"The Work Is Exploding"

Good Morning,

Another crazy week.  Spent some time in my old area because Sister Jex went home for medical reasons and Sister Edmonds needed a companion.  We were in a trio for a few days and we worked both areas.  It was fun but hard because we had a lot of people to see and not a lot of time.  Amazingly enough we had the best week as far as numbers.  We taught more lessons in our area this week than I have on my mission.  That isn't counting the lessons we taught in Sister Edmonds area.  Heavenly Father provided a way for us to still teach everyone we needed to in half the amount of time.  Pretty amazing.

It was nice to work with Sister Edmonds again and catch up.  We stayed in her apartment for a few nights.  I got to teach some of the people we had been teaching before and see their progress.  Her new temp is Danielle, the less active we found and were working with.  She has been doing so good.  She has come to church every week since my last week.  She will do wonderful things and I am excited for her to have the missionary experience.  The Curepe Sisters are doing great.

The work is exploding in Chaguanas.  We found a lot of families to teach and we have several people preparing for baptism in February.  In this area there are a lot of Hindus.  They are willing to listen to anyone.  This is both wonderful and hard.  The best part about it is I get to be a part of teaching them for the first time about Jesus Christ.  Most of them don't know very much about him and it is an honor to share my testimony with them.

Miracle of the week:  Sister Jex was with me on trade offs on Tuesday.  We went to contact a referral and a guy called us over and said that he wanted to talk to us.  We went up and he told us to sit down.  We asked if we could say a prayer before we started and he said no and pointed to his chair.  He had been drinking.  He said he wanted to change his life and find a wife to help him.  We told him we didn't have a wife for him but we did have the way to change and it is through the Savior.  He said okay and we asked him if he was ready to start by giving up rum.  He said yes and he gave me the bottle.  I said okay and went to dump it out.  He really wanted one more drink but he didn't and I poured out the rum.  Since that day he hasn't had anything to drink.  We saw him again on Saturday and he is now preparing for baptism.  The Lord is able to work miracles if we do our part.

As always thanks and I love you all.

Shout out to Sister Jex:  You are amazing.  Feel better.  We are praying for you.

Love,

Sister Shirts

This is a maxi - public transportation in Trinidad

This picture is for Sister Shirts brother who IS Batman.  Maybe the next batmobile?

Adventures in Trinidad

Hello Everyone,

We had a great week.  We have a lot of good people we are working with.

This week we ran into a guy who had an alligator thing nailed to his window.  It was very random and I had to take a picture.

I asked where he got it and he said he catches them in a river not too far from where we stay.  I will have to be careful when we are walking in the bush so I don't get eaten.  Good thing we are not allowed to go swimming.

We had quite the adventure this week.  Sister Taufu'i had to fly out to Grenada to start her 90 days over so she could get her license stuff started.  I spent the day with Sister Jex and Sister Edmonds until the tradeoff she was doing.  Then Sister Edmonds left and Sister Herrick was with us.  We had a great morning with some very spiritual experiences.  Then it was time to pick Sister Taufu'i up.  We drove to the airport and waited for a while.  Then she came out with an airport official.  She needed to pay a fine to get into the country and she didn't have the money.  She had to wait at the airport while we ran back to the Sister's apartment and got the money to get her out.  I am glad it wasn't me who got stuck.

Miracle of the week:  We are still working with Fred and Bobby.  We had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation this week.  It was amazing and the spirit was very strong.  Each was taught what they needed to know.  I am amazed at how open they are to learning and praying.  Fred has already read up to 1 Nephi 13 and he loves the Book of Mormon.  He is progressing a lot.  Bobby has a strong desire to follow Christ.  This is his first real experience with coming closer to Him and he loves the spirit he feels.  He said it makes his heart cry for joy.

Thanks for everything you do.  Sorry it is so short this week.  Love you all.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Service Is A Great Way To Share The Gospel

Good Morning,

We had a lot of service opportunities this week.  We look for as many service opportunities as we can to live the gospel and share it by actions.  We shovelled concrete, shelled peas, peeled garlic, and helped several people put away groceries.

