Everything is going great.

On Christmas morning we were able to talk with Jonathan for almost an hour. It was so great to hear his voice. He was in good spirits and is enjoying serving on Sint Maarten. He told us that his favorite "local" food is curry, especially eggplant! When we told him about how cold it is here and how much snow we have received, he said he would like to feel some cold! We had a heater to warm us and he had a fan blowing to cool him!

Everything is going great. Believe it or not, I did actually take some pictures on Christmas Day!




I haven't recieved the other package yet. I am sure that it will be here this week. Probably tomorrow morning so I can't go get it!!! I will just try and be patient. I bet that it is on the island. The post office only delivers mail about once every 10 days though so I'm not too worried about it...yet.

I am in Mosiah 10 in my Book of Mormon study, Matthew 6 in my New Testament study, and I'm almost done reading Our Heritage.

The scripture of the week is Omni 1:26.

This was my letter and report to President last week. I thought that it would interest you:

French South Zone
St. Maarten District

Key Indicators

0 Number of Days with 10 Contacts per day
? Magic Number in Zone for December
2 New Investigators
8 Lessons With A Member Present
1 Investigators Who Attended Church
0 Investigators With A Baptism Date
0 Baptisms
0 Confirmations

This was a very frustrating week. Elder Nielsen and I worked hard to find people to teach but no one is home because they spend all day shopping in town. We had a couple of investigators that were supposed to get baptized this week but one feels he isn't ready and the other is still up in the air. We will do everything that we can to help the mission get it's 90 this week.

I was thinking (because Elder Nielsen talks about home a lot) that during the dinner that you hold for the departing Elders, you should make the Elders promise you that they wont marry someone that wears more than one pair of earrings because it's a forecast for trouble. The reason I say that is because this girl named DeAnna that he always talks about wears two sets of earrings. Let me know how he reacts if you decide to do it!

Well, my parents are back from the trip to Egypt and my sister is slowly recovering from that bad car accident she got in 2 weeks ago. They all sound like they are happy and that things are going well.

I am excited to find out who my new companion is. I hope that you don't send me anyone that is at the end of their mission. I think they spend all of their time thinking about home. That kind of fries my nerves after a couple hours!

This was his response this week:

Don't worry, you will not have a companion that fries you. You get Elder Marshall who is serving in Tobago and should be a zone leader, but I need him to help you rescue St. Maarten.....we need baptisms from great elders. I know you are up to the task.

Love, President Robison

I will try and send you a fax this week because we don't have much time left and I have a lot to tell you about.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!

Things are going alright. We were supposed to have 2 baptisms this weekend but it looks like neither of them is going to happen. I'm not happy about that.

We had a couple of interesting days this week, on Monday it was a national holiday and there was no power on the island for most of the day Tuesday.

Can you believe that you haven't seen me in 7 months? Sometimes it feels like it's been so long and others it feels like a flash. I always try and focus on the fact that I have done 7 instead of looking ahead and seeing 17 still in front of me!!!

On Christmas day, we will study as normal, talk to you, do our weekly planning, sing at a retirement home (my idea), watch a movie with a member family, and then just try and bring cheer to the other members that are single or alone by visiting them and playing games.

I am in Mosiah 2 in my personal study. I have also started the New Testament and I am in Matthew 4.

The scripture of the week is Luke 2:1-21. I bet you were already going to read that one anyway!

Thanks for the stocking full of candy! Well, Merry Christmas!
Talk to you Thursday!

Jonathan sent these pictures today. The first two are from his Branch Christmas Party. He said that it was a blast!

These are some of my friends in the branch.

These are more of my friends and Elder Nielsen. Their names are Dolly and Praw, they moved to New York this morning. : (
They were super strong members and they fed us a lot.

I took this picture this morning while we were supposed to be on a fishing trip. The guy didn't show up. In the distance is the island of
St. Barth. It was a pretty amazing view from up there!

We have 5 progressing investigators!

We are still in Egypt and hope that this works to post Jonathan's
e-mail on the blog again this week. As with last week, we are unable to attach the link for the scripture of the week.

Here is Jonathan's e-mail from today:

Sounds like ya'll are enjoying Egypt. I would love to be there with you but... I get to live on an island for a while. I guess I can't complain (too much).

Things are going well. We have 5 progressing investigators right now. We are looking for 2 baptisms by the end of the year and hopefully 3 or 4 more in January. President Robison is really pleased with the work that we are doing here. He visited us on Friday because zone conference in Guadeloupe got cancelled for us and Elders on Martinique. The whole island of Guadeloupe went on strike and it shut down the airport. So President came here on Friday and taught us the same lessons.

I am sending you a flashdrive with the best of my pictures so far. It will be in the mail in about an hour from now. (We will add a new slideshow to the blog when we receive it!)

While I'm thinking about it, Happy Anniversary this week Dad & Mom!

For Christmas, you guys have to call us. You need to call me at 7 o'clock your time so that we can talk. I'm sorry that it's so early but it's the best we can do. I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

I am in Jacob 2 in my personal Book of Mormon reading.

The scripture of the week is 1 Corinthians 15:26 & 52-58.

I received a bunch of letters last week that were sitting in Guyana. I am going to answer some of those questions and the questions I have received recently.

1) I keep the music that you sent me and I try and learn how to play it when we have some free time and we're around a piano.

2) St. Maarten's Day was really fun. I didn't take any pictures though. I will try and get some copies from the senior couple.

3) Our mail comes straight to our apartment. "Cul de Sac" is the name of the city that I live in.

4) I hope to be on St. Maarten until April 1. The transfer on February 18th is the earliest that I could leave.

5) There are definitely some humble areas here. There is clean water everywhere though. Most people would be surprised if they saw as much of this island as I have. They would realize that it's not a paradise for the people that live here!

6) We teach about 1/2 as many lessons here as we did in Guyana so we look for a lot of service projects. We've been doing a lot of painting and yard clean-up.

7) We had a 6 child primary program yesterday. It was really cute. Guyana doesn't really have a primary so they don't have programs there.

Hello from... not Cairo!

We are in Egypt and didn"t know if we would be able to update Jonathan's blog. Luckily we have had excellent e-mail service so far. We attached our picture in front of the pyramids to our e-mail to Jonathan. His response was: I can't imagine you in Egypt in any other clothes than that!!! That's exactly what I figured you would wear. (Especially Dad)!

The following is from Jonathan's weekly e-mail from Monday, December 8th. Unfortunately, we are not able to complete the link to the scripture of the week until we get home.

Hello from... not Cairo!

I received a slip telling me to come to the post office today to pick up a package. I wasn't carrying my I.D. so they didn't give it to me.

I will be finishing up putting pictures on the first flash drive so I can send it home next week. These computers suck down here!!!

I guess our family is going to be even more spread out on Wednesday because that's the day we fly to Guadeloupe for zone conference.

In the phone call after the hurricane, I meant that Elder Nielsen would be leaving at the transfer in January. So he and I are still together and I will get a new companion on the 7th of January. Elder Nielsen is getting released early, on the 4th, to be with his family. I get to spend a couple of days on the French side of the island waiting for my new companion. That will be an adventure.

I am currently in 2 Nephi 17 in my personal reading.

