tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2952095448350800552024-03-12T22:54:19.238-07:00Elder Luke's MissionElder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-9510989616436207812011-03-04T07:31:00.003-08:002011-03-04T07:31:52.248-08:002-25-11Its good to hear that everyone is doing good! Im still hanging in there too and getting the hang of things with this new life of mine! Life has been a little bit stressful lately but we are taking care of everything and still managing to work in our area. <br /> <br />This last Tuesday we had our zone leaders counsol though and it was a little bit stressful to get ready for, but it all went really well. We had to present some new things that are going to be happening and we had to take care of getting all of the zone leaderes from all of the islands to here so it took a lot and i was excited to have it over with. Since then we have just been able to work in our area so its been kinda relaxing. Next week will be getting a little crazy again though, we have to go around with President Neves throughout the mission and give trainings. This next week we are going to all the districts here in Praia and Fogo, next week will just be one, and then the week after will be back up to Mindelo so i will be busy! Im still hoping that i dont end my mission like this, i dont think i was made to give trainings and stuff like that. I am learning some new things though! <br /> <br />So one of the new focuses in the mission is working with young men to try to help them prepare for a mission. Each companionship is supposed to have at least 2 guys that they are working with. We are working with one kid that is 24 to come teaching with us and hopefully he will get his papers taken care of this week, and we are also working with Pres. Neves´ 19 year old son. He didnt really have a desire to serve and he was really being pressured as you might expect seeing how he is the son of a mission president, but we started talking with him and it is kinda changing now. He is going to start teaching with us. I dont know if i told you this but Pres. Neves also has another son who is serving a mission in Salt Lake but will be ending in about a week so he should be able to help too.<br />Our area didnt have a whole lot of people to teach recently either but these last few weeks we have really been finding lots of new people and sorting through the ones that have interest. I saw that you guys mentioned Aduol with the byu basketball, and if he is the same one i heard about he is from the IvoryCoast, you guys might want to verify that though. We are actually teaching a way cool guy from the ivory coast. They speak french there but he has lived here for 3 years and is teaching at a private french high school. He is a really smart guy and really liking the Book of Mormon. He speaks portuguese really well but with a funny french accent. He is planning on coming to church this week along with 3 or 4 other new people and our 3 regulars that always come. I am hoping to find and baptize some good strong people though before my mission ends.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-63640096931972102282011-03-04T07:31:00.001-08:002011-03-04T07:31:29.487-08:002-18-11Hows it going? Everything is going good here, time is flying be even faster now that my scheduale has changed up a little bit. So i just barely got your e mail dad and i will hurry and answer your questions right now... there are just 2 assistants, my companion and i, so if i get transfered that means i wont be assistant anymore. This transfer is half way over so i am hoping to just stay one more after this one and then go to another area. Its not all that fun being in the mission office so i would hate to end my mission like that, but im almost positive i wont. <br /> <br />This week was really fun, i finally got to go to fogo for the first time this last tuesday and wednesday!!! It was even better than i expected there, if i could pick my last area to serve in it would be there or brava which is the little island right across from it. I dont have my pictures with me here but i will send them next time. Flying over it was cool, it looks just like a giant cone sticking right out of the ocean and i could see right into the crater. We just went to the main city there this time, são filipe, but it was really nice and peaceful and also really clean. The also have a lot more american foods there cause almost everyone there has family in america. It was cool to go out and teach there though and it was kinda hard to come back when we had too. <br /> <br />I also found out a bit of imformation about the mission that is kinda on the down low. Nobody in the mission is supposed to know this yet because it hasnt been announced in the church as of now, but our president told me and my companion who the new mission president is going to be starting in july. It is the Oliveira´s and they are brazilian but i guess have lived in Bountiful for a long time now. It should be good cause they will speak portuguese and english really well. It doesnt matter a whole lot to me cause i will only have a couple weeks with him and then will be leaving, pretty much the only thing ill have to do with him is my last mission interview and our farewell dinner but it will still be cool. <br /> <br />So thats about the news of the mission, not a whole lot is new. Here in our area it is extremely easy to find people to teach and get in peoples houses, but really hard to find anyone that actually wants to do something. It is a little different from Mindelo. And thanks for taking care of the drivers license, just get it here as soon as possible cause i will need it soon. I hope everthing is going good for ya guys though. Thanks for everything and have a good week.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-44321283913996400242011-03-04T07:29:00.000-08:002011-03-04T07:30:59.001-08:002-11-11Hows it going? Thats weird that my e mail didnt make it to you guys last week, it kept saying it had problems but i thought it finally got off. Today after i send this one i can forward the one from last week too. So just to answer back about the questions, the drivers license will be done at triple-A (AAA) drivers licenses, they should have an office close by. Let me know if there are any problems with it... there are about 4 more weeks left of the transfer and i wont need it this transfer cause my companion drives, but i think he will be leaving by next one and then i will for sure need it. My companion is Elder Taggart from Salt Lake, he is actually from my district in the mtc too just like Elder Olson. We get along just fine and everything but we are definitely different from each other, its all good though we are having fun this transfer. <br /> <br />This transfer is actually running a lot more smoothly than expected. We had tons of different stuff to do the first little while of last week and then last Saturday and also Monday to Wednesday we had some divisions with the zone leaders, but since then things have kinda calmed down and we have been able to work more in our area. On our Saturday division I went up to Assomada and walked with Elder Rogers and Elder Isaacson, i was with both of them in Mindelo. It was way fun and that city is sweet, its the one high up in the mountains on this island and i felt like i was back in utah, it actually got really cold! Then on Monday night we headed up to Mindelo!!! I had been missing it quite a bit, its definitely a much better city than praia. So i went out and walked in my first area i served in in mindelo with E. Moreira who i already served with and his companion E. Vance from oregon. It was tons of fun and i got to see some people that i havent seen in a while. This next Tuesday we are going to be in Fogo doing our divisions there so i am really excited for that, it will be my first time there. Then after that all of the divisions should be over for the transfer.<br /> <br />Usually as assistants we would have to travel around everywhere to give trainings with President too, but as for now we wont have to do that, he said he wants us to have more time to be able to work in our area... thats exactly what i wanted too. Have our area is really nice and really rich and the other half is as poor and run down as i have ever seen. We actually share our area with the secrataries of the mission since we our both limited on time sometimes, especially them. We live with them too and we have the nicest house in the mission, i even had hot water until the heater broke yesterday. The other two guys are E. Barker from Ogden and E. Ryan from Alaska and they are cool guys and we share the same p day and everything so that makes it fun. So other than divisions and giving trainings another thing we have to do is look at all of the numbers of lessons and baptisms and all of that stuff that all of the missionaries had during the week, avaliate it, and then we have like a 5 hour meeting with president and talk about all it. That is what we do every Monday and it is probably my least favorite thing i have ever done in my life. And then besides that we just have a whole bunch of little errands to do and we teach and thats the lift of an assistant. I am pretty excited to drive here though, lets just say that if you can drive in Praia you can drive anywhere. <br /> <br />As for me rash it is still covering the palms of my hands. I dont know if i told y ou guys or not but it has actually made like 3 of my fingernails fall off now, its kinda some sort of mystery disease that nobody can figure out. I talked with a docter in Germany on the phone last week for a while and he is talking with dermatlogists to figure it out... i am pretty much just planning on getting rid of it when i get home. Its not so bad at the moment now and its not anything to worry about. <br /> <br />So this last week was pretty good. Today for 4 hours in the morning we got to do service. We had to take down a roof. The only thing is that roofs are just pure concrete here on top of cynder blocks so we used a jack hammer and sledge hammers to do it. It was actually a project of the branch and it was fun. I also have church in the same chapel as the other branch i served in here in praia so i got to see everyone i knew last sunday, it was fun i felt like it was a mini homecoming. We are teaching a few cool people now too but we need to find more cause we still dont have a lot, i will tell you a little more about them next week. Oh... one other cool thing about being here is the missionary couple here is awesome. Its the adams couple and theyre from Ogden and the guy really likes fishing so we are all going fishing next p day, he already bought poles. They also have us over for lunch and everything.