And suddenly...another week gone

Monday, I finished my 61st year on the earth and began my 62nd. These birthdays are tender for me because my dear wonderful mother died at the young age, I can say that now, of only 63. As I get closer to that number I think about how she was and how she lived and how much she loved and was loved and I wonder if she is proud of me and if I have been able to serve and love as she did. I'm hoping the next few years will provide for me more opportunities to be like her.

I was kind of out of sorts on my birthday so we didn't do much celebrating, we sat by the ocean for a while and watched the waves , which is so relaxing and peaceful to me, then we went to dinner.
We got to the restaurant earlier than it opened so we walked a bit around the little town of Buccoo. We walked by a women guard and greeted her. Then we decided to wait in the grounds by the restaurant until it opened. We were just sitting there when this same woman came over to us and asked us what our badges were. (this is what I pray for, to have people ask us what they are) So we shared the message of the restored church and about our Savior. She, Julie, seemed very interested so I asked her if I could go and get some pamphlets for her out of the car and she said "no problem" which means yes. I ran to the car and got a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet. We gave them to her as we talked more and invited her to church. She said she would come....We hugged and went in to eat. These sweet moments of sharing the gospel are very exhilarating to me and it was the perfect gift for my birthday!

Tuesday was more car stuff and then we had a lesson with Elizabeth that afternoon. Her mother and brother were both baptized last year but the missionaries felt like Elizabeth needed some more understanding of the gospel before she could be baptized. She is 14 and perhaps has a learning challenge. We taught the lesson but she barely spoke and we are not sure if she understood what we were trying to teach her. We have another lesson tomorrow. Monday the 15th.

Wednesday: Before we got here, sometime in December, there was a flood in the church building. It ruined most of the electrical system for the piano, microphone and sound system, so they would either sing with out music or play it off the phone and it was hard to hear the speakers and prayers. Dave ordered a new power adapter for the piano and it came so we went to see if we could get things working. The piano worked immediately with the new adapter! The next 6 hours were spent with Dave doing whatever it took to get the sound system working. Providently, he had brought his electrical meter with him so he could test the wires and figure out which ones worked and which didn't. We needed to buy a new fitting and electrical cord which we found after having been sent several places with asking people where we could find it. He was thrilled and there was much rejoicing when everything worked as it should! The Stake President for the Trinidad stake also rejoiced that he didn't need to buy a whole new sound system and come to Tobago and install it.

 It had been a long day but it was Leanna's birthday and I wanted to take a treat to her work. We got a yummy doughnut and went to her work just before 7 pm when it closed. She wasn't there, so we left it with a note for them to give it to her tomorrow. As we were pulling into the gate of our condo complex I saw a woman with a small child in her arms. It was Leanna's sister, Dianna, whom we had met before.  It's dark and late and when I recognized her, we stopped and ask if she needed a ride home. She was so grateful! We took her home and on the way we asked her why she thought the branch was dwindling in numbers. She said she could only speak for herself but felt like there wasn't much love and caring from the other members. MINISTERING, people!  We were grateful we got to have a chance to visit with her and find out where she lives. God just works everything out...she was waiting for a taxi that may or may not have gone down that road and we came along at just the right time. Don't you just love that!

Thursday: We picked up Sister Cupid to do some more finding and pinning of members. We drove around and around and around some more and were able to pin 7 member households. We even got some of them home so we could give them a "Come Follow Me" manual and visit with them a bit. All but one said they would come to church....unfortunately...I'm writing this on Sunday and not one of them came...nevertheless, we will soldier on!

 Friday: We chose to have a P day activity. We got tickets to ride a glass bottom boat out to the Buccoo Reef and snorkel, the nylon pool, and no man's island. It was fantastic and incredibly beautiful. This will be one of the things we'll get to share with our kids when they come over.

