Hey everyone!!

 It’s been an awesome week!!! On Monday we had a family night at one of the member’s houses. It was supposed to be at 630, but being Cabo Verde, all of our investigators weren’t ready till 730. We had a spiritual message and then we played some games. For a while we were seeing who could do the most pushups, ha-ha. Then they played this game where you strap a belt to you back (like a tail) and you have a blind fold on. There are two players and they have to be crouching and hopping on the floor like a monkey. Each person has keys and they have to jingle them to figure out where the other person is at. The goal is to pull on the other person’s belt. It was super funny looking ha-ha

We taught this really Catholic guy named Jose. Jose has this radio that he loves. It’s always in his hand and he is always listening to it. He showed us a few songs and started dancing, it was really different, ha-ha. He has been Catholic for like 62 years. We tried to share the message of the restoration, but it didn’t really work ha-ha. He’s pretty strong in his church. However, we did offer to do some service in his yard today!

 We taught Adielson and Pedro the Restoration and they loved it. They had so many questions, like where does Thomas S Monson live? They thought it was so cool. Pedro will be baptized this week. Adielson may wait because he has a few concerns with commandments. Pedro´s mom is actually a less active member. She seems excited for Pedro’s baptism. I hope this will help her to realize the blessings of the gospel and decide to return to church.

We taught a guy in Pai Antonio (above Feijoal, about a 1 hour walk). He is actually the brother of our branch president and he has been going to church for 12 years. He has had a huge problem with alcohol in the past but he knows that this church is true and he wants to join be a part of it He wants to be baptized but he is not married, we will be talking to him about this. He has a very Catholic spouse that keeps running from us, but she is nice.

We met with 2 less active kids, we are teaching their mother. Their names are Socorro and Josezinho. They have not been coming to church because after the missionaries left the area, no one visited them. We had an awesome lesson about the 2000 stripling warriors. We talked about how they were obedient with exactness and they had so much faith and trust in the Lord. And because of that they had no fear going into battle and none of them died afterwards. We likened this to their lives that if they are faithful and obedient with exactness they will never fall in the hands of Satan. They may come out of the battle with some wounds like the stripling warriors but they will never ´´die´´. Then we went around the circle and said one thing we could do to be more like the stripling warriors. Josezinho just went off and said I’m going to church every Sunday I’m going to obey all the commandments because I know this is right, it was sweet!

We showed our investigator Rapazinho the restoration film and he loved it. Afterwards he was so pumped about his baptismal date! Yesterday we got to have a lesson with our ´´Yas´´ driver. He has been talking and driving around missionaries for like 12 years!! He loves the missionaries and all that they do. He also loves this church. Yesterday we talked about the restoration and how God has so many blessings just waiting if he would only open the door. That door is faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost and endure to the end. We asked him to be baptized and he said without a doubt. We tried to set a date with him but he just kept saying I need to go to church and prepare but I WILL be baptized in this church, and then he said I could baptize him ha-ha. He said the last prayer and it was probably one of the best prayers I have heard. He asked for all the help and strength he could to be able to go to church this Sunday and to be baptized, it was awesome.

This week was full of such good stuff. I love seeing the spirit and the gospel touch the lives of others. This is the most amazing gospel in the world. Without a doubt, this gospel leads to happiness, nothing less. Imagine the story of Lehi and the tree of life. Lehi said that fruit on the tree had the ability to make a person happy. That fruit is the love of God. That fruit is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and every single one of us are standing in front of this tree with way to many fruit to eat for ourselves. We literally have the ability to share this fruit and make a person happy for eternity, or even better a family happy for eternity. Share the fruit. Bear your testimony and invite. You shouldn’t even have to fear or think about it, just open your mouth and the words will be given to you. I love this gospel; nothing could ever make me leave it.

Love,

Elder Rice

Dear Family and Friends,

This has truly been a magnificent week! We have been finding a lot of new people lately. I think we found 20 new people this week. A lot of which are couples and families. And of course I’m in Cabo Verde so none of them are married. We found a non member couple that has been coming to church and they really like it. We are going to start talking to them this week. Their house is in Mosteiros Atraz which is a good 35 minute walk. We also have a person that drives around to Sao Filipe (special occasions like zone leaders council and zone conference) and to Cova Figueira (every week for district meeting) named João. We met his family yesterday and they love the missionaries!! João gets a little crazy with the Yas (large van). He shoves like 25 or 26 people in it, its gets really cramped, ha-ha. Anyway, he is a really nice guy and we are going to teach him this week He said he would come to church. He got a Book of Mormon and a Bible from the branch president and told me he is going to study every day. We also found him on the street and he said that he knows this church is true and he is never going to miss church ha-ha!! I love it. We are also working with the Branch President’s brother to help him get married to his wife. We started on the papers today with them!

