THERE IS A GREAT WORK TO DO!

It's hard to believe that it's been two weeks since my last post. There is so much work to do in Chaguanas, Trinidad, West Indies that we are kept busy from early morn until late at night but we love it and are having some great experiences. We are having some frustrating ones, too. The traffic is NUTS, contacts don't keep their appointments, baptisms are postponed as Satan works his devious plan to thwart the growth of God's Kingdom, and other things go wrong (like being lost in the crazy streets of Trinidad) but we're not going to dwell on the negative. We want to emphasize the positive so we'll share some of our special experiences and add some pictures as well.

We've met some wonderful people. The members of the branch have become just like family. They all loved the Leavitts, the couple we replaced, but have accepted us, too. I've already taught a Relief Society lesson and Truman has already given a Sunday School lesson. We both have assignments to speak in church but not on the same day. We attended a Friday night activity Game Night and had a great time. It was on Halloween which isn't really celebrated here. I volunteered to make cookies for it because I wanted an excuse to bake my traditional sugar cookies that I make and decorate every Halloween with my grandchildren. I didn't have any orange food coloring or a pumpkin cookie cutter so I just made circles which I cut out with the lid of the PAM and added sprinkles after they were frosted. Even if I had that stuff it wouldn't have been the same because I didn't have my grandchildren. The Elders were are assigned to have taken us to most of the active members houses and we can actually find our way by ourselves to a few of them. We've been invited to dinner to 4 of the member's houses. You'll have to be sure to check out my slide show called "Divali" to see pictures of two of those dining experiences.

We are also working with some wonderful investigators. We are assigned to two areas of Trinidad - Couva and Chaguanas. There are two sets of elders that work in Chaguanas and one set that work in Couva. The Couva elders had two baptisms last weekend. They were both young girls who have other family members who were baptized previously. The elders have been teaching them for a while. The baptisms were done in a cement font located outside the Couva chapel. They were special experiences. I played the piano for both of them and Elder Leishman gave a talk at one of them. Pictures of these baptisms are on the slide show called "Trindad, the beginning", meaning the beginning of our time in Trindad. We have been working with the Couva elders with a young mother and her son - Diane and Jameil - since our 1st week in Trinidad. She knows the church is true and wants to be baptized but her father and mother are trying to stop her. Her 14 year old son wants to be baptized so bad. Every time he prays at one of our meetings in their home he asks Heavenly Father to please let them be baptized. Tonight we set a date with her for Nov. 11th but Diane is still hesitant. I would ask that all who read this please pray for her to be able to take the leap of faith that she needs to at this time. She wants to be baptized on one of the beaches when she is baptized. Since we are serving by any beaches, I wasn't sure we would ever get a chance to be a part of a beach baptism. Now it looks like it might happen after all. I will put up pictures when her baptism becomes a reality.

The Chaguanas elders have been working hard and have several families that they are teaching. Last Sunday there were 14 investigators at church. That was an amazing day. One family is really ready but there is a problem that comes up a lot in the Caribbean - couples are married to each other even after having lived together for many years and have children together. So before they can be baptized, they have to get married. One family needs to have the grandparents and the parents get married but they really want to be baptized. They have 4 children, 3 are over 8. Another family of 14 who came from Guayana to work in Trinidad really want to be baptized as well. That will be a really big splash if that one comes about. We have lots to look forward to in the next few weeks. I'll keep you posted.



There is great work to do in Trinidad and we are glad to be a part of it. Hurrah for Israel!