Hey Everyone!!

We have had a pretty sweet week! Elder Otterstrom is awesome. He actually likes to eat good food so me and him have been buying fruit and eggs and making good food. I feel like a king. We usually make some eggs, ham and sausage with some cheese, its money. We also make this homemade ice cream usually once a week that is so easy and so good. It’s just cream and sweet condensed milk and then we put in cookies. It’s so good!!

We found our baptismal candidate Koko finally. He is never home, ever!!! He is actually sitting right next to me right at the computer cafe haha. I just had him add me on Facebook haha He seems to have a genuine desire to follow this path and be baptized, except he didn’t come to church when he promised me. That’s one thing about Cabo Verde is you can get some on to promise and swear on their life and they will say yes but still not do it. It’s frustrating.

We have been meeting with this girl named Dilza. She said she wants to learn more about our church. Apparently her mom doesn’t like us that much. Just as we gave her the invitation to pray about Joseph Smith, her mom was calling her. Apparently, her mom was drunk. Dilza also promised to go to church but we didn’t see her. That’s how it goes sometimes..

The computer cafe is going to close in a second, so we might go to another one and finish!

I love you all,

Elder Rice

Tudo Bem!!!!

We had an awesome week this week!!!!!! My new companion arrived this Wednesday! He is such a boss, he is super obedient, he works hard and he’s a nice guy, I love him. Since he hadn’t arrived until Wednesday, i had a temporary companion named Elder Ensign that was my companion for 2 days. He has been out for 3 transfers and now he is training this French elder named Elder Guy (pronounced Gee).

The first couple days of this week were pretty slow. Everyone that we had planned was not in their house. Cabo Verdeans do not have schedules; if something comes up they leave. It was pretty frustrating, but we ended up working with a bunch of really awesome members that gave us some awesome references. We started teaching Nita and Carla (Aunt and Niece). They are pretty awesome, they want to be baptized. We had only talked to Nita twice and she came to church this Sunday, it was sweet. We also found this guy named Dani who is always so excited to talk to us. We set a time to meet him yesterday and we called I’m and he showed up like a minute later. He loves to read the bible. When we asked him if he'd be baptized he said he'd like to know more of our doctrine and see if its true and with accordance with the bible. He then went on to say that he wants us to get him a doctrine and covenants and a Book of Mormon!!!! He is going to be awesome, i can tell!!!! We have been working hard these last couple days, because so little people are hope when they promise they will be home, we have been marking a lesson for every half an hour, its been working pretty great.

 A handful of the inactive members that we have been teaching came to church this Sunday, it was AWESOME!! Also, the Ponta Verde family is doing great. Domingo's wife arrived this week and we will be starting their marriage papers so they can be baptized together before they go back to Praia. Antonio is stoked for baptism, and we marked a baptismal date with the boyfriend of member of the Ponta Verde family. We also found a girl that had a baptismal date a while ago, but someone she knew died on the day and she couldn’t go so the others missionaries dropped her. We are going to help here be baptized.

Aguinaldo is still doing awesome, he goes to all the church activities, the church is going to have a campout and he is going to that too. He is trying to bring people to church and reading the Book of Mormon. Yesterday we had a lesson with him and talked about some stories in the Book of Mormon, it was awesome!!!!

Overall, its been an awesome first week, we are going to work even hard this week and hopefully have even more success!!! I'm so excited for this week, i cant wait to see how it goes. The work is going awesome, we have so much to do, but it is so worth it. I would not be out here in the middle of nowhere, getting skinny for nothing. Im here because I know this is the best message in the world. I guarantee that any person that reads the Book of Mormon will be more happy, closer to their Heavenly Father, learn about Christ and strengthen their family. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. It is proof that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that we have a prophet today. I can’t believe I didn’t read it that much at home. READ IT!!!!!!! It is easily my favorite book, because it makes me happy. Its seriously incredible!!!

Love,

Elder Rice

Hey Everyone!!!