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-17212021981364840022011-03-04T07:28:00.002-08:002011-03-04T07:29:00.729-08:0001-17-11Hey everyone hows it going? Things are going just great out here in<br />> santo antao.... we headed out here this morning and will be staying<br />> until tomorrow night. We had our zone activity today, and then<br />> everyone from our zone will be headed back this afternoon while E.<br />> Olson and I stay here to do our division with the elders here, and<br />> then we will be taking a night boat back tomorrow.<br />> <br />> Our activity was awesome, it felt like I was in another country for a<br />> little bit. We headed up to the tops of the mountains here and then<br />> hiked down for the day. A very rare thing happened up there too, i<br />> actually felt a little bit cold during the morning while we were up on<br />> top, it was incredible. Its up in all the pine trees and for a little<br />> bit i felt like I was up af canyon or somewhere. If i ever decided to<br />> just not come back home and stay out here, i think that that is where<br />> I will live!!!! haha but dont worry i dont think we will have to worry<br />> about that. So we hiked down the canyon all the way to the botton and<br />> got to a city called Ribeira Grande which is a way nice little<br />> peaceful city right on the coast on the other side of the island.<br />> There arent missionaries there now but it doesnt hurt to dream to open<br />> it up one day! I think its actually the most north eastern point of<br />> any of the islands so you know what that means? It means that<br />> distance wise I was closer to home today than I have been at any other<br />> time since september of 2009 ( but time wise I was the farthest, to<br />> get home it would take a 45 minute car ride to the main port of the<br />> island, a 1 hour boat ride back to mindelo, a 15 minute ride to the<br />> other side of the island to the airport, a 45 minute plane ride to<br />> praia, an 8 hour plane ride to boston, a 5 hour plane ride to salt<br />> lake, and a 40 min drive to the home) so there are a few extra facts<br />> for you guys.<br />> <br />> So besides that we had a pretty fun week. Sandra is getting baptized<br />> this coming saturday and is doing awesome, she will be one of the<br />> strongest people I have ever taught! The branch is really excited<br />> about her and they are already talking about getting her a calling<br />> right after she gets baptized. We also met another way cool guy that<br />> we started teaching last tuesday and we have already taught him 3<br />> times. His name is Danny and he was born and raised in cabo verde but<br />> at 17 moved to a little city outside of boston. He is now 27 and just<br />> came back for his first time to visit in december and will be staying<br />> until about march or april, and his wife from america will be coming<br />> out in a little bit to visit. We just randomly contacted him and<br />> right during the middle of our conversation he stopped us and asked us<br />> if we spoke english ( thats how we found all that stuff out about him)<br />> so now we teach him in english. He shows ton of interest and is<br />> really excited to start coming to church out here. He wouldnt really<br />> be a big help to the church here since he doest live here, but he does<br />> have brothers that live here that we could start teaching because of<br />> him. So that pretty much sums up the week, besides that it was just<br />> the normal stuff.<br />> <br />> This next week should be really good and go by way quick. Once we get<br />> back to mindelo we already have all of our lessons planned for every<br />> hour of every day until the end of the week and members to teach with<br />> us. Then we have our next p day planned already (it could be my last<br />> in mindelo) and then right after we will be going down to praia for<br />> zone leaders counsel again.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-2307688572949935082011-03-04T07:28:00.001-08:002011-03-04T07:28:36.546-08:0001-12-11Hey guys!<br /> <br />Hows it going? Its crazy how cold its been out there it sounds pretty crazy. It has actually been a little cooler here too this past month... its really nice but always super windy so its a little annoying. Lately Ive been having to sleep with a sheet over me though and I dont really use the fan around the house so much. Im sure it will be heating up though in just a few weeks! But so besides the cold how is everything going out there? Any new notices? I have one... I got packages from you guys mom and dad and also Shane and Ciara!!!!! Thanks a lot all of that stuff is exactly what I needed. We made some bisquits and gravy for breakfast and it was dang good! Thanks a lot again I really appreciate it!<br /> <br />So anyways I wish I had a whole bunch of crazy stuff to write you guys but i really dont. The highlight of the week was probably our zone conference, it was actually one of the best i have had yet. President Neves showed a clip from Blindside the movie about how a companionship is like a left tackle and a quarterback and how they always have to look out for each other. All the sudden right during the middle of it it all just clicked and I knew exactly what he was saying... he was speaking my language on that one! We learned a lot about faith during it too which is cool because its something that needs to be applied to the people here. Everyone here will tell you they have faith but nobody does anything to show it or anything. The theme of the conference was "Tonga" because Pres. Neves was talking about what Holland said about Cabo Verde and how one day it will be like Tonga and have 50 percent active members. Its got a lot of work to get there but he talked about how we can make it happen. E. Olson and I also gave our training about planning and it went pretty good. <br /> <br />Sandra, the lady we are teaching, is also going to be baptized in two Saturdays. We had to postpone it cause he had a situation from a while back and because of it she had to get interviewed from President Neves instead of just an Elder, but it was taken care of this weekend and is ready to go. She is way strong and has already read like half of the book of mormon and we just started teaching a few months ago. She says she cant go to sleep without reading a chapter, she is a stud! Pres. Neves talked about how she is really strong too afterwards with us. We were also able to find a ton of new investigators this week too and some are way cool. Its been a lot easier now that all of the parties have died down... now they just have their normal weekend parties and people have a lot more time to talk with us. We have a member here named Joao who was less active but these past few months has been coming to church every week. So the branch started inviting his wife and their little girl to some activites and stuff now and we started teaching them. They are really smart and have been to church the past few weeks. They are golden!Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-24614275522493583652011-03-04T07:27:00.001-08:002011-03-04T07:27:35.413-08:00Jan 3, 2011So how are you guys doing and how is 2011 going? It sounds like its pretty cold there! This week was a little bit longer for me here but it was still alright. The main reason for that was because of new years... these people here definitely like to party, so it didnt help having new years eve on friday night cause that just made all of the parties last the whole weekend until sunday! On new years eve we had to be at home at 6 because of all the partying so we didnt have a whole lot of time to even work that day with our weekly planning that morning. So that night E. Olson and I got in the house and just kinda hung out there... we made a bbq chicken pizza that was delicious and just did a puzzle and played a few games and stuff. We werent even allowed to have other missionaries come over and hang out with us but at least i had a cool companion to spend it with. We also sat on our balcony and watched all the people by their house and they were crazy, everyone was drunk and just partying! At midnight we went up on our roof and watched the firework show which actually lasted about 15 minutes and was probably better than anything i ever saw back at home besides the stadium of fire, it was way cool, and then we just headed to bed. Its a good thing i was tired because people were loud all night and the parties didnt stop until about 10 the next morning. When we went out to work new years morning both of our lessons fell through so we just went and did contacts but the only people that were really interested in talking to us were all the drunk guys on the way home from their parties. I cant even tell you guys how many times i got hugged by drunk guys that morning! Everyone just kept telling us they had to hurry and go him and get to sleep so that they could have their rest to get out and party even more that night! So anyways that was our new years here... to tell the truth im kinda glad the holiday season is over cause it made the work hard! We had so many people who told us to come by their houses but not until after the new year. Things should get normal again.<br /> <br />We also had a little disappointment this week with our best investigator Sandra. She is the one in her 30s and who started coming to church from her friend that is a member. So she was supposed to get baptized this next week, but she had a little bit of alcohol new years eve so now it will have to be put back for a couple more weeks. I dont think she understood the whole importance of that commandment before so i guess its kinda a good thing she did it so now she knows. She doesnt really have any problems though with it, its just a once in a while thing. She is still way strong though! We have another investigator that should be getting baptized about the same week too. We are keeping up the search for new people too.<br /> <br />Everyone in the branch is pretty cool here and they are trying to help us out. We actually got to head over to the elders quorom/ releif society party for dinner last tuesday and eat dinner which wasnt bad. We had lunch at my favorite members house yesterday too. He is cabo verdian but was born in brazil and he is in the district presidency here. He speaks perfect english and is more american than anything. They are an awesome family and way fun to hang out with... i will definitely have to keep in touch with all these people after the mission.