Week 23 in St. Thomas

When we first came on the mission, Dick and I walked  without fail every single  day except Sunday for about 4 miles .  The walk was very hilly and about a month ago, I started having pain in both of my achilles.  I asked a friend of mine (Julie) to ask her son that is a Physical Therapist what he thought; I also asked my sister-in-law Anne to ask Heidi (her daughter-in-law, who is a doctor.) They both think that I may have a tear in my tendon and the best thing to do is to stay off of it as much as I can and to ice it.  So I haven't been walking the hills and since the Elders left haven't played Pickle Ball either.  I miss doing both things so so much! So now I do Yoga..... Anywho....on Monday, Dick came back from his walk with his weekly bag of garbage.  After that, we studied, did laundry, cleaned the church, shopped for food and went to a movie (The
Secret Life of Pets 2.)  So it was a busy P-Day.  

That is just from our neighborhood and he gets that much every week! Liter is definitely a problem here in St. Thomas.  

I just saw this quote today. This is so so true!   For some reason these little quotes really do lift our spirits.  I can just hear President Hinkley saying this. He was absolutely my idol as far as optimism goes......

Some more examples of island wall art.

On Wednesday we started our volunteer work at the local Humane Society Thrift Shop.  We had been in a few weeks ago and met EJ Simmons and she was so amazingly helpful and generous.  We are so happy to help out at the St. Thomas Humane Society Thrift Store.   It is really a well organized and busy Thrift Store; and those of you that know me well, know that I love a good thrift store! While I was tidying up, I found a killer tie for Dick!

I know it isn't really a missionary tie....but it is a keepsake and a reminder of the thrift shop and of St. Thomas!

I don't remember what I wrote last week in our blog, but whatever it was, caused some people to reach out to us and give us little pep talks! (Which we appreciate!)  Probably the one that really hit me the most was a message that we had from our son Bob.  I have copied it below, so that I will always remember it.  I feel very often that our children are our seniors, spiritually speaking.  I just loved what he had to say:

 "There's a reason you're in the place you are at this time.  I am so proud to be your son! I remember when Cody and I were serving in Cuenca Which is a really hard place to teach the gospel because people are more affluent and very closed minded in someways. I know there were many days where it felt like we didn't do much or didn't have much of an impact. We taught a girl Who had listened to the missionary discussions a million times and something clicked and she got baptized. I honestly never thought we had that huge of an impact on her. It almost felt like we were just in the right place at the right time. I got a Facebook message from her after she had been sealed in the temple And she thanked me and asked me to thank Cody for changing her life. I am positive that there are people on that island will be touched in a way by you guys that you

may not even realize, whether they are members or not to help them gain or strengthen their testimonies. I sure do love you guys. You're doing the Lords work and your impact is way farther reaching than you know."

That little message really made a difference in our week and most likely in our mission.  So thankful for sensitive children and friends.  

On Saturday we attended the graduation for the Class of 2019 for My Brother's Workshop. We had helped tutor three of the graduates:  Stanley, Janelle, and Mikhail.

Janelle's mom, Janelle and I.  Janelle gave an amazing speech at graduation.  We were so proud of her!

Stanley was an adult student.  He came to St. Thomas with some health issues and has come a long ways thanks to MBW.  He gave a speech too and did so well.   Mikhail is just 14 and graduated from high school!  Janelle is going to go to the summer bridge program here at UVI starting on Monday.

The big surprise at graduation was that they gave us (missionaries) a special award for being tutors.  We were not expecting that at all!  They had us come up and get these award statuettes that they actually made in My Brother's Workshop.  We were so SHOCKED!!!  



I really tell you that we were surprised and it brought us to tears!  They have one of each of our Elders too, because they tutored there teaching Spanish.  Such a privilege to work with such great people.  

After graduation we picked up Val and Gene Coder.  They are here on vacation visiting St. Thomas and were at church last week.  They are interested in serving a senior mission, possibly here!  So we showed them around the island and brought them to see our apartment and had dinner and answered all their questions. Maybe someday they will come back and replace us!  That would be great!

On Sunday, Dick had to give a talk and I taught Relief Society.  Well, when we got to our Missionary Correlation Meeting at 8am. The Branch President asked us if WE HAD OUR TALKS READY? I said that Dick did, but I wasn't speaking.  Come to find out he had asked us BOTH to speak via text, but Dick had kinda skipped past AND YOUR WIFE part!  So I gave an extemporaneous talk on Fathers, since last week was Father's Day.  A couple of people said that they never would have known that I hadn't prepared!  So maybe, next time, I will just wing it!  
All in all it was a good week and we feel the Lord hand in our service here.  We have met some wonderful people and are thankful for the opportunity.  

Hope you all have a good week.  Stay strong and steadfast.
Love,
Dick and Donna