Contacting at Carnival

Greetings from Bonaire!

Carnival is one of the biggest cultural events here on the Island. It happens 40 days before Easter. It is in connection with the Catholic period of Lent when everyone celebrates before they start the time of fasting.

There are parades, brightly colored costumes, loud music, dancing in the streets, eating and drinking, and it goes on for a few weekends. This year in February it is a 4-5 day celebration stretched over 2 weeks.

      
Usually the parades in Kralendijk are on Sunday, but there is a children's parade on Saturday in Rincon (a small village about 20 minutes away from the main city). The missionaries decided it would be a good idea to go where lots of people were gathered so they could find contacts, so we went to Rincon on a Saturday morning. They placed a table on the sidewalk with Books of Mormon, pamphlets on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, The Restoration, and the Plan of Salvation in the Dutch and Spanish and Papiamentu languages, and waited. They were prepared to find contacts. 

We set up on the main street where the floats and singing children and loud noise passed by. Lots of families and children came by and though the music was deafening I was surprised at the number of people who stopped to listen to the missionaries and take a pamphlet or Book of Mormon.



The Sisters are now teaching one of the contacts they made in Rincon that day. He happened to be a man that Elder VV knows from playing Basketball on Wednesday nights. Elder VV and the youth of the Branch play basketball at the Kompleho Deportivo (a big indoor community gym) on Kaya Amsterdam.   

One night, Brian, the investigator, came up to Elder VV and asked him what the name of his church was. He said that he had met the Sisters in Rincon and he gave them his name and phone number, but they had not called him! He was reading the Papiamentu Book of Mormon the Sisters had given him, and was in 2nd Nephi. He hadn't heard from them and he had some questions about what he had been reading!

Elder VV quickly let the sisters know and they made an afsprack (appointment). 

At first I wondered about the idea of going to Carnival to find the pure in heart, people who are ready to hear the gospel. It seemed an unlikely place.

We must never under estimate the power of the Atonement and the Holy Spirit. The gospel can ring true wherever there is an open and willing heart. When someone is searching for the truth they will recognize it. Even at Carnival in Rincon.