HEY!

Man, it’s been a sweet week! It turns out last week in sacrament there were around 193 people!! That is the most the ward has ever seen! It was super awesome. Anyway, this Monday, we had a family night at Herman’s house, one of the sweetest members I have ever met in cabo Verde. It was really cool because we invited a ton of non members and some showed up and had a great time. We are working hard on Herman’s street. We are trying to help every person that lives there be a member.

This week we had the Missionary Leadership Conference, for zone leaders and also now for sister leaders. It was super awesome. We received some really inspiring training on how to work better with members, ward council and less actives. It got me super fired up to help all the less actives return. This is going to be one of the main focuses for our zone. When you talk and teach with less actives it’s so important they know why you are there, we are here to bring them back to the fold. I have never met a less active that said they are happier in that moment compared to when they were strong in the church. Why is that? Because when you keep the commandments, you are blessed. We are going to help our zone gain this desire to bring less actives back.

We are working a lot with Ze and Nininha! They are doing super well. They are coming to church and love the lessons we are giving them. Nininha has a salon here in Assomada so she brings her pamphlets and Book of Mormon and reads when customers are not there. They just talked with the bishop yesterday in church and talked about marriage. They are super excited, but they want to wait a few more weeks so they can get everything prepared and ready. All the papers are ready to go, we are going to go to the Registry and have them sign the papers tomorrow.

  Also, this Saturday, Carlito was baptized! The service was incredible! Carlito showed up to the baptism before we did and was super anxious. He has been talking about this day for a while. We had the Elder Quorum President, President Torres baptize him. As we have been teaching Carlito, we have met his brother in law Wilson. At first Wilson thought we were pretty weird and he said he would be traveling back to Praia soon so he didn’t want to talk with us. But as we persisted and had him sit in lessons with us, he really started to like it and now is progressing towards baptism. He came to church and really liked it. The Lord has prepared so many people, now it’s just a matter of the will we put forth to find and touch the hearts of these people. One thing I have learned is that we can never let fear stop us from doing anything. Fear does not come from God. We must follow the Spirit, act with boldness, teach with power and the hearts of the prepared people will be touched.

We have also been teaching a woman named Shaw. She has two kids that are members, who were less active, but have recently came back. Shaw is doing super great! She came to church this last week and is reading in the Book of Mormon. We have her marked to be baptized this week, I can’t wait to complete this family and help them all be strengthened by the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is one daughter that is still resisting a bit, but I think with the baptism of her mom, she will too want to be baptized.

Yesterday night we had a really neat experience. We went down into Fonta Lima, about 25 minute walk, to visit Ze and Nininha. Unfortunely only Nininha was there, but we got to talk to her a bit about marriage and also about the impact of the gospel in their life. She was telling us that the first day we visited their family, there was a lot of sadness and hard times. Apparently, Ze and Nininha both didn’t have jobs, they didn’t eat breakfast very often, and were having a lot of problems with money. These financial problems soon led into disputes between the family. Ze started to drink and that caused a lot of problems too. She said that the day we came, a new light entered their family. They didn’t fight, Zen found work in a carpentry, he stopped drinking and later Minima found a salon to start her business. She was telling us how truly sad they were, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when put into practice, brought enormous blessings. She says she know that this is the true church. She said she wanted to bear her testimony yesterday but was a little scared. They are such an incredible family. I am so lucky to be able to help teach them and help their family enjoy the blessings.

There is no joy greater than bringing the Holy Ghost into a home. As members of the church we have the sacred responsibility to be a testimony of God in all times, things and places. We have the Gift of the Holy Ghost and we can testify of these truths. I can’t believe how lucky I am to have received a calling to serve her Cabo Verde. I love this place more than words can describe. Serve the Lord, you will be blessed.

Love,

Elder Rice