Another week of adventure.  As I am writing we are gearing up for our first tropical storm/hurricane.  Right now it is a tropical storm, but for the Virgin Islands we have a hurricane warning.   We will let you all know how that comes out.  We have been working on the branch membership records.  We have found 4 families that have moved out.  Had some great conversations with some members who have not been attending.  We have even sent out emails and letters to those who we do not have addresses for or no working phone.  The streets here are not really named or posted, so when we have a “real” address, it is still hard to find.  Most just have PO Box numbers.  Which is hard because some companies will not ship to a PO Box.  I have tried!  Sometimes it is easier to order something on line and have it shipped here, instead of buying it locally.  Wish Del Taco would ship overnight! Tee Hee Hee.

We didn’t go shopping today, because everyone and their brother will be shopping to get ready for the storm.  We are really set, have water, flashlights, and a stove that is gas.  So we can still cook.  Our landlord just called down and said when the electricity goes out so does the water in the shower.  So we hurried and took an early shower.  We have shutters put up on all the windows and everything is tied down.  Even if we don’t get much storm, it has been fun to get ready for it.  Our landlord said he would lots sooner get ready and the storm fizzle out than to have a storm hit and not be ready for it.

I am getting really good at making salsa.  Since we have mangoes (the season is just ending for them) and lots of avocadoes, I am getting pretty good at making a mean avocado dip.  The avocadoes here do not turn brown after they sit for a while, which is good since there is only 2 of us and no office to take it to share.

                          

                   

              Our Drive way                                                                               Our House

 

 

                       

 

Moms yummy dip   

 

          

                                                                     See the angle                                                                                    

Good Morning! It is the 6^th of October.  How time flies when you are having fun!! Talk about saying Good Morning.  If you don’t address locals with “Good Morning”, “Good Afternoon”, “Good Evening”, or “Good Night” they will ignore you.  We had an investigator tell us when he was a young boy he forgot to say to his Grandmother, “good morning”.  She gave him a sound spanking.  He went home and told his mom that grandmother had given him a spanking because he forgot to say “good morning”.  His mother gave him another spanking!  That is how important it is for us to address them.  Also if it is evening you say “good night” as a salutation, not as a good bye.

There is a cycle of poverty here that really is sad, and I don’t know how we can help, except one person at a time. The woman seem to be just beaten down, no self-esteem, they don’t think they can do better than what they are.

Conference was super different for us.  I really missed the family and our waffles with strawberries!  Conference started here at 12:00 noon.  So we went to the meetinghouse.  I am not sure if we told you that our chapel is being renovated so we meet above a local bank.  

This is a picture of our meetinghouse.  It will have a steeple on it after they are done.

 

So at the bank, we meet upstairs, we have a large room that is designated as the chapel with 3 rooms that open off of the chapel; one for the clerk’s office, one for the young women room, a room they use for a teaching station. We also have another large area although it is smaller than the chapel and it is designated as the Primary room.  With an office for the branch president and another room for the nursery, off of the Primary room.  There is a room between the chapel and Primary room that they use for the Priesthood and Sunday School classes for the youth.

 
Now back to conference.  They had set up the screen in the chapel, with another computer set up in Priesthood room for the Spanish speakers. I have to also tell you that all chairs are set up for Sacrament meeting in the chapel.  You take a chair with you when you go to Sunday School class or Priesthood.  (Gospel Doctrine and Relief Society are both taught in the chapel). These are the folding chairs that are padded, but after 4 hours they don’t feel padded!!  We didn’t have very many people on Saturday.  Just the poor people that don’t have computers on internet.  The branch president didn’t even come.  We did have one of the Branch presidencies as he doesn’t have a computer or internet.  Sunday we had more people come.  Some came late about 1 hour and then we have a pot luck.  It is a problem after because they all want a ride home.  Many people do not drive or have automobiles, I think the gas is very expensive here as well and they may not be able to afford to buy gas.  We are paying about $4.78, but if we buy it on Wednesday or Saturday it is $4.48.  (We are not reimbursed for the gas we spend) All the core members stayed home and watched conference at home. Some brought food, but didn’t stay.
 Our Spanish members stayed and we had a good time visiting with them while we ate lunch.  I am just saying that I was glad to not have to sit anymore after conference was over. But the messages were wonderful and we felt truly blessed to be here in St Thomas working in the Lord’s vineyard

 

Last two pictures are of our apartment.  We have this cute little office at the front of out apartment. The other pic is of our porch.  The lady with the hat is an investigator, the other lady is a member that we are trying to get her to make the commitment to go to the temple.

 

September 29, 2014

September is quickly closing.  Wednesday is the first of October.  Hard to believe that we have been on our mission for a month.  Life is Utah seems like forever ago.  We Face Time with every one of our kids but Elizabeth and we called and talked with her, last night.  It is fun to hear how everyone’s week went.  We just need to learn not to all talk at once!

We had a typical missionary week, we had two of our lessons a “no show”.  One wouldn’t commit to our coming over again.  So that makes us sad L. But we taught 3 lessons and challenged another for baptism and she said yes.  So we will see how that goes.  She has lots of questions.

Today is our P-day, so it is laundry, vacuuming, cleaning, gosh if I didn’t know better I would think I was home.  Steve is vacuuming the car, we get a lot of sand from riding home from the beach. But I think the water exercise is helping my knee a little.

