Perplexed but not in Despair

Monday, after the storm, we mopped up the church and were pleasantly surprised that there really wasn't any lasting damage.
We got the flyers for movie night and drove around the island delivering them. We would have handed a lot of them out on Sunday but church got canceled because of the storm so we needed to get the word out. We got several delivered in the next few days. We hit almost every member's home so we felt good about our effort.

Leana called us and told us she had received her email notifying her of her mission call but she couldn't remember her account password to open it. So, we went over to her home and got all that figured out and watched her as she read the call. It was really amazing and she is going to go to Salt Lake City, Utah! I'm not ashamed to tell you we cried! What an adventure for her! SNOW!!! and...we'll get to look her up and take her to lunch or something when we get home. We recommended to her to get all her winter stuff there, mainly cause you can't find winter coats here! She reports to the Provo MTC January 28th. Now, we'll get Christian's passport and send his application off this coming week.

We spent most of our week indoors doing housing stuff and newsletter stuff. It's my first issue of the mission newsletter so I am still learning how to download and place pictures etc. on this new program. We have to do negotiations with landlords that want a raise in rent and when we are terminating apartments and they want us to repair and fix things that aren't really our responsibility. Usually we are happy to forgo a return of our deposit and everyone is happy.

Thursday mission night was a bust...again. but while we were waiting for anyone to show up we thought perhaps we should change it up and do a line dancing activity instead. I guess people need to have basic needs met before they are interested in feeding their souls. Jesus fed the people and then He taught them. We can't feed the people food but we can try to engage them in something fun and then perhaps after we are friends they will desire to hear and listen to a gospel message. We feel like we just need to make opportunities and wait and see what happens.

Friday Movie Night came....and the power went out over the entire island! COME ON!!! Can we not catch a break here?! We were there early to set up and there was no power. Luckily, Dave had downloaded the movie and we could just watch it on his lap top. We had popped several bags of popcorn in preparation. When we got there we saw Sister Cupid sitting on the steps waiting. She had errands in town and decided to stick around and stay for the movie. Since there was no current (which is what they call power) so no AC, we set up chairs outside and watched the movie there. We each got 3 bags of popcorn and enjoyed the movie, the stars and the fire flies. Funny thing though, the current came on 10 minutes before the movie was over! I was glad Sister Cupid was there because we would have just gone back home and maybe had licked some wounds for having another activity go bust. We are "convinced" that if the power hadn't gone off we would have had more people join us. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed, we are perplexed by not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed."

Saturday was spent preparing for the Stake Relief Society's visit on Sunday. They were coming to do some training and we were going to feed them lunch and then go visiting after the training. I had done some calling to arrange to visit some sisters and basically, had no one tell me yes, it was always, I'll let you know on Sunday...I was excited to have the Stake here because the sisters here have been quite resistant, even offended with my direction or leadership, feeling like too often senior couple missionaries come in and take over. We have tried very hard to not do that and I have felt sad as I have learned that they feel this way. I shared that with Sister Kotiah, Stake RS Pres, and suggested I not stay for the training, she agree with me because she wanted to empower the branch RS presidency. I think that turned out very well. They came to the condo for lunch and then we went to see Irma and Alison Santana. We had wonderful visits with them and Sister Dookran was able to experience what ministering looks and feels like. The Lord's program is powerful and effective when actually done and more so, when done with love.

 Dave made his extremely yummy bread sticks for lunch

 Mopping up the water from tropical storm "Karen"

 The Lord giving us a "high five" for our efforts! 

at least, that's the meaning we put on this cool statue.

 Leana reading her mission call!

