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

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

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

I got transferred to Praia as the Assistant to our Mission President

I finally got transferred out of Fogo. Now I’ll be serving as an Assistant to our Mission President with Elder Humphries.

President Oliveira came to Fogo on Thursday for a Zone conference, and he asked us to meet him at the Hotel where he was staying right before he left. We met and talked about the Zone and helped him get ready to get in the taxi to go back to Praia. Right as he was about to get into the back seat of the taxi, he turned around and looked at me and put his hand on my shoulder…”Elder Cuestas, you know that you’re going to be transferred this time, right?"

"Yes I do President"

"You’ll be my new assistant. I’ll see you on Monday" Wow!!!

He got in the car and drove away. Needless to say, I was speechless…

Two days and a flight later, I’m now in Praia, in the mission office, writing this letter. To be honest, I feel a bit nervous about this new transfer. I guess I’m thinking in my mind "How in the world am I going to do this? Me…? Assistant to the Mission President?" Someone got that transfer mixed up… I know that everything is going to be ok in the end and that I’m going to grow in ways that I couldn’t have any more in São Filipe...

My proselyting area will be in the city of Praia in the Zones of Palmarejo, Tira Chapeu, Monte Vermelho and a few others that I’m not quite sure, yet. I hear that our area is huge.

Now here is a recap of these past two weeks in São Filipe.

We prepared two very special people for baptism. Their names are Aleida, and Vanuza.

Vanuza is one of the poorest people that I’ve seen, and she lives under some appalling circumstances. She is one of ten children. Her mother is a prostitute and has several men both in and out of the city. The results of the mother’s work are 9 brothers and sisters to which Vanuza is the oldest. Since her mother is not capable of anything, Vanuza has to take full-time care of her brothers and sisters, as well as her nephew, which was another unplanned pregnancy from her brother. Every day, she wakes up very early and gets 10 little boys and girls ready to go to school, makes them breakfast, washes clothes by hand, and gives them baths. Right after she gets them going to school, she immediately starts cooking lunch for when they get back. By the time they get back, and she has fed them all, it’s time for her to go to school. She comes back and makes dinner for the children and puts them to bed.

Her life is completely controlled by these 10 brothers, sisters, and nephew, and her mom just walks in and out of the house as she pleases. It’s indeed heartbreaking to see all this, and that Vanuza is only 16 years old. She is taking these responsibilities well, and she is among one of the most mature people I have ever known. It’s indeed incredible that she did not follow the example of her mother, and instead she is working on her schooling and making sure that these 10 children are being taken care of. If she doesn’t do it, then no one else will.

Their house has nothing, but a few foam mattresses to sleep on, 3 chairs, and a gas tank, not a stove, with a spout for the cooking. I’m so proud of her for making it all the way to baptism and putting so many chores aside, just so that she could go to church, even if it means walking around the hallways to soothe her crying nephew. I love her so much, and her baptism was incredibly spiritual, and it’ll have a special place in my heart forever. She's doing very well coming to church and activities whenever she can. I feel sorry for her mother and how much she's going to have to suffer at judgment day for her lack of responsibility for these 10 children.

Aleida is Alisio’s sister. We have been working with her for a while, and she would have been baptized some 3 weeks ago, but her mother insisted that she waited a bit longer, just to make sure that she was getting baptized for the right reasons. The mother of these two kids is a completely different story. Her name is Tutura, and she runs a beauty salon from her house, which is how most of them work here. She works all day to support her family, and her husband, their stepfather, is a carpenter. Tutura loves her kids very much, and you can tell that she dedicated much time to raising and educating them well. The result is two very well turned out kids, Alisio is 17 and Aleida is 14 years old.

