Goodbye Trinidad, Goodbye West Indies

One of our last preparation days, we invited our whole zone to our apartment for a goodbye luncheon for us.

Don't we make a fabulous group?

From Jan2010

Before lunch some of the elders played a little basketball and I gave a few more haircuts.

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They were all looking like handsome dogs when I was finished with them!

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Meanwhile, Elders Baxter and Gaddy lounged around and gabbed and relaxed. .

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And then came lunch!

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More lunch!

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Elder Gaddy's plate...He was ready to dive into his food and I had to hold him back to get a picture.

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Elders Beeson and Jones

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Elder Lang looking a little strange...

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Elder Peterson

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Elder Morris (is that you?) and Elder Clark

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Elders Winzenreid and Neilson

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Elders Carter and Jarvis

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Elder Cornwall

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And Elder Bullock...Hey, where'd all the chicken wrapped in ham go?

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We had dessert, too, but somehow I've forgotten what delectable thing we had to eat.

After dinner we lined up the cameras for one last group shot...

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While I tried to figure out how to move the furniture and set up the shot.

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Our last preparation day with the elders was very special for us. We've loved the elders so much and now we miss not being there to look out for them.

At the end of our luncheon, we began to close down our apartment. Here's what it looked like after half of our furniture was given away.

From Jan2010

A few days later I found our zone leader, Elder Nielson, asleep on the job.

From Jan2010

Goodbye to the branch...

A couple of days before we left Point Fortin, the branch held a surprise going away party for us. It was held in a meeting format where whoever wanted to go to the pulpit and say something nice about us could take a turn. It was a special night for us and we felt very loved and appreciated.

After we were all fed dinner, we posed for these group photos.

Notice someone is in my spot...our branch president, Pres. Mohammed.

From Jan2010

I had to show each of these shots because Elder Lang, who is on the far left, put on a real show in each one.

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The morning we left, the two elders we served with every day, Elders Baxter and Lang, fixed us waffles and hash browns in their apartment. What a treat it was for two old missionaries on their way home to be fussed over by our two good missionary buddies.

I can't believe you are in a serious pose, Elder Lang! There's got to be a first for everything.

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But, not in this one!

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Nor in this one!

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I've gotten pretty good at setting my camera and running to jump in the picture before the shutter snaps!

We really miss all those days we served with these missionaries in Point Fortin, Trinidad...and the 20 months we served in Guyana, South America.

I guess we'll have to serve another mission in a couple of more years! It's the best.

Memories from Trinidad

We immediately fell in love with the "doubles". Small stands selling these homemade little treats are all over the island of Trinidad. Anyone that wants to sell them just picks a spot on the street, puts up a small homemade sign and starts selling them.

This one is half eaten, unfortunately. I'd like to eat a couple of them right now!

From 10-9-09

We ate lots of them (me especially) and ate them just any time of the day...even for breakfast. I'd always order two and ask for a little pepper sauce. They were filled with garbanzo beans prepared in a sauce and were very messy to eat.

The tiny napkin they supplied with the doubles was never enough to clean up all my messy fingers at the end of eating them.

Besides eating lots of doubles the last 3 1/2 months we were in the West Indies, we served as missionaries on the island of Trinidad. We were transferred there from Guyana after most of us missionaries were expelled from there at the end of September 2009.

We quickly discovered that the Trinis spoke really fast and drove even faster. We loved them, as we did the Guyanese.

Here's a little look around the little town we lived in, Point Fortin, which is far away from the big city life of Port of Spain, the capitol of Trinidad.

Here's three photos of the main streets in town.

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

This was the main street and notice our "turtle man" camped out on his usual perch watching the world go by.

It was raining when I snapped this photo and he is protecting himself from the rain with something like a piece of a plastic tablecloth? Is that what it looks like to you?

From Drop Box

One of the nicer homes in town. Everyone seemed to have power to their homes.

From Drop Box

This one is a little more typical of the houses in the village we lived in.

From Drop Box

I loved how picturesque the chickens, bushes and clothes on the line were together. I made Burt stop the car to snap this photo. He doesn't agree to do that very often!

From 12-2009

The beach was 5 minutes from our apartment and that's where we held our baptismal services.

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Here are pictures of two of the three baptisms held in our branch while we served in Trinidad.

Anthony, before his baptism...

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Kevin's baptism...

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The girls liked him...especially the Branch President's daughter, Sherry, who was wearing the bright blue shirt.

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We noticed that lots of the Trini men let their hair grow...even more than the men in Guyana, I think. I saw one man with his hair almost to his knees.

While in trinidad we helped with lots of the cooking for the special conferences held in the mission home.

Here are all the zone leaders whose tummies we tantalized and filled at the zone leader's council! The President and his wife are in the picture, also.

From 12-2009

Elder Bullock, Elder Scott and I were all sung to for our birthdays at the zone leaders council after dinner. So, here we are with our big birthday smiles!

From 12-2009

Every Sunday we invited members from our small branch of 30 persons for lunch after church. These are some of the young people who have just eaten some of my homemade pizza.

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I kind of got into the picture thing and made them do all kinds of posing as if they were cheerleaders doing pyramids. They thought I was a wee bit crazy but they loved it...especially the one boy, Kevin, who had just been baptized a month before.

From Jan2010

From Jan2010

We went on many of the teaching appointments with the elders that lived in our village. We loved teaching with them. They were the smart ones that knew the lessons and where all the important scriptures were and we just had lots of life's experiences to share.

Here's pictures of us teaching with the elders...

This lady never was baptized. When we would come to teach her, she would keep muttering over and over to herself that there couldn't possibly be baptisms for the dead.

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A Christmas FHE with a family ...

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And a little fishing game as part of the lesson.

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We loved teaching the Austin family. It looks like someone is trying to catch butterflies...with her mouth!

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The two daughters, Maureen and Mellissa, were baptized last year and we're still anxiously awaiting the baptism of their good parents. Three year old Andre was in bed and missed out on the photo opportunity.

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Here is Elder Bullock, with Elder Lang on his left and Elder Baxter on his right as we were about to leave the Austin's home the last time we met with them.

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The Austins told us their neighbor next door had died last year just 3 days after being bit by a snake. The snake was bit him right near the Austin's house and had gotten away. You can bet that every time we went to their house I was checking the ground for snakes.

This is Kathie Ann and her two daughters, Kris Ann and Blessed. The elders met with Kathie Ann, along with us, the whole time we were in Trinidad. By the time we left she had read 1/2 way through the Book of Mormon. We were thrilled to hear that she was baptized last week.

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Here we are on our way to meet with Kathie Ann at her house.

From 10-9-09

Once again, here is Nigel Frank, who was baptized not long after we arrived in Trinidad. His name should be Angel Frank because he is such a good good man. We love him so much! When we went to leave Trinidad, he thanked us for teaching him and went on to say that nobody had ever taught him anything before.

From 10-9-09

Elder Cotton shaved Frank's head and face 2 days after he was baptized and now he looks like a real gentleman!

From Drop Box

Every few weeks we visited the mission office. Here's a blurry photo of some of those who worked there every day...(but not us, of course!)

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Who's the goofy couple?

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"Wow, our mission is almost finished and we'll be going home!"

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Usually, when we took the 1 1/2-2 hour trip north to the mission office, we'd visit with our special friends, Elder and Sister Palmer. Sister Palmer was my cooking buddy and we cooked lots of big meals together for the various mission conferences.

From Jan2010