Greatest Hits a Six Months

What a great week, and a sad one, too! Sister Cole is transferring to Curepe after six months in Arima, so she's really sad, and so are a lot of the members. I know she will do great work in the Curepe Ward, though. My new companion will be Sister Roubidoux, who is coming in from Barbados on Wednesday. Never met her, but I'm excited!

In other news, tomorrow is my six month mark. These last six months have gone by in a flash; I really don't know how fast time went. I decided to gather together a collection of my greatest hits for your enjoyment :D

Sister Cole telling Nigel that if Heavenly Father answered his prayers and Sister Galea'i came back, he would have to get baptized.

2 car accidents in 2 days.

Bro Duff: Michael Jackson impersonator.

"I didn't come to church because I didn't feel the Spirit." " . . . Well, I can tell you reason number one why you aren't feeling the Spirit!"

Going less-active hunting: parked in front of a random house to ask for directions. "Do you know _____?" "Yeah, she's my daughter!" "Um, okay!"

Lennox the vagrant: Facebook famous.

"Cheese on bread!"

"The Book of the Normons."

Elder F: You know the preacher guy is a Trini, right? He says, 'Beware of pride nah, boy!"

Elder H: This man is my mother!

A ridiculous amount of people: Are you mixed-race?
Me: No, white people have curly hair too.

"Her nickname is Sister Lights-out: lights-out this way, and lights-out that way!"

"Sister Galea'i! This is Grenada!"

The "short-cut" through the field to Bro Ally's.

Rasta-man: I worship the god of Ethiopia.

Coconuts with Richie.

Iguana with Shunta's family.

Bro Ally: You must give yourself to the Father!

"Sister Tube-itts?" "Tebbitts!" "Sister what?" "Like, pineapple tidbits?" "Sister Tilby." "Elder Tibbitts!"

Sister Hendricks: You suit, I stoupes.

Hayden: And everyone who agrees with this prayer, say 'amen'!"

President Mehr: I'm going to have to quote Neal A. Maxwell on this one: No.

Onika: GO, MY CHILD. GO AND BAPTIZE.

Sister Cole: Don't you hate it when your shins sweat?

Shunta: Good-bye, I'm going!
Sister Cole: Going where?
Shunta: I'm going mad!

It's been a great six months. I would not exchange being a missionary for the world. I have learned so much, especially to be exactly obedient. I think that is the most important thing when you are a missionary. Nothing comes without exact obedience.

I love you all, and hope you have a great week,

Sister Aida Tibbitts

Mormons at Our BBQ

Dear Parents,

One of the members of the branch was having troubles with his house, so the branch organized a BBQ to help pay for it. Sister Cole and I went and cooked chicken for hours. Man, Trinis make good barbecue sauce; it's smells like tomato sauce, and then you add orange and pineapple juice. Very interesting. We weren't sure how everyone was going to pull it off, since there were problems right up to the day of, but it turned out really well. Right after there was the baptism of three young ladies, our YW president's nieces. Those girls were so ready and prepared to be baptized. It was awesome. Sister Cole gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.

Yesterday, while sitting waiting for church to start, President Farrier beckoned me and asked if I would give a talk on the Articles of Faith, and by the way I was going to be the first speaker. O.o I managed to turn it into member-missionary work. Have you ever noticed how simply the Articles of Faith lay out the doctrines of the Restoration? I guess that was probably Joseph Smith's purpose. I am hoping it will help someone share the gospel with their friends.

The most nerve-wracking part of my talk was the fact that Elder Gamiette of the Quorum of the Seventy was there. After sacrament, he asked us all to stay behind and he told the branch that the General Authorities feel that the worldwide church needs to focus on self-reliance and Sabbath-day observance, so he talked to us a bit about that. He said that this was something they were going to keep teaching until they saw change.

That was basically my week. I'm still learning to teach with Sister Cole; after two transfers with a companion who was as quiet as I am, it's interesting to be back with a louder, more talkative one.

I had a couple questions for you, Mom. Sister Cole wanted me to make cinnamon rolls one P-day, and I wondered about some of the ingredients. All we have is all-purpose flour and no gluten; would it be okay to make them like that? And how long do you leave them in the oven? Also, do you have any clue where in the scriptures it says, "come as you are"? The search engine on LDS.org isn't helping.

