I feel that through the Lord, I can handle anything!

This week we’re working and concentrating all our efforts on Odete and her family. I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but Odete has 5 children and lives with her partner Onze. This family is relatively poor, but nothing like Jocyleida and Andirson. Onze works for the city hall picking up trash from the public containers. Odete sells fish and mostly takes care of the children. When the children are at school, she is out on the streets selling fish. It’s interesting that this is one of the happiest families that I have met on my mission, despite all their afflictions. Onze has a serious problem in his leg which requires a metal plate being inserted, to which he doesn’t have the money or means to do so. He walks and works but with extreme pain. The family lives very far from the church, but has already made it twice without anyone having to look for them.

Last week, we taught them the word of wisdom, as Onze has a drinking and smoking problem, and Odete drinks coffee. Normally it’s extremely difficult to get any man to even want to desire to stop drinking, but Onze has been doing an excellent job cutting down and going many days at a time without drinking and fighting extreme headaches because of this. Odete also is fighting caffeine withdrawal and serious headaches as well. They’re all very humble, and we have grown very close to them. We had just taught them the Law of chastity, and they told us that they would ponder on marriage. They probably won’t be able to get married until after I go, but at least I can do everything to place things in order, so that Elder Fogelberg can carry out the rest.

Abilio and Sandra had a very rough time recently with keeping their commitments, but it seems that they’re finally on track as they’re coming back to church and getting their act together.  Interesting thing is that some 4 weeks ago, Abilio passed out drunk on his bed and Sandra sitting by his side with a scowl on her face. We did not even know at the time that Abilio had a drinking problem. We asked if we could pull Sandra aside and talk. She agreed. She talked about how Abilio was going to have to make some major changes before she would agree to marry him, like stop drinking being priority number one. We found Abilio that next day and taught him the Word of Wisdom. He reacted much more humbly than we had expected and promised that he would leave the habit. He seemed to do it with great ease and has not touched a drop since. I love this guy. He has some real humility, and it touches my heart how important the Gospel has become in his life. He receives us with such warmth, and we have spent ample time just talking with him and getting to know more about his life. Hopefully we would be able to mark a date for their wedding soon.

Joana was baptized this weekend, and everything went really well. Joana has suffered quite a bit in her life, now living alone with 2 children. I have seen the difference in how her afflictions have humbled her. She does everything by her feelings, so the Gospel was music to her ears seeing how the spirit played such a big role in her life. I’m really proud of her and how far she has come. Many times we’ve walked by her front door and have caught her reading the Book of Mormon by herself. She has a very strong spirit, and I have no doubt that she’s going to grow quickly in this magnificent Gospel.

This weekend was District conference (like stake conference) and all the members of Mindelo were there. I saw most of my recent converts, and I am glad to see that almost everyone is  active. Andirson is still preparing to get the Melchezidek Preisthood and is strong in the church. I saw Anna and Margarida and some other members that I was close with. Mindelo 1 is one of my favorite branches that I have worked with in my mission, and it was so great to see everyone again.

As for the feeling of going home...it’s a bitter sweet feeling. My heart is like a washing machine right now. There are so many great things that I know I’m going to enjoy going home, but a big part of my heart though is also preparing for one of the biggest shocks I’m going to have in my life and having to cope with the fact that it’ll all be over soon. I’ve converted to this mission so much, and it means to me what words cannot describe. This mission has such a profound impact on my heart, and it’ll be over in three weeks. I’ll never live a part of my life like this again. I’ll never be in this country again as a missionary. So right now, I am happy as happy can be and sad as sad can be. I wonder if that is even possible, but that’s what I believe I feel.

The friends that I’ll be leaving are the most painful part of this journey. All these wonderful people… I know the Lord will be taking care of them, but how I wish I didn’t have to say goodbye. I love these people like I have never loved before. My heart has gone through the ends of the world for these people, and I have lost myself in service to them. It hasn’t been easy, but is an experience that I’ll never, never, NEVER take back.

I’m the most proud of the fact that I believe that I have the necessary tools to be an active member of this Gospel for the rest of my life. I’m proud that through all the joy, pain, and hard work, I’ll always feel that I did my best with the knowledge that I had. I’m the most proud that I know God so much more than I used to and that now I have a true reason to be a member of this church, and definitively, I’m proud of the fact that now I’m stronger, more mature, and numb to life’s problems. I feel that through the Lord, I can handle anything!

Elder Cuestas

Division with Elder Reeser

Last Thursday I went on the division with Elder Reeser. We talked about all sorts of techniques that we can use to improve the work. This had to have been one of the best divisions that I have ever done in my mission. The Spirit was extremely strong throughout the whole day. We talked about engaging the investigators better in the lessons, so that we are teaching people, not lessons. We put this into practice and had an incredible day! We committed an investigator to live the Word of Wisdom after the Spirit being super strong in the room.

