End of a week, End of a month

This picture at the right was taken from one of the three places that we stopped to look at the view of the Caribbean Sea.



Eight of us took a trip to the north end of the island for Bake & Shark. It is a shark sandwich, and the bun is like a scone. This particular shack, Richard's, is the widely recommended one for lunch. Once you get your sandwich that has been freshly cooked, you put on your own toppings, lots of sauces, mustard, ketchup, etc. from which to choose. It was definitely worth the trip!





It is quite a experience to drive on any of the roads in Trinidad, and we hear, on any of the islands. Cars, in any amount, came after the roads were constructed and houses and buildings were already in place along the roads. Cars became more plentiful when petroleum and natural gas became export products. Most of the population uses the buses, taxis, etc.

We had a minor miracle on our trip through the switchbacks in the mountains. We had been following a truck for quite awhile and Elder Greene decided to pass. The truck driver motioned for us to go around and so we started around, only to see a car coming very fast. We quickly passed the truck as the car slowed to let us in, a very close call. Our friends behind us saw it all happen and saw a policeman go around the truck, thinking he was after us. But, no, he pulled the truck over. He, too, must have seen the driver wave us by him! We we unaware of the senerio until we stopped to chat. The Lord looks out for missionaries!

We are still in the dry season, yet, the flowers and trees are beautiful. You can tell it is the dry season. I am looking forward to seeing it all become greener when the rainy season comes. We were in a downpour when we stopped at a small shopping area to have lunch at a great place for sandwiches. The clientèle was different, more affluent, than any place we have been thus far. We will probably go back to the area for tourist items before we leave. We have asked when the rainy season starts and the answer is "who knows, it is leap year."

We live in Valsayn, which is a very nice community by Trini standards. We have walked in the mornings through the neighborhood and see lovely, big, well kept homes. There are 46 apartments in our complex, so when we say we are at 9 Valsayn Villas, everyone knows where we are. One of the other couples live down the street in Camelot, which is another set of apartments. One person doesn't own all the apartments, so it is more like condos, I guess. We have seen some really nice looking apartments close by, but the rent will be out of our price range. We are within a mile or two of the office, which we love.

We always feel rich with lots of 100's in our wallet. They are worth about $17 US. When we shop, everything looks really expensive! We are still getting used to unusual items in the stores and lack of things we are familiar with to eat. We have yet to go to Price Smart (like Costco) and get some of the items we like. I have to prepare dessert for 30 for Wed night, so hopefully our checks arrive soon, then we can find something good there for the missionaries. We have 14 coming and and 12 going home.

We received a letter from one of the men we practiced with for giving the lessons at the MTC. It was sweet of him to write. He served a mission on Angitua several years ago.

We love you all and enjoy your emails.
Mom & Dad

We have a queen bed and it is very comfortable. We sleep with just a sheet. We turn the AC on a couple of hours before bed and then turn it off when we retire because it is very noisy and so far we have slept comfortably. It rained last night and woke us up and it sounds very loud when it hits the AC unit. We will get used to it and not even notice when it rains.

Our couch and love seat in the living room are very nice looking, but a smoker lived here 2 tenants ago and it smells of stale smoke. Dad stuffs up when he sits on it. I don't enjoy the smell either. We aren't sure what we will do. It was a great place for our scripture study and to just relax. We may try covering it with our extra sheets, but that will look rather tacky!
We are delighted to have as nice of an apartment as we do by Trinidad standards.

We are struggling with the language! They use tons of slang, speak fast, and softly. All of the office couples say they can't understand the Trinis either. We don't communicate often enough with them to get better. We try to talk to the people in the shops at lunch for more practice. Some are easier than others.

This is our pool taken through our bedroom window. Notice the tired roof on the changing rooms. There is a field behind the building where corn and a banana tree. The hill in the background it quite a way from our apartment. We haven't been in the pool yet, but do plan to give it a try. One of our neighbors uses it regularly.

