Week Uno

Things that are ubiquitous in Barbados:

Stray chickens and cats

Dogs that don't even bark

Buses and "zedars"

Accents I cannot understand

Churches

Nice people

 

I'm serious about that last one: everyone is SO NICE. They aren't even weirded out when you just talk to them randomly. Not that I do that much, but it's pretty cool.

 

Anyway! Stuff that has happened . . . So, six sisters and two elders flew out to Trinidad on Mon. Another elder came in from the MTC in the Dominican Republic, and the other elder missed the bus, so he came on Thursday. Our flight got in at about 9:30-ish PM. Then we waited in line at Immigration for two hours. That was really fun! Not really, but we talked to each other and placed a Book of Mormon. Or, Sister Cole and Sister Walsh placed one. I watched in admiration and chipped in randomly about tent stakes. We found our luggage pretty fast, then headed over to Customs. That took about 20-ish minutes. By that time, we were all despairing that anyone was going to be waiting for us, but President Mehr and the APs were! We were so glad to see them. We drove back to the mission home (it was about 1 in the morning at that point). Sister Mehr had dinner waiting for us; I almost wept. And you know what the best thing was? They let us sleep in the next morning! Only about an hour, but it was so nice. Sister Galea'i and I slept in the "General Authority" room, where all the important people stay when they come to the West Indies mission. The beds were about 500% nicer than the ones in the MTC.

 

Tue was orientation. We sat around all day while the APs and the senior couples and President and Sister Mehr talked and did what they could to make sure we stayed awake. It was a struggle, but it was a fun day. They let us go to bed at 8:30, which was awesome.

 

Sister Nelson and Elder Stewart-Johnson went off to St. Maarten/St. Martin and Elder Moux off to French Guiana before I woke up. Sister Cole stayed in Trinidad. The rest of us went to the airport the next day. Elder Dulaki went to St. Vincent, Sister Walsh to St. Lucia, and us others, Sister Takuia, Sister Galea'i, and myself, went to Barbados. A transferring elder, Elder Westbroek, and Sister Galea'i were asleep when they announced we were doing a layover in Grenada and had to be called back on the plane. It was pretty funny, but I'm just really glad we caught them.

Barbados is awesome. My trainer is Sister Bennion; she's from Orem, and she been out about five months, so she's still figuring things out herself. She is so nice, though, and an awesome trainer. We have had a crazy week, because we are the only sisters with a car, so we had to drive the other two companionships places. Zone conference was on Friday, so Saturday was my first real day of missionary work. We have done about six first lessons with people we found. That was awesome. Sister Bennion is so powerful. By the last lesson we had last night, I was able to contribute a bit, but she was carrying most of it by herself. It doesn't seem to phase her.

 

Today we had an American women and her two sons feed all of us Bajans missionaries lunch. They are on a cruise, and they have been feeding the missionaries on all the islands they stopped on. She took pictures, and she will be sending them to you, Mom :) We ate at the beach, and it was really pretty. The water here is really light blue.

Our apartment is great. The bedroom has air conditioning, which is REALLY great. We have no food right now, but we are going shopping after we finish emailing, because this is more important.

 

I don't even know what else to tell you. The missionaries here are really fun. Oh the branch! Um, so we have a small branch with six missionaries. Yesterday was Fast and Testimony, of course. We had one guy get up and talk for forever, and his accent is so hard to comprehend; I zoned out after a while. We visited him earlier in the week, and Sister Bennion said he was just repeating what he had already told us then, anyway (not that I understood him the first time). He's a bit of a weird guy . . . he's been a member for three years, but he doesn't think Pres. Monson is a prophet. He thinks HE is the prophet. Yeah . . . kinda weird . . .

 

Sorry for this super-long email, but it's just really great here. President and Sister Mehr are both so nice and awesome. Pres Mehr is a deep doctrine kind of guy, so sometimes he is hard to understand, but I think I'll get used to it. Sister Mehr is not one inch behind him, and she is so kind and loving. I love this place. The people here are really friendly and humble. They just hand out their phone numbers like it's nothing! They ask wonderful questions, and it seems like everyone we've taught lessons to have been seeking the truth. They just need to understand where they can find it.

Anyway, I guess I'd better go. Remember who you are, the Church is true, don't do drugs. Seriously.