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-37751324117148310492011-03-04T07:24:00.000-08:002011-03-04T07:27:06.335-08:00Dec 27, 2010Well i wont take up too much time with e mail since we talked just a couple days ago. It was good to talk with you guys though, it felt weird because it had been so long! Im glad the phone quality was a little better this time and it was cool being able to talk with everyone! I hope you guys had a good christmas too... after i talked to most of you guys we headed over to the couples house and just watched a film and then headed back home and i went to bed, i had a pretty long day so i was tired. It was nice to have Sunday be the next day because i all we had was church, and then the afternoon we went out and taught and i tried to get back into the routine. I loved having christmas and everything, but it was kinda nice for it to end so i could get rid of the distractions and just go back to teaching and everything. <br /> <br />I dont really think that there is a whole lot new to say since we all talked, thanks are pretty much just going back to normal now after a few days of being out of the normal scheduale for Christmas. This week well be normal every day until the 31st . That night we have to be in the house by 6 because of all the partys and everything that are going to be going on, so i think we will just find some stuff to do there. On christmas eve it was the same deal and it was actually pretty fun... me and E. Olso made the best pizza i have ever had before, it was bbq chicken with oninions and we made a few other things too, so we just ate all night and then played a few games. I think new years eve will probably be about the same deal, and then at midnight we will just go on top of our house and watch the fireworks. Our house is really tall so we have a way good view from the top and supposedly the fireworks here in Mindelo are really good. On new years day im not exactly sure if we will work or not, but if we do and its anything like last year everyone will be sleeping and it will be really hard to find people. Word around the mission is that us zone leaders will be in charge of organizing a soccer game for all of us to do so that we have something to do and that president neves gave us the okay, so now we just have to find out for sure when and everything.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-77243118794432461922011-03-04T07:23:00.000-08:002011-03-04T07:24:04.162-08:00Dec 13, 2010Everything is going pretty good here! We had a pretty cool week but nothing out of the usual happened, at least nothing too crazy. One cool thing was what happened on our division on our way to sao vicente. We were sitting there on the boat going over and we had a big shark swim right up to our boat, it was the coolest thing i have ever seen! It was a hammerhead and was at least 3 meters in length, it was really big! So there is the highlight of the week, i have been waiting this whole time to see one and now i have done it! Now the only thing missing is a whale. The division was really cool though and i love going over to Porto Novo because its so peaceful there.<br /> <br />Our investigators our still cool but we still have a lot of work to do. The retention rate of people baptized is kinda challenging here because people will leave for any small little thing, and we have a few recent converts in this area who we have to work on because of that. We also have some investigators who have been coming to church and stuff but wouldnt really do the things to get baptized, so we are switching focus from them more to finding new people. We had the opportunity to do some service with one of our investigators this week. On tuesday morning we went over there and painted a few of the rooms of his house, it was actually really fun. It reminded me of working from before my mission and we got a big lunch of feijoada with them. Its a dish with rice, a bunch of beans and stuff and a sauce so the service paid off. Our branch is still helping too but our President is still a bit strange. It seems as though i have got a calling in the branch now, the sacrament prayer, cause every sunday during sacrament when hes making the announcements he will decide right in the moment who will pray, and he always says my name. I think its because he finally remembers my name now and still doesnt really know the names of the other 3 elders in the branch. He always would look at our name tags, so i started covering mine up so he couldnt see it and had to learn it. Unfortunately who doesnt remember half the members either which makes the members not feel so welcome in church. There will be a member that has been baptized for 2 years and he will say 'hey whats your name to them' and they tell him and he goes "oh, are you an investigator of the elders" and then he have to jump in and say that its acually a member with a calling and everything. The leadership is a little week here but we are working on it. Elder Olson and I were supposed to teach the youth class for sunday school, so we brought a ton of candy for them, and then we found out that president told us wrong and that we would be teaching sunday school to all the adults, about 40 of them including the district president. We probably would have prepared different if we knew that but it was still an awesome lesson and everyone loved it. They especially loved that we handed out the candy to them and they started during into little kids trying to get it, you would have though they had never seen candy in their lives the way they were answering questions just to get a sucker.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-42221973197622125542011-03-04T07:22:00.002-08:002011-03-04T07:23:25.834-08:00Dec 6, 2010Hows everything going? Its good to hear that everyone had a good week it sounds like. Everything has been going good here and i know i say this a lot but its still crazy how fast these weeks go by. Everyone out here asks if the time goes fast for us out here away from home and I tell them that one week to me is just like one day with 7 naps, its crazy. I had a really fun week though. On Wednesday we headed down to Praia again for another zone leaders counsol and once again we had a little time to go visit people. It was awesome seeing all them once again and even better to hear that all the people that were baptized are still doing good. I got to see carlos for the first time since i was transferred to Mindelo and they are doing good, he is a counsolor of the elers quorom presidency now, and Gilmara has a calling working with the young women now. Our counsol was shorter too and went good. <br /> <br />Well besides that i really cant think of anything else new that has happened. We did find a few new investigators though which is exactly what we needed, we have been making goals to find new people. Another new thing is that it is actually starting to feel like christmas here. Not because the weather but they have decorated the city a little bit, especially the chinese people. I didnt even know they celebrated christmas there but all their stores here have lights and stuff so its cool. We are passing out a lot of cards too that have a free christmas dvd to get so hopefully the people will be just a little more open during this christmas time. <br /> <br />We have been running into this guy in the streets that was deported from boston after living there for a long time and his situation is pretty sad so we are going to go try to help him. He always comes up to us in his boston accent and says "Yo, yur homeboy is starving man, ya'll need to help a brother out and help me with my alcohol problem cause your homeboy aint got nothing to eat" . Its pretty sad cause he just spends all of his money on alcohol and is always broke, and he has a little 4 year old daughter here too and she is really cute so its sad she has to live in those conditions. They seriously live in a shack. Live is hard here.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-86974921052243204482011-03-04T07:22:00.001-08:002011-03-04T07:22:44.935-08:00Nov 29, 2010Hey guys!<br />Well i hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and that you guys are enjoying your snow. Its kinda been cloudy here but that just makes it even more humid so its kinda annoying. I know you guys have seen my pictures and have been thinking that i was putting on the pounds, but i am losing all of that now luckily from all the sweating i do. I think i am almost back down to the weight i started at luckily. But other than that this was a really good week. Our thanksgiving was way good, a million times better than last year! The goffs invited all of us over to eat at their house and i dare say that it was the best food i have eaten since i got here. We had all of the thanksgiving foods (just switch turkey with chicken) which was pretty cool. Elder Olson and I provided all of the stuffing, gravy, a cake and cranberry sauce. You guys are probably wondering how we scored all that stuff huh?... well lets just say we have connections out here. We know a lady out here whose daughter lives in Boston and she ships food over here to sell it. So the day before thanksgiving we passed her and she just gave us all that for free, it was way cool! Well it all turned out really good and i had a really good day, next up is christmas and it will be cool being able to talk to all of you guys. <br /> <br />Another cool thing that happened was on Saturday, a huge cruise ship came in to the port going from italy to brasil. It just so happens that part of our area is down by the port and one of our lessons fell through right there, so we decided to go do some contacts in that area. We kept running in to all the tourists from the ship and they started talking to us. The first ones were a couple from italy and the guy spoke just enough english to talk with us. He told us that they were being taught by the missionaries in italy right now and that they were really liking it and it made there day just seeing us. That was cool. So we just kept walking a little more and all the sudden i see this white guy yelling "Elder, elder" and comes running up to us. The first thing he said to us was "howdy" so i immedietly guessed he was from utah, and i was right. Turns out that there was a group of 80 people on the ship that were from the U.S. and all of them were members. They all served back in Brazil like 30 years ago so they were all going to visit again. Long story short we couldnt take 5 steps without a new couple running up to us. We started doing contacts with the people here and they would walk up and take pictures of us. I never felt like such a celeberty in my lift. It was really cool talking to them though and they had a lot of questions about the church and stuff and how its going out here on the islands. It felt weird seeing people from Utah. That night it sailed back out but the next day on sunday another one came in so on our way to church we saw quite a bit of tourists. During our church meetings a couple from england came in just to take a tour of the church, it was kinda weird but they were nice.