I taught him a year ago!

Not much has happened here since I talked with you 3 days ago. Just the baptism of Andell Joseph! Here's a picture:


He was baptised in the morning the day after Christmas. It was great to be at his baptism since I taught him a year ago when I was on St. Maarten before!

Thanks again for sending us the movie ("A Christmas Story"). I think that watching it was every one's favorite part of Christmas Day, other than our calls home of course.

The next few pictures are of the festivities on Christmas Day. I sent them so that you can see what we did.

We sang carols at an old folks home. This is the same old guy I talked to last year!


We played games.


The Stevens' made us a great Christmas dinner. The food was really good. Especially the banana cream pie and the cheese cake!


I also included this picture of all the elders that are serving here on the island of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin right now.
Top row - (L to R) Hickenlooper, Hicken, Larson (ME!) and Warhurst
Bottom row - (L to R) Daines, Manwill, Damm (my comp) and Vance


They are a fun group of guys and I have enjoyed being here with them. Hickenlooper is a pretty weird dude though... He and Daines go home at the end of the transfer 3 weeks from now.

Elder Damm and I had 2 investigators as well as 2 less-active members come this week. That's pretty good when you consider that we had to start from scratch when we got here less than 2 wees ago. Elder Damm is a little frustrated right now because he is the zone leader here and he can't help everyone at the same time. He is really stress but I'll help get him through it. Excluding 1 of the 4 companionships on St. Lucia and including the other 2 English speaking companionships here, he and I had more member lessons than the rest of the companionships in the zone combined. We also had half of the zone's referrals and taught about a third of the zone's total lessons. We have been working really hard!

We are teaching a guy named Edwardo who is 28 years old. He can't read English, just Dutch. So Jeffry Gumbo, the member that picked me up from the airport, goes with us to teach him. We are mostly teaching less-actives and about a half a dozen kids ages 10-17 from part member families.

Things are going well here for us but not for the mission in general. There is a goal to baptize 30 people this week but right now it looks like we will probably end up with around 20. Hopefully we'll be able to find some more people that can get baptized soon!

My toe is still red and the skin is peeling off again. We are walking tons so it has been sore. It is also draining a little bit of clear liquid every day. The worst part about that is that it makes the lint from my sock stick to it! I'm only telling you all this cause I know you want to know whats going on, but I'm not worried about it. I'll keep you updated on it's progress.

The new biggest cruise ship, (Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas), was here last week. It's HUGE! They have to back it in to the dock because it won't fit with the front end in. They had to dredge the bay for about 2 weeks to make it deep enough for it to even pull up to the dock. I did take some pictures but didn't have time to send them with all the other pictures I sent today.

Well, I will start doing a scripture of the week again next week. I thought about it this morning and then forgot to write it in my planner so I don't have one. Sorry.

P.S. Happy new year!

Christmas Day Skype Call.

We talked to Jonathan today via skype video. These are a few pictures we took of him and one that he took of us:

There is a baptism on Saturday!

Hey, I made it to St. Maarten safely but I had a series of unfortunate events happen along the way. First, as expected, my big bag got left in Miami. My flight was delayed leaving Dallas so I barely made the flight out of Miami. Then when I got out of the long line at the lost luggage counter in St. Maarten, no one was there to pick me up. I tried calling all of the missionaries and no one would answer! Luckily I knew the number for Jeffrey (one of the members) and he was able to come and get me. We drove to the Dutch side apartment and spent about 30 minutes calling the cell phones, the house phone and just yelling into the open windows and no one woke up! Since Jeffrey was hungry we decided to go and get some food before going to the Stevens house (our senior couple). Luckily we were able to wake the Stevens up so I stayed the first night with them. They knew that I was coming but apparently they were originally told that my flight was supposed to come in on Tuesday. My new companion’s flight got pushed back a day and they assumed that mine did as well. That's where the problem happened. They were very surprised when they came out to the balcony and saw us standing there! I was pretty much in a terrible mood by then.

Things have definitely gotten better since my first day back. My luggage showed up sometime on Friday afternoon so I have everything. I am not with Elder Daines like I thought I was going to be. Instead I am with Elder Damm (pronounced just like your first impression of the word). He is 2 transfers behind me and we are getting along pretty well so far. We spent our first few nights in the French apartment and as of today we are back in the Dutch apartment where I spent 7 months last year. There are 6 missionaries on the Dutch side now, but 2 are going home at the end of this transfer (January 20th). So we'll be back to 4 then. We are getting 2 new apartments over here because the one we are in is getting old and a bit run down. I can't wait!

The other Elders left us no investigators so we have spent a lot of time tracting the last couple of days. We are pretty sick of that! Luckily I know where most of the members in our area live so we have been able to visit them. Some were really surprised when they saw me! It was fun.

Not too much has happened here yet. There is a baptism on Saturday of a guy that I used to teach about a year ago. I am excited for that! Another person to add to my "other fruits" list. He has his interview on Thursday and then he will be ready to go. He's getting baptized on the 26th at like 7 in the morning in Great Bay. I'll take some pictures and send them to you next week.

