Thanksgiving!! That word for Americans is full of traditions. When we invited the missionaries to our house for Thanksgiving, we asked them if they would like fresh tuna steaks or turkey. You could tell that the traditional turkey was the first choice of the American missionaries. So we decided to have as much of a Thanksgiving feast as Cape Verde would allow!!
Preparation was the key. We ordered 7 kilos (about 14 pounds) of potatoes from our Branch President who has a small mercado nearby. We bought the most orange squash we could find, cooked it up and tested it by made tiny “pumpkin pie” tarts. It worked and they tasted like pumpkin pies! The 3 pies for the feast were made the day before Thanksgiving. I found a box of Stove Top dressing mix in the cupboard that looked pretty new, so we had dressing.
But the Turkey. Where to find a turkey? Not in any of the stores we usually went to. Elder Go tipped us off on the location of a frozen turkey at Bento’s near his apartment. It was a 25 minute walk (one way) to the store, but we were on the hunt for a turkey. They not only had 1 but 3 turkeys, each about 3 ½ kilos (6-7 pounds). They looked so puny, we decided to buy 2. I will not disclose the price as you will think we went crazy!! “It’s Thanksgiving” and “We have 14 missionaries coming”.
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| Here are our 2 turkeys defrosting in the frig. |
The day arrived. We set aside the whole morning to prepare. We had to eat at 1:00 as 4 of the sister missionaries had to catch the 4 PM ferry to Santo Antão. Dennis patiently peeled all 7 kg of potatoes. I cut up the papaya & canned pineapple for the fruit salad. Then, I made the dressing, augmenting the box stuffing mix with a loaf of raisin bread and all the sage spice I had in the cupboard. We used raisin bread because when Dennis was at the store, it looked like what I wanted and there was NOTHING on the bag that said it was raisin bread. I didn't realize it was raisin bread until I starting cubing it for dressing! It in fact tasted really good!
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| Here are the turkeys ready to carve! |
By 12:00 the turkey was done. The roll dough raising. The dressing in the oven cooking. And the missionaries began to arrive. Some went to the Church with Dennis to get chairs. The sisters helped me with food preparation. All offered to help, but the kitchen area is quite small and there just wasn’t room. To help fill the waiting time, the missionaries gathered around a tray of olives, pickles and such things as we found in the store. It evaporated quite quickly. And didn’t really dent their appetites!
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| Sis. Barros, helping Sister Broderick cut out rolls. I though I had made a big batch, but they didn't last long and there were no left overs! |
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| Busy Workers in the Kitchen. Sister Pintual would like to help but there is not room. Sis. Holland, in the orange blouse, is trying to whip up cream. See later in story! |
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| Missionaries patiently waiting for dinner to be served. |
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| More hungry missionaries. |
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| Hmmm. The missionaries looked pretty focused. And on Thanksgiving day, what other reason than food. They are enjoying the pre-dinner appetizer plate. |
It was within 10 minutes of 1:00 p.m. when the announcement came. Dinner is served!!
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| Finally! The line to fill up your plate. The elders were very polite and let the sisters go first. |
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| Enjoying Thanksgiving dinner |
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| A second table of missionaries! |
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| The third table of missionaries! 16 missionaries total! |
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| Ahhh. Some satisfied missionaries! All the elders are from the USA except for Elder de Barros, Cape Verde (far right) |
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| Happy sister missionaries. Sis. Holland (in orange) is the only missionary from the United States. The other sisters are from Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique and Portugal. Sis. Pintual (arms around Sis. Pinto) is on her way to her first area in Santo Antão with Sis. Holland as her trainer. |
After the feasting (and there were few left overs, mostly mashed potatoes), we gathered together and shared our feeling of gratitude, especially for those who were a great influence in each missionary’s life to serve a mission. We feasted again - this time with the Spirit.
We truly are grateful for everyone who has helped us over the years. Thanks to both of our parents who gave us great examples of missionary service as senior couples. Thanks to our children for examples of serving missions and their encouragement and support. Thanks to Jan and Jane for caring for our home. Thanks to all our family and friends for their love. We love letters!
We finished the event with pumpkin pie and whipped cream. They were actually some of the best pumpkin pies (3 of them) that I have made! Sis. Holland's cream just wouldn't whip up. She spent about 20 minutes with a hand mixer. Don't know why because the carton said it was cream for whipping. I finally got another carton and it whipped up just fine. Who knows?
The hour and the taxi came to take the sisters to the ferry. And all the missionaries dispersed to their most important work of preaching the gospel to the people of Cape Verde. The clean-up was mostly done by the missionaries and so it didn’t take us long until we, too, were back to our missionary work. By, 6:30 p.m. we opened the Center for Young Single Adults and life went on.