<3 Sister Tibbitts

I'm all set to be a construction worker when I get back

It's been an interesting week. I know I say that pretty much every email, but I have done some things and gone some places I never have before.

We had a trade-off with our Sister Training Leader, Sister Giles, on Wednesday. Sister Giles is down in Point Fortin with my MTC companion, Sister Galea'i, so I went down to Point with her and Sister Galea'i came up to D'abadie. Point is very beautiful; it's more bush and less city than up north, so the drive was nice. I saw the ocean for the first time since Maracas Bay. Also a pitch lake, which was not quite so nice. We visited a less-active family that night, and I got to hold their baby rabbits! They were SO FLUFFY AND SOFT. It was ridiculous. I really hogged them :) Man, bunnies.

Sister Cole and Sister Galea'i apparently had an adventure while I was gone. Everyone was very intrigued by Sister Galea'i because she is tall and beautiful. There was a small earthquake and we ran out of water, so they had to go shower by the senior couple's apartment. I had a great time with Sister Giles. She's been out of a while and had some good advice. We also had fun chatting about Curepe ward, since that's where she was trained.

You're probably wondering about that subject line. Well, we did service for our elders' quorum president, Brother Duff. He's been building a wall around his house, and he let us and the elders come by to help him cast a cement post. So, I learned how to mix concrete. It was super-hard and I am still sore. But we had a good time; he let us put our names and hand prints on the cement and I wrote my name on his "missionary wall of fame." I guess I can use this information later; cement is the building material of choice over here.

Those are the highlights of the week. It's been a challenging week, but fun. Missionary work is many things, but dull is not one of them (unless you let it).

Oh, and funny thing: I made a peanut butter, tomato, and lettuce sandwich the other day, and Sister Cole thought that was super-gross and weird. She didn't try it, but she could not get over the fact that I ate peanut butter with tomato and lettuce! ;D Yeah, it tasted good.

Have a great week!

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

Bunny at the Mohammeds.

I give you my Indian name: small girl with strong handshake - 11 April 2015

Hola! I know I saw you only yesterday, but hello again! We've had a fantastic week, preparing Shunta for baptism; we were sure her family was going to be sick of us by the end of it. Her mom came, and when we visited them after, she said she felt very emotional during the service, and she was so very grateful that her daughter was baptized. Karen is a great woman: we call her our Trinidadian mom :) The baptismal service was awesome! Pretty much all the YW came; the room was packed. After, most of them came up and bore their testimonies. If you couldn't tell, we have a great YW group.

Shunta's brothers caught an iguana and let Sister Cole kill it. Well, she tried; she wasn't hitting it hard enough, and the brother said, "You're hurting it! It's hurting me watching you hurt it!" and he took the cleaver and BAM one time took the head off. Then they cooked it and fed it to us last night---with the skin still ON. It was interesting; kinda tasted like . . . tasteless chicken. Of course, there was so much pepper sauce on it I couldn't hardly taste anything else. They said they would feed us rabbit on Wednesday o.O

Also, pretty sure I did not say this yesterday, Mom: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!! It was great talking to all yuh.

Scripture of the week: Mosiah 18:26 --- the blessings of missionary work :D

Also, you should look at this: https://www.lds.org/new-era/2008/11/believe-it-to-the-bone?lang=eng

I love you lots! Have a great week,
Sister Aida Tibbitts

Me, Sister Cole, Shunta, Malcolm, Celine, Karen (at Shunta's baptism)

Shunta and me.

Holding the iguana before it was ruthlessly beheaded.

Eating iguana and rice.

Arima

Things here are going awesome in the D'abadie/Arima area. Sister Cole is super-sweet and a hard worker. We have some awesome investigators who are going to get baptized just now :) Yesterday was probably the best day either of us have ever had; we met so many people who were excited for us to come back and set four baptismal dates! It's been a great week, if tiring. Sister Cole was so happy last night she could barely sleep.