 Popcorn and a movie....

 outdoor movie on the "little" screen

  Stake Relief Society Presidency. starting left: Sister Monica, Sister Dookran, Sister Kotiah, 

Sister Samad and me

Rain, rain and more rain

Monday morning we got up bright and early to get Leana to immigration to finish up the paper work for her visa extension. Her visa runs out at the end of Sept. and she hasn't got her call yet so Church headquarters can't issue a call to leave from here. She would need to go back to Guyana where she was born. We brought all the documents the agent said we needed but then she said we would need to get another medical exam in order for her to get the extension and to come back Weds. That was fine because she had just had an exam for her mission and we could take the forms to the doctor to be filled out and signed and all would be well. We dropped the forms off to the dr. that afternoon and then picked them back up on Tues. We got up bright and early Weds. morning and were the first people in line, talked with the agent, paid the fee, got the stamp extension for 6 more weeks and we were out the door within an hour. Now we hope the call gets here and she can leave within that time. It will work out!
We did a few visits with Irma and Rocky and Angie this week. All of them are having some pretty big trials right now. We told them that is to be expected with them just getting baptized. Satan doesn't like people to change and do good things so he brings out the big guns to get them discouraged and make them want to give up on the changes they are trying to make in their lives by making and keeping covenants to follow our Savior. They are standing firm and will get through it all much stronger than they were before. We really love these folks and wants so much for them to succeed in their desires to do good and be good.

Our Thursday "mission" night was a bust again. We feel like we were inspired to do this mostly to give the members a place to invite others to hear the message of the restored Church but it isn't taking off like we had hoped. So, we will try something else. We are going to do Friday "Movie Nights" with free popcorn! Hopefully, this will be something the members will come to and hopefully bring other friends and family. We are also looking at starting a Self Reliance group with one of the members leading out. We will be there to support but it needs to be run by a local member so it still functions after we leave. We'll let that be our Thursday gathering. We saw a lot of great things happen in Linden because of the Self Reliance program there.

We made up a flyer for the Movie night and started to pass them out Saturday around the island to the members we don't see often. We only got 7 delivered because we had a heavy rain storm in the morning and then another one in the afternoon. We were planning on giving a lot of them out on Sunday to the members that come to church but this morning we were awakened by the loud pounding of rain on the roof. We were in the middle of Tropical storm Karen and man was it wicked. Forecast of 8 inches of rain in 24 hrs. Pres. George canceled church because of how bad it was. We drove to the church to assess the damage because this building has had flooding before. It does have some flooding but it's not too bad. It's supposed to still be raining tomorrow so we'll wait until it stops to go mop it up. It's actually on the ground floor and on the second floor, which surprised we but there are many gaps in the walls for the water to get through when the wind is blowing.
We'll get the rest of the flyers for Movie Night passed out this next week too after the rain stops for awhile.

 Leana and I sitting at immigration....3rd time's the charm 

 Flooding at it's peak

 mountainside sloughing off

 Creating waterfalls and rocks on the road

 This is usually a grassy area

 This is the boardwalk in downtown Scarborough which is 1.5 feet up higher than the road.
Here you can see the high water mark 2.5 feet beyond that.
Total of 4 feet of water down main street next to the ferry terminal 

 Water seeping out of the main floor wall in the chapel

 water spreading through the upstairs rooms

 Dave felt it necessary to wear his snorkel mask........

this was a staged photo for just for fun.
(he didn't drive this way)

 The ocean has turned into chocolate with all the island mud draining into it. 

 all the debris on the beach from the flooding

 We are the blue dot you can see with the storm moving west soon to be into the red, notice the time.

 The effect of the storm on the whole mission. 

The ABC islands on the far left from the blue dot and
Guyana and Suriname lower right. 

I wanted to see what the storm did to the mangrove forest. 

The water level is much higher of course but it gave us a feeling of "fall" which you don't get here. 

Miracle on Marli Street

This week we spent some time with the future missionaries getting their second dose of Hepatitis vaccine. It's usually a fairly long wait. We had the AC serviced in our condo. We went to Trinidad to get all the new missionary smart phones on a new data plan. We flew in on Wednesday and located the Digicel corporate offices. We didn't know if there was parking real close so we found a place just up the street from Digicel on Marli Street. It took a few hours to get things moving toward the new data plan and we left knowing we would have to return tomorrow. We needed to get a signed letter from a past Senior Missionary that set up the phones to take him off as the authorized account manager and allow Dave to have control over the account since he is taking over the handling of the phones since the Williams are going home in a few weeks.

