Tales of Trinidad

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Curacao office

We spend our days in the mission office in Curacao. Dave takes care of lost credit cards and 93 MSF (missionary support funds) cards, which he also loads with money each transfer, phone issues, paying rents on 55 properties in 6 different countries and 5 different currencies, keeping track of 15 credit cards in 6 different countries with 5 different currencies. Manages and maintains 30 cars in 6 different countries with 12 needing to be sold and 11 new cars replacing them.

I am involved in immigration: requesting, compiling and mailing documents for new missionaries. Ordering mission supplies. Housing: renewals, terminations, relocations, inspections and repairs. Compiling mission newsletter.
We haven't done any Zone Conference lunches or transfers yet which involves getting missionaries to and from the airport, making sure they have money for luggage etc.
Most of these things are done once a month but everyday presents a new challenge to figure out and solve.
As you can surmise, it's quite a bit to do...there used to be 10 couples sharing all these duties with the others like medical and travel that we have not taken on, let alone, helping the young missionaries and some members with any emergencies or needs that come up. Need I say, WE NEED SENIOR COUPLES!
Our 18 months will be up on May 5th but we told Pres. Baird that we would extend one month more to help out and hope that another couple will arrive before we go but that is not happening. Now, He'll have to do some juggling with the senior couples he has to fill in the very critical holes.
Honestly, if you have just 6 or 9 months to give, that would be so welcome I'm sure in any mission in the world. It takes 3 to 4 months to get visas but that could be done ahead of time.
The week went by rather quickly though. We went to church on Sunday and did the best we could with singing the hymns in Spanish and greeting people. Maybe this next Saturday, we'll drive around the island a little and learn more about it.
It is nice to drive on good roads on the right side of the road too!

Frosting Valentine cookies that Sister Baird made for the missionaries to eat and give out to people. It's fun to get to know a new batch of amazing people!

Starting with me going left is Elder Jones, Elder Flynn, Sister Scott, Sister Patterson, Sister Baird, Elder Stauffer, Elder Hollingshead, Elder Frandsen and Elder Wardle.

The gated entrance to our apartment

Our apartment

The church which is only a short 5 minute drive away

Our office. It's the corner windows above the two pink caricatures.

New flowers to take pictures of...

Cute sign which doesn't require any language...

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Two Weeks of Crazy!

Five of our six children and their spouses came on Jan. 28th and we played non stop until they left on Feb 4th! It was so fantastic! We love how much they enjoy being together and how accommodating they are with one another, figuring out what activities to do and where to eat etc. Unfortunately, Dave and I had some kind of sickness, chest cold, coughing, and headaches so we weren't at our best but we kept up with them mostly. There was a lot of hiking to waterfalls and jumping into pools, glass bottom boat, snorkeling, tracking down Cayman and eating out. We had a little fender bender on one of the excursions but it didn't stop us for too long. It takes a lot of time traveling on crazy winding roads to get places and makes for some long days so we didn't get a lot of game playing in because we all were pretty much tuckered out by the end of the days activities. The time went by very quickly and we were so grateful for their visit! There were so many pictures taken and I only put in a few.
We said goodbye to our branch family on Sunday, Feb. 2nd. I was happy our kids got to meet some of the people we have grown to love so much here.
After the kids left we had a day and a half to pack up the condo and load the car on the ferry to go to Trinidad and then fly on to Curacao. It was pretty rough going with us still being sick but we got her done. The ferry ride over was surprisingly easy and shorter than we had been expecting.
We got the car unloaded and rested the rest of the day and flew into Curacao on Friday afternoon.
Saturday was spent unpacking, finding where to put stuff, doing laundry, which I now have to hang out to dry because there is no dryer, shopping and preparing food for the week.
Our little cottage is very nice and I think we will be quite comfortable here for the remaining 3 and half months of our mission. It's the first place on our mission where we can drink the water straight from the tap. No more bottled water!
We went to our first Sacrament meeting today. We needed to wear earphones to understand the talks and we did the best we could singing the hymns in Spanish. Hopefully we'll get better and better each week.

Twelve crazy people jumping!

The ladies

The men

The group at Fort Bennett

The group at Arno Vale

I believe these are the Castara Falls

The kids all went in together and got us a moveable picture frame that they can download pictures in real time! It's awesome! It will help with the last few months we have being away. We so love these wonderful, amazing people, and the Bouys at home.