January 13, 2014
I'll be honest, that last week went by super fast and I really don’t remember a ton of it. Monday night we had a family night, and that was sweet! Tuesday was a pretty sweet day! We did a division on Wednesday with Elder Doorf and Elder Conduane. which really wasn’t much of a division because we live in the same house... But Elder Conduane came with me to Achada Traz, and Doorf went with my better half to Achada Grande.
My job in the
division was to make Elder Conduane a little more happy, because he
never seems that happy, and Elder Gooch says I'm one of the more
positive people he knows. So the whole time during comp study we
talked about happiness and stuff. And I used a ton of stuff
that my dad talks about. I Just said, in Portuguese of course, "do
you know what my dads job is? and of course he said no, and I said,
"Seu trabajalo e para adujadar triste pessoas ser feliz" I
said my dad's a therapist, and his job is to make sad people happy.
So we talked about that a lot. And I did this example where,
and this will happen in Cape Verde. where there are a lot of
people in our area that won't get to talk to the missionaries.
There are just too many people. So I said, maybe there will be
someone on the street that only sees the missionaries one time in
their entire lives. They might never talk to us ever. And
there one impression about the church will come from seeing Elder
Conduane, or Elder Jarvis, walk down the street. And
their whole belief about our church will be seeing us that one time.
And if he sees us and we look sad, what is he going to think?
Well clearly he is going to think that that church makes people
sad. But if he sees us smiling and laughing as we walk, what is
he going to think? Of course that this church makes people happy. So
we just always need to be happy whether we are really happy or
not. Because we never know when there will be that one person
looking at us to the the light of Christ. And if we are sad, we
might have just cost that person a chance to be interested in our
message, and I feel like that's just one of the worst things ever.
And
the other thing we talked about was just telling people that you love
them. Because one thing I’ve learned out here is that you can
never tell people that you love them enough, and actually mean it.
Its definitely one of the things I wish I would have done more
before I left. So I asked if he tells elder Doorf that he loves
him. And he said that he has never said that to anyone in his life.
So we did a practice, and it was actually kinda funny, where he
told me that he loved me. And when Elder Doorf, and Elder Gooch got
home the first thing he said to Elder Doorf was that he loved him.
And
Its just one of the best things I learned from my mom and dad. Like
two years is seems like a long time. And if you aren't happy
and love what you do every single day, its gonna be the longest two
years of your life. But its like Elder Holland says "The
biggest regret people have before they die is that they wish they
would let themselves be happier. People have this thought that there
is always some obstacle in the way, keeping them from having that
happiness. Like a better cell phone, or a nicer car, or a
better comp, or running water, or hot showers. But in reality,
there’s always going to be those things in life. And if we
chose to focus on them, life's gonna suck. But it was really
nice for me to do the division because it made me think about what
makes me be happy everyday. And I always knew, but helping
explain it to Elder Conduane really opened my eyes, and hopefully
helped him out a little too.
But
other than that the week wasn't too bad. We didn't teach
too many lessons, but I taught 5 tree of life lessons, and got 26
references for us to contact this week, so that’s all we will do
this week is contact and try to get new investigators. Last
week all we did was pass by our baptisms for the week Igor and Dino.
 |
| Nate, Igor and Elder Gooch |
Igor
is Noberts and Nices kid, and he was the only one in their family not
baptized. We had tried to teach him before, and he had desire. But
he was completely honest with us, and said he had a girlfriend and
was not going to stop breaking the law of chastity. So we told
him when he decided to change, the doors to the church were open, and
we knew Nobert would help him get there. So hes been to church
three weeks in a row, broke it off with his girl, and was baptized
this last week. He said that he noticed his family was
happy and he wanted to be happy like them. So now their entire
family is preparing to go the temple in a year from now and be
sealed. It's pretty sick because I'll still be on my mission. And
to go home, we fly out of Praia, so i will definitely see them
as a sealed family before I go back to America which just blows my
mind to thing about. They are the coolest family ever.
 |
| Nate, Dino, Dina and Gooch |
Dino
is Dina's son. Our baptism from my second transfer. We
have baptized him, his mom, and his sister. So we will continue
to work with Tito the husband, and another one of her daughters. One
of her daughters doesn't really believe in God, so it will be
interesting to teach her, but were gonna try this week. But
Dino is 16, super prepared to hear the gospel and it was sweet!.
I
also did baptismal interviews last week. I interviewed a ten
year old, and a 26 and 27 year old couple that just got married, so
that was sweet! Everything went well with those, and they were all
baptized. We also had a less active get a calling, which is one
of the main goals for the zone right now.
But
other than that everything is everything in Cape Verde. Today
was my four month anniversary with my better half, Elder Gooch. so
we went out to lunch and it was great! But I still love it out here
and i love hearing from all you guys. Keep writing and sending
pictures!
 |
| Gooch and Jarvis, one last lunch |
Com
muito amor, seu amigo na Africa,
Elder Jarvis
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