Bikes and a Baptism

Good Morning Everyone,

We got bikes!  For about two days.  Sister Herrick's is too tall for her so she will have to get a new one that fits better.  Mine worked great though.  It was fun while it lasted.  We still have the car until the end of the transfer.  I had my last tradeoff with Sister Edmonds in Curepe this week.  It was great.  She goes home at the end of the transfer.  I am going to miss her a lot.  she is an amazing missionary.

The miracle of the week will take up the rest of the email:  Brother Patrick.  The week started off great.  We were supposed to see him on Tuesday but "the crabs were running in Felicity" so he wasn't home.  Wednesday...still not home.  This would have been fine except his baptism interview was supposed to be on Thursday.  We finally caught him home on Wednesday night.  He was trying to save up enough money to travel to his baptism.  He felt bad about missing our appointment so he made us curried crab.  We ate it while we watched him chop up the fresh batch.  When I say fresh I mean they were still alive and he was getting pinched while he was killing them.  The crab was good though.

Chopping crabs

Holding crab head

First bite of crab

Crab and rice

Crab and roti

Brother Patrick broke his hammock

He passed his interview.  We have a paper to help him remember the commandments and he didn't have any problems.  He got a nice haircut and Brother Gerard baptize him on Saturday.  Then Sunday came along.  He is usually an hour early to church and we got there at that time and...no Brother Patrick.  We waited and church started...still not there.  Sacrament...nothing.  After the sacrament finished in walked Brother Patrick.  He got caught in the rain so he was late.  He was able to be confirmed right after the Sacrament.  Dheeraj Patrick Herbert is the newest member of the Chaguanas Branch.  Miracle :)

Thanks for everything.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Collecting Recipes

Looks like the back of Preach My Gospel

Members Need To Help Hasten The Work

Good Morning,

I got to do a nice tradeoff in Curepe again.  I got to spend time with Sister Kime.  Once again it was fun serving with my MTC companion in my old area this time.  Sister Kime is a wonderful missionary.  She just got to the area so she didn't know it too well.  Luckily I know the area, just not the people so we didn't get too lost.  It was fun.

On Wednesday the Deonarinesinghs took us less active finding.  They know where a lot of people live that haven't been to church for a while.  We now have some new people to work with.  They are great.  Brother Patrick is doing great as always.  He comes to church every week and is learning quickly.  Everyone loves him.  He enjoys feeding us snacks every time we come.  We taught him the primary song Book of Mormon Stories and he loved the hand actions.  He couldn't stop laughing.  It is his new favorite song.

We got to do a service project at the Deonarinesingh's jungle garden.  We cleaned around pineapple plants, picked oranges, cut figs, caught oranges, and shook cocoa trees.  Brother Deonarinesingh almost fell out of the tree but his is like a monkey so he caught himself.  Sister Deonarinesingh made us fish broth.  It had provision, eddoes, white aloo, carrots, dumplings, and... fish head.  Don't worry the brain and eyes were already out.  It was good.

Can you see the tarantual?

Stick Bug

Miracle of the week:  We had a lot of people at church.  Because of the Deonarinesingh's hard work and willingness to hasten the work of Salvation we had several less active families come out.  We really need the help of the members if we want the Lord's work to progress.

Thanks for all you do.  I really appreciate your prayers and support.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Rainy season brings out frogs.  This dead frog was on the porch.

Indian delicacy sweets

Peilou

"Fasting Brings Miracles"

Good Afternoon Everyone,

We had a crazy, amazing Zone Conference week.  Zone conference was great.  It was focused on developing Christlike attributes--faith, diligence, and obedience.  As always the spirit was very strong.  Interviews with President Mehr were great as well.

We are still working with the young man named Jason.  He wants to be baptized so we are excited to keep teaching him.  He has been there for the fun house meetings I keep talking about and he loves it.  He even came to church with the Deonarinesinghs.  He is still reading the Book of Mormon.  Brother Patrick is doing great as well.  He finished his no cigarette chart.  He as gone over 60 days without rum and 30 days without cigarettes.  We celebrated with ice cream.  This time he didn't get rum and raisin.  Progress :)

We got stuck in the mud one afternoon.  Luckily some nice random guys came and got us unstuck and drove away.  We didn't even get a chance to say thank you.

Hole from getting stuck

We had a great house meeting with the Book of Mormon as always.  This one was about Ether 8 and the Law of Chastity.  We turned it into a play.  Sister Herrick was the narrator and we had some of the kids choose a character out of the hat.  One of the Deonarinesingh boys got to be the daughter of Jared so it was funny.  Then Brother Deonarinesingh explained what the law of chastity is.

We got to do some service at the Deonarinesinghs.  They are still working on their house so we helped pack bricks and pull nails out of boards.