The interview went super great with my Mission President. He actually did not have too much counsel for me, other than not to get trunky (lazy) on my mission. He told me that I have done great things on my mission and that I’m doing a great job in helping Elder Fogelberg in becoming a strong missionary.

So this week, we have had some major progress with Odette and her family. Her whole family now has the desire to come to church, and they were going to come this past Sunday, but Onze (Odette’s partner) his brother died, and the funeral was on Sunday. Funerals here take all day because, after the service, all the people walk behind the funeral car all the way to the cemetery. Odette’s baby also had a fall and passed out, but everything seems to be ok now. We had a great lesson with them about the fact that families can be together forever. Odette’s face lit up as she mentioned that she missed her mom very much since her death. She got more excited to live the Word of Wisdom and want to continue talking to us. They promised that they would come to church this week.

Also, this week we are preparing this woman named Joana for baptism. Joana was someone that had been studying with the elders for a very long time. She had a few problems coming to church in the past, but she had recently experienced some major health problems like migraines and other issues. This has caused her to humble herself and look for the Lord. She came to church last week, and she said that she was ready to prepare for baptism.

Additionally, we are working hard with other investigators, so they can progress and come to church on a regular basis.

Elder Cuestas

The Family From Pedreira

Last weekend was the sickest I have ever been on my mission. I literally could not get up from my bed, and Elder Fogelberg was throwing up throughout the day. The whole city was without power, except Bela Vista. (That was a gift from the Lord, so that our fans could keep working)

It’s interesting because towards the beginning of the afternoon, Elder Fogelberg could not get up from his bed, and I was taking care of him bringing him water and medicine, and anything he needed. Around 8 pm, he started to feel much better, and I had started to feel worse. I had acquired a killer headache and quite a fever, so much that after 9 pm, I could not get up from bed, and Elder Fogelberg was bringing me water and medicine and what not…It seems that the Lord staged our sicknesses so that we could help each other…ha-ha.

This week we’re feeling much better!

So this Wednesday, we have training and interviews with our Mission President. I’m excited for this because I’ll receive inspired counsel for these last 5 weeks that I have left here. I’m also excited because I’ll be going on a division with Elder Reeser. He has been a good friend throughout my whole mission, an excellent missionary. He’s very humble, and it’s great that we’ll be spending a day together, so that I can see how I can help him as his District Leader.

Right now we’re focusing on the family from Pedreira. The woman’s name is Odette, and her partner’s name is Onze. They’re extremely humble and have 5 kids. Odette and Onze seem to have an extremely good relationship, and it’s interesting that Odette is really good friends with Zuleika. Zuleika told us that Odette has wanted to get married to her partner for a very long time. We’re excited to get to work with them because we taught them the word of wisdom last week. It seems that this flu has been spreading throughout all Mindelo very quickly, and Odette got it pretty bad this past weekend. However, despite that she managed to stay away from coffee which she has been drinking for a long time. She is a woman of true faith, and she walks to church in the heat every week with her children. Her partner this last week has begun to acquire interest, and he’s now participating in the lessons.

Orlandina and Firmina are doing better than ever this week. They managed to bring their mother to church this past Sunday. We’ll start teaching her this week, as well.

Abilio and Sandra have been having huge issues in their relationship. It was becoming so hard to find them that we decided to leave them be for a while, due to the fact that they were not keeping appointments at all. Miraculously, this past weekend they both showed up to church on Sunday, which is really good. It seems that they have not forgotten their desires to join the Church, so after talking to them for a while, we made an appointment, and we’ll be focusing more on them now.

We’re currently with a lot of investigators, and a lot of people to work with. This is good because it will keep me busy, so that I can finish the mission strong.

This week we’re preparing Aileen for baptism. She is a younger girl who caught interest in the Gospel because of her sisters Zuleika and Kika joining the church. Little by little, we’re helping this entire family to come to the gospel. We’re teaching their other sister Doris, too.

Well, due to the few days out of work last week, we have tons of work, and we’re excited for the weeks of hard work ahead!  

Elder Cuestas

Firmina's Baptism

This week was Firmina’s baptism, which was something very special for Elder Fogelberg and me. The spirit was exceptionally strong and the whole time during her baptism I did feel that she is going to be an excellent help in the church and that she is going to start service through church callings pretty soon. Her testimony was one of the strongest that I had seen for someone who is just learning about the Gospel. Ever since she moved out, she has been at peace, and she is enjoying her new live with her little 6 year old. She is an extremely strong woman, and she knows that she has just made one of the greatest decisions in her life!

