The Cova Weekly

November 3, 2014

The Work

This week was sweet.  Had an all time high of people at church, and it was just a good week to be alive in Cova Figuiera.  This is a little off the subject of missionary work, but congrads to the San Fran Giants for winning the october classic.  

The Cows

For the first time ever we went up in the mountains to a zone called Stanica Hokie.  And we took the back of this hiace (a large van) to get there.  When we got in the back, there was a little cow, and we thought that was really funny.  So we took pics of this little cow that was riding in the back with us and it was all fun.  Then right when we start going up the hill, the hiace stops and picks up 4 more baby cows haha.  So here I am with my comp in the back of this hiace, with five baby cows all over us.  Drooling on our legs, and peeing on my comps shoes haha.  The driver told up the cows were super scared.  In the pic below, they are loading in the fourth of five cows that would join us.  

Ana Matilda

Ana Matilda is the funniest person I have ever met.  She was so hilarious in the week preparing for her baptism.  She is a little bigger, and she was soooo worried about drowning in the water haha.  A couple days before i asked her who she would like to baptise her, and I said it better be someone super strong so you dont drown.  Then I pointed at Elder Ayala, and she was like, yeah he needs to do it haha.  Some of the funnier things shes has said.  When we told her she couldnt drink coffee, she bore her testomony on how much she loves milk, and she will just drink that instead.  When we asked her if she knew where Jesus lived when he was on the earth, she said of course, and pointed to Australia  .  After her baptism she said she felt as light as a baloon. Kind of a strange comparison..  She was just awesome and super funny.  

The Spiritual Stuff

“A basketball in my hands is worth about $20.99. A basketball in the hands of LeBron James is worth $19 million per year; it depends on whose hands it's in. A tennis racket in my hands is worth about $17.00. A tennis racket in the hands of Serena Williams is worth about $20 million per year; it depends in whose hands it's in. A baseball in my hands is worth about $3.00. A baseball in the hands of Derek Jeter is worth about $35 million per year; it depends on whose hands it's in. Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in my hands would make a few fish sandwiches. Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in the Savior's hands will feed 5000 people until they're full, and still leave 12 baskets leftover; it depends on whose hands they're in. Some nails in my hands are worth about 5 cents. Some nails in the Savior's hands will provide eternal salvation for each person who has ever lived on this earth, and all of Heavenly Father's children. It depends on whose hands they're in. When we put our lives in the hands of the Savior, we can achieve infinitely more than we ever could on our own. It depends on whose hands they're in.”

Love all you guys, have a sick week!

Elder Jarvis

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

Power problems and marriage problems

9/22/2014

Power Problems

As Elder Calhoon says on the best two years.  ²Its kinda cloudy, we been havin lots of rain².  Its been raining every day here, which means the power is never on.  Por isso, I didnt sent a long email last week.  The power is really schetchy, but luckily our fridge is similar to the fridge of most elders, and we dont have too much in there that can go bad when the power goes out.  Its a little inconvient, but what can ya do.  

Curt Schilling

I felt a little bit like Curt Schilling Sunday morning.  Curt Schilling threw game 6 of the 2004 ALCS agains the Yankees with a broken ankle.  And it was bleeding the whole game and he spoke about the blood running down to the bottom of his toes.  Im in no way comparing myself to Curt Schilling, but my shoe has a pretty big gap, and because of the rain if filled with water quickly and my toes were pretty wet for a while.  Im getting the shoes fixed this week, so there shouldnt be anymore problems.  Just a little funny comparison I made in my head and thought Id share it.  

Marriage Probs

We have been working really hard with Marcaleno and Titeta for their marriage and baptism to be this week. Everything worked out, but they can only do marriages on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  And appearantly there is only one person on this whole Island that can do a marriage service, and he will be in Praia until next week.  We have transfers this week, so I have hoping that I get to stay to see the marriage.   #Familia

The Dog

I feel like the dog deserved a paragraph of its own.  The same reverent dog joined us for church this week.  And stayed for all three meetings with is better than a lot of our members.  I also played the piano in church, not saying I played well, but I played.  

Spiritual Stuff

Listened to Remember Lots Wife this week. Ive heard it a million times, but leaned some new stuff this time.  Learning from the past but not living in it.  A lot of missionaries, especially the Americans always talk about America and how great it is.  Things like carpet, hot showers,  paved roads, and grocery stores.  I would be lying if I said Im not guilty of doing the same things.  But the past is to learned from and not lived in. Not saying Im gonna teach these guys how to build a grocery store, but two years is such a short time away from all that stuff, and we signed on to give it all up for two years. Concercrate yourself, and see what the Lord can make with you.

Hope you guys all have a great week. Thanks for the letter, and please continue to send pics, its my favorite part of P Day! 

Elder Jarvis, Cova Fogo