Christmas in Cape Verde

Dear Family and Friends,

This is just an update on our Christmas activities here in Cape Verde.  This is also written by Elder Goff so please forgive the grammatical errors that might occur.  (Sister Goff proofread it for me.)

We had two of the Sisters from a near-by island stay overnight at our place so they helped us prepare some of the things before the rest of the missionaries arrived.  Two of the local Sisters arrived about 9:30 to help prepare a big bowl of fruit.  They cut up tangerines, canned peaches, apples, canned pineapple and bananas. They filled two bowls.  We also had two other Sisters bake 15 potatoes for us while we baked 20.  Sister Goff also prepared a huge pot of chili for our potato bar.  We had grated cheese, grated carrots, chopped green onions for toppings to put on top of the chili.  Then the missionaries also brought cookies, and drinks to round out the meal.  We also had coconut macaroons made for dessert along with cupcakes.  There was even enough food for all 26 of us. 

After the missionaries all arrived, our bus finally arrived which took us to the local orphanage where we sang three Christmas carols to about 8 youth.  There are usually over a hundred kids there, but most were visiting relatives for Christmas.  We wished them Merry Christmas and then took the bus to a Home for the Aged.  There were 9 people living here so we sang to them and then presented them with personal hygiene kits and several quilts for the home.  The quilts and kits were made and assembled by members of the church probably in Utah and shipped over here.  After this visit, we went to another home for the aged and repeated for them what we had done at the other branch of the organization for the aged.

Then we returned to our apartment, gathered the missionaries in the living room and had several of them read parts of the Christmas story in Portuguese from the scriptures.  After that came the food.  We were pleased that we had enough for everyone with a little to spare.  After eating, each of  the 2 districts presented a skit for our enjoyment.  The first was about Elder Scrooge who after a year in the mission field was getting "trunkey" and didn't really want to continue doing missionary work.  He was visited by the ghost of Christmas past and relived some of his good memories from the beginning of his mission.  He was then visited by the Spirit of Christmas yet to come.  He was at home listening to "rock" music and being lazy.  His "mother" came and asked him to do something worthwhile with his life.  Then Elder Scrooge asked if this would really be his life in the future if he continued the way he was.  The spirit assured him that that would be his lot in life.  He decided to repent and change his current life from trunkey to active missionary.

The second skit depicted Samuel the Lamanite preaching to the Nephites(See Helaman 14 in the Book of Mormon).  The people were living very worldly livesand rejected his words.  When he came the second time, a few believed him.  Then when the day and a night and a day happened as prophesied by Samuel, the rest believed.  This was fun to watch. 

After the skits, most of the missionaries left to be able to talk with their families at home.  A few stayed here and one even had to receive calls on our phone since his was not accepting incoming long distance calls.  We were blessed to be able to talk with Matt on Skype.  We would keep losing the audio portion on the computer, so we would hang up and call again.  Later in the day he called back since Joe and his family went over to our house where Matt was and we got to talk with all of them, grandchildren as well.  It was nice to see them and talk with them.  Skype is really nice to have since it has audio and video capabilities.

In the evening, we went to our chapel and the district choir put on a fireside of music and words for the members of the church.  The missionaries sang the first number which I directed.  I also got to direct the last number sung by the choir, "I Believe in Christ".  Sister Goff accompanied the choir and the missionaries, and the young man accompanist also played some of the numbers and a beautiful postlude which he had arranged of "Silent Night". If was a reverent program with Christmas carols and narration about Christ.

That covers our Christmas celebration here in Cape Verde.  We had fun but it took us about 2 days to come down from the "high" and decide to get back to work.

Elder and Sister Goff