The baptism of Lucois Jacquet!

Yesterday we were able to talk with Jonathan for Mother's Day. He and his companion were invited to dinner at the home of one of the medical students living on St. Maarten. We talked to him through their computer. We were actually able to see him and he was able to see us because we talked to him on Skype! Technology is great! These are a few pictures we "captured" during our conversation:





Jonathan said that they did not have the baptism on Saturday that they were planning. But he was really excited because they did have a baptism yesterday! They had an interesting experience before the baptism. When they arrived at the church they found that someone had left the font on and there was about 2 inches of water on the floor all through the building! They spent 45 minutes sweeping the water out!

Top: Sweeping out the flood.
Bottom: The Branch President and others helping.


Jonathan also told us that he will be traveling to Trinidad on Wednesday. He and his new companion, Elder Romney, will be working in the office. He also said that we will not receive an email from him next Monday because while he is serving in the office his p-day will be on Wednesday. All the baptism reports from the week come to the office on Monday and need to be processed. So, beginning next week we will be updating the blog on Wednesdays.

Jonathan and Elder Romney will be sharing an apartment with 2 of the assistants to the president. The funny thing is that one of the assistants is Elder Hamilton, Jonathan's trainer, and the other is Elder Romney's trainer!

We read this note from Jonathan's companion on the mission website and thought we would add it to today's update because it explains how they found the man Jonathan baptized yesterday.

"Elder Kelly – St Maarten
This week, we were really getting frustrated about not having anyone good to teach, and we had dropped most of our investigators for not progressing. So, we decided to have a special fast to ask for the Lord's help in finding people. That same day, we found some amazing people. A humble family of 3, a great younger guy, and another potential priesthood holder who was so excited to hear our message, that the first question that he asked us was "How would I become a member of your church?" ;-) The Lord really does hear and answer our prayers when we show a little faith!"

Here is today's email:

The baptism of Lucois Jacquet! He is from Haiti.

In the office I will be doing a lot of baptism records and odd jobs (computer stuff). We will be in the office on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 10 AM until 3 PM. Before 10 AM is study time. After 3 PM we will track and teach. My only full proselyting days will be Saturdays because Fridays are planning and district meetings and Sunday is always church. One good thing is that baptisms are faster on Trinidad that here. I am apparently walking in to a great baptism next week.

Here is the quote that dad wanted "A testimony is a personal witness or knowledge of the truth's of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ given by inspiration from the Holy Ghost."

The scripture of the week is Mosiah 3:17.

We have a baptism set for this Saturday.

This picture was taken by Sister Robison at Zone Conference on Thursday.

The St. Maarten missionaries: Elders Kelly, Larson, Vogel, and Sylvester.

These are two pictures that Jonathan took on Guadeloupe last week:

Guadeloupe was fun, all we did was eat, tract, and teach in French.


I am doing good. We have a baptism set for this Saturday. Hopefully all goes well and I'll be sending you a picture of it next week. Her name is Nurly (I'm not exactly sure how to spell it). She is 15 years old and from Haiti and absolutely loves coming to church. Her mom got baptized in Haiti about 11 years ago. We are teaching a guy named Lucois (also from Haiti) that could be baptized next Monday if we get permission right before I leave the island.

While I'm thinking about it, President told me about the upcoming transfer. It turns out that I will finally be leaving and I'm going to an apartment to live with Elder Hamilton again (my trainer, he will not be my companion though). I will also have my own car so I'm going to get fat. I will be living with air conditioning which is probably going to be the death of me!!! I hate being cold now. Every time I'm in AC I get all stuffed up. If you haven't figured it out yet I will be going to Trinidad to start my new life as an office elder (big surprise eh?). That will be interesting. So, since I'm leaving the French side of the mission and going back to where I'm supposed to be, I will no longer have to speak French. I guess I will get to be best friends with President until he goes home. He wants me to be there for the switch in 7 weeks when the new mission president comes so I'll probably be there for 4 months minimum. Blah.

Anyway, the scripture of the week is 3 Nephi 13: 5-8. I like it.

I think I take it far too seriously.

We had a good week. I taught district meeting on Tuesday and did a trade off on the French side that night. It was all in French for about 26 hours which left me with quite a headache when it was all said and done. Elder Vogel has been doing great since I went over to help him.

Being district leader is going fine. Teaching district meeting is a joy, not. I think I take it far too seriously. I try to make sure that the elders actually learn something!

I spoke in church yesterday. I compared the efforts of Stephen and Abinadi. They both had only one convert who ended up changing the lives of many people. Great examples for all of us.

This morning I sent our senior couple, the Oliver's, off to Guadeloupe for zone conference and we will be joining them on Wednesday. Until then, I have the truck that they normally drive because I'm in charge. That's always fun. I can't wait to go to Guadeloupe, I just need to get off this island!