Great news:  I have an official Trinidad drivers' license.  I am now able to drive in the country for five years.  It was a long process, but I am glad I got it over with.  The only test I had to take was a really easy written test that took less than five minutes.

Sister Mehr came out teaching with us.  That day we met a lady tracting and had a lesson for her right then.  The Spirit was strong.  She recently accepted Christianity because she felt her previous religion was missing something and it didn't feel right.  She is willing to be baptized if she prays and receives the answer that she should.  She has a wonderful family that is willing to as well.  We also took Sister Mehr to see Bobby and Fred.  Both are doing well and want to be baptized.  We taught them the Restoration together and once again, the Spirit was very strong.  We love it when Sister Mehr comes teaching with us.

We met a lot of people this week.  We had sixteen new investigators who want to learn more about Jesus Christ and his gospel.  It is amazing how fast the work of the Lord is moving here in Trinidad.

We had a wonderful zone conference yesterday.  We learned how we can help strengthen the wards and branches here.  We do it by baptizing, retaining the converts, and rescuing less actives.  This is the work of salvation.  We also learned a lot about repentance, covenants, and the importance of temples.

Miracle of the Week:  We met two guys on the street who were not interested.  We asked if we could take ten minutes of their time.  One of them set a timer and said sure.  We started with a prayer and immediately started asking questions which led us to the Book of Mormon.  Thirty minutes later both walked away with a Book of Mormon and a return appointment to learn more.  Both are going to pray and ask God if the Book of Mormon is scripture.  It is a really cool experience to be a part of this great work.

Thank you for all the kind words you post on my blog and facebook.  I can't go on those sites but my mom always passes on the messages to me.  I apprecieate all the support you give.

Thanks for everything,

Sister Shirts

New Companions

Sometimes The Car Likes To Go Into Ditches.  Luckily There Was A Nice Man That Towed It Out

Chaguanas, Trinidad

Good Morning Everyone,

I had a lot of adventures this week.  We had three brand new sisters with us for a few days so we went on splits.  Sister Edmonds and I split them up and took them out with us.  It was fun to show them how we do missionary work in the West Indies.  I took them on a little mountain adventure trying to find a guy we met on the street.  It turns out he lives in a very humble shack in the mountains, but he loves it and is glad he has a place to live.  He was very grateful for the Book of Mormon we brought him.

They celebrate New Years' here pretty much the same as in the States.  Fireworks and music.  The difference is instead of calling it New Years' Eve they call it Old Years' Night.  New Years' day was a little slower because everyone was sleeping because they don't go to bed until like three in the morning.  We still had many wonderful lessons.  We just had to get our foot in the door:)

The transfer happened on Thursday and now I am here in Chaguanas.  My area is called Charlieville.  I already love it just as much as I love Curepe.  Sister Taufu'i is great and it feels like we have been teaching together for a long time.  We are excited to see a lot of progress in the branch.  I went to my first branch council yesterday and the Stake President was there.  It was great.

Chaguanas is really beautiful.  It is more country than Curepe.  A lot greener.

New foods tried:  Oil Down.  It was okay but not healthy at all.

There were a lot of miracles this week so I couldn't just pick one.
1.  The drunk guy Sister Edmonds and I found is still progressing.  Sister Edmonds and Sister Jex took him to a baptism on Saturday.
2.  We met three potential priesthood holders this week who all want to follow Christ and have a date they are preparing to be baptized on.
3.  We started working with a family the Elders taught a year or so ago.  They said they are now ready and they chose a baptism date.  They also know Joseph Smith restored the true church and know they want to be baptized as a family.  They are really cool.

We have nine people working towards baptism right now that we didn't have a week ago.  Heavenly Father blessed us a lot this week.

Sorry for the short email.  Just a normal week of missionary work.  Thanks for everything.

Love,

Sister Shirts