Mission Fever

I did not realize it had been 3 weeks since we wrote--very sorry, and we will try to remember more often.  Reason:  we normally write on the weekends, and they have been so full, often with guests, that we don't get to the computer.  My ankle is all healed--no more brace.

Hope that Matt is enjoying his time in Russia and Ukraine--we have "talked" with him via computer messages a few times. It is especially wonderful to return to the areas of your mission.  Maybe in a few years we will get to do the same, hope so!

The Young Adult committee for Outreach purchased a microwave, a blender, new net and paddles for ping pong, and a waffle maker.  We used the waffle maker the next evening to make a treat for the youth.  And we liked it so much that we bought one for our house (to remain in this mission house).  When we made waffles at Outreach for the next activity night, we had two waffle makers so they could eat the food twice as fast!  The activity was a quarterly birthday party for those born April, May and June.

On Monday, June 28, we had a district missionary activity day (one per every 6 weeks, or per missionary transfer).  We went to San Pedro beach to play and see a blowhole, but the surf was so high that even with the tide out we could not get near enough to see into the blowhole.  So we just played games and constructed sand castles and sand turtles (not live ones), and had a picnic.  Monday is the mission P-day, when the missionaries clean their apartments, do shopping, email families, laundry, etc.

For July 4, we celebrated with a special dinner, at the request of our BYU student friend Joanna--cheeseburgers, chips, potato salad, cake, ice cream, etc.  Also, in Relief Society that morning, the chorister chose the hymn "Battle Hymn of the Republic" from the hymnbook in honor of America's Independence Day that day.  She speaks good English and talked a bit about our country and the meaning of July 4.  Then she also talked about July 5, which is Cape Verde's Independence Day, freed from Portuguese rule as of 1975.

We have been enjoying Sunday evening choir practices again, followed by band concerts in the nearby park.  It is a relaxing and fun way to end Sunday.

Today we attended meetings at the other chapel to hear the missionary farewell talk by an elder who is going to serve a

Elder Airton Nascimento (1st elder)

mini-mission for 5 weeks on another island in Cape Verde, and then fly direct to Brazil for the MTC for his full-time mission to Mozambique.  Next Sunday we will return to that chapel to hear the farewell talk of our favorite elder who will

On the right, Elder Evandro Fonseca, (2nd elder)

be also going to Brazil for the MTC and then returning to Cape Verde to serve his mission here.  The first elder was released today as the district secretary, and the district president said that every time he gets a new secretary, the young man goes on a mission soon.  Another young man was sustained to the position today, and guess what?  He is going on a mission in about 4 months!  Mission fever!  There is also a young sister planning to go soon. 

One of our young friends accompanied us yesterday for 3 hours to visit the homes of some less-active Young Adults.  Our friend is planning to go to Brazil for medical schooling, leaving in two weeks.  She will be missed--she is one of my favorite piano students.

Sister Goff cooking waffles at church

We hope you are all well and happy--we pray for each of you every day.
Love always, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Elder and Sister

Everything Always Seems to Fall in Place

Last time we wrote, we said that we would be having a Health Fair "the next day", but it did not happen then because of big mix-ups in flights and cancellations of planes, so the mission nurse did not arrive when expected, and the mission president arrived about one hour before the Zone Conference. 

 The materials for the Health Fair which the nurse was bringing did not arrive on the plane with her, but came Saturday evening, after the Fair would have been over.  Oh well, she will return in two weeks to do it.

So she returned this past Thursday, and we had a wonderful visit, and prepared and presented the Health Fair yesterday.  Our Young Adults were trained by her the evening before the Fair, and they did the teaching of the different parts--What to do for Fever, Burns, Cuts, Nutrition, Blood Pressure, how to make a sterilized bandage with fabric, newspaper, and a hot iron, and how to care for dehydration and diarrhea.  We also had floor games for the kids; many people came and stayed most of the two hours, everyone went home with a first aid booklet from each of the displays, and it was just really FUN! 

The water project for Mindelo is moving along quickly and we are receiving much help from the government and from engineers here.  They have made a contract for us to have approved by Church headquarters about us (the Church) providing the supplies and materials for the water and sewer pipe.  Since work cannot be done during the rainy months of September and October (and maybe August), things need to be in place and ready for work as soon as the rains are done in October.  We will let you all know when exciting things happen about it, but for now it is just laying groundwork.