The scripture of the week is D&C 61:36-39.

A nasty looking lump on my plate

Yesterday we had lunch in Marigot at the French Branch President's house. The main course was a blend of shark, anchovies, and shrimp in a nasty looking lump on my plate. The side dish was a soup that had pig head and cow intestines in it. I am amazed that I didn't throw up!!!!!!!!!!!

I finished the Book of Mormon for the second time and I am to 1 Nephi 20 again. I am well on my way to my goal of reading it 8 times while I am on my mission.

Because the computer I am on today is being dumb, I don't have time to send any pictures. I also have a movie that I was going to send you. Hopefully I get a better computer next week!

You wanted to know the story about the bull from Guyana. Well, Elder Hamilton and I were walking back to the apartment really late one night and we were kind of bored so we decided to see if we could scare this donkey that was on the side of the road. Elder Hamilton jumped at it and it only moved 3 steps! I said that that was pretty boring and then I saw a cow sitting by a fence about 20 yards away. I suggested that we see if we could get it to move more than the donkey. We ran at it and when we were about 8 feet from it, it stood up and came at us!! It was a bull, not a cow!! Luckily neither of us got hurt, but it chased us for about 500 feet. I was going to be fine even if it caught up with us because I was faster than Elder Hamilton. I had never seen him move that fast before!

The scripture of the week is D&C 6:13.

I thought that you would like to see what a weekly report form looks like so here you go. Check out the President's message.

Dear Elders,

The West Indies just baptized more souls this past month than any month in history - 237. So far this year, 1817 of Heavenly Father's children have entered the waters of baptism. This means that when 191 more converts are baptized and confirmed, the mission will finish the year at 2008. Are you excited about this possibility? What a wonderful work this is and how the Lord blesses this work.

Weekly Report - December 1, 2008

Name of Missionary

Name of Companion

Proselyting Area

Reporting Period - November 24-30, 2008

Zone
District

Key Indicators

_____ Number of Days with 10 Contacts per day
_____ Magic Number in Zone for November
_____ New Investigators
_____ Lessons With A Member Present
_____ Investigators Who Attended Church
_____ Investigators With A Baptism Date
_____ Baptisms
_____ Confirmations

Describe your efforts in helping your investigators prepare to receive the ordinances of baptism and confirmation. Please indicate what you are doing to adjust the funnel to improve your results. (Remember you must be finding, teaching, baptizing and retaining all of the time).

Please describe how you have worked with recent converts and less-active members in order to increase retention, particularly in focusing in the Progress Report upon the needs of your recent converts. Did each receive all of the new member lessons?

Also please indicate how your study of Preach My Gospel and of the Atonement is helping you, and add any personal concerns.

To respond to these matters, you could organize your thoughts by giving me 4 short paragraphs: family, area, companion, and testimony.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Today we received a fax from Jonathan:

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

Normally I would ask you to save me some but... maybe not this year! We had plenty of our own, just not any pie :(!

We fly to Guadeloupe on Dec 10th for Zone Conference.
No one is going to the Puerto Rico Mission, that's no longer happening! :)

I'm decorating at tree tomorrow!

We have one prospective baptism

We had a Thanksgiving dinner earlier today. We decided to do it today because one of the Elders on the French side is going home on Thursday night so he'll miss the fun on both ends. We decided to be different and so we went to a place called the Tequila Cantina for Tex-Mex. It was absolutely amazing!!!

The food down here is pretty much all American unless we are eating at a members house. We have people from all over the Caribbean so we get to eat all sorts of weird things. I won't even tell you some of them because I don't want to bring back the memories for me!

We have one prospective baptism but it probably won't happen for a while. His name is Kevin and he is sooo cool. We found him at like 8:30 last Saturday night and taught him about the law of chastity because he is living with someone. I am pleased to tell you that he has come to church both Sundays since then and he wants to get baptized. We just have to get him married or separated before that can happen.

I just wanted to let you all know some of the rumors that have been flying around since last zone conference. The first one is pretty cool. It's that I will be made the district leader in January when Elder Nielsen leaves. The other isn't as cool. It is that St. Maarten might be transferred to the Puerto Rico East Mission after that January transfer is over. (that puts it around February 15 or so) That would mean that I have a pretty high chance of being moved into that mission. That would be pretty messed up in my opinion. At this point it's all speculation and we don't know when it will happen. I'll keep you updated as information becomes available.

The scripture of the week is 1 Chronicles 16:8. I also like
Mosiah 2:19 "O how you ought to thank your heavenly King!"

I hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

I love teaching!

The work is hard but we had a good week. The island people are nicer than the people in Guyana in some ways but I never realized how unpleasant having a door slammed in your face actually is!

The language thing has been really fun. I can introduce myself and tell people I represent The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in English, French, Creole, and even Spanish. We've found that there are a lot of people from the Dominican Republic here.

I gave a talk yesterday in church on "Teaching by the Spirit". I had to fill about 25 minutes because the other speaker didn't talk very long. There was a couple from Calgary that were visiting and the lady came up to talk to me after and said it was one of the best talks she's ever heard.

On Thursday we had a cool experience. We visited an investigator named Donna and she messed up our lesson plans because she hadn't read the Restoration tract we left with her. We sang a hymn, said a prayer, and then Elder Nielsen just sat there waiting for me to start teaching an unplanned lesson. I felt like I was suppose to read Alma 32 which is about faith. When I asked everyone to turn there, Elder Nielsen said, "That's exactly what I was thinking of". It was a cool experience with the power of the spirit. I shared the same story during my talk yesterday.

My favorite part of church is getting to teach the youth Sunday School class every week. I love teaching!

I wish it could get cold around here! The coldest I can get is by taking a cold shower and then standing in front of a couple of fans while I'm still wet! It's alright though, you get use to being hot. Besides, I have a really nice tan!

The scripture of the week is Alma 32.

Saint Martin's Day

Things are very different here on Sint Maarten, there are hills, cactus, and fast food restaurants. The people aren't very humble. That means it's harder to be a missionary. I've seen lots of cruise ships. Philipsburg is the port city and I remember shopping here with Mom and Rob.

The "English" side of St. Maarten usually has a French speaking and
an English speaking elder. It's unusual that Elder Nielsen and I are both English speaking.

Elder Nielsen is a great guy. He had the worst thing happen to him during his first transfer. His dad got hit by a car and died! He really loves horses and he talks about them all day long. He is also from Utah, a little town called Tabiona. He played basketball in high school. He was also a zone leader in Trinidad for 6 months before
he came to St. Maarten last transfer.

Zone Conference on Guadeloupe was great. I got to practice French and they got to practice English!

Today I was "forced" to play basketball with a bunch of British guys. They were all pretty good and it was a lot of fun.

Tomorrow is a national holiday, Saint Martin's Day. The Queen of Holland will be here. We get to spend the morning at the church at a branch activity that is the Sint Maarten equivalent of a bar-b-que.
I'm really looking forward to that!

For Thanksgiving, the branch is throwing a party for the missionaries, the 2 sets of medical students from the states and 2 couples that are pretty much beach bums that manage a surf shop down here. (They offered me a job when I get off my mission. How cool would that be?)