Our bathroom is very small, but it is indoor plumbing. The sink is directly across from the toilet. The water pressure has been good. We understand the water turns brown when the tank gets low, so we run the water in the washer before we add the clothes to be sure the white ones won't come out brown. So far, no brown showers.
We have a water filter for our drinking water. We have to wash all vegetables and fruit before we eat them in the water from that tap. We are glad we don't have to boil water. We have been drinking more pop than we should just because we know it is safe. We have bottled water at the office.

View into the living room

Our 2nd floor apartment #9 Valsayn Villas, Valsayn, Trinidad

The "office training" class. Sister Dudley, Karrens, Rosses, Ellsworths, Pypers, Harris's
We had a lot of fun in the class and shared many experiences that helped us feel close to each other.
We headed to the airport at 6:00 am on May 23. We had tons of leg room on both planes. We know that was a blessing!

Happy Birthday, Nicole

Love,
Mom and Dad

our missionary adventure

We had a wonderful flight from SL to Atlanta. Everyone was so friendly in the airport because of our badges. We weren't charged the extra $25 per bag, courtesy of our status as missionaries. I don't know how Delta feels about that, but the agents often have done that for missionaries, since the new rule. We were in row 39 on the plane, almost the last row, and we had tons of leg room and our seat almost laid out flat! We were tickled. Then we got on the flight to TT and we were in an exit seat, again with lots of leg room.
We flew into Port-of-Spain in the dark and we could see the beautiful lights of the city. We made it! It was a bit traumatic going through immigration. We had a copy of dad's proselyting permit (no one has ever had the original) and he gave us a bad time and required us to pay $67 each for a visa (which doesn't really exist). We were the last person through customs from our plane. Dad left part of our important papers at the counter where we paid the fee in American dollars ( they didn't have change for a $50) and I had to back track through the airport going through "no entrance" doors, but I did find the envelope on the counter with all papers in tact. The only reason we discovered they were missing was because no one was there to get us and we needed the phone number to call for a ride. As soon as I returned to the curb with the papers, the Conks showed up. What a blessing they were late.
The Conks took us to their old apartment and briefed us on the oddities of the place. We are on the 2nd floor and enter through a locked porch to our locked kitchen door. Our building has a gate for at the entrance. All the windows have bars for protection. We have a 2 bedroom apt with a screened in (with bars and mesh) patio. The view is of a hill and our swimming pool. The building and the area is rather old and tired, but everything in our apt works, including a washer and dryer. There are air conditioning units in each of the bedrooms and the living room. It will definitely meet our needs. We'll take some pictures soon.
The Conks took us grocery shopping, to lunch, to the office and then to Pres & Sis Robison's for dinner at the mission home. The Conks are staying at the mission home for 3 weeks while they train us, then they are off to Tobago to open the area. We really are going to miss them. We have enjoyed their company a lot. We will attend the branch with them tomorrow and then drive around the island for the "eye opening" to see what it is really like. They have hinted that we will be shocked. Trinidad has the highest rate for murder in the world.
We'll report more tomorrow.

Michelle, Pres Robison wanted to know if you remember the "loot bags" from your mission? We told him about our connection to the Owens.
Did you use blogger.com or blogspot.com for your blog? Blogspot was suggested to us at the MTC and you address seems to be that one as well, which is not the same as Ross Promontory.
Love,
Mom

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

May 20, 2008

This week has been spent in front of a computer in a lab of 11 people and a couple of instructors. Not much to report, except we are learning all the programs that are used in the office. They will be updating the program soon to a newer and better version. We aren't sure when it will be rolled out in our mission. I can compare it to the software used by the wards before we received the version we are using now. The current one is so superior and easier to use than the previous one. I have a feeling it will be the same when they change the input software to the new version. The current one seems pretty archaic.
We are learning Office 07, which we are enjoying. We both have learned new things in Word and Excel. We will have 2 more days of going over and adding new stuff in the same MOS program. It isn't the spiritual high, the first week provided, but it will help us function in the office.
The devotional tonight was Richard J. Maynes of the 1st Q of Seventy and his wife. They both gave canned talks without much enthusiasm. However, I was touched by her conversion story and the one he told about one of his companions and his growth on his mission.
We are anxious to get to Trinidad and get going. We are still working on our first lesson so that we will be prepared when we get that first opportunity to teach.