We have been teaching a Gospel Principles class at the prison on Saturday mornings.  It began with the women, but the men wanted it too.  Now it is just the men--we do not know why the women do not choose to come--perhaps the ideas were too much for them to grasp, and we will have to find out how to remedy the problem.  The men are very receptive, 2 of them are members, we usually have about 20 in the class, and they are eager to read parts of the lessons and to respond.  We even sing a hymn each week, mostly "I Am A Child of God".  I can tell which ones are members, because there is some light in their eyes and a look of desiring to hear more.

On Sunday afternoons one set of elders conducts a class at the church called "School of the Prophets", and I have been attending that.  They help the members learn the missionary lessons in "Preach My Gospel" and we practice giving them to each other. 

Last Friday night at Outreach, the Young Adults were trained for the Health Fair the next day, and after that, we had fun dancing to the nurse's CDs (she also teaches dance on her island here). 

 They were fun group dances, round dances, and one that the grandchildren will enjoy:  we danced the "Chicken Dance", exactly like Ryan, Nicole and Christian have done at the school dance festival. 

Happy Father's Day!  Apparently it is not celebrated here, although Mother's Day is.

June 14 was our "Hump Day", 9 months filled, 9 months left of our mission.

 

We love each of you and pray for you every day, and miss you.

Much love to all, Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, Elder and Sister

So Much To Do, So Little Time

It's been a while since we wrote, longer than I want it to be between updates.  I've thought often of doing it, but did not have a big enough block of time till now.
Elder Goff has gone to pay bills, and since it is a long walk to all the places, I have elected to stay home.  My foot is still swelling from the sprained ankle and I don't wish to belabor it. (A doctor from England will be here tomorrow for the Zone Conference and he is going to advise and help me with my foot.) For senior couple missionaries, it is permissible to be separate once in a while.  And--to pay the bills, we have to go to each company  and pay cash in person.  No such thing as using a credit card here, or mailing a payment, or any of the other easy ways you are used to in America. But it's OK.

Most of May, the wind blew very, very strongly all day and night, from the Sahara Desert, bringing sand and dust and strong winds.  Sometimes when we were out walking we would have to stop and brace ourselves to keep from literally being blown over!  Most of that has ceased now, thank goodness, and it is just plain hot again.

On Monday, May 17, we went with the missionaries for activity day (once per transfer, every 6 weeks) to Santo Antao island, riding the ferry boat.  The ocean was rough that day and we got sprayed, and it was quite cool, even on the island.  They went hiking, but we stayed with the van, since my ankle was not up to any walking.  It even rained while we were there--very unusual.  Our van driver stopped mid-morning to attend a funeral of a friend in his hometown which was on the route we needed to travel to pick up the missionaries, so Larry and I went in the church to the funeral (Catholic) but the van driver stayed outside.  Don't know why--we've noticed that at funerals here, lots of mourners stay outside, gathered around the entry of the church.  Then he wanted to go to the cemetery, so we did that also.  At least he went to the service there.
The ferry trip back was much nicer than the trip in the morning.

For Larry's birthday, we went out to lunch(dinner) at the beautiful restaurant where the Red Cross had their program and dinner previously.  We ate filet mignon and banana splits!  Thank you all for your birthday wishes to him--they were very welcome!  It was a good day.  His English class students found out from me about his birthday, and they surprised him with a song and many good wishes.  The mission president also phoned him about his birthday.

On Saturday, May 22, we again took the ferry boat to Santo Antao for the weekend, just us two.  We had been asked to attend a meeting of the Young Adults there to see if there are enough of them to have an Outreach Center like ours, and there are.  The 2 elders on that island met us at our hotel and we went to the church together for the meeting.  It was a long walk, but I made it.  On Sunday morning, we each spoke in church--my talk was on the divine role of women in the Church and Larry's was about the priesthood.  I had practiced the talk so much that I was able to read it smoothly and sound like I knew Portuguese (which I do not, not very well, anyway). The Lord certainly blessed me to be calm and able to speak.  He is ready to answer even our simplest requests and needs, and I notice it so much more on our mission. Then we went to the elders' home and shared dinner with them--we had brought some food already prepared with us for them.  Because of health concerns about methods of food preparation,  missionaries are not allowed to eat meals with native people.  So if we wanted any dinner, we would need to be with the elders.  Our ferry boat took us back home on the 5:00 trip; both trips this time were very smooth and warm and no cold water spray.