The weather seems a little cooler.  We aren’t sitting in front of the fans anymore and we even ate breakfast outside this morning.  We have little breeze which we usually don’t get where our apartment is, so that cools things down a little.

We have been invited to two member’s homes for dinner.  That really made us feel good.  We asked them to help with the missionary work and pray for missionary experiences.  The youth are starting to give us back the Book of Mormons we asked them to write their testimonies in.  Some amazing testimonies!

We are getting to know the members of the branch.  We have some West Indians that have been members since 1980’s.  They are such stalwarts.  We have a group of ladies that only speak Spanish.  Elder Berger always has fun with them as he tries to learn some Spanish.  One lady just smiles and him. I wonder how much they get out of sacrament meeting…but they have a special Sunday school class that is taught in Spanish, they are truly Gods daughters. Our core leadership is all whites from the states that are working here. We are praying that we can baptized locals who will be able to be in leadership roles.

That is our news for this week.  We need to get groceries today. We found that it is a shopping event, since there is no one store that is generally cheaper.  Each store seems to have some things that are way cheaper than the others.  So it makes it worth the going from store to store.  We found some wheat free cookies for Steve - $8.00 for 12 small cookies.  Only for special days!

Driving here has not gotten any easier.  Seems like everything on the island is slow until they get behind the steering wheel of a car!  Then it is the Indianapolis speedway!

 

On the point of Megan's Bay

 

 

 

Our landlords

Yummy banana's outside our apartment

 

 

 

This is our first P-day.  Last Monday we went with the Relief Society President to visit some of the inactives.  It is hard here because they don’t have addresses.  The streets are sometimes named but no one goes by their address name.  We have a lot of poor people here.  They come to St Thomas because there is more opportunity to get work here.  So they come from Tortola, Santa Dominica, Dominic, and other little islands or keys.  Most of the poor are West Indians.  They talk like Jamaicans, whatever it is they talk very fast, very, very fast.  We have spent a lot of time visiting the inactives and now we are going to start visiting the actives.  We want the actives to help us find contacts so we can teach.  We gave 4 first discussions last week and are following them up this week. 

Our last contact we talked to on Saturday night; he couldn’t believe that we would have a prophet today and he wouldn’t have known about it.  He had to talk to his minister about that.  So I am sure his minister will give him a lot about the church.

We do have a small group of LDS sisters that are Spanish speaking.  They come to Sacrament meeting – not sure how much they get out of that, but then they have their own Sunday school lesson.  Sometimes they stay for Relief Society and sometimes they don’t.

It is expensive to have automobiles here.  So many walk or ride what they call safaris.  They are a flat bed pickup truck that they modify so people can get on and off.  They have about 4 rows with about 4 people sitting on a row.  That is expensive as well - $2 one way, so if a family is coming that could add up fast.

My companions says I need to say something so here it is something. I have told my Mission president that I know that we are to work here in St Thomas.  Last week our President said that he bears witness that we are to be here.  One of my worries is for me to make a mistake and not help people come unto the Savior.

 The people here are wonderful just getting along and living.  Most are always smiling and seem to be enjoying life.  I am not sure how they can live here.  Food, gas, water and much more are so expensive.   We have a lady in the branch that lives as far away from the chapel as possible, her faith is wonderful. She never misses Sacrament, I think we all can learn I know that I have by her example

Here are some more pictures of our beautiful island

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sept 14th
What a wonderful day.
         Our first sacrament services in St Thomas Branch.  Lots of different types of people.  We had about 50 from the ward. There was a ship in port today that had about 50 people attend our sacrament.  So  we had to talk in Sacrament for the first time in our branch to about 100 people.  Took every chair in the building.  Lots of people from Utah, it was fun to talk to them. Interrupted the Gospel doctrine class.  All of the priesthood  were together for  class all 10 of us.  Kathy was in RS and there were about 20 sisters
Our date book has someone to see every day this week.  It is going to be a great week

August 18th.
We may need to catch everyone one up with what is happening.  Yesterday we talked in Church.  It was so good to see family, friends, old students, and both our old bosses were there.  It was so amazing to look out and see those wonderful people who have meant so much in our lives.  We hope that something we said would touch their lives. . 

Last Thursday we Skyped with our Zone Leaders, he happens to be the 2^nd Councilor in the Mission Presidency, and his wife.  They will be picking us up at the airport on Saturday evening September 6^th in Puerto Rico.  We will be staying the weekend there and then on Monday, fly to St Thomas where our new apartment awaits us.  He told us that our apartment has a beautiful view of the bay. He explained our duties and responsibilities.  We will be the only missionaries on the island and so we will be doing everything.  Not tracking, but teaching, training, and supporting the branch.  They have about 170 members, with about 70 attending every Sunday, unless there is a cruise ship in port and then we may have 150.  

We are so excited to get started.  In 14 days we will be in the MTC.

Today we are starting the packing.  We still need one more large suitcase.  We are allowed to have  2 large suitcases each, as well as a carry on and personal case.  Steve is getting the garage ready for us to move our things out so that Victoria can move her things in.   We have lived here 23 years, it is amazing what we have accumulated!!  After the kids got what they wanted, we have made several runs to the DI and the dump!!! There might be room for a car once we are done! (It is an oversized 2 car garage! and some things will be staying inside the house) :)