I am in Alma 17 in my personal Book of Mormon reading. I am trying to finish it by the end of the month.

The scripture of the week is 3 Nephi 15:9-10.

St. Martin's Day Facts:
St. Martin's Day is November 11, the feast day of Martin of Tours, who started out as a Roman soldier. He was baptized as an adult and became a monk. It is understood that he was a kind man who led a quiet and simple life. The most famous legend of his life is that he once cut his cloak in half to share with a beggar during a snowstorm, to save the beggar from dying of the cold. That night he dreamed that Jesus was wearing the half he had given away. Martin heard Jesus say to the angels: "Here is Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptised; he has clothed me."

The day is celebrated in the evening of November 11. Children go to houses with paper lanterns and candles, and sing songs about St. Martin in return for treats. In some areas where Saint Martin's Day is celebrated, children receive presents from St. Martin on November 11. In other areas it is customary that children receive gifts later in the year from either Saint Nicholas on December 5 or Santa Claus on December 25.

In some areas, there is a traditional goose meal. From the late 4th century to the late Middle Ages, much of Western Europe engaged in a period of fasting beginning on the day after St. Martin's Day, November 11. This fast period lasted 40 days, and was, called "Quadragesima Sancti Martini", which means in Latin "the forty days of St. Martin." At St. Martin's eve, people ate and drank very heartily for a last time before they started to fast. This fasting time was later called "Advent" by the Catholic Church.

For Halloween... I was a missionary!

Things are going well down here. Zone conference went well. President Robison had us all read the Book of Mormon and highlight every scripture on the atonement that we could find. We all assumed that Elder Vinas (a member of the first quorum of the 70) would be talking about the atonement but we were all mistaken. President just wanted us to do that so we would have the right spirit with us.

"French-side" Zone Conference

Jonathan looks pretty happy!

On Friday, I had my interview with President Robison and it was probably the longest interview ever. We were in there of 65 minutes!

You'll never guess what I dressed up as for Halloween... I was a missionary!

I have been working on learning Haitian Creole. It's a mixture of Caribe, English, French, Spanish and Afrikans. It's pretty tough but I love trying to talk to people in it!

In my personal scripture reading I am to Mosiah 2.

The scripture of the week is John 8:1-11. It is a little different than others that I have sent. I chose it to highlight how much our Savior loves each and everyone of us.

We were at the beach at 5:45 AM

We had a baptism on Saturday morning. We were at the beach at 5:45 AM so that the baptism itself could be done at sunrise. We have some pretty cool pictures of it. I will send some next week.

Sint Maarten is great. The people here are just like people in the US. That means that they aren't very humble and baptisms won't happen as often as they did in Guyana. It's okay though.

We eat a lot of American food but there are people from so many different countries that I have eaten all sorts of crazy stuff. I won't even go into detail because I don't want you to get sick! We had lunch in the town of Marigot on the French side yesterday. From the beach front house we were at, we could see the island of Anguilla. From my half of the island, we can see St. Barts, Saba and St. Eustatius. It's so cool to be on an island!

We go to Guadeloupe in the morning for Zone Conference. I am excited about that. It will be the 17th country that I will have gone to! (I counted it up the other day)

On Halloween our mission president is coming to the island and he has scheduled interviews with the 4 missionaries.

Before I forget, I am in 2 Nephi 27 in my personal Book of Mormon reading.

The scripture of the week is D&C 50:40-42.

I am still taking my vitamins and antihistamine everyday. I have regained my weight and I am up to a healthy 152 lbs!

Bumps, bruises, and cuts

I was sure glad to get the chance to talk to you. I think that it came about because my companion is leaving at the end of next transfer and his grandparents are coming to get him. President wanted them to finalize their plans and he thought it wouldn't be fair for just him
to talk to his family.

We have been doing a lot of service because of hurricane Omar and
I have a couple of bumps, bruises, and cuts. It's not too bad though. It's very satisfying to help clean stuff up. I actually feel like I am doing some good that way!

I am the 4th English speaking missionary to go to St. Maarten in the last 2 1/2 years! One of the other 3 is Elder Ritchey, my zone leader in Guyana. He told me to learn French and Creole as well as brushing up my Spanish, German, and Chinese! He also gave me a whole list of things to do and people to see. I live on the Dutch side of the island
but I will still get to see the whole island. There are only 4 elders and 1 couple on the entire island!

The area is good. We actually have hills! There hasn't been a baptism here in over 2 months. Elder Nielsen and I are going to change that. It turns out that he and I were both trained in the same area in Guyana. I was able to give him updates on his converts so that was cool. We have only been together for 5 days and we have already set a baptism date with a lady for this weekend. He doesn't know what changed her but she seems excited.

Church yesterday was interesting. There were white people there. Most of them are medical students but one couple manages a t-shirt company. They are a really great couple and the guy, Christian, took us fishing this morning. It was cool and I got some good pictures. We didn't catch anything but it was nice to just chill out. We got to watch the sunrise from the second farthest point south on the island. If you look at it on a map, we went to the west side of the Great Bay. It was pretty cool. It was hard to sit there on Divy Point and know that less than a mile off shore is a sunken ship that is a great dive location.
I could see one boat full of divers go out to it around 7:30 AM.
I was jealous!

My life has completely changed since I came to this island! It is a lot different but I like it. It's wierd to switch back to US money and to driving on the right side of the road! I haven't had a cold glass of milk yet but I am still hoping for it someday soon. I have had one warm shower but the power is still giving us some problems so the heater isn't working at full capacity. We have clean water! No more loosing clothes because of rust stains!

We go to Zone Conference on Guadeloupe next Wednesday. I'm looking forward to that. We stay there for 3 days! They don't speak English so I have to learn enough French to survive.

The scriptures of the week areD&C 133:8, 1 Nephi 22:4, and 2 Nephi 10:20.

Hurricane Omar!

Less than 24 hours after arriving in Sint Maarten on Wednesday, Jonathan weathered Hurricane Omar!

We had an incredible surprise this evening! Now that power has been restored to Jonathan's apartment, President Robison had him call home to let us know that he and his new companion, Elder Nielsen, survived Omar. Believe it or not, Jonathan slept through it! He said he was exhausted because he traveled all day on Tuesday, October 14th to go to Georgetown, Guyana. Then he got up at 3 AM on Wednesday, October 15th to catch his fight to St. Maarten with brief stops in Trinidad and Barbados. He did report that the pilots had some concerns about getting to Sint Maarten before the hurricane. Apparently they closed the airport about 5 hours after his flight landed. He also told us that he was traveling alone from Guyana and was the only missionary on the flights. What he seemed most excited about was getting to have a cheeseburger for lunch after leaving the airport!

Jonathan said that their apartment is in a little valley so they didn't get the severe winds they had on the coast. They only had a little bit of water in their kitchen. They had minimal damage in their area and have spent time helping to clean things up.

Jonathan had really been looking forward to having a cold glass of milk and a hot shower when he arrived in St. Maarten (he has had neither since leaving the MTC). Omar has delayed both. Their power was been out beginning before dawn on Thursday, so they have not been able to keep their food cold. They did find a case of Ramen Noodles and bag of pancake mix and that is what they have been eating for most of their meals. Jon also said they bought some frozen burritos yesterday. They needed to be eaten so he and Elder Nielsen each ate 2 for dinner last night and 3 for lunch today!