Saturday: We determined that we needed to go over the entire branch roster, all 103 of them and identify what we had learned about each one and update the records as needed. That took us several hours but it was great  to get done and we feel like we are getting to know the people a little better. A member's son was ill and needed a blessing so we did that and got our other errands done.

Today, Sunday: The President called Dave an hour before church and asked him to conduct and if the speakers didn't show up, would he speak. He said of course. So, He conducted the meeting, played all the hymns on the newly working piano and gave a very lovely talk because the speakers were not there. He would have had to bless the Sacrament also but at 9:15 brother George came with his wife. Such is a Sunday in a little branch.

I think it's been a good productive week.

 This is no man's island. It's a strip of sandy beach that you can only get to by boat

 Flower of the mimosa tree which are all over here. I love trees and have 

been known to hug them....

 Dave doing his magic. He really can fix almost anything

 This is our chapel. We now have music, sound and no termites!

 This is Sister Cupid at her home

 Sister Cupid has a cashew tree. The fruit is sweet and somewhat spongy in texture and you can see the cashew. Only one cashew per fruit, no wonder they are expensive. I managed to open the shell with out a nut cracker and tasted the nut, which are some of my favorites but it was extremely bitter, so I don't know what they do to make them edible.

 Another lovely and interesting tree. The trunk and branches are very large so 

I'm thinking it's a pretty old tree.

 The dock where we get on the glass bottom boat. 

You really could see very well and we saw many different kinds of fish and cool coral.

 This is what the water looks like! Amazing!

 We are standing out in the middle of the Caribbean Sea!  It's called the nylon pool because the water is the color of the nylon line that is used for fishing. 

 Standing in the nylon pool, really it was a little un-nerving to be so far away from the land 

and be standing up in the water.

 Dave standing in the nylon pool

 Dave found this shell

 At the resort they sell crab and dumplings which is a favorite dish in Tobago. We had to try it of course. There is some flat doughy dumplings in a curry sauce with four sets of crab legs that you have to crack open with your teeth to eat the meat. It was messy but pretty delicious. We couldn't break the bigger ones so we had to take it back and have the cook crack them open for us. "Tourists!"

This is the pier at Pigeon Point, a favorite place for weddings

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!

 Enjoying a lovely evening!

 Sunsets on islands are just magical

 a trail of wood ants or termites in our church building.

 It went the full length of the room along the wall to the sacrament table

 They found their way to the wooden pulpit

 they are too tiny to see but they are moving around here. This is under the pulpit

 All cleaned up!

 Cycle of life. Coconut dropped and tree starts to grow from it.

 Always flowers

 walking past the ocean most mornings

 This is an example of the steepness of where the house are built. 

This picture doesn't tell the story very well. 

 Found a new and different fruit to try.  apra or kaimit 

It has the texture and taste of a plum but way different seeds. Very yummy!

