It’s been raining all day today which isn’t very fun. It came at a really bad time. My companion, Elder Morris, and I were walking over to our senior couple’s house to do our emails. We had to hide under a semi-truck to keep out of the rain. It was a little funny because we were hiding under there and my companion was sitting down. All the rain off of a roof next to us made a river of water that came from behind us under the truck and Elder Morris didn’t notice it, so his pants got all wet! I was just squatting so my shoes got wet but only on the outside. They are still waterproof! Actually it is dry season now so rain is not a very common thing.
We had two baptisms this past weekend. That was sweet! They both went great! On Saturday Jane Augustine was baptized. We baptized her in a river because she didn't want to do it in the ocean. It was freezing cold! She use to be a rastafarian and smoked marijuana, so we helped get her off of that. She really wants her kids and her husband to be baptized now so we’re working with them pretty much everyday; every time they’ll let us come see them. Sis. Augustine can’t really read so we got her the Book of Mormon on CD and she has been listening to that everyday with her family. She loves it! Here are a few pictures from her baptism:
Elder Morris, Jamal, Jane, Brother Firmus, and Me.
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The water was really cold, but I was happy!
On Sunday we had baptisms for both companionships down here. Elder Welch and Elder Lundberg baptized a guy named Lucius Mathurin. He’s kinda crazy but he’s a real funny man. He’ll be a good member just like Lucy and Jane. We baptized a lady named Sheba Sinasis. She’s sweet and she’ll be a super strong member. We have been teaching her pretty much since the day I got here. She's readng the Book of Mormon and is already half way through 2nd Nephi. That’s really cool because it means that she’s reading at least a chapter every day! Her family is giving her some pressure but her brother, Samuel, is getting baptized this weekend which we’re super excited about. We actually had no part to play in the baptisms, all we did was take pictures! It was completely done by the locals instead of the missionaries. The baptisms were done by one of the members of the branch presidency and 2 of the other priesthood holders were the witnesses. The members of the branch did all the talks and prayers (they did them for Sis. Augustine too). That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that.
The people in our area are sweet. They are very humble and spiritual, a lot more than in the bigger cities like Castries. They have lots of dreams and visions and all kinds of interesting things that happen, lots of cool stories, but not anything like Guyana. Guyana has tons, everyday someone is seeing a vision or having a dream and telling the missionaries about it. That’s why so many people get baptized.
The work in St. Lucia is going forth "boldly, nobly, and independently" (from the Standard of Truth). Life’s good. It will be even better when I get my companion out of here cause he’s not very clean, which is not cool. And he thinks I’m old. I don’t understand, I work harder than he does. Elder Morris is still here because President left the decision up to me. Despite how hard he is to work with, I elected to keep him and get him through this transfer. He is coming along but he will be leaving St. Lucia for sure in 2 weeks when transfers come up again. Sheba was the one that said she is in love with him. So we can't go and teach her any more but the other elders are doing fine with it. Since we can't be over at her house we had to give them her brother, Samuel, too. We are super excited that he is going to be baptized this week! Getting 3 investigators to baptism in one transfer here in the islands is a lot! Between the 2 companionships here in Vieux Fort we will have 5! That's awesome because they hadn't had a baptism in this area since October or November. We are super excited!
We don't have too many investigators right now. We baptized them all! So we'll spend most of our week looking for new ones. Things are good here.
I know I am staying in St. Lucia next transfer and staying in the same apartment. This will be nice cause I’ve moved 7 times in the last 10 months! I am excited to finally be staying somewhere. I'm sick of moving all the time. Elder Welch will be leaving with Elder Morris, but Elder Lundberg, the guy from Logan, is staying. He’s cool, he played football, lacross, and basketball. We have a lot of the same friends. It’s kinda weird! He’s a good guy and I’m glad he’s going to be staying too.
These are a few pictures from p-day:
We saw this ship and thought it was "The Black Pearl"!
How depressing to find out it is actually named the Unicorn.
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Petit Piton with the Gros Piton in the back.
We climbed the one in the back... it's bigger!
Me at sunset on the beach in Labourie.
Zone conference this past week was good. It focused on the requirements to obtain exaltation. It was very interesting. I learned some cool things!
You might have heard that there will be some changes to some of the mission's boundaries here in the Caribbean. They will be happening in July. The changes will affect us. We will be gaining St. Kitts, St. Thomas, Antigua, and Barbados. Pretty much all of the islands that they took away from us 3 years ago. I've actually known about this for about 9 months. They made the decision clear back when I was in the office but I wasn't allowed to say anything.
The scripture of the week is Matthew 7:15-20.