As I’ve mentioned before, one of the biggest challenges here in Bela Vista is getting people to church. This week we did end up finding a bunch of new people, but we did not have too many investigators that were progressing towards baptism.  Both Elder Fogelberg and I were a bit drained on Saturday after working all that we could this past week with not exactly the results we were expecting. However, that day we were walking up in a part of Bela Vista called Pedreira and we got this impression to visit these relatively new investigators that we were teaching to invite them to church. We got to their house, and all of them were there. We talked to the mother and invited her to church, and she agreed. The people here often agreed to come to church, but who actually makes it, we never know.

Sunday morning comes around and after a 35 minute walk in the 90 degree heat, and rain, while wearing our suits, we only found 3 investigators in church. We weren’t happy about it, but we accepted it...then about 10 minutes later, there was our family from Pedreira all coming to church as well as 3 other investigators that we were counting on. This resulted in the highest amount of investigators that I’ve ever had in church at one time. We had 11 investigators in church. This is huge for an area that was once dead.

My companion and I were cheering and celebrating the whole way home. The Lord produced such a huge miracle for our hard work this past week. I’m so grateful for the power of faith and the power that it has to convince people to make that 35 minute walk in the heat to church. It’s all the spirit. We just try to move our mouths to what the spirit wants us to say.

Elder Cuestas

My 21st Birthday!

I cannot believe that today is my 21^st birthday.  My time here has gone by so quickly, and it seems sometimes that I was - yesterday - a brand new missionary with all this nice brand new clothes, ties and a new/clean nametag.  Currently, I’m at 8 weeks left until home. My nametag is now brown with almost 2 years of work, sweat and dirt, 2 years of walking dirt roads, hiking rocks and small mountains.  Two years of sitting in tin shacks and spreading the word of the Lord in one of the most sacred countries in this world. It has been an amazing journey!

So this week was busy with its ups and downs, and we have had tons of work to do here in Bela Vista.

As I mentioned last time, we have been working with Firmina. She has been having major problems with her husband. Well we discovered more about their situation.  Her husband is indeed a very violent person. He has tried to strangle her many times, and he wants to control her and have her be at his will. I’m so grateful for her faith, and what she has had to do these past two weeks. She made the decision that she no longer wanted to do anything with him. Being on how wicked a man this is, we supported and helped her build enough faith to move out as soon as possible. Well, she was living in the shack attached to the house, and being that she was living the law of chastity already, she has plans to get baptized this weekend.   Well, Satan is really good at stirring people’s hearts to contention, and he had this man at his will. The husband found out about her plans, and he threatened to throw her out on the street should she be baptized. This man has no reason to do that, other than to just be cruel. He doesn’t even have a religion and just spends the day in the streets with his friends.

Oh well, the Lord is more powerful. We prayed and prayed and prayed for her, and Saturday around 6 in the evening, she found a house and rented it out. We dropped almost all our appointments yesterday and immediately went to go help her get her stuff out. It’s interesting that as she was doing this, the man began to weep and told her that it was his family’s fault that he was so violent with her and that he wanted her back. As we like to put it, "she loves Christ more than she loves him". We got in the truck with all her stuff, and that was that. As missionaries, we support families and unity, but we do not support abuse and the kind of treatment that this man was giving Firmina. We got out and helped her move in, and as she was putting her things in the new house and organizing, she started smiling and expressing how happy she was that the whole thing was over. She is now there with her children, and she is looking forward to being baptized this week. I’m so proud of her for her faith in the Gospel, and all she has done to come closer to Christ. This is the beginning of a new chapter in her life, and she will be blessed with a bright journey ahead.  

Elder Fogelberg is doing incredible. He has already become a great missionary, and I’m so excited to see all that he’s going to be able to accomplish in his mission. I’m so grateful for him!

Elder Cuestas 

This is the view of Mindelo that I get from my area





I'm grateful to Heavenly Father for all the blessings!

First off, Elder Fogelberg and I are doing better and better each week. He’s someone who is willing to work as hard as we have to work out here, but at the same time, we can relax and share stories from home, or BYU without getting homesick. I love it. He asks me a ton of questions about the country, the people, the mission, etc. Tomorrow, President Oliveira will be coming here to impart training as usual, but it will be Elder Fogelberg’s first training on his mission, and he’s pretty excited about it. I’m grateful to Heavenly Father for all the blessings that he has given us.

So this weekend, we had the baptism of Orlandina. Everything went well, and she was prepared to take upon herself the promises to follow Jesus Christ. We found eight new investigators this week, and we have a total of 8 baptism dates marked. There are several challenges that lie ahead of us, but we’re going to do all that we can to get these people to church and get them to progress for their own true happiness.  One of the challenges that we have here is the location of the church because it’s a 25 minute walk from our house in a 90 degree heat. It’s very hot, and of course, being that Bela Vista is a very poor area no one has money to pay the bus. So we just walk with the investigators. Every Sunday, when we get to church, we’re soaking wet, and in a suit, it’s a bit tiring, but we got used to it very quickly. Most of the investigators don’t seem to have a problem with walking so much, but still remains a challenge.