My old companion, Elder Marshall, asked President Robison if I could come to his zone in Georgetown, Guyana when I leave here. He was my companion for one transfer right after New Years. (When we went to Anguilla together was the last time I was off St. Maarten). He was my favorite companion. Gotta wait and see what happens. It would definitely be better than going to the office!

I got the birthday package you sent. Thanks! I couldn't wait so I opened it! Elder Vogel, who's from France, loves the pictures from Paris. (We sent him a small digital photo frame with a memory card loaded with family pictures for his birthday).

The scripture of the week is 2 Samuel 22:33.

That's where my companion is from!

We went hiking this morning up the mountain that is right behind our house. I thought that I would send you guys some pictures. I hope that you enjoy them.



Things are going good here. I noticed on the ward program that you sent that my friend, Eddy Morris, is serving his mission in a place called Searcy, Arkansas. That's where my companion is from! We are going to send him a letter this week.

I made a guy named David a tea this past week out of a couple of his cigarettes because he wouldn't stop smoking them. I had him drink the whole thing including the tobacco left in the bottom of the glass. He had a very miserable night after we left because it made him so sick! I kind of felt bad, but maybe now he can stop smoking.

My first district meeting 2 weeks ago went well. I was going to tell you about it last week but I forgot.

Well, gotta run. I have a district meeting to prepare for tomorrow morning and then to go on my first trade-off as district leader. I have to go help one of the guys on the french side since he is having some problems with his teaching. It's my job to go set him straight. Oh joy...not.

The scripture of the week is Alma 37:6-7. (Sorry I forgot to send a scripture of the week last time).

P.S. I am back down to 149! I'm so skinny now!

I only set my shoe and pants on fire once!

Jonathan's p-day is on Monday, but for some reason he didn't e-mail us until today.

Well, things are going good and we are hoping to get a couple of baptisms before the end of the month. It's a struggle though!

I made a pot roast for the first time last week. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing but it turned out really good!

We found a huge dead centipede a few days ago. The sucker was about 9 inches long!!! He's currently sitting in our freezer and he's frozen solid.

I also think that I failed to mention that I got to learn how to do the whole fire dancing thing from a couple of the Tahitian elders that were on the island last transfer. It was really fun and I managed to only set my shoe and pants on fire once! These are both pictures of me. It was so cool!!!!

It was weird but fun to make!

Yesterday, after conference, Brother and Sister Mickelson from River Heights stopped by to deliver a special surprise. They spent a week on Sint Maarten last month and met Jonathan and his companion, Elder Neff, at church. Sister Mickelson just happens to work at the hospital with Shane. They tracked down Jonathan during the middle of the week and shot some video of him for us. We put a few clips together for the blog:



Now to Jonathan's e-mail from today:

All is well here on St. Maarten. I got a slip from the post office today that I received a package. The stamp on it says that it has been here for a long time already! I hate the service here... Oh wait, there is no service here! I'll be picking it up as soon as we are done with e-mails.

My new companion is Elder Kelley from Arkansas and he's tiny. We came to the field at the same time but he is a transfer ahead of me because he is French speaking. I thought I would get an English speaking companion but I think I may be the last English speaker to serve here. We need more multilingual elders. Elder Kelley and I are getting along great. The only thing that has bothered me was when he managed to spend 115 dollars at the store this morning on food! When there were 4 of us last transfer we could live off of $75-80 a week. I don't know how he did it.

The others elders got stuck on St. Barts last week because their connecting plane to Guadeloupe got cancelled. I couldn't help but laugh about that.

It sure was a surprise to see Grandma & Grandpa Larson at the airport. They were there when I was picking up Elder Kelley. We took some pictures and went to eat ribs with Scott when he landed. Then we went to the apartment and I gave them some stuff to take home for me.

Conference was fantastic. We got to see all of it! We had a really small crowd at the church though, most people watched on their computers at home.

I have to teach district meeting in the morning! Ahhh!!!!!!!

I have lost 14 pounds in 7 weeks! I am back to 150 lbs as of this morning. That is only 5 pounds more than when I left for the MTC.

I still can't believe that Michael is driving. He isn't old enough for that! I also can't believe how much snow you guys have gotten this year. So much for global warming! I just wish I could have a little bit of that cool weather.

I'm glad that you enjoyed watching the movie of Elder Neff and I. It was weird but fun to make.

The scripture of the week is 2 Nephi 2:27-29. I like it!

Say hello to everyone for me!

I think that's my grandma!

