Hey Everyone,

Holy cow! This transfer has flown by. We only have one more week, that’s ridiculous!!!! Time is so obscure on the mission. Apparently some missionaries in Praia looked at a board that has the transfers on it and they are telling everyone. Apparently one of the zone leaders in our house is going AP, we will see. I don’t know where I’m going, but I am excited to serve no matter where I go!!!

This week was Carnival, a holiday thing that is celebrated in Brazil. I’m not exactly sure the point of it but kids and teenagers and some adults march around the town in very immodest clothes, dancing and doing weird stuff. They blare music for like 12 hours and just go at it, its ridiculous. For Carnival, the area was like a ghost town! No one was home. We did manage to find 1 person to teach and we taught him in his store standing up. All missionaries were told to be home at 6:00 to avoid carnival at night.

We had an investigator last transfer named Else, the mom of a member that went on a mission. We started teaching her with her son Alex that went to the mission and it just wasn’t really getting anywhere. We dropped her for a while but then we felt like we should start talking to her again. Turns out she believes that this church is true and she wants to be baptized. She came to church this Sunday, it was awesome! I don’t know if I already talked about our investigator Janee. We taught her the restoration and challenged her to pray. She prayed and she said she felt something different and she felt a bit confused and so she went and talked to her friend, probably her pastor which then told her a bunch of stuff about Joseph Smith that was false. Now she is really confused. She has a huge desire to know the truth and has incredible faith for a 16-year old girl, but we are going to help her know the truth.

One small thing that is hard in this area is that people just leave their houses whenever. So we could be having an awesome lesson with a person and they are super pumped for baptism and then you mark with them and don’t see them for 1 or 2 weeks. It’s very difficult to follow up with them when this happens. Not to mention, sometimes we pass 3 or 4 times during the day and they are still not there. We have an investigator Ana that really wants to be baptized, but her mom will not let her because she is already a part of a different church. Her mom doesn’t even go to the church but she won’t let her daughter leave her church even though she wants to join ours. We have tried to teach the mom many times but she always says she can’t. The only way that I think we can get permission is if we teach the mom the restoration and help her understand for herself that this really is the only true church.

Antonio, Domingos and Helena got baptized this week, it was truly INCREDIBLE! The family from Ponta Verde brought even more family to watch the baptism, so we are going to start teaching them now too. That family is truly incredible; they were definitely prepared by the hand of the Lord. After the baptism, Antonio bore his testimony and it was incredible. Antonio is a pretty shy guy that doesn’t really show emotion, but he just couldn’t help but smile and say how happy he was, it was so awesome!

By the way, Aguinaldo, our recent convert came to church for the first time in a white shirt and a tie that I gave him. He looked absolutely awesome. He just looked so happy, it was indescribable. We taught him for weeks when he was drunk and now he is church clothes. On Sunday Aguinaldo received a calling as the assistant of the Priest Quorum. He was so happy. Aguinaldo also help us last night with a division, he looked like a missionary. Ever time I see him I just give a huge hug, I seriously love the guy.

Cape Verde is a truly special place. The people here are amazing and so prepared. It is the biggest honor to be here and be a servant of the Lord. This is the Church of Jesus Christ. We do have a prophet and apostles just as days of old. I don’t know why I got so lucky to be a part of this church, but I can’t even describe to you all how very thankful I am. This church has brought the most happiness and joy and knowledge in my life. This church is true.

Love

Elder Rice