We had the opportunity to fast as a mission for the end of year goal of 600 baptisms.  We invited the members to join.  It was very spiritual.  Fasting brings miracles.

Miracle of the Week:  We have been struggling to find new investigators these last two weeks.  Last week we only had one.  On Saturday we were pretty sad but we knew the Fast would help.  We went out and worked hard and we found two great families to work with.  On Sunday we found another.  We are very grateful for that blessing.

Thanks for everything.  I love being a missionary.

Love,

Sister Shirts

This is a cocoa pod

catching fruit

5 finger or star fruit

fig tree

Word of Wisdom house meeting

the Sisters won the district trophy

"Great Week With A Lot Of Contacting"

Good Morning,

We had a pretty normal week.  We got our great companion picture at a member's house.  Elder Garner took the picture right when the parrot we were standing by tried to eat Sister Herrick so she has a great facial expression.  It will go on the fridge with the other companionship pictures.

We had a great week with a lot of contacting.  We have been trying to build the teaching pool so we started using creative ways to start conversations with people.  One day we were walking and a random guy came up and gave us each a banana and left before we could talk to him.  We ate the banana and then asked someone if we could throw our peel away in their rubbish bin and asked if they had ever met with missionaries before.  We ended up having a great plan of salvation lesson and invited her to pray about being baptized.  Effective contacting :).

We had a fun house meeting where we acted out Alma 36.  We had a volunteer (one of the Deonarinesingh boys) take the role of Alma the Younger.  We put salt on his tongue (bitterness), blindfolded him (darkness), tied his hands (couldn't move limbs) and spun him in circles (lost in darkness).  Then we had him sit there while we talked about how Alma felt and why.  Then we took all that stuff off and gave him a cookie to represent joy and invited him to share the rest of the cookies with everyone else.  It was great.  We taught the steps of repentance.

We had a great service project with Brother Patrick.  We are still helping him get his backyard cleaned up.  On Saturday we helped knock down another wall and he is getting ready to put some cement down.  It is coming along great.

Miracle of the Week:  Brother Patrick is almost ready for baptism.  He just needs to come to church three times on his own.  We made him a church chart like a game board where when he comes he gets to move the piece forward a space but when he misses it goes backwards.  He said he would not miss a week.  We got to church and a few minutes later he came.  He is amazing.  He does what he says he will do.

Thanks for everything.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Doo doo mango (left) 10 pound mango (right)

Phlorie (fried yummy stuff)

How did this happen?  Just trying to make popcorn

Dead snake in the road

Is that a safe way to open a bottle of sweet drink?

Great Lessons And Great People

Good Morning,

I had a great transfer week.  It was sad to see Sister Schindler leave, but I am excited to work with Sister Herrick again.  She loves being back in her first area again.

I tried some... interesting food.  I had tomato bhaiggan choka which was delicious.  I also tried manicoo (possum).  A member of the branch shot it Saturday night in his yard and he cooked it for us on Sunday.  It tasted like curry.  I also tried curried rabbit.

Pork, tomato bhaiggan choka, sada roti

We are working with a mother and daughter who are preparing to be baptized.  They are excited to learn about everything and really want to join the church and follow Christ.  They love the Book of Mormon.  Brother Patrick is doing great too.  He is still learning and coming to church.

Favorite lesson of the week:  We had our Friday Book of Mormon house meeting about Abinadi and King Noah.  We told the first part of the story and had everyone draw a picture of King Noah.  Then we taught the 10 commandments using Mosiah 13 with the hand signals and we all wrote down a commandment that is hard for us to keep.  Then we burned the pictures of King Noah.  It was a lot of fun and the spirit was pretty strong during the burning part.  Leaving our past behind to start new.

Miracle of the Week:  Deonarinesingh family.  We had a great lesson on the Priesthood because there are four boys who are priesthood age.  We watched a Mormon Message about how we need young men to fulfill their duty.  Their dad talked about how he wants each of them to serve a mission so they can become the great young men he knows they can be.  The spirit was very strong.  At the end of the lesson the dad pulled out a pack of cigarettes and put them on the ground.  He said that he is done smoking and he never wants to see them again.  We talked about the Anti-Nephi Lehis and how they buried their weapons of rebellion.  He told the boys to dig a hole quick and they did.  He buried his cigarettes and he is going to put the money he would have spent everyday on cigarettes in a temple jar so they can go to the temple.  The spirit was very strong.

Thanks for everything you do out there.  I appreciate all the prayers and words of encouragement.

Love,
Sister Shirts

Fruit loop cake invention by an investigator

Cool caterpillar

Yeah!  New toothbrush

Fixing the Sisters flat tire

Pretty flower

Attending Hindu prayers:

Stirring the big pot

Decorations

Notice there are no forks or spoons?