This week we will be preparing this woman for baptism, and her name is Firmina. She was, for years, in this terrible relationship with her husband. Her husband would often beat her, threaten to expel her, and even threaten to kill her. He has quite the temper, and he has caused much pain to her and her children. She has been taking lessons from the Elders for a very long time. She has even received a visit one time from President and Sister Oliveira, and the Elders, us included, have tried to visit her husband many times, but our efforts have been in vain. He’s not interested in changing at all or accepting the invites that we give him. Two weeks ago, Firmina and her husband got into a huge argument, and he threatened again to kill her. She took that as the last straw and decided to leave him. Finally that she has separated from him, she can move on to what she wanted to do for a long time, and that is to be baptized. This woman has an incredible testimony and is right now living in a wood and tin shack with her 3 year old child. She does not even dwell on all the things that have happened to her, but instead looks forward to her baptism.

There is this one family that we’re teaching, and they remind me a lot of Jocyleida and Andirson, but only a little older. Abilio is 35 and Sandra is 32, and they also live in a very small tin shack in our area.  They have gotten all their documents to get married, but Satan tries everything to tear families in prospective apart. Right now, Sandra’s mom has some serious health issues, and she has to go all day every day to take care of her. Abilio’s ex-girlfriend, who he shares a son with, is making some big time fuss about his plans to marry Sandra. She really has no reason to do so, other than Satan. He tries to destroy everything. He never succeeds when the investigators do what is right. We had this incredible lesson last night with them, where both Fogelberg and I literally felt the spirit moving our mouths for us. They’re going to pray and see if they should proceed with their plans to get married. We hope that everything goes well.

We also went by Andirsons’ house on our way into the city. His family is doing amazingly. Better than I thought as new converts go. Andirson is doing tons of church service for all the charity that the branch has given his family. He’s preparing for the Melchizidek Priesthood, and everything is going super well for the whole family. I’m so proud of them and grateful that the Lord has blessed me so much with all these sacred experiences.

Elder Cuestas

 

Incredible Miracles!

The most important thing is that the Lord has performed incredible miracles in our area. Bela Vista is doing amazing now, with plenty of investigators that we have found recently. Just this past week and a half we have found over 10 new investigators, and 5 of them already have a baptism date. We should be having a baptism this weekend of a woman named Orlandina. She’s about 21 years old, and she has been showing great interest in the church and the Gospel for quite some time.

This is nothing short of a miracle that the Lord has placed in our hands. We worked so hard this past week, and we were so blessed with miracles of finding new people and getting them on track to baptism. I never in my life thought that we would have this area pick up so quickly.

I’m sure that the reason of that is because of the incredible unity that Elder Fogelberg and I have in our companionship. I could not ask for a better companion. We have been hitting it off extremely well and working together side by side. It is often hard to imagine that he’s a new missionary, because we feel just like a normal companionship that is making all the decisions together. Elder Fogelberg has fire for the work, and he already is developing a great love for the people. He can speak fluent Portuguese, and he is happy with everything about this country. He is definitely a great missionary!!

So like I said, we have been finding new investigators really fast this past week. Orlandina had plans to be baptized the 25^th of August, but we feel that she is ready to be baptized this next week, since she has been coming to church so much. She agreed. She is the sister of another investigator that we have that needs to work on a few issues before she can be baptized. She is someone that we’ll be working with for a while.

Many of our new investigators live very close to each other, so our plan is to help them all come to the Gospel, and then they can strengthen each other as new converts. It’ll be a great help for Bela Vista because one of the weaknesses of this area is that there are not many current members.

The other investigator that I’m extremely excited about is a man named Francelino. The Relief Society President of our branch is dating this man that she convinced to start talking to us. It turns out that he’s very interested and happy in taking our lessons. They don’t live together, but I am pretty sure that they want to start making preparations to get married. I know that they have been together for quite a while, and this is drawing them closer together. We have a baptism date for him on the 1st of September. Hopefully everything goes well.

After further analysis, Bela Vista is poor, but not as poor as Tarrafal. The people are a little more humble in this part of Mindelo than my last area, which makes it easier to find new investigators. There were rumors that Bela Vista was an extremely dangerous area. In reality, this is one of the calmest areas that I have served in. My last area was a constant riot compared to this one. I’ve never served in a part of the city that is so quiet. Maybe the danger happens after I’m asleep. Ha-ha. As for the mountain, we teach investigators on that mountain almost every day, so I get to see that incredible view.

So due to all this success that we been having, and the amazing life that Elder Fogelberg and I are having together as companions, I got over my last area really quick. I’m so focused on all the work that we have to do here, before I go home, that I don’t have any time to think about anything else.

Elder Cuestas