My Call to Cape Verde

I have been called to the Cape Verde Praia Mission, Portuguese speaking.  But I didn’t get a mission call like a normal person.  I got a phone call from my stake president on Friday April 26^th at 7:30pm and he told me that he had received an email saying I need to submit a visa application if I wanted to leave on May 14^th.  This email was the first thing either of us had heard about it so it was a big surprise to be going abroad since I was told that most missionaries that come home from abroad return to a stateside mission.  I have nothing against the states, but apparently the Lord has a work for me to do abroad using Portuguese.  I still don’t know what I need to pack, how long I’ll be gone, or anything like that, but my stake president is going to call the mission department today and hopefully get some of those necessary details for me.

Cape Verde is a 20 island nation with only nine inhabitable islands and six islands with church members on them.  There are about a half million people that live in Cape Verde and 8000 church members which means that one in every 63 people are members of the church.  They had their first stake organized last year and they have only had missionaries in Cape Verde since 1988 so the church is still very young there.  Their diet consists almost entirely of fruits, vegetables, and meat so I should be eating pretty well.  They don’t take boats between the islands much, so maybe I’ll get to fly between islands each transfer.  That’d be pretty fun.  It is a very laid back nation and often you could wait hours to make a deposit at the bank because people there prefer relationships to speed or ease.  There are a lot of common-law marriages so the Law of Chastity is going to be a big one on the islands.  They are a race of mixed black and white people so it is very common to black man or woman with blond hair and blue eyes or a white person with black hair.  The economy is based almost entirely on tourism so it should be a very clean place.  Because the islands were uninhabited and had no animals or plants before the Portuguese planted and built there, there are essentially no bugs and the only predator that I have to worry about is a scorpion with a sting like a wasp.

Given everything I have read about Cape Verde it sounds like the place I was always meant to serve and live in.  I feel like my time in Brazil was a training ground for missionary life so that I could do better in Cape Verde.  I think it is truly amazing how Heavenly Father can know us so well that He can plan such intricate journeys for us that always seem to work out just right.  I am so filled with light and joy right now that any words I try to use to describe it fall short of the fullness in my heart and so I will avoid such lavish words and stick to words used by our God.  It is good.

If you want to follow my new mission blog you will find it at: http://elderbushmanincapeverde.blogspot.com/