Tales of Trinidad: 2019-07-07

Another good week gone by. We took our tour to Little Tobago on Tuesday. It wasn't quite what I expected. I thought we would see lots of tropical birds and flowers and going out on the glass bottom boat and snorkeling would let us view lots of different things but it really wasn't like that. The bird of paradise which the island is named for no longer exists on the island because of Hurricane Flora and there isn't any fresh water supply there and the fresh water has to be brought over for whatever birds live there so it's quite a timely maintenance issue. We did take a walk up many cement stairs that had been made to get to the high point of the island. Which I can say I handled like a champ! The view was lovely and we did see some "bully birds" otherwise known as Magnificent Frigate-bird, doing what they do best, and that is to attack other birds to give up the food they just got. It's really something to see. We had seen these birds just along one of the beaches and watched them attack other birds but we didn't know what they were. These are not the same birds that attack us on our walks. The glass bottom viewing was nice but when we stopped to snorkel, the waves were too rough to really get into very much. Dave did try to use his underwater camera but again, the waves were too rough so we'll have to try again....darn it! :) We did learn about "trap door" spiders. These spiders dig a perfectly round hole and then make a perfectly round cork like door with a hinge to cover it. If an insect walks by it can feel the vibration and quickly bounce out and capture the bug. Fascinating! Our tour guide pointed out a few of them and then challenged us to find them too. It was very cool. When we got back to the tour van it was discovered that it had a flat tire. We have had several flat tires, four to be exact, since we've been here but they always occur when we are parked and not while we are driving around on these steep, narrow, curvy roads for hours at a time. We again felt very protected that the flat occurred while we were on the boat. For what ever reason he didn't want to change to the spare and discovered a screw had punctured the tire. Instead, he went and asked a scuba instructor to come and fill up the tire with oxygen so he could get us to the restaurant, because lunch was part of the tour and then he would take care of the tire while we ate. The tire was filled and we jumped in not wanting to waste any time, He got us there safely and joined us later. Even though it wasn't what I expected, it was still a very enjoyable day.

We had two lessons with Irma this week. She is just so ready to be baptized and feels like she has been waiting years to do so. We are hoping July 27th will be a good day. She came to Church today! Everyone remembers her and gave her hugs.

We also got to visit with Nadine and her son Jessie. One of his questions was: If someone passes the sacrament but you know they don't live like they profess to believe, is it still valid for the congregation? Pretty interesting questions for a 14 yr old. We told him Yes. The worthiness of a Priesthood holder is between him and God and his Bishop or Branch Pres. but whatever Priesthood duty he does is still valid because of the Power of the Priesthood, not him personally. He had more questions dealing with people's behavior and what they confess to believe. Again, we told him that what people choose to do after they make covenants is between them and God and we just need to love them and pay attention to what we do and try not to judge. Unfortunately, it seems like the people that should be good examples of what a member of the Church is like to this young boy, are showing quite the opposite. But we told him, He can learn by good examples and bad examples. He can choose how to be. Both Dave and I see him as a very strong future leader for Tobago. It may take some years though since he doesn't really have the transport to get him to Church right now.

We spent 5 hours at immigration on Friday. When we finally get in to the office of the official we still needed more copies of this and that but we got it completed and paid for and now we wait another 3 weeks and we should have the visa we need to come, go and stay as we need to. It was quite the exercise in patience.

These beautiful children are the grand children of Sister Dookran our RS Pres. The boy on the far right is Adesh. He is the young boy I talked about several weeks ago. Future great leader in Tobago. It was almost like seeing our own grandchildren again because we were

so happy to see each other and Adesh's smile was so big and he squealed "I remember you!"