<br /> <br />Other than the tourists and thanksgiving it was just a pretty normal week. Wait i take that back... one more thing happened. We had to go do a baptismal interview on Santo Antao one day and we were really tight on time and ended up missing the boat back, so we had to spend the night there. I can finally say i was stranded on a little island, can any of you guys say that? It was cool cause we got to go teach the people out there for the night. I love it there, it is so calm and peaceful, i wouldnt mind serving there at all. Well other than that things are about the same. We still have a lot of investigators but for a lot of them there are some challenges that are making it so they cant get baptized. We have taught them all for a while and pretty much they are to that point where they will have to decide for themselves what they are going to do so hopefully they make the right decision.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-19824514109314636202011-03-04T07:21:00.002-08:002011-03-04T07:22:06.768-08:00Happy ThanksgivingHey family hows it going?<br />Everything is going pretty well here, just really hot!! It doesnt seem like winter at all so its kinda hard to believe that Thanksgiving is really here! It will be cool though, now that i found a lady here that has connections with food from Boston i will actually be able to get a little bit of american food! The Goff's house should be alright too, we will be going there for our lunch. It will be weird to be home next year and have a normal thanksgiving, i wont know what to do with myself with all that food.<br /> <br />So this week had a few days that were different from the basic routine. Yesterday and Saturday night was district conference... we were actually able to get i think 9 investigators to the sunday session along with a few less actives too. In total i think there were about 540 people there out of all the members from Mindelo, the branch from Santo Antao, and a few from Sal. The only bad part is that the Madrid temple president is american and didnt know a whole lot about cabo verde cause it looks like he thought flights came here from the mainland every half hour so he didnt get his plane ticket in time. We still had an area authority from portugual who gave some really good talks and it turned out well. On Friday we had a lidership meeting here too that the president and assistens came up for. It was the whole day which is a little long for me, but i learned a lot. One of the pluses about being in leadership is getting to learn new things that normally i wouldnt learn. The zone is going well though and there arent really any problems going on. The time is going by really fast with Elder Olson though... im curious to see if i will be transfered to another island right before christmas or just stay here one more with him. However, he told me that his dad knows a really good calling card that you can get for really cheap and thats what they have used for their phone calls. I think his dad will call you guys and let you know about it but i think it would be good cause the last two phone calls didnt work out as well. <br /> <br />So the people here are still doing really good, i decided im really going to miss them when i go home! It was kinda funny yesterday as we were walking to the conference in our suits, cause we never wear our suits. Everyone was just watching us and we were gettin a lot of attention, its not every day these people just see two white guys in suits walking around on these dirt streets. I would die if i had to wear a suit every day though. So one cool story is that there is a family who lives here and the parents our both inactive members, but two of the daughters who are about 20 and 25 are both active. The dad was actually the first branch president here in mindelo about 20 years back and everyone loved him so out of the older members nobody really knows why they went in active. Well we are just starting to work with them now and the dad came to conference yesterday and really liked it. The mom is a little harder but her mom just died and is having a hard time so we are goig to try to talk with her a little about the plan of salvation this week. Its hard to talk with her though and we still havent really been succesful. Our next baptism marked will be december 11 with sandra, a girl in her young 30s that is doing really good!Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-23086862631194198522011-03-04T07:21:00.001-08:002011-03-04T07:21:30.782-08:00Nov 15 letter homeHey everybody,<br /> <br />So its a little later here in the day cause we had been fishing all morning. It was really fun though, i had been waiting to go for forever so it was nice to finally get out and go! There were six of us missionaries and a member from one of the branches and we headed to the west side of the island where they have a way cool beach and a way cool areas to fish where it drops right down deep so there are a lot of fish there! We caught about 25 total with 1 octupus. It felt good to real in some fish after so long! The biggest one we caught was about 24 in. but they were the coolest looking fish i had ever seen, they were all realy bright and colorful! I also grabbed the octupus and its suckers on its tennacles started sucking onto my hand and it would stick to you, it was really hard to get off! I had a blast though and we will probably go again in not to long. I also saw a group of dolphins swimming out from us for the 3rd time on this island. <br /> <br />So other than that let me think of what has been going on... our area is still doing really good. This area is probably my favorite area i have served in so far just because there is so much work today and here in downtown Mindelo is an awesome area! Its pretty cool being with Elder Olson, we just need to remember to speak Portuguese more to keep improving instead of losing it. I feel like we got our area really organized now so now we know exactly who are the people who have interest. We also spent half of our time teaching all the recent converts of this area which is a lot... but now the branch is going to start teaching them so we will have a lot more time to teach normal investigators and help out the less actives. It will be cool. We have quite a few people that we are preparing for baptism now... i wish i could tell you about each one individually but that would kinda take a while... just know that they are cool people though! We are getting a lot of help from the members now and we are seeing tons of miracles that are happening and people that are wanting to change their lives! Well other than that i cant really think of anything that is new. These week i cant remember if i already told you guys but its district conference (stake conference) and we will be having the temple president from madrid coming to speak with us.<br /> <br />Well thats sweet about byu picking it up, now hopefully they can keep it going! It sounds like the utah jazz are on fire too, especially with beating the miami all star team! Well i hope everyone has a good week and thanks for everything! Good luck with the surgery mom.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-86823441756137293162010-11-08T05:36:00.001-08:002010-11-08T05:36:51.913-08:00More Pics<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9i_breUqUBfbuyE7bI871Qs13OfCUq086Cr2zQVkPLzYeT92fsC9QejzPOZ-H9pyg6rYd-T6x0ehcxjL-THcL_uO7RjVU-YCF4Rpxtr2FbRYekdW1Hxi_YYG_sT7EABZX_MyxAJhawohU/s1600/kev15.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9i_breUqUBfbuyE7bI871Qs13OfCUq086Cr2zQVkPLzYeT92fsC9QejzPOZ-H9pyg6rYd-T6x0ehcxjL-THcL_uO7RjVU-YCF4Rpxtr2FbRYekdW1Hxi_YYG_sT7EABZX_MyxAJhawohU/s320/kev15.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537172359808653058" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCq1XI0-VfoaXrVVJgs2Y3Cj3uIuRWf0dvIno8WzZq9smCTKMeMdmQPjXIcrReDcj_gzVwM4hw8fmlI-PsHAiqzy87_k12pXvL06qOFxpwWsyabA2yo7AwjSZw9LLM3wy4XUmcxiJ_e9D/s1600/kev16.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 119px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNCq1XI0-VfoaXrVVJgs2Y3Cj3uIuRWf0dvIno8WzZq9smCTKMeMdmQPjXIcrReDcj_gzVwM4hw8fmlI-PsHAiqzy87_k12pXvL06qOFxpwWsyabA2yo7AwjSZw9LLM3wy4XUmcxiJ_e9D/s320/kev16.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537172357721991698" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbVB1bXiNjZERrbpdpJ3H16Br_o3yQjk_AwI25DHfZryS5pkxsOGxXTIaema6-sxdwWALcrl5IX570RIJ-OYgwRa3HWlBC2epIapjq1jFL6e9rZJe5EXoEGXwQMgmwkxN7BaMj-ukM5dfG/s1600/kev17.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbVB1bXiNjZERrbpdpJ3H16Br_o3yQjk_AwI25DHfZryS5pkxsOGxXTIaema6-sxdwWALcrl5IX570RIJ-OYgwRa3HWlBC2epIapjq1jFL6e9rZJe5EXoEGXwQMgmwkxN7BaMj-ukM5dfG/s320/kev17.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537172353402928162" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfVxXvfP9OnLXYQDRM-ekEklyWj2xfDSKsnszrcCm5whVMXzPxR4WJ9SSyEbdnSBD-lGPw4e80G0YdAnHrTNTh4dtlhv0aZbKsRjauhYZJnCIhUXjpYMjiNZBNSyE9JM-0efbGsrxxQO5u/s1600/kev18.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfVxXvfP9OnLXYQDRM-ekEklyWj2xfDSKsnszrcCm5whVMXzPxR4WJ9SSyEbdnSBD-lGPw4e80G0YdAnHrTNTh4dtlhv0aZbKsRjauhYZJnCIhUXjpYMjiNZBNSyE9JM-0efbGsrxxQO5u/s320/kev18.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537172351172375186" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnyOAIJqxACZIYI7eLLaRrt5vY9GjG9xsA6albuoLaia4Y60ZMUJ8EHpEsjkZuAyz4QjfzkrKvckNiqpGuV-45wdAOyDHiJFBGmrFPBUNzJ33JATxnjiYQ31IyK8zQIZcFbwESf1s_jb0r/s1600/kev19.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnyOAIJqxACZIYI7eLLaRrt5vY9GjG9xsA6albuoLaia4Y60ZMUJ8EHpEsjkZuAyz4QjfzkrKvckNiqpGuV-45wdAOyDHiJFBGmrFPBUNzJ33JATxnjiYQ31IyK8zQIZcFbwESf1s_jb0r/s320/kev19.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537172345973300562" /></a>Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-20062898099148388912010-11-08T05:32:00.003-08:002010-11-08T05:35:15.556-08:0011/1 letter home & pics<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcT2M163oCtN8-YW1UazU7vX9ik8DCluiuSwGmXJZvGIcL91HamNC_JlDve9KsQTQDQj0IwJPZWyJCKXxbFwMCEhWVVmKvg9cKKCEtLXSGCZJ_hEHwECtFjtY5DYgFwO1wX1NZs3r5VjCa/s1600/kev14.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcT2M163oCtN8-YW1UazU7vX9ik8DCluiuSwGmXJZvGIcL91HamNC_JlDve9KsQTQDQj0IwJPZWyJCKXxbFwMCEhWVVmKvg9cKKCEtLXSGCZJ_hEHwECtFjtY5DYgFwO1wX1NZs3r5VjCa/s320/kev14.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537171434379555122" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiatHBokz5XpPHPy37JLL4KU1HzzT_JRMvY3brjqv86puI_WjFHNNcEdWX5P0OUNSzPqqCwUTofYf7-sKBkOmVWAk2XC1d3XeZfvhWeXrBYabRlFXYsODNok_TB4YqQ_kH5B7Sf3Tee5RJN/s1600/kev13.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiatHBokz5XpPHPy37JLL4KU1HzzT_JRMvY3brjqv86puI_WjFHNNcEdWX5P0OUNSzPqqCwUTofYf7-sKBkOmVWAk2XC1d3XeZfvhWeXrBYabRlFXYsODNok_TB4YqQ_kH5B7Sf3Tee5RJN/s320/kev13.