Well, lets see, this week was interesting, to say the least, but it was really good. The biggest news is that we were able to have another baptism this last week. Her name is Mariza and she is the sister of our first two converts, Mara and Kevin. So here is her story. She was supposed to be baptized with her siblings that very first week that I was here but she was unable to be baptized for some reason. So we marked her for the next week. Then she went missing for an entire week. So we waited a long time and marked her again. And again. And again. And then like three times more after that till finally we decided that we were going to give up. But then something about her changed. She went to Church on her own and kept all of her appointments (that was a rare occurrence before) and she showed a sincere desire to be baptized. So it was finally done, 12 weeks later. I am so happy for her. I even called Elder McKissick about it and he was happy to hear about her too. It really was a miracle that she was baptized. She will be really blessed by it in her life.
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| Mariza's Baptism--Elder Paredes, Edy who performed the baptism, Mara (Mariza's sister) Mariza and me |
Something else that is kind of cool is that I am getting to use my mad piano playing skills (you know the ones I actually had and practiced for before I started high school) here in Cabo Verde! So at transfers, the Elder that played for Sacrament Meetings left and so I am the only Elder that can read music and play piano. It was pretty weird playing the simplified hymns for everyone but really fun. I get to do that this whole transfer so I hope to be able to strengthen my ability to play piano and read music.
Oh, and one more change that occurred at transfers: I am District Leader again! That means I get to have the fun job of making phone calls, doing trainings at District Meetings (I have already done two trainings), travel to São Filipe for meetings, and receive punishments (called "facas") from the Zone Leaders for my District and then in turn give facas to them. Just another thing that will make this transfer interesting.
So, a little something about the people here is that they love to use the phrase "com fé em Deus" (With faith in God) for everything. Will you come to church? "com fé em Deus." Will you stop drinking alochol? "com fé em Deus." Will you read this scripture tonight and pray? "com fé em Deus." It is one of those cultural things that is actually a little annoying becuase you don't actually know if they will fulfill the commitment or not. Usually you just plan for it not happening and prepare for that. It all depends on the investigator. Right now we have a couple investigators that are really doing good. We should see some real success this transfer.
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| Re-enacting the story of Samuel the Lamanite |
So the next time I get mail is this Thursday for Zone Conference. Everyone is looking forward to getting mail but everyone is memorizing scriptures for the infamous Scripture Game. I will have to tell you more about that next week.
I love you all and I will talk to you later. Thanks for all the prayers in my behalf and I pray that all is well with all of you!!!
Elder Dorff
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