Our task this morning was to begin building a church!

Here are a couple more pictures from last week at Maracas Falls. In the picture are the two assistants to the president, Elder Hamilton (Jonathan's trainer), and Elder Romney's trainer, Elder Romney (Jon's companion), and Jonathan.



Well, things have not gone at all the way that we have planned them to over the last couple of days. Curtis didn't make it to church for an unknown reason so we aren't teaching him anymore. Jermaine is still an investigator but we are hoping to get her baptized on the 20th. I'll send you pictures when it happens. I hate it when things don't go as planned. Her friend is doing alright. I have no idea who she is but Jermaine has been a champ and gave her a Plan of Salvation tract.

Things are pretty busy with President leaving. We've just been given a bunch of other projects that have caused us to stay in the office sometimes as late as 7 or 8 o'clock at night. Things are busy! It doesn't really make it too hard for us though because whatever people dump on us to do I am able to get done quickly. The new president comes in on the 1st so we will have 2 days without a mission president.

I don't know what the family is doing while the new mission president goes to the MTC (he has 5 kids). I would assume that the children would stay home. All new presidents go to the Provo MTC because that is where all of the general authorities and 12 go to speak. All I know is that despite a few personality issues that President Robison and I have had over the last year, I am going to miss him.

I have been thinking about David Heiner a lot this week. I have often wondered how his family is making it through without the knowledge and peace that we have. I have had the thought that David wouldn't have died if he was on a mission. When that thought arises, I wonder why I didn't try harder to get him to come back. I think that I could have done more.

Anyway, we had an interesting morning. We went over to the north east side of the island to a place called Matura where our zone leaders have set up a group meeting every Sunday. They get about 15 people to come every week and they had their first baptism there on Saturday. Our task this morning was to begin building a church for them to meet in. (They have just been meeting under a couple of coconut trees for the last month!) So we spent about 4 hours cutting down bamboo trees and hauling them over to where the temporary church is going to be assembled. I really felt like I was in the wild! It was cool!

If I haven't told you already, I have had "Doubles" a few times now. I couldn't help but asking Elder Romney that if I ordered 2 of them do I call it a "Quadruple". Oddly enough he didn't find that very funny. I had a good laugh at him last night though. We were talking about some of the strange talents that we have and I was telling him about hula-hooping while walking up to an investigators house. He knocked on the door and then proceeded to make fun of the way you have to move your body to keep the hoop up. He had no idea that the lady was standing at the door watching him! We all burst into laughter because he looked like a total idiot.

Well, that's the news. We have zone conference on Monday.

The scripture of the week is Helaman 3:28-30
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One event really stands out.

I forgot to tell you that we went to Las Cuevas Beach and to Maracas Bay on Monday morning last week with our zone. They were both way pretty! We played soccer with everyone on Las Cuevas beach. It was so much fun!


Things are going well here in Trinidad. I found out that Jermine's name is actually spelled Jermaine. She is supposed to get baptized on the 13th if all goes to plan. Her original date was set for the 6th but she didn't come to church on Sunday. She spent the day with her friend because her friend's boyfriend was shot on Saturday night. It was fatal... Anyway, she is doing great and is preparing for next week. Looking back over the last couple weeks at the progress she has made makes one event really stand out. She was unsure about the things that we were telling her so we decided to teach a lesson completely on prayer. At the end I challenged her to try and pray for 15 minutes straight. (The idea being that she would run out of normal things to pray about which would force her to really think about what she was praying.) To our great joy she told us that she had actually gone for 20 minutes even though she didn't think it was possible when she started. She told us about how she felt and that she had broken down and started crying and she knows that everything that we have been teaching her is true! How sweet is that?

Curtis on the other hand... He is still sober but we told him that if he didn't come to church we wouldn't come and see him until he does. Normally we are more understanding but he has been taught by the missionaries before and didn't come to church then either. Hopefully he will come this week so we can go see him again.

Office work isn't too bad actually. We pretty much get to do anything we want as long as we get our work done. So tomorrow is going to be a day to sit around in the office because we finished everything yesterday.

I heard about the Swine Flu at the MTC. So you know, when new missionaries gets dropped off at the MTC now, they are checked by the MTC nurses before they are allowed to go into the building. If they have any signs of the flu then they are sent back with their parents and told to come back in 12 WEEKS! We get to hear all about that kind of stuff in the office. Especially since my computer is right next to the lady that handles all of the travel arrangements for the mission.

Without frozen burritos I generally don't eat at the apartment. We only have breakfast foods there because that's the only time of day that we are home. We usually just eat at Subway or something for lunch. We don't eat lunch when people have a dinner appointment scheduled with us. Last night we had a bean soup that had some smoked ham in it. I loved it.

I hope you like these pictures. They are from this morning:

Jonathan and his companion, Elder Romney, at Maracas Falls



P.S. The scripture of the week is Matthew 7:24-28
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It looks like she'll get baptized next Saturday!

