Monday, December 9, 2013

New Investigators, A Giant Dog And A Purple House

Good Morning,

We had a wonderful, amazing week as always.  We taught a lot of wonderful new people (we found ten new investigators), and met a lot of people.  I love sharing the gospel.

We had a great Family Home Evening lesson with the Clarke family and talked about the Armor of God.  We read the scripture in Ephesians and had the kids go around the house and find things to represent the Helmet, the Shield, and everything.  Then they dressed up their dad in the whole Armor of God.  It was fun and the spirit was strong as well.  They were able to discuss what they can do as a family to put on the Armor of God and protect their family.  We ended with a wonderful dinner and homemade cookies.

We are still helping our doubles man paint.  We painted his house purple this week and it actually looks pretty good.  It is interesting how the people here randomly decide to paint their houses weird colors.  In the States that doesn't work but here it is fun.  It isn't weird.

We had some fun tracting experiences.  We went up a street that led to a dirt path in the mountains.  Sister Taylor had taught some people up there so we went to see if we could find them.  We didn't, but we found some new people.  The grass was wet and we almost slid down the mountain.  Our shoes were pretty dirty after but it was worth it.  Yesterday we went tracting around our neighborhood and we called into a house.  All of a sudden a giant dog jumped up and barked really loud.  We panicked because it had almost jumped over the gate.  The gate was almost as tall as us and the dog nearly made it over.  We started laughing after because it kept jumping and couldn't make it over.  He did it for a good five minutes.  The owner finally came out and we are going to teach him this week.

Driving in Trinidad is just as lovely as always.  I have been driving every other day and I still don't really like it.  Driving in Trinidad is not like driving in the States.

Miracle of the Week:  We have an investigator who is going through a really hard time right now.  She is a teenager and is pregnant and has a young daughter.  Her family situation isn't that great either.  We had a great lesson on the Sacrament and the power of the Atonement and committed her to come to church.  She said yes.  We asked her if she would need help to get up in the morning and she said it would help.  She doesn't have a phone so we woke up extra early and got to her house by 7:15 am to wake her up for church and helped her get her little girl ready.  Then we caught the maxi with her.  It was a wonderful experience for her and she was smiling the whole time.  The best part is we got there early and she sat down and got settled.  A few minutes before church started a member we have taken by her a lot came in.  She looked at us and told us to move so she could sit by her friend.  Members are so important in this work.  Investigators need a friend.  Of course we were happy to grant her request.  We would much rather her sit with a member than with us.

That's it for this week.  Thanks for everything.  I would still love more testimonies of the Book of Mormon to put in the books I give out.  If you could send me your testimony about the Book of Mormon that would be wonderful.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Monday, December 2, 2013

Thanksgiving

Good Afternoon,

Thanksgiving was great.  We had great food at the mission home and had a lot of fun caroling in the Trini rain.  We got soaked but it was fun.  President Mehr gave a great talk on gratitude.




I am grateful I have the opportunity to serve here in the West Indies.  I have received a lot of blessings from Heavenly Father.  I love being a missionary and serving the people here in Trinidad.  I am grateful for my family and all they have done for me.  I am grateful for my awesome companion Sister Edmonds.  She is an amazing missionary and friend.  I am grateful for my Trini mom and dad:  The Rampersads and my Trini aunt and uncle:  The Clarkes.  Love them a lot.

We had fun helping the Clarke family put up their Christmas tree.  They were able to invite a friend over and we were able to talk to her.  Hopefully we get to teach her soon.


I was with Sister Jex earlier this week and with Sister Schindler for a day.  Sister Edmonds went to Chaguanas and Sangre Grande.  She got to ride a bike this time:).

Funny story:  One day during trade-offs we got a call from the Chaguanas District Leader.  He was worried because Sister Edmonds and Sister Taufu'i didn't answer their phone the night before or that morning.  He asked where their last appointment was and it was in a sketchy area.  We got in the car and went to Chaguanas.  It took us two hours to get there (it usually takes 30 minutes but traffic was bad).  When we got there the sisters were like "what's wrong?"  We told them the problem and it turns out they dropped the phone in a disgusting ditch full of who knows what and they had been trying the rice trick with it.  When they tried to turn it on... it worked.  We went through all the hassle for nothing.  Then it took Sister Edmonds and I another two and a half hours to get back to our appointment in our area.

