Winter brings wild and ferocious waves on the beaches.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Don't let this slideshow fool you. we really are missionaries and work hard at it each day.
We go walking on a beach every morning except Sunday.
The pictures in the slideshow were taking a few days ago.
We went for our usual walk and found wild waves crashing on the beach.

We've been here 3 months now and hadn't seen anything like it.

We asked a local about it when we saw him surfing on a different beach.
He said it is typical for the water to be wild in winter.
(Winter here in the West Indies doesn't come close to the kind of weather
we usually associate with winter.)

CHRISTMAS IN TOBAGO 2009

Our Christmas day service project was visiting
a children's home in Tobago called the SylPhil House.
It is home to 26 children from ages 9 months to 18 years.
Phillip and Sylvia started the home over 55 years ago.
Sylvia is deceased now but Phil has a daughter, Susan, who helps him run it now.

This first picture is of the elders decorating sugar cookies.

We took 3 dozen cookies along with two boxes of food items

and a laundry basket filled with a gift for each of the children.
We purchased crayons and coloring books, reading books, and journals to give to the children.
On Christmas Eve, the elders helped us wrap each of the gifts.

Christmas morning the elders came over for breakfast.
In this picture Elder Chambers is trying to beat Elder Jensen in a contest of
"Let's see who can eat the most pancakes".
Elder Jensen outdistanced Elder Chambers by two pancakes.
The picture below is Elder Duncan doing the dishes while the other are still eating.

After breakfast and the cleanup we headed over to the SylPhil House
to take our gifts and to sing them some Christmas Carols.
Turns out, we were the ones entertained by a small band made up of some of the children.
There were actually about 10 playing instruments which included recorders,
bass guitar, drums, keyboard, clarinets,
and the star of the show, the steel pan.

On the porch of the house are Santa's helpers -
Elder Duncan, Elder Linton, Elder Chambers, and Elder Jensen.

After entertaining us, the children went outside to have fun in the sun.
They had a blow-up swimming pool that could hold about a dozen of the smaller children.

They were shoulder to shoulder in the pool, but they didn't care.
It was a HOT day, so, as long as they were wet and cool, nothing else mattered.
You can see the pool getting fuller and fuller behind Elder Linton.

The elders were tempted to join them
but they obeyed mission rules and stayed out of the water.

Going there was a WONDERFUL experience for us and we look forward to going back soon.

10th Transfer - Oct.28 to Dec09

This was our 2nd transfer in Tobago. (For those of you who don't speak the language of missionaries, a transfer is 6 weeks. Missionaries think in terms of transfers not months.)

In this picture are Elders Ackeman and Larson at their last baptism before the transfer ended. They baptized the neices of a couple who had been baptized in August. Kerron and Natasha are guardians of the girls since the death of their parents.


Two new elders were placed on the island, Elder Jensen and Elder Linton. Elder Jensen had been serving in Chaguanas, our first mission area. Elder Linton was in Guyana at the same time we were and was among those of us 'detained' in the police station.

In this picture with Elder Leishman are our daughter, Jacquie, and our grandson, Dan, with Elders Linton and Jensen with Beverly Pantin, who was their first baptism on Tobago.

Jacquie, Dan, and Helaman came to Tobago for a week at Thanksgiving time. We had a great time showing them around the island and playing in some of the many beaches.



We had a traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving Day. Jacquie, Dan, and Hela were still with us and so were Elders Jensen and Linton.

We were joined also by Tim and Lizzie Gattin from Oregon who were vacationing on Tobago during the holiday. Tim was a missionary in the West Indies 15 years ago having served in Trinidad and Guyana but had visited Tobago with his parents when they came to pick him up after his mission. When they came to church the Sunday before Thanksgiving after seeing the elders walking around downtown, we invited them to share Thanksgiving dinner with us. (Tim was the one taking the picture.)

A NEW ASSIGNMENT

By Sept. 30th, thanks to the government of Guyana,
Elder Leishman and I,

along with 36 other missionaries,
found it necessary to leave Guyana.
It was a very emotional time for us.
We had grown to love the people in Linden so much.

