Temple Trip

We got up early Sunday morning and our favorite taxi driver Bishop Ramdanie, took us to the airport at 4 am. Our flight to Panama left at 6 am. We got into Panama at 8 am. We had 10 hours before the Emamudins would fly in. So, we took a taxi to the Panama temple and walked around. It's in a very pretty setting up on the hillside. Our driver waited for us. Then we asked if he could take us to the Canal. We had to do everything with google translator and it worked pretty well. We really couldn't see much of the actual canal without taking the tour...we can say we have been to the Panama canal though. It would be cool to fly over it in a helicopter and maybe we'll see it when we fly out.

We got back to the airport and walked around. It's a very large airport so there are lots of shops etc. While we were waiting at the airport we got a call from Haniff saying they wouldn't let them on the plane without having an address where they were going. Dave instant messaged him the address and we prayed everything would work out. We learned later that they were able to get through immigration and were the last people getting on the plane. Haniff thought for sure they were not going to get to come and he prayed out loud and Heavenly Father helped him to know what to do. "tender mercy" He was so touched and grateful for the answer to his prayer that he was weeping as he went through immigration and the officer asked him if he was ok.
Still waiting, we were pretty tired so Dave laid on the carpet and fell asleep. I mostly played scrabble and other word games on my phone as I waited. Around 5pm the Emamudin family came through the doors. It was so wonderful to hug and kiss them! Sarah had trouble with her ears on the plane but figured out the popping thing. We then waited for our next flight, I read the ticket wrong and had us at the wrong gate and we kept trying to get into the waiting area but they kept saying "no, no" not telling us we were at the wrong place. finally at 6 pm we realized we weren't at the right gate and had to hustle clear to the other side of the airport for our flight, and we were the very last people to walk on the plane! "tender mercy" I felt bad to give us such an anxious moment there. But, we made it and flew to the DR. We went through immigration and customs, which wasn't too bad. The temple housing coordinator had arranged a taxi to pick us up. We got to the temple housing around 11pm. The rooms have 3 sets of bunk beds in them. We were pretty tired and got right to bed.

Next day Monday, an American sister who works there with the area noticed us wandering around and offered to take us to the grocery store to buy our food for the week. She took us and then waited for us to do the shopping. Such a very kind thing to do. "tender mercy" After shopping we went to find some lunch. We were told where to go and found several different things we could eat about a 20 min. walk away. We went to Taco Bell. It was the Emamudins first experience with tacos, hot showers, elevators, & many more things we aren't aware of. During lunch we were talking about being sealed and Haniff asked if we could be sealed to them. It was such a sweet thing. We told him that we would have the same relationships with each other up in Heaven, that friendships are eternal as well. We met a senior couple living at the housing apartment and they invited us to come to family home evening. It was very nice. We were all very excited and looking forward to our first day of the temple.

Tuesday: The temple and grounds are beautiful. Molly and Haniff were so excited to give them their recommends. It was a bit challenging not being able to speak Spanish but we got along. During instruction we had an interpreter and we were able to have English speakers for the initiatory. We thought we would have to use the ear phones in the endowment but "tender mercy" they ran it in English for us. I love all the changes that have been made in the presentation of the endowment and in the sealing ordinance.  Everyone was getting sick with a cold so that was kind of a sad thing. That night we took Sarah to do baptisms and confirmations by her father. We got both sets of parents baptized and confirmed so they were ready for the endowment the next day.

Wednesday: We went early to do the initiatory for the parents and then Haniff took his father through and Molly took her mother.The afternoon was spent napping since everyone was pretty sick. I didn't get sick at all "tender mercy" Then we did more initiatory that evening to finish them all. Sarah went to do baptisms but no one came to get her in the waiting room so she went back to the room. The temple is only opened from 9 until 12 and then reopened at 5 until 8 on the week days.

