I Found Pickles!!

It took me about 2 years to do it, but I found them!!!! Of course, my companion hates them, but that's OK! :) More for me ;)

This was a good week! We were able to have 3 investigators at our stake conference! Usually, because meetings are not in the usual building, people don't go. But we had 3 people come this time! Clesison came and is progressing very well! He is set to be baptized this week. I feel it will happen. He might have some little doubts hanging on, since his whole family is Catholic, but I know he knows that this is the truth! We are also working with Sandra. We found her a week or two ago, and she has done incredibly!! Usually there are little pauses in an investigator's progression, but she has taken everything in stride, and she really liked the conference! She has a date for baptism on the 20th of June! Also, Pedro came. He is one we have been working with for a while, but he is one that we have really seen change. He has come to church for the last 4 or 5 weeks and wants to be baptized, he is just resolving a problem in Fogo before he can be baptized. But he is doing great! 

We also have been working with Zezino and Monica. They are really close to getting married, but I think they just keep getting cold feet. The biggest doubt is that they want to trust the other one more, but they are not working on it! In this next week we should have a marriage date, and everything finalized.

Something that I have really learned on my mission is the power of the Book of Mormon! Everything that we believe and everything we do is built upon the Book of Mormon. If you want to know that this church is true, read the book. Everything becomes so clear, and we have a purpose. We kind of live in a poor place. There are a lot of fights and gangs and just bad things that go on (last night there were two gun shots near our house). I look at these people, mostly the youth or young adults and wonder "Where are you trying to go in your life?" When you have the gospel in your life, there is no need to fight or to work for things that are pointless.

Also in this last week, it seems like every day I ran into someone that says, "I know." If you really knew, then you would do it. The gospel, I have found out, is not complicated. It's very simple. It's not always easy, but it's simple. The way I look at it, we are all fighting (ourselves) for a spot in the Celestial Kingdom. If you are living the gospel, you are promised eternal life, but not guaranteed eternal life. Yesterday we contacted a man and we realized he had some cigarettes. Normally, I don't contact by telling people to stop smoking, but with him I did and he said, "I will smoke this, and God will forgive me." I said, "No he won't!" and he got very offended and walked away, saying how do you know. The thing is, forgiveness is not something we get by chance. You can't just do what you want and hope that God will forgive you. Like I said, it is a Fight. You have to do everything you can! If you let up, even a little, you run the risk of losing! That's a problem a lot of members have here. They get baptized and then they get lazy, and end up falling away.

Sorry if that sounded like a rant, but it is the truth that I have come to know. I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father sent his Son to give us the "chance" to come back. I am grateful for Jesus Christ, everything he has taught us, and all the help and guidance he has given that we don't have to find ourselves. We just have to follow. Trust in Him, and I promise all will be ok! :)

Love,

Elder Naylor 

Running Out of Things to Write...

I have been at this for so long, I am not really sure what is interesting to people back home! I hope I can share something interesting!  :)

So, this week we were able to have Irina with us at church! We have been visiting with her and her husband, but she came to church and she said she really liked it! So that should be great for the future! We also found a lot of new investigators this week! We seem to be finding and sharing the first lesson with a ton of people, but we are having a hard time getting them past the second visit. I am hopeful that some of these people will catch on. 

I think I have found my purpose of my mission: I am the Farmer... I plant all the seeds! I don't know if I mentioned this. For all of those who remember my days in Fogo, they were not the easiest of my mission. But I found out that after I left in 3 weeks they had 3 something baptisms. I have a feeling the same thing will happen here. I am not really baptizing a ton, but I have given out a ton of Book of Mormons. We will see what happens ;)

Also this week, we were thinking of how we could find people in one of our areas, and we thought of Vanesa. So we went to her house and asked her if she knew of anyone we could teach and she said that she didn't (normal answer! :)). So we said hey, let's walk around and talk to people. Usually, you need to drag the member around, but I gave her a pass-along card and she runs up to the first person she sees and says, "Hey you should join our church! It is super cool and you will like it!" Then gave them the card! :) It made me laugh!! It was not the perfect way to do it, but she showed great courage. Most members would never do that! As we walked around she got a lot better! 

Well, I think that's all for this week! I hope all is well at home! 

Elder Naylor 

a traditional food of cape verde (cuscus) kinda like corn bread

Cuscus

Marlinda!