Miracle of the Week:  Fasting with the same less active I was talking about last week.  We went over and had a short lesson about fasting.  We shared the "Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief" story from the bible.  We invited her to open the fast and when she prayed the Spirit was so strong.  When she opened her eyes she was crying.  She really wants fasting to work and she has the faith.  It is experiences like this that makes me love being a missionary.  There are people ready to change their lives but they don't know how.  The Savior is reaching out his hand and they just need to stretch to grab it.  I know He is there waiting for us to come.  All we have to do is show our desire by acting on our faith and then you can expect miracles.

I can't believe I only have one year left on my mission.  One year from today I will be on my way home back to the states.  It is crazy how fast time flies.  I have already been on my mission six months.  It is strange to think about.

Thanks for everything.  I love you and hope you enjoy the Holiday Season.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Monday, November 25, 2013

Christmas Challenge Reminder

Good Morning,

Transfer week was crazy as usual.  We had sisters in and out all week.  It was fun though and we love taking care of them.  We had a brand new sister stay with us names Sister Tia.  She is from California.  We got to tell her stories about the wonderful (and strange) things we have experienced and we treated her to doubles.  I don't think she liked them very much but I sure did.

Sister Edmonds and I are having wonderful experiences as usual.  We love working together and we are working hard.  She is a great missionary, teacher, example, and she keeps me up and going.  We have had some amazing spiritual experiences together.  We have also gone through a lot of trials and testing as we help our area progress (as all missionaries do) but we have both grown a lot spiritually because of it.  We continue to get along very well.  We also have a lot of fun together as we share our message of happiness with others.  We even laugh when we are drenched in rain or get splashed or have to wade through giant puddles...we love missionary work a lot:)

We have a great opportunity today to go caroling.  All the missionaries in Trinidad are going to the city to testify of Christ through song.  It will be a really cool experience because there are a lot of missionaries in Trinidad.  After we are all going to the mission home for our Thanksgiving dinner.

We found a lot of new people to teach this week.  Sharing the gospel is wonderful.  Speaking of sharing the gospel - how is the Christmas Challenge?  For those who may not know (or remember), there was a challenge given in General Conference to find one person to share the gospel with before Christmas.  The deadline is coming up so I hope you have been looking for someone.  It doesn't have to be anything scary.  Some ideas are giving them a pass along card with the phone number of the missionaries, inviting them over for dinner with the missionaries, inviting them over for family home evening, inviting them over to watch a movie about Christ, inviting them to church...the possibilities are endless.  No excuses.  I can promise that as you do the challenge many blessings will come because you will be doing the Lord's work.  Keep up the search for your brothers and sisters who need to learn about the Savior so they can have the same happiness you have.

Miracle of the Week:  We have a 24 year old less active we are working with.  We went to her house to see her cousin but she wasn't there.  The less active had just returned from work (she works shift and got called in so she couldn't come to church).  We had planned to watch Finding Faith in Christ with her cousin but the Spirit told us to watch it with her instead.  The Spirit was very strong during the movie and after we were able to bear powerful testimony of the Savior and the power that faith in Him brings.  The spirit taught her during the experience and we will be fasting with her this week.  The Holy Ghost is amazing.  We didn't have to say much because He told her what she needed to do.

Thanks for all the support and prayers.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Monday, November 18, 2013

Zone Conference and Two Baptism Dates Set

Good Afternoon,

Transfer calls this week...I am staying in my area with Sister Edmonds again.  We are both really excited to keep working together.  She is such a hard worker and we have the same goals for our area and our missions.  We have a lot of similar strengths which turn into our super strengths as we use them together.  We love working together and we get along well.  We are able to teach in unity and the spirit is very strong when we follow the promptings.  We love being missionaries in Trinidad.

