Letter dated 8 July 2013--more of the creepy spiders and challenges of the work

Olá minha familia e meus amigos!

Okay, so first off, before I forget again. Happy Belated Birthday to Adam, Mark, and Chuck! I just want you to know although I never got say it before I was thinking about each of you on your actual birthday.

 

Evaly, I got your DearElders this week. Tell Meg that I am going to tickle her tummy so much that she will laugh a lot. I am happy to hear that the whole family is good and happy. Sounds like the baby blessing up in Utah was good. I bet that was cool to have the kiddos there to be able to meet the Prophet. Can I just say that I know that he is a Prophet of God. I really do.

 

Mom, thanks for making me miss BYU. Just kidding, but I bet that it was a lot of fun over there. I know a couple of people there for the Summer Term. I am happy to hear about how David and Forrest are doing. Forrest congrats on getting called to Russia. I know a couple of people, not in your mission, but in Russia and they just love it! Sounds like Cami is doing good with the baby and it sounds like the baby is being just a normal little boy. How I wish that I could have been there for it but honestly, I am happy to be over here. Sounds like you have had an enjoyable time over at Sandy and Ricks house. And I want to hear about the big water fight at Dana Point for the 4th of July. Yo you cousins, I want to be a part of that when I get back.

 

A local Catholic church

Okay, Dad you did a great job at sending me questions so I will try to answer as many as I can. That first night we slept in Praia but not in the mission home. We actually stayed in the Assistants to the Presidents house. Elder McKissick took out my stitches last week without any real problem. I told him this was a test of how much trust there is in our companionship. My companions first name is Tanner. Our mission president is Elder Roberito Oliveira and I don't know Sister Oliveira's. They speak to us in English for now. Eventually they will speak to us in Portuguese. Mosterios means Monastery. I haven't been asked to speak yet but I did get up to bear my testimony. So much more freakier than in English. The primary language in Cabo Verde is Creole. The kids learn Portuguese in the schools though so for that reason it is easier to teach teens. We always have to have a member with us on lessons so we can try to overcome that language barrier. We are only allowed to teach in Portuguese.

 

My first impression of the people are they are so poor but very humble. I realized quickly that the people accept the Gospel really easy but they have a hard time changing their lives to live the commandments because there really isn't all that much to do here. Climate is different everywhere. It wa blazing hot in Praia and San Felipe but cooler (still hot) here in Mosterios. Government doesn't seem to do too much for the people. I haven't had anything to eat that strange yet but we do make our own food. That has been an adventure. I will send you my routine next week, I think.

 

Remember the huge spiders Brent talked about in his last letter? EEEWWW!!

Okay, so experience of the week. We started the week with 4 baptisms planned on Saturday and we had all 4 until Thursday when we visited one of them and he was drunk. He isn't progressing and this was sad. Then we went to go visit another one of them and she has gone missing with a teenager that has a really bad repuation here. No one has seen her for 4 days and my comp thinks that she might have broken the law of chastity. That was sad too. Then Friday night as we are picking up the last 2 for their interviews, one of them, who has an infected finger, went crazy and said that he needed medicine and couldn't be baptized. We spent a good hour trying to help him understand that we were going to put plastic over his hand so his finger would be fine but  before we were done explaining everything, he would deny our invitation to go. So then we were down to one. The next day, we went 45 minutes before the baptism to pick her up and she wasn't home. We had no idea what to do so we waited and decided that we needed to say a prayer so we could at least feel peace. After a while we decided to go out on the streets to  look for her. We eventually ran into some guy and asked him and he said, "Oh yeah, Betinha is my cousin, she is in my  house." So we picked her up and she got ready and right before we left, she said she had a question for us. We realized that her cousin is one of the church leaders here and her question was why we say Sunday is the Sabbath and not Saturday. Thankfully my comp was able to help her and she was baptized 1 1/2 hours after the baptism was supposed to start. I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers and if he didn't we would have never been able to find her. Satan tries so hard to stop us but I know if we don't get discouraged and have a prayer in our hearts, we will be able to help many people here. 

 

Betinha's baptism with Elder Dorff and Elder McKissick

Beautiful setting for a baptism

Well, I hope that everyone is doing good and I love getting your emails. Keep writing. I plan on getting some letters mailed this week. It might take a month but whatever. Love you all!

-Elder Dorff

P.S. I saw a monkey! I really am in Africa!