A Lot of Work To Do

Dear families,

How are you all?  We think about you often.  Both Annabelle and Matt have had birthdays in the past week--hope they were happy occasions!

We just keep getting busier and busier, with more responsibilities. 

Earlier this month, we received a call from the Area Presidency telling us that a water project has been approved for our city of Mindelo for up to $150,000.  Previously we had heard that all of Cape Verde would have a total of $100,000, but now the larger amount is just for Mindelo--wow!  When the Area Directors visited us for a week in March, we all toured the water treatment plant here, and they liked what they saw, reported to the Presidency, and got us approved for the project of putting in all new PVC pipe in the city and cleaning and relining water tanks in the homes.  We learned at the plant that the water is pure when it leaves the plant, but the old iron pipes and holding tanks make it impure,  The natives' bodies are used to it and do not get sick like people from other countries do.  But they still suffer from the impurities.  Elder Goff has been named Project Manager, and is in charge of choosing where to begin the project, who will be the companies to work on it, hiring site monitors to oversee the work, etc., etc.  Wow. Big job. 

Then yesterday a Church leader from Madrid, Spain came to train us and our Seminary--Institute director in setting up an employment center here, and doing further work with the PEF (Perpetual Education Fund) in which many people in Cape Verde are enrolled.  It too is a big job, and we are asked to be the Regional Directors for all of Cape Verde, which means travelling to the other islands and setting up the employment centers after we find out how to do it here in our city.  All of this is out of our range of expertise, so we have to rely on the inspirations of the Lord and the help of his servants--then it will happen like He wants it to be.

These past three days we have been involved with the Neonatal Resuscitation Training at the hospital.  60 doctors, nurses, midwives and birth attendants were enrolled and learned how to help newborn babies breathe on their own if not doing so at birth.  A special plastic bag and a mask over the nose and mouth with the bag hooked to the mask are the only pieces of equipment needed--the medical person squeezes the bag to simulate the rate of breathing. One of our Young Adults in Outreach has his own company, an Internet newspaper, and he was one of the media present at the opening ceremony on Wed.  Our church district president was one of the speakers.  Then we had the fun of watching as the trainers taught the medical personnel, hands-on, how to use the equipment.  It was all very exciting, and it saves many newborn lives.  That night the hospital directors took us and the American doctors (who taught the course) out to dinner at a very beautiful tropical restaurant, with musicians who played guitars and sang native songs--very beautiful music, soft, relaxing, much like Hawaiian music.  It was fun to get to know some of the people on a social basis away from the hospital work.

Missionary transfers were last Monday, and our favorite elder got transferred, but that is OK--that's what a mission is.  Lots of the missionaries here were changed this time.  We even had a heart-stopping moment earlier when we got an email from the mission president with the subject line of "Transfer Notice".  Honestly we died for about a half hour, because we did not know what it was about, since we could not open the attachment (in a program we do not have).  So we called the president and asked what it was, and he said it was just a notice of the Transfer of Funds from the mission account to our bank account for the emergency missionary food supply we had purchased.  We had been so worried about leaving here where we love living.  It also happened to be April 1, so we wondered about that also--a joke??  No joke, but not what we originally thought--Whew!

We got to attend the baby blessing for our friends, the ones for whom I sewed the blessing dress.  Baptisms are again happening every Saturday, and in our "spare" time we try to visit the less-active Outreach young adults and encourage them to come.  We bought some board games for the Outreach Center--checkers, chess, bingo, scrabble, dominoes.  They love them, and often come early to Outreach meetings to play the games.

We miss you and love each one of you very much.  Stay happy!  Watch over each other.

Love, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Elder and Sister