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

We Are Doing Fine!

We thank our son Dann for setting up this blog for us, for posting our letters and photos while we are busy with our mission.  We hope you enjoy reading and viewing what we have.  Sister Pat

A Medical Miracle

Dear families, 

We have been enjoying busy days, and frequent ceremonies for humanitarian/welfare projects.
We want to tell you about a wonderful happening a week ago.  On April 11 (Sunday) the elders brought an investigator to church.  He was a man about age 30 who was a construction worker, but he fell off a scaffold 2 years ago, shattered his right leg, and had 6" steel bars put into his leg at that time to hold it together.  The bars were on the outside of his leg and stuck out, so he kept them covered with a cloth.  It looked painful, and indeed it was.

That Sunday, the doctor and his wife from Utah were visiting church here (they would be conducting the Neonatal Training during the coming week).  The doctor met the man and thought something could be done to help him.  The next day the doctor went to the hospital and spoke with the orthopedic surgeon about removing the bars from the leg.  The surgeon agreed to do the work for free.

So on Tuesday we, the elders and the man went to the hospital to locate the doctor-- no appointment had been made.  We found the doctor after he finished his meeting, and he met with the man right then, and said he would do the surgery "Right Now".  So he did!  With local anaesthetic, he removed the bars and Xrayed the leg to see that it had healed properly, which it had.  In less than two hours of our arrival at the hospital, the man was walking out, with just the elder holding him by the hand, and only a bandage on his leg.  He no longer has to use a walker. He is so happy!  No pain now.  He comes to church and everyone welcomes him.
This kind of thing probably would never happen in the US, because they would require an appt. several days (or more)  ahead of time, and other delays.  But to all of us here, it is a miracle.

We had a fun Family Home Evening last week.  The Young Adults have it on Wednesday at the church for Outreach.  When it was time to begin, there was a power outage, so no light.  Everyone (about 30) went outdoors (street lights were working OK) and we played games and socialized for an hour on the church patio.  The elders had brought an investigator, and we did not want to just send everyone home without a meeting, so we made some fun!

Larry is having much success teaching an English conversation class on Tues. and Thursday evenings before Institute--many kids come, seminary and institute age and some adults.

Yesterday we had Zone Conference, and those are always spiritually uplifting and lots of fun visiting with each other.

Hope you are all doing well, and please pray for us and give us your support-- it gets lonesome when we check our email and only see junk mail and ads.

Love to each one of you,

Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandma, Elder and Sister

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