The next week we met with the head engineer about the water project which the Church has approved for our island.  We wanted to find out how we could best be a help to what the city is already doing--we feel that we can work together well in supplying materials for the work, and they furnish labor, etc.

A BYU student, girl from Washington DC, is here for 3 months to teach classes in English.  She is staying with an English-speaking member's family, and likes to visit us often to hear American English and eat American food.  So we have made chocolate chip cookies and sloppy joes and we have fun together.  She knows some Portuguese, so that helps her.

On June 1 and 2, another BYU student (man) who is in pre-med, named Tanner GOFF, (no relation), came to stay with us.  He and 2 others came to Cape Verde for 2 weeks to demonstrate a water-recycling system they invented, so they spent time on each of the islands.  It involves 2-- 5-gallon paint buckets like construction workers would have, a piece of pipe, a cardboard juice box, and a 5-liter water bottle to make a filter.  Using sand, carbon, small rocks in the filter, he pours clothes-washing water (from clothes washed by hand--here most people do not have washing machines, but all the missionaries do)through the filter which cleans it, then pours the cleaned water into the bucket through the pipe into the outer bucket, the inner bucket having dirt and planted seeds.  This way the water stays in the bottom of the outer bucket and the roots grow through the holes in the bottom of the inner bucket, and thus the plants are watered continually but never soaked.  Vegetables grow tremendously well in this apparatus--he told us about some of his at his home in Utah.  We had a big fireside at church about it when he was here, and it will be demonstrated again at the Health Fair which we are having tomorrow.

Not only is tomorrow the Health Fair from 4-6 -p.m., it is also Zone Conference in the morning and early afternoon, and a district Primary party from 3-6 p.m. at the other chapel (thank goodness!) and a baptism at 4:00 at the same chapel as the Health Fair, just down the hall.  There is no overall calendar here for activities, but for sure we will speak to the district president about getting one when we meet with him next Monday.  It's crazy here sometimes!

In just a few minutes we will be hosting our friend, the mission nurse, who has come to manage the Health Fair and to train the young adults to teach at the different booths at the fair:  Fever and Dehydration, First Aid kit at home, nutrition and meal planning, the water recycling apparatus, cuts, burns, etc. 

If all of this sounds as if we are busy, we are!  But it is also very fun, and we learn so much, and enjoy helping the people.

An Evening at Pont d'Agua

A strange occurrence this past Monday was that I sprained my ankle by sliding off a curb.  The strange part is that this same thing happened to two elders, one here and one on the southern island of Fogo, on the same morning!  I had not heard of this happening since we arrived.  I was fortunate that mine was not very swollen or painful; I received a blessing from Elder Goff, and the next day I was walking around on it.  We got an Air Cast from the zone leaders and it worked great--no pain. The two elders had it much worse, but are also walking around doing their work anyway.

Last Saturday we had been invited to a special dinner and program for the International Day of Red Cross.  Since we work some projects with them, like the old folks' home, we got to attend the dinner at the finest restaurant on the northern islands, called Pont d'Agua, since it is right over the harbor--it would have fit right in with New York City, it was so beautiful and fancy in its decor, and entirely outdoors--nice cool sea breezes.  Palm trees grew on the patios between tables, there was beautiful native music in the background (live performers), and we were right on the edge of the sea, on a platform raised above the beach.  We liked meeting the National President of Red Cross who wanted to talk with us specifically, and meeting the other people who also do projects with them.  The lighting was also lovely, shining on the water, as we listened to the roar of the surf.