Arima Branch is great. We have a very strong youth group and everyone is very kind and welcoming. We are hoping for a lot of member work. Sister Cole is probably the nicest, kindest, most happy-go-lucky person I have ever met. Nothing seems to get her down, and she's just so happy and sweet to everyone. It's impossible to not like her. She's a great missionary as well and a good teacher; she always shares her testimony at every chance she gets, which is something I have been trying to work on. So, awesome companion :D

Not much else to report. We finished the Book of Mormon again; the whole mission reads it every three months. I cannot believe I've read it one and a half times already! It's a wonderful book though; no matter what I focus on and study in it, I learn so much. You should see my last copy: it looked like a coloring book, it was so purple and green and yellow! I am focusing on prayer and the Atonement this read-through, so I hope I will have more meaningful prayers and be able to teach and testify more powerfully about our Savior because of that. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and that if we will make it the focus of our studies we will grow in knowledge and testimony. When he was here, Elder Cornish said that we were looking less for baptisms and more for conversions, and our two most powerful tools in converting people is the Spirit and the Book of Mormon. So, read it, study it, pray about it. It's our invitation to all people.

I love all ya (that's what they say in the West Indies: "all yu" instead of "y'all"). Have a great week and be missionaries!
Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

7 April 2015

Sister Hendricks has fulfilled her 18 months and is heading home on Thursday. She's leaving the mission with 18 other missionaries. Unfortunately, only 7 are coming in, so there no one to replace her. So, I am transferring to the next ward, Arima. I'll be with Sister Cole, who I came out with. We had thought that I would be staying in Curepe for a while, but there simply aren't enough sisters in the mission; the influx of missionaries after the age-change is dying down. So, our area is getting merged with the elders' area. We have spent the last bit preparing our investigators and area book and cleaning our apartment.

General Conference! Sweetness! The connection was bad at times (we missed almost all of Elder Holland's talk), but still great messages. I loved the talk by Elder Causse, where he talked about not becoming lukewarm to miracles and the spiritual experiences of the gospel. I actually had a question about that, so I felt that talk was for me. There were other good ones. We've quoted them a few times to people :) I was so sad that President Monson only spoke once; I hope he's doing alright. He didn't look too well. The announcement of new temples was awesome! I found it interesting they are building a temple in the Ivory Coast. Just a few days before, I read in an older Liahona that three of the five stakes in the Ivory Coast are among the top 25 stakes in the Church for producing family history names, and one of the stakes is #1! Sister Hendricks and I have been saying it until we are blue in the face: it's not just converts that bring temples; you must also be doing your family history work! So, that was just a testament to me of the importance of doing your family history. It really needs to be getting done here. There are problems and obstacles sometimes.

So, that was our week. My mailing address has not changed, but next week I'll be in a next branch. Curepe, it's been real :)

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

Zone Conference

This week was Zone Conference! We have all been waiting for it was bated breath all transfer, not just because ZC is always awesome, but because this time we had Elder Devn J. Cornish from the Seventy with us. It also happened to be on St. Patrick's Day; one of the missionaries asked the APs "Who is going to pinch Elder Cornish if he isn't wearing green?" They were volunteered for the job, but I don't think they did, even though he was not wearing green. It was a great conference, with all the missionaries from Trinidad in the Port-of-Spain chapel. Elder Cornish asked us the question, "Who in the Church is referred to a 'Elder'?" The Quorum of the Twelve, Seventies, and missionaries (he made sure us sisters didn't feel left out, since we do the same job as elders, we just don't hold the priesthood office). "The Twelve and Seventies share their sacred calling with you," Elder Cornish told us, since we go into the world to preach the gospel and are witnesses of Jesus Christ (as per D&C 107). What we do is very important and special, so they share their calling with us. After lunch he taught us about the Atonement using Abraham and Isaac. Nuff said, really. It was just a good conference.

 

Other than that, it's been a normal week. Sister Hendricks goes home in two weeks, so she is trying to stay focused :) She is determined not to slow us down and to leave our area in correct, working order. I get asked, "How trunky is she?" about once a day, but honestly she is doing quite well. She is just getting organized for school and her plans to finish Personal Progress when she gets home. So, nothing to complain about, except during weekly planning when she says, "You realize we're planning for Week 5, right? And after that we'll be planning for Week 6 . . ."