We are so glad to know that he is safe and in good spirits.


St. Maarten Emerges Unscathed After Passage of Hurricane Omar

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten, Oct 16, 2008 -- Water & Wind Damage Reported - No Deaths Attributed to Storm

The Government of St. Maarten reports that Hurricane Omar,
a Category Three storm when it passed St. Maarten in the early morning hours of Thursday, October 16, 2008, did not result in any deaths or significant damages to its infrastructure or hotel sector.

While most of the damage appears to be limited to beach erosion and scattered debris that are associated with a storm of this caliber, it is anticipated that within the next 12 hours all public utilities, including electricity, which experience scattered outages during the storm, will be fully functional. The Princess Juliana International Airport is expected to open the morning of October 17th and will resume operating on a normal schedule, as will banks, financial institutions, supermarkets, hospitals, pharmacies, and other businesses.

"We are very thankful that our beautiful island only sustained minor damages and that our residents and guests weathered the storm safely," commented Roy Marlin, Commissioner of Tourism.

(St. Maarten is the little black dot. Click on the picture to enlarge.)

Today we received this e-mail from the Platts.

Brother and Sister Larson,

We are the senior couple serving in St. Maarten.
Elder Larson asked that we send their address to you.

Elder Larson
Killebarn Drive 2
Sentry Hill, Cul De Sac
Sint Maarten, N. A.

There was little damage in the Elders area from the hurricane- just some banana trees down. The coastal areas were hit the most. They do not have power and probably won't get it for 4 mored days but they cook with gas and have food and are doing great. They may not be able to do emails on Monday but we may send them to the French side which has power and water as they weren't badly hit.

Elder and Sister Platt

This is a copy of today's post on the mission blog:

Omar and St Martin

Hurricane Omar passed over St Martin early Thursday morning,
Oct 16th. Poor Elder Larson was transferred there on Wednesday.
He got there just in time for the adventure. We kept in touch with the Platts - the missionary couple and all the missionaries stayed inside and were safe. Here is the latest report from the Platts:

Dear Family and Friends,

It is 4 am on October 18th and the power just came on. The hurricane came through here just after midnight on October 16th and left about 4am which means we have been exactly 48 hours without power so far. We had a brief 10 minutes of power the early morning of the 16th when I sent a quick message saying we were fine. The paper says we will be without power for 7 days except briefly as they try each area out so I will send this now.

It was a category 3 hurricane but the center was 90 miles from us. The damage sustained was from winds and strong waves. We are grateful that damage was mostly minor such as fallen trees, lots of debris, minor leaks and such. There was a curfew even after the storm so the crews could clean the roads of sand, huge rocks and fallen trees. They did a great job. Everyone spent the 17th cleaning up. The salt water that was carried inland causes the plants to turn brown so people were hauling debris to the curbs, garbage trucks spent the day yesterday constantly on the move picking up debris. People were washing plants, vehicles, houses etc. to get the salt off.

Our area has underground electricity so we hope to have full power soon. Much of the island has overhead power and they must repair all the poles before they will get power.

But we were very fortunate not to get a direct hit so food supplies
and such are not badly affected. Planes began flying late yesterday afternoon. Wharf repairs should be complete in a couple of days.

It is amazing to see the force of nature. The Elders on the French side just got a little water in their apartment from a leak. All French power is underground so they have been fine.

The Elders in Philipsburg have had no power so far. Their landline
is out and they can't charge their cell phone so we try to check with them when they are in their apartment but they are far from the sea and had no damage. Until they went out they didn't think it was bad!!!

Saint Martin/Sint Maarten Facts

Today Jonathan is traveling to Sint Maarten. In his e-mail on Monday he said, "I will be flying out of Guyana early Wednesday morning to Barbados! From there I will fly to Antigua! And then to St. Maarten!"

There are two sets of missionaries currently serving on Saint Martin/Sint Maarten, one is mostly French speaking and the other is mostly English speaking. Jonathan will be living in Philipsburg and will be mostly English speaking. (I think Elder Larsen was a little confused). The Platts are the senior couple serving in Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten.
(This is our second post this week. Be sure to check the last post for the rest of Jon's e-mail from Monday.)


Saint Martin is a tropical island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately 185 miles east of Puerto Rico. It is known as "the culinary capital of the Caribbean," and is home to approximately 77,000 English-speaking inhabitants island-wide. The island is divided roughly in half between France and the Netherlands Antilles;
it is the smallest inhabited sea island divided between two nations.
The southern Dutch half comprises the Eilandgebied Sint Maarten and is part of the Netherlands Antilles.
The northern French half comprises the Collectivité de Saint-Martin and is an overseas collectivity of France.
Together, the two territories are known as "Saint-Martin/Sint Maarten".


Sint Maarten Flag



The island area of Sint Maarten is one of five island areas of the Netherlands Antilles, encompassing the southern half of the island of Saint Martin/Sint Maarten. Philipsburg, the largest city and has a population of 1,228.

The currency is the Antillean guilder but the US dollar is widely accepted.
A planned restructuring of the Netherlands Antilles on December 15, 2008 will see Sint Maarten become a separate country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands (like Aruba and the Netherlands Antilles are now).
The island area of Sint Maarten is ruled by an island council, an executive council, and an administrator appointed by the Dutch Crown.

History
In 1493, Christopher Columbus embarked on his second voyage to the New World. According to legend, Columbus sighted and perhaps anchored at the island of Saint Martin on November 11, 1493, the feast day of Saint Martin of Tours. In his honor, Columbus named the island San Martin. This name was translated to Sint Maarten (Dutch) and Saint Martin (French and English). When Columbus sailed these seas, St. Martin was populated by Carib Amerindians. The former inhabitants, the Arawaks, had been chased by the warlike Caribs coming from the North coast of South America a short time before the arrival of the Spaniards who followed Columbus. The Arawaks were a relatively cultured, agricultural people who fashioned pottery and whose social organization was headed by hereditary chieftains. The Caribs, on the other hand, concentrated on warfare. They killed and allegedly ate the Arawak men, then "married" the Arawak women. The English word cannibal is derived from an Arawak word which referred to the Caribs.

The Caribs' territory was not completely conquered until the mid-17th century when most of them perished during the struggle between the French, English, Dutch, Danes, and Spanish for control of the West Indies. The Dutch first began to ply the island's ponds for salt in the 1620's. Despite the Dutch presence on the island, the Spaniards recaptured St. Martin in 1633 and, one year later, built a fort, now Ft. Amsterdam, and another artillery battery at Pointe Blanche to assert their claim and control access to Great bay salt pond. The Spaniards introduced the first African slaves to the area in the 16th century but the main influx of African slaves took place in the 18th century with the development of sugarcane plantations by French protestants and Dutch Jews. When slavery was abolished in the first half of the 19th century the British imported Chinese and East Indians to take the place of slaves. St. Martin and the other islands of the West Indies are populated by a mixture of Amerindian, European, African, Indians, and Asian peoples.

