Change of Perspective

                

 

In 1988 when we moved our family from upstate New York to Hong Kong, I had moments of weakness during my battle with Culture Shock, during which I occasionally complained about our  new home.  (OK-  actually I complained a lot).  Then my husband had me join him on a business trip to India for a week.  After seeing India, I didn't complain about living in Hong Kong anymore.

I had a similar experience this month.  President Herrington asked us to visit the island of St. Vincent to  learn the duties of the senior couple there as they are going home in March. He may have us visit on occasion to help out the missionaries. I know you can't tell from this photo - but trust me- it was a lot more backward than Guadeloupe.  It's one of those many places that fell apart after the British left.  Anyway, now I am counting my blessings!  

Here are some of them:

1. We have potable water.  The mission requires us to have three  filters on our tap, but really, we have    been places where you have to keep your mouth closed in the shower.

2.  We have electricity. It has only gone out once in the month we have been here.

3.  We have a car.  With air conditioning!

4.  We have an apartment.  With air conditioning!

5.  Although driving here is an exercise in insanity, I think it is more scary in St. Vincent where the roads are more narrow and winding and have two foot deep uncovered gutters on each side.

The biggest blessings in the mission are the faithful members.  When we visited one of the church buildings  in St. Vincent ( actually the upstairs of a house in a town with no grocery store, gas station, restaurant, anything) we met a wonderful sister  who shared with us her desire to go to the temple this year.  She is very poor in material things but very rich in the spirit.  

We asked how she knew the church was true when the missionaries found and taught her family.  In answering, she related a story about her daughter, who when she was very little, had a dream about her deceased grandmother.  In her dream, the grandmother said that it was very important that she ( the grandmother)  be baptized.  This happened on three different occasions.  For years, the family didn't know what it meant, until the missionaries came to  their home. They  explained the Plan of Salvation and the ancient Christian ordinance of vicarious baptism for the dead which is performed only in LDS temples.  This sister had tears come to her eyes as she shared how much this meant to her, as she loved her mother very much.  It was not long before her whole family joined the church. 

This  story gave me a new perspective that made me feel gratitude for a doctrine I sometimes  take for granted.  A change in perspective ... one of the great themes of the gospel - one of the great themes of serving a mission. 

  

Adventures In Cleaning

This week we not only finished cleaning our own apartment, we did our first tour of duty inspecting the apartments of the Guadeloupe District missionaries for President  and Sister Herrington. Quel aventure! 

As we learned while living in South East Asia some years ago, keeping  a place clean in the tropics is no easy task.  There is a constant battle with black mold, orange mold, and just about any kind of mold you can think of, plus there is the unwanted stream of guests consisting of cockroaches, spiders, and mosquitoes. The Sisters' apartments were spotless:                                                                        

                 

The Elders' apartments... Mm not so much:

                                                                                       

This second floor apartment was in the middle of Pointe-a-Pitre, the main city in Guadeloupe.  It kind of reminded us of many of the 'Second' World cities we have visited throughout the world.  Not exactly Singapore or Paris. 

                                                                                    

At the next Zone Meeting, we will be giving out awards ... including the Golden Ajax Trophy ( " Elders are you familiar with Ajax?" ) and the Celestially  Clean Award ( " Awww...The sisters always win.")

Our other big learning experience here involves keeping track of and helping the missionaries with their visas, paperwork, and transport to and from the airport.  This has got to be the most expensive and complicated mission in the world.  Missionaries don't just drive to a new area - they fly to a different country.  The first day we were here, I got a phone call from a missionary  who said, " One of our elders is being held by the immigration officers at the airport because he doesn't have his card showing he got his Yellow Fever vaccination.  What do we do?"  Learning curve indeed.  Here is the board we started for some of this month's travel schedules. 

Finally, I haven't mentioned how we are doing with the French. Pas tres bien.  Today we visited the Abymes Branch ( they have an actual church) where we spoke with members who had accents ranging from Haitian to African. I can tell which members have lived in France because they are the only ones I can understand! 

So yes, right now everything here is an adventure for us; whether it is just helping the missionaries, inspecting apartments, driving around the island, or just visiting with members.  If we wanted an adventure in missionary work - we found it! ( God has such a great sense of humor!)