 

I hope all you have had a great week. Stay well and safe. I love you :)

 

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

16 March 2015

It's been a slow week. A few of our investigators dropped us, so we've been having to find more. One of them was an older Hindu woman. Funnily enough, she believes in Jesus Christ and everything, she just won't convert to Christianity because her ancestors back to Moses have been Hindu. It seems like a lot of Hindus here have at least some measure of belief in Christ (they even told us that one of their temples has a picture of Him that they pray to; that kinda gave me the shivers, to be honest). In a place like India, that sort of laxity with Hinduism would not be tolerated, any more than the tolerance of the Muslims would be in Pakistan or the Christians in Vatican City. There are just so many religions that everyone is very confused. Most of them don't want to say that anyone will not be saved, because if they say that, they are saying that their friends of another faith will not be saved. It's very confusing for everyone here. That makes it hard for us, because we are introducing yet another religion, but this one is not going to say that you can believe whatever you want. So, it's a struggle, but we're working on it :)

Another example is with an older less-active we went and visited, Sister Clarke. Since she is older and has a walker and everything, we just thought we would have to set up someone to take the sacrament over. The conversation went something like this:

SC: I can't go to church; I can't really go anywhere.

Us: Well, would you like us to have someone bring you the sacrament?

SC: Oh, no, no, they've offered, I don't want that.

Us: Why not?

SC: I don't believe in the sacrament.

Us: . . . If what?

Turns out, she doesn't believe in a lot of things we teach, never mind she's been baptized and coming to church for twenty years. It was a very interesting lesson. She was Seventh-Day Adventist before she was baptized, so she stillbelieves the true Sabbath is on Saturday, and that Ellen G. White (the founder of the SDA church) was a prophet. She does not believe in the priesthood, yet she believes Joseph Smith was a prophet. I don't think she understands that those are seriously contradicting beliefs. So, she's super-nice (she gave us two packages of cookies which we promptly gave to the elders), but super-confused.

Other than that, it's been a fairly normal week. We're just trying to find more prepared people :) We've been handing out #BecauseHeLives cards to everyone, and most people have a good response. It's a good conversation starter.

I hope all you have a great week.

Lots of love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

Maracas Beach last week.

A super-tall hill we hiked up to find an investigator; things missionaries do, huh?

I don't even want to know where he thought Jesus was buried . . .

9 March 2015

It's been an interesting week. We lost a few investigators and found a few more. We have a brother and a sister that we are teaching. We contacted the brother at the beginning of last transfer, but only had a lesson with him a couple weeks ago. His sister decided to join us, which was totally fine. She loves the Book of Mormon. She says she can't understand the Bible very well, so this other book of scripture is heaven-sent. Her brother was sick yesterday, but she came to church and really enjoyed it. We even had one of the senior missionaries invite her to join the choir after church! She told me that was her favorite part, so it was a success. They are both really awesome.

 

We also had a pretty interesting time tracting this week. We talked to an older man who said he re-grew his hand after it was chopped "into three pieces." He also insisted that Jesus went and studied in India and based his teachings off of Buddha. We were like, "Hmm . . . no." He asked us "Where is Jesus buried?" We told him point-blank that Jesus is not buried anywhere because he rose from the dead. He hurried to get off our radar after that. Once you bear down on people in pure doctrine like that, they don't really want to talk to you anymore. I wonder why. Then we contacted a Seventh-Day Adventist who looked at what we were offering and said, in effect, "What is this Book of the Normans? I don't believe anything but the Bible. You should teach from the Bible, because everything you need to be saved is in there." So, fun day, but funnily enough, my testimony is just strengthened . . . interesting how things work out, isn't it?

 

I have been re-reading Conference Liahonas. The one I just finished came in handy this week; it was last May's edition. One of our investigators brought up the whole "women and the priesthood" issue, and I was able to explain to her that we are not jipped and why because I had just read Elder Oaks' talk from the Priesthood Session. Our district leader was shadowing us that afternoon, and he told us that he was really glad that came up, because he had always wondered how sisters answered that question. He said it doesn't sound as good coming from elders. I had wondered if I went too deep, explaining the differences between keys, authority, and power, but Sister Hendricks and the elders said it was good, so I guess it's okay :) Then, that investigator's husband asked us how he could really know the truth, and I was able to tell him a few ways he could know truth, because I had just read Elder Aidukaitus' (sp?) talk on the three ways to know God's truth. It was a small thing, but put together they were neat experiences.

