Monday, April 30, 2012

First Stake of the Republic of Cape Verde

This was the week of weeks, and it was history changing for Cape Verde. On Sunday, we all met in the Palace of the Nacional Assembly. This is where congressmen and such meet for their affairs. We were in the presence of Elder Kopischke and his counselor, Elder Texeira. They’re the presidency of the Europe Area.

They came and released all the leadership of the district of Praia and called the new Stake President, and his counselors. They came and announced the FIRST STAKE of the Republic of Cape Verde. This is history. Cape Verde now has its first stake, its first wards, bishops, stake presidents, patriarchs, and all the other blessings of stakes.

I sat there next to Lacy, Tony and Zeletche from Tarrafal as all the members of the island of San Tiago were there. This is HUGE for the country. President Oliveira even met with President Jorge Carlos Fonseca, the president of Cape Verde to discuss the matter. All this is on the Cape Verde church’s website - igreja-jesus-cristo.cv

This week was incredibly busy. On Tuesday, we received 4 of the 12 missionaries from Fogo to come and see Zone conference. I was able to go on a division with Elder Reeser, whom I worked with in Brava. We ran around the whole city. I think we took close to some 10 taxis from one area of the city to another. We had to set up the church, get accommodations for the missionaries coming in and coordinate everything. It was such a productive day.

Wednesday was conference day, and I served as an interpreter for the missionaries that do not speak English. Translating is exhausting, but it forced me to pay attention the whole time.
Elder Kopischke spoke to us, and this had to have been the strongest spirit I have ever felt in a conference. This was the conference for the missionaries exclusively before the Stake conference on Sunday. I learned so much this day - things that are going to help me moving forward.

On the other note, the Lord gave us a small treat this week. It turns out President still needed to do one more special training...in FOGO!! And he’s taking us with him!!!!

I will fly to Fogo on Wednesday and come back Friday. I get to see Fogo one more time!!! I get to see elder Abularach and elder Calderwood! I am very excited for this, too.

This week is going to be crazy, and I have to do some running around and get things ready for next week. I‘ll write more next week.

Elder Cuestas




Monday, April 16, 2012

A typical week as an AP

So the mission office is in the richest area of Cape Verde. This area is called Palmarejo, and there is no exaggeration. Only foreigners, or politicians, or really successful people live here. They drive cars like Toyota, Land Cruisers, Audi Q8 etc. These cars are more expensive here because of import and maintenance money. Yep. So our house is about a 4 minute walk from the mission office, and consequently, this is the nicest house of the mission. It has a hot water heater and 4 rooms. It has a microwave and is just very nice with the tile that is in it and in the bathrooms and what not. All this is great, but not terribly important to me. I can definitively say that the assistants’ house is the nicest house in the mission.

The mission president lives in the tallest building, in an apartment complex, in Cape Verde that is across the street to what would be the equivalent of the US National Capitol Building, where all the congress and government officials work. The area is called Varzea.

Let me cap a typical week as an AP. Monday is P day, and every Monday at 6:30a, all the missionaries from Praia get together to play soccer in a part of the city called Achadinha. Then we’ll go home, shower and come to the mission office where we get to use internet for free, which is a plus. Then we will just do the regular stuff like shopping, errands, cleaning the house and get everything ready for the week.

The rest of the week we study in the mornings, just like everyone else, and instead of leaving the house at 10am to go proselyte, we go to the mission office where we have office work to do, like gather up data for the mission, or take care of whatever project the president has for us. We also have a mission vehicle to our use when we need to pick up missionaries or run errands for the president. There is no possibility of speeding here ha-ha. There is no road in condition to do so, but it’s cool that our car is manual, and I get to drive it most of the time.

As an AP, there is a good deal of administrative work that we need to take care of, and I’m grateful for the new experience. However, there are times that I can’t help missing being a Zone Leader because of the work on the field - the missionary work that I love so much. The preparing people for baptism and helping other missionaries be successful. Nevertheless, this is what my Heavenly Father wants me to do right now, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to be of service.

This week we prepared this one man for baptism. His name is Adilson, and he is from Sao Vicente. He was very humble and was on time for his appointments every time. He seems to be so at peace now that he’s a member. I saw him in Sacrament meeting yesterday as he was closing his eyes in fervent prayer as the sacrament was being passed around. I’m so happy for him.

Elder Cuestas

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

General Conference in Praia






Here is a picture of the area from the mission office. We don’t really proselyte there because this is the richest area in the whole country. We go to the much poorer parts of our proselyting area, and the other pic is Helder and me.

A week has passed since my transfer to Praia, and we already have the month planned out with meetings and trainings and conferences that we’ll help President Oliveira with. I’ll get to travel to Mindelo, and see it for the first time. I know that I’ll grow a lot through my time here as an assistant, and I know that I’m here for a reason. I just have to continue being humble and pray a lot for the Lord to help me.
Our responsibilities are basically counseling with the mission president in all things that he does in respect to the missionaries and helping him in maintaining the missionaries informed. We also plan and prepare trainings and supervise the well-being and work of all missionaries in the mission. In other words, we oversee the mission in all things. We have a car (Toyota Hiace) that we use for mission purposes such as taking people to and from the airport and other errands that we frequently have to run. We have the afternoons to proselyte, but sometimes we have to run errands that the mission president will ask us to run. Being beside President Oliveira will be a blessing, as he has so much wisdom, and I know he’ll help me grow immensely.
This time we watched General Conference in English in the church, just in a different room. I enjoyed the most Elder Ballard’s talk on Sunday afternoon. I noticed that conference was based on families and the home particularly this time around.

Elder Cuestas