I'll take you on a little walk through what's been going on with us and some of the missionaries in our zone.
Our zone leaders, Elders Sturdevant and Huntsman, planned a special zone meeting for us. They were dressed up to be Brad Pitt and somebody else...I don't remember, but hey, they looked a whole lot better than those guys! They inspired us...and following the meeting, the elders all hit the streets of Berbice scouring them for more baptisms.  |
| From 2009-05-15 |
One day we were visiting the Bushlot elders, Elders Scott and Coronado, and they invited us for a lunch of mac and cheese mixed with rice. While we were waiting for our lunch, Elder Bullock checked out their apartment and found a live rat munching at the dirt in their shower. The elders came after it with a pan and a big stick. Result: one broken pan, rat blood on the floor of their shower and a wounded rat still roaming freely in their apartment. The next day they found the rat dead in their bedroom.
The rat was probably pretty comfy in their apartment considering how clean and tidy it wasn't! That's a mosquito net you see hanging over the bed. They are supposed to protect you from those little critters...but I am still covered with itchy bites.
Do we look joyous as we eat our mac and cheese and rice and think about the bloody rat that just got away?
We stopped by the zone leaders apartment to check out their "digs". We were met on the porch by a portion of this little feller.
Here's a close up. He looked so alert and awake with his eyes still open. He appeared to be smiling and I almost forgot the rest of his body was missing.
So, when you no longer have the missionary truck (which we don't), how do you move the missionary furniture? Why, of course, you rent a horsecart for $2.50. And the bonus is, the driver may even let you take the reins and drive the cart. Elders Huntsman, Sturdevant, Manwill and Olsen used their muscles to get the washer down the stairs of the apartment in the photo and up onto the cart. Combine those Elders on a job and they definitely can come up with some real power!
They pulled a few faces, did a few antics...
And off they went!
When they arrived to the next apartment with the washer, both Elders Huntsman...
And Elder Sturdevant instantly turned into little boys. They grabbed the fishing lines from their little friends and began baiting the lines with guppy-like fish.
Who needs a store-bought fishing pole when you can make one out of a stick. It is the popular thing to do around here.
Senior missionaries, Ron and Linda Larsen, time was finished and they were headed for home. They have lived upstairs from us for the past 15 months. We, the senior couples in Guyana, had a farewell lunch for them at the Pegasus Hotel, which is the fanciest place to eat at in Georgetown. There are a lot of us, don't you think?
A couple of nights later the New Amsterdam Branch had a surprise farewell party for them in the outside area of our apartment planned by the sisters from the branch. The sisters had brought all the food and just asked me to provide the place.
Sister Larsen was wearing the turquoise blue shirt and Elder Larsen was on her right.
Each sister brought a pot of something. Here they were dishing it up for everyone.
And now you can see what the meal looked like. There was roti (like a totilla), curried chicken, pineapple circles and vegetable chowmein.
A large group gathered to say goodbye to them and to thank them for coming to Guyana. The members here love the missionaries, which includes the senior couples.
I gave out a pile of clothes to each of these two little cuties. One of them definitely did not want to pose for this picture in her new dress. Can you tell which one?
More cuties, with at least one little future missionary in the group! Most of them were wearing clothes sent by our friends from home.
Here's the rider of the motorcyle. He yelled at me nonstop and poked me in the shoulder as he spoke. I poked him back with my finger and said vehemently, "Don't touch me!" He stopped poking, but not yelling!
I spent most of the day in the police station trying to settle with the police and this guy and to get his insurance company to agree to pay for my car since he had plowed into me. I finally gave up and we had it fixed ourselves. The repair was only $150 and it looked like new.
His bike didn't have a scratch on it and luckily, neither of us were hurt.
 | Yes, we still do baptisms. Today, the elders in our zone baptized 15. There are so many baptisms I can never learn all their names. It is our job, the senior missionaries, to try and set up the branches so we can keep them all active and coming to church. That is an overwhelming task.
