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.