First Day Schedule

This afternoon Sister Robison posted this on the WIM blog:





















"Here are the 14 newest West Indies missionaries

They are wonderful!

We even have a mango juggler (Elder Larson)!

They arrived last night, tired and happy. Before lunch they had orientation at the office, interviews with President Robison, and a group study session with me. This afternoon and evening they are out working in Trinidad. They will be teaching with great missionaries and members here and I can't wait to hear their stories. On more than one occasion new missionaries have found great families who later joined the church.

This evening we will have a devotional and tomorrow they travel to their assigned areas."

I'm glad to see they are going right to work. I'm sure Jonathan will have had several new experiences to tell us about when we hear from him on Monday. Can't wait!

Safe Arrival in Trinidad!

"Hello from the Mission Office" began this morning's e-mail from Jon. After a very long day of travel yesterday, he and the other 4 elders finally made it to the mission office in Valsayn (suburb of Port of Spain), Trinidad. He had his first interview with President Robison. Jon says: "He is a nice guy but it kind of creeped me out when he gave me a hug instead of shaking my hand after our interview this morning. Apparently that's how things work around here." Jon says that "Sister Robison was impressed by my knowledge of South American plants this morning. She didn't even know how to pronounce Heliconia (granted i can't spell it!) and yet she has one sitting on the kitchen table."

About Trinidad, all he had to report was that "It is really warm down here. Everyone started sweating about 8:30 AM. I think it feels really good though."

Tomorrow will be another travel day for Jonathan. He says: "there are four of us new Elders flying to Guyana in the morning. President Robison said that missionaries who don't get at least 50 baptisms during their 6 or 7 months there have something wrong with them. Obviously he was kidding but that has become one of his expectations. So you'll probably be hearing of some from me in a couple weeks."

From Jonathan's phone call yesterday, we have his flight information for tomorrow morning. He is on Caribbean Air flight 461 leaving Trinidad at 7:30AM and arriving in Georgetown, Guyana at 8:40AM. Exactly where he is going to be stationed in the country of Guyana remains a mystery. We know there are multiple wards and branches throughout the country and there are couple missionaries in two different cities. We understand that there are between 50-60 Elders in Guyana at a time. I guess we will have to wait for the next e-mail to see where he ends up.

Jon has informed us that his preparation day (p-day) is on Monday. We know that he will have about 1 hour per week to send e-mails so we hope to hear lots of great and exciting news. Until then we refer everyone back to the official WIM website where there are many postings about the work in Guyana. Also make sure you check out the WIM news blog to see today's photos of the newly arrived missionaries at the mission home. Who taught him to juggle mangos?

Flight to Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago

This morning, at about 6 AM, Jonathan called us for a few minutes from the Salt Lake airport. He was all checked in and waiting for his flight. He said he is getting ready to go "far away from home"! He was feeling like he needed more time at the MTC studying! I can hardly believe that he is wishing for more long study days. I think he is feeling the huge responsibility he has and isn't sure he's ready. But he is excited to get to the mission field. He was able to talk with Shane, Amanda, and Michael as well. We updated him about a couple of his friends mission calls (Jeff Job is going to Paraguay and Cade Wallentine is going to Chili). He sure has a lot of friends who will be speaking Spanish! He also told us that Elder Hatch is going to be fine, they didn't find any additional problems and he will only be delayed leaving for Fort Worth for a couple of weeks.

About 15 minutes later Jonathan called us back to quickly let us know where his first area will be. He finally had time to open the packet they gave him at the MTC and found out that he will be going to the South American country of Guyana. He was very excited about that and just had to tell us before boarding the airplane. He will fly to Georgetown, Guyana on Wednesday morning. In Guyana the missionaries have been having a lot of success. We have been told that it is where most of them want to be able to serve because the people are so humble and ready to accept the Gospel. It is one of the harder areas as far as living conditions go, but he won't have a problem with that. I check the weather for this week in Georgetown and they are predicting highs near 83 and lows near 75, with rain every day! I hope he can get an umbrella and rubber boots soon!

I thought that for the I would include Jonathan's flight information:
Delta # 1724, Salt Lake City to Atlanta: departed @ 7:02 AM and arrived @ 12:38 PM.
Delta # 387, Atlanta to Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago: departed @ 2:58 PM and arrived @ 7:47 PM. Now on to the Mission Home!