February 2009

The last few weeks have been hectic, busy, fun, frustrating and joyful!

The first week of the month we held a "Couples Conference". All of the couples (23) in the mission came to Trinidad for the week. Most of them came in on Monday the 2nd. They came from St. Maarten, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, Tobago, Guyana, and our own island of Trinidad.




The Olivers, people we built our last "Parade of Homes" home for are now in our mission, serving in St. Maartin. They stayed with us for the week. That was really close to a "home-coming"!








Tuesday we went over to the north shore; some played in the water and some "limed" on the benches at Maracas Beach.































We then did one of our favorite things--and Trinidad is famous for--we ate at Richard's Shark N Bake. YUM! Here is a peek at Sister Williamson, the Woods and Sister Handly at the Fixings Table--this is where the "heat" is added if you are not careful!



















Sister Green and Sister Hymas are showing off their plates of "shark n bake".










We traveled back to Port of Spain to tour some historic (early 1900) houses; former kings and queens lived here and some were used as colleges. Several are being re-furbished and some are being lived in now. We enjoyed the history and everyone took pictures!

Elder Collings and Elder Myers took it quite seriously!















Then off to Caroni Swamp, we all piled into a boat to cruise (for two short hours) the lazy waters, viewing cayman, iguana, and four-eyed fish (for real!)














AND SNAKES!!









AND THOUSANDS OF BIRDS!!
We watched for almost an hour as the birds flew in small bunches into this huge tree; they do this every night at dusk--the white Snow Egrets and Blue Heron into the middle and then the Scarlet Ibis stay on the outside - beautiful.






Our most favorite is the Scarlet Ibis--this is the bird that inspired us to write the "12 Days of Christmas" that we used at our Zone Conference in December.





We ended the day with a dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.










Wednesday and Thursday was spent in meetings singing, learning new things, fixing food, eating the food--lots of it! Since we are office staff, we did some presentations also.


















AND at one time, where did we find Elder Collins--right!
(See the Grandpa tie he's wearing--it's Fred all over!)






Wednesday evening, we stayed at the Mission Home and enjoyed a Pot Roast Supper prepared by the Trinidad Couples. We invited Hammond Mitchell from our Arima Branch to play the Pans, the traditional country instrument, for us......he is AWESOME! Whatever we would sing, he could play. He would also join with Sister Oliver on the piano; and it was absolutely great.




Friday was another play day, with couples going in several directions. We started the day with most of them taking the hike to the Maracas Falls (we've been there before, but it is beautiful and well worth the return trip). We hiked to both the upper and lower fall; and swam in the pools at the bottom of the lower falls and came down rock slides--truly a lot of fun!
































Others went shopping (in some of the locations they are serving, there isn't much opportunity for that, including Guyana - our next home!)

It was great to get to know the people we deal with daily via phone and e-mail. Elder Collins was the bus driver for the week -- our 15 passenger van-- that no one else ever really wants to drive and he quite enjoys it (a whole lot like driving his diesel truck back home).

-- for some more pictures go to our favorite blogs right here on this page, then to the West Indies Mission Blog, then to the Couples Conference.

Immediately following that week came the Zone Leaders Council; zone leaders from all over the mission traveled here for three days. The local 3 or 4 couples provide most of the meals for the elders, meaning we get to do our normal work, then prepare meals for 30 other people. Following that week, we had our Trinidad Zone Conference, followed immediately with Transfer Week. Our office was filled with Elders almost every day. Sister Collins sits right behind these guys--she took the picture! Some days the office seemed like a party!







With all of this activity, Sister Collins arranged for all of the airline tickets; and in the middle of all the above, the French Islands went on strike, shutting down everything - no gas, food etc. I don't believe the French are very smart - the whole world in a financial crises and they ask for an 18% pay raise! After about three weeks of strike, they began to riot, and of course Americans are always the target! We had to evacuate all of the Elders out of Guadeloupe and Martinique - more travel problems. We were working from 6 AM to 10 or 12 PM nearly daily.

HOWEVER, through it all, we have had some great spiritual experiences. In an earlier post, we talked about teaching the Gibson Family.

We have also been involved with Elder Risenmay and Elder Damm in teaching a 12 year boy, Tevin. He was baptized three weeks ago. While teaching him, his grandmother, Gloria (67 years old), his guardian, joined in on the discussions.
Elder Collins had the privilege of baptizing her on February 15th (last Sunday) in a river near Arima. She has such a strong testimony. The Book of Mormon had been given to her almost nine years ago; she has kept it that long--decided that the time was right to read it again and welcomed our visits.


That same day, Elder Collins also baptized Sister Bridgeman (59) in that same river. Her daughter, Teresa Felix was baptized three weeks prior. Sister Bridgeman tells about having a dream with Teresa in it --taking her quickly into a church; she could hardly keep up with her. She knows the gospel is true and can hardly hear enough and/or read enough about the church.
Look how excited Teresa was that day!

These two women shared their conversion stories with each other in the back seat of our car while Elder Collins was in Brother Garcia's home changing into his baptismal clothing. That was really a special experience. They were soooo excited and were both talking at the same time. Love these Ladies!



Here's a Hurrah for Israel with our Branch President Ali and his counselor, Brother Farrier. Sister Hinds and Sister Bridgeman were confirmed members of the church, today as we posted this event-- Sunday, February 22, 2009.

A real friendship between these two women started this day. They have been at each others' homes learning the New Member Lessons-- And we all have been truly blessed!