Last week, we went to Brava to explore and analyze another village to determine if we could open missionary work there. The place is called Nossa Senhora do Monte. As we explored the area, we felt a pretty warm spirit to the place, and we felt that indeed missionaries could come and start working there. I’ll report that to President Oliveira as soon as I get the chance. I love the spirit of Brava. It’s a place where the work is struggling quite a bit, just like it was in Tarrafal, but nevertheless, we have to keep trying. The elders there, elder Gunnarson, and elder Reeser are people that I care for and love very much, and they're very obedient hard working elders. They deserve so much.

Last Tuesday we were preparing Olympia for baptism. She is 7 months pregnant and married to her husband from the island of Santo Antão. Her husband works at the hospital, and they were both very open and accepting to our message. Everything would have gone perfectly, except that she was checked in at the hospital due to complications with her pregnancy. I’ll continue to pray that all goes well for her and her husband.

Elder Cuestas

The Power of the Holy Ghost

This has been one of the craziest weeks in terms of being a Zone Leader. So starting Sunday, we went to Praia and we didn’t come back until Wednesday afternoon. Right when we got home from Praia, we had one hour in Sao Filipe to get ready to go to Brava that same day. The elders there needed some baptismal interviews, and we have not gone to Brava to do divisions for some time. We arrived in Brava on Wednesday night around 10:30 and stayed there until Friday morning. That day we had to prepare our investigator for baptism on Saturday. It was this 14 year old boy named Danielson.

Lucindo has changed night to day. That angry anti-social man that I once knew is long gone. He’s always now in a good mood and always wanting to chat every time that we visit him. It’s incredible the impact that the Holy Ghost is already having in him, and I know that he’s going to continue to grow and prosper. His love for the Gospel continues to grow as he studies like crazy. Already look how his life has been blessed! He washes cars for a living, and he used to do them manually, but right after his baptism, an opportunity opened up for him to buy a pressure hose, so that instead of taking 15 minutes to wash a car, he can now do it in 5 minutes. Now more people are going to want to go to him to get their cars washed. I was stoked to hear this.

Sunday was a miracle as the frequency at church went from a normal 110 to 140 people in Sacrament meeting. What a blessing! Many less-actives are starting to come back to church, and we were blessed with a strong testimony meeting, too.

Elder Cuestas

Lucindo got baptized!!

Right now, I’m sitting in the mission office here in Praia writing this letter. We were flown in yesterday and spent the evening doing splits with the assistants. The flight was 100 times better than the last one because the plane took off and landed smoothly.

Lucindo was in the final week to his baptism, so we went to his house every single day, and sometimes twice a day when we couldn’t find him the first time as we wanted to make sure that he was not smoking. Thankfully, he did his part, and the interview with the Mission President went very well.

This Saturday was one of the most memorable baptisms on my mission. I was sitting there in the water all dressed in white waiting for Lucindo to come into the font. There, he was with one of the biggest smiles on his face that I have ever seen. He came in and went under the water to come back up and give me a hug. I had this smile that I simply could not take off. (Lucindo, from jail to Mormon in 8 months work) It was one of the most sacred transformations and hardest conversion that the Lord presented to us. Lucindo is incredible, and I love him like my brother. He has much work to accomplish and much to learn, but he’s finally in the arms of the Lord and under the influence of the Holy Ghost. I know that the Lord will take care of him and will continue to teach his humble heart. He’s doing magnificent!

Transfers will happen in three weeks, and Zone Leaders Council is tomorrow.

Lauren and Claudia were baptized along with Lucindo, and they were glowing, as well. Lauren is only 16 years old, and I’m very happy for the decisions that she’s making at such a young age. She has some of the most sincere prayers that I have ever heard from an investigator. She constantly promises God to keep the commandments, and she always has a bright smile on her face. She loves to sing, and every time we walk with her to the church, she sings.

Claudia has 4 kids and has a very difficult life just selling things like shoes and makeup to make a living. I know that the Holy Ghost will help her, so that in her desperation, she does not make wrong choices. She’s very shy, but she’s keeping all the commandments.

