Dear families and friends,
The past two days have been full of surprises from and for our friends here.
Last summer I ordered 5 small practice keyboards (about one foot by four feet, 4 octaves), and we heard nothing more from the Salt Lake Music Committee until early November. The keyboards had arrived on the boat in Praia, on the main island. It took another month for them to get here to Mindelo, but they were stuck in Customs. The only way out was to pay big fees, because the name on the package was "LDS Church", instead of "A Igreja de Jesus Cristo SUD" (which is the recognized customs-free name). Our friend here went to the airport two days ago and paid the fees and brought the keyboards to the Church and surprised us! When I saw those keyboards, I asked his wife who was sitting nearby, to give him a kiss from us, and she did. We will also do another good deed for him this week. Now my students can have a keyboard to take home and practice on! Today after church we invited the three students who are most dedicated to music, and brought them to our house, without telling them why. They were intensely joyful to receive the keyboard and the simplified hymnbook! We felt so much happiness for them also.
Also, today after church the other chapel in the city brought to us in a truck their electric piano for us to use at our Christmas choir concert tonight. (The pianos in our chapel are not good--one is completely useless, and the other is very old and does not play well enough for a good concert.) So now we are all set for tonight's concert.
Christmas is happening here, believe it or not.
Yesterday at the Gospel Principles class at the prison for the men, we had a Christmas lesson, sang carols, told Christmas stories, and read the scriptures in the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Then we had lots of brownies. It was a big class--22 men. We usually have between 10 and 15. We felt the Holy Spirit very strongly as we testified of Jesus Christ, and also of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. Every week, someone asks to learn more about "this wonderful church we are teaching about".
As far as an update goes, we visited for 5 days the first week of December to Fogo Island, west of Praia. The hotel was magnificent, a beautiful pool, and view of the ocean from our window. We needed some relaxation, and got it. We also trained two missionary couples about working with young single adults. That was the purpose of the trip, so the mission paid for our transportation and hotel. Since we have been back home here, we have run and run every day, all day, trying to get everything done. I am glad it is Sunday so I can have a Sabbath for my mind, and not think of all the stuff yet to do.
A young adult sister just received her mission call this morning--the mission president brought it to her in Sunday School, since he is visiting here today. She is going to Lisbon, Portugal, starting in February. She has served here as a counselor in the Relief Society for the past 6 months.
Time for me to stop writing, and take a rest before a big meeting this afternoon with the mission president and leaders here, and then directly to the choir concert.
We would love to hear from each of you.
Love, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Elder and Sister
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