Farewell President and Sister Robison.

All of the missionaries in Trinidad gathered at 5:30 this morning in front of President Robison's house to wish him a final farewell. He really appreciated it and he even shed a few tears. (That's only the 2nd time that I've seen him do that. The other time was at the fireside at the mission home on Father's Day). He'll be missed by all of us.

We copied this from the mission blog:

"We honestly thought we were all done with goodbyes.

Early this morning, President Robison walked into the big living room where we held many wonderful zone conferences and wished he could see the missionaries one more time. Little did he know what was happening outside our gate.

The assistants (Elders Hamilton and Jones) and two of the zone leaders (Elders Williams and Worthington) arrived just before 6:00 AM to take us to our flight.
We climbed in the big mission van.

Pulled out of the driveway.

Drove through our gate.

Took one last look down our pretty street.

And what did we see?

This:


Every missionary in Trinidad standing along the sides of our street waving handkerchiefs (paper towels actually) and singing "Called to Serve". I can't think of a more beautiful (and tearful) sight.

They followed us down the road.




And we just had to stop for a quick photo. (Can you see Jonathan?
He's holding the paper towel in the air that is furthest to the right.)


Thanks to the couples (talented Sister Myers in particular) who helped gather the elders and made this sweet memory possible (and fed them all breakfast afterwards!)"

Back to Jonathan's e-mail:

We got news on Thursday that we will be getting sister missionaries soon. One of the twelve called President and said that he has been inspired to call a sister to this mission even though there aren't any here. President said "Send her and give me 12 companionships." They agreed. So we should be getting the first 6 sisters in September or October. It will be a big change. I don't want to be in their zone! Girls are weird!

On Friday I built an electric fan during lunch. It was hot and we had an old engine lying around so I pieced it together.

David and Pheumia are doing great. David blessed the sacrament yesterday. He was really nervous but he didn't mess up. Their friend, Latoya, came and brought along one of her other friends. Their daughter came as well. After visiting with them last night, all 3 of them have baptism dates for the 11th of July! I'm excited for it. We had a sweet FHE Friday night. It was on Nephi going to get the plated from Laban. We acted it out with a couple of David and Pheumia's kids. It was so fun.

We have been working in a nice area called River Estate and in a place called Petite Valley (I think that's what it is at least.) There are a few cool people up there that we have found. One is named Junior. He is a little slow, like a Guyanese person, but he is really humble and is willing to do everything that we ask of him.

(We got a brief e-mail on Saturday morning from Jonathan saying that his permanent retainer is broken.) I haven't gotten my retainer fixed yet. I have a couple of phone numbers for some orthodontists and for some dentists in the area. I am going to call a few of them and see what they can do for me. I forgot to grab the scripture of the week so maybe I can send it to you in a couple of days when I report back on my retainer. (It is legal for me to email you since this is considered an emergency.)

I had the opportunity to confirm Pheumia!

We had a busy day yesterday so I only had time to e-mail President, that's why I didn't e-mail until today.

Sorry about the surprise last week. I didn't expect to get transferred either, usually we have a few days notice. I am all settled in here in Port of Spain. We have a really small apartment but it's okay. It's pretty much right in the middle of the city so it's about 20 minutes from my old apartment. We do a lot of walking but there is a pretty good bus system.

We work mostly in an area called Diego Martin and are pretty much starting over finding investigators right now. David and Pheumia's oldest daughter is 9 and we are trying to get her baptized next week (she is in the pink dress in the first picture). They also have a family friend that's been to church a couple of times that we are working with.

We are part of the Port of Spain ward which is nice. It runs almost like a ward from back home. We have about 10 returned missionaries and about half of the people in the ward have stake callings. It runs smoother than my last ward.

Elder Williams is from Bakersfield, California. (That's where that little basketball team comes from that the Aggies have pounded the last 2 seasons in a row). The missionary with plantar fasciitis is doing alright. He has been going to physical therapy and he should be back on his feet in a couple of days.