Shane's parents and brother, Scott, have been on Sint Maarten the last day or so and were able to take Jonathan and his new companion to dinner. They sent us this e-mail tonight after their brief visit:

Hi Shane and Carole,

We were at the airport to meet Scott at the same time that Jonathan was there with Elder Oliver, the senior Elder, to pick up Jonathan's companion, Elder Kelley, who was coming in from another island. When I came in the airport, Jonathan saw me, and he said to Elder Oliver, I think that's my grandma. Elder Oliver said, "oh sure that's your grandma." Jonathan said, "yes it really is". About then I saw him and ran over and gave him a big hug. It was very neat to see him. Elder Oliver was very nice and he let us take him and his companion that we picked up with us. We went to our hotel and picked up Scott and then we let them pick the place to go to dinner. Jon picked a good place. They had all you can eat barbequed ribs. They were great and they all ate alot of them. Then Jonathan showed us where they held the baptism on the beach, and a neat look off point from the top of a mountain. We ended up dropping them off at their apartment which is a little drive from the airport.

After driving around a little yesterday, Ron commented he gained a whole new perspective of Jonathan's mission. People may think he's on this beautiful island, but it's pretty 3rd world in alot of areas. I can imagine it being a very hard mission on this island. Jonathan said it was one of the nicest places in the mission, but I can't imagine how some of the other places must be.

He's doing good. I hope we left him and his companion with a good feeling. This morning I twisted my back just wrong getting out of bed, and I was in so much pain I couldn't even bend over to put on my pants. I had to have Ron hold them while I put my legs in. Anyway, I had one Ibuprofen, and it really helped, but I had to keep taking them, which is going to get my stomach hurting. So Scott asked Jon and Elder Kelley if they would give me a blessing, which they did. Jonathan gave me a wonderful blessing. I really appreciated it and I'm sure it will help me get through this trip. Before we left Scott asked them if we could leave them a word of prayer. They agreed and Scott asked it. They've had so many changes in their week with all those missionaries being there and then all the trips to the airports to get the elders where they were all going, that they haven't gotten alot done. But one good thing with all those missionaries being there, a lot of contacts were made and so him and Elder Kelley have follow ups to make.

We took lots of pictures and so did Scott.

Jonathan with his new companion, Elder Kelley, and Grandma Larson.

Jonathan's apartment on Sint Maarten.


Well, just thought you'd like to know. You have a wonderful son, and he's doing great. We gave him hugs for you.

Love, Mom and Dad

Keeping me here to be a "closer"

I'm sorry that I don't have much time to write today so this will be quick. It is raining cats and dogs here right now so hopefully the power doesn't go out.

It's transfer week! The 3 elders that were sharing the apartment with me have been transfered back to Guadeloupe (now that the riots have calmed down). I heard that they are all stuck on St. Barts on their way back to Guadeloupe. Oh well! Island transportation can be fun!

Our investigators are doing good. We just got a bunch of new ones from the other elders that just left. I think that they will probably go somewhere. President is keeping me here to be a "closer" so that we can baptize all of these people before May 12 when I will leave. It is going to be a good transfer I hope. We were able to teach quite a few lessons this week but zone conference messed us up a little bit.

The week went well but it sounds like I will be staying on the french side until Thursday when my new companion, Elder Kelley, comes in. I'm nervous about having to teach district meetings from now on and I don't know what to do to keep it interesting.

Sorry to hear about Aunt Maurine passing way. Is Uncle Keith doing okay? I think that the idea of the digital photo frame for him was a good one.

I also just got an e-mail from Cam (Jon's hockey buddy, Cameron King, who is serving in the Dominican Republic) which was exciting.

Mystery Solved!

A package from Jonathan arrived this week but it was addressed from Guyana! He left there last October! Anyway, we figured that it had just been held up in the unreliable Guyana mail system. Today Jon provided the solution to the mystery:

I am glad that you finally got that package. I found out about a month ago that it ended up in the Larsen's (Guyana Senior Couple) possession and it had somehow ended up under a seat in their truck. After talking to them they said that they would take care of it and apparently they were true to their word.

The scripture of the week is Helaman 7:7-9.

I will be the new district leader

These are a few pictures from yesterday's zone conference on Sint Maarten.

All of the Sint Maarten missionaries.

Jonathan and his companion, Elder Neff.

Lunch time!

Things are going well here. We had zone conference this week so p-day was pushed to today. I was told about this coming transfer a few weeks ago and originally I was supposed to go to Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad. Then yesterday I was told that I will actually be staying here on St Maarten for one more transfer and my new companion will be Elder Kelley. We will be in a co-companionship and I will be the new district leader.

I have had a little struggle with some of my companions. Believe it or not the reason that I get frustrated with them is because they are whining and complaining. It's total immaturity when you leave a lesson that didn't go perfect and your companion says that it was a total waste of time because the investigator didn't accept the commitment that you tried to leave him. It's even worse when your companion starts an arguement with someone and then expects you to bail him out. Then, when you don't he gets mad at you! That's the reason that I have had trouble with this most recent companion.

I was super surprised on Monday when I saw Elder Hamilton, my trainer. He came to St. Maarten for 3 days with President Robison for zone conference. I had no idea that he was an Assistant to the President. He came teaching with me for the whole time he was here. We had a great time. We are good friends, we just weren't the best roommates.