Thursday: Haniff took his father in-law through his endowment and Molly took her mother in-law. I felt bad for how miserable Haniff and Molly were feeling with their colds. We gave blessings and they rested when they could.We had brought a few family member names from my side and a member from Tobago. Two of the families had multiple children to seal to them. I had experienced having all the children at the alter at the same time and hoped we could do that. One family had six daughters. I asked the sweet sister that had invited us to FHE if she and some other sisters would be able to help us get six daughters sealed all together. She was more than happy to do it and arranged them to be there at 5pm. "tender mercy" We needed to get the live ordinance cards for Molly and Haniff to be sealed to their parents and with the language barrier it was a little challenging, as was the concept of sealing more than one person at a time. I guess the sealer had never done it and didn't accept it so we did get the six daughters around the alter but they were sealed one at a time. We then did the family with five children the same way. Then it was time for Haniff and Molly's parents to be sealed and then Haniff and Molly sealed to their parents. Dave and I were the proxies for the parents as they each got sealed. It was one of the sweetest things I have ever experienced. I could only imagine what the parents were feeling as their children were sealed to them. It was so special to have all the additional people in the room to give hugs and love after the sealings."tender mercy"  Sarah did more baptisms in the evening as we were doing the sealings.

Friday: More endowments and sealings and baptisms for Sarah. In between temple work we went to a really cool cave park just across the street from the temple.

Saturday: There were only two more male endowments to finish up, so Dave and Haniff did those which amounted to our best "guesstimate" of 176 ordinances preform for living and the dead from the 5 of us in the 5 days in the temple. We were all so happy to be able to serve this way.  Molly and Sarah wrote up their temple experience for me to type up to send to the Area to report on their experience in the temple with the use of the TPAF.  Haniff had written his and I got that typed up too. This evening we watched "The Forgotten Carols" with the family. During the production there is a line that says " You get a new name which gives you a new life" which I thought was very significant so we stopped the video and talked about that for a few minutes. We all enjoyed the show and then packed to get ready for our early beginning tomorrow. Now, I was getting sick...

Sunday: We got up at 2 am and our taxi came at 3 am. Everything went smoothly on our flight to Panama. We got the Emamudins to their next gate and said some teary good byes. The sickness hit me full steam now and kept me pretty miserable for the 12 hours we had to wait for our flight. I guess that's better than being sick during the temple time though like everyone else.  This has truly been the highlight of our mission and something we will treasure beyond our lifetime.

 Us with the Emamudin family, Sarah, Haniff, & Molly

 The Panama temple

 Panama temple

 Driving into Panama City

 Panama Canal sign....this is to say we have been here

 The place to take the tour

 This would be cool to see

More scenes of Panama city

 Emamudins arriving!

 Santos Domingo temple

 We always have to get a picture in front of the sign to remember where we have been

 All temples are beautiful at night

 Some caves at the park

 They made walk ways all through the caves

 very cool tree

 There was a lot of work done to make this a very attractive park 

but it seems like now it is like an ancient ruin, still cool though

 carved faces in the cave

 Us with the Senior couple, the Rogers, who invited us to FHE and helped with our sealings

 Temple housing complex. It's right across from the Temple

 Pretty Sarah

 Emamudins

 more caves

 we discovered a train track going around the cave. It must have been a very nice attraction in it's day

 and of course, there are swings in the park

 so someone can do an "underdog" like this!

 Palm trees, flowers and a temple. Beautiful!

 A family together forever  now

 The beginning...

Trinidad Thanksgiving!

The only things left to complete Christian's visa application were his international yellow fever immunization and his police report. Dave had gone over everything with a fine tooth comb to ensure all the details. Tuesday morning Dave picked up Christian and from a tender mercy from God, the police report was there but the yellow fever wasn't available until Wednesday. That was a slight snafu, but we were not rattled too much. We were leaving to go to Trinidad Wednesday morning so Christian would get that done and then fly over to Trinidad and have his interview with the embassy on Friday. We had planned to stay until Friday to go with him but there were no return flights until Sat. and we needed to get back to pack for Santo Domingo and fly out again on Sat. We were disappointed by that but we "unrattled" ourselves and asked the Elders to take care of it for us. They were happy to do that.

