Christmas Letter

MERRY  CHRISTMAS  --  FELICE  NATAL!

                                                                                Christmas  2009

Dear family and friends,

We send you Christmas greetings in Portuguese from Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean!  Larry and I are serving a mission for 18 months for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and are living on an island off the western coast of Africa, west of Senegal and Mauritania.  Our work is humanitarian projects to aid schools, associations for the care of elderly and disabled, hospitals, etc., and to be leaders of the young people at the church here.  Our city is Mindelo on the northern island of Sao Vicente.

We arrived on October 1 in this hot and humid land which is also very beautiful and tropical.  The “winter” months are January and February when it “cools” down to 60 degrees from a normal high of 80-85.  Our house is modern, much like you would find in southern Europe, and since most of the food is imported from Europe or Brazil, we eat many of the same things as in the US.  However, one of our favorite foods here is not available in the US, and that is fresh-caught tuna fillet—it looks and tastes like a pork steak.  

If you wish to send us a Christmas card or letter, may we give you an easy-to-mail address:

Elder and Sister Goff

c/o Cape Verde Praia Mission

PO Box 30150

Salt Lake City, Utah 84130

This address receives only letters and cards, no photos or money (sorry about that), but it is fast delivery since it is hand-carried by someone travelling over here (which Church leaders do frequently).

We would love to hear from each of you!

Our Christmas will be spent making Christmas happy and memorable for the 30 young adult missionaries on the three northern islands, who will travel to our city for the special day.  We will host a dinner and organize a program of music and skits, etc., then  go caroling around the city.  The young men and women will most likely be homesick on this day, and so will we, so the more we can do to bring the Christmas spirit, the better it will be.  The church choir here is very enjoyable because they learn and perform challenging numbers.  The native people have natural music and rhythm within themselves and are very good singers.  All are of African descent, some blended with Portugal also.  The entire city puts on a Christmas “Sing” in the park with each church’s choir presenting a few numbers.  Sounds like fun!  We are working on traditional carols and some popular songs like “Carol of the Bells” and one from “The Forgotten Carols.”

Have a wonderful celebration of our Savior’s birth!  

Love, Larry and Pat Goff