We had a wonderful Zone conference.  We talked a lot about aligning our will with the will of Heavenly Father.  If we have the desire to serve God we are called to the work just like it says in Doctrine and Covenants 4.  As we have that desire we can work miracles here in the West Indies and the work will continue to go forth.  It cannot be stopped because it is the work of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  A few weeks ago we were asked to memorize 10 or more consecutive scriptures from the book of Mormon to recite to President Mehr in our interview.  I memorized 3 Nephi 11:1-11.  It was amazing and the spirit was strong when I recited it.  There is power in the Book of Mormon.  President said that one of the reasons he had us memorize the scriptures was because those scriptures become a part of us.  It is true and it is a great experience when it happens.

We also had a great District meeting where we talked about making effective plans for each day and week.  We talked about how every time we plan it is like we are having a war council because we are fighting a war in a sense.  A battle against Satan and the world.  As we plan each day with inspiration from God our days are how he wants them and miracles are able to happen.  Sister Edmonds and I saw that on Saturday.  Heavenly Father blessed us with another nine lesson day along with a lot of contacts.  It is amazing how if we follow the will of the Lord the work progresses on such a higher level.  We are more in tune with the spirit if we do his work and not ours.

I tried some new weird foods that I can't remember their names but for lunch today Sister Edmonds and I had Dhal Roti and Buss Up Shut with goat and chicken.  It was really good.

Miracle of the Week:  We have been working with a less active's family.  We went over on Saturday to have a lesson but things were crazy (there are like 20 people living in the same small house) so we felt like we should just watch the short Restoration movie.  We started the movie with about eight people in the room.  By the end there was only one left (one of the family members we had been working with).  During the movie I felt like we should invite her to be baptized on a specific day and I had no idea why.  I looked at my planner at the day Sister Edmonds and I had discussed during weekly planning.  After the movie was done we asked her how she liked it.  She said that she just received her answer about Joseph Smith while watching the move.  The Holy Ghost was able to testify to her that Joseph Smith restored the church.  We were able to set a baptism date with her.  She was so excited.  She is 19 and has a son.  She loves reading from the Book of Mormon.

It didn't end there.  We met with another member of the family a few hours later and she has progressed a lot too.  She loves learning from the Book of Mormon and because she has felt the spirit during her lesson, she now has a baptism date as well.  Heavenly Father blessed us a lot on Saturday.

Thanks for all your support.  I love serving here in Trinidad and I am excited to serve her for another transfer.

Love,

Sister Shirts


Monday, November 11, 2013

Busy Week

Good Afternoon Everyone,

This week in district meeting we were given the challenge of contacting as many people as we could.  It was fun.  I was with Sister Lewis for a day and she loves contacting.  We talked to almost everyone we saw.

This week was a week of exchanges.  We had three.  Sister Edmonds went to San Fernando and I went to Chaguanas and Sangre Grande.  No tradeoffs this week though.  We get a break for zone conference.  It was nice spending time with Sister Lewis, Sister Jex, and Sister Grigg.  Like I said before, the best part of being the Sister Training Leader's companion is I get to go places and learn from a lot of sisters.  While I love it, three exchanges is a lot and Sister Edmonds and I were exhausted after.  It will be nice to have a semi normal week.

We contacted an ice cream man a few days ago.  We were heading to his appointment and guess who we saw pushing his cart...it was him.  He wasn't even home.  We stopped and bought some of his over priced, freezer burned ice cream sandwiches (which didn't taste that great).  Then he missed his next appointment.  We will try again of course but we won't be buying his ice cream again.

We got to help France (doubles man) paint his gate.  We have been trying for weeks but it is always raining.  We finally had a day when it wasn't raining and we booked it over so we could at least get started.  We had to chip the paint away with a giant knife and I got a few lovely blisters on my hands.  Then we painted and got paint all over our hands and feet.  It was fun.  Franco repaid us with some pig tail soup (very good as usual).  Franco always makes good food, no matter what animal parts it contains.


Miracle of the week:  We had an amazing family home evening lesson with a family.  the mom is less active so we have been trying to get her to come back to church.  We watched the "He is Risen" bible video and read from 3 Nephi 11.  The spirit was strong and He was able to teach each one of us something.  We were all taught different things and were given guidance on what we can do better.  It was wonderful.

That's about it for this week.  Thanks for all the support and I am working hard.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Pretty drive we went on when we got lost in the mountain for about 20 minutes. It was nice though.

