A Brand New Member!

Good Morning,

Let's start off with the miracle of the week:  Fred got baptized!!!  Friday was the big day.  It was one of the best days of my mission.  His interview was Wednesday and he passed.  Elder Petersen baptized him and Elder Jeppson confirmed him.  It was wonderful.  Fred was so happy and his dad even came.  We have been over to visit him a few times since his baptism and he is still glowing.

This water isn't looking very clean.  The font is outside behind the church building.

Almost there

Just baptized!

After he was baptized we went to Yogurt land and Subway to celebrate on our lunch break.  It was delicious and I am glad we found those places.  There are also some great Chinese restaurants here too.  I have been fed curry up to my neck this week (including goat).  That's okay because I love it.

We had a great service project with Brother Patrick.  He had a hole in the ground about five feet deep and across filled with water (pretty much like a pond).  For four hours we went with buckets and bailed out the water and mud.  I was pretty sore after but it was fun.  There was a lot of baby fish, tadpoles, and we even found a turtle living in it.  Best service project ever.  We got very muddy and wet.

Stake conference was yesterday and it was amazing.  Fred came and he loved it.  President Mehr was his favorite speaker ("the first white man").  They really focused on the doctrine of repentance and what it really means to repent.  The priesthood is so important and no one can fully be cleansed/sanctified from sin without it.  That is why it is so important to be baptized by the proper authority and take the sacrament that has been blessed and passed by that authority.  It is amazing how everything connects.  He also liked Sister Mehr's talk and he remembered she came out teaching with us to go see him.

We had a really good week.  Sister Rampersad and Sister Taufu'i are great.  Next week is Carnival so we have to stay in Sunday after church, Monday, and Tuesday so my letter will be late.

Thanks for everything.

Love,

Sister Shirts

p.s. Ignore the dates on the pictures.  Somehow the date on the camera got messed up.

Fred's duck

Notice the stove and dryer are outside the house

Cows wander around all over

Beautiful Trini Sunrise

Accidents happen all the time in Trinidad.  This is #3 for Sister Shirts.  (None of them have been the Sisters fault).

"I Love The People Here"

Happy late Valentine's Day!

Week one in a trio was wonderful.  Sister Rampersad from the Curepe ward is serving with us until her visa comes so she can serve in Jamaica.  It is cool serving with her because I was really close with her family when I served in Curepe.  She is amazing.  She went to the MTC and is back here waiting for her visa.  She is a really good teacher and is nineteen years old.  We all get along well and we are able to help each other out.

They celebrate Valentine's day very similar to how they do in the States.  Chocolate, flowers, notes... the same thing.  We didn't do anything special.  Just sharing the gospel with all our heart, might, mind and strength ;) as always.

Brother Patrick is doing well.  We are helping him memorize scriptures he can say when he is tempted to break the Word of Wisdom since he can't read.  He said he is going to the swamp for carnival in a few weeks and he is going to catch us fish and cook it for us.  Should be great if he remembers.

We also found a great less active family to work with.  They have a huge family and they live out in the bush.  It is hard for them to come to church because they have to catch travel (maxi) and they don't come out that far.  They all have strong testimonies and the oldest is considering serving a mission.

Stake Conference is coming up this weekend.  We get to go to the Port of Spain chapel because they are not broadcasting it to our branch.  It will be strange going to a church building.

I love the people here in Trinidad.  They are so generous and kind.  They give so much yet a lot of them live in very humble circumstances.  They almost always give us something to eat or drink or take with us.  Even the random people we meet give us stuff or let us sit down and teach even before we have time to say our names.  It is amazing how humble they are.

As far as food I was fed this week:  I had potato pie which was delicious.  That purple thing I was talking about last week is called climate.  I enjoyed curried shrimp and Dhalpourie, curried mango, curried peas, peilaou (probably not spelled right), and paudo.  Paudo looks like a pea pod.  You open it and there is a seed covered in white stuff.  You suck the white stuff off and spit out the seed.  My favorite part of eating here is they use their hands.  Rarely do we eat at a home and get a spoon (they use spoons more than forks).

Curried shrimp, curried mango, curried peas and dhalpourie (roti)

Paudo

Miracle of the Week:  Fred... again.  Fred works construction and sometimes it is hard for him to find work.  He didn't finish a job as soon as he wanted.  He had a choice to finish on Sunday or have to work an extra day next week.  He chose to come to church and keep the Sabbath day holy.  He is doing so well.  He is still reading and praying daily and is doing great with the Word of Wisdom.  He is being converted and still really wants to be baptized.  I remember when he said he would never come to church or be baptized.  That is the power of the Spirit working on a person's heart.