We walked back to where we parked the car and were puzzled when we couldn't see it. We looked around and decided that we were at the right place but the car was no where in sight. It was gone! There was a police car parked in the place where our car had been. I rapped on the window to get the attention of the officer sitting in the driving seat. He rolled down his window. " We parked our car here and now it's gone!" I said. "Oh, well, you can't park here, it's too close to the corner" "Really, we don't see anything that says we can't park here, would you know what happened to our car?" It probably got wrecked." WRECKED!" I said. thinking as an American that it meant, crushed, mashed up, ruined. "you'll need to go to the wrecking yard and pay $500TT to pick it up." Without a pause I asked "Would you please be able to take us there?" He gives me a questioning look and then says " Sure, no problem" So we get in the car and wait for his partner who was in the store across from the car buying lunch. The officer then drives us to the wrecking yard which is several miles away using his lights and sirens to get passed all the other cars on the road. It probably took about 20 minutes. We thanked them and immediately saw our car and the tow truck. It had probably just unhooked our car minutes before. Another officer came and asked us which car was ours and we told her. She said she would need registration and a driver's license and $500TT which is $75US. I went and sat in the car while Dave went to the booth to pay. Before he paid, Dave asked "Why is it ok for a policeman to park where our car was but not ok for us to?" They didn't answer and just asked for the money. So, he asked again and they said " Do you want us to call him?" "Yes" Dave said. So they did and the policeman said he was there on official business. Which caused us to smile cause we knew they were parked there to get their lunch and maybe even had our car towed away so they would have a parking place...

I titled this post "Miracle on Marli Street because: Even though our car had essentially been stolen, neither Dave or I were freaked out. We were calm and peaceful. The police car was still there for us to ask and find out what happened and then for them to help us get where we needed to go. If it had been a few minutes later, we would have been upset, worried and so confused to know what to do. It's like the Lord said "yeah, this thing is going to happen but I'll make it as easy on you as I can." and He did!  We were still out $75 bucks but we learned we need to be pretty careful where we park a car in Trinidad.

Between Digicel days in Trinidad we drove up to St Bennedicts church. You can see it high up on the mountain from the main highway by the coast and we wondered what it was. It would be a perfect place to put a temple except for the crazy drive and roads to get up to it.

Friday, we sat at immigration with Leana because there is an issue with her passport and she can't receive her call, which is sitting at Church Headquarters, until she gets a renewed Trinidad stamp on her passport. We got the process rolling and will return on Monday with all the documents we need and hopefully it will work out just great! The official made it feel like it would be ok.

 Taking a quick trip to Trinidad. We may be doing this more often because our wonderful Senior couple the Williams are going home at the end of October and there isn't anyone to replace them. We can fly over in 20 minutes and spend a couple days to help with the young Elders there and whatever else that needs attention. We can't ever replace the Williams because they were involved in so many things but we can be there for all the transfers, airport runs etc.

 Waiting at the clinic to get immunized for their missions...that sounds funny, immunized for their missions...I guess it should be get immunizations so they can serve missions. 

 The reason for the AC serviced. We had quite a bit of water running down the walls

 The view from St Bennedict's church

 The mountain where St Bennedict's sits. Very dense foliage.

 The steeple of the monastery of St Benns

 I think it looks very cool nestled in the mountain. Can't you just imagine a temple here?

 Here you see the church and the monastery, founded in 1912

 Inside the church

 Full moon on Friday the 13th. 

 We see these little guys in our condo all the time. They are pretty easy to catch and let outside.

 I came across this huge monstrosity just outside our condo door. It's at least 6 inches long and about a penny size in diameter. They are fascinating to watch.

