Week 14 in St. Thomas

This is a view from our apartment balcony.  The clouds around here are so beautiful.  This never ever gets old......
Here we are with Elizabeth and Wilson Walch.  We have spent a few days with them these past few weeks working on a house in our branch that was damaged by the hurricane.  The Walches retired, bought a sail boat and came to these islands with the express purpose of doing service to those who were hit by the hurricanes.  Wilson has some serious tools and even more serious skills and they have been such a HUGE blessing to us and to others living on St. John too.  They have worked with All Hearts and Hands here too and continue to work so hard each day.  We adore them.





Exciting times here in the San Juan Puerto Rico Mission!  On Monday, we picked up Elder Cox (from Evanston, Wyoming) and Elder Graff (from Spanish Fork, Utah).  We got them together with our Elders here in St. Thomas for a couple of hours and then took the ferry with them over to Tortola!  They are going to be serving there full time now and that branch is so excited about that.  They are going to be so loved there by the members!  We are so happy about this!
We had a little Family Home Evening on Monday night to introduce the Branch there to the new Elders.  We only let them know on Sunday, and were so happy that so many came!  We had a lot of fun with them that night.  


On Tuesday, we had to get 76 chairs out of customs in Tortola.  Thankfully, some members from the branch came with trucks to help out....they were lifesavers!  

On Thursday, we were back at LaRae's house to put the coating on the roof, paint and varnish.  We all worked hard for a solid 3 hours.  I had a guardian angel with me that day, as I stepped off a ladder thinking that I was at the bottom and there were 3 more rungs....needless to say, I fell.  But I am not sore at all, and don't even have a bruise!  Those of you that know me, know that I bruise really easily too!  It could have been bad.....I am thankful that I am not in the hospital!


After we worked at LaRae's house, the Elders got haircuts from Joy (a member in our branch).  Elder Garrison snoozed........lol!  He worked hard!
Just a friendly Ignana......they love bananas!
On Friday, we went to the Salavation Army to work in the soup kitchen with these ladies: Valerie and Tia. They were all dressed up and informed us that they were not serving that day, because it was Good Friday.  So we went to the Good Friday Service at the Salvation Army instead......it was good!  Lots of songs, and a reading with the major dressed up like a centurion and even dancers at the end.  (I think LaMira got her finger in his picture).  We brought LaMira with us to volunteer too.  We did do a bit of sorting for the thrift shop before the service. 
One of the most frustrating things about living here is the lack of signs : to know where people live!  People will tell you to turn after the dumpster, and then go up the hill until you come to a broken down truck and then you will see a blue house and it is 3 houses down from that....it is so crazy and so frustrating.  WE have had trouble helping people find where we live too, so we decided to make our own sign and put it up on a telephone pole, so that they would know where to turn......problem solved (we hope!). CTR:  Choose the right.....a double meaning of course because it is a right hand turn!

 On Saturday, Prince Avila was baptized by Elder Garrison.  The Elders have been meeting with him ever since we arrived on the island, so it was a special day to see him finally be baptized.   We had a pretty good turn out for the meeting.  This is what it is all about folks!

This is Jaden, he is in our branch....don't ya just love this T-shirt?  I do!

I saw this on FaceBook and loved how simply this is put.  Truly, Christ came into this world for all of us and because of Him, we will all live again.  Love that it is in the Spring that we celebrate His life and more importantly His resurrection .  I hope we will all take time during this Easter Sunday to remember the real reason that we celebrate .

 You all have a great week.  Thanks for your prayers.....we need them and feel them.
Love,
Dick and Donna

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