A Wedding and A New Homeless Shelter

A Family is United

This week we visited a young family that was married on Friday. As is the custom, they were married by the city clerk and later had a special meeting and reception at the chapel.

Carlos and Sandíbel

As is often the case, this couple already had two children and a third on the way.  The day after the wedding, Sandíbel was baptized.  Carlos was already a member.  They are preparing for the day that they can go to the temple and be sealed for all time and eternity.

A Homeless Shelter for Boys

For one of our humanitarian aid projects we provided appliances and kitchen items for a homeless shelter for street boys.  We partnered with the City of Mindelo, which remodeled the building, and Caritas (Catholic Charities) which runs the shelter.

We went shopping with two city employees and they selected a bunch of items for the kitchen, all in the color green.  LDS Charities purchased the items.  The stove in the right hand corner was one of the appliances purchased.

A refrigerator and washing machine were also furnished.

These are the boys that will be living in the shelter.  Typically they have been abandoned by their parents and left to fend for themselves on the street.

LDS Charities will also be purchasing more pots and pans as well as games and sporting equipment.  The man on the left in the striped shirt is one of the counselors that will stay at the shelter.

The president of the Câmara Municipal (mayor of city hall) in the black suit and the Catholic priest in the white shirt were part of the ribbon cutting ceremony.

After a tour of the facility, a short ceremony was held to celebrate the re-opening of the shelter.

A Day of Enjoyment

Two eye surgeons from the United States had Saturday off and together we spent the day enjoying a trip to the island of Santo Antão.  Our next blog will describe the tremendous work that they are doing.

On our way we met up with the stake presidency of Mindelo who were traveling to the Ribeiro Grande Branch for some stake business.  President James Tavares, 1st counselor, President César Fortes, President, and President Zacarias Fortes, 2nd Counselor.

 The pictures below are a few of the sites that we saw.

An ancient sugar cane press.

Some of the more primitive houses and sheds.

The breath taking cliffs.

A small village in the valley.

The "dragon" tree.  A rare tree that only grows in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands.

The Couple of the Week

Another couple that we met at the humanitarian aid conference.

Elder and Sister Cooper are serving as humanitarian aid missionaries in Bosnia and Croatia.  They have served several missions and will return home this coming July.