I found a few remnants of my Christmas packages in the French apartment. I only found 2 boxes though and I think you said that you sent 3. I am hoping that the last one might still be on its way! The package with all of the little gifts already arrived. The missionaries went through everything and ate most of it... what bums! Oh well. I stole back what I could find! I did get all the scripture references but I haven’t had time to go through them yet.

For Christmas we have permission to use skype to call just like we did on Mother’s Day. We have a pretty full morning because we are going to do a service project, then eat lunch and watch A Christmas Story. I don't know who got that approved but I'm excited to watch it. I will have the computer at 7 o’clock our time so I should be able to call you sometime around 4 o'clock your time. Hopefully that works for you. Talk to you on Friday!

Back to St. Martin!

Great news! On Wednesday Jonathan had an appointment with his doctor to check his progress. We are happy to report that he is doing very well. He was given medical clearance to return to his mission without restrictions or limitations. Since then, we have been trying to wait patiently while the missionary department in Salt Lake decided how to proceed.

Jonathan received a call this afternoon from our Stake President informing him that he will be returning to the West Indies Mission! He is leaving early Wednesday morning to fly back to St. Martin!

We have been so blessed that Jonathan's infection has resolved so quickly and without causing any permanent damage to his foot. We are also very grateful that he is being allowed to return to his mission, and not being reassigned to another mission here in the states.

We again want to thank all of our family and friends who have joined their prayers with ours in Jonathan's behalf.

Here are a few pictures from Jonathan's time at home.

Visit with President & Sister Robison:


Logan Temple:


Family Christmas Fondue (a few days early):

Another Positive Culture for MRSA :-(

Jonathan was understandably pretty uncomfortable after having his toenail removed last Monday. He spent several days with his foot elevated and having frequent dressing changes. While his toe doesn’t really look much worse than when he arrived home, it certainly doesn’t look better either. His fever has not returned but his appetite still isn’t back to normal.

Yesterday, we received the results of the initial bacterial and fungal cultures. We were disappointed to learn that the bacterial infection was, in fact, MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus). We had hoped that the positive culture obtained in Trinidad was from contamination of the specimen since his toe was no longer draining purulent fluid. Unfortunately, we know now that it was accurate. Since this is a community acquired MRSA, it appears to be susceptible to "sulfa" antibiotics. The fungal culture showed a rare Candida species. As you can imagine, this news wasn’t what we had hoped for.

After yesterday’s culture results, Jonathan was put on an oral "sulfa" type medication and will continue with a topical antifungal as well. It is hoped that we will see some improvement within the next 5-7 days. If no improvement has occurred, there will need to be a change in his medications. Dr. Hanson, the dermatologist, hasn’t scheduled him back in the office until Monday, December 14th and has no plans to release him to return to the mission until after that examination. We hope and pray the new medications will be effective and his up coming appointment will lead to his medical clearance. Only time will tell.

During the Thanksgiving weekend Jonathan was able to visit President and Sister Robison in their home (former mission president). This really buoyed his spirits and made him anxious to return to the mission field. They reminded Jonathan that Elder Williams, one of his former companions, had to go home for a surgical procedure on his shoulder. This was complicated by a MRSA infection, but he eventually returned to the West Indies Mission. Jonathan, of course, is certain that this feat can be repeated for him!

Jonathan is working hard to stay in missionary mode. He continues to work on FamilySearch Indexing and was introduced to the New FamilySearch Program. He has been working on his own geneology at the Family History Library at the Logan Tabernacle and attends the temple freqently. One way or another, he continues to save souls!

No Evidence of Osteomyelitis!

Seeking the Lord's help from the beginning, we arranged for our home teachers to visit early Sunday morning to assist in giving Jonathan a priesthood blessing. These brethren also organized a ward fast in his behalf. These prayers, combined with those of many family members and friends, have really made a difference. It has been wonderful to feel so much love and support and we have witnessed the healing power of our Heavenly Father.

In less than 48 hrs after his return, Jonathan had a full battery of lab tests and cultures, x-rays and an MRI of his foot. We were able to obtain expert opinions from a radiologist (his former bishop), an emergency physician (our neighbor and his former Priest Quorum adviser), an orthopedic surgeon (his best friend’s dad), and a dermatologist. He has even been seen by his dentist. We are not exaggerating when we say that dozens of additional doctors, including 3 podiatrists (one is his uncle), nurses, technicians and hospital administrators, have given significant input and assistance to expedite his care. We have been amazed by the willingness of all those we have asked for assistance to interrupt their busy schedules during this holiday week and lend their expertise to help Jonathan.

We are very happy to report that the intial lab tests all looked quite good, which rules out a multitude of systemic problems associated with the reported MRSA organism. However, we were all concerned by his x-rays because the bone at the tip of the infected toe was clearly abnormal. This led to a contrast enhance MRI early Monday morning which thankfully showed no evidence of osteomyelitis, an infection of the bone. The overlying chronic infection in the nail and soft tissues of the toe have been inflaming the surface of the bone causing remodeling, or changes to it's shape.

A procedure was performed on Monday afternoon to remove Jonathan's toe nail and more bacterial and fungal cultures were obtained. As we understand it, now that his nail has been removed, they feel that we will be able to erradicate the chronic infection. It is hoped that by the time his first cultures are reported early next week, there will be real improvement in his toe.

