Tales of Trinidad: Six Months!

What?! Six months! Today is six months since we have been on our mission. I am grateful for this opportunity and experience. It has been a very growth promoting one and as growth goes, it is rarely easy. I recently read an article stating that Happiness is not the goal of life, Growth is the goal. Happiness is fleeting and temporary but real growth is satisfying and lasting. Happiness doesn't necessarily bring joy or peace where as true, life changing growth does.
So with saying that...I have been having some home sickness. Living on a beautiful island is really wonderful but when it isn't your home with all the people you love readily available to visit, chat with, hug and laugh with, enjoy events and life experiences with, it isn't the paradise that it could be. I am just going to wallow in this for a moment. I miss my children and grandchildren. I miss my friends. I miss my food and stores. I miss being able to get out and drive to places I know and love. I miss my ward family and neighborhood. I miss the Church functioning at it's highest level with leaders, teachers, Priesthood, sisters, primary, youth and activities. I miss the temple, oh how I miss the temple! When that has been a weekly part of your life for many many years, it's quite an adjustment to go with out it and the lovely people and sweet feelings you find there. I miss organized and well thought out towns and roads. I miss garbage trucks and clean streets. I miss weather. I miss my house, bathtub and kitchen sink. This is really the first time I've been really homesick. I think in Guyana I was so busy just trying to maintain the necessities of life and live day to day that I didn't really notice being homesick. Here, life is so much more pleasant that my mind has been able to reflect on home a bit more. There, I am done wallowing.

Nothing I am missing compares to the love Dave and I feel for the Savior and the gratitude we have for the plan of Salvation, the Atonement of Jesus Christ and our desire to share that with the people of Tobago with whom we are growing to love very much. It's a small sacrifice to miss those things for a short while to be able to serve and strive to help Heavenly Father by serving and loving His children here.

We finished all the discussions with Elizabeth and Dave did the interview, she passed and we are set to have her baptized this coming Saturday, May 11th! Teaching her as been an interesting experience and I've learned a lot about praying to teach at the level of understanding that is needed for each individual and knowing that the Spirit is who teaches and uses whatever you offer to help someone to learn.
We were able to find a few more members, by our very own selves even! The Elders that were here previously had documented alphabetically, in a little book, turn by turn directions to many of the member's homes. As we've gotten to know our way around a little more the directions have begun to make sense. This is great because now we can go off on our own and don't have to wait for a member that knows things to go with us. Hopefully, we will be able to find more members and love them back to church.

These cute ladies are sisters in the branch. Dave makes a killer sugar cookie and the ladies wanted Dave to teach them how to make them. We had dinner and then made the cookies. It was a fun evening. Isn't my kitchen lovely?

The air conditioner at the church building wasn't working so we had some repair men come and clean and service them. It took up quite a bit of a day.

The vents hadn't been cleaned in quite some time...it works great now!

Air conditioning is pretty crucial here.

For the last four weeks we have been finding the church doors unlocked. We talked with others and they say this has been going on for some time. It is concerning because of the sound system, keyboard and computers that could easily walk off. So, Dave had the locks changed, which took up another big chunk of a day. Dave had several sets of keys made to give to the other leaders. We are curious to see if someone asks us why their keys don't work anymore. We think it might be the owners of the building.