Garrison’s Virgin Island View

Can you see the body floating there in the picture above?  That is Dick looking for shells.  After he snorkles, he usually does that, and he finds some great little shells.  The picture below shows a bunch of ladies doing an exercise class at the beach about 8am.  They play the music and all count together as they do various exercises under the water!  Fun to watch!  It is serious business! Water aerobics-Caribbean Style I meant to post this last week.  This is a quilt that was made by one of the missionary mom's and given to our mission president and his wife.   They have all the missionarys that have served under them sign their names and the dates that they were there.  Such a treasure for them and so thoughtful of that mom! It was fun to sign it last week.  It is backed with minky, so it is so warm and cozy too! Moving right along on our reading of the Book of Mormon as a mission.  So thankful for this book. ...

Monday was a big day for our family birthdays.  It was Eliza's 4th birthday, Max's 11th birthday and Ryan's 42nd birthday.  I think it is so bizarre that they all have the same birthday in the same family!  Needless to say, we sure do love each one of them and hope that they all ate some yummy birthday cake and that they were celebrated!!!! Eliza is 4! Max is 11! Ryan is 42! We found some yellow "Flamboyant " trees on the island.  They are really beautiful. J uly 21st was Joye's 39th birthday .  We are so blessed to have her in our family and are so thankful for her! We have been teaching Joseph once a week since we arrived on the island.  He has talked and talked about retiring to Ghana and he is finally going to be going next week.  As we were looking up the ward that he would be going to in the city of Kumasi we were gobsmacked to realize that there are 29 wards in that city!  We wish him well as he r...

On Monday, the Elders from Tortola ferried over to St. Thomas  in the morning.  Elder Graff finished his mission and was flying to Puerto Rico and we picked up Elder Hanson to be with Elder Cox.  Being the only missionaries on an island can be very isolating. Our President only keeps the Elders on the islands for 3 transfers max, and we think that is a good thing. He also only sends seasoned missionaries to the islands.  They miss being a part of zone conferences and leadership conferences.  On the other hand, the senior missionaries stay the entire mission on one island,,,,,,shows how tough we are right????  Hahahaha.   Elder Cox saying good-bye to Elder Graff Elder Garrison, Elder Graff amd Elder Cox Saying good bye to Elder Graff (center).  He was such a great missionary, probably one of the kindest people we have ever met.   Elder Cox and Elder Hanson will now be the missionaries on Tortola.  We are so blessed to ...

As a Mission, we are starting the Book of Mormon again from the beginning.  We have a reading schedule and will finish it by Christmas.  Dick and I were already reading it together daily, and we were in Alma but we are going to start over and mark it as our Mission President has directed.  We are excited to do this as a mission.  We love the Book of Mormon and always learn something new every time we read it through.  It really teaches us so much about Christ and His teachings.   On Monday night we had Corey and Tara Holmes over for dinner.  They have been in our branch for a few months.  Corey has been working here and Tara joined him recently after being home (In Kaysville, helping out with a new grand baby.).  They will be leaving Friday and will start living in Puerto Rico for 5 years!  So sad that they are leaving because they are very missionary minded and service oriented.  I made individual Pavlo...