Letter dated 23 June 2014---"Maos Que Ajudam" and another wonderful baptism

Hola minha família e meus amigos!

This week was so crazy! Like by far, one of the busiest ones of my mission. Before I get into it, I've got to send some birthdays wishes! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADAM WYATT, MARK DORFF, and BECKHAM WYATT!  I am thinking of you a lot, as my planner is decorated for your birthdays. Also, I will be celebrating my 1 year in Cape Verde birthday on the 25th and celebrating Elder Godfrey's one year mark on the 26th. Then at the end of the week on the 28th, our wonderful Mission President and his wife will go home and we will receive our new Mission President. Lots of things are happening this next week so it sounds like it will be pretty crazy like this last one.

 

So, what about last week that made it so crazy you might ask? Well first of all, my office work shot way up for the week as I was working to close 2 houses (one of them being a with a very difficult landlord) and then having to start the process of closing another while trying to open a new house. Most of it is done except for the the opening of the new house and the closing of one house. I guess those are next weeks projects. 

 

We also had a miracle baptism. Her name is Jacira and she is our most recent convert. She is Manick's older sister. The reason why I say she was a miracle is because we had talked to her last Saturday (14th) and confirmed with her that she was going to Church the next day but she didn't go Then we didn't see her until Thursday (19th), On that day we spent all 3 hours of our teaching time talking to her. It was interesting because never before have I stayed in someone's house that long to talk with someone but for whatever reason, the Spirit just directed the entire conversation about the Plan of Salvation, the importance of baptism, the purpose of church, the power of Jesus Christ, the importance of agency and a whole bunch of other questions she had and ended up with her making the decision to be baptized. Elder Godfrey and I are happy for her. She even beat us to the Chapel for her baptism and there were so many members of the Church there for her. It was super good.

 

 Jacira's baptism

 

Also, we had the unique opportunity to be part of a Mãos Que Ajudam (Mormon Helping Hands) activity here in Cape Verde. We left Praia (first time in a while) and went to a mental rehabilitation hospital in the middle of nowhere. We went to the back fields and cleared out some trees and dead plants. It took like 3 hours or so and then after that we went to a ceremony to present our work. It was a lot of fun but everyone was dead tired because of the oversized yard work. 

 

Service Group (at least some of us)

Elders Ernst and Taulbee and me

It took the fact that the kids here in Cape Verde are out of school to realize that everyone at home is also out of school! Not only that, but BYU is going into Summer Term already (which is where I will be in a year). The other day I picked up a piece of paper with a formula on it and I looked at for like 5 minutes completely stumped what it was used for, let alone it's name. After a while, I realized (with the help of my also stumped companion) that it was the quadratic formula, the one used for basic algebra. Maybe I am just a nerd or something but it is kind of disturbing to me that I didn't remember a basic math formula as a Chemical Engineering major. Well, I guess that is life as a missionary. I have some serious studying to do when I get back. 

 

So, the World Cup is crazy here. Thus far, my 2 teams (Germany and the Netherlands) have done pretty good. The Portuguese Elder in my house didn't want to talk to me the night when Portugal lost to Germany. Almost everyone is watching every game which means that a lot of times we are interrupting people's viewing time. I'm just glad that not all our investigators are soccer fans.

 

City Shot of Praia from Bela Vista

 

Well, that is life in a nutshell. Glad to hear that everything is going good at home. I keep Claire and all of you in my prayers. :)

 

Oh, one more thing that made me happy this week. I found out that our upstairs neighbor has all the Coldplay CDs and without fail, he plays one in it's entirety everyday. That's a nice little thing to enjoy once in a while as I polish my shoes. 

 

Love you all and talk to you next week. 

Elder Brent Dorff :)

 

Letter dated 16 June 2014--About sacrifice, World Cup fans..and goats?

Oi minha família e meus amigos!

So I love how some of you have started the countdown for me. Yes, yesterday I hit 13 months in the mission, which means that I only get 11 months more of the best work in the world! It's weird, but not as weird for the people who "die" next week (we lose 8 missionaries and a mission president and his wife at the end of next week). So, as you can imagine the mission is preparing for the change. 

This week was a good week in the mission field. It was a week of landlord battling, house closures, and just normal work in the office. Right now, I am at war with one of the other secretaries, because he was born and raised to not like BYU. We are always messing with each other about BYU. Just a little entertainment for the work day.