The scripture of the week is Alma 33:21-23.

He surprised me by saying Abinadi!

We had an okay week. The work went really well but I am getting very frustrated with some of the people we are working with and with my companion. He is a nice guy and we get along most of the time but I have the attitude of a pirate if you know what I mean. (The white handbook "is more what you call guidelines that actual rules") We still work hard and we don't break any rules but I can't even make a joke about breaking one without him freaking out! Whew... now I've vented. The rioting is over and Elder Neff is suppose to go back to Guadeloupe and finish training in French at the next transfer on April 1st.

So still no progress with our main investigators. Do you know how molasses moves on a cold day? We do have a "new" guy named Samuel that I think will get baptized as soon as he gets married. I asked him who his favorite prophet from the scriptures is and he surprised me by saying Abinadi! Apparently he has been reading from the Book of Mormon since I left one with him back in October! We turned him over to the Platt's in October so they would have someone to teach. Since they left we decided to pick him back up. He comes to church on his own and still reads. It's awesome!

I knew that the Aggies were playing well against Nevada but I didn't ever hear the final result until you told me. I think that they might be able to beat Marquette but I worry about having to play Missouri. It will be interesting for sure. You should record the game and send it to me. It isn't hard to get sporting events approved by President for us to watch. I would like to watch it! We get to watch Ratatouille tomorrow. (That's the movie about the rat chef).

I got a package from Calvert's on Tuesday. It had a Rocket's t-shirt and a pair of Rocket's PJ bottoms in it. That was cool.

We have Zone Conference here on St. Maarten again next Tuesday, here's the focus if you want to study with us:
- Preach my Gospel chapter 11 - How do I help people make and keep commitments?
- The principle of repentance from lesson #3

The scripture of the week is D&C 43:15-16.

Luckily we have the Plan of Salvation

I've been a little down for the last 2 weeks or so. I don't know why but I'm working through it. I didn't help that today I found out that another one of my friends (Jordan Goonan) died this past week. That makes 2 since I left on my mission. Luckily we have the Plan of Salvation that lets us know that death isn't the end. It's just a step into another, better, life.

Not many of our investigators look promising for baptism soon. We have 4 people that could any day but they all have to get married. That's not an easy thing to do on this island!

Things are still going alright. I got a little frustrated at Elder Neff a couple of times during the week for various reasons. One being that he dropped one of our best investigators (without forewarning me) just because the guy is a little nervous about proposing to his girlfriend. Needless to say I was extremely unhappy about that!

The other time was yesterday after we got into a heated discussion with a guy named Romero. After the encounter, Elder Neff started saying a bunch of crap about how the guy was stupid and stuff like that. Being a pretty emotionally neutral person I just shrugged it off and walked away. Elder Neff kept going and so I let him know that he was acting just as bad as Romero had just been. I regret to inform you that I raised my voice about a half decibel. Sorry!

Other than that, it's just business as usual. We had a bunch of visitors come to church yesterday. One in particular was a couple from River Heights that are here on vacation. They are the Mickelson's. It turns out that Sister Mickelson knows dad because she works in the hospital!

We have to disinfect the apartment today. All of the apartments are getting disinfected because people are getting boils like crazy all over the mission. I'm immune though, I don't have any. None of the elders in my apartment have them.

I am in Luke 7 and Moroni 8 in my personal scripture reading.

The scripture of the week is Matthew 7:13-14.

This week in the Church News there was an article about the first Stake being organized in Trinidad. Click HERE for the article on the Church News website.

It hurts my head!

It is a lot of fun having 4 elders in the apartment. I love both of the elders in the other companionship. I like my companion too but he is a little OCD.

This week I have been trying to show Elder Neff, my companion, the ropes of working on St. Maarten. We split the Dutch side of the island in half and sent the other companionship to work. Elder Neff and I are trying to find a lot of French people for him to talk to (he was called to be a French speaking missionary). We have taught a couple of lessons entirely in French. It hurts my head! There are too many rules and exceptions in that language!

Our two best investigators have hit road blocks. One needs to get married. The other needs to get remarried. That guy got divorced but they live together for their daughter's sake. We didn't know they weren't married. They have talked about getting back together so we are trying to help them.

This week was pretty quiet. I lead the music in Sacrament meeting, but I do that every week. I gave a blessing of comfort and counsel yesterday to a guy named Pra after church. It was cool because I had to completely rely on the spirit to tell me what to say. I also annointed someone on Tuesday because she fell off her balcony and broke her L1 vertabrae, her shoulder blade, and her hip!

Tell Michael that I like the bunny!
(\__/)
(>'o'<)
(")_(")

I'm in Mark 17, Ether 10, 1 Nephi 8 (in French) in my personal scripture reading.

