Hey,

Awesome week! We have been working harder than ever to find the Lord’s elect. We have been teaching and finding and walking and knocking, is there anything better? I have never quite experienced the rejection that I have felt on this island haha. A blessing of serving in Cape Verde is that everyone loves the ''Word of God'' and almost all will hear our message, but here in Maio, the Catholic church has taken over and it’s been a bit more difficult. 2 days in a row, EVERY single one of our marked lessons fell. How? I’m not quite sure, but the Lord wants us to learn something.

In the midst of this work we have been teaching some incredible people. Maruka is incredible, he is basically a member, we just have to wait on some papers to go through with the marriage. He comes to ALL church meetings and activities. His testimony is so strong. His wife wants to follow the church, but doesn’t want to be baptized. That doesn’t work, not if you want to be saved in the Kingdom of God. Maruka is a great support, always encouraging and teaching his wife, he is always insisting with her to be baptized with him. His ''wife'' Fatinha is doing super good though. At the end of one of our most powerful lessons with her, I told them we loved them, we pray for them and we would do ANYTHING for them. Almost immediately after, Fatinha said, ''We love you too, you are so nice, much nicer than the other churches''. I did not think we would have heard that, it was super cool.

Our recent convert Zeze has been getting more and more excited about the church. At church this Sunday, he got to pass the sacrament for the first time and he loved it. He came to church in his white shirt and tie and looked awesome. We have been trying to teach his other family members with him, but they just don’t seem to have interest. We have planted the seed and hope that a miracle can come about.. Zeze invited us to come over Christmas night to have eat with, we are going to bring the juice!

We have an investigator named Afons. He is a baker and makes bread for the whole town, everyone knows him. We have been talking to him about some commandments that he needs to start keeping, like the Word of Wisdom and the Day of the Lord, by not working or making bread on Sunday. He said he would keep all of these commandments if he received a sign. And so he started praying and asking God for a sign. Right after hearing that, I knew it wouldn’t work. I began to spend my personal study, studying in Doctrine and Covenants 63, that says that ''The person that searches for signs will see signs, but they won’t be to our salvation''. And it also says that ''miracles do not bring faith, but faith brings about miracles for those that believe''. I knew that if Afons saw a sign it wouldn’t convert him nor give him more will to keep these commandments. As I shared these scriptures with him, he began to speak and say that the other day he had seen a sign. It had rained in Maio for the 1st time in a long time. Afons had been praying for rain the previous days, but as it was raining, Afons said a little prayer and asked that the Lord increase the rain, he said as finished his prayer the rain started to come down much stronger. He was confused if it was just his mind messing with him or if God had truly given him a sign. Even though he really did receive a sign, it didn’t benefit him anything.  The testimony will come as we keep the commandments and exercise our faith, then the Lord will manifest his spirit and the blessings.

Church went very well this week, we had 14 people and 5 new men came. I was able to play all of the Christmas songs for sacrament meeting on the piano, it was super sweet! One of the men that came is named Cesar. Cesar has dread locks and is a trainer for a youth soccer team. He is a really sweet guy and we have had some incredible lessons with him. Like yesterday we watched the Restoration video and he really started to open up to us about how he feels about his life and the church, he loved church and committed to prepare for baptism on the 11th of January.

I love Maio, I love my companion, I love the people here and I love sharing the ''good news'' with them, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored by a prophet of God.

 Love,

Elder Rice