Week 10 in St. Thomas

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. The sunsets were amazing, and there was even a full moon.  I asked the Hale's how they managed to order up such a beautiful night?  They were the most gracious hosts and we sure appreciate their skills and friendship. Below are some more of the pictures:

Such a beautiful evening.....It was our first time having visitors here and it was so fun!  I hope more of you will consider coming over for a visit while we are here!!!!

Every Wednesday we go to Queen Louise Home for the Aged.  The Elders get slammed at Dominos! These old people know how to play the game! They are good sports about it and the residents really look forward their visits.  Elder Garrison and I visit with the other residents and usually I paint fingernails and rub their hands with lotion.  It is a small service but we all enjoy it.

One of the beautiful things that we love about the island are the flowers.  There are so many of them and of course we don't know the names of most of them, but they are beautiful.  On our walk Wednesday morning, we snapped some pictures of some of them at we saw along our way:

On Thursday we took a trip over to St. John with the Larsons.  We went to Maho Bay and did a bit of snorkeling.  We saw some huge sea turtles, some sting rays and other fish.  It is a beautiful beach and it was a nice day.  That was the first time that we had been to a St. John Beach.  We go over there every Friday to teach our friend, Denis, but have never seen the beautiful beaches:

This is a funny story (according to Dick).  We were working at the soup kitchen on Friday at the Salvation Army.  I started talking to this girl and found out that she was here on the island all alone and was from New York.  I asked her how it was going, and she said that her phone died, it got smashed and that she didn't have money to get another one. DING *DING *DING*.....we had signed up for AT&T when we got here and the plan gave us two free phones but we wanted to use the phones that we already had.  So I told her that we would give her one of our phones.  We had to go back and get it at the house, so we told her to wait there in from of SA and we would be back. Well, when we got back, she was waiting and we gave her the phone.  I told her that there was one condition on the phone......and she said "Anything", so I told her that she needed to come to our church at least once so that we could share a message with her and she said she would.  We shall see......she was very grateful and I hope that it will help her get on her feet. ( Don't mind my hair.....between the heat and the humidity I have no idea what to do with it! ) *PS She came to church on SUNDAY!

On Thursday we drove up to Mountain Top before taking off for St. John.  The picture in the middle is the view from there and you are seeing Magen's Bay.  It is worth the drive up just to see the view.  

We went to  Tortola again this weekend because it was Branch Conference.  You can kind of see our Mission President and his wife in this picture.  It was wonderful to have the Smarts with us for this meeting and to hear the messages that they shared with the Branch.  They are fantastic leaders and we are blessed to call them friends.  While we are in Tortola I have the honor of teaching the young girls the second hour:  

These two girls are so adorable and I love meeting with them and discussing the gospel and how to stay close to Our Savior as we make decisions in life.  This week, Sister Smart also came for a few minutes and I asked her to share her views on the importance of getting an education.  After she did that, Keisha (the girl on the right) asked her how she knows when her prayers are answered and Sister Smart pulled our her phone and read a post that she had been impressed to write that morning before church that answered her question  perfectly. I am going to write it here, so that I can remember it:

"How many times have we questioned why our prayers haven't been answered?  MANY FOR ME.  SINCE SERVING WITH THE MISSIONARIES I'VE GAINED A BETTER UNDERSTANDING HOW MY PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED.  A MISSIONARY WILL CALL WITH A QUESTION AND USUALLY WANT STEP BY STEP DIRECTIONS TO ANSWER THEIR QUESTION. PRESIDENT AND I TRY TO REPOND WITH "WHAT DO YOU FEEL AFTER YOU HAVE PRAYED".  WE ARE AWARE OF THEIR CONCERN BUT WE WANT THEM TO GROW BY UTILIZING THEIR RATIONAL AND SPIRITUAL FACULTIES WHILE LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION AS THEIR GUIDE.  LIKE THE MISSIONARIES, I TOO WANT CLEAR DIRECTION 

AFTER A PRAYER.  I PRAY.  I QUESTION.  I WAIT. I'VE LEARNED THAT INSTEAD OF THINKING THAT MY PRAYERS AREN'T BEING ANSWERED, I LOOK AT THE QUIET TIME AS EVIDENCE THAT THE LORD TRUSTS ME, THAT HE DOES NOT NEED TO GIVE ME A PLAY BY PLAY.  HE HAS CONFIDENCE IN ME BECAUSE I AM TRYING TO FOLLOW HIM.  "TRYING" IS ALL HE ASKS OF ME AS I KEEP HIM FIRST.  AND BECAUSE HE LOVES ME AND WANTS ME TO GAIN EXPERIENCE, FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE, I STUDY IT OUT IN MY MIND.  IF I RECEIVE A PROMPTING I ACT ON IT.  IF NOT I ACT UPON MY BEST JUDGEMENT.  HE IS ALWAYS THERE. HE LISTENS AND LOVES ME AND TRUST ME ENOUGH TO ACT UPON INSPIRATION.  PRAY. PONDER. ACT. TRUST. "  I just love that, and feel so blessed to have a leader like that in this mission.  

   Last but not least.  This is something that we see quite often when we are in Tortola.  Wild Goats.....a whole herd of them just rambling up the middle of the street sometimes......makes life interesting to say the least.  

That's a wrap....it has been a great week and we feel blessed to be serving this mission at this time and in this place.  Thanks for your prayers.....we feel them.