Tales of Trinidad: Birds and Blessings

Monday: We try to walk everyday, and we see Mark at the guard shack. We decided to go and talk to him and ask him how his reading has been of the Book of Mormon. He was eager to talk and said he had read 3 Nephi 11 like we asked him to as well as Joseph Smith's Testimony. he said some people have said we worship Joseph Smith and other things. We assured him we honor Joseph Smith but we only worship God. We talked a bit more and said, "We'd love to talk more and see if you have any questions as you keep reading" He said " Well, I guess I better ramp up my reading cause now I know you'll be checking up on me" Holy Cow! This is pretty amazing stuff to share something so valuable with people that they know nothing about.
Later that day, I took a short walk around while Dave was getting new tires for the car. As I walked, suddenly one of those Southern Lap Wing birds started screeching and flew at me close to my head and then turned around and came back again tying to peck me. I must have been near a nest or something so I told it I was leaving and quickly walked on. It kept flying at me until I was out of range of whatever it was protecting. I told Dave about it and wanted him to walk by the same area to see if the birds would do it again. so we did and there were no birds this time. I told him I was not making it up! I think he sort of believed me.

Tuesday: I cleaned the condo and did laundry which is a lovely piece of cake now! While Dave got new tires put on the car.

Wednesday:When we go for walks around the golf course we always have to pass the guard shack and they have different people taking shifts. A woman in the guard shack called out to us "Are you evangelists? " we walked closer to her to tell her we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. When we said that she said" I can tell you love God" I said "and you love God too." she went on to say that she had been watching us and when she was praying the Lord said to her "you will know My people." she went on to say "and you are God's people because I can see the light shining out of you" We were so touched! Her name is Geneve. We asked her if she wanted to read some pamphlets about the Church and she said "no problem" which meant yes. So I ran back to the house and gathered up three little books. The Restoration. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. and The Plan of Salvation. As we gave her each one we kind of summarized what was in them. It truly is a blessed joy to talk about and testify about the restored church of Jesus Christ. We had a wonderful conversation and then we walked away on cloud 9! I have been praying that people would see our name tags and ask about them! We will be having more conversations with Geneve.

During our walk, Dave walked across the path on to the golf course to take a picture and two of those same birds started screeching and flying around trying to attack him! They would swoop down close to his head at full speed and then fly past, turn sharply around and swoop down on him again. So I was watching these two birds attacking him, only in a completely different area! He said he could feel feathers against his face as they flew by. It was like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" and very disturbing. He certainly believed me now! I only had one bird attacking me and he had two! They went on like that for five minutes and even followed him until he was well out of range. Bizarre!
Thursday: We went for our morning walk and the birds attack us again! On Sunday,we had made an appointment to go and visit with Sister Winchester from the Branch at 10 am. We got directions and we still couldn't find her without calling and having her talk us there. They live on a steep hill and you have to walk up many step from the road on the front side or there is a back side we found out later that you have to walk down the hill. We had a great visit and found out her 12 year old daughter, Elizabeth, was not baptized the same time as she and her son were, so we are going to begin the lessons again and review what she knows and go from there.
Also on Sunday we had discovered that the Church pulpit is full of termites or wood ants! So, Dave bought some poison stuff and we went over to the building and started cleaning up. We worked for over 2 hours because we found a long line of termite trail going from one side of the room to the other. Luckily, it was only on the front wall. That's a nice job to have done!

Friday: Our car has been making a knocking noise since we got it so Dave made an appointment in the morning and dropped it off with a mechanic to check it out. The mechanic called at 1 pm and said he was sure it wasn't the water heater but it could be the alternator. We have spent a lot of time this week on car stuff.
We reviewed the first missionary lesson in Preach My Gospel to teach Elizabeth at 4pm. We were excited to go and at 3:15 her mom called and said she wasn't going to be home and we can start to teach her on Tuesday...we were disappointed a bit. We decided to check out a restaurant for dinner and found a very nice Italian one. It was nice to have dinner out for a change.

Saturday and Sunday was Conference! What a blessing that is! I felt like every single talk was fabulous! Saturday we watched it at the condo and Sunday we watched it with a few branch members at the church. There were 11 of us counting Dave and I. It's a little slower process to feel connected to the members here...not sure why...We brought watermelon and sugar cookies to share for lunch and Sister George brought makings for ham sandwiches. After we ate, a few of us played "hot dice" I think they enjoyed it. We took Sister Dookran, the RS Pres. home after the last session and were amazed to see her home. She lives in a two room (kitchen and bedroom), dirt floor, corrugated steel home with no running water and no electricity. She has been a member since 2007. She has a darling 6 year old grandson who lives with her and she brought with her to Conference. She asked us to come into her home and bless it. We gathered in a circle holding hands and Dave gave a beautiful prayer. I was holding little Adesh's small hand and I was amazed at his reverence during the prayer. He was so still and I peaked down at him as Dave was praying and his little eyes were closed. I had a strong feeling that I was holding the hand of a future great leader for the church in Tobago. After the prayer I lifted him up and sat him on the table there in the kitchen and looked him straight in the eyes and told him " Heavenly Father needs you to be a great leader here in Tobago. Always stand up for Jesus, be one of His greatest friends." He said he would and I'm not sure but it seemed like he wiped a tear from his eyes. Such a sweet, beautiful little boy!