 

This last week was interesting in Bela Vista, mostly because there were so many parties. You would think that because Cape Verde was disqualified from the World Cup (they had a player with a red card play) that they wouldn't be as into watching it. Oh forget that. Everyone, their Praia dog, and their goat are watching the games! And with a game starting every 3 hours, it is making it a little harder to teach (imagine it is the same in other countries). Everyone seems to be a fan of Brazil or Portugal or Argentina or Italy or they are part of the "Team Africa must win" movement. I catch a little bit of the action as I pass from house to house. To add the craziness, everyone is having parties where some people are getting a little hammered. That was basically my teaching experience for the week. 

 

Although, we were really blessed to have found a couple of new investigators this last week. We have many more investigators with baptismal dates and that are progressing towards baptism. The biggest obstacle seems to be going to church. Our church is a solid 20 minute walk away from our area, which wouldn't be a big problem except that in Bela Vista, water only enters the town on Sunday morning. That means, everyone is fetching water, washing clothes/dishes, cleaning their houses, taking showers, and storing water for the next week, all right before Church. The members here make a huge sacrifice every week, as they go to other towns for water on other days, or leave to pick up water at like 4:30 Sunday morning, so they don't have to miss a minute of church at 9. Talk about sacrifice... I was thinking about it the other day and I realized that that is the reason why the members who have had more time in the church have such great faith; because of their great sacrifices, they know that God will bless them in times of need, so they act more with their faith. I liked how Joseph Smith said (not a direct quotation) that when something is of God, and it is true, it requires some sort of sacrifice to keep it. When we have that conviction that this Gospel is true, we will also have the willingness to sacrifice all of we have to defend it, preach it, and stand for it. But, in the end it isn't much of a sacrifice, because we always receive more than we give. That's what I want to help more people here understand. (Looking back at what I wrote, my focus switched a lot. Reminds me how visits go, but they always link back to helping the person come closer to Christ).

 

Ivandro's baptism

 

Well, I think that is about it. Evandro, my office friend, just got moved into the soon to be opened Cape Verde Distribution Office so I don't get to see very much of him any more. Good thing we got a few pictures before he was moved. I have attached the photo of Ivandro, a recent convert, with this letter, seeing that I forgot my camera last week. Also, a couple that I was working with in Achada Grande, but then moved out of my area, was married and baptized this last week. Here is the photo of the happy couple.

 

 

 

Also I figured that a nice Harrison Ford look-alike photo with a Brazilian Elder's vest would be kind of fun to send home too. Love you all a lot and I will talk to you soon!

 

-Elder Brent Dorff

P.S. McKell is going into Junior High! What!? What happened to the little girl that I used to tell paint stories too?

 

 

 

 

Letter dated 9 June 2014--A cool baptism & a little bit of Africa

Olá família e amigos!

I am happy to hear how everyone is doing this week. It sounds like it was a nice end to some vacations and that people are getting back into the day-to-day normal life work or mission work. Also apparently Reina got married? When was the wedding originally planned because I remember hearing that she was getting married and then the next thing I know, she was already married. Either way, Congrats Reina!

 

 This week was great! We were truly blessed this week as we started it without a baptism and then ended it with someone being baptized. So the story goes like this. Saturday (the 31st), we tell the District Leaders that we are going to contact a reference that they gave us and look for a baptism. Sunday morning, we called and invited him to Church. His name is Ivandro and he accepts and finds us without any problem and we go to Church. He explained to us how he had already been taught by the Sisters (thank you Sisters!) but that he had had appendicitis and wasn't baptized. Monday, Family Night. Tuesday, we had a lesson with him and scheduled him to be baptized the 14th. We told him to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Wednesday, He prayed and relayed to us a very special confirmation and we were impressed to move his date to the 7th. After learning that he shouldn't have earrings or a lip piercing, he swiftly removed them and threw them out of the house. It was pretty cool. Thursday, interview preparation day. Friday, interview. Saturday, baptism. Sunday, confirmation. 1 week. I feel like it is for these situations that we talk to everyone because you never know who has been prepared by the Lord to be baptized. Ivandro is very nice and he has a lot of friends in our area and other neighboring areas, whom he wants us to talk to. I'm excited :)

 

Something else that is kind of fun is that 2 recent converts from Achada Grande Frente (Paula and Paulina) are living in Bela Vista. We were walking and all of the sudden there were these 2 girls running up to me all excited. It was fun to catch up with them a little bit. 