We flew in Wednesday and had enough time to go with the senior sisters to the Scarlet Ibis tour again. It gives you such a reverent feeling to witness nature (God) revealing so much order.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Sister Raye and Sister Locke are two senior sister missionaries who had just arrived in Trinidad. They are seasoned missionaries as this is the third mission for each of them. They were kind enough to take care of all the purchasing and preparing of the meal so when we got there the tables were set beautifully and everything was ready. We just got to help with dishing up and setting things out. We enjoyed the meal and then I was in charge of games. I taught them how to play "4 men on a couch" and they really had a good time with that. I was in heaven because this is a game that we play with our children when we get together. Sister Raye had gotten three coconuts and we had them have a competition of who could crack it open the first. I think they enjoyed that too! It really is a blessing and pleasure to spend time with these incredible young men who have and do sacrifice much to be here yet are so positive, grateful and pleasant. After some yummy desserts, some just relaxed and some played "Hearts" with Rook cards. Again, I was in heaven because this is a game that I grew up playing with my parents and siblings and it gave me lots of happy memories.

We said our goodbyes and flew back to Tobago to get ready to leave on Saturday. We were anxiously waiting to hear what happened at the African Embassy on Friday.  We got word that Christian was there and with the Elders....then we got word that he was denied his visa because there were 4 things missing!  arrrggghhh! The flight itinerary was in Spanish, they speak English but since it was coming from the Area in the Dominican Republic it was in Spanish.  There needed to be two utilities bills one from each of the places he would be staying in South Africa and his mission call could not be a copy but needed to be an original document signed by the Prophet. Now he would definitely not make the Dec. 5th departure date to leave for African but will be visa waiting most likely in Trinidad. Rather disappointing but everything happens for a reason and the Lord is in charge so all is well and will be alright. When we started the process and talked with the area representative from the DR, she told us this was her first time doing this and that we would learn together.... After the embassy visit, Christian went out teaching with the Elders and they reported he did a great job!

I usually post this on Sundays but we will be traveling that day. We have an eleven hour layover in Panama! We have plans to go to the canal and the temple during that time. Hopefully, that will work out. We are extremely excited to go to the temple again and feel so grateful to be able to witness this couple receiving their endowments and being sealed as a couple and a family. This truly will be the most blessed thing we will have been able to participate in on our mission and worth all of the hardships and sacrifices we have experienced.

I was chatting with one of our children recently and we were reviewing and analyzing my mission experience. We concluded that I was a people pleaser and since we had experienced quite a bit of rejection and negative feed back I needed to be able to get my self esteem from myself instead of receiving it from others, which is the way it should be always...we can't even expect our spouses to fill our cups either and I have found that holds true especially on this mission because Dave was working on his weaknesses and I was working on mine and sometimes there was a great distance between us. Dave and I love each other very much and we are completely committed to our marriage but this has been a very interesting and some what challenging time for us. Nevertheless, we have done it and I have learned to get my self esteem from my Heavenly Father. I know He loves me always and it really is not determined by my performance. I have developed such a tender relationship with Him which I will forever owe to this experience. Sometimes there simply was no one else to talk with and feel like I was loved and understood. I am going to wax philosophical now. My relationship with the Holy Ghost has always been that He is the friend that gives me messages, directions, warnings and testifies. My relationship with my Savior is that He is the friend that heals, empathizes, encourages, gives strength and is my guide to know how to BE. My relationship with my Heavenly Father is now one of closeness, feeling understood, fully accepting, really, even non-judgmental, completely merciful and kind. I am overflowing with gratitude for the penetrating love I feel from all of them! What ever we have sacrificed doesn't even come close to what we have gained.

 Sister Raye, Sister Locke, and us at the Scarlet Ibis Tour

 Scarlet Ibis flying in to roost for the night

 White Ibis flying in. The red all come together and the whites all come together...

The whites roost there but go deeper in the trees and disappear

 Like this...

