Memories of Christmas Past

Christmas was really wonderful for us! We flew into Trinidad on Christmas Eve morning to spend it with the 12 Elders serving there along with the two senior sisters. They, the sisters had everything prepared and the Elders came at noon. We ate and then watched "The Forgotten Carols" after the play we went around the room and told what we felt as we watched it. Some had seen it before and others, it was their first time. Everyone was very touched by it and it brought a wonderful spirit to hear everyone's thoughts. Then it was time for our Skype devotional with the Bairds and all the  missionaries in the other countries. It was fun to see all the missionaries as they appeared on the screen. I wondered how the missionaries with out senior couples were doing on Christmas in Aruba, Bonaire & Suriname.

It was a wonderful devotional. Then out came the games. This bunch loves to play hearts with Rook cards. I got to play with them and it was very fun. Sister Ray really wanted to share "Mr. Kruger's Christmas" with them so they were good sports and stopped playing long enough to watch it. It's a good one! We visited, ate and played games until 9:30 pm! I couldn't believe how fast the day went and we were so blessed to spend it with these mighty men! We love, admire and respect each one of them. 

We were spending the night at our regular bed and breakfast. We were the only guests because the owner's family was all there for Christmas. The owner was so kind and invited us to share Christmas morning breakfast with them! We felt very honored to do that. They are very good and kind people. 

We got up Christmas morning and joined the family for breakfast. They served ham, french toast, scrambled eggs, sweet breads, holiday drink of sorrel and a thing called "pastelles"  They are a Trinidad and Tobago special dish. It's a cornmeal shell, like tamales with different kinds of meat fillings and then steamed in a banana leaf. It was interesting to try but I think they may be an acquired taste.  

After brunch we went swimming in the pool, took a nap and then went to the airport to fly back to Tobago. Throughout the day and evening, we got videos and phone calls from our kids and grand kids. It made us happy to see their faces and hear their voices. We do love and miss them. We are so looking forward to them coming to Tobago the end of January!

Now....we have been asked to move to Curacao. No worries, we don't go until Feb. I think I may have mentioned this before but I'll say it again in this context. When we started our mission in Nov. 2018, there were 10 senior couples. At the middle of March, there will only be 3 senior couples and one senior sister left. One of them is the finance office couple at the mission office in Curacao. There are no senior couples in the pipeline to replace any of the departing couples so we are moving to do the office work there. Dave, of course will be over the finances and we'll see if he gets released from the fleet. He also does a lot with the housing with me since I'm not a wiz at computer things. Our 18 months is over the 5th of May. We have told them we will stay until the first of June hoping another couple will be here by then...we pray always for more senior couples. 

We spent the last part of the week doing office stuff, housing, we are opening up another apartment in Trinidad and that is pretty complicated, and then renewing each apartment as they come due each month. Then Dave got all the files on the cars and reviewed them and scanned the critical ones and tossed the others. The last part of the month is the busiest for the mission newsletter when all the pictures come in and I create it and publish it. And we have started to go through the condo and gather all the Church materials, pamphlets etc and take them to the church. 

I think this next month is going to fly by.

Dave was asked to speak today in church, at the last minute. He did a beautiful job and ended up telling the branch we were leaving. We have struggled with when to say anything and it felt like the right time. We have loved this beautiful island and the people, even though we didn't see what we thought was success. We had a few members shed some tears when we told them. I don't think they will miss "the Weeks'"as much as they will miss us as missionaries. and that's as it should be.  I think they love having missionaries here for the strength and stability they feel from us and it makes them sad when we have to leave. There will be some sad days ahead...

 Christmas morning brunch with the hotel family

 Watching "Forgotten Carols" we are playing it off Dave's computer on my lap. 

Didn't want you to think I was surfing the net....  :)

 The other side of the room

 Delightful Dozen! These are really some amazing young men. 

Notice Christian in the far back to the right of our redheaded elder from Canada.

It was so nice to see him and spend this holiday with him.

This is our hot fudge banana split bar. 

 Watching the Baird's devotional

Dave took a screen shot of the Bairds.

On the top of the screen you can see the missionaries in each area of the mission.

We are the ones on the far left.

 Enjoying the family brunch. 

Notice the pastelles on the tray in front of me, still wrapped in the banana leaves.

 Flying kites at Christmas is a Tobago tradition. This is brother George. 

He makes a new kite each year to give to someone. 

 I love to fly kites and I love to see kites flying. The palm trees are an added bonus!

 This is Camille, our missionary, Christian's mommy, as he calls her, and his little sister Maleah. Camille wanted her home dedicated while Christian was away so Dave did a beautiful job doing that. 

