We found a sweet family (of 17)!

Things are going okay here on St. Lucia. I have been thrown into a place where the main language is Patois. Pronounced pa-twa (the a is like "a"pple, the o is like "o"bject). It's a little bit like Creole and French which helps, but it is a different dialect, so I have some work to do! The area is a bit different than I expected. I thought it would be a city setting like Port of Spain or like parts of St. Maarten but it's not. We are on the ghetto end of St. Lucia and no tourists come to this end of the island! It looks and feels a lot like Tobago did.

We have started working in a new area since I came over here and we found a sweet family. There are 17 people in it! Unfortunately only about 4 of them are interested right now but we are working on it. We set a baptism date with one of them for the 13th! We went to the Mom's Church of God (7th Day) on Saturday and that was weird. Apparently it had a profound effect on her because when she got home after the service, she announced to her whole family that she was never going back to it again! That was cool to hear.

There are currently 8 missionaries here on St. Lucia. I am in a 4 man apartment with Elders Lundburg (from Logan!) and Welch, and my companion Elder Morris. I don't think that Elder Morris is a bad missionary. Sure he has a few problems with his teaching style and he hates talking to people on the street but I should hopefully be able to help fix those things. I think his biggest problem is that he doesn't know how to relax and just enjoy it. He is a little socially awkward. I think that is because he dropped out of high school in the middle of his junior year and never finished it. It will be a bit challenging but we'll make it work.

There used to be 2 sister missionaries in Castries but they are in Guyana now. We have a total of 3 companionships of sisters in our mission, there is 1 on Grenada and 2 in Guyana. I didn't think I would ever see the day! They work hard though and they are all easy to get along with. I'm just glad that they are locals and not from the states. (I probably won't live to see that day!)

Our branch has about 40 people. We have 6 Melchizedek Priesthood holders (not including the missionaries) which is great for a branch this small. Elder Lundburg and I had to speak this week which was fun. He was kind enough to leave me 30 minutes but I was able to fill them. We split the plan of salvation lesson from Preach My Gospel and I taught from the Atonement to the end. It was pretty easy and I enjoyed doing it. (It was just the 3rd time in 7 weeks that I have talked in Sacrament Meeting!)

Last night we stayed in Castries (the city in the north where the other 4 elders are) and I had a good chance to talk to Elder Prince (the zone leader) about everything that needs to happen on the island this transfer. Then we all went to the beach this morning and played a game of American football. I haven't done that my whole mission! One of the games we played was the 4 oldest vs. the 4 youngest and it turns out that I have been out longer than the whole younger team put together by about 3 weeks. That makes me feel old!

I'm glad that the Aggies have finally got their heads back on. Did you hear about BYU's basketball team? 19-1. Yep... that loss was to us! I wear my Aggie shirt every time I know they are playing. (Which is every game because I have the schedule!) I wore it last night in Castries and Elder Prince (who played hockey for Weber) just laughed about it. I'm surprised that we get along so well! In the absence of Elder Williams, he has become my best friend down here.

P.S. The other elders are having a baptism this week. We are all excited for it!

The scripture of the week is 3 Nephi 27:13-17.