 

We visited Maracas Beach this morning. It's not a beautiful as the Bajan beaches, but quite lovely all the same. We went walking on the shore and found pretty rocks and shells and such (I'm thinking of doing the same thing you did in Israel, Mom). Sister Francom also is collecting sea glass, which when I first saw it I thought were really pretty colored rocks that were naturally created, but I have since come to realize are smashed up beer bottles that have had their sharp edges worn off. They make good necklaces, though :)

 

This has turned into a long letter, so I make an end. But before I go, I had a question: what blessings have you received for keeping a specific commandment, like tithing or the Word of Wisdom?

 

Much love, and have a great week,

Sister Aida Tibbitts

2 March 2015

There once was a chicken and a pig. They lived on a farm. They were having guests and wanted to make them a good breakfast. After thinking about it for a while, they thought, "Why not bacon and eggs?" They both agreed on it, but the pig said, "You'll have to make a few sacrifices here, but it seems I will need to be fully committed."

Yesterday was Stake Conference, and our stake president used that story to illustrate that being a member of the Church is not a fleeting thing. God does not call us to just make a couple sacrifices; He calls us to be 100% committed to the cause of Christ. That is something I have really been working on: becoming even more committed to being the best missionary I can be. It's hard work and I have a lot to learn, but we'll get there :)

This week was transfer week. On Wednesday, the APs called us to say that one of the new sisters couldn't go to Grenada, so could she stay with us for a few days while they got her a visa? We agreed, of course, and they brought her over. Her name is Sister Lometo, she's from the Marshall Islands, and she is super-prepared. She actually talked during her first lesson! I was impressed. She left later the next day for Grenada, but Sister Hendricks and I were trainers for a little while! Exciting moment, ent?

We see Sister Lometo off at the airport.

A couple exciting things happened yesterday. For one, we are teaching a woman who met missionaries back in 2007; she had never been to church before. She's what we call an eternal investigator. But, she came to stake conference! We were so excited. They talked about family history work and eternal marriage, which was things she is definitely interested in, so it was perfect! I think she liked it. Also, the first lesson I ever taught in the mission field was to a less-active in Barbados named Keba. A few weeks later he went to visit his family in Trinidad . . . and guess who I saw at the conference? He came up and said hi; he hasn't been to church since he left Barbados, which is sad, but he said he was coming next week too.

That was basically my week. We are really hoping to have a baptism soon; there's a guy who is close . . . we just need to get him on date. Just now :)

Much love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

So, Carnival was Monday and Tuesday, and we were stuck inside. It's been awesome. Totally. We played cards for two days straight, and I have pictures to prove it. I even played mahjong with cards! We had Sister Hyde and Sister Graziano staying with us, so that was fun. We ate cake and cheese puffs and spaghetti. We watched pretty much every Mormon Message ever published.

The music started Sunday night. I fell asleep listening to it, and when we woke up in the morning it was still going. But don't worry! It stopped during the day, only to start up again that night. So, fun stuff.

I just found out today that Richie, the investigator we were preparing in Barbados, got baptized last week! I am so happy! He's gonna be awesome.

Valentine's Day we ate heart-shaped pancakes. We took the bus to PEC, and on our way back, the driver refused our money and said, "Happy Valentine's Day." Kinda weird, but oh well.

All in all, it's not been the best week for missionary work, but today we will start getting our area back on track and finding those who are prepared. In district meeting today we talked about teaching recent converts and less actives. We concluded that no matter what the missionaries do, if the members aren't involved, nothing happens. One missionary related about how when he stopped coming to church, it took a friend inviting him back and then the bishop coming up to him and telling him he had been missed to get him back into activity; the missionaries didn't have anything to to do with it. So, it's really important that recent converts and less actives have that support system of members. Home and visiting teaching does not really get done here, unfortunately, but I think if they could implement that more it would be a great strength in retaining members. They would have any immediate support system. So, member work is really important.

I hope everyone had a good birthday :)

Much love,

Sister Aida Tibbitts

Transfer #3!

23 February 2015

Transfer calls were on Saturday. We were in a taxi with music blaring, so it was hard to understand, but we managed (loudspeaker is a wonderful thing). The conversation went something like this:

Elder F.: Do you have a concealed weapons permit?

Me: Um . . . no?

Elder F.: You might want to get one, because you're going to be killing Sister Hendricks! Hahahaha!

Me: Ha. Ha. You're hilarious.