The scripture of the week is Mosiah 2:21-25.

Cheer loud for the Aggies!

It was an interesting discussion

The riots are still going on on the other islands. The french president has said that he will give into their demands but it hasn't happened yet. The missionaries from Guadeloupe (8 of them) were relocated to my apartment on Tuesday. That was fun. I was the only English speaking elder. Half of the elders were from the states, 2 from Tahiti, and 2 from France. I couldn't really speak to them in French, but I could understand them. Six of them are in St. Lucia until Thursday and then they are headed to Guyana.

I was shocked to find out that my companion isn't Elder Catherine. I am the senior companion to Elder Neff. He is a pretty cool guy and we both love sports and music. There are just two other missionaries, Elder Julian and Elder Catherine, in the apartment now. They will stay for the rest of the transfer. That should be fun. With 4 elders we are a little tight but its okay. We have a lot of mattresses and a futon to sleep on. (I was on the futon for 4 months).

We did lots of tracting while the other missionaries were here. We have lots of new investigators but more time is necessary to determine if we will keep them. I also had to do a lot of computer fixing this week for the 2 senior couples. (We have a couple that was relocated here when the missionaries were evacuated from the other islands).

Still no luck with Celine. I think that she is starting to realize that her father doesn't want to baptize her and that she should just go ahead with it. All we can do is hope and pray. We have a couple of other investigators that are so close but haven't gotten married yet. It's frustrating!!!

The temperature here usually is between 75 and 85 all day and night. We have had some pretty strong winds for the last couple of days and that has cooled it down a bit. It feels great!

We played soccer Saturday morning and I hit the post 7 times! Reminds me of hockey!

I'm in Mark 10 and 4 Nephi 1 in my personal scripture study.

The scripture of the week is Romans 8:16-17. It's a pretty good one that I used on Saturday to completely shut down a couple of Jehovah Witnesses that wanted to argue with us. Apparently they don't believe that God actually created us... they think we are only the offspring of Adam and Eve. I really didn't want to argue with them but it was an interesting discussion.

I have been made a senior companion

(Special e-mail day)

Just thought I would drop you a quick note to tell you that everything is going well on St. Maarten and to send you some pictures.






I also wanted to let you know that I have been made a senior companion and have a new companion named Elder Neff. He and the rest of the missionaries from Guadeloupe and Martinique were evacuated yesterday so I have 7 elders stay in my apartment besides myself. There are also 5 in the French Apartment. (Mine is bigger so more were able to stay with me). For the next 4 weeks or so there will be 8 missionaries on the island (4 on each side). That should help the work progress! Then we will go back to being just 4 missionaries if things have calmed down on the other islands.

The rest of the missionaries that are here will be flying to Guyana over the next couple of days until they have all left. It should be an interesting month! I'll keep you posted on how things are going. This was a special e-mail day because none of the elders that came in had e-mailed yet. So I had these few minutes to write. E-mails will come on Monday as normal next week.

France sends police to quell Guadeloupe riots
by Benjamin Sportouch – Wed Feb 18, 3:36 pm ET

POINTE-A-PITRE, Guadeloupe (AFP) – France dispatched hundreds of police reinforcements to its Caribbean island of Guadeloupe on Wednesday as a month-long strike over the rising cost of living descended into deadly riots.

Union representative Jacques Bino, aged in his 50s, was shot dead overnight when he drove up to a roadblock manned by armed youths in Pointe-a-Pitre, the island's main city.

It was not immediately clear who shot him, but he was the first victim of the escalating violence on Guadeloupe, normally a tourist-friendly island but crippled since January 20 by a general strike.

"There were no police nearby," said local prosecutor Jean-Michel Pretre.

Bino's car was hit three times by 12-gauge shotgun slugs. Two rounds hit the rear of the vehicle and the third was fired through a side passenger window and fatally wounded the activist in the chest.

"These were not stray rounds," Pretre said, adding that he was looking into the possibility that, given their age, Bino and a passenger had been mistaken for plain-clothes police officers.

Six members of the security forces were slightly injured during clashes with armed youths, police said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a nationwide address he would meet with elected officials from Guadeloupe on Thursday to "address the anxiety, worries and also a certain form of despair from our compatriots."

After holding an emergency meeting on the deteriorating security on the island, Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie announced that 280 police reinforcements would fly to the island immediately.

Gangs of youths looted shops, smashed storefront windows and threw up burning roadblocks overnight along the main streets of Pointe-a-Pitre and in at least two other towns. Fourteen people were detained.

Ary Chalus, mayor of the town of Baie-Mahault, where three police were hurt, described the scene as "chaos."

"We have 15-year-old children who are clashing with police. We may well have families in mourning," he warned.

Bino, a tax official, had been returning from a labour meeting, said Elie Domota, leader of the Collective Against Exploitation (LKP), the coalition of unions and leftist groups that launched the strike.