I can’t believe that I have already been here for a transfer. This month and a half has gone faster than i could ever describe. I will be staying in the same area but I will have a different companion, his name is Elder Odderstrom, he was actually the MTC companion of my trainer Elder Christensen. We will be district leaders, or more like, he will be the district leader, because I don’t think you can be a district leader until after 2 transfers. Anyway, it should be an awesome transfer, we are going to kill it!

We had a family home evening with one of the ward families. Their family is so solid, their kids have such solid testimonies, and most want to serve missions. We brought our recent converts, Aguinaldo and Jardell. IT was awesome, they had a lot of fun! We also gave them pictures of us with them at their baptisms, it was sweet! Earlier this week while we were going to have a less active lesson we ran into this kid named Carlos and we set a time to mark with him. We went back to his house the next day and he wasn’t there, but his dad was. It turns out his dad is the Church gardener and he is a member. We had a lesson with him and his wife, it was sweet. Turns out Carlos is a member too, we are going to work to reactivate them.

We have also been teaching this couple that got married in the Church at the beginning of the transfer. The wife said that her husband was drinking and that if he didn’t change they would divorce. The sisters and we have been teaching them as a couple and shared some scriptures and the family proclamation to the world. Now, the wife says that everything is perfectly fine. They pray together and read the proclamation! I love how central families are in God’s plan. Families are the way we can be happy. But only through the teachings and gospel of Jesus Christ can a family truly have an everlasting happiness, eternal life.

 We also worked with this member named Alex. He is great. He has his mission call to Brazil. We have been working with him, to teach his mom, Else, who is not a member. We had some really great lessons with her and Alex. Alex is so happy that we are teaching her. Alex just found out yesterday that he would leave this morning, so he is gone now, but we are going to continue to teach his mom. It is truly a sweet experience to help families become stronger and prepare to be an eternal family.

We also met with a woman named Zaza for the first time. We had an awesome first lesson with her and marked her for baptism. She says she wants to feel the same "light and happy" feeling she has when she meets with the missionaries always. That would be my friend the Holy Ghost! I think she is going to progress great!

An inactive named Macho hasn’t been going to church lately and so we decided we would have a lesson with him. In the lesson he said he wants to serve a mission! So the next day, he came to church and talked to President Teixera about the plan he needs to make. He came out and taught with us yesterday and he had a lot of fun!

We went to the beach today for p day on the black sand of Fogo, it was awesome. We played soccer and a game called Ninja, it was pretty goofy! Overall, awesome week! Awesome transfer! This transfer is going to be even better!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My new companion will not be here until Thursday so I have Elder Ensign who is on his third transfer. We will be working to together this week. I’m excited because I get to lead, this week is gonna be awesome!! We are not going to stop working this week. I can describe how pumped I am.

It’s a bit frustrating when people don’t understand how huge our message, how life changing this message is. No matter who you are, how happy you are, how good your family is, the gospel of Jesus Christ that has been once again restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints will make your life better. Any one that doesn’t believe me, just try, what’s the harm. I wouldn’t be in the middle of nowhere if I didn’t know that this message is 100% true.

 Love,

 Elder Rice

Hey Everyone!!!!

 I can´t believe I am about to end my first transfer already, that went to fast!! Seriously 6 weeks just flew, i don’t know how that’s possible!! So the new house we moved into is awesome! Its clean, there’s not as many bugs and it doesn’t get robbed. Funny story, the first night we were trying to get into the house, we were told that the lock is a bit faulty and you have to maneuver it a certain way. Me and my companion tried for a good 20 minutes, didn’t open. Then it was my turn and apparently I turned it the wrong way and it got stuck and the key would NOT come out. After a good 15 minutes of jiggling thing, my companion starts kicking the key, why i don’t know, and it he bent it haha. After another 20 minutes we ended up having to get one of the managers (who was drunk, since it was new years). He wiggled it for like 10 seconds and then broke the window. We got in! We had a Family Home Evening that night at a members, which was bomb, we all talked about goals we wanted for the new year. One of recent converts goals were to prepare to serve a mission and keep the commandments, yes! That night, music was blaring so loud, all night, couldn’t get to sleep at all. The people in Cabo Verde will party for days on end, it was 6:30 am and people were still blaring music and dancing haha.