 

Landlords are tough... mostly because they sign contracts then bring up problems with the contract. It just takes a lot of time to worry about everything. Looks like I am gaining lots of experience with rental contracts. We have a landlord coming in tomorrow to the office to fight with (notice I didn't say "talk to") President Oliveira, Ivandro and I. It should be fun.

 

Also this week I participated in some very African activities in terms of service, like carrying fetched water to people's houses, filling up water tanks inside the house with that fetched water, and also carrying the things that a member sells... on my head! It is easier, and more comfortable, then it looks. It was fun. 

 

It was a good week. Sorry, I don't feel like I have too much more to write this week, but I promise that I will take more pictures and have more to write this next week. Love you a ton!

Your Elder Brent Dorff :)

 

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Letter dated 2 June 2014--sorry, late posting on this one!

Oh my gosh! It is already JUNE! Can you believe that minha família e meus amigos?! The time is passing by so quickly and it is absolutely crazy.

 

So Mom, I have some super great news for you. Yes, the package arrived (This is mom writing... yeah, that small package took 3 months to arrive and $80 to mail. Can I just say, how crazy is that?!!) and I am very happy (okay, maybe its all worth it!). I am just going to enjoy some valentines day chocolates (M&Ms and mint cookies, sweet!) and my BYU shopping bag (which I have already used to do errands today) and my tabs (which look nice in my planner) and of course my pillow case has already been changed so now I got a feeling that all my dreams at night will be "trunky" thoughts about school after the mission. But let's be honest, I love it and thank you so much!

 

So in the missionary world, we really didn't teach a bunch this week. Why? Because we didn't leave the office until like 7pm every day, which after making the 30 minute hike to Bela Vista, we only had an hour before we had to walk back. So because of that, Elder Godfrey and I are reevaluating the work that we are doing and have a new plan to make the members a greater part of our teaching since, in reality, it will be their responsibility to integrate new members into the ward after we have left. So we have been setting goals and everything to get members more involved in the work.

 

On Saturday, the Primary General President, Rosemary M. Wixom, and the 2nd Counselor of the General Relief Society, Linda S. Reeves, came here to Cape Verde and did a series of devotionals for the members here. It was actually kind of fun how I got to see a couple of members from Fogo again. We only had time to go to one of the them, and even that one we only could stay for half of it, but we heard Sister Wixom talk to the members about the importance of learning and teaching in the home. She talked about how what we learn as kids from our parents determine how we make some of our decisions. It is a lot easier for kids to think about breaking commandments, "Must not be that bad, my parents are doing it, I can too and it won't change a thing." But we all know that is a lie. The things we do (whether we feel like it will only affect us or not) always have an effect on someone else. I have seen the damage that has been done with this type of thinking here. It is just another way Satan is attacking the family, a creation of our Heavenly Father. Needless to say, that within our time listening to those talks, while thinking about the needs of my investigators, I thought about my desires for myself and my future family.

  

So last but not least, I want to share an experience I had yesterday. Like I had mentioned, we haven't had much luck in teaching due to our time. Well, the other Elders had given us a reference like a week ago and we still hadn't had time to make a contact with her but last night we had 10 minutes and we were determined to talk to her. Our little referral turned into an 1 hour and 30 minute search all over our area as the way she had explained where she lived was super unclear. We were walking around, asking everyone if they knew her and at some point we were just kind of annoyed that we couldn't find her. We had already asked if she could meet us at a nearby store but she said that her daughter was sleeping and couldn't leave the house. Eventually we were talking to one another trying to figure out if we should continue our search or if we should just go to our marked appointment but for whatever reason, we decided to keep searching until we found her house (we were helped by one of our other investigators). Her name is Mila and the funny thing is that we had been in her house before. We had taught her cousin and his wife in her house while she was at work. The visit was very comfortable and it was obvious that she was interested in what we had to say. At the end of the visit she accepted a baptismal date with joy. It was a blessing for us, especially to finish off the week like this one. We had missed all of our other appointments because of the search and the visit itself but to be honest I feel like that was the visit that the Spirit wanted us to make, because He was there. 

 

Well, another great week has passed and a new one is about to begin. This week 2 more Elders go home and they will definitely be missed. That is the weird thing about being in the office. Everyone passes your door or house before they leave the country. 

 

All you people take care and have a good week too!

Elder Brent Dorff :)

Living the Dream... Life in Technicolor! (Coldplay shout out)

No one can accuse this Elder of not having a sense of humor! We've vacationed in Europe and have been sending him pictures of Gothic and Romanesque cathedrals and the like. In reply, he sent us this picture of some Cape Verdean architecture!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Letter dated 26 May 2014---Eel and Every member...