Trinidad is great, it's not too different from St. Maarten. The biggest differences are that we drive on the wrong side of the road, they don't have frozen burritos, there aren't really any white people, and I have a dryer, a car, and an air conditioner. I'm getting use to the A/C but I still freeze every night!

We are teaching a lady named Jermine and it looks like she'll get baptized next Saturday! She is 25 year old and from here in Trinidad (most of the people are, I've only met 3 that aren't from here).

We are also teaching a guy named Curtis and his oldest daughter who is about 20. They read the Book of Mormon together because he doesn't read very well. He was completely drunk when we met him but he hasn't had a drink since then. He says he is going to change his life and turn to Jesus. He wants to get baptized this week but we told him he has to wait for a couple weeks. He has some strong motivation though because his family all walked out on him because he drinks too much. He figures if he changes they will come back.

I'm in the Curepe Ward, it's nice but kind of small. We have a nice little primary, probably about 15 kids. We have lots of young men but only a couple of young women. At church we only teach a recent convert class during Sunday School.

My companion, Elder Romney, is from Alpine. He's cool but slightly psychotic! He's been in the office 6 weeks longer than me. It's a little bit weird being so close to the mission president. I get to see a totally different side of him here. Everything runs through me and then to President. I get to talk to him a lot everyday. Elder Romney and I have dubbed ourselves the Assistant/Assistants to the President (AAP or double AP's!)

The assistants and President left yesterday on President's last zone conference tour. (President Robison leaves on June 29th). It was weird that the apartment was so empty this morning. It's a big apartment and it's perfect for 4 people but for 2... The AP's will be back Monday.

I kind of had a birthday party. It was at the bishop's house on Monday night because his birthday was on Sunday too. He turned 70 though.

The scripture of the week is D&C 81:5-6.

P.S. My birthday was my half way mark in my mission and one year from today I will be home! Don't worry, I'm not thinking too much about that. You have to come out swinging at the start of the second half and keep going strong or else you'll lose!

Trinidad and Tobago Facts

For Jonathan's birthday I thought I would give you some information on his new location, Trinidad and Tobago.

Flag -
Capital City - Port of Spain (Jon lives near here)
Government - Parliamentary Republic
President - George Maxwell Richards
Prime Minister - Patrick Manning
Currency - Trinidad and Tobago dollar (TTD)
Ethnic groups - Africans, Indians, Venezuelans, Spaniards, French Creoles, Portuguese, Chinese, Britons, Lebanese, Syrians, Caribs, and Italians.
Official Language - English, but the main spoken language is a dialect which reflects the Spanish, Indian, African, and European heritage of the nation and is spoken by all Trinidadians regardless of ethnicity.


The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state (a chain or cluster of islands) in the southern Caribbean, which is northeast of the South American country of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles. It shares maritime boundaries with other nations including: Barbados to the northeast, Guyana to the southeast, and Venezuela to the south and west. The country covers an area of 1,980 square miles and consists of two main islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous smaller landforms. Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the main islands. Tobago is much smaller and comprises about 6% of the total area and 4% of the population. It lies outside of the hurricane belt.

Unlike most of the English-speaking Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago's economy is primarily industrial-based, with an emphasis on petroleum and petrochemicals. It is the wealthiest independent Caribbean country, boasting a high standard of living and high literacy rates. Tourism is the mainstay of the economy of Tobago, and the island remains a favorite destination for many European tourists and is often referred to as "the jewel of the Caribbean. Trinidad and Tobago as a whole does not rely heavily on tourism as a source of revenue.

Trinidad and Tobago is famous for its pre-Lenten festival known as Carnival and as the birthplace of steelpan, calypso & soca (musical styles), and limbo.

Click here for steel pan music on YouTube.

History:
Both Trinidad and Tobago were originally settled the by Amerindians of South American origin. Trinidad was first settled at least 7,000 years ago, making it the earliest-settled part of the Caribbean. At the time of European contact Trinidad was occupied by various groups.

Christopher Columbus encountered the island of Trinidad on July 31, 1498. He named Trinidad after the Holy Trinity. Columbus reported seeing Tobago, which he named Bella Forma, but he did not land on the island.

Trinidad:
In the 1700s, Trinidad belonged as an island province to the vice royalty of New Spain along with modern Mexico and Central America. Trinidad in this period was still mostly forest and was populated by a few Spaniards with their handful of slaves and a few thousand Amerindians.

In the 1780's Trinidad was considered underpopulated so a Frenchman living in Grenada was able to obtain a "Cédula de Población" from the Spanish King Charles III. This law granted free lands in Trinidad to Roman Catholic foreign settlers and their slaves who were willing to swear allegiance to the Spanish king. The land grant was thirty two acres for each man, woman and child and half of that for each slave. As a result, Scots, Irish, German, Italian, and English families arrived. The population of Port of Spain increased from under 3,000 to 10,422 in five years and the inhabitants in 1797 consisted of mixed-races, Spaniards, Africans, French republican soldiers, retired pirates, and French nobility.

