Tales of Trinidad: Senior missions, not what you think.

This has been another fine week. We have been here in Tobago for four months now. When we first arrived, there were 11 people coming to Church so we set out to find the other 91 on the branch roster. After many hours, days, weeks and now months, we have been able to meet, visit with and pin in LDS tools all but 9 member households. That's how we have spent most of our time and now with that accomplished we find ourselves wondering what else we can do. Other Senior couples have young missionaries to watch over and "do" for and perhaps seminary or other classes to teach, we don't have that here. Fortunately, we have had a few teaching opportunities along the way with Elizabeth, Angie, Girley and now Irma to keep us busy and occupied. We are excited to have a second and third baptism in a few weeks. Hopefully, we will get more.

We are in charge of all of the mission housing. and that takes up some time. Since Dave is much more tech savvy than me, he has been going through all 59 contracts with a "fine tooth comb" identifying duplicates and problems such as no signatures etc that go back several years. I can do the tasks needed like get renewal, termination or amended documents created and processed but the other "housekeeping" or organizing of the files is something that Dave is very knowledgeable and thorough, so we make a good team and will leave this assignment, when the time comes, in much better shape.

We have used some of our time with building maintenance. Termite clean up, piano repairs, and AC repairs. With Dave acting as branch clerk, he keeps up on all the ordering of teaching and branch materials. He does all the finances and membership.

Since we got here, we have been assisting in getting two young adults ready for their missions. We are almost ready to submit Sister Leana's papers. We have taken her to the doctor and dentist and waited for many hours as she gets things taken care off. This week she had an extraction that I was able to hold her hand as she got the horrible numbing injections. She is an orphan so we feel so grateful to be able to step in where we can to help.

We have also spent many hours in immigration getting that all figured out as well.

So, with all that said and done, we are finding that we have time on our hands, looking for things to do, so we find things to do that you wouldn't think sound much like a mission, but since it's a Senior mission, almost anything goes, and everywhere we go we are meeting and talking with people about the Church and why we are here in Tobago.

We hiked to the Argyle Falls this week. There are four levels and I could only make it to the third (yeah for me!) and Dave hiked to the top. Another day, we walked along the beach for a 3 mile round trip and I even body surfed in my clothes cause I couldn't resist it. Another day, we took Irma out driving to find the perfect beach spot for her baptism and she treated us to ice cream. We went to the Opening Ceremonies of the Heritage Festival in Tobago and were the only white folks in the auditorium and no one else sat on our row. Not sure how to think about that. We are so intrigued and curious to learn all about this little island and were thrilled when we got to hear the National Anthem of Tobago and see the different dances and traditions of each village portrayed. It was supposed to start at 8 pm but didn't start until 8:40 Caribbean time and finished at nearly 11 pm.

Today, Sunday, the Branch President did not show up or call again. The first counselor was not there either. The second counselor is Brother Murray who is 91 years young and can barely walk but is there every. single. week. It got to be 9:15 so Dave figured he'd better do something so he assigned the prayers and invited the only youth, a brother and sister, in our branch to speak, and gave them "For the Strength of Youth" booklets for them to use. Then he asked me to speak (again) and he spoke (again) Everything was spur of the moment but it went really quite well. It was also Branch Council Sunday, so Dave conducted that too. Not sure what to do about our AWOL Branch President. On the way home I asked Dave "What would they have done if we had not been there?" We are not here to take over but sometimes it has to be done. What made it an even more joyful Sunday was that Irma was there again and...... Rocky and Angie finally came! Hallelujah!

A lovely way to spend a long lunch hour

The trail head to the Argyle Falls

For all you chocolate lovers

They are ripe when they are red

A lot of the forests are bamboo

The base of the Falls

starting the climb up

pretty rugged trail

more trail

Cool flower bud

and then the bloom

one of the four different fall levels

huffing and puffing up the trail

third level spot

I decided to get wet

another view on the way down

looking down from the third level

so refreshing!

second level pool

not sure of the level....can't keep track

look at all the fish I swam with! I tried to catch them in my shirt but they are too smart.

Some of them were at least a foot long

Leaving the falls

This is Shawn and he crafts these plaques out of the plentiful bamboo

This is a sugar cane bowl. They boiled down the cane to get sugar syrup in the slave days.

Sweet Leana. Almost all ready for her mission

One of the dances of the villages of Tobago

another one

and another

This is called a "speech band" they stop the music and say a speech and then dance

and do it again and again.

This one was my favorite

tamarind drum band

The master of ceremonies

They pass out these meals free of charge for every person after the performances. I've never seen anything like it. There were hundreds of people there. It's a fish sandwich, fruit cake, creamed potatoes, a fruit turnover and some kind of ginger drink.