Oi minha família e meus amigos!

How is everything going? Sounds like those on the European front are having fun. I love how your travel plans include going to the town of Dorff in Germany. Hopefully, it has a sign of the town's name.
 

Before I talk about how this week was I need to give out a shout out to my loving sister Cami because it is her BIRTHDAY today! Happy Birthday! Love you lots. Also, this week, happy birthday to my friend there in Ohio, Maggie!
 

This week was a very interesting and fun week. First of all, it was transfers today and I am staying here in the office with Elder Godfrey. Wasn't too much of a shocker, but their were a couple rumors that I was going to be transferred to the uninhabited island of Santa Luzia. Office work was pretty normal and I am feeling pretty comfortable about how to handle housing problems. I guess that will be an experience that will have been handy to have.
 

So, this week had a sad part of the week due to a natural "part-of-the-mission-life" experience. An Elder finished his mission. His name is Elder Christensen and the funny thing is that, Cami, he lives in your ward. He is probably the biggest baseball fan I know, the one that always ate my cereal on divisions, and probably the thing that I will most likely remember him by is that he went on division with Elder Ernst and I our very first night here in Cape Verde. Oh, what a memorable experience that was; how I couldn't speak or teach or do anything really. It was very hard to believe that he has gone home and he will be missed but just think how fast that time past. I can't imagine the point when I go home. I'm not going to think about it because let's be honest, the mission is awesome. It is just going to be a little bit harder because every "dying" missionary comes through our house the day before he goes home. And within the next few months, a lot of missionaries "die". It will be interesting.
 

Elder Christensen before his departure for home

So, on the topic of interesting... African food,,, that once picky young version of Elder Dorff would never eat, this week Elder Godfrey and I made eel. We floured it and then fried it. It was good but so many bones. We were talking to a member afterwards and he told us that we got the wrong type of eel, so he is going to fish up a different type to have us cook. Looks like we could be eating it again this week.
 

Dinner before we cooked it--comment from Mom,,,,,ewwwww! Why does everything he eats look like it
 could eat him first???

Well, my streak ended. After 1 year of not having to do it, I finally gave my first talk in Portuguese. Our ward (and the whole country in general) is really trying to get the members to be more active in missionary work. I was tricked (as in I thought I was going to give like a 5 minute training during a fireside) into being the last speaker of Sacrament Meeting. In the end, it ended up being a 15 minute talk on how EVERY MEMBER IS A MISSIONARY! In reality, it is so true. I talked about 3 ways that we can be member missionaries, including our words (studying the scriptures and praying for our own personal understanding and going out with the missionaries and sharing our testimonies), our actions (more of inviting people to come to church, seminary/institute, and activities) and through our examples (we are living examples of what the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ does for someone. If we live the things we profess to be true, others will feel the Spirit's influence). In the end, I thanked everyone in the room for their support and the help that they give the missionaries, but I also called everyone to the work through Doctrine and Covenants 108:6-8 (my mission plaque picture if you remember :) ). I call you all to the work too. Help the local missionaries because they can't do this work of salvation without you.



Family Night at Ailton, Lazaro, and Chinda's House

Well, I love you all. Have many adventures this week as I know I will! 

Elder Brent Dorff

 

Letter dated 19 May 2014--Z baptism and celebrating the one year mark

Olá família e amigos!

Oh, it is hard to believe that my parents are only one flight away from me (last night a plane left here to go to Paris). But lets be honest, you were always one lifeboat and a couple of months of floating in the Atlantic around South America, or through the Panama Canal away!

 

Elder Jarvis, Elder Acord and I at zone conference

 

So, this week was kind of interesting because I had experiences where I made kind of greenie mistakes. The major two were that I left my camera's memory card at the photo printing place and our phone at a members house! Luckily, the former was really easy to retrieve at Church the next day (it actually worked out because we had a way to call his parents, who are our investigators, to invite them to come to Chruch the next day, and they did!) The other, I successfully managed to get back today by waiting at the place for the chinese owner to come and telling me that it wasn't there and then me pointing it out. So thanks to those miracles, you get pictures today and I get to hear about how people are out of money for the month (Elder Godfrey's problem). 