Translation: I will be staying in Curepe and "killing" Sister Hendricks (meaning she is going home at the end of this transfer). More good news is that I am no longer a trainee! I have finished the 12-week training program and am now officially a "normal" missionary. Our district leader asked, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how excited are you to be finished with training?" I told him "55." Training was a good learning experience, though. I'm glad they don't just throw us in without any wheels, but now those wheels are coming off :) Should be fun.

The Curepe ward has been trying to get firesides started every month, and the missionaries did the first one. We decided that if we were going to get a lot of baptisms and reactivations this year, we had better deepen the conversion of those already coming to church; so, we gave a fireside on the Book of Mormon. It was a lot of fun. President and Sister Mehr spoke to us and the Bishop told his conversion story. We wanted to make the Book of Mormon come to life, so each companionship chose a story and we acted it out. Sister Hendricks and I chose the tree of life; she had a rebus poem that we read out with visuals. Not very many people came, but it was a very good fireside: it was mentioned in church three or four times to my hearing. We had a few goals in putting on this fireside: we wanted to get the members reading the Book of Mormon, we wanted them to share it with their friends, and we wanted to get referrals from them. Ix-nay on the referrals, but we shall see about the others :)

Have a great week! Much love,

Sister Aida Tibbitts

Addendum to email: I thought I would share Bishop Ramdhanie's story that he told at this fireside, since it was pretty funny. About twenty years ago, his wife started investigating the church, and she invited him to come to Port of Spain for a stake conference. This was around the same time as the Jim Jones incident, where a man in Guyana basically brainwashed his congregation and then fed them poison, so Bishop Ramdhanie was a little skeptical about the whole thing, especially when they started passing the sacrament around. Afterwards, a couple missionaries started talking to him and asked if they could teach him along with his wife; he was absolutely surprised to hear himself say "Yes." He actually looked around to see if someone else had said it. After hearing what they had to say and reading the Book of Mormon, he decided that Mormons weren't as crazy as he had thought, and now he's the bishop in Curepe! -Aida

Wicked King Noah!

Samuel the Lamanite stands firm under opposition.

There is not that much to report this week. We contacted into a woman who is "never, never, never, never, never" (etc., etc.) getting married, a Jehovah's Witness who probably thinks we know absolutely nothing about the Bible (because we know that Jesus is Jehovah, not Heavenly Father), and a Hindu who was very interested to see if we would still be LDS in ten years. Other than that, pretty normal.

So, remember how I would hunt flies in our kitchen at home? Mosquitoes are the  new flies, except we use our hands to kill them. Sister Hendricks smashed a skeeter on the floor the other night, and blood came out (it was her blood). There is a bit of a graveyard around where we do our nightly planning :) It can get frustrating, because they seem to vanish in mid-air after you try and catch them.

 

In our studies, we read the beginning of Mosiah. My district leader in Barbados asked us to read King Benjamin's message and see how he taught towards a commitment, i.e., taking upon them the name of Jesus Christ. He mentions it at the start, and by the end of his speech, the people are the ones who ask if they can make the covenant! King Benjamin is an awesome missionary. I've heard of a few times when people ask to be baptized, but it hasn't happened to me yet.

Carnival is next Monday and Tuesday, so I will probably be emailing on Wednesday or something. Driving is crazy, because there are a lot more cars on the already narrow roads, and there are a lot of fetes (parties). Basically, Carnival has already started, just not the parade :P Wish us luck.

Have a great week, and Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

Training in Trinidad, + stake conference

This has been an interesting week. Sister Hendricks was sure that by the end of it she would know nothing about our area, because we had two trade-offs this week and she went to other areas. First we traded off with the Arima sisters, because they spent a lot of time in our area last transfer; Sister Feltis was going to show me where a few people lived. She ended up only showing me one person, but that person was a member referral, so hopefully it was time well-spent :) Then, we traded off with our Sister Training Leader, Sister Hyde, and her companion, Sister Graziano. My companion went to Chaguanas with the STL, and Sister Graziano stayed the night and day with me. Apparently she loves weapons and wrestling.

The fun does not stop there, though. Being trained by the leadership happens a lot more in Trinidad because we actually have leadership here to train us. So, on Tuesday, the assistants to the president asked if they could shadow us for the evening. We didn't end up doing much because someone hit our car while it was parked. We spent an hour-and-a-half filling out the accident report. But, we got the number for the guy who bounced us, and his mom's and their neighbors! So, I guess the Lord works in mysterious ways.