 One of the flowers along the banks of the swamp

 Thanksgiving morning. Ready to eat and waiting for the Elders. Sisters Locke, Raye and Atkins. Sister Atkins is a Trinidadian missionary serving here. She is delightful!

 Our lovely Zone. starting left: Elders Morgan, Deppe, Curtis, Raymond, Pingel, Me, 

back: Elder Ramkasar, He is visa waiting to go to African, Elders Hoard, Lewis, and Christensen, Sisters Raye, Atkins and Locke and Dave

 Yummy!

 Enjoying a lovely meal!

 More handsome faces!

 This makes all of us

 Playing 4 men on a couch.

 Breaking a coconut is not an easy thing

 Elder Ramkasar is a pro at it

 More attempts

 Working hard at it

 Yeah!  it's open!

 Winners!

 Playing "Hearts" with rook cards, such fun!

 Rest and relaxation after a yummy meal

       We got us a little Christmas tree

Anticipation!

This week we did a little more visa/missionary preparation with Christian. We have assembled and obtained everything we need except the police report. If you have ever applied for a visa for many other countries, you know it can be a daunting task. The two weeks that was given for the time the police report would be ready are up tomorrow. We are holding our breath. If it isn't ready by Tuesday, Christian will be on his own to get the visa for South Africa by Dec. 5th  because we are leaving for Trinidad for Thanksgiving and then on to the Dominican Republic to the temple. If it is ready, we will meet Christian in Trinidad on Friday at the South African Embassy and see it through. We are praying mightily.

We got to have our reading lesson with Girlie twice this week. We were excited to show her the Gospel Library online so she can read along with the Book of Mormon narration. We put it at the slowest speed possible so I really hope she will read it daily.

Our Relief Society president has congestive heart failure and needs to have oxygen. She has no money to get the oxygen tank set up. We talked about it at branch council and then we went out to her home with President George, his parents and friend Isha. We had a good visit and discussed what would be best for her and how the Branch could help. She doesn't want to leave her home but she needs help living so her brother and sister -in-law have offered for her to live with them in Trinidad. They would see she has what she needs as far as the oxygen etc.  We will see how it all works out.

The most wonderful event of the week was Aedyn's baptism! Brother Baynes was hesitant to perform the baptism because they are now just coming back to church but his wife and daughter's convinced him. Aedyn's two older sisters were able to be the witnesses. It was a very happy occasion.

We watched "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" Narnia Chronicles one evening this week.  If you haven't seen it or it's been awhile, it's a good one to watch. If you watch it thinking about the Savior as Aslan, it really shows what the Savior did for us in a very clear way. In the story, Edmond was a traitor to his siblings and the law of justice needed to be satisfied with blood. Aslan told the witch that he would be killed in the place of Edmond. The guilt and sorrow portrayed by Edmond for what he had done and the gratitude for what it was going to cost Aslan was very powerful and something familiar to my heart.

 I know we have a Savior who loves us dearly and has done everything that needs to be done to give us the way to return to our Father in Heaven. We just have to choose Him and by so doing it will change our very natures and we will be ready when He comes again. I am very grateful for this very amazing experience to help people do just that. Choose to Follow Christ. I know the Book of Mormon is what it claims to be, another testament of Jesus Christ. It was translated by the power of God and it is a real blessing in our lives. I know the Church is led by a true prophet of God. I love and honor President Nelson and I hang on his every word because I know where they are coming from!

We only have a week and we will get to be in the temple again. We have been able to help the Emamudin family prepare their parents who have passed on, to go to the temple with them to receive  the saving ordinances, to be sealed to them and together with their own daughter! I also have been able to find my own family names and get them ready to go with me. I found a family with 5 children and we can seal them together all at the same time just like for the living. I am so joyful to be able to do this. I can only imagine how they will feel when it has been done.

We have lots of things to look forward to!

 Us with the Baynes family and the Ramkissoon family

 Sister Girlie 

 Sister Dookran's home. She got a government grant to add on as you can see the new boards.