 So, this last week we had a baptism! His name is Z and he is 16. He is another person who came to know that the Church was true through his friends. A, that member that was born on the same day as me and also our ward mission leader, brought him to Church a couple of weeks ago and then we started talking to him. He really liked church and he started going off to seminary in the evenings and just spending a lot of time with the youth. He had some major commandment problems (which we actually didn't know about until he told us) but before we had taught him the commandments, he said that A had already taught some the commandments, so he had already overcome those problems. He is a nice guy and a really good hip hop dancer. I need to take a video of him one of these days dancing because it is pretty cool.

 

Z's Baptism

 

So, this last week was my 1 year mark (and for the record, my release date is a year from today. It will pass quickly, but, of course, I don't want it to.) For celebration, Elder Ernst and I had made plans  to go and celebrate it together at the all-you-can-eat buffet at Mirage. Apparently, other people liked the idea because outside of the 8 people total that we invited, almost every missionary in Praia ended up coming. It was a lot of fun and like always the food was good. I took a picture of my lunch as proof that I bit into him before he could take a bite out of me :) We spent the time enjoying MTC memories and talking about life plans (as in if they had changed from when we were in the MTC). It looks like for some people, they have decided to pursue different majors/relationships and everything. I feel like not too much has changed with me. Still pursuing Chemical Engineering and if anything, I am more set on doing it. It will be interesting if anything does change during this next year. I have noticed that one thing that has decreased is the amount of emails...

 

The one that didn't get away :)

 

Oh, and one more great thing was Zone Conference! It was the last that we are going to have with President and Sister Oliveira. It was a really good conference with good trainings by everyone but I liked the last one, by President Oliveira, the best. He gave a training on the missionary purpose and it seemed like everyone was self-evaluating themselves to see if they were becoming what they want to become and what God wants us to become. It was powerful, and then he and Sister Oliveira bore their final testimonies. It was a sad ending, also because 3 other missionaries, Elder Otterstrom (who was my Zone Leader in Fogo when I started the mission), Elder Acord (who was my Zone Leader in Achada Grande and São Filipe) and Elder Folgeburg (who was never my Zone Leader but is pretty cool) all bore their testimonies too. Most of the leaders that were in when I got here are leaving. The mission is getting ready for the mission president change and there is no doubt that the mission is ready to continue to work for President and Sister Mathews.

  

Well, it was a busy week and being the last week of the transfer and the week before the major "soon-to-be-stake" Conference in Fogo, a lot of the mission leadership will be heading there. 

Love you all, and I will talk to you all soon! Hope to hear from you!

Tchão,

Elder Brent Dorff

Letter dated 5 May 2014--May and s'mores

Oi minha família e meus amigos!

So first of all, may the fourth be you all (yesterday) and happy Mexican Independence Day! In celebration, Elder Godfrey and I made tacos with some sweet and sour mango hot sauce. It tasted so good!

 

 

So, this week was a pretty nice week but it really wasn't anything too special. On May 1st it was the Cape Verdean version of Labor Day, called "Dia dos Trabalhodores." Basically, on that day, everyone goes to work but doesn't have to work, but rather have a huge party so even fewer people were at home that day but it was still a good day. 

 

One thing that was pretty fun was that we had the Mission Leaders Council here in the office last week and because of that all the Zone Leaders from the different islands flew or boated in. After the meeting, many of the leaders came to our house and that night, 12 of us stayed in our house. It was a lot of fun and it was great to see so many people who I hadn't seen in forever. 

 

My work in the office hasn't changed all that much although there was a day were I was running all over town trying to figure out how to pay an electric bill that hadn't been paid right the first time. It  ended up being like a 5 hour investment to solve a problem that really should have only taken 15 minutes max. That's life. 

 

 

Something kind of funny that happened during fast and testimony meeting yesterday was that a member came up and started his testimony about how he was so grateful about being born and baptized in May. He went on how the month of May is a month for the chosen people. To be honest, for me May was always the month of AP Tests (which if I remember right, the AP Chem students are taking their tests even as I write), Mother's day, a ton of birthdays and anniversaries (lots of cake and family, by the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARKER!), and Memorial Day (awesome relaxing 3 day weekend). It was just funny and for all you people who were born in May, you're special for this man. 

 

Oh, and last but not least, we found a store here with marshmallows so you know what that means. SMORES! We just used Nutella and some plain cracker/cookies. We, the three Americans showed the Australian and Portuguese missionaries how to make them and we enjoyed them for a good hour or so. 

 Well, hopefully I have more to talk about next week yet even if I do, I will be talking to you on Sunday (MOTHER'S DAY---this is one very excited mom inserting this) so you could imagine that my email will be short again. But I love you all and I will talk to you soon!