 Look at that darling face.....on both of them  :)

 We took a drive on the other side of the island and beheld this beauty......

look at these after you shovel the snow.....sorry, that is cruel.... ha ha

another thought....Seniors, you could be here instead of shoveling snow!

 Perfect snorkeling cove

 I love this hammock on this boat. Notice the name of the boat....O Fish L Business.....so cleaver

 Pelicans are fast becoming my favorite bird, but I may have already told you that.  

 Can you say WOW! 

 We tried out a new restaurant. It is up a big hill and this is the view. The food was yummy too!

 They serve fresh ravioli that is made right in view. I had spinach ravioli. Excellent!

 Another lovely view and me with the beautiful Hibiscus that are always in bloom

We got a cruise ship in  the Port of Scarborough. It's a rare sight.  

  

Wonderful Weekend!

This week was spent mostly in preparation for the weekend. We were having our branch Christmas party and hosting two senior sisters coming from Trinidad to enjoy some activities in Tobago.

Our assignment for the party was to wrapped the children's gifts, so that didn't take too much time and then I cleaned the condo extra well and got the extra bedroom and bathroom all ready for the sisters. We have had a dog walk all over our walkway and back porch with it's muddy feet so I got all that cleaned up well too. I found out my hands had gotten too soft from not working with them much and I got a blister from all the sweeping and mopping!
While I was cleaning, Dave was back at the church overseeing yet, another problem with the air conditioning. This has been an ongoing issue. We have three units in the church, the kitchen, office and "chapel" and each one has had to be fixed twice in the 9 months we have been here. The electrical system on the island is not stable and so it has spikes which cause a surge in current which burns motors, fuses and other things out.

Friday, We picked the sisters up at the airport at 11 am and took them to one of our favorite restaurants, "Shore Things" and had a great lunch. Then we took them to the beach to get on the glass bottom boat tour to the Nylon reef. We didn't go with them because our Christmas party was later and we didn't want to miss it. The sisters had a great time on their excursion.
The party was good. It was supposed to begin at 3 pm but in true Caribbean fashion didn't get started until 5. Sister George did a great job in planning. We sang Christmas carols, had a couple of solos, one singing and the other a "mouth organ"or harmonica. Both were wonderful!

The meal was ham, turkey, potato salad, fried rice, green salad and callaloo, which consists of a green leaf plant called "dasheen" or taro. Taro has been cultivated for thousands of years, in China, Japan, Africa, India, Tonga, Polynesia, West Indies and many other countries. Each country has it's own name for the dishes that they make with Taro. Callaloo is the National Dish of the twin Island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The leaves of the taro plant are used to make the dish known as callaloo (which is made with okra, pumpkin, sweet peppers, dasheen/taro leaves, coconut milk or creme and aromatic herbs) and it is prepared similarly to steamed spinach. It is toxic when raw and needs to be cooked to remove oxalic acid. The leaves look like huge elephant ears and then are cut up, boiled and then blended together with all the other ingredients. We love it and I make it at "home" sometimes. It has been very fun and interesting to get to experience all the unique foods and dishes of this part of the world. I really hope I can still find dasheen or taro leaves when we come back home.

Saturday, Dave and the sisters took an early morning walk around the golf course and through the mangroves. They returned, and we left at 9:30 am to drive the island coast line to get to the very best restaurant in Tobago " The Such Hole" It's located on a beautiful cove where I am guessing has a very strong current that "sucks you in" hence the name.That is totally a guess. We will ask next time we go to get the true answer.  It's a stunning drive and we stopped along the way for pictures. We got to the restaurant just as it opened at 11:30 am. The meal was fabulous! If you were to come visit us in Tobago, we would take you there. After we ate we headed for Argyle Falls. It's a short walk to the falls and Dave hiked to the top and the ladies stayed at the lower pool to swim. We enjoyed that and then drove back, got cleaned up and took the sisters to the airport. We had a lovely visit with them.

Sunday, we started church late cause only 3 other people were there at 9 am. Brother George played another beautiful harmonica solo. It was a song I didn't know but I could hear some of the members singing along with it. It was really sweet.

I am grateful for the birth of our Savior. I am grateful our Heavenly Father was willing to give us His Son. I'm grateful the Son was willing to give us His life. His life makes our lives more than we can comprehend. He truly has brought JOY to the world!  Merry Christmas to us all!

 Dave and the Jolly Good Santa Man in the Caribbean 

 Getting ready to wrap presents. I quite enjoyed it. 

