influence them and their family. We recognize the hand of a Loving Heavenly Father and appreciated the “tender mercies” that are found, when we try to follow his commandments.
Well that is about it for this week. May the Lord Bless you all and keep you safe. The Gospel is true and our Father in Heaven is aware of each of us and our needs. Tchau till next week.

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

Cape Verde Week 59

Boa tarde,

Some things never change, like elections. I have been trying to stay up to date on the elections at home, very discouraging and now we are into locate elections her in Cape Verde. They are much like the elections in Brazil, loud and very loud. At times it seems the candidate who can drive around the biggest truck with the loudest speakers is named the winner. Each day this past week the noise has gotten worse, the walls shake, ear drums hurt!! We have one more week of this, and then we hope things will be quiet and peaceful.

The week has been a good one as both Sharon and I seem to be feeling better. We have been out and about some visiting and teaching. This always helps to lift the spirits. Sharon even made cookies this week, Elders and Sisters will love the snicker doodles. Sharon is seeing progress in a few students and keeps reminding them to practice, as we only have a few months left.

We continue to make progress in our Portuguese, but when we speak everyone seems to revert to creole and who can understand that? It is like ebonics in the US, very, but here it is very poor, lazy Portuguese. Everyone wants us to learn it as they all say it is so easy, but we continue to resist as it would ruin what Portuguese we have learned.

We visited a home yesterday of an inactive member. We have been assigned to help activate the family. The father was a Branch President many years ago but left the church and the family has floundered. They have 4 children, the oldest 19 down to 11, and none have been baptized. So we start from the ground floor in teaching and hopefully we can get the mother to remember her covenants and try to set the proper example. This, we pray, will be the positive influence needed in the family to help the father overcome his problems. So we will start with FHE and teaching the simple discussions. The oldest boy can hardly read, and only finished the 6th grade. This is very common here in the islands. It makes it extremely difficult for them to progress in life with such little education. The parents have no conception of the potential that each child holds and how education is the key.

This week we received the bad news that the ferry service to Fogo and Brava is out. A month ago one of the 2 ferries sank in rough water. Then this week the other ferry sank. These 2 ferries were our source of food for the island. They were also the only source of transportation to Brava. Fortunately no lives were lost, but the cargo of food, vehicles and such have hurt the economy here and prices are climbing. Elders Ellis and Silva, on Brava, aren’t sure if they will make it to Zone Conference next week. We hope they find some newer boats. We were supposed to go to Brava this coming week, but we didn’t want to think about, how long can you tread water? The trip is off, so says Sister Waller & Tolman! This is one of the boats that sank this past month. It now lies in very deep water.

I have been asked to take over the role of mission medical for awhile. So the missionaries are all looking forward to the “take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning” routine. Actually I don’t think we can get aspirin here in Cabo Verde. I suppose I need to work on my bed side manners and when they need mothering, hand the phone to Sister Waller. My “so you have worms, go back to work” doesn’t work sometimes. Actually everyone is doing well at the present moment. We do have the usual bouts of diarrhea, but that is expected when you realize where we are and what the missionaries are eating. Plus the fact that they don’t wash their hands nearly enough!! So more health training is in order.

We have settled in well here in Sao Filipe and the members feel comfortable in speaking to us. All the women give each other 2 kisses (one on each cheek) at greetings and they also give their close friends the same greeting. Well yesterday at the baptism, irmã Nea greeted Sister Waller with the kissing thing, and then turned to me and started to do the same thing. She caught herself and got this oh no look on her face, so I just gave her the two kiss greeting. Well I suppose the word got around, so today after Sacrament meeting irmã Seena gives me a hug! That might be going a little too far!

We have been invited to our 1st wedding here in Cabo Verde tomorrow. It should quite the experience and we look forward to pictures and the experience.

Well tchau for this week and Happy Mother’s Day!!

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


Elder Reynolds and DaCruz top, and Day & Kinghorn bottom having some fun on "P-day".
This is Ideal Delgado and his bride Ideia. They live on Brava and just got married and left for the Temple in Recife, Brazil. They were very happy and we look forward to their return.Sister Duarte & Skinn at this weeks baptism of Deborah. Her uncle Tony performed the baptism and is shown with his sister and Deborahs mother.

Tchua!!!!

Cape Verde Week 58

Bom dia,

It has been one of those weeks with ups and downs. A lot has depended on how much we had to walk. This week Sao Filipe celebrated their annual week long festival. The activities began around 7PM every evening and ended some where around 4 AM. Since our apartment is located on the cross roads with main roads in front and behind the apartment, we got a lot of early morning traffic. There was noise most of the night and so sleep was difficult.

We had the missionaries in at 7pm every evening this week, just to play it safe. Besides no one was at home to teach, they were all out partying. During the day we would have a drunk or two wandering the streets but things were safer. We had a real influx of visitors to the island. They came from all the other islands and some from the US to be in on the celebration. The city put on a fireworks display and they had a music group come in from Brazil. So it was a big deal for the city. We just kept our heads down and aren’t really sure what they were celebrating. It might be a Catholic holiday celebration, not sure.

Sharon’s music students all took vacations and didn’t show for lessons. Most of the Elders and Sisters said that it was a difficult week as most people were unavailable or not at home. Sharon and I did a few visits and started a few people on genealogy. With few people having the opportunity to attend the temple, the vision of Temple work is a slow process to develop. We have a young couple from Brava leaving for the Temple in Recife, Brazil. He is a return missionary and we are excited for them and their new beginning.

Last week end was transfers so district meeting was changed to Thursday. It seemed all had a small part in the training. Sharon gave a good spiritual thought on lessons learned from her studies. She worked hard to prepare it in Portuguese and did very well. On Wednesday we had the missionaries here in Sao Filipe over for chili and a movie. They watched “The Best Two Years” with Spanish subtitles. Everyone enjoyed the evening together. We also had the Sisters over for FHE and enjoyed the evening together, playing UNO and the dessert was great.

Sister Duarte, Skinn and Waller working on a photo project for the grandaughters.

We have a Baptism this weekend. The Sisters have been working with a young girl, Deborah. Her mother is a member but inactive and many in the extended family are members. She has been a regular at church for a number of months and has a cousin who is very active; so we get to witness another baptism this weekend, yahoo.

I was reading an article from last November Ensign and came across this quote that fits well for the people here in Cape Verde. They have many traditions that are bad and many parents have set extremely poor examples for their children. Elder Hales has said; “If the example we have from our parents was not good, it is our responsibility to break the cycle… Each person can learn a better way and in so doing bless the lives of family members now and teach correct traditions for the generations that follow”. We hope this can be implicated here in Cape Verde… breaking the cycle of bad traditions.

Well that is about it for this week. Tchau

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