Cape Verde. I love it. This past week we had a very exciting Preparation Day! Our Zone and a group of members of the church gathered together and went on a trip, ... to the Volcano!The Island I am currently serving on is a volcanic island, and it has a volcano on the eastern side of the island. We got together some vans and all traveled to the volcano.
It was a lot of fun! At first when I looked at the volcano I wondered how I was ever going to climb it. It is huge. We started out walking in this little town at the base of the volcano, and started our way up. The first 15~30 minutes wasn't too bad, but then we started to get to the steeper part of the volcano. It was difficult. Slowly, my legs started to get more tired with every step I took. We started having to climb rocks, and hang on with our hands so that we didn't fall back down. It was rough. Our water ran out about half way up the volcano. We had two groups, and I was in the second one. About half way up, we began to see the top of the volcano. I could see my friends almost at the top, and it was an inspiration to continue. It got harder and harder as we continued to climb the volcano.
After an hour or so of climbing this volcano, I was SO tired. Every minute or so, I had to stop and take a break. My heart was beating so fast because we were working so hard. I was hoping that I had the strength in me to make it all the way to the top. We struggled, and continued to climb and climb, and finally made it to the top. What a relief.
One of my friends had some water left over and shared it. The inside of the volcano smelled very strong like sulfur. A few people climbed down inside of the volcano to write their names with rocks. When you are on top of this volcano, it feels like you are on top of the world. We could see the ocean around us, the towns down below under the clouds. It was great. We stayed at the top of the Volcano for about 45 minutes to an hour.
THEN, the fun part came, going back down.
The last top part before you reach the top is all rock, and so you have you use your hands and climb the rocks. So, going back down was fun as well. We walked and climbed down the rocks, until we came to a part that was gravel. Walking up the volcano~we took a way that was a bit solid and a little easier, but going down we found a place that was basically all sand. To get back down to the bottom, we RAN down the volcano. Yeah. We ran and skipped down the side of the volcano, each step or leap, landing in the volcano rock like sand and then once in a while just jumping and falling. It was SO much fun. By about half way down my pants pockets, shoes, and everything were filled with the rocks. ha ha. It was so much fun to go down. It is one of the most fun things I have ever done.
When we made it down to the bottom, we were tired and exhausted. It was a good day, and we went back to our place, cleaned up, and started working again.
What an adventure. With the adventure I also learned a lesson. When things get rough, continue to endure it all. The result in the end is bright and true. Life is just like my volcano experience. Sometimes we work hard, we feel the pain, we are tired of everything, and we just want to give up, but the end result is always worth the wait and the suffering. The same is true with life and living the gospel principles. Sometimes we may have difficult times in our lives to endure, but, endure it well. The result and reward after this life is real and I reassure you is worth your work now.
I know that Heavenly Father loves us. I know that he loves us. Jesus Christ is our Savior, and suffered for our sins so that we are able to returned and live in the Presence of our Heavenly Father forever. We have guidelines to live by in this life, gospel principles, but again, I know that by living this principles, we are rewarded in more ways and in marvelous ways that we can not even comprehend.
Thank you for your prayers and thoughts as I continue to serve the lovely people of Cape Verde.
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