On March 23, 1648 France and the Dutch Republic agreed to divide the island between their two nations by signing the Treaty of Concordia. Since 1975, several versions of a legend about the division have become popular. An often repeated story is that the island was divided into two sections through a race; the French-dominated community chose one person for the race and the Dutch-dominated community chose another. The two representatives were put back to back in one extreme of the island, and made to walk along the coast in opposite directions. They were not allowed to run. At the point where they eventually met, a line was drawn across the island, connecting their starting point with their meeting point. According to the legend, this became the frontier which divides Saint-Martin from Sint Maarten. The reason for the difference in size between the two sides was said to be that the French representative moved faster than the Dutch.

Geography
The main towns are Philipsburg (Dutch side) and Marigot (French side). The island has approximately a total resident population of 85,000. The official population on the Dutch side is 50,000 while on the French side is 35,000. In addition, there is an average of 1,000,000 tourist visitors per year.

There is no river on the island, but many dry guts.
The average temperature is 81°F (with lows in the low 60's°F and highs of about 95°F) and sea surface temperature 80°F.
The total average yearly rainfall is 39 inches, with 99 days of thunder.

It is going to be an adventure to say the least!

I think I was the most surprised to get the call from President Robison last week. I will still be relying on English as my main language but I will have to learn some French so I can contact everyone. I've also been told to learn how to greet in Spanish, Dutch, Chinese and Creole. It is going to be an adventure to say the least!
I will be on the "Dutch side" of the island in a place called Philipsburg. I can't wait to go! I will be going to French zone conferences on Guadeloupe every 6 weeks. How cool is that?!? I don't know how all this came about but it's pretty stinking cool!

Dad was right about me teaching a lot of lessons. I don't know an exact number from this transfer but it's a lot. I haven't finished adding them all up yet. I did teach 113 lessons with members present this transfer. That's 2nd most in the entire mission! I have helped in the baptisms of 13 people in Guyana in just 4 months.

Well, I gotta run. I will send you my address in Sint Maarten when
I find out what it is. I have taken a lot of pictures since I got my transfer call because I realized I probably won't be back in Guyana for at least a year. How sad. It has become my home. It's bittersweet.

The scripture of the week is D&C 10:5.

(Please check back on Wednesday. We will add a post with information on Saint Martin/Sint Maarten.)

I have now helped bring 10 people into the waters of baptism

I am doing well. We got to watch conference at the only chapel [with satellite] in the country outside of Georgetown, the capital city. It also happens to be the building where I get to go to church every week. I laughed on Saturday when I noticed that the tie Elder Bednar was wearing is identical to one of the ties that I have. I enjoyed the Priesthood session a lot because the entire First Presidency spoke! I personally think that Sunday morning was the best session. What was everyone's favorite talk? Mine was President Monson's on gratitude during the Sunday morning session. I am going to try and print it out this week if it has been released. The guy that gave the closing prayer for the Sunday morning session is our area president, President Johnson.

It has been an interesting week because I have been in a threesome since Wednesday. That is because Elder Jones, my district leader, got Dengue Fever. He is starting to do better so he should be back to work by Friday, hopefully. [Dengue fever is an acute febrile disease, also known as breakbone fever, which is found in the tropics and Africa, much like Malaria. Dengue is transmitted to humans by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which feeds during the day. It presents with a sudden onset of severe headache, muscle and joint pains, fever, and rash. There may also be gastritis with abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. The classic dengue fever lasts about six to seven days. A variation called dengue hemorragic fever can also cause a tendency to bleed because of a decrease in the number of platlets. Treatment is supportive (wait it out!) with IV fluids to treat dehydration and prevent shock from bleeding. There is not yet a vaccine but there may be one in the near future.]

We had another baptism this week of a lady named Sarah. I got to confirm her yesterday between sessions of conference. I also got to stand in on 2 other confirmations from the area right next to mine of some people that I have helped teach. They are a great couple.
I have now helped bring 10 people into the waters of baptism.
We have 2 more baptisms planned for this weekend. Things are going well right now!

I finished the Book of Mormon this week and I have started again.
The scripture of the week isPsalms 31:23-24.

Periodically Shane & I visit the blogs run by the senior couples in Jonathan's area. We found these 2 pictures on the Myers' blog, a brand new senior couple serving in Guyana. The first is a picture from Jonathan's recent Zone Conference with the quote that accompanied it on their blog.

"Then Elder Larson and his companion taught the rule about not staying too long to "lime" (chat) in members' or investigators' homes."

They also had this picture of a typical Guyanesse mailbox we thought was interesting.

Jonathan's Neighborhood in Guyana. His apartment is the building with the Red Roof with bright white spot in center screen. He is 4122 miles from home. That's a long way!


View Larger Map

If you want the exact location in the Google Earth program click on the following link then click on the Google Groups link on the next page: Jon's First Apartment.

Now that we have shown you how to locate Jonathan's apartment in Reliance, Guyana we have some interesting news. We received a surprise e-mail from Elder & Sister Larsen, the senior couple in Jonathan's area, that said, "Elder Larson is being transfered to St. Martin, to learn French. The transfer will take place on the 15th give or take a day depending on flights. Letters will be forwarded, but packages are more difficult. He seems excited to learn French, and can fill you in on the details next Monday." That's kind of a surprise. We know that we included a quote from one of his letters a couple of weeks ago about his reading the Book of Mormon in French and trying to get a French copy of Preach My Gospel, but none of us thought he would need to know French soon, if ever! We will try to put together some information on St. Martin in an upcoming post.

I guess that will be my legacy!

This is the baptism picture for Gopi. His real name is Pertab Singh.
(Elder Averette, Gopi, and Jonathan)

This is the baptism picture for Vicky Balkarran. He is Ricky's little brother. We baptized Ricky last week!
(Elder Averette, Ricky, and Jonathan)

This is Jonathan with a few of the kids in his area.

How has my week been? I don't even know where to start. We had
two more baptisms. We will be having another one this weekend, the lady's name is Sarah. If we are lucky, we might even be able to have 3 others! We had 5 for the month of September. That's the most that this area has had since May.

I went on a trade-off with Elder Ritchey (one of my zone leaders)
in Rose Hall this week. He asked me to come up with a symbol to represent confirmation. There is a symbol for baptism that all of the missionaries know so he wanted one for confirmation too. I came up with a pretty cool symbol that will be used in this mission forever.
I guess that will be my legacy!

As far as transfers go, we move on Tuesday's and they tell us the Friday night before. So we only have a couple of days to get everything packed and to say our goodbyes. If some of the "real" letters are left behind, they will give them to the Assistants to the President to deliver. They always come to zone conference with a suitcase full of letters for people that have moved.

I will get to watch all of conference this weekend. I'm jealous that you got to meet Elder Hales and President Eyring! Poor Julie having to speak in front of him (Pres. Eyring) at her farewell!!!

The scripture of the week isMosiah 4:9-10.

Things are going well right now

These are a few pictures from the combined Canje and Berbice Zone Conference held on September 17th.

Jonathan's zone (Canje) sang a musical number.

They enjoyed a Guyana style lunch of roti, curried chicken and pineapple. (Sis. Robison says that Guyana pineapple is the absolute best in the Caribbean)

If you look closely you will see Jonathan eating in the background.


The Mighty Missionaries of the Canje Zone!



