Aren't families great?

This family is beautiful! They are the Bahadurs.


Here they are just before the baptism of the oldest son, 14 year old Jamal. All have recently been baptized except the father and the 6 year old twin boys, Jamiel and Jerice. We are expecting an announcement of the father's upcoming baptism in the very near future.

Jared is 11 and Jamacie, 12 and the only daughter, is my piano student. Her fingernails and hands are so immaculately clipped and clean that I can't stop staring at them as she tries to play her keyboard.

Elders Young and Bryan are pretty thrilled with the baptism of this great family...and so are we!


The Bethel family of 4 plus their granny, Sister Kahn, with Elders Williamson and Young. All have been baptized in the past few months. Grandpa Kahn is the only holdout!


And here is Alecia. Where is her family? Well, she hopes to have one some day, I'm sure. She is thrilled to be a new member of the church. Can't you just tell from her big smile.

I don't know this family but you can barely see 6'6" tall Elder Bryan stuffed in the corner of the tiny house that this big family shares. I can see 7 kids. One is behind the dad.

When the elders arrived, the parents pulled a few of the kids out from under whatever they are sitting on. The house has only one other room in it.

Are you thinking they need a little something, like a little more space or a few more kids?

Here's a typical neighborhood scene where all the kids are out in the dirt lane playing and most are wearing just their underwear. The two bigger boys are climbing on the horsecart that is parked there. I can't tell if the horse is standing in front of the cart. It usually is.

"Tasting" St. Lucia

Wow!!! Meet the beautiful island of St. Lucia.

Dad and I just spent four delicious days on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean with Elder and Sister White who are about to complete their mission and return home.

We had a little rest and relaxation while we tasted our way through the island. You see, one of our main focuses of the trip was to eat great meals. We live in Guyana, you know, where foods we are used to eating are hard to come by. Just now I've been trying to buy a simple little box of baking soda without any luck.

We swam and snorkeled at the beaches (senior missionaries have different rules, you know), rubbed ourselves down with special mud (Sister White and I, that is!), checked out the waterfalls and beautiful botannical gardens, and slept until we felt like getting out of bed.

The mosquito net over our bed was delux and there were watermelons growing on the tree just outside the room where we stayed. Check the photos below if you don't believe me.

We sneaked out in the dark to take a dip in this charming little pool in a picture-perfect setting.

We held up our missionary skirts so we could wade in edges of the sea until our hems were wet.

We wandered through an old army installation where for years the English and French fought repeatedly for control of the island of St. Lucia.

Then, we headed down to Anse LaRaye, a small village on the coast.

Right off Elder White was greeted by someone that we guessed was the mayor of the town?

We wandered the lanes of the little village and found cute little houses all in a line. This one was my favorite.

And little kids playing on the beach with no adults in sight...

And washer women (maybe their mothers) concentrating on some serious washin'... (There are no smiles in this group!)

As we crossed the river to return to our parked car, we discovered these two women scrubbing their dirty clothes right in the stream.

On the other side of the bridge, things were spread out. Will they stay nearby until all is dry?

Time for ice cream! We couldn't get quite get our fill no matter how much we ate!

And now we'll move on to Soufriere where we spent most of our 4 days.

Right in the center of the village was a cute little park that I call "the village green". Who are those 3 white faces hiding under the beautiful red-flowering Flambouyant tree? Is that a church tucked behind the tree?

I'll walk you through the little town of Soufriere and show you some of the sights. It is morning and some of the town ladies are sitting on the sidewalks selling their produce and other stuff.

Comfy spot?

Now we'll jet back to our hotel room. You've already seen the spectacular photo at the first of this blog. It was taken right from where we were staying in Soufriere.

And these were the watermelons that were growing on the trees just outside our hotel room door!

Guess what? Sister White and I are off to be a little wild and crazy and to have some fun. We'll start with the mineral mud baths.

Someone, calling to us from the bridge above us, asked us if they could snap our photo while we sat together on this rock. "Why, of course," we answered, "for a dollar!"

Eventually, my "friends" insisted my scalp needed the full therapeudic (sp?) mud treatment, too.

Cleanup time... Who was the sneaky camera man that snapped this lovely shot?

Let's check out the waterfalls.

Do we look like two senior missionaries?

Are we having fun?

And who are these two deadbeats who are afraid of getting wet?

Oh, isn't this one cute?

This was definitely a wet squeeze!

Here's one more waterfall where in the movie, "Superman II", Superman supposedly plucked an orchid for Lois Lane.

We met the Williamsons for a few moments at our church in the southern tip of St.Lucia.

I always love seeing that familiar black and white sign that reads, "The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints"!

And this is the view point they drove us to at the very southern tip of the island.

Our little trip was fun, fun, fun!

Now,we're back in Guyana in full missionary mode and cherishing every minute of it!

Taking care of our Elders

Here are some of our elders...all full of life with nowhere to go on their preparation day.



Elders Kaspars, Clark, Lebaron, Falatau, Saragers, and Davis (on their laps) have crossed the river on the ferry and have dropped by our apartment just to see what goodies we have to eat and gaff (chat) a bit with us old folks. And who is the guy in front who has gotten pretty "hammy" in his old age.

We have ten elders in our zone and we manage to fit them all around our table for "yums" (not yams) after our zone meeting. The "yums" were a huge bread pudding that disappeared in a flash!


Now they're out in front of our front door for a real pose. I can't believe there isn't one of them pulling some weird kind of funny face. Elder Dayton didn't quite fit so had to sprawl out on everyone's laps. I'm sure he loved it.

We love to pamper our elders with food. In Guyana, they aren't allowed to eat in the member's homes so we are the only ones who can cook for them. Can't you just imagine what they eat the days they don't eat with us? Hmmmmm.... They eat lots of peanut butter and jam sandwiches and "mac and cheese"!


Here we are visiting a family with Elders Dayton and Fillerup. The teenager, Odessa, lives with her aunt, Amelia, and her little cousin, Tianna. Grandma is over for a visit. Odessa and her Aunt Amelia are excited to be baptized this Saturday.

So many young people are raised by someone other than their mother and father. Usually it is their granny. One young woman told me today that when she was 6 and her brother was 1 her mother gave the two of them to their grandma to raise. This seems to happen often here. Many of the girls have their first baby when they are 15.

Odessa wanted me to have my photo taken alone. I insisted the girls had to be in the photo with me. There is a neighbor girl also in the photo. I am very affectionate with all of the young people and they just seem to love me. Maybe they are all starved for affection because they don't have mothers.

Ok, here's a little change of pace. I took some photos in the Rosignol Branch just before their sacrament meeting began.

This father just rode up to the church with his two little kids on the bike with him. I couldn't coax a smile out of them.

And Elder Bullock is helping this young man so he can be ready to pass the sacrament in his white shirt and tie. Does the shirt look a little big? It probably belongs to one of the elders. They supply lots of the young boys with their only white shirt and tie.

I couldn't resist snapping a photo of these beautiful little princesses waiting for church to begin. I don't doubt they have all walked through the mud and dirt to get to church. I wonder how they have managed to stay so clean.

Ok, we're back in Rose Hall driving down this little side street and we were following close behind this family all riding in their donkey cart. I snapped the photo right through the front car window as the little girl waved to me.

Then, they stopped so they could pose for a "real" photo. Do you suppose they all are wearing their seatbelts? I can count 11 riding in the cart.

Does anyone see rain falling? Umbrellas are often used here for protection from the hot sun.

And here is my last photo. What do you suppose this is? Do you recognize it as the garbage truck that is just pulling up in front of my apartment to gather my garbage? I didn't think so!