This week we started up teaching a guy named Kookoo. He is 20, he has a brother that is active and he has been taught in the past. He works to build houses all the time and he is hard to find. We set up a baptismal date with him and we will continue to teach him. Then there is Catiu, who is never at his house, no matter what time of day or if we set up a lesson with him. He is 12 and has family who are members. He has a grandma that usually just yells at us when we come by, cause we pass so many times. Catiu also has a baptismal date. We are also teaching a brother and sister named Marcira and Marcio. We challenged them to pray together and they did that night, we also gave them a Book of Mormon, we will see how they did today. The family that lives in Ponta Verde is doing awesome! President Olivera (president of the mission) came to visit Sao Filipe and he went to visit the Ponta Verde family. He likes them a lot, and he is considering opening up an area down there if the family will help spread the gospel with others. We taught them before church this Sunday, they are awesome. I think we may be going out there by taxi sometime this week. Maiza has had doubts about baptism ever since her husband came home, she actually told us to wait a week before we came back, its kind sad, because she was so solid.

 Our recent convert Aguinaldo is a boss. He loves coming to church, all the activities, baptism, special events and others. he is the man. I love him. He hasn’t drank alcohol, he is reading in the book of Mormon and he is even singing in sacrament now. he bore his testimony at the baptism and on Sunday, it was awesome, i couldn’t stop smiling. During church, he asked me when he could pay his tithing!!! And we had a lesson on the priesthood that day and he wants to receive the priesthood. We talked with the Branch President after church.. It will be sweet! Aguinaldo´s kid hates us because one day we were in town and he found us and he wanted us to buy him a remote control car from the Chinese store and we said no. He doesn’t talk to us now.

Overall awesome week, this week should be even better! I love the work. I know this is the RESTORED Gospel of Jesus Christ. The exact same doctrines that Jesus Christ taught back in his day. I know that we have a living Prophet that holds the proper keys and authority to direct this church, and through Joseph Smith we now have The Church of Jesus Christ, just as it was, one more time before the Coming of Christ. The message is real, this message changes lives, i don’t know how id live without it.

I love you all

Elder Rice

Hey Everyone,

We had to move this week so we took a lot of our time doing that. I will not have time to write a lot right now. I enjoyed all of your letters. Sorry to hear that Danny couldn’t wrestle.

This week, Aguinaldo got baptized. He drank and smoked for a good portion of his life. He dropped it all to be baptized. He actually was waiting an hour before his baptism, it was funny. And then at church the next day he showed up an hour early too. We had him sit in an lesson with us, and when we asked him a question he went off saying that "faith is keeping commandments" and then he named the 5 things of the word of wisdom "tea, coffee, smoking, alcohol and drugs", it was awesome.

One day this week we planned to go out to Ponta Verde and teach the family out there. Its about a 25 minute drive. We taught their whole family about the plan of salvation and how they could live together forever, it was cool! We will not be able to baptize them on the 12th of January like we planned because at this rate we will only be seeing them 2x times a week, once during the week and once before church. They are solid, and they will be baptized next transfer. Maiza's husband and her kids went out of town, so we will also be postponing their baptism because we want to teach them together and baptize them together.

Things are a little weird in Cabo Verde or Fogo around the holidays. A lot of people are simply not home or do not want to talk because they have parties. And there are a significant number of drunk people that roam the streets and yell. For some reason the drunk people loving talking to Elders, its not very fun, haha.

We have been moving houses all of today because our last house kept getting robbed. Our new house is actually clean and doesn’t have bugs everywhere; hopefully we can keep it that way. President Oliveira will be visiting the islands for interviews on the 8th right before transfers. I think i may be staying here in Sao Filipe to finish of my training, but you never know!

Anyway, the work is going great! I’m having a lot of fun. I have a firm testimony that the message i am sharing it 100 percent true. Any person that listens to this message, it will change their life. Only by the gospel of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us can we truly be happy. A lot of people mix up happiness and pleasure. Pleasure is temporary, happiness is forever. We can be happy with our families for ever, in this life and this next. I know this is true, because it has been personally made sure through prayer and an answer from God. I love you all and have an awesome week!

Elder Rice