                                                                                   

Abymes Chapel

So We Begin In Guadeloupe

On January 22 at 10:00PM we took the MTC shuttle from Provo to SLC for a 1:00AM flight to Atlanta and another flight to Barbados.  Hard to keep the eyes open at that point!  We stayed three nights in a little hotel leftover from 1962 - it was  overlooking a beach - very pink and turquoise ( the hotel not the beach).  We met our mission president and his wife that evening and loved them immediately.  President and Sister Herrington are from Vancouver so they are "not in Kansas anymore" either.  We had dinner in the mission home with them for three evenings.  While in Barbados we attended church in the tiny branch there and received training on our missionary duties ( We also met Senior Sisters Locke and Ray who run the mission office.  By the way, they need help desperately, so if you would like to go on a mission in the beautiful Caribbean - have they got a calling for you!). Tuesday we attended a district meeting and then caught the flight to Guadeloupe.  We actually left the mission for a while as we landed on the island of Dominica to drop off and pick up passengers.  The airstrip was in the jungle with just enough room to take off and land without falling into the ocean ( very Indiana Jonesish).  This was our plane.

The Guadeloupe airport is really nice and it was wonderful to see the young elders in their short sleeve white shirts awaiting our arrival.  After a quick stop at the French Carrefour grocery store ( we are technically in France now) we headed for our apartment.  Whoa - bit of a shock!  It was really a mess with a lot of dirt and black mold growing here and there ( and there and here).  In the morning we began cleaning every surface with Monsieur Propre.  The apartment sat empty for six weeks from the last couple who were here from Tahiti.  After a few days of scrubbing, it is looking pretty good.  We have air con so life is magnifique.  The Guadeloupe office  for this region of the mission is in one of our rooms, so we get to have missionaries popping in a lot. They are really wonderful.  Here are two of them,  Elder Sackley and Elder Savard.

Highlights of the week: Lamentin Branch Missionary Correlation Meeting on someone's porch. At night. In the dark. Sort of in a jungle.  My anti-mosquito spray and I are becoming good friends. The Branch Mission Leader looks like a young Sidney Poitier.  On Saturday, we went to a baptism in Basse-Terre performed in the ocean. We attended church today  and I actually introduced myself and Elder Booth en Francais.  Very scary for me, but the members are delightful and sound like they will put up with us.  During one of our classes, the teacher was presenting a lesson on family preparedness, during which we experienced  a small earthquake.  Great object lesson!   We met Elder Gamiette, the Area Seventy, who attends there. Finally, we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at the home of President Eclar, the First Counsellor in the Mission Presidency,  and his beautiful family.  

This is the meeting house for Basse-Terre Branch (above).  Lamentin Branch ( below).

Here is a view from our drive back from Basse-Terre.  The island is covered with green tropical mountains, little villages, and  lots of palm and banana trees.  Our apartment is between a business area and  the ocean. The residence complex is called Les Paletuviers.  That means 'mangrove trees', which are common here.  These trees live in salt water - not an easy thing for a tree to do, but they manage to do it and even thrive.  I think they are teaching me that  when I am out of my comfort zone, I can still manage to find ways to feel at peace through the the Spirit.  And even thrive. 

Beautiful MTC

Beautiful place- mountains (view from our room window)

Beautiful people - our district ( Fawsons to Colorado, Jacksons to Guatemala, Nelsons to Phillipines)

Beautiful reason for being here- the Savior  ( the walls here are filled with inspiring art)

He Gave Me The World

We are posing in front of the 'world famous' map of the world in the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah in which 85,147 LDS missionaries currently serving throughout the globe have been prepared to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are pointing to the islands where we will be serving. Our Faith takes seriously the Lord's commandment in Matthew 28:19 "Go ye therefore and teach all nations..."   We feel so blessed to be a tiny part of this inspired work. 

MTC Joys

A former missionary companion of mine from the New York Rochester Mission (1977-1979) learned I would be here for the week.  She lives in Provo now and asked about visiting me. I was thrilled to have her come!  Sister Skidmore and I served together in Watertown NY during a hot and sticky summer. It was the kind of town where doors were slammed in our face and dogs were invited to scare us away.  On Sundays, we met in a Masonic lodge where a large portrait of George Washington wearing an interesting yet familiar ensemble stared down on us as as we worshipped.  But all was not bleak.  We had the privilege of teaching the one unusually spiritually perceptive young man who lived there.  He courageously joined the church.  He later served a mission, married in the temple, and had children serve missions. The joy of being reunited with Sister Skid made me think of the story of joy that the sons of Mosiah experienced when they reunited after a long missionary absence. Service, adversity,  and love  intertwine hearts forever. 

A second joy occurred that evening as all the missionaries met together for a devotional.  Our guest speaker was composer Janice Kapp Perry.  She taught us how the Spirit can communicate through uplifting music.  The meeting closed with a few thousand missionaries singing the EFY Medley with Sister Capp and her husband leading us.  The word "Powerful " cannot describe it.

It's Official!