We saw a miracle this week. It was so awesome. We were going to pass an investigator that we haven’t seen in a while and it was really dark. Then we just hear someone calling our name, ´´Elder, elder! ´´´. We turn and there is a teenager just sitting on the ground. We come over and talk to him for a while and find out his name is Adielson. Then a few minutes later, his friend Pedro walked in. We got to know them a bit. Pedro is a soccer player and they are on the same. Adielson makes ´´rap´´ or in creole ´´hep´´´, he is a ´´hepper`´´. He showed us some of his ´´hep´´, it was all in Creole though so it was difficult to understand haha. Anyway, we taught them a lesson and invited them to baptism and they were very excited! We didn’t give them a date because we wanted to think and talk about it as a companionship, but then he asked ´´So when are we getting baptized?´´ and we gave them a date ha-ha. It was awesome. I know that the Lord prepares people to accept this gospel. We met them on Friday and then that Sunday, Pedro went to church. Adielson couldn’t because he had already had a meeting for school planned in that time. He said he would definitely be there next Sunday.

 Valdir and Eddy were baptized this Saturday!!!! It was so awesome!!!!! We got to walk out to the rocky shore. I want to say it was kind of a cove looking area. It was absolutely beautiful. There were a lot of people swimming that were Edy and Valdir’s friends so they came over and watched. It was sweet. The water was pretty cold but it was just so awesome! Edy loves this church. He just always says he feels happy. Because they got baptized, Edy and Valdir want to have a Family Home Evening at their friend Patrick’s house. So we gathered up Pedro, Adielson and some of our other investigators that were already friends with Edy and Valdir and we has a sweet family night on Saturday.

We made the trek to Feijoal this week. Usually we walk this dirt path for a bit more than an hour, but lately as we have been walking on the road we just call cars that are passing and see if they are headed up there. The best is to find trucks because they are usually headed that direction, you just hop in the back and it’s free. If you take a taxi it cost like 300 escudos or like 3.50 American dollars. We are trying to save our money. We have found a lot of cool people in Feijoal, like the branch president’s brother, who has been coming to church for the past 3 weeks. We also found some part member families that we are going to start working with. It’s hard to check up on our investigators in Feijoal, Mosteiros Atraz and Queimada because they are so far away. We try to centralize in Queimada, that’s where we live. But there are people in the other areas that want to be baptized.

Overall, an awesome week! It’s amazing what the Lord will give us if we just ask. We can only receive so many blessing for being righteous without asking. I don’t know how many times it says in the scriptures that if you want something and you have a true desire for it, it will be give to you. That’s something that I realized this week. The sincerity of your prayers, the intent of your heart and your worthiness will depict what God will give you. It sounds like a scam, but trust me, God answers prayers. This is the best work in the world. I love my mission, I love these people. I will do everything I can to share this incredible message and be worthy instrument in the Lords hands.

Love,

Elder Rice

Hey everyone!!!!

This week was so crazy awesome!!! So on Monday, i went to Praia from Sao Filipe in Fogo. The flight takes like 25 minutes, it’s really short haha. We got there and we did some divisions for the night. They have this place called Pao Quente, which means Hot Bread in English. They have a bunch of pastries, breads and desserts, it’s so good! I got this croissant thing stuffed with powdered sugar and chocolate. I never thought I would say it but I’m getting kind of fat. I’m in Africa and I’m getting fat. I really got to start eating better haha. I think it’s because we have such a weird eating schedule. We have breakfast from 1 to 3 and then we work until 9. Usually before we come home we buy some cookies or something because we are tired and don’t want to make anything, or we make ice cream. I’m getting really weak too haha.

 Anyway, we had Zone Leader’s conference on Tuesday. President Oliveira led it. It was absolutely amazing. With no doubt in my mind, President Oliveira is an inspired man from God. He knows exactly what this mission and each zone needs and he knows how to fix it. We are doing our best to follow his inspired counsel. I heard that this mission is the highest baptizing mission per missionary in world, but right now the mission is struggling. I think we have forgotten that we need to teach and testify with the Spirit. President put a huge focus on using the Spirit and asking inspired questions. A lot of times missionaries argue that a person didn’t get baptized or didn’t come to church so it’s their fault. But in reality if we look at ourselves we realize that we didn’t do everything possible. We have to sanctify ourselves to worthy for this work. Any only when we are sanctified and have the Spirit with us will be find true success.

