Not much.....

October 27, 2014 

Elder Ayala had a staff infection, sketchy stuff, haha.  

The families are good.  We dropped two of them because they both had the husband working with visa papers for the states.  Whenever we are working with a marriage and I hear that either one of them are waiting for a visa, I drop them on the spot.  Its too much of a headache, because they wont get married until the visa goes through, and that takes up to 15 years.  Kinda a bummer.  The other is going well, just have to get them to church.  

  

I had a sketchy experience the other day when I saw a husband hitting his wife in front of the house.  I was bigger, and stronger than the husband, (Yes I have been lifting quite a bit haha) but I couldn't do anything about it.  We aren't allowed to get involved with that at all.  And this is coming straight from Pres Oliviera, so I just had to walk by, super sad...  

Ebola and the reverent dog

October 20, 2014

So as far as ebola. I'm safer than you guys.  I'm on a little tiny island.  The scary part was that there was ship from the country that has it the most on the way to cape verde, but they sent it back.  I'm fine, and more than you guys.  

I like what you said about getting used to about everything.  You guys have no idea the stuff I do everyday that just seems 100% normal to me that would be crazy to you guys.  Ha we have a dog in the sacrament room.

Conference, Guavas and Drugs

October 13, 2014

Conference

We watched conference this week and it was incredible.  We watched it in Portugese, but I had a member download it MP3 for me in english so I got a chance to hear it all in English throughout the week.  Conference is soo sweet! Elder Ayala and I were talking about how funny it is when the announce the next speakers, and when its someone of the twelve we just get stoked. I imagine it being like a little kid at a Cavs game and they annouce Lebrons name, it was funny.  Had a lot of great talks.  Some of my favorites were Which Way Do We Face, in the Saturday morning.  Of course Elder Bednar.  Holland did very well.  The portugese talk was one of my favorites, and its so beautiful to hear someone speak portugese well.  Conference is just the best.  And the dog was present once again.  

Guava

Last monday we went up to this Guava farm place way up in the mountains and it was sweet! It took a little over an hour hike to get there, and there were just guava trees everywhere! And we picked a ton and made guava jam and what not, super good.  We still have a million of them in our house, and it was super sweet. 

Drugs

Just kind of a side note this week.  We live on the second story and someone lives in our basement.  And there is a garden in the backyard, and the person & doner got busted for growing marajuana in our backyard haha.  In between sessions on Saturday we were just eating lunch and we heard some yelling, all in kreola, from the backyard.  And there were two policia arguing with our doner.  And he was saying that the drugs werent his, and the cop asked sarcastically ^Is it the Elders?^ It was in kreola, so my comp didnt understand, but it was hilarious haha.  

Spiritual Stuff

Pretty sure this is the part of my letters that no one reads, but I need to write it to assure my mother that I am learning something over these two years.  The big thought I had this week was just consistancy.  There was the talk where he talks about not jumping ship, and Elder Holland has a talk about that as well.  I think consistancy is such a key in anything that we do, but it was something that I thought a lot about this week.  Consistantly being obedient throughout your mission.  Consistantly reading your scripts everyday.  Praying.  Going to church.  Consistantly doing the little things will ensure that we never fall too far from the tree.
There is a talk where a guy talks about thinking of his body having two fighting wolves inside.  Which one will win?  The one we feed.  And he talks about that with us and satan, and whoever we feed will win.  And we need to make sure we are constantly feeding our spiritual wolf haha.  Have a great week, love all you guys! 

Marriage, then Baptism

October 6, 2014

As I write this today I kinda think back to a Kenny Chesney song, The Boys of Fall.  And there is a part in that song where he talks about the seniors knowing that there's only so many of these Friday nights left.  This was one of those days that don^t come around too often.  

First off, we didnt watch General Conference this week because  of Power problems on the beautiful island of Fogo, so we will watch it next week.  So for everyone that emailed me about all the talks, thanks for ruining them, Im still insanely excited to listen to it. 

Definantly the highlight of this week was the marriage and baptism of the De Barros family.

The Marriage

The marriage was thursday, and whatever image you have of an American marriage, get that out of your mind because that is not how it happens here.  The wedding took place in the registro building, with some guy from Mosterios doing the service.  He just says a bunch of stuff in Portugese, which either people dont listen to, or understand because it is in Portugese, then they sign one paper.  They kiss if they would like, but thats kinda optional.  And that all went well.  The majority of the good stuff happened before the wedding haha.  Everyday they called us complaing that things werent ready, and that we didnt have everything we needed.  The day before there wedding, the still didnt have a dress or a suit.  Can you imagine not having a dress or a suit the day before you wedding!? Luckily we were able to find both and everything went well ish.  They called us late thursday night and asked if we have made a cake. Not that Im not good at making boxed cake, but this is a wedding cake! So we run to the store and buy the best Best Price cake mix we can.  Then we get up early the next morning, and start making the cake.  While the cake is cooking, he calls us and is freaking out that he doesnt have a black tie to wear! He had a tie, but it was a clip on, and appearantly that wouldnt work for a wedding.  So I let him use my black tie that Charlotte and Rich Jaros gave to me before I came on the mish.  

So when he called and needed the tie, the cake was half way done cooking, so we turned off the oven, and said we would try to hurry back after the service and before the party to finish the cake.  The wedding went well, and it ends up that someone else had already made a very nice wedding cake, so we didnt worry about that. It was really nice to get all the wedding stuff out of the way. 

The Baptism

The baptism was one of the smoothest baptisms I have been a part of here in Verde.  We got there 7 hours early and filled up the fount, and our ward mission leader baptised them and it was all good.  So the Dad is a less active, and the wife and kids all got baptised, it was incredible.  Then I sang a musical number with Jeremy,I like to look for rainbows.  I sang in English and he sang in Portugese and it was sweet.  Its a good thing that they didnt understand anything, but I thought it went well haha.  

Its weird to explain how great it felt to see them get baptized.  Like those guys will go to the temple a year from last saturday, and will be sealed together forever.  This is such a blessed people, and Gods Hand is so visible in the work here. There wont be too many more days like this, but it was a blessing to be a part of it. 

  I love all you guys, and I love being a missionary.  The church is true.  

Elder Jarvis

World's Biggest Pig

October 6, 2014

We didn't actually watch conference last week. With the shaky power problems in Fogo they moved it to next week.  

I did finally get the package, and I can't tell you how thankful I am that you guys sent it, you guys are incredible! The Sunflower seeds were amazing!

 I wish you could come here.  Cova Fig has some of Gods greatest children.  It also has some of Gods most frustrating investigators, but its all good.  

Worlds Biggest Pig