The LKP had said it planned to step up protests this week after the government refused to bow to demands for a monthly 200-euro (260-dollar) pay increase for low-wage earners.

Domota appealed for calm but also accused the French authorities of treating the island, one of its four overseas departments, like a "colony."

"Guadeloupe is a colony because they would never have allowed the situation to fester for so long in a French (mainland) department before taking action," Domota said on RTL radio.

The conflict has exposed race and class divisions on the island, where the local white elite wields power over the black majority.

The economy is largely in the hands of the "Bekes," the local name for whites who are mostly descendants of colonial landlords and sugar plantation slave owners of the 17th and 18th centuries.

A Socialist opposition leader, Malikh Boutih, said it was "shocking" to watch a police force "almost 100 percent white, confront a black population" and drew a parallel with the 2005 suburban riots in France.

"There are no concrete buildings, there are palm trees, but it's the same dead-end, the same 'no future' for young people, with joblessness and a feeling of isolation," Boutih said.

Unions launched a strike on the neighbouring French island of Martinique on February 5 also to press for higher salaries and measures to bring down the prices of basic goods.

Most shops, cafes, banks, schools and government offices have been shut in Guadeloupe and Martinique and the strike has also hit the key tourism industry.

We just got approval for the first stake to be created in our mission!!!

Things are great in the West Indies! We just got approval for the first stake to be created in our mission!!! It will be in Port of Spain, Trinidad. That event is happening the first week of March!

The new West Indies Mission president has been announced. He is from Guadeloupe. He starts on July 1, 2009. I have met him once but don't really remember him because it has been a long time. (Check out the mission blog for more information).

My week was fantastic. My companion, Elder Marshall, left the island last Monday so I have been hanging out with Elder West, a British missionary, that is supposed to be on the French side of the island. It has been a lot of fun and I have been trying to convert him to speak "American" instead of English. Elder West's companion came back so we were put together for just the few days of the zone leader conference.

Elder West has now been sent to St. Lucia. President wanted to put him in a place where he would be totally immersed and that isn't here. He was actually transferred to Martinique but hasn't gone there yet because of the riots that are going on there and on Guadeloupe. They haven't changed the price of gas even though the price of oil has dropped. It is still like $5 a gallon here now. Since Elder West left I have been with Elder Gray (Elder West's old companion) and Elder Vogel (Elder Gray's new companion). Elder Gray is one of the missionaries that got lost last December on Martinique. We make fun of him for it but he takes it pretty well. We always ask how you can get lost if you can see the water!

We have a lot of cool investigators right now. The problem with most of them is that they like to "eat, drink, and be merry". It's an uphill battle to say the least! But as it says in D&C, "all victory and glory is brought to pass through our diligence, patience and prayers of faith". Celine, the 9 year old girl, is good. Her dad is still being a butt but we are going to see her in a day or two to see if she'll let us do it. I hope so!

I will get a new companion on Wednesday I guess it will now be Elder Cathrine. He is an actual Frenchman. I have a feeling that I will be doing some pretty intense studying of the French language. That will be alright though. I always feel left out during lessons to French speaking people. It's getting easier though. I'm learning pieces of Spanish, French, Creole, Dutch, Papiamento, and Patwa. It's quite a task! I love it though!

The weather on this island is great because we always have a breeze. We have a Burger King here that we like to get milkshakes at every once in a while.

I'm in Mark 6 and 3 Nephi 18 in my personal scripture reading.

The scripture of the week is John 20:24-31.

We have 11 progressing investigators

These three pictures are from Sis. Robison's blog. She took them at the St. Maarten Zone Conference last week on February 2nd.

Sint Maarten/Sint Martin Missionaries



Jonathan and his companion, Elder Marshall

It was a pretty good week. Zone conference was really nice. My companion, Elder Marshall, left the island to go to zone leader training in Trinidad. He won't be coming back because he is going to Guyana this transfer. I will get a new companion on Friday named Elder Cotton. Until then I am with Elder West. He is a funny Englishman that is still in his first transfer. His companion went with mine to the zone leader thing. So I am a senior companion for a couple of days. I don't know what to do! Just kidding! As much as I loved Elder Marshall, I love being with Elder West. I feel bad for him because he's an awesome guy but he has a forgetful, undependable, and argumentative trainer.
We have 11 progressing investigators but no solid baptism dates. Most of them are Guyanese and Jamaican. One is a 9 year old girl named Celine Mayeko-Coklee. Her parents are both members and they come to church every week but they are separated. She wants her father to baptize her, the problem is that he's not worthy. I would like to change her mind about having her dad do it.