Now onto Jonathan's e-mail from this week.

This is our baptism picture for this past weekend. (From left to right) Me, Ricky, Vijay, Vishal and Elder Averett. I was privileged enough to baptize Ricky and Vishal. We are hoping to have 3 more this weekend! Things are going well right now.

Sorry again about not being able to write much last week. Anyway,
I have a list of things I want to talk about so I'll dive right into it.

The dog that bit me didn't tear my pants. It just left permanent bite marks! (Battle wounds).

We have a lot of power problems around here but we always seem to have it when we absolutely need it.

Yes, we have a washer. We have to hang dry the clothes though.
As far as I can tell, that's how it is all over the mission. I hate the water we have to use though because it's so rusty. I have to use a rag to filter it as I fill up the tub or else my clothes get covered in rust stains. I have lost a couple of shirts because of that. (That was before I realized I could filter it!) Don't worry though. I still have 8 short sleeves and that's all I need at the present time. I could probably use one for Christmas though… :)

I almost blew myself up in the oven yesterday. I thought that the gas was turned off when I lit the match to turn the oven on. I leaned in and then all I know is that I was surrounded by light and flames!!!
The whole oven was engulfed in a fireball! It was so cool. By looking at me, you wouldn't know that I had done that though… All I had was a few singed hairs on my right arm! Other than that, I'm doing okay so don't worry about me. I know I'm protected because the flames weren't hot. They were just warm. It was a weird sensation. Probably like Nephi and Lehi in their furnace or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. I also got electrocuted this week while doing some wiring work at one of the other apartments. Again, I'm perfectly fine.

In my personal scripture study, I am in Helaman 5. And in my personal study of the Book of Mormon in French I am in 1 Nephi 6.
I have also ordered a Preach My Gospel in French to help me learn the language better. I know I didn't tell you, but I have decided to try and learn French while I'm out here. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

The scripture of the week is Proverbs 17:17.

Well, I gotta run. We have taught 105 lessons over the last 2 weeks so we are really busy. At the rate we are going, by the time this transfer is over, we will have taught 275 lessons! We are working really hard right now and I'm always worn out. I always have enough energy to play a good game of basketball like we did this morning though!

I love getting letters by the way. It makes me feel somewhat remembered.

We had a good teaching week

Here are excerpts from this week's letter dated Aug 28th:

"I want to thank everyone that I got a letter from on Monday. I got 5!
So, thanks Amanda, Mom & Dad, G&G Larson, and G&G Olson (for 2).
Here are the answers to the questions I was asked:
- I love getting the ward newsletter and program. It helps me feel like I'm somewhat connected dispite the 4100 miles between us.
- The Malouf's won't be over my mission since I'm technically in a caribbean mission. Maybe I could request him though.
- I take my vitamin, my antihistamine and a doxycycline pill (antibiotic) every morning. I'm back to normal weight and we try to eat vegetables everyday. We eat plenty of fruit!
- We get the Ensign every month and we get the Church News every week.
- We have a nice chapel to meet in. It's a phase I Stake Center. That just means when they organize a stake next winter, it will be the main building. We use to have a small keyboard but now we have a nice big electronic organ. It's fun to play.
- When I first got here, we had 45 people coming to church every week. On Aug. 17th we had 72. On Aug 24th we had 81! Members are usually willing to fellowship but our branch is so spread out that fellowshipping is hard.

We lost 2 golden investigators because she got scared of one of her neighbors. To be honest, we have called their neighbor Cruella de Vil and Ursula because she is evil.

Well, that's all to report. We made pizza this week. We also made chili and some tortillas. It's been a good food week. Right now I'm eating a giant bowl of homemade tomato soup. It just needs goldfish to be perfect!"

Excerpts from today's e-mail:

"Sorry I don't have lots of time today. I will have extra time next week because my new companion, Elder Averett, is pretty bad at time management and we have an appointment in like 10 minutes!

We bought bikes today. I'm excited and I will send you pictures next week. Our weather got up to 109 degrees a couple days ago. The low for the week was yesterday night 82 degrees. It's so hot during the "dry season"!

We had a good teaching week. We taught 27 lessons to investigators with a member present. We taught 55 total lessons. Both are records for the area for the year! We had a wedding on Friday. That was exciting. We should have a couple of baptisms this week. Hopefully they work out.

I saw an amazing show of faith this past week. I was with Elder Jones in the bank in New Amsterdam. We had been sitting there for 45 minutes with no power to the whole city. He then said, "It's easy. It's just 'clap on, clap off' right?" He then clapped his hands twice and, I kid you not, in less than a second, the power turned back on! I was amazed and I couldn't help from laughing.

Zone Conference is tomorrow and Wednesday. To prepare for it,
I had Elder Ritchey polish my shoes. That's the first time they have been done because I don't know how to do it myself and I'm too lazy to learn! Luckily it's at my building this week so I don't have to go to Georgetown." (Keep and eye on the mission blog for pictures of Zone Conference)


This is a sunset from a few days ago.


This is Elder Jones "cleaning" out the East Canje apartment. I spent a week in that apartment with him because his new companion was stuck in the Dominican Republic MTC. We spent 9 hours that day cleaning out that place and torching the cockroaches.


This is a guy named Orin Moses. He is so cool. His mission papers are in right now and we are all excited to see where he's going.

The scripture of the week is Alma 26:22.

This week I am also including a few items we found interesting from Sister Robison's blog. We enjoy visiting both the West Indies Mission Blog and the West Indies Mission Website to learn about what is going on throughout Jonathan's mission. We have even used some of the pictures posted by Sis Robison in this blog. The new mission video should be on the WIM website some time after September 22nd. Be sure to take a look. It was so fun to see such a great picture of Jonathan in the last one! The following are quotes from Sis. Robison's blog:

"Here's some interesting info on this blog. It averages 90-100 visitors per day. People from the following countries visited this blog during the past 30 days: United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Peru, Argentina, Portugal, Spain, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Turkey, Sweden, Norway, Egypt, Burkina Faso (Africa), South Africa, India, China, Indonesia, and Australia.

I am curious about our visitors. For example, there have been 18 visits from Hangzhou, China this month. I would love to know more about international visitors - why don't you leave a comment and let us know who you are."

"I have learned some mission lingo. A 'son' is a new missionary being trained and the 'father', of course, is the trainer. The 'mother' is a new elder's second companion. I even heard one elder, yesterday, refer to himself as a 'test tube baby' because he never had a 'mother' - he went strait from trainee to co-companion. 'Brothers' are missionaries trained by the same trainer. There are 'grandsons' and 'great grandsons' as they go down the line of trainers and trainees. Missions have quite the genealogy."

Hot and hotter!

I finally added the post with the letters we received last week.
To see it, click on the Older Posts link at the end of this one.

"I'm doing alright. I have a new companion. His name is Elder Averett. He seems like a nice guy but he's trying to hard to be my friend. He's trying to be funny and it just comes off unnatural. Oh well.

I've got a couple of cool pictures to send but we ran out of time to do stuff so they will be sent next week.

Glad to hear your reading is going well. I'm in Alma 22. I didn't have much time to read this week because I was living in another area in a threesome with Elders Averett and Jones. Jones' new companion (Rosales) is in the MTC in the Dominican Republic until Wednesday so we have to stay with him."

