Week 46 in St. Thomas

This week started out as usual.....we played pickle ball bright and early with our Elders. Each week Elder Fineanganofo is getting better and Elder Sigcha now has this wicked spin serve that is amazing......so it won't be long.  But we will enjoy our victories as long as we can.  Hahaha.  Love these two Elders so much.


We have loved studying the churches "Come Follow Me" curriculum this year.  For those of you that don't know what that is, we study as an entire church across the world, the same book of scriptures the entire year and each week, we have certain books and verses to read.  This year we have been studying The New Testament.  I have loved it so much.  Of course I have read the New Testament before, taken classes of it in Seminary in high school and even took a class about it in college but this time, I have just loved it so much and I have found little nuggets that are just so precious.  Like the scripture above:  I love that it says that God's grace will perfect us, stablish , strengthen an settle us~. Settle us???  Who doesn't need to be settled once in a while?  I absolutely love these little nuggets that I haven't noticed before. 

Wednesday we had a very long and busy day but we were so blessed by the thoughfulness of one of our members.  She gave us and the Elders warm Rotis  that a friend of hers from Trinidad made.  They were so delicious and ended up being our lunch and dinner as we didn't get back home until 9pm.  People can be so kind and thoughtful and we are so grateful for their kindness.  

We had a feast on Thanksgiving.  We literally could not eat one more bite of the delicious food!  



Love all these people in this picture.  As the prayer was said and the words "please bless our family and loved ones" were said, someone said, "well, this is the first Thanksgiving that we have had without all our family, but aren't we family?"  I thought about that a lot, yes, truly we become family when we worship and serve each other and follow Christ's teachings.    

I follow the blog of a couple that we met in the MTC.  I read this post one morning this week and cannot keep from thinking about it.  They are serving in Sierra Leone Africa:

"We had some concerns about the first conference of the Issia District on Sat. and Sunday. There were several men from our two little branches who were to be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood but they needed an interview with the mission president who would be 40 km away. No one has a car or even a motorbike, and the price for public transport for them was prohibitive.  Most live on the rice that they grow.  The church used to pay for this kind of transportation but does not any more.  The individuals were asked to sacrifice to get there.  We honestly didn’t know if any of them could or would come. 

When we arrived in Issia on Saturday about noon, there were the two branch presidents with their seven men waiting for their interviews with Pres. Sherman.  I wanted to hug each one [inappropriate] because I knew what an effort they had made.  They were happy to see us as well.  We found out that they would be sleeping on the floor of the building overnight, where there is no running water, no air-conditioning [90F] and they had no money for food, but they would be sustained and ordained on Sunday morning.  When they called out those names and had the brethren stand, I couldn’t help but weep. "

That story made me weep too........... 


Pretty much since we arrived on the island, we have been volunteering at the Humane Society Thrift Shop.  We met EJ Simons one day when we went in there to look for some things for a family who didn't have anywhere to live.  She was just so gracious and helpful, we immediately felt a connection with  her.  So we are sad that she is leaving the island but excited for her new adventures in Gulf Port, Florida and then in Italy as she continues to work on her true passion:  rescuing animals.  She has a heart of gold and we have been blessed to know her.  Her example of kindness and compassion for those that are at a disadvantage has been life changing for us.  

It was a good week.  We wake up every day and ask for guidance and direction from Our Heavenly Father to serve where he needs us.  We hope that we are doing a little bit of good on this beautiful island with these wonderful people.  Our lives have been so blessed.  

Stay strong and steadfast.
Love,
The Garrisons

Comments

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 39 in St. Thomas

Image
Being able to watch all the sessions of General Conference was such a treat!  It definitely filled up our buckets to resolve to do better, to be better and to make some new commitments to make changes in accordance to what we felt and learned.  I think Sister Smart said it best:  "After listening to conference.... THEREFORE WHAT?   Will we walk away saying that was wonderful and tuck the talks away for six months, or will we pray for our own personal revelation on how we can refine our Christlike attributes and be a better disciple?" That is certainly I plan to do.....study and listen and ponder and change...... Along that same line....look how far we are in the Book of Mormon now?  We are in Alma, which I love.  This week we have been reading a series of letters from Alma to his sons.  Some of his sons were righteous and some were not so righteous.  Alma loved each one of them.  He pointed out their strengths and their weaknesses an...
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