intervention

                                                                            

                                       



Sometimes, we can feel like the soldier described by Win Butler in the Arcade Fire song, 'Intervention', who groans and says, ' we'll go at it alone', but when you're working on the Lord's side, you NEVER have to go at it alone.

With that said, this week had a direct theme of divine 'intervention' in our work (HAH, that was good, wasn't it?), and it was truly incredible to see.

In the most blatant miracle of the week, we were able to find a solution for our one investigator, Louisa, who was finding it difficult to find a way to completely live the Law of Chastity, as she has been living with a man (who she doesn't want to live with), and has a medical condition that doesn't allow her to work to provide for herself. However, this week, they were able to resolve and make a court date (yes, I was shocked too, I didn't think Maio had a court...) for a legal issue they'd previously had, in which they believe the result will be she will be allowed to keep the house to live with her kids, and that he will likely have to move out. When we heard this, Elder Stone and I basically had our jaws drop because of how incredible a solution it was, and how directly involved our Heavenly Father was in helping her out. On top of this, Louisa has been working to overcome a smoking problem, having already dropped drinking, and because of her faith, has been very successful in doing so. While she still isn't perfect, she has dropped the amount she has smoked significantly, and went three full days without smoking this week, which was amazing. We having been working with her to be baptized on the 25th of April, with her two daughters, but it's looking like she's going to Praia for a few days this week to sort out her medical clearance, and may not come back in time. However, this past week has shown incredible progress on her part, and we were directly able to see how Heavenly Father intervened in her life.

Another example of intervention this week was found in our investigator Nelson, who we had feared we may had lost after an issue arose the week past, but this week, it all turned around. We taught him twice this week, with our first lesson being a very 'do-or-die' situation, but because of his incredible faith, he's getting back in line. He found that his issues were sorting out, which he even told us was a blessing from Heavenly Father, and the week culminated in him showing up to church of his own accord, after trying to get him to come for the better part of these past 11 weeks here in Maio. When he walked through the door to church on Sunday, it was pretty easy to see how much of a straight up miracle it was for him to have come. While he was our only investigator to come to church this week, Elder Stone and I were OFF THE WALL to have him show up. It was pretty darn freakin' awesome.

In one more short example of intervention, we had  to re-visit the basics with Chano and Milcialita this week, which meant reading and praying every single day. We had a very direct lesson with them where we challenged them to do these simple things, and when we returned last night, we had decided to follow up with them about these commitments. The SECOND that I asked them how their commitments were going, they both SHOUTED that they had both read AND prayed every day, having gone from 1 Nephi 11 to chapter 18 in about 2 or 3 days, which is pretty darn awesome. They were ecstatic to tell us how much they'd loved it, and just that they'd actually done it. It was so so awesome, and we were all laughing pretty good because of the outburst they made.

Okay, now that I've bored you enough, here's just some funny happenings from this week:

This week marked the start of an annual Maio tradition, where a party is held on the 3rd of May, and to prepare for it, people (of any age) go around at night, EVERY night, playing drums, horns, and singing, in mobs, to houses to get money to pay for food and such at the party. Apparently it is a huge tradition here, and it was very very funny to watch. Basically, it's mobs going around, in the dark, being very very loud, and demanding money at doors. Cape Verdeans love to party, man!

In another funny moment, we were wandering around on Sunday, heading to a lesson, when one of our investigators stopped us in his car and told us that the other Elder's house, who he lives next to, was flooding water out onto the street from the second floor. We BOOKED it over there and went in to find like 2 inches of water EVERYWHERE in the house, with a tap spitting out water like crazy in the kitchen. After calling the other Elders over, we then made a tactical plan of attack, and spent the next 2 to 3 hours sweeping, mopping, and toweling up water on the floor, before having dried up the whole mess. Needless to say, we were left exhausted, and we had a fun slumber party at our housewith them after. Luckily, not much was damaged, and we all had good fun cleaning it up :)
 The "baptism" of the elders house!

Now, I wanted to save the funniest story for last. During a lesson with Louisa, her son, Fabricio, came in, and asked her mom for the equivalent of about 50 cents to go and buy cookies. She gave him the money, and was on his way, and we thought nothing of it. 15 minutes later, one of Louisa's daughters dragged him into the room with an empty pop bottle, and said something I didn't understand in Creole, but it became very apparent that Fabricio had not bought cookies, but bought GROG, which is essentially moonshine. So, a 5 year old kid went out, and for 50 cents, got SLAMMED, and MAN it was funny. It started out with him just standing and giggling, but very quickly he started to laugh more, and more, and more. It got to the point where he would sit on the bed with his mom, look at us, and just lay back and howl laughing. Then, he would get up, try to leave, and stumble and hit the floor. He tried again, and again to get up, but he keep stumbling over and hitting the floor. MAN it was funny!! I was dying laughing. It was so funny, I've decided to enclose a picture of us with our favorite drunk 5 year old, who is pictured sitting in between us.

So, this week has been quite the eventful week, but I wouldn't have had it any other way!

Love y'all!

Elder Massey