For that reason, we teach a weekly fireside at each of our three branches. By the time we go home next January, we will have taught 250 firesides. All of them have been about either about Joseph Smith and the history of the church or about the stories of the Book of Mormon.
I think we have learned the most as we've prepared these presentations!
Carl and Carolyn Bacon (my sister) came for 10 days to visit us where we are serving our mission in New Amsterdam, Guyana. I told them the best part of their trip to Guyana would be the people they would meet. We tried to let them meet some of the special friends we have made here. Here goes the visits... Our first visit was to Tasha and Anrood and their 7 children. Tasha is 29 but she and Anrood have been married since she was 14. Tasha is one of my best primary presidents. She was baptized 4 years ago. Of course, we went to visit Geeta and to have lunch with her. We watched her fix the whole lunch. Here's Burt with them. And now it's my turn. Her kitchen is the cutest. She finally has her first refrigerator and she thinks she is in heaven. She showed us how to make roti and curried chicken with potatoes. We ate outside under the house. The wind was softly blowing and it felt great. Here's a look at the yummy lunch. Roti on the left is a flat bread similar to a tortilla. The Guyanese prepare and eat it daily. Vegetable fried rice, fresh pineapple, watermelon, sliced tomatoes and cucumbers, and shredded cabbage were served with the curried chicken and potatoes. Here's a look at Geeta's house as we said goodbye. On to Vickey's house. He is on the left and will enter the MTC in Provo June 30. His granny who raised him has had one leg amputated. I can't remember why. The rest are his cousins. Carl looks like he was in heaven with Vickey's little cousins all gathered on his lap. Once again, we said goodbye...this time to Vickey in front of his Granny's house where he was raised. On to Jade and Travis' house. Carolyn is holding their baby, Janellie. Carolyn brought some clothes for Jade to try on and here's the ones Jade liked best. She loved all the clothes. She was tickled about this little red sweater. She squealed, "Oh, I've been wanting one of those!" Melissa is Jade's sister-in-law and is her same age. Here's the dress Carolyn gave Melissa. They both wore their dresses to church the next day. As we said our goodbyes, we all lined up on the step for a group photo. And one more photo across from their house. Aren't the palm trees great? Elder Bullock, what is going on with you? Carl is with Travis, who is 24. He's been a member 1 year and is the branch president. And here's the whole family...Jade, Travis, little Travis and Janellie. Carolyn, looking very graceful as she crossed the bridge on our way to Samantha's house. She looks like she's telling Carl to hurry up. I think Carl was checking out the yucky trench. There are alligators in there, you know! More clothes from Carolyn...this time for Samantha. Her husband was struggling to button all the tiny buttons. Samantha and her husband, Ameer, with their family. They fed us once again. We were already stuffed because we'd eaten at Geeta's but we managed to eat again. Carolyn was holding a sweet note the family had written to Carl and Carolyn. And now it was Nanda's house. She is the District Primary President. I work a lot with her and she is a special friend to me. She loves teddy bears. Can you tell? Here's the rest of Nanda's family with Carl and Carolyn. Carl just couldn't resist grabbing this tiger after being surrounded by so many soft teddy bears. He begged me to take his photo with it. We had to show them the open market where we buy all our produce. At the district training meeting on Saturday, we took this photo to show just how small some of the Guyanese women are and how tall Carolyn and I were in comparison! I don't know who the little girl was but she jumped right in the front of our photo. The Bahadurs are a special family. They have all been baptized...even the dad. That's unusual here for the dad to be baptized. Jamacie, the only daughter, is one of my 2 piano students. After church on Sunday, we lined up some of the sisters. Then, we lined up some more of them to show off their long Indian hair. Almost every Indian girl or woman has long hair...often to their waist or longer. Then, I turned them all around so you could get a better look at it. On the way home from church, we ran into Nanda and her family riding home from church...all on one bicycle. Wow... At the end of our visits, Carolyn said, "You're right, the best part of Guyana really is the people!"
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