Another week in the life of a Senior Missionary Couple

Another week in the life of a Senior Missionary Couple. 

Our weather is just boring.  We are between 77-84 degrees.  A cloud will come over and rain, and then move on, but the temperature stays about the same.  So we are getting use to not having to worry about a jacket or even an umbrella.  We are enjoying eating outside on our little patio.  Our landlords cropped the trees, so now we can really see the whole side of the island.  We don’t seem to have any problems with mosquitoes.  We still wear insect repellant when we are down near the projects.  But here on the north side of the island the people take to heart not to have standing water and places that would bred mosquitoes. 

We were in Kmart the other day and across the store we hear, “Elder, Elder”.  A lady came running up and said that she had just arrived on our island and that she had been having the missionaries teach her on Tortola.  So we have been finish up teaching her.  She left her significant other on the other island. They are not married and the missionaries had told her that she would have to get married to be baptized. She went back to Tortola last weekend.  It will be interesting to see if she comes back.  One day we were teaching her and her Auntie and her cousin and 3 children came in and we just kept teaching.  The children really enjoyed it.

We are still teaching our 3 young men.  They are friends of the Markhams, they are a family here in the branch, with a son the same age as the boys.  The one has been to church the last 3 Sundays.  The other one came this last Sunday.  And the 3^rd one, didn’t clean his bedroom so mom made him stay home and do laundry!  They are a fun group.  This week we are teaching the Word of Wisdom and Chasity.  We will see how that goes.

Elder Berger is getting better and better all the time with his Spanish.  He taught a sister about prophets and even gave the closing prayer in Spanish.  The sweet sister had tears in her eyes.  It really means a lot that he works hard to speak their language.

Today is P-day, so we need to go grocery shopping, one of my favorite things to do and the least favorite thing for Elder Berger!

This a picture of the newly baptized member Lynn, with her daughter Laura and Laura's boyfriend - Kyan, and her son Matthew and grandson Jayden.

Working as a missionary

My grandson, James asked me, “What would your life be like if you didn’t have the gospel”.  I have pondered on that question a lot as I go forward and teach the gospel.  I feel like I would be a ship without a rudder.  Going in circles and not really knowing which direction to go.  Knowing something was missing, but unsure what it was.  Looking but not finding that thing that I felt was not there or missing in my life.

Missionary work is a little different than what I was expecting.  The gospel is such a part of our lives, and we want to share it so much, we know what a difference it would make in their lives.  But they have their agency and can choose to accept it or not.  Our responsibility is to make sure they have enough knowledge to make that decision. 

People are looking for the truth and because they are looking, many other people have told them things that they have taken as truths.  Many times we have to teach them what they thought as a truth is just the philosophies of men.  People don’t like change, so sometimes it is hard for them to put aside what they have been taught, maybe all of their lives, to something that may seem a little foreign to them.  I really see the concept of line upon line and precept upon precept. 

We have been very busy, I go to bed at night wonder where did the day go.  We have less actives that we are fellowshipping, we have people who are just looking at our church, and we have those that we are teaching the lessons to.  It is fun to visit with people and try to bring the spirit with you, so that they can feel and remember how the spirit feels.  We have got several people to come back to church.  Our concern is that they have not been given a calling and so now some of them are getting more sporadic in their church attendance.  I didn’t think we would be teaching the concept to shadow leadership.  I don’t think they have heard the phrase, “when the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies”.  They just assume they can’t do it.  And the people think that they can’t do it, so they don’t try, because maybe they tried and it wasn’t perfect, or it was a struggle, so everyone just let them give up.

We do have the concern for our Spanish speaking members.  They do try to speak English, it is the older sisters, but they struggle.  So how do you give a calling to work in the Primary to a sister who doesn’t speak English to children who do not speak Spanish?  Or to teach in Relief Society to sisters who do not speak Spanish?  She could shadow another teacher or work in Family History with another sister, so she could help the Spanish speaking, but again that is a concept that our little branch won’t embrace.

On a more positive note, it is fun to teach the gospel to those that you see the light come on in their eyes.  They remember!  We are teaching a sister who joined the church very recently and we are getting her ready for the temple.  We taught her how to use the scripture footnotes to find additional scriptures.  She did not know that when she goes to the temple she would get to wear sacred garments.  Everything we talk about, she grasps ahold and accepts it straight way.  She is trying to get her sons interested in the gospel and if we follow the spirit, I think it might happen?  That is so rewarding, nothing takes its place and you can’t explain it.

Last night we visited a lady with 3 children.  When we came the children came running and gave us hugs.  It made it seem like we were home, getting hugs from our grandchildren. 

So today is Tuesday and we go to visit a sister that struggles.  She lives in an apartment building, with no electricity.  She has to have someone bring her water in gallon jugs because she cannot get it herself, or she collects the rain that fails on her little porch.  I wish I had a magic wand and could make her life better, but it comes down to choices.  We have grown to love her, she is a sweet daughter of God. She is articulate and educated. 

Last night we taught a young man who just turned 12, about the Aaronic Priesthood.  He acted so positive.  We hope that his mother can get him to church so that he can receive the priesthood.  They have no car and to get to church they have to take a taxi or a safari.  She doesn’t work, so money is really tight.  Our mission rule is we cannot take them to church, but we can take them home.  So that is what we tell them.

I must close, it is a very busy day!!!

Movie time

 A deserted beach and a pirate ship might be something you’d expect to find on the island of St. Thomas 200 years ago but for us, it was all part of a day’s work.

 It all started when our Mission President, President Boucher emailed us and asked if we could help a movie company from the church do some filming on the island.

They were doing a film about the young man who translated the Bible into Portuguese. They were looking for a beach that had no buildings that they could film on. They also needed actors.”

We soon became casting directors enlisting the Markham family and the Hale family, all local members of the church, as actors. We met the film crew at the airport on a Wednesday afternoon and made arrangements for work to begin the next morning. The actors met the crew early Thursday morning and they were all decked out in 17th century costumes.  The set designer brought five large suitcases and everyone got a costume...right down to period shoes (cute black flower and lace on the boy’s shoes).   

 Members of the Markham and Hale families show off the period costumes they wore for the filming

We had an appointment so we had to leave for a while.  Meanwhile, the film crew and actors headed off to a deserted beach we had scouted out for them before their arrival. It was hard to get down to the beach if you didn’t know where it is, you would miss it, but it was perfect for the filming. No tourists! Which is amazing this time of year. More filming was done at an old church located on the island. 

 The following day the film crew rented a “pirate ship” and went to sea for more filming. They took  the pirate flag down for us and the (crew) had period costumes so they wore them.

The film crew used a second boat owned by Brother Pickett, a local member, which raced up from behind then circled the pirate ship, for about 2 hours. It was all so fascinating. The film crew was back on a plane that afternoon headed home.  It all happened so fast and was just a neat experience.  We will never look at a film again in the same way.