Rock-Breaking Faith

In November 1993, when 10-year-old Ricardo José Medina Cardoso met missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the first time, he didn’t like them. “They came to my house when I was about to play with my friends,” he said, “so I thought their presence was pretty lousy.”

Ricardo’s mother, Teresa Ricarda Medina, on the other hand, enjoyed their message and decided she wanted to join the Church. Ricardo and Teresa were baptized and confirmed on the same day in March 1994. “It was like a feeling of peace and joy took hold of my heart. I could not explain what I felt,” he said, “and on our way back to the chapel I told my mom what I was feeling and then she explained that it was the Holy Ghost confirming we had made the right decision.”

After this experience, Ricardo loved the missionaries and the Church, making friends and learning to play the piano from a missionary couple. In 2001, he turned 18 and had what he called “the biggest surprise of my life” when he received the call to serve as the president of the Mindelo 4th Branch. Feeling incapable, Ricardo did not know what to do and considered not accepting the call.

“I was afraid because now I had to preside, interview, and care for the people that always cared for me,” he said. “My primary teacher, my youth and young men’s teachers, and all of the people older than me.” Despite his fears, Ricardo accepted the call and found that his fellow Saints gave him their full support. “I felt the love of Heavenly Father and all the branch members. Quickly, I learned to do the administrative work since I did not have a secretary. Everything went well.” Ricardo felt that this calling prepared him for his mission in 2002, where he again served as a branch president.

Like Ricardo, Rosa Helena Monteiro Veiga, from the island of Fogo, exercised faith in the face of a difficult task. Rosa set the goal of saving enough money to send herself and her husband, Arlindo, to a temple where they could receive their endowment and be sealed as an eternal couple. Beginning in 1998, she woke up at 7:00 a.m. each morning to work as a stone breaker. With mallet in hand, each shattering blow upon the rocks brought her one step closer to making her temple covenants.

Rosa hammered away every morning and into the afternoon, until she had broken enough stones to make 2,500 escudos (US$26). She did this for 15 years. In 2013, she reached her goal, saving enough money to pay for her and Arlindo to make the long journey to the Recife Brazil Temple, where they were sealed for time and all eternity.