Excerpt from an e-mail to Jonathan's Uncle Jay:

"I would do anything to have a little bit of cold weather! The weather around here has 2 different seasons. Hot and hotter!

As far as hurricanes go, we don't really worry about them hitting us here in Guyana but the guys on St. Martin and some of the other northern islands worry. We are all required to have food storage in our apartments that would last us at least 2 weeks. So even if one comes we'll be okay. I'm sure it would humble some people around here though.

My area is full of JW's and 7th Day's. It's been fun the last couple of days with the JW's because I got a copy of the "New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures" and I can now prove that Jehovah is Jesus Christ using their own scriptures! It made one lady really mad. Oh well."

This is from an e-mail to Jonathan's friend Jeff who is getting ready to go into the MTC:

"I would countdown but don't dwell on it too much. I guess I didn't fully realize how long 2 years was. I had a major eye opener while I was in the MTC and I was only in for 18 days! It's alright though.
Just tell your parents that you love them every chance you get and don't forget to hug everyone as often as you can. Trust me! I've been out for almost 4 months and the thing I miss most are the people that I can't hug anymore. In fact, if you get the time, (I know you're busy) go give my parents a hug for me!"

The scripture of the week is 2 Nephi 1:20-23. I really like it.

I still make paper boats to represent Nephi's boat!

Last week we received two letters from Jonathan and I am finally putting them on the blog.

Jonathan sent some Guyanesse money for his collection so Shane scanned them. Just in case you are wondering, the thousands of Guyanesse dollars in this picture are worth only $22.25 in U.S. dollars! Jonathan said "I would send some of the coins too but I can't find any good ones. Then again, no one uses them because they are only 1 and 5 dollars. (1/2 and 2 1/2 U.S. cents respectively)"


"So you guys want to hear about some of my more interesting experiences huh? Well, let's see... 1) I almost got bit by a dog.
I jumped really fast and it only caught my pant leg. That was close!
2) I had potato and belangi curry on Tuesday (belangi is eggplant).
A couple hours after eating it, I threw it all up on the side of the road. I wiped my mouth off and we continued on our way!
3) I went on a trade-off with Elder Mundy in Rose Hall. It was fun to meet new people and see how else missionary work can be done."

"I'm not sure what other types of experiences you want me to write about. I could write about the 3 green tree frogs that live in our 48 degree shower. I had one jump on my leg this morning! Stupid thing!"

"I have a funny story for you. We have a kid who was suppose to come to Church yesterday so he could get baptized on Saturday. He chose not to come and he suffered the consequences. While he was hanging out with his friends, he broke his foot! Now I think he realizes that he shouldn't have skipped church!"

"Tell my primary class they need to listen and learn as much as possible. Being a missionary is hard work and people question everything you say. I use the same exact stuff out here that I taught them in class. I hope they learned as much from it as I did."
(I still make paper boats to represent Nephi's boat!)
"At the MTC I had to have a couple of scriptures from both the Bible and the Book of Mormon for every lesson. Here in Guyana though, we teach like we are talking to 11 or 12 year olds. We teach things so simply."

We told Jonathan that Michael is learning to play a few hymns after hearing that he is playing the organ at church. Michael has been a little resistant because he already plays the saxophone.

"Tell Michael not to worry about learning to play the piano yet. He still has a long time and I'll help him when I come home. The excuse of knowing how to play one instrument is pretty lame. I can play the guitar but I have to play the piano. There will be no saxophones at church, but we've passed a few Assemblies of God that were really rockin'! Their guitar players were terrible."

"Elder Hamilton is a pretty nice guy. We are both strange in the fact that we are both sports nuts and we love music. "We're like two trippy peas in a far out pod man." (Scooby Doo Movie) It's fun because we both like a lot of the same bands so we will just sing away while we walk down the road, he even loves Disney movies. He was a pretty good trainer. There are some things I will do differently once we're separated. We get along well most of the time but there are moments where I would love to cross-check him! The one major difference between us is that he loves Federer and I love Nadal!"

Jonathan also sent a chart that outlines what he does each day.

The 999th person baptized in the Canje District!

Today we received several pictures from Jonathan. He said, "Sorry I haven't sent pictures the last couple weeks. There have been some computer problems... So here are the last 3 weeks worth."

This is a picture of Jonathan studying and playing around with the settings on his camera.

Jonathan and Elder Williams (Assistant to the President) a couple of weeks ago during their trip to Georgetown.

Jonathan with Elder Williams (who was Elder Hamilton's trainer) and
Elder Hamilton (who has been Jonathan's trainer).

Jonathan's first attempt at making pizza since being in Guyana.
I guess working at Little Caesars paid off!

Jonathan has being trying to cook a few new things.
This is chili with homemade tortillas.

"I was the happiest person in the world yesterday when I made vanilla pudding!!!"

"This is me with Jacko the monkey. He is a crazy little animal. I finally understand why parents call their children monkeys."

"This is a picture of our baptism this week. His name is Manmohan Praymey. (Praymey for short. Pronounced pray-me) He was the 999th person baptized in the Canje District."

"Today, it is hot, humid and there isn't a cloud in the sky. Perfect weather to go surfing...but I can' do that! :)

Well, my companion and I set a record last week (for our area). We taught 43 lessons! Our transfer total was 205! That is also a record for our area.

I get a new comp this week. I can't wait because I get to retrain him to be a Guyana Elder. He has been in Trinidad for his whole mission and it's totally different up there than it is here. I hope he can handle it! His name is Elder Averet. That's all I know about him at this point.
I'll let you know more next week.

I have one good story I forgot to tell you from last week. We had a wicked thunderstorm come in and our apartment got struck by lightning!!! Elder Hamilton screamed, our light bulb blew up and my fan started on fire!!! It was so cool."

The scripture of the week is D&C 58:26-28.

We received 2 letters from Jonathan over the week end and will add another post dated before this one. So be sure to check back in a day or so.

That just keeps life interesting!

"I was going to send you some pictures today but the power has been out all day. This (Internet Cafe) is one of, I think, 4 places in the entire city that has a generator. (i.e. power)

Super glad to hear about our boys b-ball gold. I knew they could do it. I figured Argentina would get a medal. No one around here thought they would but I was right!

Dad: I made you proud at Zone Conference last week. The AP's (Assistants to the President) asked the group who the first people to climb Everest were. I was the only person in the entire mission to answer that Tenzing Norgay was actually the first person followed by Edmund Hillary."

This is a picture of the Guyana Elders from the Canje and Berbice Districts at Zone Conference on August 20th.

"We made pizza this week for lunch. It was so good. I still got it. My companion loved it too.

This morning, we were throwing a Frisbee around our back yard and we accidentally hit a fence and the thing exploded. It's in like 10 pieces. It was so cool!

Some of the things people yell at missionaries are just dumb. I had a guy accuse me of being an American Spy yesterday. He just rode up on his bike and wouldn't let it go for like 10 minutes. (We had to duck into an investigators house to get rid of him!) Oh well. That just keeps life interesting!

We should have 1 baptism this week and hopefully have 3 next week. It probably won't work out like that but that's what we are hoping for. The mission had 48 this past week end. That's a ton! Especially since my zone only had 9!