Overall, Jonathan looks good. Of course he does have some pain in his toe from the removal of the nail, but it appears to be healing. He no longer has a fever or sore throat and the ulcers in his mouth are nearly gone.  His appetite is returning and we are trying to feed him all of his favorite foods. His energy level is improved and he tells us that he wants to be back in the mission field in time for the next transfer on December 9th. So far, all medical indications are that this is a very reasonable expectation.

Despite being busy with medical examinations, tests, and procedures, Jonathan is still very much a missionary. On Sunday, he spoke about his love of missionary work in both the Priest’s and Deacon’s Quorums in our ward. He had interviews with our bishop and stake president (his acting mission president) and the decision was made to not obtain a medical release at this point. Under the direction of our stake president, he is maintaining his usual daily schedule as closely as possible, arising at 6:30 AM, joining in our family study of Preach My Gospel as well as his daily personal study and journal writing. He continues to wear his white shirt, tie, and nametag. We went to the Logan Temple with him yesterday and he was able to participate in seaings for the first time as well as perform an endowment. He is also doing FamilySearch Indexing. During spare moments he often gravitates toward our music room and we find him playing hymns on the piano. He has really had a wonderful effect upon the spirit in our home!

Again we thank you for your prayers and support.

Shane & Carole Larson

Safe arrival home.

Jonathan arrived safely at the Salt Lake airport this evening at about 8:45 PM, 18 months to the day that we took him to the MTC. He was very tired and fatigued but in good spirits. We fed him and got him home and into bed. We have scheduled medical tests to begin early in the morning and will try to give updates as information becomes available.

We truly appreciate your prayers and your love and support.

Shane & Carole Larson

Coming Home for Medical Treatment.

Dear Family and Friends, 

We so appreciate your prayers for Jonathan and your messages of love and support to us.  

We received word this morning from the church missionary department that, after careful review of the conditions and medical services in the West Indies, they do not feel Jonathan can receive the medical attention he needs there.  As a result, Jonathan is coming home for medical treatment.  He is not being released from his mission.  After the necessary tests and treatments are completed the same individuals who decided that he should come home, Dr Doty and a member of the 12 Apostles, will decide if he can return to missionary service in the West Indies or another mission.  

We are moving forward with the belief that he will be able to complete the full 2 years of his mission call.  We will do everything we can to see that he receives the medical care he needs to become healthy and return to missionary service.  We have already taken steps to ensure that his medical care will begin as soon as he returns home tomorrow. 

Please keep Jonathan and those who will be involved in his care in your prayers. 

Thank you again, 

Carole & Shane

Update from Dad and Mom

Well, as you can all imagine we were quite concerned after receiving Jonathan's email yesterday. We were able to email him back and ask that he let us know what the results of his culture were.

Jonathan sent an email from the church last night while he was there for seminary. The cultures came back positive for MRSA, a staph infection that does not respond to regular antibiotics. We have been quite worried with this new piece of information and the seeming lack of concern and treatment. Now with the added issues of Jonathan's significant weight loss (10% of his total body weight), a week long fever, mouth ulcers, and a sore throat; we feel that more needs to be done for him to prevent potential long term problems.

Today we have been spoken with our Stake President, Mark Jensen, Jonathan's mission president, President Gamiette, and Brother Travis Steward from the missionary department in Salt Lake. Each of these brethern have expessed their understanding of our concerns and desire to ensure Jonathan receives the treatment he needs.

Brother Steward has been in touch with President Gamiette, Sister Ellison, the mission nurse, the Caribbean area missionary doctor, and Dr. Doty, head of all missionary medical care. Dr. Doty has consulted with the Caribbean area mission doctor and the doctor on Trinidad and has some concerns.

Our understanding is that Dr. Doty will be speaking with the member of the twelve who is over missionary service tomorrow to discuss the best way to help Jonathan regain his health.

Please keep Jonathan in your prayers.

I'm just sick.

Sorry I didn't email yesterday, we were still in Guadeloupe at zone conference. We didn't get back until 8:45 last night because we were delayed 2 hours on the return flight. I was nervous because it was terrible weather when we were landing. We had a couple of bad times of turbulence where we were dropped at east a couple hundred feet. Then we landed on just the back left wheels. We're alive though.

Zone conference was okay. It was weird because President Gamiette wasn't there. Apparently his flight got canceled and so he didn't show up until late Monday night. I was able to do alright with it being in French though. I followed almost of the discussion. The real problem was that the conference went way too long, over 6 hours! That's why we didn't get back to St Martin to email yesterday.

Here is a picture from zone conference. Do you recognize my old friend? It's Elder West!


Guadeloupe was kind enough to show us a rainbow between heavy downpours!


The missionaries looked so good walking down the road until we saw their target!


Three of these Elders go home in a couple months and 1 does not. Can you tell which likes the tv more? (Airport delay)


I think that I am going to stay in Marigot for at least 1 more transfer. I don't think that I will be staying on the French side for the rest of the mission. President Gamiette said that he doesn't think he is going to send me to Guadeloupe or to Martinique. So hopefully in a few months I'll be back on Grenada or some other island.