 Waiting for people to come to the baptism. Pelicans are fast becoming some of my favorite birds.

 The darling, happy Baynes family. Brother and Sister Baynes, Aedyn, Caelyn and Aeryn. 

We love them a whole bunch!

 Sisters as witnesses!

    Hurrah! 

Reflections

I've been thinking a lot about the past year here on our mission. I don't know how it is for all missionaries so I will just speak of my experience. The first 6 months you are like a deer in the headlights, wondering what you got yourself into. Those first few months took a lot of adjusting to the culture, mission life, companion operating styles, locating and learning about the members, figuring out with the Lord's help what you are supposed to be doing. If you are called on a MLS mission, you kind of have to make it up as you go along.  The next 6 months, you continue to work on the plan you feel like you were directed to do, adding and subtracting things as necessary. You are feeling pretty comfortable with the culture and the people, but after so many months you may wonder if you are making any difference at all because some of the plans didn't go as hoped, but you know that all that the Lord expects is our obedience and our best efforts. Then you get to the last 6 months of your mission and almost overnight you feel reinvigorated, excited for each day because you know you are running out of days. Wanting to work better and love more. That's what I'm feeling now. Every day as I see this beautiful island, I know my time here is coming to and end and I want to make something meaningful happen every day!

We finished all the discussions with Aeyden and she will be baptized this coming Saturday!

Sister Cupid told us her 18 year old granddaughter wants to have the lessons and get baptized!

We started up our teaching reading time again with Girlie. She travels a lot.

Christian is almost completely ready to leave on his mission on Dec. 5th. We spent nearly every day with him this week getting the things he needs for his visa. Police report...which takes two weeks to process. High school diploma, check. New medical forms filled out on their (the South African visa) forms, meaning another trip to the doctor, lung x-ray, TB test. We can check that off Tuesday when we do the follow up. It's been a pleasure hanging out with this wonderful young man.

We get to go to Trinidad to have Thanksgiving with the other missionaries there!

We have our temple trip coming up the first week of December.!

And then we'll plan for Christmas with the branch!

We continue to do our on going member visits each week. Our Relief Society Pres. Sister Dookran had a heart attack and now needs to have oxygen. She may need to live in Trinidad with her brother to take care of her. She is the one that is an hour from the church.
On Thursday, Dave took a quick trip to Trinidad to help with the transfers of Elders from one zone to another. He left in the morning and came back in the evening, kind of like when he was working. There used to be around 40 Elders in Trinidad Tobago and now we are down to 8. The government is not giving the visas that are needed to let our missionaries come into the country. When missionaries get their calls to Trinidad they usually have to end up "visa waiting" in another part of the mission, like we did in Guyana, until the visas are granted.
Dave is methodically getting the car fleet organized and running smoothly.
We are still in process of opening up a couple of new apartments in Trinidad.  We systematically renew each apartment every year and found an apartment that we were going to renew to a deceased person from three years ago, so we had to do some investigating to find the legal owners and Dave is working with the area legal team to redo the contract, so the housing assignment has been a little more involved of late.
We will still need to work with Leana to get her completely ready to leave for her mission at the end of January. We had to put her on the back burner for a while because Christian leaves before she does. She isn't too far off though.

I think that is pretty much "it" for this week. Oh, wait. I need to record this: A few months ago we were visiting Sister Henry and the first thing she said to me with a big smile was "you're getting fat?" I was shocked and taken a back because she thought it was a compliment. I laughed it off pretty well. I have noticed a change in my waistline....then today at church when I saw Mary, she looked at me and said "you're gaining weight. That's good!"  Yikes!  not something I really want to hear! I really don't understand it because I eat oatmeal or cereal for breakfast. Homemade veggie or bean soup, or a green salad or baked potato with nothing on it but a little bit of Ranch dressing for lunch and dinner. Sometimes we eat those yummy "doubles" or have some local food which is macaroni pie, rice, beans but not often. I do think it's the cortisol of the stress that I have felt so often. Living on an island as a missionary is not a relaxing experience. Perhaps these last 6 months I won't feel as stressed and the added pounds will just melt away....one can hope! Otherwise, you all will just have more of me to love when I get home! :)

 Trinidad airport with some of the most amazing Elders in the world! 