I haven't wrapped Christmas presents for a long time. 

 Fixing the air conditioner

 We discovered a new creature along the beach. 

We think it's some sort of jelly fish that has washed up on shore. 

The beach was covered with them and there are many different colors, blue, pink, and purple.  

I feel badly that they died but they did provide a little fun entertainment. 

When you step on them, they pop loudly like bubble wrap! 

It was quite fun although, I had to keep telling myself I wasn't killing them, they were already dead...

 Showing the size. Some were a little smaller than this, but still popped pretty good!

 These are Taro leaves or elephant ears. I didn't know that's what dasheen was cause you can buy it already cut up and ready to cook in the store. 

 Here is callaloo. Some may not think this looks yummy but we think it's yummy!

 Boardwalk in the mangrove going out to the ocean

 Trees along the golf course

 Dave and I with Sister Locke and Sister Ray

 We stopped at the Sugar plantation water wheel along the way

 Another view of the drive along the coast line.

 and another....

 and another....

 more scenery along the coastline 

 Sister Ray and Locke in front of the best restaurant in Tobago...in our opinion....

 Fried seasoned potatoes, broiled plantains, pasta salad, cauliflower, broccoli and carrots 

steamed to perfection, green salad with tomatoes, cucumbers and avocado 

with a yummy garlic sauce to put all over it. 

 Dave got all that plus onion rings and a yellow tailed tuna steak in a yummy sauce. 

Presentation is fabulous!

 Argyle falls looking up

 Argyle falls looking down

 some cool vegetation along our travels 

 and always flowers

Flower and an ant

 Merry Christmas from our home to yours! If you are reading this, we love you!

This and That

Happily, I wasn't sick for too long! We recovered well in Trinidad from our travels to the DR still floating on cloud 9 for the blessing of being with the Emamudin family in the temple! Tuesday, we helped a little with the preparation for Zone Conference. Sister Ray and Locke had pretty much everything needed for the Christmas luncheon. We contributed some "funeral potatoes" made with french fries since shredded hash browns weren't available. They actually turned out pretty yummy!

Zone Conference is always a highlight for us! We love getting together with the young Elders and President and Sister Baird. We got to see Elder McIntosh! He is visa waiting in Trinidad so he was at Zone Conference. It was so wonderful to see him again!  After the wonderful training by the Elders, we got to see "The Fighting Preacher" Such a great movie and I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. We missed our flight back "home" that evening so we flew out on standby on Thursday morning. It was nice to get back to our place. Tobago really is such a lovely island. It's a blessing to be able to serve here.

One of the really challenging things here on our mission is losing the other senior couples with few  replacements. When we started our mission in Nov. of 2018 there were 9 other couples for the 6 countries in the mission. By the middle of March we will be down to 3 couples and one single senior sister. Senior Missionaries take care of many things: Cars, housing, finances, visas, immigration, phones, transfers, self reliance, seminary and institute, YSA, humanitarian, temple prep and watching over the young missionaries and really whatever needs to be done. We have many areas and whole countries with out senior couples in them to help the work. We pray often for President and Sister Baird, who have to worry about it all plus the 103 missionaries in their care. Come and help! You won't regret it! 

It has been raining very heavily since we got back so we haven't gotten out much. We did take a nice walk along the beach by the condos when the sun broke through for a couple of hours.

It was so great to see the branch members again on Sunday at church.

This isn't mission related but I want to document it here on the blog because it happened during our mission. Our second oldest daughter turned 40 years old on the 9th of December. She chose to celebrate by going on a cruise with her husband and 4 children. While they were gone, Annie, our daughter living in Colorado decided to surprise her by redoing her kitchen. She got the funds from Kevin, Emilie's husband and solicited help from Meghan and quite a few other family members and they were able to accomplish something incredible! And they did it in just 3 days!  It just fills our hearts to over flowing to have our children take care of and watch over each other while we are away. (I selfishly wish I had been there to help, though)

 Elder McIntosh and his pseudo grand parents, we love him as our own. 

 He arrived safely in Trinidad and was greeted and taken care of by the Zone Leaders, Elder Pingel

 Zone Conference

 Always have to take a goofy picture....we really love this group!

 One of our favorite places to eat has bird feeders. These are called sugar birds

 There was one or two token blue birds along with the yellow breasted ones

 Walking along the beach

 We watched some wind surfers, they were pretty amazing

The Tobago Branch Presidency. Elder Weeks, President George and Brother Ramkissoon

 Before and After of Emilie's Kitchen. Pretty incredible!

 The master mind and her accomplice...Annie and Meghan...what a pair of angels!