And also there is Aleida’s mom. She is not opposed to the church, but simply wanted to make sure that her young daughter of 14 is sure of her choice. Therefore, she said that she wanted Aleida to attend church more often before allowing her to be baptized. We marked a date of March 17th for her to which her mom agreed. Aleida is coming to church on Sundays, so things should go well.

Elder Cuestas

An Amazing Investigator!

This is one of the most amazing stories of my mission. It’s about Lucindo a 21-year old from Fogo. He has been out of jail for 8 months for having consumed some of the worst drugs offered here in Cape Verde. He is 5.6 inches tall and about 141 lbs. He’s a small guy, but strong as no one can imagine. He hated everyone. He started coming to church as a result of a less active member that invited him. He wore sunglasses to church and talked to no one - one of the most anti-social people that I have ever met. He always wore sleeveless shirts, so that everyone could see his muscles, and he always had a strong cold glare with his dark brown eyes. He wore an earring of a skull in his right ear, and he smoked so much that I could smell him a meter away.

When we met him, back in October of last year, we didn’t know that he was an investigator, but rather we thought that he was a less active member. The branch mission leader later told us about him in correlation meeting. He mentioned about the serious problems that Lucindo was undergoing. He told us about how probably getting him to baptism was going to be really difficult because of all that he did, and how he didn’t like to talk to anyone. As a result, no one talked to him.

Hmmm...ok. So the following Sunday, my companion and I went to church and found him. I extended my hand out to him, and he looked at me with this "What are you doing?" face. I kept my hand out there, and he grabbed it, every muscle in his arm contracting. I pulled him into me and gave him a hug with my other hand. He said nothing about it, managed a smirk and a snuff from his nose and walked away. I thought to myself..."Ok that’s a start".

Well he came back to church, and I did the same thing again. This time he chuckled as I pulled him in for a hug. This continued 2 more weeks, until one day as we were stopping by the chapel, we discovered that he started to go to Institute.

As elder Weiss and I were figuring out how we were going to contact this person to start teaching him, a day came where all our appointments were cancelled, and I suggested trying to find Lucindo. After 15 minutes of walking, we found him cleaning the back door of a taxi. He looked up to find us on the other side of the taxi. I said to him "May we speak with you?" He said, "Not now". Some two seconds of silence and I just gave him a kind of "ok...?"

He responded, "But I do want to talk to you guys. Can you come over on Sunday at 5 in the afternoon?" I responded "Of course, we can meet then" as we shook hands. I punched him a little harder than normal on the shoulder and gave him a hug. This time he had a full smile and managed a giggle, and we parted.

Teaching started, and he had tons of doubts. He shot questions, like a meteor shower, in this impatient, slightly exasperated tone of voice. As we talked, he grew more impatient. I could tell he was not too friendly to accepting new principles. We finished the lesson, and I don’t think we really um....well got anywhere. But I did punch him on the shoulder again. He smiled, laughed and managed a hug.

Ok, so he still likes us. We set up a few more teaching appointments and taught the restoration through the prophet Joseph Smith. This blew him away, and he was like "How could this be?" We just answered "Pray about it” He agreed.

We didn’t see him for some 2 weeks after that. One evening we found him washing a car, and he seemed really angry that day and told us that he didn’t want to talk to us anymore. He started explaining on how we didn’t understand that he didn’t like to talk to anyone. He didn’t like to study with people and that he knew the bible well enough and that he had no need to be taught any confusing things such as the ones we were teaching him. I was sad for him. We shook hands and left in a taxi. I thought of how hard we’ve been working to establish some sort of connection with him, and how close - I thought - we were to having him accept. Oh well that was that.

About a month later, as Elder Abularach and I were walking close to the chapel, out of nowhere, Lucindo walks out of the chapel and walks towards us. He asked "Why don’t you guys say hello when you pass me on the street?" I replied: I just thought you didn’t want to talk to us anymore" He paused and smiled and said, in probably the softest tone I have heard from him up to this point, "Of course I want to talk to you guys".

