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!