4 Weeks in Paradise

 Bonjour Amies,

I chuckle as I say this, but we were put under a heat advisory by our area leaders this week.  Which means, I got to send out reminders to our missionaries about how to avoid heat exhaustion and how to recognize symptoms.  The temperature is always in the mid to high 80s, rains pretty much daily but not for too long, Sun  shines daily, and humidity is 100%.  It’s island life and we love  it!  Doesn’t mean everything is perfect, but the Lord makes up the difference.

We are in another round of Zone Conferences, so our mission leaders are traveling on the French side and this weekend at District Conference in St. Vincent.  Barbados is its own district and zone, so ours will be coming in 2 weeks.  For us, we had to prepare an intro video for all the missionaries on all the other islands that we haven’t met and then had to prep an additional video to highlight preparation for hurricanes and their first aid kit.

Transfers are coming up at the end of the month, so Doug is knee deep in monthly reports and extracting all the historical knowledge from Sister Newell’s brain as much as possible as she is in her last 6 weeks of mission life. Transfers are getting extremely difficult as Air Antilles  is still on strike and now are being liquidated.  Anyone want to buy an airline?  The Caribbean could really use an inner island carrier that’s reliable! 

Reports

This week one of the branches held a youth camp.  There were 9 youth there from ages 10-17.  They were discussing the importance of the Book of Mormon.  I got asked to help assist Sister Stoffers & Newell in providing an hour of activity for the group.  Our first activity was based on 1 Nephi 1:20 ….. behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance. We talked about how we’ve seen the hand of the Lord in our personal lives and the tender mercies we’ve seen.  We then traced our hands on card stock and wrote all the tender mercies that we’ve recognized on those hands, cut them out & laminated them to display.  As we recognized our tender mercies, it was very humbling to connect that we have all been engraven on our Savior’s hands.  His arms are always outstretched and his hands are symbolic of his mercy.  We left them with those thoughts to ponder and then the Branch President prepared them lunch. These kids had been in an hot concrete church building for the bulk of the day, so our after lunch activity was water balloon volleyball & sponge dodgeball with water.  Just the activity to cool them off, get them moving, and end the day.  They were indeed fed spiritually and physically!

All the senior missionaries got together on Friday night for games & snacks at the Kirkham’s.  Super fun group.  Next morning, We all met up in Speightstown at the jetty to snorkel and dive for sand dollars.  It was a beautiful day. 

Speightstown:  Good vibes

The schools of fish  were incredible, sea turtles and eels.  The rest of the day was prepping for the next week which includes grocery shopping.  Some struggle that things aren’t quite the same as home, but we’ve just kept the attitude that it’s island life so KISS (keep it simple sister)! 

We are still working on the Caribbean indexing project.  It’s coming along.  I had a great experience today as I was helping Sean learn to index.  He’s a new member in the past 15 months.  He was getting it down pretty good, but asked me why we do indexing.  It was a great missionary opportunity to talk about the Plan of Salvation and the role of eternal families.  He then asked how he could do his personal family history.  It was so cool ! I was able to help him start recording some of his family history in his tree and we talked about how genealogy work, the temple, and families all work together.  His face lit up and he was so excited to learn more.  He’s going to work on getting more family information this week and I’m going to help him input it next Sunday.

Sending prayers back home for Sam & baby Hudson who’s trying to come early despite several days in the hospital to slow it down.  Thanks to my tribe for stepping in for me.  I got a text that said, “your friends are so kind.”  They are the best a girl could ask for! Also prayers for my sis who broke her leg while in Greece and had to come home & get surgery.  Also prayers for Connie who’s had some health stuff as well.  We  you all & pray for you.  If there is something particular you need us to pray for, please let us know.  Our hearts mourn with you Riss’ on the passing of Laura’s mom. She was a sweet mom & grandma! Good luck  this week to Mckay & Sydney who kick off another school year!  Bless those sweet grand babies who have our hearts !  Miss those little faces, but sure appreciate their mommas for supplying us with pics & videos to keep us included in their lives. 

That’s our week! 

Life is better with sandy toes!  Come & see!