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.