The wedding went well last week as did the baptisms. These are pictures of David and Pheumia's (pronounce Fay-me-a) wedding and baptisms:

This is Bishop Hooker, David, Pheumia, and their children at the wedding on Tuesday. (Kyle is in the gray, he's the one who told us the story of Ammon).

Me, Elder Williams (my companion), David, Pheumia, and Sister & Elder Palmer on Saturday. I had the opportunity to confirm Pheumia during sacrament meeting on Sunday.

This picture is from Jermaine's baptism, it was on Saturday too. Luckily I was able to go because it was in my old area.

Me, Elder Romney, Anthony, Jermaine, Bishop Alleyne (below), Milton, Elder Cotton (plantar fasciitis man), Rita, Elder Barton. All of us played a part in Jermaine's baptism whether by fellowshipping or by doing the baptism interview (Elder Barton).

The scripture of the week is Alma 29:1-3.

It was such a sweet story!

I got a letter from ya'll today telling me that everyone is liking the blog because of all the information about investigators that I've been including lately. That is one of the benefits of the office. I'm sorry to say that the e-mails will be back to a worse state because I don't have that luxury anymore.

Basically what I'm saying is that I am not going to get fat here in Trinidad any more! I was part of a 3-way emergency transfer on Saturday morning, so now I am serving in Port of Spain. One of the elders in Guyana got plantar fasciitis and they didn't want him down there (too much walking), so they brought him to work in the office, sent one of the Port of Spain elders to Guyana, and they moved me here. It's been a weird week to say the least.

My companion is named Elder Williams. I actually met him when I first came to the mission. He was in the Canje zone with me but was clear out in Crabwood Creek which is right next to Suriname.

So I will have e-mails on Mondays again since I am back to a normal schedule. It's only on Tuesday this week because our zone conference was yesterday. Here are a few pictures from zone conference:

Elder Williams (new companion), Jonathan, and Sister Robison

Elder Williams and Jonathan

Trinidad North Zone

Elders Larson, Williams, Duncan, and Westover

It was President Robison's last and it was really good. Luckily I will get to hear him speak 2 more times before he goes home though because he is doing a couple of firesides for our ward.

You can use the same mailing address. The office elders are in our district so they will bring mail to us every Friday at district meetings.

Well, Jermaine is going to be baptized this Saturday. She is going to be interviewed tomorrow night. In this area we are going to have 2 baptisms this weekend. Their names are David and Famia. They are getting married in about an hour and a half so we're pretty excited. They have 3 kids and one of them is so smart! His name is Kyle and he's 6 years old. He told us the story of Ammon on Sunday when we went to visit them. This is pretty much what he said: (Remember that he is a Trinidadian and he is a little kid). "Ammon worked for a king and watched the sheep. Some bad guys came and said that they were going to take the sheep away. Ammon said that he can't let them do that. The bad men tried to take the sheep and Ammon took a rope, tied it like so (he imitated tieing a rope) like so-like this, put a rock in it and bust he head! (People don't use pronouns here, they say he and she for everything instead of also using him and her). The bad men kept trying to take the sheep so Ammon used he sword and chop off the bad men's arms. Then Ammon made the bad men cry and they ran away." It was such a sweet story! We are going to try and get it on camera tonight so we can send it to you.

Well, that's the news. The scripture of the week is Joseph Smith-Matthew 1:33-40. It's kind of long but I was reading it the other day and it just really stood out to me.

Our task this morning was to begin building a church!

Here are a couple more pictures from last week at Maracas Falls. In the picture are the two assistants to the president, Elder Hamilton (Jonathan's trainer), and Elder Romney's trainer, Elder Romney (Jon's companion), and Jonathan.



Well, things have not gone at all the way that we have planned them to over the last couple of days. Curtis didn't make it to church for an unknown reason so we aren't teaching him anymore. Jermaine is still an investigator but we are hoping to get her baptized on the 20th. I'll send you pictures when it happens. I hate it when things don't go as planned. Her friend is doing alright. I have no idea who she is but Jermaine has been a champ and gave her a Plan of Salvation tract.