Thanks for everything.  Love you all lots.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Look close and see if you can spot the pet monkey.

"Overwhelming (In A Good Way)"

Good Morning,

Sorry this email is so short.  We had a pretty normal week.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  We shared the gospel and met a lot of great people.

We had the opportunity to go to Hindu prayers.  We met a man at the beginning of the last transfer and we taught him a lesson.  He wasn't interested but he did invite us to go to his birthday celebration where they would be doing the prayers.  We accepted of course and it was on Saturday.  It was a really cool experience.  They sing their prayers and the music is beautiful.  I love the style of music.  Their dresses and suits are beautiful, the decorations were beautiful, the colors were beautiful.  I am glad we got to go.  It was really cool.

There is a really nice family we met that has started feeding us every Sunday after church.  They are investigators.  Yesterday she fed us curried goat, curried mango, curried peas, and buss up shut.  It was delicious.  She is a wonderful cook.  I also tried some weird slimy purple fruit that was delicious and also a potato thing called edos.  It tasted very similar to a potato but it tasted like it had some seasoning but it was natural.  Very good.

We are working with so many people it is overwhelming sometimes (in a good way).  There are a lot of people searching for truth and I am glad I get to be a part of finding it.  They want something more but they can't find where to get it.  Serving a mission is the best decision I have made.

Miracle of the week:  Fred of course.  He is well on his way to baptism.  We fasted with him to help him with a Word of Wisdom problem this week and so far so good.  He is amazing.  He is coming to church, reading from the book of Mormon, reading general conference talks, praying... he is great.  He wants to be baptized in a river and we are looking for one.  He loves learning more and you can see the light in his eyes.  He is almost thirty years old and he has been searching for something.  He said he has gone about life with a hole but he feels like the hole is filling up.  He is amazing.

Thanks for all the support.  The work is doing great.

Love,

Sister Shirts

A Great Week!

Good Afternoon,

To start it off I have some more Trini slang for you:

Ent? = Right?  They will say something and add it at the end.  For example:  You drive the blue car, ent?

XYX = and so on

Right straight through = keep going straight

When you ask how they are doing, often they will say "just cool"

We have been running at a park near our apartment.  We go at least three times a week.  It is a great way to start the day.  My running shoes are getting put to good use.  I love running.

The weather has been nice.  I have actually been getting cold.  I am going to freeze when I get home in December,  I can't even handle the A/C being on.

The branch has started doing a fun night every Friday.  We had a great turn out.  We were in charge of the game.  We played a fun trivia game and everyone enjoyed it.  After we had some delicious Trini snacks.  They love their crackers and tuna here.

I love working with Sister Taufu'i.  Great things are happening in our area.  We have a lot of people preparing for baptism and we found even more people this last week.  We are working with members to get referrals because it helps us a lot.  We are also doing a lot of less active work.  The branch has already seen a lot of growth this year.  We had 53 people at church yesterday.  The branch is doing such a great job with their missionary work.

Miracle of the week:  On Friday we went over the baptism interview questions with Fred and focused on the Sabbath day because he hadn't been to church yet.  We had been trying to get him to go for a long time but he always said he wasn't ready to take that step yet.  We called him on Sunday morning and he was already up getting ready to come.  He actually beat us to church.  He answered a lot of the questions in Sunday School and the Stake President was very impressed with him.  In Priesthood they talked about Lehi's dream (Fred's favorite part of the Book of Mormon) and Fred answered almost all of the questions.  He is doing so good.  He really enjoyed church.  He is still working towards baptism.

Fast Sunday was wonderful.  I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have a plan for each of us and that if we do our part we can have all the blessings they have waiting.  They are always there and ready to help if we let them.  Through Christ we can all make it back to live with god as we use His Atonement.  I am grateful for the opportunity to be here and to strengthen my relationship with Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father.

Thanks for all the letters you send.  I love getting them.

Thanks for everything.  You are all great.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Those aren't logs swimming in the water.  This is just down the street from where Sister Shirts lives. Caiman are similar to alligators.

This is what they found when they got lost going to a funeral.

This is the largest statue of a Hindu god outside of India.  It stands 85 feet high.  Trinidad has the largest Hindu community outside of India.

Hindu Temple

Hindu Temple

Pday was spent going to Maracas Beach

These are the missionaries in her zone.

Sister Taufu'i and Sister Shirts 

Of course you can't go to the beach in the West Indies without having a nametag in the sand picture. 

This is bake and shark.  There are huts along the beach where you can get this fried shark treat.  The last time Sister Shirts tried it was before she had her gallbladder surgery so after eating it she was in pain for days.  This time she enjoyed every single bite.

"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