We also had President and Sister Mehr visit a less-active with us last night. That was super intimidating. President Mehr started talking about foreordination and the pre-mortal life and stuff like that, and then he asked us if we had any comments. Sister Hendricks went for it and gave a really good thought about Helaman's army, but I basically just sat there the whole time. It's hard to talk when the mission president is sitting right there and you REALLY don't want to look stupid. I guess I probably looked stupid anyway.

Yesterday was kind of stake conference. We received a broadcast from Salt Lake City that was for the whole Caribbean area. Elder Wilford W. Andersen, Sister Bonnie Oscarson, Elder Holland, and President Packer spoke to us. I really liked Elder Andersen's talk; he spoke in Spanish, which was interesting. I think he must have served in the Dominican Republic or something because he said that his heart would always be in the Caribbean. He drew from 1 Nephi 5:4-5, where Lehi says that he knows the Lord is directing them in the wilderness, and when he says, "I have obtained a land of promise," even though he hasn't actually reached the promised land yet. He spoke about making promised futures into present realities by keeping covenants. Elder Andersen said that receiving a land of promise in this life was not about being assured that the Lord would keep His promises, but about us having the realization that we are keeping ours. That part really hit me. After all, "Your calling gives you authority, keeping your covenants gives you power" (Preach My Gospel). Sister Oscarson spoke to the youth about their present and future families; Elder Holland about standing in holy places; President Packer about the family. They were good talks too, but Elder Andersen's, man, that hit the spot.

Scripture of the week: Hebrews 8:10-13.

It's been a weird but good week. I love you all and hope this next week goes well for you.

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

This week has been interesting. Blanking an area is pretty hard, but we are meeting a lot of new people. We have been meeting with several less-actives and recent converts, trying to fill up our time. One of them is named Scott; he is both a recent convert and a less-active, but he did come to church yesterday. Our concern is that he is more converted to the sisters than the church and that he is not truly repenting. Since he has finished the new member lessons, we felt free on passing him over to the Elder's Quorum president for home teaching. That will either teach him the true meaning of church or drive him away. Hopefully he will stay and gain a stronger testimony. We also called and met up with a less-active who has not been to church in 7 years. The missionaries have not met with him in over a year, but he said that he had been thinking of going back to church; obviously we were more inspired than we thought :) He just needs to start following the Word of Wisdom and he will be set. He did not come to church yesterday, but we are seeing him tonight, so we'll ask him what's up.

 

Sister Mehr came out with us on Wednesday. She is a really inspired and smart woman. We went contacting and she was a great help and inspiration for us. Since the missionaries are on so many different islands, it is hard for President and Sister Mehr to go out with all of us, so they take the opportunity when they can. We might have President Mehr with us in the next week or two, since he apparently wants to go visit a particular less-active who lives in our area.

 

I got asked what food I have eaten since I came out. You can buy "normal" food here in the groceries, but when we eat at members' houses we get a little more different stuff. I've had macaroni pie, doubles (Bajan and Trini; everyone told me there was this huge difference and that Trini doubles were a lot better, but honestly they tasted exactly the same to me), Jamaican patties, papaya, coocoo, plantains, flying fish, mauby, sorrel, bake n' aloo, and some other stuff. The food here is really good, for the most part, though sometimes it seems like it is aimed to make you fat . . . IDK, I like eating it :)

 

On Saturday we took one of the senior sisters, Sister Miller, with us on our adventures. She has never gone proselyting before, and she said it was a neat experience. She took some pictures and was going to put it on her blog.

 

This morning our zone went up to Maracas Falls in the mountains. It is a very short hike to a very sparse, if tall, waterfall. Besides it were a few random Hindu flags.

 

I hope y'all have a good week :D

 

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

At Maracas Waterfall

Out teaching with Sister Miller (senior sister)

Life and Death

by Ernest Howard Crosby

 

So he died for his faith. That is fine ---

    More than most of us do.

But, say, can you add to that line

    That he lived for it, too?

In his death he bore witness at last

    As a martyr to the truth.

Did his life do the same in the past,

    From the days of his youth?