Daphnie is doing good. She actually spoke in Church on Sunday. I don't know why she is waiting to be baptized. It doesn't make any sense to me. Our other investigators aren't moving much faster because we don't have very many of them. Our primary job this transfer and probably next transfer is to work with less-actives.

So you know, I have lost more weight - 16 lbs. I am now down to 140 which is as low as I have been my entire mission (including Guyana) I don't know what's wrong with me. No, I haven't changed what I am eating but I don't feel hungry. My toe went psycho on me again yesterday. It had a bunch of dry dead skin that peeled off. The mission nurse has an appointment today with the doctor I saw in Trinidad. She is going to call me with the results of the culture. I had a temperature of above 101 for four days this week. The fever is sitting about 100 right now and it hurts to move my eyes. I have 6 cold sores that started on Saturday, and they hurt. They are big holes in my mouth. I also have a sore throat that started yesterday. This has by far been my worst week ever. I'm just sick. What should I do? I'm lacking help on this end. We have no senior couple on the island right now, they are at the English speaking Zone Conference on St. Lucia.

The scripture of the week is Mormon 7:5-9.

Things have definitely taken a turn!

I'm good, just a little bummed about the language thing. The French is coming along slowly but surely. I just want to understand everything and to say everything! I'm making good progress but it's not fast enough. My companion and I had to speak in church yesterday (I thought I was going to die)! It went okay but I was seriously stressed. Mostly I read from Elder Andersen's talk called "You Know Enough". It went okay but Elder Snow had to translate some of it for me. It's hard to know the answer to every question we get asked and not be able to respond. The problem comes in when I try to say something back, it doesn't register in my mind yet because I'm still thinking in English! Elder Snow says it took 7 weeks before he could think in French. I can understand about 75% though and I'm studying a lot. It is fun but things have definitely taken a turn in my life. Fun, fun!

We live on the French side of the island, near the marina in a little town with a narrow main street. I forgot to check what our address is. I told the Elders on the Dutch side that you would be sending letters and stuff over there and they don't mind. We see them every Sunday, Monday and Tuesday so I'll be able to get everything from them.

We are getting ready to go to Zone Conference next week on Monday so we won't be e-mailing until Tuesday. It will all be in French! When I interview with the Mission President, I'm going to ask to stay for one more transfer in St. Martin. I would really like to go serve on Martinique but I will probably end up on Guadeloupe if he keeps me French speaking. Either way will be cool. Believe it or not, I just want to go somewhere where the people don't speak English!

We are still working with Daphnie but she wants to wait for her fiancee to come back to the island before she gets baptized. That's not until March so we are desperately trying to change her mind. She even bore her testimony during sacrament meeting last week! I just don't understand why she's waiting! We have a few other people we are teaching that seem like they could get baptized, but they are still a long ways out from that. We have mostly been working on reactivation and we have been making some progress there.

My foot is doing much better. The toenail has not fallen off yet. I am actually still waiting the results of my MRSA test. The doctor should be calling me with the results. My other foot has problems now though. We were in a place called French Quarter on Saturday and I got 11 bites from a group of angry fire-ants. My foot was pretty swollen yesterday but it is getting back to normal now. It reminded me of the fire-ants in Texas.

I'm sorry to hear about Grandma Jensen. I believe that she is a lot happier now than she was here on the Earth. As we say in the West Indies, "for true, mon"!

The scripture of the week is 2 Nephi 25:29. I really like it. (I even looked it up this week so I would remember why I chose it for my scripture of the week list!)

*Note:  We found this picture on the blog Elder Ackerman's family is doing for him It is from Leana's baptism on Tobago.

A sweet investigator named Daphne.

For information on the island of Saint Martin/Sint Maarten go to the October 15, 2008 posting.

I took my 27th flight as a missionary to get to Sint Martin on Wednesday! I am close to holding the record for most fights in the mission (not counting the Assistants to the President). It took 4 different flights and a delay in Barbados to get here. It was a long day of travelling.

Elder Ackerman and I did meet our goal and finish reading the Book of Mormon together during 1 transfer (6 weeks). We got done on Tuesday. Our whole zone was suppose to do it but we were the only companionship that made it! I guess the zone leaders cancelled the reading goal but forgot to tell us. And look how we did with baptisms during the transfer! We led the zone with 3!

Things are going great here in Saint Martin. I am really learning French this time. It is coming along slowly but surely. I don't know how long they are going to keep me French speaking but at this point I am planning on speaking it the rest of my mission. Elder Snow has been doing some teaching in French but I haven't been able to say much yet. It is a little bit frustrating to have to sit in a lesson and not be able to say very much. I know enough that I can follow the conversation and know more-or-less what they are talking about. I have an okay sized vocabulary but I have found that it is really hard to speak if you don't know any verbs! The ones I do know all have like 50 different forms because of different tenses and things like that. It's pretty messed up.

Elder Snow is great. He is from Fresno, California. He played volleyball in high school and loves music and other sports. I wouldn't mind being his companion for a while. He is also really patient with me and is a good teacher. We read from the Book of Mormon everyday together and we spend an extra hour studying French each morning before we go out. I was really nervous on Friday when he had me read some verses when we were in a lesson! It went okay though.

