Barbados: The blessings, the challenges, and a "P" day comedy

Good day everyone,

I arrived on Barbados on Wednesday and have finally adjusted to the humidity. The heat isn't too bad and it is cloudy because rainy season is about to start. I have already started my awesome tan lines.

It is beautiful here. The beaches are really nice (we haven't been yet but we drive past every day) and the island is full of palm trees and flowers. We have wandered around our area many times so I am pretty sure I have seen what there is to see as far as plants go. One day when we were driving home we had to stop because there was a bunch of... Monkeys.  In the road. Just like deer back in Utah. There are also creepy black birds with bright green eyes. We also saw a monkey over in a park by our apartment.

I am serving in the St. Phillips area with Sister Herrick. It is more of the "country side" of Barbados so it is very spread out. We have a nice apartment and a car. We even have a chapel here, which is more than they have in a lot of other areas. We have been trying to find our way around which is fun. They don't have house numbers in most areas so we get told a general area and we have to find out which house is the right one. There are random roads it gets very confusing, but we have been blessed to find most of the places we need to know.

We have had a few appointments that have gone well and I am excited to get to teach more. There is a lot of work for us to do but with the Lord's help, I know we will be led to those he has prepared.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Mom,

We have been working hard but we are starting out pretty slowly. We haven't had much success finding people and the roads are crazy here.

Mailing packages and letters will probably be hard because we don't really have an address, just a street.  For now all I know is I live in Gemswick, St. Phillips, Barbados but we don't have a house number

Like I said the work is going slow here which is kind of frustrating for us. Apparently Barbados is the hardest island in the mission and people are not open to hearing the message. They are nice until we mention the church and then they don't want anything to do with us. We are going to try service like Ammon as our next approach. We haven't had much success yet.

Our apartment is way nicer than what they have on most islands and most people here live in humble homes. We figured we were given a nice apartment because we will have a lot of stress so we need somewhere nice to come home to. Our water takes forever to warm up (if we have warm water) so we take cold showers most of the time.

We spent some time on Trinidad and they live in very humble homes. The sisters live basically through a "junk yard" and have their kitchen outside. I really want to go to Trinidad or Tobago eventually. I hear the people there are more receptive to the gospel and friendly.

We are not supposed to be out wandering past 6:30 pm unless we have appointments. We are carefully following the rules and we haven't had any problems yet.

We eat a lot of chicken here because the fish is too expensive. Chicken and rice. We were fed by one of the members yesterday and that is what we had. At home we have been living off of cold cereal and peanut butter sandwiches. We have other things but we don't really have time to make food yet and we haven't been to the store.  I am trying to catch a monkey on camera but so far I haven't been successful.

I forgot to tell you I drove. On the left side of the road. We got lost in some back roads so I figured I would give it a shot. It was like learning to drive all over again. I only drove on the wrong side once ;) . You might have a few random emails because we are waiting for the elders to bring our car back.

Our car hates us. It locks us out and the alarm goes off when we try to get in. The window gets stuck going up and down unless you close it a certain way and one of the headlights are out so we have to get it replaced. Other than that the car is great.

The people in Trinidad drive crazy. They swerve and stop and don't signal. I am glad I get to learn to drive here. On Barbados they communicate with their lights and their horns. It will be an adjustment.

We met a guy named Wayne. He has a family and he wants to learn more. His wife is strong in her religion but he wants to know more. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he acted like he really wanted to read it.

So far P day has been spent at the doctors office and emailing because the Elders needed our car so they could go shopping. We have been walking in the mornings which is nice. It isn't jogging but it still counts.

Thanks for sending the Missionary Library. We have been in early because we can't seem to get any evening appointments. Rather than sit around I continued reading Our Search for Happiness. It is really good and interesting. It was written for people who are not LDS but it is definitely for members as well. I have enjoyed it. I have been reading from the Book of Mormon every day. We have a 12 week Book of Mormon reading plan that the whole mission uses. I have also been studying a lot from the New Testament. The people here know the Bible very well so we are trying to help them see that the Book of Mormon supports the Bible. The Elders brought some investigators to church and they wanted to know where things are in the Bible so they can have proof. We are trying to include scriptures from both the Bible and the Book of Mormon in our lessons so we can help people see that they support each other.

There are ants and mosquitoes in our apartment and I have quite a few bug bites on my legs. They also have sand flies here.

The rain here isn't bad yet because it is the beginning of the rainy season. It randomly pours for like 5 minutes and then stops. The roads get pretty muddy because the majority of roads in this part of the island are dirt and the paved roads are not very good. The roads are super narrow here. Just barely wide enough to fit two cars and sometimes not even that. A lot of people we have been to see live on random roads off main dirt roads (like tire track roads). It is an adventure. We get lost and end up in random places which happen to be beautiful. We look at each other and say P day and drive away. We found a lighthouse and we are planning on going today if we can.

I am pretty sure there are 6 sisters on Barbados right now.

The Elders have a baptism on Saturday. We will be going so you might get pictures from it. Hopefully we can take some of our investigators with us so they can see what it is like. It may be an ocean baptism if they can't get the font to work.

The Elders came back to get their keys so they could take the food back to their apartment (we are emailing in the Branch president’s office with his permission). They shut the door and unfortunately the door locks. We are locked in the office and we can't get out until they come back. We haven't had lunch yet and we had an early breakfast so we are starving.

Just thought I would let you know why you are still getting random emails. I am really bored so we are taking turns emailing people until they come back because there is nothing else to do.

Barbados Flag