We were re-assigned to the island of Tobago,
just north of Trinidad,to replace Elder and Sister Ross
who were leaving to go home.
The first set of missionaries we worked with on Tobago was
Elder Larson from Logan, Utah and
Elder Ackerman from Grace, Idaho.

We are standing on the beach at Courland where we
had just attended our first baptism in Tobago.



Fayola Ctitchlow was baptized on Oct. 10th by Elder Ackerman.
We had her baptismal service in a large grove of trees
just a few feet from the beach.


Take a look at the big wave ready to hit the shore.
This was taken just after it nearly knocked both of them over.
The next picture is from our 2nd baptism a few weeks later.

Leana and Diana were baptized on Oct. 25th at Stone Haven Beach.
The baptismal service was held among the rocks and
trees right on the shore.
It was attended by Branch President Kissoon,
some other branch members,
and their guardians, Kerron and Natasha Regis.


Diana, 13, is the oldest sister.

Leana, 9, is the younger sister.
The girls are living with their aunt and uncle,Kerron and Natasha,
because their parents are both dead.
Kerron and Natasha were both baptized in August.
We've been to FHE at their house several times.
They are a very special family.

Antonia Williams and Adelline Wiltshire are two of our seminary students.
They are actually the only two that are coming right now
but we are determined to get more coming.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

My How You Have Grown

My slideshow still isn't done but here are some more wonderful pictures of the people we love.

My darling Young Women and their leaders.
Pictured with them is Sister Collins, the new Senior Sister.
She is in the upper right hand corner. I guess she's easy to find, she's the only red-head there.

There were over 80 who attended Sacrament Meeting on Sept. 27th, our last Sunday.
Elder Leishman insisted on a group shot outside.
What a special group of people they are -
faithful, loving, and dedicated to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Linden has over 20 students in seminary

with an average attendance of 13 or 14.

They are wonderful, eager-to- learn youth. They are the future leaders of Linden.

Nice looking bunch of Priesthood holders
looking sharp in their Priesthood uniforms, white shirts and tie..

Here we are at the Guyana airport.
Smiling on the outside but crying on the inside.
We will miss Guyana.
We will be going back to visit before we go home.

Don't Give Up On Me

I've been working on a slideshow for over a week now. It's almost done but I just don't have time to finish. We are leaving Monday morning for Tobago, an island just above Trinidad, where we will finish our mission. We're so sad to leave Guyana. We really love Linden and the people of Linden, especially the members of our church groups.

This is "Farmer" Elder Leishman talking to his good friend, Oral, and Oral's donkey. Oral farms on 35 acres.



This is my very good friend, Alice. We are like sisters and I'm really going to miss her.

More Baptisms in Linden

I call this picture "Angels in the In-field".
Elder Leishman and Elder Brenkmann walk through a grassy field
to the place where the baptisms will take place.

We had four baptisms in Linden at 8 o'clock this morning, Sept. 5, 2009
L to R in the front are Simeon, Chris, Ashley, and Oral.
L to R in the back are Elders, Harris, Tupou, Brenkmann, and Leishman.

Sister Leishman, Oral McLean, Elder Leishman after his baptism.
Oral is a farmer in Linden.

Elders Harris and Babbel found and taught Simeon
who is a drug and alcohol counselor in Linden.

We had a really nice group at this morning's baptismal service.

Baptism by Moonlight

I'm afraid I'm not very expert at using my new digital camera. So, this shot of the full moon just before Malika's baptism leaves a little to your imagination. Can you see the shadow of the palm trees in front of the moon? The light at the bottom of the picture is the moon's reflection in the blackwater creek where Malika Culpepper was baptized on Sept. 3rd, 2009.


Malika's mother, Juliet, was baptized earlier this summer. We were all very happy when Malika called the elders Thursday morning to say that she was ready. We had a sweet service in the moonlight on the rocks by the creek with songs, talks, and testimonies. We don't have a font in Linden. All of our baptisms are in the river or a tributary of the river.