I've been teaching most of our investigators for 6-8 weeks, it's very frustrating. I am really good at progressing investigators but I have trouble getting them to make the commitment to be baptized. The biggest problem is living together. We have 2 guys that are begging to be baptized but they each have kids and need to get married first. Here they have don't stay together and they have kids with other people. There is one family that the children have 4 different last names! Guyana wasn't as bad, they would usually stay together for the rest of their lives, just not get married because it was too expensive (4000 Guyanese Dollars)! They would go through a Hindu Rite. It isn't a legal marriage but most people honor it. We have a sponsor from Colorado that pays for all the weddings for new members, he only asks that we send him a picture of every wedding and that's easy enough.

The French side has a baptism on Saturday and I get to count it on my total as well because I helped teach the guy. He thinks that my french is hilarious! I don't know if I told this, but I can actually understand more French than Spanish now. I didn't think that that day would ever happen. I guess I was just in denial!!!

I'm in Matthew 27 in my personal New Testament reading and 3 Nephi 3 in the Book of Mormon.

The scripture of the week is Alma 3:26-27.

I had an interesting experience last week. The French Branch President invited us over to his house and we got to eat more weird food. This time it was Stingray Curry. It was very odd, it feels like calamari. It really wasn't too bad, just different. Since the guy can't understand me, I didn't feel too bad for making a few jokes about it being "Steve Irwin's Revenge". Little did I know that it would take revenge on everyone that ate it except me. Luckily, I was born with an iron stomach.

I will be leaving the island on April 1st to go to the office. Word has gotten out that I can fix anything, dang it!

We are the first missionaries to ever go there!

We were unable to go to zone conference because the people on Guadeloupe are still striking, so President Robison came and did a special one in St. Maarten for us...again! During zone conference I was told that I will be staying in St. Maarten until April 1. Then I will most likely be going to Trinidad. :( From a few things that President said it sounds like I might go serve in the office for a few transfers because word has gotten out through the senior couples (The Platt's and now the Oliver's) that I can do almost anything on a computer and I am very reliable and that I get things done. Perfect recipe to be an office Elder.

I hadn't been off the island since October and my legality expired Monday morning. So Elder Marshall and I had to go to a neighboring island called Anguilla on Wednesday so that I could get a new stamp on my passport. Anguilla is an old British island. We had to hire someone to take us by boat. It was pretty much like going on a ski boat. The ocean was really rough. Most of the waves were higher than the boat! We didn't get too wet but a little spray got on us. It sure felt nice. The boat ride lasted for about 25 minutes. I was also able to get on a beach for the first time since I came to the island! (Except for the baptism of course).

Here are some Anguilla pictures. Enjoy!

Me on the boat just leaving St. Maarten

They gave me my own office when we got to the island! (Just kidding)

Picture of the beach on Anguilla that we got to "play" on

It was really fun. We were there for about 8 hours and we just hung out on the beach and talked to people in the main city. We are the first missionaries to ever go there so we got a lot of strange looks!

The baptism didn't happen like we wanted. We have rescheduled it for this week and it is going to happen or else I will be very frustrated! We also started teaching a really cool guy yesterday that will probably get baptized on like the 21st. Hopefully he comes to church so that we can baptize him that soon!

My hair has been slowly getting darker since I left home and I really am 160 lbs! I'm starting to look more and more like Dad every day! (Shane says that obviously means he's just getting better looking!)

I got a postcard from G&G Olson that they sent from Barbados. It told me all about their trip to Trinidad and them meeting the Meyers. I actually talked to the Meyers on Saturday and they said that G&G were very sweet people. They liked them a lot.

FYI I am in Helaman 4 in my personal Book of Mormon reading and in Matthew 25 in the New Testament.

The scripture of the week is Luke 17:11-19.

Zone conference was postponed

We were happily surprised to hear from Jonathan today. He was suppose to be on Guadeloupe at zone conference and was not going to be able to e-mail until Wednesday. Here's his message:

Zone conference was postponed because the French people on Guadeloupe went on strike again. Hopefully we will be going down on Friday or Saturday. We almost got to go to St. Lucia but the tickets were too expensive and they wouldn't let us pay for the difference using personal money. :( That would have been awesome!

Well, things are going good down here. I am pretty sure that we are going to have a baptism this week. I will send you pictures if we do. Then you can see my dark hair. I promise that it is natural! I also weigh 160 lbs now!

I wanted to tell Grandma and Grandpa Olson thanks for the books that they sent me. They came on Wednesday last week. I got caught up in reading Jesus the Christ this week instead of my scriptures. :)
I am only in Matthew 18 and Alma 50. I will try and catch up to my schedule if we get to take our trip for zone conference this week.

Anyway, the scripture of the week is Helaman 4:20-26.

You have impacted the future

There has been some excitement during this past week in Jonathan's mission. The missionaries received a special, non P-day, message from President Robison:
"The West Indies is a Preach My Gospel Mission and has the finest missionaries in the world. Last year you had probably the most dramatic increase over the previous year in baptisms seen world-wide. In a few weeks, Brother Swenson of the missionary department is coming to assess the condition of medical facilities in Guyana and Trinidad. In preparation for that visit, the missionary department has requested that you complete the Preach My Gospel Missionary Questionnaire. The missionary department wants to know how we did so much last year."