"...um ok. Well when would you like to meet? Sunday at 6? ...ok we will be there".

As Sunday came around, Elder Abularach got really sick due to food poisoning, so we arranged for a member to stay with him, and another member to go out with me. We went down to Lucindo’s house to teach, and things went 100 percent better than the last time around. I made this kind of special connection with him as I taught him about the Book of Mormon and about it being the heart of everything that we teach. I told him that it was essential for him to pray and obtain a response. We left it at that, and instantly, I felt that he was much more humble to that which I was teaching him.

Abularach and I taught him for the next several weeks, until it was time to teach him the Word of Wisdom (The smoking...) We went to his house and found him on his doorstep. We began the lesson, and I asked as I did every time we taught, "did you receive a response?" Lucindo, being a very frank person, responded "...I think it’s true".

WOW- Breakthrough point! Take that Satan!

We encouraged him to continue praying and set up goals to quit smoking, so he could be baptized. He accepted everything.

At about this time, Lucindo and I were becoming really close friends. His countenance was changing, and so was his personality. He no longer was that rude, anti-social person that I remembered. His smell of cigarette smoke was not so strong anymore, and the earring was gone. His heart had been softened to all the times I told him that I cared for him in our teachings. We started visiting him every day to see how the smoking was going. I started to plead to the Lord for him.

Then an incredible night of my mission came! Abularach and I found ourselves with too many appointments including Lucindo at 7 pm in the church. We split, taking with us two members, leaving me with a member and Lucindo in the chapel. Lucindo was right on time to our appointment, and he started confessing that it was difficult for him to stop smoking. I sat and listened and waited for him to finish. He looked at me and asked "Do you honestly believe with all your heart that this is true?".

I looked at him with tears forming in my eyes, and I just said "I don’t believe. I know it’s true, and I’ll never deny it".

He paused for a minute, staring at me and said "Then I know it’s true, too".

I was puzzled "What do you mean?"

He responded to how he felt that he was receiving impressions the whole time along, but that he didn’t think that anyone could be completely convinced that one path was right. However, he said that he felt the spirit confirms to him all the impressions, and that it was true. He then testified to me that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Lord had resolved all his doubts. I was screaming for joy inside.

I then began to ask him about his past, about why he smokes, and why he appears to have this anguish in him. He told me one of the hardest things I have ever heard in my life. He spent a year and 3 months in jail, where he was emotionally damaged, claiming that he saw hell. Both his parents died when he was just a kid and was abandoned with his 4 brothers, one now dead, to look after themselves. He learned from no one and taught himself everything he knows. He has had no one to love him or be his friend. This man had finally come to the point of a broken heart and a contrite spirit. At the end of all this, I asked him "Are you still hurt?" he paused and his face softened. He responded very softly, looking down, "Yes I’m hurt".

I then taught him the atonement of Jesus Christ, and the power of pouring out his heart to him in sincere prayer. I taught how the gospel of Jesus Christ will cure him and will take that pain and anguish away. We finished the lesson with a promise from him that he’ll quit smoking and will prepare for baptism and that he’ll pray as often as possible. We ended and walked out of the chapel. I gave him a hug, and I said "I love you brother".

...and then he responded "I love you, too".

I looked at him, again, tears in my eyes. I said to him "I’ll be your friend forever. You’re my brother" He responded "I know".

What a transformation! What a miracle. Now he’s just waiting for President Oliveira to interview him, and he’ll be in those waters of baptism.

I know without a single doubt in my mind that God loves all his children. Jesus Christ is our Savior, and He lives. He loves, and he cures. He transforms the angry to the heartbroken. He listens to all of his followers and tells them the truth. Lucindo is a different man. He now hangs out with several members of the branch. He smiles and calls us over every time he sees us. Lucindo is going to Family Home Evening this week with Helder and is changing his life from drug addict to LDS, one step at a time.

Miracles Happen. I’ll follow up on his baptism.

Elder Cuestas