Are you ready for a funny story about language goofs? We were reading from 1 Nephi and it says (when Zoram tries to run away) that Nephi is exceedingly young but large in stature, when I read it I said that he was exceedingly yellow!!! Apparently there is only 1 letter difference between the 2 words and it's a vowel.

The branch is pretty small. We met with most of the investigators that came to church last week but some of them were really weird! They scare me! We had a sweet investigator come on Sunday named Daphne (spelled the same way as the Scooby-Doo character). Anyway, she should be getting baptized soon. She is only worried that she isn't ready yet. We'll be going over tomorrow and we've got a few things planned to help her realize that she is ready.

The toe is starting to do a lot better. The cream seems to be taking care of it but the nail looks terrible. I can't believe that it hasn't fallen out yet! I'm sure that it will soon.

Also, the elders on the Dutch side will be going to St.Lucia for zone conference but Elder Snow and I will be going to Guadeloupe on the 16th for ours. I guess it's going to be in French. I think it might be a rough conference for me!

Sorry, but I don't know what my address is yet. You can just send letters to the Dutch side address until I let you know the new one.

The scripture of the week is D&C 133:8-11. I can't remember what it says but it must be good if I chose it for my list of scriptures of the week!

What a surprise this week!!!

This is a picture of Me, Leana, Diane, and Elder Ackerman on Sunday! Leana and Diane are sisters and are new converts. Leana is 9 and Diane is 12. They are the nieces of a lady that got baptized a couple months ago. Their aunt is from the Reliance area in Guyana!


The waves were too big and Leana was too short to walk in the water.
I had to carry her!


This is me baptizing Leana on Sunday.


Sorry I didn't write yesterday, we didn't have time. The Leishman's were nice enough to take us around the island and we got stuck on the other side. Here are a couple of pictures from our adventure.

The ocean sure is cold!


We visited Argyle falls. This is definitely a place I want to take you when we come back to visit the mission!


Believe it or not I did remember your birthday. So, Happy Birthday Mom! I guess you are starting to get old now!

The toe is doing good. I got some new antibiotics and a topical anti-fungal cream from the doctor on Trinidad that have been helping a lot. I guess I'm supposed to call over there tomorrow and find out the results from the MRSA test that they ran on me.

By the time that we finished up at the doctor's office last Tuesday it was too late to fly back to Tobago. We had to stay the night over on Trinidad so I went back to Port of Spain and visited some of my friends up there. It was fun.

So, we got transfer calls on Friday night and I will not be staying on Tobago. I will be returning to the island of St. Martin. (Note the spelling difference.) I will be in the area of Marigot on the French side and I will be learning to speak French! My companion will be Elder Snow. What a surprise this week!!!

Sorry I didn't write more but the internet is really slow today and I knew you would rather have the pictures.

The scripture of the week is 3 Nephi 18:18-21.

I'm flying to Trinidad to see a doctor!

My toe is doing okay. I do still have the infection so I'm flying over to Trinidad in the morning to see a doctor because the cipro isn't beating the bug that I've got. Cipro is pretty much the only one we can get in the drug store over here in Tobago. The person here who is treating me has had the help of the mission nurse in Trinidad. The doctor that is over our mission is actually stationed in the Dominican Republic because he is over the entire carribean area. Unfortunately that means that he isn't really in a position to help me out. The mission nurse is also afraid that I might have MRSA so it will be an interesting day. [Note: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is a bacterial infection that is highly resistant to some antibiotics. Staph aureus is a common type of bacteria that normally lives on the skin and sometimes in the nasal passages. What makes this one so bad is our inability to find many antibiotics to treat it.]

I haven't said much about our current investigators because we don't really have any new ones. Since most of our time is spent either inside or doing all of the reacctivation work that President Gamiette wants done in the mission. The mission only baptized 6 people this past weekend. That's terrible when you consider that we used to baptize at least 35 or 40 per weekend!!! We only had 9 people at church in our branch yesterday and 4 of them were missionaries! It was sad. Fay is doing well. She was there yesterday and she loved it. She is happy that she got baptized but she is disappointed in the members that they don't have more faith. I think she took it harder than we did that so few people were at church yesterday!

Elder Akerman and I have been reading a lot out of the Book of Mormon because we are still trying to finish it by the end of the transfer. The Gossner's milk isn't too bad but it definately isn't like normal milk. It is still boxed. It's just fun to have it because it's from Logan.

Pictures from p-day last Monday. We found this really cool "hidden" beach:

Our "private beach" rocky entrance:
Check out this eel. It flopped up into these rocks while we were looking at the anemones! We got to borrow the car yesterday. Elder Ackerman was really excited to get to drive again. Sorry I forgot the scripture of the week!

Fay's baptism went great!

Fay's baptism went great!

I didn't go in the water because of my toe. It was starting to do a lot better but then Friday morning I woke up and it was bad again. Apparently the infection wasn't gone. So I started back on drugs again and I am anxiously awaiting the day when I can get back to a full working schedule. Notice I'm wearing flip-flops and you know how much I like them!

Fay is afraid of waves.

Me with a couple of the kids at the baptism.

Tobago beaches are awesome!