Monday, November 4, 2013

A Short Trip To The Beautiful Island Granada And A Fast Sunday Miracle

Happy Halloween and Divali everyone.  I spent part of the week in Grenada.  It was beautiful.  We ended up spending most of Halloween at the airport because our flight was delayed.  While in Grenada I spent most of the time walking because there was one car for two companionships.  Sister Edmonds got the car but that's okay because I love walking.  It was up and down hills and was almost like a hike most of the time.  It was a lot of fun.  There are a lot of white people in Grenada because they have a medical school.  This week I get to go to Sangre Grande, Trinidad again and ride a bike with Sister Grigg.  Should be fun.

Divali was exciting.  There were fireworks and explosions all night.  People put up Christmas lights and lit candles to celebrate/worship.  It was pretty.  We were only there for part of the day because of our delayed flight back into Trinidad (again).  We got to try some Indian sweets on Sunday (we didn't eat it on Saturday because we were fasting).  It was some bread stuff with some fruit in it.  I don't know what it was but it tasted good.  I try everything and most of the time I love it.




Today we went for a hike to the Maracas Waterfalls with the zone.  It was short but beautiful.  There wasn't much water because it hasn't rained in a few days but it was still nice.

Not a good tree for climbing





Miracle of the week:  On Sunday morning we called our investigators and less actives to remind them to get up and come to church.  Both of our "solid" investigators said they couldn't come.  Angela said she couldn't come because she had to go to market to get food.  We reminded her of the miracles she had seen and promised her blessings.  She said she wouldn't be able to come.  We went to church slightly disappointed.  We had worked so hard to help people and they still didn't want to show their faith.  We sat down and did the usual.  After the Sacrament, Sister Edmonds poked me and said "guess who is here?"  I looked and it was Angela and her son.  We had the biggest grins on our faces the rest of the meeting.  Not only that but we had several less actives come and bear their testimonies.  It was a great fast Sunday.  After the meeting she said that she had gotten ready to go when her mother-in-law, who had been giving her a hard time about meeting with us, told her that she would go to market so Angela could come to church.  Fasting brings miracles.

Thanks for everything,

Sister Shirts

Night driving in Trinidad


Pictures from Grenada





Monday, October 28, 2013

Service Works Miracles

Good morning,

We had a great week.  I went to Grande, Trinidad on Friday and rode a bike.  It was a lot more fun than I thought.  I want to be in a biking area sometime on my mission.  You just have to watch out for the crazy Trini drivers who don't look where they are going.  I was with Sister Taylor.  I learned how to make coconut bread and we had a fun time at ward family fun night.  I got to meet Samantha, the 16 year old temp who was with Sister Edmonds while I was sick.

I met a lady that has a pet monkey.  I didn't get a picture because we were just walking past.

Funny story time:  We went over to a member's house for a birthday dinner.  After the mom dished our plates I turned to Sister Edmonds and said "do you know what that looks like?"  She looked at me funny and I said "a pig nose".  She turned around and asked what kind of meat it was.  It was pig snout.  The dish is called pepper pot and not only did it include pig snout, it had cow heel and cow stomach as well.  The cow stomach was fuzzy looking and the cow heel was strange as well.  It all tasted fine.  It was just rubbery.  The pig snout tasted like ham and the cow parts tasted like beef.  Sister Edmonds couldn't eat it and was trying not to throw up watching me eat it.  I love trying new foods.  I also had aloo pies, papaya, pamsitae (a kind of fruit thing), and hot dogs covered in coleslaw for breakfast (hot dog=sausage in Trinidad).  I tried a lot of new foods.

Miracle story for the week:  We have been doing random service for an older lady for a few weeks now.  We just stop by when we are in the area and ask if she needs any help.  She hasn't let us share a message yet but we have been trying to soften her heart with service.  On Wednesday we went over and helped her clean all her windows (it took over an hour).  When we were on our way out she asked if she could see the bible I had in my hand.  We explained that it was the book of Mormon and she wants us to come back this week and explain what it is.  Service works miracles.

I love this work and I love the people of Trinidad.  I am excited to continue working hard and to meet new people.

Love,

Sister Shirts

Behind the apartment

Cleaning (at least they have fun doing it)