Transfers--Now I'm in Praia!

So I got transferred again. I am finally going to the country capital Praia...It should be good. It will be nice to have a strong ward for once. ;) 

This week was good! We had 6 new investigators. We also have been teaching this man named Jaime. I think I talked about him last week. We talked to him again and he was great. We even sat down to talk with his wife. So hopefully everything goes well!

We did a lot of door contacts and road contacts and things were still going hard. I am starting to see how it must be in other parts of the world!! But Praia should be good. President says that Praia is on fire right now, so that should be good. My comp. is Elder Hartman. I don't know much about him! :)

I have a funny story though! We were teaching Jaime, his wife, and his mom when we asked his wife to say the closing prayer. What ended up happening was that all of them just said things they were grateful for and then said "amen"!! It was funny! :) We will work with it, but it was a good lesson.

Photo: Leftovers from Carnaval! 

Love,

Elder Naylor 

PS: Elder Naylor has decided to extend his mission by a month--his current release date is July 21st. We are so (sob) happy for him. ;)

Door contacting--Not my favorite

So this week was a little bit better! 

To start off, we had the President, his wife, and the assistants pay us a special visit! We had a lot of trainings and we learned a lot of stuff! One of the things I learned that hit me the hardest was that our president said, "God can't steer a parked car," saying that we need to act and work so that the Lord can guide us, but if we stay still and don't show our faith, he can't guide us. Almost all the the time the blessings come after the "trial of our faith." We need to exercise it first, if we expect help.

Strawberries and Cream

Also, remember that nice Chinese couple that made us dinner? We made dinner for them this week. They are very nice and very friendly. I kind of want to learn Chinese now! :)

Nice Chinese Couple

We also contacted another man from Holland who said we were wasting our time here and that we should be in Israel teaching them. Of course, he would not let us say a word as he proceeded to smash on the United States, and whites. I am really starting to understand that being a disciple of Christ is not easy...

We also have started doing door contacts. The first ones were rough, but I feel they could be our break through point! 

Love,

Elder Naylor 

On Mount Gordo

Top of Mount Gordo

Still finding--

So, the thing I have really been working on this week is staying positive!! I had a bad day Tuesday. It just kinda felt like nothing was going well, or would go well, but I got around it the next day and it has been better since! :) I totally understand why hope and patience are attributes of Christ.

We haven't really found any new people, and no one has made any big leaps this week, but we did have 19 people at church!! :) It went from 10 to 16, then 10 to 19, so that is great! Finding has been hard so far! We have a lot of contacts, but they don't always work out. We have been given a lot of fake numbers and appointments set for exactly when they will not be home.

One thing that worked out great this week was that we finally sat down with a man named Jaime. In my first transfer here, we contacted him and he looked to me like he could be a great leader in the church! Ever since then we have tried to sit down with him, but because of Carnaval and mass work at his shop he has never really had time. We sat down with him on Saturday and it went great! He accepted the Restoration really well! And said he would pray and read! Also, his mom kept coming in and out, and she seemed interested as well! I'm really excited to see where that could go! 

We also have been teaching another woman, and she could be great!! The only problem is that she is the children teacher in the Catholic church were she lives. She likes everything we teach and has been praying to know if it is true, but just has not gotten an answer yet. We know, though, that once she does she will be a great member! 

Thats kinda all for us! :)

Love,

Elder Naylor

Fighting Hard!

I apologize because these past few weeks have been really boring. We are making progress, I promise, it's just slow. And when I say slow, we are talking snail's pace... BUT the two highlights this week are:

First, we had Gigi come to church. We taught her a few weeks ago, but she really didn't show an interest. However, our member Adilycia is really helping her! We had a lesson with her yesterday. It went ok, but she again showed little interest. But then in the middle of the lesson, something changed, and she seemed more interested. At the end of the lesson, she did accept a baptismal date! We have a lot of work to do, but I feel she could make it! 

Second, we taught a guy named Valdmeir! He was really good!! It was a weird lesson, because he accepted EVERYTHING we said! He also had no doubts and accepted a baptismal date like it was no big deal!! We left the lesson a little confused, because they usually have a ton of doubt or don't listen at all. He had none of that! So we are going to see what happens on Wednesday, but we are super happy with that! :)

It's just been really sad to see how much people don't really care these days about God or what He has to offer. It just shows how much we are in the last days. I ask all of you, Hold on to the truth! Don't let the world drag you down! I love you all and I know this is the true church, and it is the only way we can return to live with God. No other organization or person can give you that! 