Young Men's Camp in Linden, Guyana 2009

We had 24 young men from the Linden Church Group attend Young Men's Camp this year. We also had two of our sisters volunteer to go spend the week with the boys and be part of the cooking staff. (What's up with that? Shouldn't the boys be doing their own cooking?) They had a great time playing volleyball, fishing, going on 5K runs every morning, studying the scriptures, swimming in the nearby creek, and, of course, eating.


The highlight of the camp for the Priest age boys was a service project in Anarika which is a small village about 10K from where the camp was held. A member family lives in Anarika. You might remember about the man who was seriously injured in a logging accident. It was at their house that they did the service project.


The Ramdeholls had a garden spot that they used each year to plant vegetables for their family's use and to sell. They had already planted 50 pepper plants in pots earlier in the year. Shortly after that he had the accident that has prevented him and Sister Ramdeholl from clearing the garden spot and planting the vegetables. So that's what the Priests did for a couple of hours during their camp experience.


The Ramdeholls were very grateful for the help. The garden spot was cleared and planted expertly by the boys with the help of Elder Leishman's many years of experience.

FYI - Brother Ramdeholl is scheduled to finally have the pins removed that have held his pelvis in place for 3 months. When that is finished and he has healed, he still needs to have surgery to repair his ureter. This sweet family has suffered much pain and sorrow in the last 4 months but their faith and testimony of Jesus Christ as their Savior and Redeemer has not wavered. They are a special family and we know that Elder Leishman was inspired to make Anarika part of his mission in Linden.

ANOTHER FIRST FOR LINDEN, GUYANA

GIRL'S CAMP

On Tuesday, August 11th, we took 10 girls and their leader to Summerville Camp where we met the rest of the girls from various branches in the Georgetown District.
Check out those smiling faces.

Sister Juliet Culpepper in pink on the far right volunteered to be our girls' leader for the 4 days and nights they would be at camp.
Of the 10 girls in the picture, 5 of them are her family members.
One is her daughter, one is her granddaughter, and three are her neices.
Sister Juliet was baptized in May but as yet, no one in her family has been baptized.
None of her 5 girls have been baptized as yet but I think that will change soon.
All the girls had such an amazing spiritual experience and her 5 girls were especially touched. Each of the girls who went, including the 5 who aren't members, bore their testimony in church the following Sunday.

Doesn't this look like a refreshing way to spend a summer afternoon?

This is our group of girls catching up on camp gossip under the shade of a big tree.

Experience the Light

Our deepest fears concern the unknown.
Some of us walk in darkness not knowing the power of light.
There are those of us who fail to search, to stretch or reach for their destiny when it is within their grasp.
Those not willing to find the height to which they can rise will fall short of their greatest aspirations.
Light overcomes fear,
experience overcomes doubt,
knowledge overcomes the unknown.

by Elder Truman Leishman

Have you ever see a more picturesque spot for a baptism?
The water is actually called 'blackwater'. It's not dirty water, it's water that has been darkened by minerals and from the dyes in the leaves and bark of trees in the rainforest where the water starts. It's like a mirror the way it reflects the blue and white from the sky and clouds.

This is a closer picture of the man who is in the first picture. Elder Leishman just baptized him last Sunday, Aug. 1, 2009. His name is Lee Almond Darrel.

On the weekend of the July 17th & 18th, we had a big SPLASH! There were 16 new members of the church added to the Linden church group (soon to become a branch).
In the picture above is a family of seven. This baptism was held on July 17th.

This picture is of the baptism held on Sunday, July 18th.
Six people were baptized members of the church. So the grand total for the weekend was 16. Now comes the job of keeping them active and working in the church.

1
MIB or MISSIONARIES?
They're handsome enough and smart enough to be MIB but they are, of course, hard-working missionaries - 24/7.
Missionaries in the West Indies are not required to wear a suit coat. They were wearing theirs to attend a funeral of a member of our church group.
L to R: Elder Tupou, Elder Babbel, Elder Harris, Elder Packer.