Marlinda's baptism

This week was a good one. Marlinda was baptized and she was so happy! She passed the interview without any problems! Then, when we went to the church for the baptism. We showed her to the bathroom so she could change, and we went to another part of the church to get ready. When we came back, she was talking to another elder in the hall, but crying. My first thought was CRAP, but then we talked to her and they were only tears of joy! When she stood up to bear her testimony, she got about half way through and became so choked up she couldn't finish! She wanted it so bad, and to finally achieve it made her so happy! She also was able to have her mom and step father present. It was a good day! :)

The rest of the week was kind of slower. We have a really high turnover right now. We are finding a lot of people, and we start to teach them, but then they stop progressing... People have a really hard time seeing with spiritual eyes, and acting with faith. We did have a really good lesson though, with a woman named Ilene and her husband Edmilson. We had sat down after our last appointment of the day feeling like we were through, and she went walking by with a gas can. We offered to help, and walked back to her house. She then let us in and we talked a little bit. Then her husband came in from work. Normally, we go right into the first lesson, and invite them to baptism, but this time we started talking about faith in Christ and why he is important. I felt it was a great lesson! They were not able to make it to church this week, but I still thought it was great.

We want to really help the ward here be more involved in missionary work. This is one of the biggest problems we find here in Cape Verde. We have made a plan to have every leader of the church focus on and bring to church one person every week. We will see how that goes.

Love,

Elder Naylor 

I Can Count It On My Hands!

10! So, it was great to talk to the family on our Mother's Day call! A lot has changed. Mainly in Rachel! She is tall and not a little girl anymore (kind of scary).

This week actually went very well! All of our numbers took a huge leap! We found 14 new investigators!! :) Now we just need to get them progressing!! We also have a baptism for next week. Her name is Marlinda. She's been coming to church since I came to this area, but she couldn't be baptized because her mom did not give permission. But this last week she came up to us and said "I will be baptized!" So we went by and got the permission. We really just have to review everything with her because she already knows everything, so its really easy!! :)

We also were able to set five dates with new people and they seem like they could easily progress! We will see how this week goes! 

Love,

Elder Naylor

The sign says "dont put trash here" They dont seem to be following this!

my life...

 just working out a little ;)

picture from my area

who is good at cooking now?! :)

Hey Everyone!

So, this week was a good one! I finally got my son (greenie--new missionary) on Thursday! He is super cool and has a great desire to teach everyone. Sometimes I need to pull back on the reins! ;) But things are going great in our area, as well. We have been able to get a lot of our investigators doing well, too! 

There was something about this week that things just seemed to take off! First off, we are teaching this guy named Manu and he called us on the road and said he wants to change his life. Most of the time they are drunk or lying, but for him, he actually has been doing well! He is working to be baptized the 16 of May! 

We have a member here that is kind of funny. His brother is a pastor in another religion, so every time he talks and teaches with us, he is really intense and quotes tons of Bible verses. He is really good at lighting a fire in them! :) It's kind of nice to have those talents on our side for once! :)

Hey, I ran out of time because we have to go get a water truck (we have been out of water for the whole week--one barrel is not enough...) So I will see you on Sunday! :) (Mother's Day skype call--YEA!!!!!!)

Love,

Elder Naylor 

Transfer 15 is DONE!

So, I would be going into my last transfer if there was not that little mix up somewhere... oh well. 12 more weeks then I am America bound! 

This week was a good one. We were able to finally set a marriage date with Maria and Tinho, and with Zezinio and Monica! They will be getting married in the middle of June! We also have 4 investigators that are doing well. We would have had Pedro's baptism this week, but my new companion will not get here until Thursday (oh by the way, I am training again! :)) I don't know much about my new comp, other than he is from Cape Verde! 

Nothing super special happened this week, but we were able to get those people progressing. 

Sorry, I don't have a ton of time and got to go, but I love you all and hope everything goes well for you.

Love,

Elder Naylor

The message of the gospel is HOPE.

So, this last week has been great! We finally got working on the marriage papers for Maria and Tinho and they should be married here in a few weeks! 

We also were able to find a few new investigators this week! One of them is named Talo and he had a lot of good questions when we sat down with him. He should progress very well. We also had 7 people at church! Daniel is still trying to resolve the problem he has in France.  We have been talking to Pedro and he has accepted everything we said very well, and has been to church, too.  He has a baptism date for the 16th, so that is going great! 

I had a really good moment this week. We came out of a lesson with Calu, and we were passing by this place where people play a lot of music. As we walked by, there were a lot of people looking in the window. We looked in, and there was this super old guy dancing and singing, while the other people played the guitar, drums, and sax. Everyone in that moment was laughing and smiling! It was nice, not only because those musicians made that old man's day, but that everyone that was watching got to feel it as well!! I know that a lot of those people are going through hard times, but for that moment they could smile and laugh.

The gospel is a message of hope. We can have hope that we can be happy in this life, and return to live with God after this life. We all can have that hope! This life is not easy, but honestly--it was not meant to be. But that also does not mean that we can't find the times to enjoy life. 

We are working hard to help people here feel this hope as well in their lives! :)

I love all of you, and I can't wait to come home, but I have to keep my nose down and just go! 

Love,

Elder Naylor :)