We are also including portions of an e-mail Jonathan recently sent to one of his friends that expresses his testimony:
"You have to continue going to God's true church. I know that it is true. You know it too and you can't let something stupid mess up your chance for salvation. That would be giving others control over your future instead of taking control for yourself. When that happens, you lose all sense of self and then nothing matters anymore. I have seen too many people around here fall away like that and it makes me sad because they don't want to even talk to members of the church any more (much less the missionaries). If you fall away, I will be devastated. Don't stay for my sake though. Stay because you want to and you know it's right.

You can apply Brigham Young's advice on prayer to going to church in your case. He said, "the times you feel like praying the least is when you need to pray the most". It can be changed for you to say, "the times you feel like going to church the least is when you need to go the most". If you feel you aren't "good enough" or "worthy" to, the only way to become "good enough" or "worthy" is to go to church, repent and try to become more like our savior Jesus Christ. He is the way, the truth and the life. His church is on the Earth and there is no other way by which we can return to live with Heavenly Father except it be through Him. Sorry for going all missionary on you but I had to say what was on my mind."

Now for today's e-mail message from Jonathan:

I guess tomorrow will be an important day in the history of our country. The ceremony to inaugurate Obama is all that people here care about right now. I am quite sick of talking to people who think they know how our country runs.

Elder Marshall and I are still getting along great. We work as hard as any of my other companions but he is really fun to be around. I don't feel all that stressed right now even though we are actually under a lot of pressure. It's nice because it has felt like the last 7 months worth of weight has just been lifted.

Check out what President Robison said about my last companion, Elder Nielsen's, brother when he was here a couple weeks ago. That's high praise coming for our mission president. "Thank you for helping Elder Nielsen's family have a positive teaching and testifying experience. Because of your kindness and thoughtfulness, his younger brother wants to serve a mission...you have impacted the future by your actions.

Our next transfer day is February 18th. I think that I will probably leave this island that day. I will probably be on my way to Trinidad or back to Guyana. (I would prefer Guyana). If I stay on Sint Maarten I will be here at least until the next transfer on April 1st.

Anyway, I am in Matthew 16, Alma 41 and my personal scripture study.

The scripture of the week is D&C 27:15-18.

P.S. I heard the Aggies are doing great. Hope they beat Boise on Saturday!

He also said he finally received the last of the Christmas packages we sent before Thanksgiving!

Don't forget us in your prayers!

Before Jonathan's e-mail for this week, we wanted to let you all know that we posted two new slideshows today; one of Guyana and one of Sint Maarten. We received a DVD of all the pictures Jonathan took in Guyana at Christmas and just this past week received a flash drive with the pictures he has taken so far on Sint Maarten. We hope you enjoy them, we sure have!

Don't worry about what happened on the French side. Elder Pahio and some little punk got into an argument and then the kid went into his apartment to get his gun. I don't think he would have really used it though. He just wanted to scare them away. The missionaries were transfered because President Robison wasn't sure that they would be able to work effectively without always looking over their shoulders. President Johnson, our area president, requested for me to find the guy and officially apologize for the Church. The request came through President Robison. I was unable to locate him. Supposedly the kid I was looking for jumped islands and is now on St. Thomas to avoid any legal problems. So it's all solved and life is back to normal.

Things are going really well with my new companion. We love to have fun and neither of us are too stiff. It's a relief because I haven't had a companion like that yet. (Don't worry, we are obedient!) It makes this worldly island much easier to live on! My new companion, Elder Marshall, and I have set a goal to try and break the record for baptisms in a transfer for this area. I think that we can do it but we'll need all the help that we can get. So don't forget us in your prayers this month!

I am in Alma 20 in my personal Book of Mormon reading and still in Matthew 12 in my New Testament reading. It has been a pretty busy week with trying to find the kid, get the new senior couples computer to work, getting 2 new French elders settled and a new companion for myself. It was a crazy week!

The scripture for the week is 2 Nephi 2:22-25.

I hear that the Aggies are kicking butt! I wish that I could go to a game and cheer them on! 15-1 now huh? That's pretty good. I hope they don't lose another game the whole season.

I hope that the funeral for Great-grandma Larson wasn't a huge bummer for everyone. I got an e-mail from Jay that sounded like he was sad about it but he was excited to get to go skiing with Dad! I would love to have a single snow flake down here!

P.S. My package got through customs on Tuesday last week. We are going to pick it up today!

P.P.S. Zone Conference will be on Monday, January 26th. It will interfere with me getting to e-mail you. I don't know what day I will get to write that week but it will probably be Wednesday. I'll try and find out and let you know next week.