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537171430698327810" /></a><br />How are you guys? Things are going pretty well out here. I actually just got back from the beach... we headed out to the other side of the island this morning as a district with the Goff couple too and just played some football and stuff. It was pretty nice and we had the whole thing to ourselves besides a few fisherman there, but i sent a few pics of it. Other than that everything is going about the same, not a whole lot happened this week. <br /> <br />This last Tuesday we did have a day that was a little different though. We have a new senior couple here from Ogden that just got here and the wife is our new nurse. They live in Praia but they came up this week to see what health centers they have up here so she can know what to refer us to. So anyways we had to go translate for them for most of the day cause they dont speak portuguese and it was pretty fun. It was kinda fun seeing how the gift of tongues really does work for missionaries... in the first medical center we went to the head nurse was actually from cuba and i had to translate for her and our nurse, but she spoke about 40 percent spanish, 40 creolo and 20 portuguese. The cool part is that it didnt even matter and i was still able to understand everything she said and we got it all taken care of. It was a pretty cool day, it pretty much felt like i just took a day out of the mission and spent a day with my grandparents. <br /> <br />We did lose quite a bit of time working this week though because of that and also interviews with President Neves cause he was up here and yesterday we had to go to a leadership meeting of all of the branches here to get ready for our district conference that will be on the 21 of November. We will be having the President of the Madrid temple coming here along with a general authority from Portugual as our speakers so it should be really cool. But we were still able to get quite a few good lessons in and we will be having a baptism next Saturday. It was the kid that drank coffee so we had to postpone it but he is doing good now and he is ready. He is 18 and he is already saying he wants to go on a mission so he should be a strong member here. We have a new investigator now from a member that brought her friend to church and she used to live in portugual going to school and she actually talked with missionaries there. We have only taught her twice so far but she is really interested and we already have a baptism date for her in december and its cool cause her friend can always teach her with us, we just teach her at the chapel down here. I have had the opportunity to get a little taste of a european mission lately too. We have an area inside our area where we get a lot of tourists that we run into sometimes. On saturday we ran into a few guys from sweden that started speaking with us in english and i decided that its so different talking with people from europe instead of Cabo Verdeans. They make a lot of educated questions while asking about our church which is really cool cause here when we talk with people they just keep shaking their head and saying yes but they dont really say anything else. Other than that we are going to praia tonight for our zone leaders counsel and then back here tomorrow night. Well thats about the update on the work.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-65911737118739956382010-11-08T05:32:00.001-08:002010-11-08T05:32:11.727-08:0010/25 Letter HomeFirst of all the biggest thing that happened this week was probably the weather. On Friday during the middle of the night a huge rain storm came in and it didnt stop until Saturday late at night... there were floods inside and out of our house. There was about a 3 foot deep river that formed in the street by our house that we have to cross everyday, so to cross it that morning us and everyone else around us all hopped into a city bus, drove across the river, and then got out on the other side. The bad thing is that the water is so dirty from flowing through all the trash and stuff so you have to be careful and not get in it. I will try to send you guys a film of it if the computer lets me. It always got into our house too so we had to spend the morning mopping. Besides all the water the weather was really nice though, it was nice to have it cool for a change, it kinda felt like october weather from back at home but still not cold enough to use a long sleeve shirt. One cool thing i have noticed though is we always have our best days teaching wise and also for finding new people on the days with the worst weather.... i think its the Lords way of blessing us for still going out and working hard even in the cold or something like that. <br /> <br />Another cool thing that happened this week was a missionary couple that came to pay us a visit this weekend. They are from Idaho and serving in Germany but they are the head of this thing called Outreach that is getting pretty big in the european area. Its a group of people between 18 and 30 that are single and its just for them to have activities and stuff twice a week to help them stay in the church and find new people for us missionaries to teach too. Its pretty cool and it seems like its going to help a lot. The casal Goff from Orem are the ones in charge of it here in Mindelo... and by the way speaking of them they want you guys to tell Roger and Ellen Cornell hi for them cause they know them well. They also want to know if you dad deliver mail in their area (garden village or garden park) because they want to talk with you when they get back in march. But so anyways they are working on getting this outreach program going strong here to help out the young adults. I think it will be good and has had a lot of success in europe. The couple from Germany came and had a meeting with the district and branch presidents, the presidency of the outreach, and some of us missionaries to show us how to use it last night for a couple hours. After it my companion and i went out to the town square where everyone goes to hang out sunday night (its probably the nicest place and most tourist place in the country) and we passed out a few invites to some people that age down there. One cool thing about the culture here is everyone is open to talk with everyone so when we invited the people they seemed really excited about it and they said they would go to the activities. Hopefully they go and then we can start teaching some of them. <br /> <br />We were also supposed to have a baptism this last week but there were a few complications. He drank coffee one of the days so we told him we would have to delay it another 2 weeks to get him more ready and he didnt really like that and still wanted to be baptized that week. We told him that the baptism isnt just something you do cause you want to and you have to follow a few standards to be baptized... to make a long story short it took him a long time to understand the importance of baptism and repentance and that its not something that just happens over night. He has gone to church for a year now and knows pretty much everything but he says he doesnt want to wait two more weeks, so we told him it will have to be him to decide and we will be here waiting if he wants us to help him prepare a little more. I think its kinda good that happened though cause if it didnt he would have just kept doing it after his baptism without realizing the importance of it. WE had taught him about it, but there is a difference between someone knowing something in their brain and actually knowing it and planning on following it. Hopefully we can help him out though. I think he is a lot like a lot of the members here that dont really understand the importance of stuff here. But we are here to help them with it. Other than that everything is still going about the same and we are still full of people to teach. Transfers will be in 2 weeks so we will see if i will stay with my comp or get a new one, i think we will stay together though.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-64396529379896587062010-11-08T05:30:00.000-08:002010-11-08T05:31:24.965-08:0010-18 Letter HomeI guess i will just jump right down into it and let you guys know what happened. So we had a general authority come visit us on Friday which was the highlight of the week. It was Elder and Sister Schutze from Germany and they were really nice and funny. Sister Shutze's english was a little hard to understand but they both had some really good stories. My President called me the night before we would have it and told me i would have to give a 15 minute thought for it, so i was a little bit nervous but it all went well. Schutze actually came up to me after and thanked me for it and everything and said he was inspired and learned a lot from it and that i have a gift for teaching, so it was kinda cool having a general authority tell me that. Maybe he was just saying it cause he has to be nice but i feel a lot better at that type of stuff than before my mission! His main topic was about how we need to be examples for the members and leadership here because the church is still young and still has a long way to go. There have even been some problems going on with our mission President, and even though its nothing really serious its still something that wouldnt be happening if we had a President from america or europe or somewhere. The culture here plays a big part in it. Schutze actually pulled a couple of us aside and talked about it though and just said we need to be patiente with it and try to help it out the best we can and that one day the church will be a lot stronger here and not have these problems. I really liked him though and he helped a lot. He actually was in the area presidency of Russia when Ryan was serving thereElder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-6267221654252168342010-11-08T05:28:00.001-08:002010-11-08T05:30:24.887-08:0010-11 Letter Home<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiF0a3-JF6QglOWMtbgXG8AsFAd-ITB7MNvAO4raJ2rTD8w-JwxQiVr-l3XRpNmx6n57Jxgg1k8HrYNyQw83lcExPn7fP59eXWMXNcNIn3FYUr9Doww7z-Xh9lVl_jp2AUOL6-WG56tS6I/s1600/kev12.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 214px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiF0a3-JF6QglOWMtbgXG8AsFAd-ITB7MNvAO4raJ2rTD8w-JwxQiVr-l3XRpNmx6n57Jxgg1k8HrYNyQw83lcExPn7fP59eXWMXNcNIn3FYUr9Doww7z-Xh9lVl_jp2AUOL6-WG56tS6I/s320/kev12.