The rest of Christmas day

Does this look yummy? Believe me, it was!

After the orphanage visit, we (20 elders and 4 senior missionaries) all went to the Canje church for lunch. Sister Larsen and I had made 75 handmade tortillas, homemade enchilada sauce, refried beans, Mexican fried rice, and slow-cooked chicken so we could put together these out-of-this world chicken burritos.

At least, they were out of this world to all of us who hadn't eaten Mexican food since we came to Guyana.

For dessert we ate Sister Larsen's special peach duff with ice cream.

Then, Elder Bullock and I were off for an adventure. Ever since we've been here (over 10 months) they have been building the first bridge across our big river, the Berbice River. The bridge was completed and opened yesterday, Christmas Eve day.

We wanted to be some of the first to cross that bridge and to visit our good friend, Tasha, and her family who live on the opposite side of the river.

We had received a box of gifts in the mail yesterday from a woman in Pres. Robison's stake, Kelly Ballard. In the box we found wonderful gifts to take to each of her children.

Tasha and her husband have barely enough money to feed their family of 7 children. She told me she had no money to buy them Christmas gifts.

We were especially excited about the two lovely dolls that we guessed would be prized gifts for her two litle girls, ages 4 and 8. My guess is that they have never owned a doll. There were some little cars, also, that we knew Little Boy, who is 5, would love. We found gifts for all seven and hopped in the car to ride across that new bridge and deliver the toys.

We found only one lane of the approach to the bridge finished but most of it was smooth and nice to drive on. The approach took us 5 minutes to travel which was longer than it was going to take us to cross the bridge.

The bridge took us 3 minutes to cross. What a miracle! It has always taken us 1 1/2-2 hours to cross the river on the old unscheduled ferry. It will be a great timesaver for us... who have a car.

Unfortunately, no pedestrians or bikers can use the bridge. That seems strange to us, seeing that that is the main way people get around here.

It is free to drive across the bridge from east to west but when you return your car is charged a very high toll of 2,200 Guyanese dollars. That is the equivalent of about $11 in US money. That is expensive! Not even the taxi's will be able to afford to drive across the bridge.

We are disappointed that they haven't made it a bridge for the people...one that they can really use. It looks to me that the majority will still have to use the old ferry to do their crossing of the river.

We arrived at Tasha's house in Rosignol in 10 minutes from our side of the river. Wow! What a change!

Here you see the whole family eagerly awaiting our arrival. The boy with the white hair is wearing a mask. I guess he wanted to be a match for Elder Bullock!

The area under the house is where the family usually "hangs out". There has been so much rain the past week that they are confined to the small insides of their house.

Here's a closer look at that mask. Yes, it resembles Elder Bullock.

Did you notice the two little ones who were hanging out the window? The one in the red is not a girl. I bet you were almost fooled! His call name is "Little Boy".

We all went inside and sat on the two beds that are in the room where Tasha and her husband sleep with the 4 youngest children.

We handed out the toys to the children and they were in heaven.

The two girls each were given a lovely doll. They never let go of their dolls while we were there.

Little Boy is holding the tiny cars in his hands. In the back you can see David who has been trying to play his new recorder while he holds a bag with some little monster men and pieces of candy.

Tasha, their mother, is in the background.

Here is Andrew, the dad with the three oldest boys. The two oldest, Ken and Kevin, are holding their gifts which included another recorder, a harmonica, spiderman, a superman (that one of the elders wanted to steal), and a couple of Ninja Turtle guys. Their bags were filled with candy, too.

Tasha surprised us with 2 huge plates of food and we ate until we couldn't eat anymore. We were still full from our Christmas dinner burritos.

Both girls went to sleep that night hugging their dolls. When they fell asleep, their dad removed the dolls. In the middle of the night they both awoke calling to their parents, "Where is my doll?"

We were so thrilled to be able to bring these gifts to this precious family. Thank you, thank you, Sister Ballard and whoever else was a part of sending them to us.

When we made it back to New Amsterdam, we found the 6 elders who live in and around Rosignol that were eager to be the first young LDS missionaries to cross the bridge. It didn't take much coaxing for Elder Bullock to agree to take them back across the bridge to where they live.

So, in just a couple of hours time, we had crossed the new bridge 4 times!

Here is our front door. Just know that at the end of this Christmas day we were very anxious to walk through that door, close it, lock it and go to our bedroom to turn on the AC, climb into our bed and drift off to sleep!

We had had a Christmas Day in Guyana that we will never forget!