I am an orphan

Just imagine...it's Christmas morning and I am an orphan.

There is noone who cares enough about me to make sure I have the most perfect Christmas possible. My parents are either both dead, or my only parent has abandoned me, and someone has dropped me off to live in this orphanage. Some who live with me have lived here most of their lives. Others have lived here for just a year or two.

Well, the Berbice zone of 10 elders + 2 senior missionaries decided to visit our orphanage where I live with about 20-25 other children with a couple of Muslim women. They wanted to do something special for us who live in the orphanage and to make a memorable Christmas for them, also.

From the looks of this Nativity picture, it looks like they did a pretty good job of it, don't you think?

Here's a look at our orphanage. It's 3-4 blocks from the Bullock's apartment.

And here's the Muslim mom who is in charge of us. (Editor's note: We hope she is as warm and loving to the children as she was to us.)

When the elders first poked their heads through the open doorway we were all seated and anxiously awaiting their arrival. The minute we spotted them, we began to yell, "Ho, ho, ho!" We were all dressed in the best clothes we had.

The missionaries left their shoes at our front door and entered. I knew we were going to have fun with them when I noticed they were all wearing red Santa hats.

Elders Hamilton and Fillerup had planned a short program for us. Elder Hamilton was perfect as the MC. You'll see later the special part his companion, Elder Fillerup, got to play.

Now, I'll show and tell you all the details of their visit with us. Are you ready?

First off they sang us some Christmas carols. I liked the song about Rudolph the best.

Then, they did this funny skit about the "Ugliest Man" .

He was so ugly than anyone who looked at his face instantly died. One by one the elders looked at his face, screamed and fell dead...except the last one to look. The ugliest man screamed and died when he saw his face and suddenly there was a switch. The last man to look became the new ugliest man!

We were all invited to play parts in a show they called "The Nativity" . The elders dressed us all in costumes.

As you look through the photos that follow, notice our faces and the missionary's faces. See who you think enjoyed the program and visit the most...we, the children, or the missionaries...

Elders Lauritzen and Hamilton dressed up the wisemen.

Elder Lauritzen was being careful that we looked perfect in our costumes.

Wow, our wisemen looked fabulous! Check out the bright looks on their faces. Where did the littlest wiseman disappear to whom they had dressed in the yellow wiseman outfit?

Oh, there he is...right behind where Elder Jones is dressing Mary.

Joseph, Mary and the innkeeper look like they were all set for the "show" to begin. Sister Bullock said they all looked beautiful.

Elders Lee, Fillerup, and Duncan had the shepherds ready to go. Were they all smiling?

Elders Coronado and Bullock helped Sister Bullock set up the stable.

These three stooges were ready for the show to roll!

Just as we were to begin, Sister Bullock asked little Mary to climb on the donkey's back and take a ride to the stable. Little Mary had instant stagefright and ran and hid. Sister Bullock tried to show her how easy it would be to ride on the donkey . But, she was finished being Mary.

So, they picked one of the wisemen to be Mary. Meet the new Mary! Do you think she's pretty?

The new Mary climbed right onto Elder Fillerup's back and rode to the stable with Joseph walking at her side. Here you see Joseph asking the tiny innkeeper if he and Mary can stay in his stable with the animals.

Did you notice what special part that big tall Elder Fillerup got to play. He was the donkey!

Mary was supposed to be pregnant so had a baby stuffed under her costume. She and Joseph took their place in the stable, preparing to spend the night. More smiles? I think so.

In the night something wonderful happened, and the baby Jesus was born looking more like a teddy bear than a real baby.

Mary wrapped up the baby Jesus and just cuddled him and loved him.

The angel announced the birth to the shepherds ...

The rest of the angels jumped from their seats to stand behind the angel and join her in singing to the shepherds.

The shepherds found their way to the baby Jesus after looking for him everywhere in the orphanage...under the chairs, etc.

Anyone ever heard of a smiling donkey?

The wisemen were waiting at the back of the orphanage room to follow the star (I was the star). I think Elders Lauritzen, Lang and Hamilton were checking the stars or the horoscope to tell the wisemen just when to begin their trek!

I was holding the star on a stick and I got to lead the wisemen to where they could find the baby Jesus.