Labels: 2nd week

posted by Mom's Thoughts @ 5/20/2008 08:21:00 PM

Sunday, May 18, 2008

Jailbreak!

Mom and Dad were able to bust out of the MTC long enough to join us for church today in Spanish Fork. I'll say that church is a lot easier with four adult hands rather than just two! It was a treat to have them.

When I introduced them in Sunday School, I said, "These are my parents, George and Eva Ross." Dad corrected me and said, "that's Elder and Sister Ross." See, they're getting the hang of this missionary thing already. Hard to believe they will be out of here this week! I'm loving the pictures they are posting.

posted by Bradley Ross @ 5/18/2008 05:06:00 PM

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Saturday May 17, 2008

This is our district and our morning teacher, Elder Lee Deppermann. The Pypers, office, and the Harris's, Kirkland Visitor's Center, were fun to have in our group. I wanted to post a couple of other pictures but I can't seem to get to them.
We did our laundry today, got hair cuts, and went to the temple. Maybe tomorrow you will get the pictures!
Love,
G & G Ross

posted by Mom's Thoughts @ 5/17/2008 06:08:00 PM

Friday, May 16, 2008

Preach My Gospel

Friday, May 16, 2008

I am really struggling trying to get pictures posted! These are of our room and the cafeteria that the kids wanted.

Yesterday we role played less active couples then we received a lesson from them from the scriptures. Then we switched roles. We then got to go to the Call Center and take calls from ads on TV for Bibles, B of M, videos, etc.
We went to Jean and Don Marshall's home for dinner. Susan Ord also came from S. Jordan. We had a great time.

Today we gave a lesson on The Gospel of Jesus Christ to Glayd Mather an ex-BYU professor who pretended to be recently activated. He really tried hard to get us off track. Dad was awesome! We were able to answer his concerns and cover all the points. We heard later that he is the toughest volunteer.

It is hard to believe the week is over. It has been a very spiritual experience and a testimony building experience. There have been some aha's. Preach My Gospel is going to be an awesome tool. The instructors here are top notch. Our district had the reputation of being a very cheerful and happy group. We did have a good time doing all the tasks. We heard that from a couple of the instructors. Our morning instructor said we were his favorite over the afternoon group for whatever that is worth. We were impressed with the quality of the couples in our large group, all very hard working, down to earth, with awesome testimonies.

Tomorrow is our P day. We will do laundry and attend the temple.

posted by Mom's Thoughts @ 5/16/2008 08:46:00 PM

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Mail

We had a question about mail because we go to the Mailbox everyday. We were told to check twice a day, but we go once. They are supposed to put messages in there for our meetings, but that hasn't been happening. We did receive our plane tickets and our badges in there on different days. We ordered another badge that we will pick up today.

It is awesome shopping in the MTC Bookstore because we get 40% off, too bad we don't need to buy anything except a white tie for dad and a pad of paper.

We will take some pictures of the MTC, since it has been requested. We do eat in a big hall.

Letters go to the mission office until we have specific address:
Elder George and Sister Eva Ross
West Indies Mission
PO Bag 543
Valsayn
Trinidad
Trinidad and Tobago

Packages:
Elder and Sister Ross
West Indies Mission
1 Morequito Ave
Valpark Shopping Mall Plaza Bldg #10
Valsayn, Trinidad
Trinidad and Tobago

G & G Ross

Labels: Mail

posted by Mom's Thoughts @ 5/15/2008 12:54:00 PM

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Monday
We made it to the MTC at 10 sharp this morning and got all checked in and unpacked in our little apartment. We made up our queen sized bed, which will take some getting used to after a king for so many years. It will be a good way to ease into a double, if indeed, that is what we have in Trinidad. It has been cold and windy as we have had to go between the various buildings, however, we did notice the beautiful tulips, which we will try to get pictures of tomorrow if it is warner. The food is good, especially since we don't have to cook it.


We are in a group of about 40 people (often the group is 80). There is a Tobler here from the St George area. Keryn, he didn't know your dad.

