Zone Conference Photos

Preparation Day = Wash Day

I'm glad to have my second p-day - I really need to do my laundry! I live day to day with my pants - I only have 4 pairs and its hard to keep them clean even for just two uses! I go through a shirt a day but I have plenty of those. When it rains here everything becomes muddy including my pants and shoes. To best describehow bad it is, when I wash my pants the water becomes brown. Oh wash...haha that's an ... interesting process. We have a crummy old wash "machine", if you could even call it that - you have to fill up 3 buckets of water from a spout that has less water pressure than the bathroom sink I used at home, and dump it into the "washer". Then put in all the clothes and dump soap and a lot of bleach in it. It washes for 15 minutes, and afterwards I have to drain the water, fill up the bucket 3 more times, and dump in the rinse water. 15 minutes after that I then drain the water again. The clean clothes are reduced to a large knot that makes a rubix cube seem like a fisher price toy. I put the clothes in a spinner that gets out the extra water. We hang the clothes up to dry on a line and then start over again for my colors! I have grown to appreciate mom in so many ways. Also, just to let you know, I don't hvae to wash my fruit in bleach here - Trinidad is one of the cleaner islands in my mission. I'm okay for now.

So we had a baptism this last Saturday and we have three more this Wednesday.I've been asked this time to perform the baptism for 2 of the members in the family! We are also teaching a woman and her boyfriend who live in a rasta village. Ever heard of a Rasta turned Christian!?Too bad it's in a font and not in the ocean, I haven't even seen the ocean since I got here! I sent off a batch of Letters last week including some postcards that are pretty sweet. I took a bunch of photos that I want to send, but I don't have a card reader, or my cable, so i'm going to go buy one - I guess you will have to wait till next week to get some pics. 1836!

(This is the family that Russell was talking about baptizing)

I Made it to Trinidad!

Well I'm sure many of you have been wondering whats going on? where I am staying etc. We arrived safely but for some reason our visas were funny so Customs held all 8 of us for 4 hours. President Robison had to come and spring us from airport jail and we didn't get to the mission home until 3 am! Sister Robison has been feeding us well, don't worry!

Where am I now?!? Prince's Town, Trinidad. This is in southern Trinidad, it is a residential area that is mostly lower middle class. I have taught in houses with air conditioning, and comfortable chairs vs. an investigator who lives in a ply wood box with no running water or electricity. I have taught by a crude gas tourch (a rum bottle with a rag in it as a wick) its crazy! I have tracted in the hot sun, and warm rain. I have walked on bumpy uneven asphalt, and in ankle deep mud - you should see my shoes! The people here are AMAZING! They are all looking for religion - half are Hindu, and Muslim and the other half are Christian. It's pretty cool teaching the restoration to a guy wearing a turban, who we are actually baptizing next week! The kids are fun, they come up to me and call me white boy, cracker, or "mon". I have yet seen another white person other than the one in the mirror, or my companion. People don't shake hands here they "bounce" aka tap, pound, etc... it's rad. Sadly, most everyone here is drunk or high most of the day. We have a man Rodney, who trying to break his weed addiction. I never thought coming on a mission meant I would be a Rehab Counselor.

However, by the time you receive email I will have already have had my first Baptism - a women named Debbie Ramnerine and her husband should follow soon. Their 3 boys were baptized before I got out here. I have another baptism next week, and the mission goal is to baptize once a month (our personal goal is once a week). There are 4 families we are teaching with 8 more confirmed baptisms in August, and possibly 10 more to follow. I'm off to a good start. 1836!

Map of Trinidad

MTC Week Two

Well i'm sitting here at the computer next to Terry. I guess he looked at my schedule and figured out where I was! All I know is that he just sat down next to me while I was typing this email. Last night I got the pirate flag out and we hung it up in our dorm hall. At midnight we woke up to MTC security telling us to take it down, that it was not a good idea to have a pirate flag. We tried to explain to him that it was representing our mission. He didn't buy it.

Last night was fun the missionaries had a fireside, and then we watched the fireworks for the 4th of July. Terry said that you wanted to know about the food -its ok-i've gained 3 lbs which isn't really anything so i'm doing fine there. I don't care to much considering that i'll loose it all when I get to Trinidad. The time has passed quickly here, the days are long but the weeks are short. I only have 2 days left of normal class, and Sundays don't realy count, they're much more relax. We have a lot of free time, church meetings, and devotionals. O dad happy birthday, I have a present, I hope it will be done before I leave, if not I'll have terry get it to you. Everything is going well, I'm excited to call from the airport, that will be nice.Hopefully i will have more interesting things to write about when i'm inthe field, and more interesting pictures too. 1836!