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537170342571345522" /></a><br />Its crazy to think that one more week has passed, it has been going by really quick! They say that the last half of the mission goes even faster and it looks like thats true. So hopefully the picture i sent to you guys works... thats what the sentapedes look like here. They are about 10 in. long and way thick and they hiss at you! I havent been bit yet but my companion has twice and a few other missionaries have too. We were walking last night with a member down a trail and one slithered up on a member that was with us foot but he just kicked it off! They are vemonous though so it keeps life pretty exciting and you have to go to the hospital if you get bit. Luckily our house is in an area that isnt really trashy so i dont think we have too many there.<br /> <br />Besides that not too much crazy stuff is going on. We had our division to Santo Antao with the elders out there this last week and it was really fun. Porto Novo is the only city that has elders there so far but its really different from here or praia, its a lot more calm, i really like it! The power went out while we were walking that night and it was really cool, it was nice and peaceful and you could see all the stars and everything! I went out and walked with Elder Smith from Ceder City and he is a cool guy, i always learn a lot on the divisions. Thats the plus side of being the zone leader. The down side has having to deal with all the problems in the zone instead of just concentrating on our own area. <br /> <br />As for our area its going really well. We always have a lot of people to teach and we have 2 girls that are getting baptized this week. The only thing that could be better in our area is that we need more familys and guys here that can get the priesthood. This branch is bigger than my last one but it still needs more guys that could help with the leadership and also guys that could go serve missions. Its kinda sad cause a lot of people here dont realize the importance of things especielly the younger people. There are quite a few young guys here in the branch but most of them dont care about doing things like passing the sacrament or even being worthy to do it. Lots of people think that they dont need to worry about living the commandments but then when the consequences come they just complain and wonder why all that stuff is happening with them. I just want to say to them, "I told you so!" But we cant force people to listen to us... we just lay it out for them and they have to decide for themselves if they will follow it or not.<br /> <br />I cant remember if i told you of that investigator of my last area, Patricia, lately but she is doing awesome! She just finished the book of mormon after only like 3 and a half weeks of reading! She has a way strong testimony and is going to be baptized at the start of November along with her kids! She is probably one of the best things that has happened in my mission so far, its stories like that that make it worth being out here! The work is still progressing here!<br /> <br />Thats too bad that you guys didnt see a whole lot of elk on the hunts but thats way cool about the bears! I cant wait for next years elk hunt! Thats good that byu is picking it back up too. Im sitting right next to Elder Rogers right now and he said he just got an e mail from bronco mendehall that has the update on everything going on. He says that the only have one freshman reciever thats doing really anything so they ran the ball more last game... and also that poppinga is running the defense. Hopefully that gets things going better. I like hearing about these football updates cause all i hear about from the people here is about soccer!<br /> <br />Well i cant really think of anything else going on thats new. This next week we will have a general authority coming to talk with us... his name is Shutz or something like that and he is from germany. It will be cool to hear from him.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-90488747476522635522010-11-08T05:27:00.001-08:002010-11-08T05:27:15.711-08:0010-04 Letter HomeWell one thing that I am definitely learning on the mission is pacients... especially today. The light has been out all day so we have just been waiting to use internet, and then once we found a place it wouldnt open my e mails! My p day is now almost over and i am just barely being able to get this off to you guys. Its going to be weird to get back home and have light 24/7 and have everything work how it should, im not going to know what to do! But everything is going good now and Im doing alright.<br /> <br />This week was a good one but way different, i havent even worked since thursday. Friday was our zone leaders counsel in Praia and this weekend was conference that we were able to watch all of, it was awesome! Conference has a whole knew meaning to me now that I am on the mission, i love it! We watched all of all 4 sessions and we were even able to watch priesthood session and relief society session on sunday morning before we watched the others. Us that wanted to watch them in english went over to the Goff´s house which is the missionary couple here in Mindelo. I dont know if i told you guys about them but they are from Pleasant Grove and live in Orem now right by the post office, i think its called like garden village so you probably deliver their mail dad. They were really nice and it was nice being able to watch in english. The chapel just right down the street had it in portuguese and it was for all the members of all 4 branches to go to it. Not all the members took advantage of it though and there was only about the size of one full branch that went to watch... i think a lot of the members just took it as a break from church for a week and didnt go. Its kinda sad but the truth is that these people are definitely not ready to have a stake, let alone a temple here! They have a lot to do before that! Even some of the branch leadership doesnt know exactly whats going on here at all times. An example of this is one day at the end of sacrament meeting, our branch president was closing it and to end he wished everyone a good time at the festival at the beach that the island would have. They have festivals here that are just full of iniquity and everyone just goes and gets drunk, so it wasnt the best thing that our PRESIDENT was telling people to have a good time. Thats about the equivelant of the bishop of our home ward ending sacrament meeting by saying "Thanks for coming to church and we wish all of you a great time at the ozzy osborne concert tonight!" There are lots of little things like that that kinda make the missionary work a little more challanging. We teach our investigators one day about keeping the sabath day holy and the next sunday they see half the members doing crazy thinks that day and then the invest. ask us why they are doing that if its not allowed. I guess the church is still young here though and things will become stronger with time. The people that went to conference though really liked it and i loved the talks. The last talk of the last session was probably one of my favorites... M Russell Ballard was speaking my language on that one with the fly fishing examples! Uchtdorfs talk was way cool too and I learned a lot with all of them!<br /> <br />Praia was a pretty fun trip too. We got there early friday morning so me and my companion had time to go visit some of the people we know. We got to see Gilmara and her kids and they are still doing way good and i got to see some of the other ones we baptized! Its good to see them staying strong still! My companion and i are getting along just fine too. Its funny cause this last week we were talking and he was telling me how where he lives (Portugual) they had to travel to Madrid to go to the temple, but that they were putting in a new metro system from Port. to Madrid that would make the trip quicker and he was excited about it. Imagine how excited he is now that they are getting one right there! We are watching the announcements with a sister from Portugual that was born in the church too and when they announced it she couldnt stop crying! It will help out those strong members here too cause its a lot closer than going to brazil like they had too. My comp is actually a convert to the church of three years and he is already 26, but he is way strong and a way funny kid. He is way chill and easy to get along with and he works hard. My new house is also a mansion compared to what it used to be... its way to big for us though! Its three stories high! Its actually a little too big and i would like one a little smaller but i cant complain. The area is going really good too, we have tons of people to teach and tons of investigators that are getting ready to get baptized. Our branch is a lot stronger too and gets about 100 people in church each week (they say, i still havent had church meeting). <br /> <br />So yeah everything here is going pretty good. My testimony is growing a ton out here and i am learning a lot of stuff that i wouldnt have been able to if i didnt come out here. I actually got sick this week but everything is better now. Congratulations on the deer shane... Its not as big as anything i would have shot but it still sounds respectable. And also a big congratulations to utah state for making byu´s problems even worse... it sounds like they are falling apart. They better get things back together so that they can be solid for next season. Sorry if i forgot to respond back to anyone elses questions or anything, with the internet problems today i was kinda rushed. I guess i will just sum it up by telling everyone thanks for everything! Have a good week and i will talk to ya guys next Monday!Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-22049587546207582192010-11-08T05:26:00.001-08:002010-11-08T05:26:38.932-08:009/27 Letter HomeWell this last week was the last week of the transfers and i got switched. It was actually kinda surprising cause i thought i would be staying maybe one more in my last area but president called me up on Saturday and said I would be transferred. Im still here in Mindelo though, it was just a little switch to the other zone on the north side. My new companion is Elder Fernandes from Portugual... he is a way cool guy and speaks english perfectly. The most surprising thing is that i am now zone leader of this zone.... i thought for sure I would be taken out of zone leader once i got changed. This will be my 7th transfer which is a way long time... i must still have something to learn as zone leader or something i guess. The most i have ever heard of someone being zone leader in this mission is 7 and it was my first companion of the mission so its looking like i might beat that, we will have to see though. I am ready to be taken out though and just be normal. Speaking of my first companion, he is in this branch that i will be serving in now so he will be helping us out a ton, he was excited once he found out i would be headed there. This branch and area will definitely be different though, it looks like its a lot stronger. They say that the members help a ton, there are a lot more people in church every week, and the area is going really good. We have a lot of people to teach it sounds like. Even though my last area was a little more difficult i am still going to miss it too, especially a few of our investigators and some of the members. I dont know if I ever told you about Patricia but her and her kids were amazing. She is just 27 and her husban is more like 45 (we never were able to teach him) and she has a 17 year old adopted daughter, a nine year old girl, and 6 year old boy. At the first she told us that she didnt really want to have anything to do with any church just cause they never practice what they teach, but she has completely changed with us. She told us that she doesnt know how we are doing it but we are converting her and that she wants to follow the church. I know how though, its because of the book of mormon. She reads like 20 chapters a week and takes notes of the things she learns. It is responding to all of her doubts! We told her that we would teach about baptism the next visit and she came straight out and said she is against baptism, especially because she doesnt think kids need to be baptized cause they dont have sin. So we left her with Moroni 8 to read which pretty much bashes on young kids being baptized and it completely changed her mind, her testimony grew even more with that! She told us that she heard bad things about the book of mormon before she started talking with us but after reading it that has all changed! We were also preparing the family of To and Paula for baptism. Paula and her daughter are excited but To still has some doubts. He is a stud though and he is progressing a ton and we are getting rid of those doubts. They are super nice and always give us a bunch of fruit that they get sent from fogo. Nothing is better than fruit from Fogo! Im excited for the new area though and i will let you know how everything goes. Im also way excited for general conference! We will be watching it in the couple's house thats here live so that will be cool, we will just have to miss priesthood session cause its so late out here. So how about the hunts... are you guys doing spike only this year? You guys will have to let me know about everything that goes on. Good luck with everything and sorry if i didnt really have time to respond to anyone of you guys... time was a little bit less cause i tried to get some pictures off to you guys. Let me know if they go through and i will send you some more next week. I will also make sure to send off some individual e mails next time too to respond back to everyone! By the way whats up with byu? They better get it going! I am sitting right next to Elder Rogers right now, the one that played there, and he is pretty disappointed hearing about all this! Well have a good week and thanks for all the support and e mails! Ill talk to ya guys next week.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-60327124037524711592010-11-08T05:25:00.002-08:002010-11-08T05:26:05.796-08:009/20- One Year in Cabo Verde!!!Well I wont lie i am extremely tired, we had quite the day today. All of our district headed out this morning and took a boat over to Santo Antão to spend the day there. The boat on the way out there was pretty small and the waves were pretty big.... people were throwing up all over the place on the way over and by the end it smelled really bad! My stomach is to strong for that though, dont worry. It was cool though, on the way over we had a group of dolphins that swam up to the side of us for a little bit and there were also a bunch of flying fish. Once we got over there we headed up into the mountains and it was amazing, i almost wanted to cry it was so nice! I felt like i was back in utah... it was really grean everywhere and we were clear up in the clouds, it was definitely really different from being down at sea level where its extremely hot all day long! We hiked up in there though and had a good time, i took a lot of pictures that i will send next time when i have time to download them. Santo Antao is the coolest island that i have been to yet though and right now only has two missionaries at the bottom, but i think it would be awesome to open up an area up higher in the mountains sometime. The people that live up there are literally in the middle of no where, most of them dont have any electricity or anything! They are really nice though and grow tons of fruits up there and gave us some today. I also so some cows which was pretty amazing... the only cows i had ever seen before here were in praia and they eat the trash on the streets but these cows were actually eating green grass up in the meadows! It was a fun p day though and tiring, i actually didnt have time to use internet until tonight because by the time our boat got back in it was time to go out and teach so we just had a little time between lessons and going home. This week we also went out to sal and did our division with the zone leaders there. We got to see the coolest beach i have ever seen there and we also went and taught in an area where every single house is made out of tin and cardboard and are about the size of one bedroom. It was really sad how they live there but they are really humble. I never believed before that people would be able to live in a place like that before the mission. I have a couple pictures though so i will send them to you guys. Other than that it was a decent week but full of challanges! Nobody really wants to really do anything here and we werent able to get anyone in church this week. All the missionaries in this area are having challenges but we will get things changed... Its a fight out here but we´ll win it. We still have a few really cool investigators so thats why im a little bit confused on why they didnt show up... i think the rain might have had part to do with it though. We are getting a lot of rain right now so its nice and cool here a lot of the time, besides when the sun comes out. Then it gets really humid and hot enough to split a rock! Its always hotter the day after a rain storm. But i am hoping that this week will go better. That family of Tó and Paula are still really cool and we have set a date for them to be baptized and they all seemed really excited. I will let you guys know how everyone does this week. I guess its good to have all of these challanges... im learning a lot and my testimony is getting a lot stronger. I guess it will help me out for things after the mission and i will be stronger from it.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-34384124127778751752010-11-08T05:25:00.001-08:002010-11-08T05:25:23.764-08:009/13 Letter HomeIf you happen to get the other pictures of the baptisms, those would be from this week and last week... its daniela and luis. The baptism went all well so that was cool! We also had a pretty good week with our investigators, we still have some that are progressing really well. We are teaching the family of Tó and Paula right now and there kids. Tó is from here but Paula is from Fogo, and that creolo is a lot more like praia so its cool being able to listen to her and talk with her. They are a way cool family and even though we only started teaching them about a week and a half ago they are progressing a ton. Tó has the coolest job in the world, he is a fisherman here! They go out for a couple days each time and usually go off of Santa Luzia which is the only that doesnt have any people. They catch all types of sweet fish and he always has cool stories for me... i tell him one day im gonna come back and go fishing with him after the mission. So he had work yesterday but Paula came to church along with the kids which was really cool. We actually had quite a few people in church this week, about 60 which is about 20 more than usual. We got some investigators there and some less actives too. One of Paula´s kid´s dad is actually living in america now so he goes there quite a bit to visit. It was really funny, i guess he went out there once for about a year and when he came back he was a lot fatter. They are always talking with us about how everyone likes to eat junk food there and i guess its kinda true. The kid is 7 years old and he always likes to talk to me about mcdonalds and how much he misses it... they dont know what that is out here. They do eat a lot healthier here and everyone has to walk everywhere instead of driving, so there are a lot less overweight people. Dont ask me how i put on so much weight cause i dont know! But so yeah thats our week for ya, not too much out of the ordinary. We will be having transfers in 2 weeks and im not sure if i will be staying or leaving and if i leave i have no idea to where, i will just have to wait and see. It doesnt really matter to me what happens, all i know is that i want to serve on Fogo for quite a while! I wouldnt mind staying here another one though cause there are cool people we teach and i want to stay with them and hopefully see them get baptized.<br /> <br />So this next week should be pretty busy. We will have to keep the work going in our area and we are also going to be going to sal on wednesday and thursday to stay with the elders there. Im pretty excited to go back there, its a way weird along.... its flat and really small. It has really cool beaches though so i think during lunch we will go to it and take some pictures. We are also going to santo antao next week as a zone activity which i am way excited for! That is the island we can see from here, and we will have to take a boat ride to get there. Once we get there we will be taking one of those hiaces (those van things) up into the mountains and doing some hiking. Those mountains get really high and green so it will be liking being in utah almost. But the boat wont be getting back until 6 that evening and then we have lessons after that... so im not exactly sure when i will be able to write back, it might just be a day late or something.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-70211878024015191332010-11-08T05:22:00.002-08:002010-11-08T05:24:28.506-08:009/13 Pics<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieFO1FkHo6_duT_lKLr8LZ4FPXGIs5bxaG3mhvf4frTtklmhJ8nwcQmRpdW-El92YSUlErkUMA_iRgf2CBvjMDfS-6i2GNgrM-y4z2JKyXjgx3Y6Qo0b953UEf4f8IL2PD4gAfb_Bj08Xo/s1600/kev11.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieFO1FkHo6_duT_lKLr8LZ4FPXGIs5bxaG3mhvf4frTtklmhJ8nwcQmRpdW-El92YSUlErkUMA_iRgf2CBvjMDfS-6i2GNgrM-y4z2JKyXjgx3Y6Qo0b953UEf4f8IL2PD4gAfb_Bj08Xo/s320/kev11.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537169144282839906" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzmaSOCj8K9ZD_qNriA1Y0gukjs_2pSeo8kyuKZB-t3Z28oD1TbiVRA32dqsRSf0oCakT630f9by0AJsYLLho9m1W-Z9b-n5DicUy8-4h12vZmbFJMbDy4iGn90G_36vULZ4IciGxaHkJo/s1600/kev10.