To be honest, I don't really want anything for Christmas. I will just have to carry it around and that's a pain. My socks are doing fine as are my G's, my pants, ties and belt. The shoes are doing okay. I'll probably want a new pair but I have to have one of them wear out first! Shirts are doing good except for the water here. It is leaving a lot of new stains so every week I have to keep putting stain remover on them to keep them looking good. My sheets and towel are also doing fine. So pretty much I don't need anything right now. Another problem this year is that transfers are 2 weeks before Christmas so I don't know if I'll be here or not.

Remember I told you I left a package at the mission office when I left Trinidad? I was planning to mail it when I was there last week. Thanks to the zone conference schedule I didn't get to go to the office at all. I would let the Palmer's mail it home but there are some things in it that I would like to have out of it before it leaves!

Well, as you can probably tell, being inside for the last 10 days had made me a little cranky. It also hasn't helped that the mission doesn't seem to be doing very well. Guyana had 1 baptism last week. Tobago was one of only 6 areas that baptized. That's terrible. Apparently Grenada had 2 baptisms of people that I taught which is pretty cool. I can add them to my list of "other fruits".

My "other fruits" list is getting quite extensive. The Leishman's came back with news about Linden (a big city in Guyana where missionaries just went for the first time in February.) They told me that the whole reason that 168 people down there have been baptized since then is because of 2 kids named Selwin and Cindy McBean. When I heard that I almost died because it was Elder Hamilton and I that found them and taught them in Reliance over a year ago! I guess they were the first 2 to get baptized down there in Linden and everything exploded because of it!!! It was really good to hear about Selwin and Cindy. A lot of times you don't get to hear the stories of how people you taught finally joined the church and then helped teach others. Its sad that so many missionaries had to leave Guyana last transfer. The work has really slowed down.

We'll definitely be getting 2 more missionaries here on Tobago next transfer. That means I'll actually have to teach district meetings!

The scripture of the week is Jeremiah 33:1-3.

We are baptizing Fay on Saturday!

This is a picture of me in Speyside, a little village, we went to last week on p-day. There's not much there, just a couple of houses and a high school. It has a great view and good fruit. This guy was crazy!!! He picked these while we watched.


Milk here in Tobago actually isn't that bad. (Its from Gossner's!)


I had to spend some time inside this past week instead of teaching. I got an ingrown toenail and it got infected. I have been on cipro which has really helped. I have only been allowed out to go to appointments and to zone conference since Friday! I have been walking around in flip-flops and a shirt and tie. That has been pretty fun! I got bored and made a T-Rex.


Well, how was conference? I heard it was awesome. I'm actually in a place so remote here in Tobago that I couldn't watch it. Bummer! We are going to try and download some of the talks from conference tomorrow. Thanks for the information on the new temples. The members down here go to Santo Domingo to go to the temple.

Zone conference yesterday was good but there has been so much focus on being prepared to go teach (studying) and about retention that there isn't time to focus on baptizing and teaching. Guyana only had one baptism this past weekend!

The work is a little slow here but it's wonderful. Things are going well for our investigators. We are baptizing Fay on Saturday! She is excited and so are we. It will be great if it's not raining that morning. The last couple of days it has been really rainy! It has kept it cool though with highs around 78 and lows around 70. For us its positively freezing!!!

I have been reading the Book of Mormon with Elder Ackerman. Our goal is to finish it together by the end of the transfer. We have been going through it and marking it with scriptures to support lesson points that we could use teaching. I'm planning on sending it to you guys when I'm done (for Michael). I figure that it would be something that you can study as you go through Preach My Gospel.

I am pretty sure that I'll be staying in Tobago for another transfer after interviews yesterday. (I was sure last time too!!!) We talked about putting another set of Elders here on the island so I might actually have to teach district meetings! So far they have just been dinner appointments after church when we talk about how the branch is doing. I prefer those!

We saw these fisherman out this morning. Check out the name of the boat!


That's about all. We didn't get out much this week so I don't have much to talk about. The scripture of the week is 3 Nephi 13:16-18.

We have 2 cool investigators.

Getting to Tobago made last week really busy but things are going well. The members don't really like to work with the missionaries but we are working hard. We have 2 cool investigators that we are teaching. One is named Fay. She is pretty sweet but has had some problems living the law of chastity. She went on vacation to Trinidad for a couple of weeks and when she came back she said that she has decided to live the law of chastity and wants to get baptized. What really surprised us was that she had taken her Book of Mormon with her on vacation and had been reading it! The other one is a guy named Alphonso. He is the main music mixer and radio commercial guy on the island. He is so fun to teach because he understands things really well. Then it is fun to talk about how he mixes and masters music so it sound good.

While I'm thinking about it our zone conference will be next Monday, meaning that e-mails will be Tuesday next week. We are flying over to Trinidad at like 7:30 in the morning and then coming back at 4 the same afternoon. I'm really bummed that I won't be able to go and see the people that I taught and members of the ward. (The Tobago elders usually stay in Port of Spain and go teaching with the Trinidad elders the night before zone conference.)

Our exercise program is going okay. I was pretty sore after the first day of jumping around. The best exercise that we got last week was on Saturday morning when Elder Marshall (a former companion of mine) and Elder Green and their families showed up on the island. They challenged us to some basketball so we played for about an hour. It was fun and Elder Ackerman and I won the best of 5 series.