There are some very wealthy places here, but there are much more that are very poor.  However, even if the people's homes are not fancy, the people are clean, friendly and wear nice-looking clothing.  As welfare-humanitarian missionaries, we are supposed to help the people through various organizations, not as individuals.  Elder Goff is sometimes approached by persons who ask for help for themselves, but we are not allowed to do that because it would be unfair to single out certain persons. He explains nicely about our purpose in the country and why we cannot do as they request.  It is hard to see poverty and not relieve it, but we work through places like Red Cross to reach to the individuals.

We have been teaching a Gospel Principles class on Saturday morning at the prison.  Today was Lesson #2 about our heavenly family.  Right at first I could tell that the people felt touched by the doctrine of living with Heavenly Father before this earth life, and that we are all brothers and sisters.  We sang "I Am A Child of God"--there are a couple of church members in the group.  The Spirit was really strong today; I kept praying that each one would feel it and be moved to improve their lives. They shed some tears and so did we. They are not hardened criminals, but persons who have made mistakes, but are still teachable and do kind things for each other.  It warmed our hearts to see the lady prisoners showing compassion to the people at the old folks' home last week when they went with us to present the pillowcases they had sewn for them. 
Yesterday we even went to the old folks' home and played Dominoes with them for an hour, and had a great time!

On Monday we will be going with the missionaries from our district on the ferry boat to the island of Santo Antao, where we have gone before for activity day--hiking, beautiful scenery, etc.  I especially love the boat ride, about 45 minutes across the channel, and sometimes we see flying fish and dolphins.  One elder even saw a hammer-head shark last month that came swimming from under the boat.

Then next weekend we will be returning to that island on Saturday afternoon, and will stay overnight in a hotel there and attend a program at the church just for us, so we can see what their group of young single adults is like, how many there are, etc.,  The Area Seventy has plans for setting up an Outreach Center there (like what we have here in Mindelo).  So we are his "scouts".  Then on Sunday we will each speak in Sacrament meeting.  The chapel is really nice because it has padded pews. We are taking items for Sunday dinner in the afternoon which I will cook for us and the two elders that serve there; then our return boat at 5 p.m.

We especially liked the General Conference Priesthood session talk by Elder Rasband--"The Divine Call of a Missionary"--which we printed for each of the young men in our districts.  3 of them will soon be on missions.

We hope you are all well and happy in your circumstances.  We miss you and love you very much., and pray for you all every day.

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

This is a picture of one of the sister missionaries that is a granddaughter of one of Larry's Barbershop friends, Ron Norviel.

Mother, A Slideshow Presentation -- Happy Mother's Day!

For those lucky to still be blessed with your mom, this is beautiful.

For those of us who aren't, this is even more beautiful.

For those who are moms, you will love this too!

Mother

The 3 Nephites

These young men are our Young Adult Council, and the one in the middle is the one who got his mission call at the fireside we wrote about.  The other two have calls in the mail, just waiting to receive.  They are excellent young men, and make me think of the 3 Nephites.

The tomato is our only one, it is shown next to a dime, and the seed package showed a picture of a huge one.  "They grow stuff BIG here"

A Wonderful Evening

Dear family and special friends,

Tonight we had a very special occurrence--as we were preparing at the church for a missionary fireside, the electricity went out (not an uncommon thing, but always annoying).  We were an hour away from starting the fireside, and so we prayed really hard because it was so important to have it. 

Within a few minutes, the electricity was restored!  The meeting was to encourage prospective missionaries to serve, and we had a missionary choir who sang several hymns, two of which were in English.  Returned missionaries and the three who have submitted mission papers and the district president were the speakers. 

When the district president got up to speak, he reached in his briefcase and pulled out a mission call envelope for one of the prospectives, a wonderful young man named Pedro Oliveira.  We know him well, as he serves diligently in the Young Adult presidency.  He opened the letter right in front of the whole congregation--the chapel was filled--,you could "hear" the excitement and  anticipation as he read it aloud.  He is going to Mozambique, and enters the MTC in Brazil on May 27 (Dann's awesome birthday!!). 

His call was mailed from SLC on April 1, and was delayed in the mail, so he will have to hurry!  During the closing hymn the lights went out again, but the missionaries used their cell phone lights and kept on singing ("Army of Helaman").  After the closing prayer, the lights came back on. 

We had a wonderful time and wanted to share it with each of you. 

Much love, Elder and Sister Goff