 KFC is a favorite lunch! We love to treat the missionaries when we can. 

    These guys had to sample the "doubles" from Trinidad.

 

Keeping busy!

 We began the week with us still in Trinidad. We were getting the apartment ready for the two sister missionaries arriving this Tuesday. The plumber came on Monday and worked all day even into the early evening. It was quite the job as he had to break out the tile, replace the shower valve and replace the tile. When he turned the water back on as he left we were happy that the leak was no more. The next morning we excitedly turned on the faucet and to our astonishment, water was leaking out of the new valve that had been replaced. We showed the landlord who then called the plumber back and he began again to break out the tile and so on. Happily, the next day all was well. During our time waiting for the bathroom to be repaired, we painted the elders kitchen. You see, a few companions back had gotten a scented candle and we aren't sure exactly what happened because we never talked to the actual occupants of the apartment at the time, but apparently the kitchen window curtains caught on fire and caused quite a bit of smoke damage. They tried to clean it up but only spread the black stain on the ceiling and walls. Of course the curtain had been burned beyond repair and they needed some new ones. We took one of the very long curtains in the main room down and I cut them in half and I hemmed the one half and made new kitchen curtains from the other half. Anyway, Dave got a chip of paint color off the wall and we got a can of white paint and light yellow paint and a roller and tray and went to work. Dave did most of the work since we only bought one roller and it wasn't too big of a job. We were please to get to take care of that for the now occupant elders since they had nothing to do with it but were just left with the damage.
We got the old office room set up for the bedroom and everything cleaned again since we had been sleeping, eating and bathing there since last Thursday. Our 3 days planned turned into 9 days. We are excited to have these sisters come and help the mission in Trinidad.
We got back "home" to Tobago on Thursday. Before we left, we had arranged to start teaching a little nine year old girl in our branch named Aedyn. The rest of her family are members but they stopped coming to church for a time and she turned 8 and then 9. They own a pastry shop in the mall down town Scarborough and we would stop in and say "hi" on a pretty regular basis. One day she asked if we could come and give her daughter Aedyn a blessing. She had been in and out of the hospital with some stomach issues. After the dad and Dave gave her a blessing we asked if she was wanting to be baptized and if we could come and teach her. The mom said she had been thinking about that. We gave her the first discussion Friday and the second one yesterday. The mom sits in with us and it's a joyful time. We are planning on setting a date if they keep coming to church. They have been there for the last 3 weeks of church, except Conference. Cecile, the mom shared a beautiful testimony in RS today. It makes us so happy to have this family come back to church!
We are busy getting our two missionaries ready to go. Christian received his call six weeks before he is scheduled to report to the South Africa Mission Training Center on Dec. 5th so there is a boat load of stuff to do. We are hoping to get his visa application done in the next few days. We have a little more time with Leana since she doesn't leave until Jan. 28th.
It's good to be busy! 

 Here we are with Christian and his call to Botswana, Namibia, South Africa 

 The mysterious candle incident 

 When we're helping we're happy...

 All spiffed up!

 Making new curtains. Luckily there was a sewing machine in Trinidad that we brought to Tobago.

 Dave took in three pairs of slacks that he didn't need to give to Christian.

 Our two beautiful, wonderful missionaries. Leana and Christian. We are so happy to get to be part of the process of getting them ready. We love them as our own.

Dave brought this Bosch and makes his mom's wheat bread recipe.  

Honestly, this man can do everything!

 Look at all that yummy goodness! 

 We taught Aedyn about prayer and challenge her to make a prayer rock to put on her pillow so it will remind her to say her prayers before she goes to bed and then put the rock on the floor so then when she gets up, she stubs her toe on the rock to remind her to say her prayers. 

Isn't this one of the cutest faces you have ever seen?! Cadell. Christian's little brother.