 Woodpecker doing it's thing on a coconut tree

 Lily pond on the golf course

And of course.......beautiful, interesting flowers

Ducks...the one on the left is "ducking " 

Time in Trinidad

When I wrote last week we were waiting for Sister Dookran to call so we could take her home from the hospital. She wasn't released until around 6 pm and she lives an hour away on pretty treacherous roads. We didn't want to make that drive at night so we brought her to our place and she slept in the extra bedroom. She is a darling woman. She struggles with her health and she has very little by way of earthly possessions and means. It was very lovely to get to spend some extra time with her. She was up early and after breakfast we drove her home. She is one I would love to help get back to the temple one more time before her health fails her completely.

Zone Conference was Wednesday so we left early Tuesday morning. We had an apartment we were closing down and needed to meet with the landlady and get it cleaned out. We met with the landlady to talk about the condition of the apartment and finalized the cleaning deposit return. It was decided that she keep all the deposit to take care of getting the apartment ready to lease again. She was happy and so were we. The Elders were a huge help with getting stuff loaded and delivered to the Bishop of the ward there to disperse as needed to other families.

After  7 months of being the Housing Coordinator and with Dave's computer savyiness, I'm feeling a little more comfortable with the duties. This is the first apartment we have actually helped with in closing down since we live in Tobago and there are other Senior Couples in the other countries that have helped out. 

In the last 7 months we have had 5 sets of Senior couples return home with two more sets to leave in October. The Thackerys , Lindleys, Parrs, O'Dairs, Haakes and soon the Williams and Vermeerens. It's amazing the hole they leave. Thankfully, we have had 4 new sets join us, The Heiners, two single sisters, Raye and Locke, The Hayes and soon the Lehmans. They are getting their sea legs and picking up the duties that enable this mission to run as smoothly as it can. With the Haakes leaving, I am taking over the mission newsletter!  Prayers please!

So, back to Zone Conference. President and Sister Baird's flight got cancelled and they couldn't get to Trinidad until Thursday so since we were already there we had a few days of leisure after taking care of the apartment situation. We went to some malls and to PriceSmart which is a Costco. We can't buy much but it's fun to look. We did find the full face snorkeling masks we have been looking for and we did get those and bring them back with us. 

Zone Conference is the filling station for our souls and it did not disappoint. It's just incredible to be taught by these young Elders and by President and Sister Baird. I love how deeply we are able to feel the Spirit as Truths are being taught and testified. 

We were reminded that this work, the gathering of Israel is the greatest work we will ever do. It's the greatest because It's effects will last through the Eternities. The Gospel of Jesus Christ makes earth life better and ensures that Eternity will be most wonderful. 

The other thought that really stuck with me was that missions are hard and challenging because The Lord is working on us to become different better creatures. He is working on changing us to become more like Him. So, He's not just building His Kingdom, He is building OUR Kingdoms! I love that! It makes whatever the challenges we go through worthwhile and gives them great meaning. Truly, you will learn things serving a mission that you cannot learn in any other way. Will you be exalted without serving a mission? Absolutely! A mission is just an opportunity to learn and hopefully change for the better in a different way. It was a great Zone Conference as always!  

We got home took care of our duties and then Saturday afternoon we took our new masks and tried them out! It was fabulous! We went to the abandoned hotel cove and had it all to ourselves. 

 Sister Dookran and me

 Landlady in Trinidad 

 Zone Conference. Sister Williams, lady on the far right, had all these floral ties made for the missionaries and she gave one to Dave! He loves it so much!  

 Goofy picture

 The following are some of the photos captured by the underwater camera

 Brain coral

 This is what the masks look like. I highly recommend this type. It makes snorkeling pretty easy.

 The tail of an eel

 I kept looking at this fish and wondered if it was really a fish and if it was alive. It's called a stone-fish or a scorpion fish. Evidently it has poisonous fins.....I didn't know.......just like I didn't know the frog I was touching last week was poisonous....The Lord protects us in our innocence occasionally.  

 I had nudged it a couple of times and it didn't move....

 and then it did!  I've never seen anything move so fast!

  Snorkeling is a fun and relaxing activity

    . Don't you just feel relaxed looking at these pictures