SAYING GOOD-BYE IS HARD TO DO!

In the transfer of Jan. 20th we lost two of our four elders. Elder Duncan and Elder Chambers went back to serve in Trinidad again. We really enjoyed having four missionaries in Tobago. They will be missed.

Downloading and exchanging pics before the transfer. Aren't digital cameras great?
On their last P-day before the transfer we took the elders to visit Argyle Falls which in just a few blocks away from where a member and her daughters and grandchildren live.

SCRIPTURE POWER

We had a visit from the Trinidad Central zone leaders, Elder Cotton-Betteridge and Elder Thomas, on Jan. 5th. We had a district/zone meeting with them during their two-day visit. We held the meeting on the grounds of the Fort King George on a hill overlooking Scarborough. We found a secluded ledge that was quiet enough to hold the meeting. It was a special meeting and the spirit was very strong. I really love seeing these young men teach and motivate each other to be better missionaries.
Jan. 20th was Transfer Day. We really enjoyed having another set of elders on our island but, alas, we had to say good-bye to Elder Duncan and Elder Chambers who both were sent back to Trinidad. We had some great times with them and they are both excellent missionaries. We didn't get another set of missionaries to replace them so now we are back down to one set, Elders Jensen and Linton. This will be ther third transfer on Tobago. Don't they look handsome!

Winter brings wild and ferocious waves on the beaches.

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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.

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