"Hello from the Mission Office" began this morning's e-mail from Jon. After a very long day of travel yesterday, he and the other 4 elders finally made it to the mission office in Valsayn (suburb of Port of Spain), Trinidad. He had his first interview with President Robison. Jon says: "He is a nice guy but it kind of creeped me out when he gave me a hug instead of shaking my hand after our interview this morning. Apparently that's how things work around here." Jon says that "Sister Robison was impressed by my knowledge of South American plants this morning. She didn't even know how to pronounce Heliconia (granted i can't spell it!) and yet she has one sitting on the kitchen table."
About Trinidad, all he had to report was that "It is really warm down here. Everyone started sweating about 8:30 AM. I think it feels really good though."
Tomorrow will be another travel day for Jonathan. He says: "there are four of us new Elders flying to Guyana in the morning. President Robison said that missionaries who don't get at least 50 baptisms during their 6 or 7 months there have something wrong with them. Obviously he was kidding but that has become one of his expectations. So you'll probably be hearing of some from me in a couple weeks."
From Jonathan's phone call yesterday, we have his flight information for tomorrow morning. He is on Caribbean Air flight 461 leaving Trinidad at 7:30AM and arriving in Georgetown, Guyana at 8:40AM. Exactly where he is going to be stationed in the country of Guyana remains a mystery. We know there are multiple wards and branches throughout the country and there are couple missionaries in two different cities. We understand that there are between 50-60 Elders in Guyana at a time. I guess we will have to wait for the next e-mail to see where he ends up.
Jon has informed us that his preparation day (p-day) is on Monday. We know that he will have about 1 hour per week to send e-mails so we hope to hear lots of great and exciting news. Until then we refer everyone back to the official WIM website where there are many postings about the work in Guyana. Also make sure you check out the WIM news blog to see today's photos of the newly arrived missionaries at the mission home. Who taught him to juggle mangos?