A new mission president

President Gamiette's family was a hit at zone conference on Thursday. There are five children ranging in age from four to fourteen, two boys and three girls. Some of the children stayed through all of it with their mom. The children speak only French, consequently, they didn't understand most of what went on during the training. One of the girls shared her testimony in French and her dad translated for us. She plans to serve a mission like her mother and father before her. Sister Gamiette is from France and was baptized at 19. She shared her testimony and conversion. She served a mission in the US.

We were all impressed with Presdent Gamiette's knowledge of the scriptures and the way he was able to draw the missionaires out and stretch their understanding of the concepts he addressed. The missionaries did a great job coming up with supportive scriptures. We were all committed to do a better job of planning.




All but one of the couples is new since we started serving in Trinidad. The Green's will go home in August. We are missing a couple of the senior missionaires in this picture, including Elder Ross.

Elder Ross is sporting his new sunglasses he had to purchase because he broke the hinge on his transition glasses that darken in the sun. It wasn't easy to find sunglasses in the mall, even then Janelle said he looked like a biker. The good news was that they cost $70 TT ($11 US).

We made the rounds of the two eyeglass places, who are serviced by opticians, and both offered to send the glasses to Trinidad to be fixed, if it were even possible, and he would be without them for 10 business days. As we were headed out the door of optician number two, to visit the last possible optician in Scarborough, she recommended we try a jeweler to solder it together. She recommended one in Scarborough where we were headed anyway. Naturally, we couldn't find the recommended jeweler, but we did go past the jeweler who replaced a watch band for an old Casio watch with the kind of band that had been on the watch originally and decided to give him a try.

We were there for almost 2 hours and decided we could come back and pick it up Friday after we returned from zone conference. We returned today about 11 and he hadn't touched it yet. We waited over an hour and finally said we would be back at 3:00. On Wednesday he had soldered a new ear piece on the broken side while we were there and just needed to replace the other one.

No, it isn't a perm! I remember when Michelle's hair was curly on her mission. It is amazing what a little humidity can do for a do.

YW learn to sew

Lesa Gonzales taught the girls how to make a paper pattern for a skirt. Lesa does sewing for others from the measurements she takes of them. The girls had a fantastic time. It will be fun to see their final products.

Teaching with our missionaries

We went to an appointment with Elder Jarvis and Elder Jones and it fell through for the second time. I guess we will be dropping that family. It is too bad, since it was a large family and they live close to the branch building.

We took a detour after leaving their house and ran into the above. We had been to Ft. George and to the hospital on a couple of occasions, but hadn't realized that the punishment cells were part of the complex. Needless to say, the hospital is very old. A new one is being built over near where we live on Signal Hill.

We did have a successful visit with Tedeca (15) and Andjua (17). Elder Jones hadn't met them yet, as they haven't been to church in a few months. Mom doesn't want them to be baptized. They missed having lessons about the gospel and called and asked if we could visit. It was wonderful to visit with them again. We have a return appointment on Friday.

Spring is Here

We do have some cactus looking plants here on Tobago. Aloe Vera grows well here, too. The plants and trees are blooming! It is spring once the rainy season starts, with it comes allergies for Elder Ross. He has been pretty miserable for about 3 weeks. We notice that a few of the members are likewise affected. They tell us it is common with the change from the dry season to the rainy season. On the bright side, these are the first allergy symptoms he has experienced since we arrived in the West Indies a year ago in May. We hope the transition will soon be over.

Weed eaters

The weed eater is a hot item on island. Crews go all over and keep the grass down along the roadways. It is difficult to get a picture of them in action because they stop when you get near enough for a picture. Also, the people here do not like their picture taken. I snapped this from my driveway and some of them turned and looked up at me even though I was quite a ways away. I expected someone to asked why I took the picture as I walked passed them on my morning walk (6:30 am). We have observed several times tourists being rebuked for taking photos of the local people. I was questioned when I took pictures of the construction at the end of our road.

It is awesome to watch the skill of the operators of the weed eaters. They can make a lawn look like it was professionally mowed and manicured. We have seen them mow down huge fields of waist high grass with the end results a beautifully mowed hill, since it is very hilly here we don't seen may flat yards. The hilly terrain is part of the reason we see very few lawn mowers.