Two Brits who went home last transfer created some nice memories for us about the quality of the young men serving in the West Indies Mission. Next to dad is Elder Ross Webb, who served his last 6 weeks in the Port of Spain branch while we were there. We grew to love his wit, his dedication to his call and his overall niceness. He had been in a rock band, pierced ears and all before coming on his mission and chose to leave fame and fortune behind.This was the first time that I actually met Elder Swain. I had many conversations with him on the phone as he called the office checking on various things for others. He is mature beyond his years. While he was serving, his parents moved to New Zealand. He called me a couple of weeks before his departure and asked in I could change his flight so that he wouldn't arrive at 5:00 am as that would be a burden on his parents to get up so early and drive 2 hours to the airport. I was so touched as I told people in the office and I carried the feeling around with me for days of what an awesome son he was. You need to know that for him to get to the airport in Georgetown from Suriname he had to spend all day first going by taxi, then ferry across a river and then take a bus to get to there because there are no flights between the two countries that are side by side. The next day, very early he had to fly to Port of Spain and spend the day and this is when we were able to meet him face to face. The next day he had to be at the airport at 6 am to fly several hours then have a 5 hour layover then fly several more hours with another layover then fly all night and arrive at 5 am in New Zeland. I looked at his flight schedule and decided more layovers would be the only answer to fulfil his request. After pondering it for awhile, I decided not to contact Liz in SL who makes those reservations. I told him that is was OK to put his parents out a little to pick up a son who had served a great mission. They wouldn't mind and it would be a good memory of getting up really early to go pick him up. He said he hadn't ever thought about it that way and felt OK about it.
3 comments:
Hey Elder and Sister Ross
You guys are awesome! I can't believe your going to leave the office so soon. What are they going to do with out you? There must be someone out there that needs you. I will be thinking of you every morning since I have been called to teach seminary to the Juniors and seniors. Maybe you can share some of your teaching magic with me!!
Keep us in your prayers, we love and miss you.
John
Wow! Congratulations! That should be a really fun experience. I think you will be teaching the New Testament and the course looks good. You will be such a good role model and relate well with that age group. You have a lot to offer them.
We have learned so much with the search, analyze, apply process for teaching. We are just hoping for students to use it on. We are not doing well with the scripture mastery.
You are in our prayers, we love and miss you as well.
Eva
I am so in awe of the spirit. It is a great example to me how you thought about this flight for a couple of days and then came to your answer. I hope I can do this better. I am always in a hurry to get my answers. Now I can see how time can help change your perspective on things.
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