We are having normal church this week in our branch because we don't have a satellite dish down here. So after church we are going to the senior couple's house to watch Conference.

For our p-day activity we are going to a place called Speyside today. It is on the far east side of the island. It should be interesting. I'll take some pictures and try to send them next week.

Pictures of Elder Ackerman and I planning while the power was out last week. That has been a big problem around here lately! It's annoying!!!



The scripture of the week is Alma 9:26 & 28. I really like it.

Wow... What a week!

For information on Tobago, please see the Trinidad and Tobago Information post dated May 24, 2009.

Sorry about yesterday, we didn't get to e-mail because it was Eid ul Fiṭr.
(A Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity", and Fiṭr means "to break fast"; so the holiday symbolizes the breaking of the fasting period).

Here is a quick video tour of the apartment in Grenada:



Last view of Grenada:


Wow... What a week! When I wrote you last Monday I was still going to be in Grenada. Around 10:30 PM we got a call from the Palmer's in Trinidad and Elder Palmer said that I would be moving to Tobago. To be honest I wasn't very happy but it is actually a really cool place.

I don't like being the leader and worrying about what other missionaries are doing, but being a district leader here is a breeze! That's because there are no other missionaries here so I only have to worry about Elder Ackerman and myself.

My companion, Elder Ackerman, is only in his second transfer. He'll hit his 3 month mark sometime in the middle of October. That's weird considering the fact that I hit 16 months yesterday! Time just has a way of slipping away when you're having fun. Elder Ackerman is about 6 ft 5in and he is just like me. He loves all sports, movies, and music. He wants to try and make USU's basketball team when he gets home. We started an exercise program this morning that is supposed to increase our vertical jump so that will be exciting! I'm going to be a high flyer again!

I got to speak on Sunday which was fun. I spoke for about 25 minutes on the Holy Ghost. No one told me how long to talk, when to stop, or what time the meeting was supposed to let out. I guess I went about 5 minutes too long but I had fun with it.

I would give you our address but we don't really have one. All mail to Tobago (for us anyway) just goes to the mission office and then we pick it up when we fly over there for zone conference. Sometimes people come visit us so they bring mail with them as well.

You'll never believe who we ran into last night... Elder Marshall! He and his family are here for the week because he is going home. I was really glad to see him because I thought I wasn't going to before he left. We are planning on playing him and Elder Green (another guy going home) in basketball to have some fun. It was good getting to catch up with him again.

Pictures from today's adventure at Fort King George in Tobago!




The scripture of the week is Ether 12:32-34.

Flying to Tobago!

We received this surprise e-mail today:

Brother and Sister Larson,

This is to advise you that Elder Larson is boarding an airplane this afternoon and flying to Tobago where his next assignment will be. He will be a district leader there.

We are sorry to have him leave Grenada so soon but most of the missionaries seem to be in motion today with transfers every which direction. We will have three new elders here by tonight. We are happy to receive two additional elders and pray that the work will pick up here.

We had hoped to have Elder Larson here longer as he is a hard working elder. I have gone with on teaching appointments and he does a wonderful job with his teaching and testifying.

He will be in touch I am sure on Monday via email. We are happy he was here and appreciate the work he has done.

Elder Rasmussen in Grenada

Assigned to open a new area!

Things are going great here in Grenada. I had a little accident yesterday. Rather than type it out I made a video of what happened. It hurt a little bit! Don't worry though, I'm okay! And it will heal soon enough.



St. Lucia was great. I got to hang out with Elder Williams and Elder Cromwell and a couple of other Elders that I haven't seen in a while. Elder Anderson of the 70 was there and he is a pretty cool guy. It was funny to see the sister missionaries there. I already knew Sister Camejo, she was in Trinidad for my last zone conference there! Here are a couple of pics from St. Lucia:



Anyway, the only funny story from zone conference was that President came to me to tell me about transfers and he said that I had done excellent work in Grenada but he was going to send me to St. Maarten! Apparently someone had told him that I had served there before but they failed to tell him how long I was there. I let him know that I would go if he wanted me to... We went into a classroom and he and I discussed it and then he said an amazing prayer to find out what we were supposed to do. We took about 30 minutes to think about it and then we came back together and he told me that he had decided to keep me in Grenada to do something really special. The island will be getting 2 new missionaries this week and Elder Montgomery and his companion will be working in the St. Georges area. My companion and I will be assigned to open a new area on the north side of the city!!! You might recognize my new companion, it will be Elder Barker. The hairy monster of a companion that I had at the MTC. I have a feeling that this could be a crazy transfer. I have to find a new apartment this week and everything. It's going to be fun.

Patrick is doing great. He was baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday. He had a huge smile on his face! Here are a couple of pictures:


The rasta is a man named Hyacinth that is in our branch. He is pretty sweet and doesn't pull his dreads out very often so this was a special occasion!



Marvin is also doing relatively well. He loves having us over and he is going to be in my new area. We showed up on Saturday right when his girlfriend was walking out on him. He was pretty upset about that. I'm not sure whether or not we should be glad about it. He can get baptized now but he wanted to get married... I'll keep you updated.