General Sir Ralph Abercromby and his squadron sailed through the Bocas and anchored off the coast. The Spanish Governor Chacon decided to capitulate without fighting. Trinidad became a British crown colony, with a French-speaking population and Spanish laws. This led to an influx of settlers from England and the British colonies of the Eastern Caribbean. After the abolition of slavery and the collapse of the French planters' cane economy, the 'French Creole' planters and the peasant population of mixed Spanish-Amerindians turned to cocoa cultivation. Although originally a sugar colony, cocoa dominated the economy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. After the collapse of the cocoa crop (due to disease and the Great Depression) petroleum increasingly came to dominate the economy. The Depression and the rise of the oil economy led to changes in the social structure. By the 1950s oil had become a staple in Trinidad's export market and was responsible for a growing middle-class.

Tobago:
The Dutch and Courlanders (from modern-day Latvia) had established themselves in Tobago in the 16th and 17th centuries and produced tobacco and cotton. Tobago changed hands between the British, French, Dutch, and Courlanders. Britain consolidated its hold on both Trinidad and Tobago during the Napoleonic Wars, and they were combined into the colony of Trinidad and Tobago in 1889. As a result of colonial struggles, Amerindian, Spanish, French, and English names are all common in the country. African slaves and Chinese, Indian, and free African indentured labourers, as well as Portuguese supplied labour in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Emigration from Barbados and the other Lesser Antilles, Venezuela, Syria, and Lebanon also impacted on the ethnic make-up of the country.

Trinidad and Tobago became an independent nation from the United Kingdom in 1962. American military bases in Chaguaramas and Cumuto in Trinidad during World War II profoundly changed the character of society. Trinidad and Tobago is one of the most prosperous and stable democratic nations in the Caribbean.

It's too stinking cold!

Well, it was a pretty interesting week. I started driving the big old mission van on Sunday. That has been an experience to say the least! For one, we drive on the left side of the road and secondly I didn't know how to drive a stick-shift! That was definately a learning curve. I only stalled it twice and now I drive it like I've been doing it forever. We had one really close call last night though. We were flying along about 75 KMH and a guy pulled out in front of us. Luckily it was a 3 lane road! There was a car in the turning lane though so I ended up swerving to the farthest right lane (the on-coming traffic lane) to avoid the wreck. No one was coming so no harm done and we went on our way. People here are terrible drivers.

Things are going okay here in Trinidad. Other than being bad drivers, the majority of the people are pretty humble and seem willing to make the necessary changes to get baptized. The trick is just finding the ones that are willing to do that.

The only problem that I had in getting here to Trinidad was a 70 dollar visa waiver. I didn't have that much on me so I was very relieved when another Elder came walking into the customs room with some extra money on him!

My new companion is named Elder Romney. He is a little shorter than I am but that doesn't mean that he is any less sarcastic than I am. We get along really well which is a good thing because we will most likely be together for at least 3 months. He's a lot like me to be honest. (I know... that's a scary thought).

I live in a place called San Juan, the actual town is called El Socorro (in Northwest Trinidad). We have a nice apartment that has 2 bedrooms, a large bathroom, a large kitchen and a magical device known as a dryer. I did a load of laundry this morning before studies and my shirt was ready to wear when we were done! It was also soft. I can't wait to do my darks tonight!!!

The air conditioning in our apartment is killer. We sleep with it on 23 degrees (which is about 74 to you guys) and it's too stinking cold! It's fun to be with the assistants though. It's nice to see that someone has worse hours than we do!

The only new food is called doubles. I haven't actually tried them yet but I don't know a single Elder that doesn't like them. I'll let you know how they are soon (hopefully). The 2 members that have fed us so far are both Guyanese so that food has been the same.

I am in the Curepe Ward (said cure-ep) which is really weird. We aren't allowed to do anything because everything has to depend on the members. I love it. It's a freedom that I had totally forgotten about!

Working in the office hasn't been too bad. We mostly just type up baptism reports and do projects for President Robison. We basically do anything that the Assistants don't want to do! I had to work with a guy in Salt Lake the other day to help set up a video conference between President Robison and Elder Bednar. I was pretty stressed when it wasn't working about 10 minutes before it was supposed to start! In the end, all went well and President loves having me here. We went over to the mission home today to change cars (because we had to help move a washing machine) and we hadn't been inside for 10 seconds before he said that he had something for me to look at. Apparently his mouse wasn't working and he wanted me to fix it. I managed to do that and he was very pleased.

That's pretty much all that is new. The scripture of the week is Alma 32:21&27.

P.S. Today I received the letter that you sent on the 13th. That amazed me! I've also received one from G&G Olson.