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzmaSOCj8K9ZD_qNriA1Y0gukjs_2pSeo8kyuKZB-t3Z28oD1TbiVRA32dqsRSf0oCakT630f9by0AJsYLLho9m1W-Z9b-n5DicUy8-4h12vZmbFJMbDy4iGn90G_36vULZ4IciGxaHkJo/s320/kev10.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537169009676462178" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-V291B23hC0Ng_8CM0V80WLwDq97AquUwW3QGf2F6WXqhTXsjeH9NWdWa6G-GkhmM3KrR2auhqBk4nlphEJJCcdgnzDpLcUkBnnL2sleavOEsBXL5ZsVkBM4r17ouIlB0YIbrm293E3uh/s1600/kev9.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 119px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-V291B23hC0Ng_8CM0V80WLwDq97AquUwW3QGf2F6WXqhTXsjeH9NWdWa6G-GkhmM3KrR2auhqBk4nlphEJJCcdgnzDpLcUkBnnL2sleavOEsBXL5ZsVkBM4r17ouIlB0YIbrm293E3uh/s320/kev9.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537169009638110738" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwFRDgp1mG8IINxj3L8rWOlXm0TLJHU_iE86iPiseLlm11sndovOuxFSZGRs8tqMkIhQGs8pUgH0oCU-t9uQ7g5u6V3ygsT29guQ7L1EFY6ltizB2LsBSV2nttIa-OCWl9qiEJbPQiTmiP/s1600/kev8.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwFRDgp1mG8IINxj3L8rWOlXm0TLJHU_iE86iPiseLlm11sndovOuxFSZGRs8tqMkIhQGs8pUgH0oCU-t9uQ7g5u6V3ygsT29guQ7L1EFY6ltizB2LsBSV2nttIa-OCWl9qiEJbPQiTmiP/s320/kev8.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537169004957626322" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2FyWuQq3252lkOQ9uNRw35P5WBVU_jHD_aJeyeTZwL13QGeDNbMJrZjVTgEwp311B-uJB2q1h_yID2XOkR-DYCHFbZLDSaLc_gQgrpCByPwNHKHL5LQTWB_VTT9g0Gea6_D0fbzjpVUX/s1600/kev7.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk2FyWuQq3252lkOQ9uNRw35P5WBVU_jHD_aJeyeTZwL13QGeDNbMJrZjVTgEwp311B-uJB2q1h_yID2XOkR-DYCHFbZLDSaLc_gQgrpCByPwNHKHL5LQTWB_VTT9g0Gea6_D0fbzjpVUX/s320/kev7.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537169005566728946" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSdmq9YRYC1FWTZhLf9vZW3Z82mQaFgtV_Alq-ERUFRhCZHrgfqddBcis5exT0KTgL6j8AJjxDTh1aUNVX-QXrmFBBe96ZOb4ouaH817WqZk1RoW2t0ZJxd0e1khxpqxjId-oBeUR68BBE/s1600/kev6.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 213px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSdmq9YRYC1FWTZhLf9vZW3Z82mQaFgtV_Alq-ERUFRhCZHrgfqddBcis5exT0KTgL6j8AJjxDTh1aUNVX-QXrmFBBe96ZOb4ouaH817WqZk1RoW2t0ZJxd0e1khxpqxjId-oBeUR68BBE/s320/kev6.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537169000716629026" /></a>Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-22787460365097153722010-11-08T05:22:00.001-08:002010-11-08T05:22:26.028-08:009/6 letter homeMan thats crazy about all the news that is going on, its crazy to think that fall is actually here! It was nice to get all that football news though and im glad to hear that byu got a win to start out the year. Im looking forward to getting more of these updates and im excited to hear about all the hunting stories too. Sounds like this week was the week of picnics too... i remember going to that park you guys went to everyonce in a while, its pretty nice. I was actually thinking you guys were going to yellowstone this week but i guess that will be the next? Well either way it sounds like everything is going good back at home.<br /> <br />Everything out here is really about the same. We had our first baptism in this area in a while this last saturday and it was actually the best i have ever seen here. It started on time and was well organized which is something that doesnt happen here, ever. Their culture is a little different here and even things of the church never go as planned so it was nice that this all went well. We are going to be having another baptism this week so for the meantime things are going pretty well. It will be Daniella, a 17 year old girl that we teach. At first she didnt seem to interested and she didnt really care to go to church or anything, but this last month she totally switched everything around. She started coming to church every week and completely changed and now she is really excited about her baptism. Cabo Verde had EFY out here like they do back at home, and this was the first one they had ever had. All the youth went down to the island of santiago from all of the different islands and stayed there for a week, and daniella went to it even though she wasnt a member yet. That helped her out even more and got her super excited for the baptism on saturday. We have also been teaching 3 new families, all of which promised to show up in church this sunday ( and if they do it will double our normal attendance) One of the girls of the families at first said she doesnt like anything to do with churches because there are tons of churches here that just say things to get your money and trick people, but once we explained a little bit about our message she kinda changed and that 2nd time we taught her she was telling us she wanted to come to ours. We also had to 20 year old guys that showed up to church yesterday and are doing way good.<br /> <br />I went down to praia for the counsel again this week and this time i had a little extra time to go see people. I got to go see gilmara and her kids and also a few other cool families i knew there, it was way cool! Well i cant really think of anything else that is new. Sorry that this e mail is kinda short but thanks for all the e mails from you guys, i loved reading them. You guys have a good week and ill talk to ya later! Its crazy to think that there are only 10 more months left! Love ya guysElder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-10823128443724541412010-11-08T05:21:00.001-08:002010-11-08T05:21:43.748-08:008/30 letter homeHows everyone doing? Its crazy to think that another week as already gone by. I think about all the next stuff that has been going on this past week and there really isnt that much... everything is going about the same. The work is definitely getting better though, my companion and i work well together and we have fun too. We found some way cool families this week and some new people to teach. One of them was taught for the first time on saturday and he was already in the church with us on sunday. Luis will be baptized next week and then the week after we have a 17 year old girl named daniella who will be baptized. It was pretty cool cause when i first started teaching her with my other companion i didnt really know if she was very interested, but all the sudden she just started to do everything all on her own like going to church every week. She already has a brother who is on a mission and a bunch of friends who are members so it was easy to get her ready. One cool thing is that me and my companion are being working hard and i feel like we are being blessed for it. There are lots of companionships that do tons and tons of contacts without anyone really caring to talk to them. But we are working hard and when our lessons fall we will go start contacts and usually people will let us in right off. Last night our lesson fell and the first door we hit was a 30 year old lady and before i even said me name she told us to come in. Her husban was there and her sister and her friend showed up during the lesson too and it went awesome. She said that she didnt like to follow churches cause they all just taught a bunch of different things that she didnt like and all the churches here just want money, but when we taught her she really liked it. We have like 10 people who have already promissed us to go to church next sunday so im pretty excited.<br /> <br />One cool thing that happened the other day is that while we were walking around we saw two guys in the street and one of them was carrying a shark around that he killed when he went scuba diving out from the beach here. It was only like 3 feet long but he told me that he has killed a lot bigger. When i asked him if he was afraid of them he said "no way" and then pointed to some random drunk guy next to us and said " Im a lot more afraid of that guy, you never know if he is going to through a glass bottle or rock at me!" It was pretty funny cause its true haha these people are crazy and just like to drink... but the drunk people really like us missionaries! They start talking with us and they wont stop. <br /> <br />So we had our zone conference this week and it went well, my companion and i had to give a training for over 2 hours. Im thinking it will be my last as zone leader though cause i have been it for a long time. We have our zone leaders counsel in praia this week too on wednesday so i will get to see praia again.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-295209544835080055.post-82780535855255464582010-11-08T05:11:00.000-08:002010-11-08T05:21:14.405-08:008/24 Letter HomeEverything is going pretty well out here, not a whole lot has changed. My new companion is a cool guy and prett funny, we are having a pretty good time. This week we had to make a bunch of trips to the airport right at the start which was kinda annoying but thats just how transfers are. We had to take people there that were leaving the island a few times and we also had to go pick up the new american sisters that just barely got here this week. We were still able to get a lot of work done though and this was one of the better weeks i have had in this area. We found a few new people here that are really cool... we are getting rid of our investigators that dont really do anything and we are finding others so its a lot of hard work but its a lot better. A couple of the people we found though are sailors which is kinda hard cause they travel for like 6 months at a time and they never know when they are going to be leaving... we will see what happens though. We also found a new couple that is actually married (which is kinda rare) and they are super nice, im liking forward to teaching them again. As for our other investigators, Luis is still doing the best. He got past that little problem with alcohol and is going to be baptized not this saturday but the next. We are also working with the members a lot more and we are a lot closer with them now. They are all inviting us over to their houses to teach them and talk with them and they are starting to help us a lot more. Like i said our branch is only about 40 people right now but it used to have a ton more, so there are a lot of inactives in the area so our plan is to go find them with the help of the active members and get them back there. Hopefully we will be able to make this branch a lot stronger. <br />So anyways there is the summary of the work. Mindelo is going pretty well... we are in the rain season now so its been pretty cloudy most of the days this week. We got dumped on on saturday, it was coming down hard! It was a good way to find some new people to teach though, i think that some of the people felt bad for us so they let us in to teach and it worked to our advantage.Elder Lukehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00830408173109649004noreply@blogger.com0