 The middle part is like a jelly

Mapping Tobago

This week we spent a lot of time on the roads of Tobago. I am getting more accustomed and slightly familiar with a few roads but this is not Linden, Guyana. There are so many twists and turns and mountains and valleys that I think it may take a few more weeks if not months before we know Tobago well enough to not use the GPS, which it's ok to use it, I mean, why not use a very valuable tool if you have it. There is probably a gospel application here! Anyway, just to give you an idea when I say twists and turns, mountains and valleys,  Lombard Street in San Francisco really has nothing unique compared to most of the roads in Tobago. I hope that gives you a good picture to relate to.
Monday, we got together with Sister Cupid, I know, isn't that a great name? She is a strong member here and she agreed to be our guide for the day. The first adventure was trying to find HER! We had a starting point that we knew and then her directions....people don't know street names here and just go by turn right at the hospital or left at the Masseys. We went as far as we could figure out with her directions and then called her to guide us the rest of the way. We had to go down a very steep hill on a dirt road to find her and her neighbor who was our first stop.
Meet Alicia. She is a single women, you will hear that a lot. Like I said in one of the posts, the congregation at church is made up of single women, a few still with children, with Dave and one young man, the only other males in the room besides the four men on the "stand" We desperately need men to "show up" and assist in building the Kingdom. Back to Alicia.
I asked her to tell us her conversion story and it was very amazing. She saw the missionaries on the street after she had had a message from the Spirit that the "mormons" have the truth. She didn't know what or who "mormon" was but when the missionaries showed her the Book of Mormon she recognized it right away. There were other pretty interesting things too, She is a very spiritual woman. Another message she received was "the goal is to become like Me" which I thought was very powerful. Unfortunately she has not been to church for many years. I asked her why and it seems like it is often a transportation issue. Few people have vehicles and live too far to walk realistically. Of course they could do it and some do but that is the major obstacle for being active here. She really has quite a strong testimony though. We were happy to make her acquaintance and look forward to developing a sweet friendship.
We  went back and visited with Sister Henry and she was so happy we had brought Sister Cupid with us! We went to the Ramkissoons, He is a former branch president and now a counselor in the branch Presidency. Darling, wonderful man, we also met his wife and his son.
We went to a few others and they weren't home so we just "pinned" them so we would be able to find them on our own. Then we took Sister Cupid home. We found out she was a retired truck driver. She drove dump trucks and cement trucks and all kinds of trucks. Now she lives alone in a home she built herself and has quite a bit of land that she gardens. Fabulous woman! We were able to "pin" 7 homes.

Tuesday, we got to have Brother and Sister George, the parents of the Branch President, guide us around. We met Pauline. She has one young daughter and a husband who is not a member of the church. Lovely visit. We met Sister Mary. She is a single lady that lives in a pretty rundown wood home, who, we found out will turn 59 on my birthday! What a fun connection to have with her. She is delightful! We went to a few others and just "pinned" them because they weren't at home. We were able to "pin" 5 homes that day. So out of 57 households on the branch roster, we know where 17 of them are! I know that number doesn't add up but we had pinned a few people, like the Georges, LeAnna, and Camille before.

Wednesday, we flew to Trinidad to get all the stuff we left that we couldn't bring back with us when we moved over here, plus a computer monitor, a water filtration system, and some missionary tracts. The wonderful Williams prepared lunch for us and our taxi driver who is on the  high council. He was great! That afternoon, the Williams took us to "Pricesmart" which is like Costco and we just walked around and drooled here and there. We haven't seen that much nice stuff for many months. It was fun. We didn't buy much cause our suitcases were already quite full. We went to the Mall that was next to Pricemart and had a delicious pizza dinner and then we were blessed to be able to watch a man play the Steel Pan, which is unique to Trinidad and very amazing. I am so happy we got to do that and can check that off my "must do before we leave" list.

Thursday, we traveled home and unpacked and did some errands. Dave discovered that he could use the Church's Leadership/Clerk Resources (LCR) to mark addresses! Before, he pinned locations in Google maps and he would then use the GPS coordinates to place them on a Garmin map but with this resource it allowed him to pin locations in LDS tools which placed them on a map and connects a link to directions so anyone can find anyone that we are able to locate. He was so excited! One problem was that we still needed GPS coordinates so that meant we had to go back to every home we had pinned prior to pin it in LCR which would then link it to LDS tools. So guess what we did Friday?