The first day, President gave us a challenge to go out that night with a companion and make contacts in the street only using inspired questions. By the way an inspired question is something inspired by the Spirit that can help people to understand our purpose at missionaries, help them think and understand doctrines of the church. Inspired questions should require a moment to think and sincerity. I went out with a zone leader named Elder Curtis and another named Elder Accord. We made some awesome contacts and got a lot of phone numbers. When you really care about the person and you teach and question them with sincerity, they open up and realize for themselves that we are representatives of Jesus Christ. I am so proud to be a member of this church and represent our Savior on the Earth. I will teach with sincerity because I know these things are true, nothing could stop me doing that. That night we also went to a recent converts house in Praia that made the most amazing bread I have ever tried in my life. The bread in Cabo Verde is ridiculously amazing.

 The second day of Zone conference President delivered a few ''Fakas'' (basically getting chewed out) to some zone leaders. Some of them were pretty harsh, but they just made me want to repent and do so much better. There is so much work to do, so much to improve and so many souls to bring unto Christ. While I was in Praia, I left my 1 week old greeny to work with another Elder. They struggled pretty well. They called me while I was in Praia and told me that they had accidently offended one of the women that we were planning to marry and baptized. Then when I came home I came over and talked to her and its all gonna work out. We actually talked to the couple last night and we set up a marriage and baptismal date with them! We will also be baptizing their son this week! I think we are going to do the baptism in the sea, I’m pretty stoked!!! I will defiantly take pictures.

Our investigator Edy is doing great! He is fully prepared and ready to be baptized this Saturday. He is ready to keep the commandments, he is reading the Book of Mormon and he love church. It should be a sweet Saturday! I only ended up spending 3 days working here in Mosteiros because of Zone Leaders Council, but it was still awesome. We still have a ton of work to do, it should be a awesome week of work! We will be going up to Sao Filipe tomorrow to have zone conference. A member of the 70, will be there. I think his name is Elder Queren or Kuernen or something like that. It should be an awesome experience!!!!

 Don’t forget how much this church has given you. Who would you be without this church? I know I wouldn’t happy, i know i probably would have done drugs. I’m so glad to be a member of this church, and i have a the great opportunity to help others realize the same, i just hope that their hearts can be softened and they can hear the Spirit. This is a marvelous work and the field is all white and ready to harvest. This week every person that reads this letter, share the gospel with at least 1 person. And during this time that you share the gospel bear testimony of what you know to be true, i promise that they will feel it. if you can bring up missionaries and help them learn more and grow in this gospel Thanks for the love and support, i love you all!

 Love,

 Elder Rice

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was intense! At the beginning of the week I pretty had no clue about our area. A lot of the members weren’t available to show us around so we were kind of lost. But now we know pretty well! There are the 3 main huge areas. The first is called Queimada (thats where we live), then there is Mosteiros Atraz (45-50 minute walk) and then there is Feijoal (1 hour walk). We have investigators in all these areas so we have to split up the days to where we go. It’s kind of difficult, sometimes we take a taxi but then we have to take out of our monthly fund! We walk on a lot of dirt and rock trails that are like an 80 degree slant, its intense. All i know is that i think that my shoes aren’t going to last haha. The cobblestone and trails are eating my shoes.

There is big trouble with less actives here. Its especially difficult cause for some it’s an hour walk, sometimes more. Some members make the trek every week, it’s incredible. There is a church in the city, but another one is being constructed right now. This week I have been making my companion food every day. Mom, you would be proud that I have made garlic mash potatoes, barbeque chicken, barbeque chicken pizza, and other stuff. I also made some pretty nasty eggs, spam and rice, but nonetheless I’m cooking. We try and have chicken with every meal, its money.

We are teaching a young man named Edy. His recent convert friend Patrick has invited him to church and he has came 3 times! We always have our visits at Patrick’s house with Edy and Patrick’s little brother Valdir who is also going to be baptized. Yesterday, we followed up on the prayer that Edy had about Joseph Smith and his face just lit up and he kept smiling. We went on to say that he felt something start from the bottom of his body and crawl up to the top of his body. He knows for himself that God answered his prayer. He is so excited and going to keep preparing for baptism.

We have a lot of work to do in Mosteiros, Right now I’m back in Sao FIlipe because I will be flying out to Praia for today and tomorrow for Zone Leaders Council. I’m not a zone leader but I, Elder Otterstrom (my trainer) and Elder Bruce have been invited. We will see how it goes!!

There is so much to work to do, it almost seems overwhelming, but it is ALL possible with the Lords hand. I know that once I start relying on the Spirit and the Lord with all I have, success will come. I am just an instrument in the Lords hands, this is his work. What a privilege it is to be here and spread the best message in the world. I couldn’t ask for anything better.

I love you all!

Elder Rice