Love,

 

Elder Naylor 

Hold on to your hats and glasses--it's the week of Carnaval!

So, Sao Nicalau was very blessed this week to get rain for about 3 days! The problem with this is Cape Verdeans don't like being out in the rain, so the only ones that are out are the ones that have some things to do! Also, with the approach of Carnaval, people got really busy getting all ready! The first 2 days have gone by and there is just one more.  They started celebrating super late (like 2 am Sunday morning). Needless to say, I did not sleep well! Then yesterday church was not too bad. It was the lowest attendance I have seen since being here. Things were pretty normal that day, but at about  5:30pm the "outfits" started coming out... So we went by our 6pm appointment, and then we all called it because it got hard to work. Today was the Kids day, and tomorrow they are supposed to go crazy. It's during the day, not the night. So that will be fun :/

All of those boxes are full of beer... the whole truck... hold on to your hats and glasses! 

We made tacos!! All from scratch!

Carnaval is in full force!

As for the work, we were able to find 3 families this week! We have not sat down with them yet, but we are hoping to in the upcoming week! The work was slow, but the sifting process is working and I am hoping we can have a breakthrough here in a little while! 

I have started working out again, and I am pleased to report it is helping ;) 

Something that we focused on this week and tried to help the members understand is the principle of sacrifice. The thing is, if you want to follow God, you will sacrifice!! There is no avoiding it! Through our callings, or tithing, or fasting (only to name a few of the ways we sacrifice), we show our faith in God. We all need to be ready and willing to do whatever we need to do and to "Put off the natural man." No, it's not easy, but that's not the point. The Lord's ways are "higher" than our ways. If we want to achieve the Lord's standards and become like him, we have to go up. That means leaving behind the things that tie us down to the world. We have seen it so much these past weeks where people are more worried about Carnaval than God. More people worry about money than keeping the commandments. That is backwards!! That has to change in us. And guess what? When we sacrifice for God, we really are not sacrificing anything at all. Ever thought about that?!? :) Being tired, or rich, or poor, or famous are all things of this world. They will not go with us!! The only things that matter are our relationships with people and our own personal character. 

We all need to understand this. Imagine if everyone did? We would have a lot fewer problems in the world, and from the sound of it, it sounds like the world is just getting worse and worse. Don't get caught in the lies that satan has surrounded us with.

I love you all and I am so happy to be serving the Lord here in cape verde! :)

Love,

Elder Naylor

Short on time--traveling...

So, we are traveling to Sao Vicente today, and we are limited on time, so this week will be short.

Carnaval is really messing up our plans! People are not wanting to talk to us at all! And it was only the week before!! So we will see how the REAL week goes...

Sad news: Bia has dropped. She said that she is happy in her church and does not want to change. And said she does not want to talk to us anymore....

Nothing special this week. Plus, I don't have time. Sorry :/

Love,

Elder Naylor

New Companion!

So, first off I want to let you all know that Francisca from (the volcanic/lava flow island of) Fogo got baptized!! I talked about her a lot, but she never made it into the water in the 8+ months that I was there. Thankfully, Elder Pauli got it done!!

Kitty

Next great thing!!! Remember Elder Elsmore?!? Yeah, my old MTC comp! He is my companion right now!! I am so happy to work with him! I feel this will really help this area. We already get along really well, and that will help our area! 

This last week we were finally able to sit down with a few people (to teach). First is Bia. She likes what we teach and agrees with it, but I think she is scared to leave the Catholic church. So we are really trying to help her read the Book of Mormon so that the Spirit can talk to her. And we are having the same kind of problem with a guy named Emanuel. He reads the Book of Mormon every day, but has not come to church and still feels that the baptism he had is ok with God. Also, we have started teaching this family. The woman seems very interested, but the man is iffy. Still, I could see them becoming very good members!

We also had a baptism this week, which I was blessed to perform! It was awesome, and she will be a great member and addition to our group.

Baptism

Wahoo!

Teaching the Restoration (of the true gospel of Jesus Christ) more powerfully has been a great help to our investigators! It makes people make a decision. It makes them question and really think about what they believe, and then they are more ready to listen to our message!!

Thats all folks! :)

Love, 

Elder Naylor