Garrison’s Virgin Island View

I ran across the quote below this week as I was studying .  I thought about how this applies to us.  We really don't have any great talents or  a bilities that stand out but hopefully we can do some small good during these 18 months that we serve in the San Juan Puerto Rico Mission.  We are His hands in many ways as we serve here. "Any man or woman who enjoys the Master's touch is like potter's clay in his hands. More important than acquiring fame or fortune is being what God wants us to be. Before we came to this earth, we may have been fashioned to do some small good in this life that no one else can do...If God has a work for those with many talents, I believe he also has an important work for those of us who have few." (James E. Faust, "Five Loaves and Two Fishes," Ensign, May 1994, 5-6)                                               ...

Well folks.....we are in the double digits now!  Hard to believe that we are entering into our 3rd month on this island of the sea.  I will be the first to admit that the first few weeks had me wondering if we could last 18 months here, but little by little we are finding our way and making our life here.  The Lord has definitely helped us along the way by providing us with opportunities to serve and to get to know some wonderful people. He really is in the details of our lives and for that we are so thankful. Another beautiful sunset, this  picture  was off our balcony on Monday night after we got back from Tortola.  I can see why so many people love living here with the views.  They are breath -taking. On Tuesday Darrell and Becky Larson came to St. Thomas for a vacation.  They are friends from our Ward in Brentwood,  We have a couple in our Branch here that do boat charters and they took us out on a Sunset Sail that evening. Th...

In some ways we are gobsmacked that we have been here for 9 weeks!  Some days it feels like 9 years and other days fly by.  We will admit that this week has flown by.  We are getting to know more and more people and even run into people at the store that we know once in a while!  The beach in this picture is about a mile from our apartment.  It has a rocky shore, so it isn't my favorite but because it is close, we go down once in a while just to watch the sunset and relax.  We live in a place where the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea meet each other, and it is really beautiful. This is an example of some of the art that one can find around on the retaining walls on the island. Most of the art is patriotic or religious.  They are always in bright colors and interesting to look at. You can see it mostly in Charolette Amalie and the Red Hook Area. This is a picture of how the garbage is collected on the island.  There are huge receptac...

We decided that each week we would post a picture of a sunset or a sunrise as the first picture of our blog.  It just never gets old to see these beautiful scenes.  It reminds us of the handy work of God not only in the beautiful world that we live in but in our lives.  He is definitely in the details of our everyday....... This is a picture of the young single adults that we get to teach every Sunday evening in Tortola.  They are each so unique and are so sincere in their devotion to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  In the world that we live in today, that is no easy task.  We couldn't be more proud of them for the choices that they make each day. On Thursday Elder Howe (center) finished his mission here in St. Thomas and will be returning to his home in Pleasant Grove, Utah.  He has been just the best Elder to work with and we are so grateful that we got to know him.  He will be greatly missed here.  BUT!  We now have Elder Shah ...