I get a new companion next Wednesday. I am staying in Reliance but someone new is coming in to replace Elder Hamilton. It's a bittersweet feeling but I'm looking forward to finding out who I will be with. I know that we have 2 greenies coming to our zone. That will spice things up a bit around here. I hope that I don't get one of them!!! I'm not ready to train anyone yet. I think I would have a heart attack if I have to train.

The scripture of the week is Mosiah 2:32-41. I'm not really sorry that it's so long because it's so good."

That makes 3 of us Larson's/Larsen's

Sorry we are slow in updating the blog this week. We have been at Lake Powell. We were able to get Jonathan's e-mail on Monday, but the internet service was so unreliable we weren't able to complete
the update.

We asked Jonathan in our e-mail who the people were in the pictures he sent last week. He said, "That picture last week was Michelle's mom. I have found out her name is spelled Leila. It's short for Lillawattie Ramnarine. What a mouth full! The little boy is Michelle's son Randy. Too bad that he broke his arm about 3 hours after that picture was taken!"

"I had the wonderful opportunity to travel to Georgetown this week. While we were there, we got to see some of the Olympics because we were staying with one of the senior couples. We watched the women's all-around event in gymnastics, a men's volleyball game, and Michael Phelps win his 6th gold medal. I heard that our basketball team is just destroying people. I saw something today about a 50 point victory or something like that. It's awesome. On the way to Georgetown, our cab driver had sweet music. We got to listen to Bon Jovi the whole way there and back. It was actually a fun trip. I accidentally left my camera in Reliance at our apartment though. Oops!"

Something funny happened last week after we posted the blog update. Jonathan forgot to send his scripture of the week and asked Elder & Sister Larsen to e-mail it to us since his e-mail time was finished. When Shane received the e-mail he assumed it was from his dad and sent a "Thanks Dad" e-mail back. He realized later that it really came from the Larsen's! We mentioned the incident in our
e-mail and Jonathan said, "The Larsen's said that Dad was confused. They thought that it was pretty funny. I explained to them that Ron is grandpa's name too. Don't you love how confusing some things can be? During our trip to Georgetown, we actually stayed with Elder Larsen's brother. He and his wife are here as missionaries too.
That makes 3 of us Larson's/Larsen's."

"The only food we get to eat is what we make ourselves so it's not
very good. We experiment a lot so at least it's always interesting!
We can eat at peoples houses in any other country but it's banned here in Guyana because a of couple Elders got really sick. So, most people just give us recipes and tell us to go make stuff. We have tried a few and they usually turn out alright. Nothing is as spicy as what I was expecting though. (None of the other elders like how spicy things are... I think they are just wimps!)"

"I'm glad you are reading the Book of Mormon. I am also reading it and I'm not too far behind the schedule. I just finished reading Jacob this morning and I will probably read Enos tonight before I go to bed." (Our ward is reading the Book of Mormon to finish by the end of the year. We sent Jonathan our reading schedule thinking that he could read along with us each week.)

"I want to let you guys know that you can feel free to send me pictures and stuff because it is really cheap to print pictures here.
I can also put them on my MP3 player. I talked to some elders here about mailing packages. They all said to use USPS. If you get on the website, just click on the international links. I did it at the Larsen's this morning and a 5 pound package to Guyana is $34.50 and takes
6-10 days. Just so you know."

I think this is a not too subtle hit that he would like a few more packages. I have also checked with the post office, they told me the cut off was a 4 pound package for less than $40 (over that and the cost really jumps). After how much we spent to send a small package by FedEx, I think we will try the USPS next time!

This weeks scripture of the week is: D&D 63:23

Every baptism just resets my patience meter.

Jonathan sent these two pictures today but didn't tell us who the people are.

This is a great picture of Elder Hamilton and Jonathan with a cute little boy. He is Michelle's son, Randy.


This is Leila (Lillawattie Ramnarine), Michelle's mom.

These are quotes from today's e-mail:

"Well, we are up to 3 baptisms as a companionship now. My comp is doing just fine. We get along pretty well most of the time but there are a few moments where I would like to go "hockey" on him."

"We are doing another trade-off this week but I will be staying in Reliance this time. We were supposed to have 2 more baptisms this week but they are postponed. I'll let you know what happens with those."

"Life down here is the same as always. We still have the sun beat down on us, people still yell at us, throw stuff at us... the list of bad things just goes on and on. It's okay though. Every baptism just resets my patience meter."

"Thanks for sending the stuff about the Olympics. It's fun to keep updated."

Scripture of the Week: Luke 15:4-7

P.S. This "Scripture of the Week" came in a seperate e-mail on Wednesday from Elder & Sister Ron Larsen, the couple in Jonathan's area. They also had this to say about him:

"Elder Larson was more interested in telling you he was well and alive and to give you his love that he forgot to give you his scripture for the week. He seems to be doing well and I believe they will have baptisms on Saturday.

Thanks for raising such a strong missionary that is willing to work hard and keep the mission rules."

More than 10% Done

Today we received an actual hand written letter from Jonathan! These are a few excerpts:

"If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm going to be away from home for a while! By the time you read this I'll be more than 10% done."

"I'm still with Elder Hamilton. The next transfer is September 3rd and then he should be on his way out of this country because he'll have been here for 11 months."

"The rainy season has ended meaning that it's time to harvest sugar cane. This place is covered with it because we live about a mile from a sugar cane processing plant. Did you know that they have to burn the cane to make it easier to cut, and they cut it all by hand? Since they burn it, the whole country smells like burnt sugar. Take a cup of sugar and put on the stove (without a pan). That's how it smells all of the time"

"In my first 6 1/2 weeks, I've taught 189 lessons. We had 34 this week alone. We're shooting for 200 this transfer. I'll let you know how it goes."

Closing Scripture: Moroni 8:3

It was hard work

"This picture is of Elder Hamilton and me doing our first service project since I got here. Nobody ever wants to let us help so we went back to our apartment, changed and then demanded to help. It was hard work. We laid concrete for about 5 hours. The path we made was about 75 feet long and 4 feet wide."




"I went on a trade-off to Rose Hall on Thursday. It was fun to get to see some new faces. I was paired up with Elder Mundy. He is one of our zone leaders and he reminds me of Tim Jensen a lot. We had a good time sharing stories about all of our high school days of glory. He never played a college sport though. I am unique for that reason. I haven't found anyone else that has."

"I had some fun last night. We got in a little early so I decided to make a cake. It was hard! It was a white cake but that was too boring. So... I whipped up some jello mix and dumped it on the cake while it was still liquid. That made the cake way better because it just absorbed the liquid. It made it nice and moist and tasted like raspberries."

"Discouragement is just part of the game down here. It's okay though. We are baptizing a lady named Leela this weekend. She is Michelle's mom. (Michelle is the lady I baptized a couple weeks ago.) We will hopefully baptize a lady named Sarah next weekend as well as a kid named Ricky. They are both cool but have a problem (like most people down here) of putting in a little effort to come to church.
I have discovered the cure for discouragement though. It rests in last weeks Scripture of the Week. I read it at least once a week!"

This week's scripture is Alma 5:49-51