We all finally made it to the stable! Yeah! You can see me at the very back holding the stick with the star over the stable. You have to look closely to see my star.

Do the shepherds look excited to have found the baby Jesus?

Holding the real baby Jesus must have felt wonderful!

After the program and "show" were finished, they gave each of us a bag of candy with a small toy and talked with each of us. I loved that part.

Sister Bullock seemed to love to hold us on her lap and put her arms around us.

I would have liked them to stay a lot longer than the 90 minutes they stayed. I hope they come back soon to play and talk with us some more.

Elder Lauritzen...

And his really tall companion, Elder Bryan. A little bird told me he can really eat a lot!

Elder Duncan was fascinating us all with something he had in his hands. I think it was his camera. I think he was showing us the photos he had just taken of all of us.

What were you holding, Elder Duncan?

Oh, there I am again. Do you think we are cute? Could you love us?

Elder Fillerup was so tall and he made the perfect donkey... I think I would have liked to ride on him, too. Do you see me? I'm trying to see the photos on his camera.

He was really nice to us.

Elder Hamilton... Well, he was just really nice, too. He seemed so happy to be with us.

Some of the elders liked sitting on our couch... Elders Lauritzen, Lee, Green, and Lang...

When they all turned to leave, our "mom" said to them, "Come back soon...very soon".

We loved having them talk to us. They seemed to like us a lot!

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!

Christmas parties & stuff

Can you imagine going to a branch Christmas party every day for nearly a week. Well, that's what we did...5 parties in 5 days.


Here's how we rode to the Rosignol Branch's Christmas party. Notice we're carrying a lot of the food for the party...to the party! No, it's not Rudolph and Santa's sleigh...but rather it is Andrew's donkey cart. The donkeys knew the way and did their job.




Baby looks like he is used to riding the cart.




After the party, one of these little donkeys pulled us on the cart the two miles through town to the stelling where we waited to catch the ferry.




On Christmas eve, we rode a horsecart similar to this one through our town, New Amsterdam, in the pouring rain with our 4 New Amsterdam missionaries and some of the branch members. The 18 of us were barely clinging to the not-quite-large-enough horsecart. We sang Christmas carols for 1 1/2 hours until we were all completely soaked...and hoarse.




At two of the parties we put on the Nativity with the primary children. Here we are practicing for the New Amsterdam party. "Joseph,", I said, "You must put your arm around Mary and take good care of her!"


Three crazy shepherds. Check out all those white teeth!

The innkeeper and his little friend. He looks like a little angel but I assure you he acts like a little devil in primary.

The wisemen. Do they look handsome or what?

Here's the real performance at the New Amsterdam branch party.

The program went on for more than 2 hours with skits. Here's a look at who attended:

There were nearly 200 people crammed in this small chapel. You can see about half the people in each of the 2 photos shown here.

Notice there are lots of people sitting two to a chair or on someone's lap.

There's a tradition at the New Amsterdam Christmas party that several of the sisters model traditional Indian dresses. Someone brought this outfit for me and insisted I model it. I was trying to look sultry in this photo. Did I succeed?

On the way to the Bushlot branch Christmas party we stopped to give a wheelchair to this little boy that was damaged at birth and cannot walk.

At first, he cried when he was placed in the chair, but his mom was able to calm him down for these photos.

He's with his mom and brother, along with Elders Duncan and Coronado and Sister Larsen.

The church will give out wheelchairs to those who need them, even if they are not members of our church.

At the Bushlot party, there was a lot of cross dressing done in this skit. These 3 men definitely didn't make a pretty sight dressed up as girls!

We drove to Georgetown for the night to attend the farewell dinner party for Elder and Sister Tanner, who have been serving as humanitarian missionaries. These are all the couples that serve in Guyana.

We ate at a buffet at the fanciest restaurant in Georgetown, the Pegasus. I just couldn't seem to get my fill...it had been so long since I'd had any good food other than what I've cooked myself!

The Tanners flew home to Utah the next day and we traveled back to the little town, New Amsterdam, where we live in Guyana.

We have 13 months left in Guyana It will be wonderful to be home with our family, again. But, but I know we will be soooo sad to leave all our Guyanese friends whom we have grown to love here.