Things are pretty busy with President leaving. We've just been given a bunch of other projects that have caused us to stay in the office sometimes as late as 7 or 8 o'clock at night. Things are busy! It doesn't really make it too hard for us though because whatever people dump on us to do I am able to get done quickly. The new president comes in on the 1st so we will have 2 days without a mission president.

I don't know what the family is doing while the new mission president goes to the MTC (he has 5 kids). I would assume that the children would stay home. All new presidents go to the Provo MTC because that is where all of the general authorities and 12 go to speak. All I know is that despite a few personality issues that President Robison and I have had over the last year, I am going to miss him.

I have been thinking about David Heiner a lot this week. I have often wondered how his family is making it through without the knowledge and peace that we have. I have had the thought that David wouldn't have died if he was on a mission. When that thought arises, I wonder why I didn't try harder to get him to come back. I think that I could have done more.

Anyway, we had an interesting morning. We went over to the north east side of the island to a place called Matura where our zone leaders have set up a group meeting every Sunday. They get about 15 people to come every week and they had their first baptism there on Saturday. Our task this morning was to begin building a church for them to meet in. (They have just been meeting under a couple of coconut trees for the last month!) So we spent about 4 hours cutting down bamboo trees and hauling them over to where the temporary church is going to be assembled. I really felt like I was in the wild! It was cool!

If I haven't told you already, I have had "Doubles" a few times now. I couldn't help but asking Elder Romney that if I ordered 2 of them do I call it a "Quadruple". Oddly enough he didn't find that very funny. I had a good laugh at him last night though. We were talking about some of the strange talents that we have and I was telling him about hula-hooping while walking up to an investigators house. He knocked on the door and then proceeded to make fun of the way you have to move your body to keep the hoop up. He had no idea that the lady was standing at the door watching him! We all burst into laughter because he looked like a total idiot.

Well, that's the news. We have zone conference on Monday.

The scripture of the week is Helaman 3:28-30
.

One event really stands out.

I forgot to tell you that we went to Las Cuevas Beach and to Maracas Bay on Monday morning last week with our zone. They were both way pretty! We played soccer with everyone on Las Cuevas beach. It was so much fun!


Things are going well here in Trinidad. I found out that Jermine's name is actually spelled Jermaine. She is supposed to get baptized on the 13th if all goes to plan. Her original date was set for the 6th but she didn't come to church on Sunday. She spent the day with her friend because her friend's boyfriend was shot on Saturday night. It was fatal... Anyway, she is doing great and is preparing for next week. Looking back over the last couple weeks at the progress she has made makes one event really stand out. She was unsure about the things that we were telling her so we decided to teach a lesson completely on prayer. At the end I challenged her to try and pray for 15 minutes straight. (The idea being that she would run out of normal things to pray about which would force her to really think about what she was praying.) To our great joy she told us that she had actually gone for 20 minutes even though she didn't think it was possible when she started. She told us about how she felt and that she had broken down and started crying and she knows that everything that we have been teaching her is true! How sweet is that?

Curtis on the other hand... He is still sober but we told him that if he didn't come to church we wouldn't come and see him until he does. Normally we are more understanding but he has been taught by the missionaries before and didn't come to church then either. Hopefully he will come this week so we can go see him again.

Office work isn't too bad actually. We pretty much get to do anything we want as long as we get our work done. So tomorrow is going to be a day to sit around in the office because we finished everything yesterday.

I heard about the Swine Flu at the MTC. So you know, when new missionaries gets dropped off at the MTC now, they are checked by the MTC nurses before they are allowed to go into the building. If they have any signs of the flu then they are sent back with their parents and told to come back in 12 WEEKS! We get to hear all about that kind of stuff in the office. Especially since my computer is right next to the lady that handles all of the travel arrangements for the mission.

Without frozen burritos I generally don't eat at the apartment. We only have breakfast foods there because that's the only time of day that we are home. We usually just eat at Subway or something for lunch. We don't eat lunch when people have a dinner appointment scheduled with us. Last night we had a bean soup that had some smoked ham in it. I loved it.

I hope you like these pictures. They are from this morning:

Jonathan and his companion, Elder Romney, at Maracas Falls



P.S. The scripture of the week is Matthew 7:24-28
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