This picture is from our trip to an old airport this morning:


Sorry, I guess I didn't tell you which buildings were which last week.


The scripture of the week is 2 Nephi 25:26.

The highest baptizing island in the mission!

There have been some visa issues in Jonathan's mission during the past week. Some of the missionaries in Guyana were detained by the police. Click here to view the article from KSL.com.

With his e-mail today Jonathan sent a copy of the letter that President Gamiette sent out to all of the missionaries with regard to the problems in Guyana:

Dear Elders, Sisters, and Couples,

The situation in Guyana as you can imagine will affect the work every where in the mission, but contrary to what some might think it will be a great blessing if the things we have discussed with the Government are put in place as they should.
-- we should have now a clear complement of 28 foreign missionaries in Guyana.
-- we should have local young men and women serving full time missions in their own countries to compensate that lost.
-- the areas outside of Guyana will have more missionaries and so a 3rd zone have been created in Trinidad. for next transfer.
-- we can expect to establish the church more fully every where with this extra number of missionaries coming from Guyana.

As to what can be said to your parents make sure to reassure them of your safety, and that you are back in the work focusing on baptizing and retaining. For those that were detained make sure that your stories do not let to think that you are or were in danger.

Please continue to pray for that situation to resolve entirely so that the plan of having local missionaries in Guyana could be put in place and the Quota of 28 granted.

Love you thank you for your prayers.

Prs. Gamiette

This picture shows the church and our apartment in relation to the beach.


Video of this mornings walk along the beach.



This is Anandale Falls. We went there last week.


Things are going great here in Grenada and Akim is doing great. We have a couple of other cool investigators that I think I mentioned last week. One of which is Marvin. I told you about how fast he received his answer right? It only took him a day! He, his daughter Leanna, and his girlfriend Camasha all came to church yesterday and they really enjoyed it. They were about an hour and a half late but that's okay because we have sacrament meeting at the end of the block here.

Our other cool investigator, Patrick, is also doing awesome! He is getting baptized this week so that will help Grenada keep it's title of the highest baptizing island in the mission!!!!!

Elder Montgomery and I spent about 2 hours cleaning our apartment this morning because we are going to have a couple of extra missionaries join us next week. It will be really cramped with 4 missionaries in our little place but it will be fun. They are coming because of what has been going on down south in Guyana. We have learned a little about accepting the will of the Lord here in the mission this past week. We have to send 40 of 70 missionaries out of Guyana and we can't have any more than that in there at one time. That's really sad because that's where most of the baptisms in our mission come from! Anyway that's why we are getting more missionaries here.

So you know, it was 40 missionaries that were detained. They were never technically arrested. The reason they were detained is because there is an excommunicated lady that just got into power in their government. The first thing she did was request a list of all of the missionaries names, phone numbers and addresses in the country. Then she revoked all of the visas that Guyana had just given to us about 6 weeks earlier and had everyone rounded up. We've been trying to get Guyanese visas for 20 years and when we finally succeed someone has to screw it up!

I assume that I'll be staying in Grenada. Our senior couple has requested that the mission president keep Elder Montgomery and I together for at least another transfer and we both said that would be fine with us. We'll know by next week what is happening though.

The scripture of the week is D&C 12.

Well, we're flying to St. Lucia on Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited! As if you can't tell. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures. That's the news from down here.

We are tearing it up!

Things are a little hard right now in the West Indies, for the first time in my entire mission we baptized less than 100 people in a month. We only got 87 people in the water during August. But that's not the case for Grenada and St. Vincent! We are tearing it up! We should have 2 more baptisms soon and St. Vincent had 4 baptisms last month between the 2 companionships over there. (Our zone is awesome).

These pictures are from Akim's baptism on Saturday. We had a good scare about 20 minutes before it started because Akim wasn't there and when we called his friend (and fellowshipper) we were told that his mom said he couldn't get baptized! Needless to say we freaked out a bit but we went to pick him up. Everything else went really well and he was confirmed yesterday during sacrament meeting.

Akim and Jonathan


I'm glad to hear that Elder Rasmussen (senior elder) thinks highly of Elder Montgomery and I. We work really hard and it's a challenge. We do a lot of extra studying everyday so that we can be sure that we are spiritually ready at all times.

We are still working with Patrick (from Nigeria). He could be baptized this Saturday but I don't think he'll be ready. We are going to bring it up but our goal will be for the next week.

We also met a cool guy named Marvin on Monday when we were doing a service project breaking down a fruit stand. We taught him and his family. When we went back on Friday Marvin had a huge smile on his face and told us that he had gotten an answer to his prayer and that he knows the Book of Mormon is true! That was awesome! It's a little difficult to teach at his house though because we are only about 20 yards from the ocean!

I meant to take a picture of our house and the church from the beach so you could see how close we live to the ocean but I forgot to until this morning. I will try and get them to you next week.

Our waterfall adventure this morning.


I am super excited to go to zone conference next week! I'll get to see Elder Williams again and we'll be on St. Lucia. What could be better?

I have a funny scripture of the week. Its Acts 8:30-31. It's talking about Isaiah. No one can understand him! Then or now!!!