Week 35 in St. Thomas

We had the Elders over for lunch after church on Sunday and while we were eating we watched the 95th Birthday Celebration of President Russell M. Nelson.  What a phenemonal man he is!  He has accomplished so much and at 95 continues to be  an inspiration to so many.  Seeing the clips about his life from his family, his colleagues from the medical field and his fellow apostles and church leaders was so insightful.   One can just feel a deep love, respect and devotion from each one of them for him.    We are so blessed to be led by such an amazing prophet.  
So Pickle Ball this Monday.......well we won 5-2 but notice that the Elders did win 2 games from us. They are creeping up on us.... This is the first time that they have won, so they are improving!  Watch out! It won't be long before they are man-handling us for sure!
We had Branch FHE on Monday evening.  We had a good turn out, probaby 23 people were there, which is good for us!  The Elders taught a great lesson about setting goals and showed the video of Jason Smyth, a blind runner that is a member of the church that is pretty amazing.  Then we had a very competitive Jeopardy game  and rootbeer floats and some Hostess Cupcakes and Nutrigrain bars for refreshments supplied by a dear sister in our branch.   We have a few new families and couples in the ward now and we are so happy they are here!
One thing that has been happening ALOT lately here in St. Thomas has been power outages.  Almost daily we will get an alert on our phone like the one above from WAPA. WAPA stands for Western Area Power Administration.  It happens so much that someone has coined a saying for the acronym WAPA:  WITHOUT ANY POWER AGAIN.  Apparantely it is just something that people live with around here.  I will be honest:  it gets to be very annoying but it has also helped us to become extremely grateful for electricity and we will no longer take it for granted.  
I thought it was rather humorous on Wednesday when I ran across this quote because earlier that day on our walk I tripped on a vine and did a major  asphalt skid on my hand, arm and hip!  I am getting quite the reputation for falling and usually it is because I am in a hurry.  I need to remind myself to slow down. Mike suggested that we change to biking, but biking isn't safe here on the island, Joye suggested water aerobics......that is probably the safest option!   I am grateful that thus far I have been able to  "rise up " though!  Sheesh!
Here is a picture of my hand.....it doesn't look that bad, but it hurt like crazy! As did my hip.....thankfully nothing was broken.
On Tuesday morning we got a text from Jackie telling us that Bob was in the hospital.  They had noticed that the whites of his eyes were really yellow as was his skin.  So he went in and his bilirubin count was sky high.  Needless to say, we were worried sick.  Grant went over and gave him a blessing and then on Thursday they did a scope and cleaned out his bile duct. The theory is that he had a stone that was blocking his bile duck.   Hopefully he is going to be ok now.  One of the hardest things about being so far away, when something like this happens is that we feel so helpless to help.  So we pray a lot and trust that the Lord will take care of our precious family.....
Denae sent this picture of Tayleigh.....isn't it just the cutest thing?
She actually turns two today (September 16th) .  I can't believe she is two already!
Wednesday night we had English Class and we were back to one student!  Sophia.....she is from Haiti but her English is getting better and better.  We are going to miss her when she moves to Boston in October to be with her husband.  But that is where she should be.  
One thing that has been taking a bit of our time this week has been helping one of our members get into public housing.  FINALLY it happened!  So the church helped them out with a stove and a fridge and beds. They are soooo grateful and we are too.  We can definitey see the hand of the Lord in this journey.  
This is how we roll on Sundays.  We usually pick up the Elders and three other people, so they have to get in the back without a seat.  Good thing they are small huh?

 Well that is a wrap.  No hurricanes this week.  Lots of tender mercies from the Lord in big and litte ways.  No broken bones....life is good.  Thanks for all your prayers.  We love our friends and family.  Stay strong nd steadfast.
Love,
Dick and Donna

Comments

  1. Suzanne WildingSeptember 16, 2019 at 10:23 AM

    I sure love your blog my friend. It looks so hot and sweaty there, you're such a trooper. Hope your hand is better and hopefully Bob is on the mend. Cutest elders. You guys are doing such a great job! Love ya!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Last Days in St. Kitts

Image
I am kind of sad writing this last post for this incredible 15 months that we have been blessed to experience.  I have so many thoughts flying around in my brain that is it really so hard to express how I feel.  I know one thing:  I am sad that we didn't have a chance to go to church in St. Kitts for one last Sunday but on the other hand, having church at our apartment with just two other friends was an experience that I will not soon forget.  I am also sad that when we get home that we won't be having church so that we can say hello to everyone there and that we won't be able to mingle with our family or friends for at least 14 days.   Things are just so different than I thought they would be.   On Friday when we flew home, we were in 5 different airports.  THAT made me extremely nervous but I just had to trust that all this is happening for a reason.  I know that the Lord knows better than me.  EXAMPLE:  When Grant and Olivia to...
Read more

Week 7 In St. Kitts

Image
I really cannot believe it is March already!  I didn't take too many pictures this week for some reason, but it was a good week of little spurts of joy along the way....... Monday evening we had a lesson with a friend that I met while getting my hair done last week.  He is from India and came here with a group of people from Mumbai to work at a salon that happens to be directly across from our apartment!   I told him about why were were here while he was doing my hair and told him about the Book of Mormon .  So when I was leaving he asked if he could get "the book."  I said of course you can....and so we are teaching him now.  He grew up as a Christian.  We had one of our members, Catalina, come  to the lesson.  When I asked the question to her: "what does Christ mean to you?"  She said that He was her friend......I just loved that simple response.  I think FRIEND is one of my favorite words for Christ. We teach a little fa...
Read more