Everyone is so friendly, helpful and kind. There is definitely a special spirit here. We start our classes tomorrow. It was all orientation today. Dad will be the district leader for our group of 6. We have homework to do tonight! Tomorrow night we hear from a general authority for our devotional. We will keep you posted.

Love,
Mom and Dad

Tuesday, May 13

We just got back from a devotional with Bruce C. Hafen from the 1st Q of Seventy. He talked about building testimonies in ourselves and the people we teach. His wife also gave an awesome talk. We were in the 4th row right in the middle. The auditorium was totally packed. They save seats for the senior missionaries until 6:45 then release them to whomever.

We receive training in the room where we took Michelle, Brad and Skip and left them when they went on their missions. We will vacate the room tomorrow after the opening session so the the new missionaries and their families can repeat the process. The trainers here are awesome. They make it easy to prepare and teach lessons. It is very cool to know what those of you who went on missions experienced here in the MTC. The feeling here is awesome. We gave the first lesson today to a gentleman from Provo who comes to be a guinea pig every Tuesday for missionaries to practice with. He served his mission on the island of Antigua, which used to be in the West Indies Mission. We barely finished in our alloted time of 45 minutes.

The food is killing us! We are eating way too much. Tomorrow we start using some restraint.

To answer the Martin boys' questions, our room has a queen bed, built in desk, 2 closets and a set of drawers built in the wall. We have a tub and shower in our bathroom. The bedroom part is about the size of Drake's room. We aren't here very much of the time. We walk back and forth from our class to our room at least 4 times a day. We also walk over to the mail room twice a day, so we are getting a little exercise. We walked to and from the devotional tonight. It is beautiful outside with the trees in blossom and all the flowers. We are very close to the beautiful mountains, which always give me a high when I look at them.


Our testimonies are growing daily! We love the Lord.

posted by Mom's Thoughts @ 5/14/2008 07:36:00 AM

Monday, May 12, 2008

Go Grandma and Grandpa!

What a great experience to see G&G set apart for their missions! We are so proud of you!!! Read more Here! ;)

posted by Michelle Gilleland @ 5/12/2008 01:44:00 PM

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Official Missionaries

We were set apart today by President Snow as full time missionaries. What an awesome experience! It was extra special to have the Hannay's, Gilleland's and the B. Ross's in attendance as well. The Melchezedek priesthood holders were able to participate in the circle with the stake presidency.

We have been waiting for this day for what seems like forever, and now, it is here! Our bags are pretty well packed. We need to be at the MTC Monday morning between 10 and 11.

All in all, it was a very good Mother's Day. Thanks for all of your support and caring as we have prepared for this moment.

posted by Mom's Thoughts @ 5/11/2008 05:46:00 PM

Monday
We made it to the MTC at 10 sharp this morning and got all checked in and unpacked in our little apartment. We made up our queen sized bed, which will take some getting used to after a king for so many years. It will be a good way to ease into a double, if indeed, which is what we have in Trinidad. It has been cold and windy as we have had to go between the various buildings, however, we did notice the beautiful tulips, which we will try to get pictures of tomorrow if it is warmer. The food is good, especially since we don't have to cook it.


We are in a group of about 40 people (often the group is 80). There is a Tobler here from the St George area. Keryn, he didn't know your dad.

Everyone is so friendly, helpful and kind. There is definitely a special spirit here. We start our classes tomorrow. It was all orientation today. Dad will be the district leader for our group of 6. We have homework to do tonight! Tomorrow night we hear from a general authority for our devotional. We will keep you posted.

Love,
Mom and Dad

Official Missionaries

We were set apart today by President Snow as full time missionaries. What an awesome experience! It was extra special to have the Hannay's, Gilleland's and the B. Ross's in attendance as well. The Melchezedek priesthood holders were able to participate in the circle with the stake presidency.

We have been waiting for this day for what seems like forever, and now, it is here! Our bags are pretty well packed. We need to be at the MTC Monday morning between 10 and 11.

All in all, it was a very good Mother's Day. Thanks for all of your support and caring as we have prepared for this moment.