Transfer Week: Staying Put In Chaguanas

Good Afternoon,

P day at the beach was wonderful.  I took a nap and wrote letters.  It was nice and relaxing.

Can't have a beach picture without doing the nametags

Sister Shirts and her sisters got matching CTR rings before she left.  She  still wears hers everyday.

Transfer week:  Great news!  I am staying in Chaguanas.  I will be with Sister Hendricks who has been serving in Barbados.  I will be Senior companion and I get to lead the area.  I am excited.  Sister Taufu'i is headed out to San Fernando and Sister Rampersad is going to her mission in Jamaica.  I am going to miss them a lot.  They will do great things.

A lot of good things happened this week.  We had a great FHE with the Gopaul family about missionary work.  They want to invite their family to hear the gospel once again.  We played the skittles game after that and I tied for the win.  We ran out of skittles:)

I got to go to Curepe for exchanges this week.  I worked with Sister Giles.  She is a wonderful missionary and they are doing great work there.  It was fun to be back in my old area and see how much it has progressed.  We went to the church to teach a lesson and we stopped by the restroom.  There was a frog in the toilet and Sister Rampersad panicked.  She doesn't like frogs.

The highlight of the week was Saturday night.  They had something called Celebration 2015.  From now until 2015 they are going to have talent shows put on by the church members and that will lead up to a big one in 2015.  It is celebrating the church being in the West Indies for 25 years.  Each island does their own and sends the best talents to the finale.  It will be exciting.  It was cool to see how talented the members are here in Trinidad.

Miracle of the Week:  We started working with a less active named Brother Mohammed.  He is just recognizing he needs to change his life and he wants to serve a mission.  We got him a Preach My Gospel and we are helping him prepare.  The Spirit is very strong in his lessons.  The youth here are really stepping up.  The work is progressing.

Thanks for everything.  Love you all.

Sister Shirts

This is for the men (it means a hole in the ground)

This is for the women

"The Gospel Blesses Families and Brings Hope"

Good Afternoon,

This week was great.  Sister Rampersad needed a few more days to rest and recover but she is ready to go.

It was my turn to do tradeoffs with Sister Edmonds.  It was nice working with my old companion again.  We saw the Monsons that day and Elder Monson called us the powerful dynamic duo.  It is true.  We work very well together.  We taught seven lessons that day and most of them were about obedience and the sacrament.

I got to try soursop punch.  It is a fruit blended up with carnation milk and sweetened condensed milk.  It was really good.  I also got to try a Tonka bean and we finally got doubles.  Of course the doubles were heavenly.  They are my favorite Trini food.

We had the opportunity to go to another church with one of our investigators.  It had very loud music and dancing.  I love going to churches because I can test the promise we give investigators.  I did it again and I received the same answer I always get.  That the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Jesus Christ's church and that the power of God can only be found here.  It was amazing.

We went ziplining today.  It was a lot of fun.  How many people can say they went ziplining in Trinidad?  I can:).  It was a very long drive to get there but it was worth it.  Sister Taufu'i went first and she was terrified.  We met up with another zone.  It was fun seeing all the missionaries and we took a lot of pictures.

Miracle of the Week:  Brother Thomas (Fred) is doing great.  This week the Gerrard family came to church again.  They loved it.  They have a baptism date and they are learning a lot.  It is a mom, a dad and three daughters.  They are wonderful.  They want to be sealed in the temple.  The Gospel blesses families and brings hope.

Thanks for everything.  Love you all.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Chaguramas  Ocean

Ready to zipline!

View from the top of the zipline

Short Week

Good Afternoon,

This email will be pretty short since I just barely sent one a few days ago.  We were inside for a few days last week because Sister Rampersad was pretty sick.  We think it was the flu.  I exercised and continued to get ahead with my studies.  It has been nice to focus on memorizing the things that President Mehr has asked us to, but it is even nicer to be back out working.  I missed teaching the gospel.

The Elders had a baptism on Saturday.  I got to give the talk on the Holy Ghost.  Before my mission I would have been really nervous but not anymore.  I teach about the Holy Ghost every day.  It is nice not to have to worry about that.  No problem.  His name is Brother Rock and he was confirmed yesterday.

Funny story about our car:  Our area has a lot of speed bumps and our car sits really low.  Every time we go over a speed bump our car scrapes really loud and everyone looks at us funny.  We just laugh and drive away quickly.  It happens all the time.

Miracle of the Week:  Brother Thomas (Fred) came to church even though we didn't meet with him for over a week.  He is now preparing to receive the Aaronic Priesthood.  He is a little nervous about having the responsibility, but he is preparing well.  His testimony is continuing to be strenghtened.  He has already seeen a lot of blessings come since he has been baptized.

Thanks for everything.  Love you all.

Sister Shirts

Can't Do Much When Stuck Inside For Days Due To Carnival

Good Afternoon,

Because it was carnival we were stuck inside so this email may be a little short and boring.  Sorry;)

Great news.  Sister Rampersad will be staying with us for the rest of the transfer.  We are very excited.  She is such a great missionary and friend.

Sister Taufu'i hit her one year mark this past week.  Exciting.  We went to Yogurt Land to celebrate during our lunch break.  A few of the Elders hit their year mark too.  It was fun.  I hit my nine month mark which was great as well.  Half way done.  I can't believe it has gone by so fast.  I heard it goes by even faster at this point.  It is crazy.

We were stuck inside for carnival.  It wasn't too crazy in our area.  There were annoying cars that would drive past with their loud speakers and the music would shake the apartment.  I pretty much studied and exercised all day.  It was nice to get ahead on my bible studying and memorizing.  It was hard not going out.  It is even harder trying to see so many people in half a week.  Heavenly Father will help us so I am not too worried.

On Monday we noticed a lot of smoke outside our apartment.  We went outside to see what was happening and it turns out our neighbor decided to burn their garbage.  They do that a lot here.  I don't know if they meant to but they caught the whole field behind our apartment on fire and it was smokey all day.  It was kind of scary.  We were praying it wouldn't cross the fence into the yard.  Apparently people burn garbage often here so it wasn't a big deal.

Fred (Brother Thomas) is doing well.  He is still coming to church, reading, praying, and is enjoying the church movies we take.

This is Fred's rabbit, Oreo

Miracle of the Week:  President and Sister Mehr decided to fast with the Gerrard family (we had been working with them for a while but gave them a break).  The family is doing work on the mission home so they know President very well.  They invited us to come with them to teach them about fasting and then President and Sister Mehr joined them in fasting.  The lesson was really good.  On Sunday they all came to church and said they were having a great experience.  It was amazing.  They still want to be baptized so we are excited to start working with them more.

Thanks for everything.  Love you all.

Sister Shirts

This monkey belongs to a family they are teaching