Trip to Maio

Maio

This weekend we traveled to Maio to learn about the island and consider possible member welfare and humanitarian projects.  It's a beautiful little island, and unlike our island, Santiago, there are lots of sandy beaches.  We started the day walking on the beach, trying to be careful to stay near the surf since turtles nest on this island and this is the time of year they come.  We saw track marks of turtles in the sand.  It got hot fast, so just like on our island it was important to get up early and take a walk before the sun was up too long.  Life is quiet here.

While it's only a fifteen minute flight from Santiago to Maio, planes don't come everyday, so we are here for four days.  Our first day we took an island tour to get an idea of how people are living.  We saw small villages, and we saw a few drip irrigation projects and some beautiful beaches.  The volcanic soil is rich here.

In the evening, on the recommendation of the two young elders who are working here, we went to a little place near the beach that sold food, run by a lovely Brazilian hostess.  We had grilled chicken Brazilian style as we watched the sunset and also watched the ferry come in from Santiago.  The ferry takes four hours--compared to a fifteen minute flight we felt pretty grateful.  The ferry also does not run but a couple of times a week.

We met with the local Branch President and visited with the Elders, who were perhaps glad to have a little company and visit in English.  We attended church with the branch, where perhaps ten to fifteen people come regularly.  We felt so blessed to be there among the members, who were kind to us even though our Portuguese is weak, allowing us to read some of the lesson material (just a little).  The Elders translated a few comments we were asked to make.  We understand much of what is said, but we have trouble expressing ourselves.  Elder Biven is doing pretty well.  I am struggling with verb conjugations.  We were very impressed with the home teaching assignment sheet we saw posted in the hallway (photo).

A common belief in Cape Verde is it doesn't really matter what you believe.  As people are taught about God's love for them they begin to feel that actively serving the Lord, and even being a member of an organized church, is worthwhile.  But it's still not easy to do what you believe, to attend church on Sunday on an equatorial island when there are many other things to do.  As we met these incredible people we witnessed their faith, which has been built over time, one prayer, one Sunday at a time, reading scriptures and reaching out to God for strength for themselves and for their families.  What a treasured experience it has been to worship with them today.