Fortunately,
Heavenly Father decided to have mango season be at the same time, so as to have
balance in all things. The mangos here are so good! Still a little expensive at
2 for $.80, but once the summer gets rolling, they'll be four for $.20 - and
hopefully in larger abundance then the cockroaches. (Anybody want to look up
home remedies for killing cockroaches?)
My first baptism was this week! Maria de Jesus is one short woman with
one tall testimony. It's amazing to see how much the gospel has already
impacted her life. She's happier, more bubbly, and she has broken out of her
shy shell and loves to share her testimony when she comes teaching with us.
It's amazing!
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| Baptism of Maria de Jesus |
This past week was Zone Conference. It was great! Ok honestly, it was a lot of Portuguese. Eight hours of Portuguese. However, I was able to understand a lot of what President Matthews and the AP's (Assistants to the President) said. I was also able to understand a lot of church the past week, which was really exciting, and now that I can understand his Portuguese mais ou menos (more or less) our Branch President is actually really funny. Creole is still a challenge but I can catch the general phrases like, "Where are you going?" and "Is Cabo Verde "delicious"?" Oh Creole.
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| Zone Conference with President Matthews |
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| Assomada Zone |
This week we had a
neat experience with a less active...
Friday night Sister
Friaca and I opened our planners to see who we had planned for Saturday, and to
our surprise, we had both failed to plan a single person! So, plan B's became
plan A's and we had no choice but to just "wing it" the next day.
But God doesn't
"wing it", he had been orchestrating Saturday for a while and was
ready to conduct.
We met Lucienne
(Lu-cee-enney), or "Lu". She's been a member for 13 years but has
been paralyzed for the last 7. We were sitting on the steps of a pretty purple
house trying to call people and find someone to teach, when a woman came out of
the house. Now Cabo Verdeans are really chill about people sitting on their
porches, because all the houses are so close together - and often one person's
roof is another person's patio; however Sister Friaca and still felt like we
should probably move to the next rooftop, but God gave us a little nudge and we
decided to talk to her instead. When we asked her if she knew the Church, she
got really animated and she said she had a daughter who was a member but was
paralyzed. "Come inside! Come! Come!" she said. So we did; and inside
her cute purple house was a cute girl, tucked in the back bedroom in the back
bed, unable to move. Lu can slightly turn her head, and we are able to
understand a "sim" or "nao", but that's it. She spends all
day, everyday, in that bed, if her mom sits her up she falls; however, she's
got a light in her eyes that couldn't be ignored.
And on Saturday, God
was not ignoring Lu.
We sat and chatted
with her and her mom, and found out no one from the church had been around for
a long time. Someone used to come take her to church, but he has since left
Assomada. We told her we would absolutely love to come visit throughout the
week. She was beaming, and we were too! Yay! A new friend!
The terrain to her
house is too rocky for a wheelchair, but we're going to work something out with
the Branch so that Lu can come to church, and in the meantime, the Elder's
Quorum will bring her the Sacrament. She's such a gem, and we've got to get
that gem out into the sun!
I have a testimony
that God knows each of us personally, we are all his children. All these days
here in Assomada I've passed that purple house and had no idea who was inside. But
God knows each and every one of these people in every colored house, and he's
waiting for us to act on His nudge or respond to His tug.
How grateful I am
Sister Friaca and I were horrible planners.
Much love!
Sister Hanzel
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| Family Photo: Sister Friaca, me, and Chupa |
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