Barbados Week Review: August 20-27

 How can it be that another week has come and gone?  Time is so precious, so we must make sure to make as many memories as possible.  Shout out to my mom who had a birthday  this past week!   you!  Great job, Adam, for your hat trick in  game!   Can’t wait to see Sophie in her dance class this week.  Also, Cami was adorable dancing to the music at the BYU soccer game and showing me her baby as she awaits her baby brother.  Miss those cuties!

Been a busy week helping missionaries, but so fun at the same time.  Doug loves going out with them teaching lessons and got to do that this week, which is thrilling.  I get the texts and phone calls to reassure them they aren’t dying and everything is going to be just fine.  Bites were the biggest thing this week as our missionaries were doing service on their various islands and got into ants  before they knew what happened!  We did a lot of first aid kit checking, so everyone should be stocked with their cortisone & Benadryl now.  We’ve got 72 new children and it’s awesome!  The Barbados elders love coming in and swapping stories with Elder Ellis!

Monday evening, all the senior missionaries got together and assembled food baskets for the local hospital.  Through generous donations from our local supermarket Massey’s, we were able to complete 72 kits.  These kits include: flour, rice, noodles, oats, crackers, canned  and meats, peanut butter, canned beans, canned vegetables, lotion, deodorant,  soap, wet wipes, bleach, laundry detergent, & toilet paper .  These essentials are given at discharge to elderly patients or new moms in need to get them started at home.  It was a lot of work, but we made it fun and finished in a few hours.  The elders came by and jumped into help with clean up.  

FHE Service Night

Sister Kirkham, Humanitarian Missionary

Drop off at Hospital

Every Tuesday morning, we have an office planning meeting.  There’s a lot of coordination that has to happen, especially on Zone Conference weeks and transfer weeks.  We have our mission secretary, our financial secretary, our travel & immigration secretary, our car & apartment secretary, and mission health advisor.  We each have our duties, but also swing over and help out.  Our outgoing financial secretary & I completed apartment checks and we did the food shopping for Zone Conference this week for example.  We also received a sister from the  Philippines this week and our mission leaders were in Grenada , so Airport runs had to be coordinated. We also tried to do our best to figure out transfer week logistics, as we’ve got 8 missionaries arriving this coming week and that means orientation and lots of plane reservations within the Caribbean.  Again, anyone want to buy an airline?  It would really help!!

BBM Office Team

Thursday was interview day for Barbados missionaries, devotional, and Zone Conference prep.  This week we did devotional in French & English.  We listened to Elder Christofferson’s address to the 2023 New Mission Leaders at the MTC on the power of the Book of Mormon.  Doug & I both completed our reading of the book again this month and bear our witness with his that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God!  It is another testament of Jesus Christ.  His gospel has been restored and it is truly the best news ever.  The Book of Mormon is a companion of the Bible, but was written for our day to help guide us and give us answers to the questions of our hearts!  It is TRUE!  The Holy Ghost bears witness to this truth!

English Side

French side

Friday was Zone Conference.  It was our first, so not sure what to expect.  The senior missionaries were in charge of lunch and snacks.  We did Cafe Rio salads and everyone baked desserts.  Huge hit of course and very few leftovers!  We had great discussions on receiving a personal witness of the Book of Mormon and being a personal witness of Jesus Christ.  It was wonderful being with this Zone.  Love  these missionaries!  We did a special musical number for our mission leaders: the Sisters in Zion/Army of Helaman medley but with the new missionary words for the sisters.  What a privilege to be a missionary and be an ambassador for our Savior here in Barbados !

Barbados Zone Elders

Barbados Zone Sisters

Saturdays are normally our p-days, but there were too many things happening so we skipped it.  Sister Stoffers & Newell had been planning a clothing swap for a bit, so we helped pull it off Saturday.  With 3 branches on the island, that is a lot of coordination.  We had lots of participation & everyone that came went home with bags filled AND we still have a truckload that will be donated to the local shelter here on Monday.  

Clothing Swap, it was HOT!

Afterwards the branch had a wonderful BBQ (not the American  way), but there were hotdogs, corned beef sandwiches, Little Caesar’s pizza, and chicken (a Bajan staple).  They also always have macaroni pie, yellow rice & gravy, and hot sauce at any large gathering.  They have this tiny pepper  that they use & when it says hot  it means it will burn you up like a fire in hell!  I do not partake, but Doug does in small increments.  After this fun activity, we were able to witness the baptism of two new sisters.  Many of the branch members stayed and supported.  It was a wonderful experience to watch these sisters make covenants with God that will hopefully bless their lives and future generations here in Barbados.  We ended the evening with a beautiful sunset appreciating our Heavenly Father’s creations.

Pebbles Beach Sunset

Funny Barbados quirk: check the picture & see if you notice anything:

Bajans almost always back into any parking space.   No idea why!

Have we told you how beautiful Barbados is lately?  Are you sick of it?  We hope not and hope that one day in your near future that you will want to come visit us and let us show you this beautiful place.  On our short 5 minute walk home and directly across the street is this beautiful church built in the 1850s.  St. Mathias Church is an Anglican church.  They have the most beautiful organ and choir.  On Sundays and Wednesdays, we can hear them and they sound glorious.  It is often startling to hear many of the tunes from our own hymnbook like Praise to the Man and Elders of Israel as of late, yet the words are different.

St. Michael's Church 1850

Also, don't forget our fun neighbors!  Doug had fun as they walked him home last week. Movie is attached.  

Love and miss y'all!

Life is better with sandy toes!