Friday we began our re-pinning project, only this time we brought "Come Follow Me" manuals to give to the families. You see, many of these members have not been to Church for months or many years. We really love doing this. Finding people is very fun and exciting! There were a few people not home or a son or grandson there, that we gave the manuals too but we did get to meet a few more wonderful people.
Meet Janet. Another single mother with four grown children who live with her. We fell in love with her immediately! She owns five acres of steep land which she gardens. She has all kinds of trees, Mango, Cashew, Avocado, Cherry, Coconut, Golden Apple, Lemon, Orange. Plus she grows beans, tomatoes, okra and is clearing land to grow more...by herself with the help of her two sons.. Most of the women I meet just amaze me and make me feel very tired with how hard they have to work for their families, day in and day out. Her sons are very wonderful and helpful though. We gave her a manual and talked with her and her son for a while about the gospel and encouraged them to come back to church. Again it's a transportation challenge.
Right now I could stand on a soap box and declare to all of my Utah friends and family that they do not have one valid excuse for not ministering to each other. People here can hardly get themselves to church let alone watch over one another. Which is why there are so many less actives. We were talking with the Georges and they were saying " when the last senior couple was here, or when the missionaries were here, we did this and that" and I asked why did it stop? We are happy to support anything you want to do but we cannot be the foundation of all the activities that go on. We will be planning some linger longers and game nights and hopefully get things on a recurring schedule. We want to teach them to fish rather than giving them a fish which only lasts until we're gone.  We'd love to get something going with the YSA as well and even have combined events with the wards in Trinidad.
Saturday, was more re-pinning and meeting a few more members, giving them a "Come Follow Me" manual and inviting them to come back to Church. None of them said "no thanks, or leave us alone" and most said they would try...what is most important is that we invited them to study the gospel in their homes because that is where we learn the best.
Sunday, our 9am Church started at 9:30 but it was so joyful because 2 of the people we visited with came to Church! Mary came and Pauline came with her husband and daughter! So Cool!
We also got to go Sister Shirley's and Dave administered the Sacrament to her.
We feel like we got quite a bit accomplished this week and had some very sweet and joyful moments testifying  and sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 This is the darling grandson of Janet.....and darling Dave 

This bird is the Southern Lap wing

 They are all over the golf course and spook easily

 This is a white necked Jacobin, It looks like a hummingbird to me. 

I am fascinated by birds and may start a serious study of them when I get home.

 It posed very well for this picture but was actually quite a distance away,
and it was as tiny as a hummingbird.

 Here we have a grounds keeper on the golf course taking a break...it was 8 o'clock in the morning...

 We stopped by the road to look at a waterfall and these were in the little viewing shack....creepy. 

 I am not fascinated by bats, although most creatures are interesting in one way or another, 

and I do love how Dave's camera can get really close up shots.

 This is Sister Cupids home and farm...her home is the farthest one on the left 

 This is the home of Sister Alicia

 This is an avocado blossom on the tree on Sister Janet's farm

 avocados ready to pick

 These are cherries and they are some of the most sour things I have ever tasted! Not a favorite...

 This flower is growing along the side of the road.

It looks like those amaryllises we have at Christmas

 somehow seeds attached themselves to  power line wires and start to grow plants!

 More lovely flowers

 Remember these flowers are usually very tiny and Dave's camera reveals the beauty we can't normally see or we pass them by because they are so small. Also, some of the flowers in this record are considered weeds. But, there is beauty in things that may have a negative label and that beauty will be found if it is looked at with different eyes. I'm waxing philosophical.....

 Some kind of a water plant on our walk around the golf course

 The close up....probably from the hyacinth or lupine family...or not...what do I know....

 These battlements, if that's what they are called, are found many places on the island. 

This one is one of two on the golf course.

 This is a HUGE mimosa tree on the grounds of the King George Fort on the coast of 

Scarborough, Tobago 

 Cannon wall of the Fort

 View point from the fort. These folks love their brightly color homes.

 Engravings on a cactus at the Fort

 This is the ferry that transports people to and from Tobago to Trinidad daily

 On the way home from Church we saw some people at the shore and wondered what they were fishing for. We stopped and noticed that they don't have traditional fishing rods. Instead they use this ring and it works perfectly. We came just as they caught this fish!

Other fishing implements are a simple plastic soda bottle, a hook and some line. 

These boys wind the fishing line around the bottle then throw out the hook with chicken meat bait and it spins off the bottle into the ocean. So ingenuous!  

 All we had to do was sit down in chairs that were set up in the court area of the mall

 and we got an amazing free show!

The drums are molded with different depressions which make different notes 

and really beautiful music.