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.