It is easy to die! Men have died

    For a wish or a whim ---

For bravado or passion or pride,

    Was it harder for him?

But to live --- every day to live out

    All the truth that he dreamt

While his friends met his conduct with doubt

    And the world with contempt.

Was it thus that he plodded ahead,

    Never turning aside?

Then we'll talk of the life that he lived.

    Never mind how he died.

Trinidad

Hello from Trinidad! We are in the Curepe area, which is about an hour from Port-of-Spain. There is actually a stake in Trinidad, so we went to a real ward yesterday! It was still not like home, but who even cares. Sister Hendricks and I are "blanking," which means neither of us know anyone. Sister Hendricks has been out for 15 months, though, so she has a lot of experience. We have been talking to a lot of people. So far, we've only had one investigator lesson, and that a short one. But just now we will have a lot of investigators. We just have to find people. There are a few members who are really willing to come out with us, so that's awesome. The sister who came out with us on Saturday is better at contacting than either of us, let me tell you. Sister Hendricks is a lot quieter than Sister Bennion; it's weird for me to be the more passionate one. I'll bet y'all can't even imagine that :)

 

Oh, and we have a car. And guess who is driving? Yeah . . . me. Trinidad won't give Sister Hendricks a license, so I have been doing it because I can drive for 90 days on a US license. Let me tell you, we are lucky we have not died, because it is CRAZY here. The roads are super narrow and everyone drives really fast. And it's on the left-hand side. I've hit the curb a couple of times, but no deaths yet. We have to drive all the way to Arima for church, so that's an adventure. Sister Hendricks is going to show me how to take the bus for missionary coordination and PEC, just so we can save gas and miles. Yeah, it's been an interesting week.

 

Sister Mehr, the mission president's wife, wants to go out with us this week, which is a little intimidating, but she's really nice. We are also coordinating trade-offs with the Sister Training Leader and another sister who can show us where people live in our area. :)

 

Not much else to report. Our ward has the APs and the JCAPs in it, as well as us and another set of elders. Our apartment is two stories (!!!). It's probably twice as big as our Barbados apartment. I've been on my mission for two months (!!!!).

 

Spiritual things . . . well, I have been reading in 1 Thessalonians. In chapters 1 and 2, it basically talks about attributes missionaries need to have, so that was awesome. I made a whole list. It talked about not arguing and not trying to "convince" people. It was just a little gem that I actually understood amidst the complicated wording that Paul has ended up with.

 

Anyway, I love you all. I pray for you every day, and I hope you are doing well.

 

Love, Aida, alias Sister Tibbitts

Me and Sister Hendricks

Our apartment

Christmas!!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Because this is Barbados and there are no fences to keep them in!

We seriously almost killed about three chickens this week. They saunter across the road like the own it. But this week was great! Last Sunday I gave a talk in church about the role of the Savior. I think it went pretty well. And I told you about the wedding, yeah? Well, the couple got baptized on Saturday! It's really awesome because the elders who taught them have been waiting for this for five months, and finally they committed to be baptized. They are both so awesome; they will be a real asset to the ward.

On Christmas, the six missionaries in the branch went to Sister Brathwaite's for lunch. We had ham and steak and sweet potato pie and cheesecake. It was great. The zone leaders had an appointment afterwards, but then we and the Six Roads elders went to Sister Scott's. She asked us if Sister Brathwaite had stuffed us full, then proceeded to give us more food. It was pretty funny. They called sparkling cider "non-alcoholic wine" here. There was plenty for all, especially after she watered it down with some kind of red soda. It tasted pretty good.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand . . . *drumroll* Our investigator came to church! Yay! *Punjabi happy dance* Richie, the coconut guy, called us during the opening hymn (ooops), asking where the church building was. Sister Bennion went out to meet him and got back right in time for the sacrament, which was a real blessing. He stayed for all three hours and was not freaked out by it. We have to set another, later, baptismal date with him, but he came to church! It was awesome, because we called like five people that morning trying to get someone to church that day, and no one was able to come. But Richie came :) He's awesome.

BTW, forgot to ask on Christmas: did y'all carol at EMWD this year? And, how is the temple work going? I have some exciting pictures to show you, of names you can look up to see if we are related. They are obviously not ancestors, but they have familiar names :)

I love you all.

Have a happy New Year!

Sister Tibbitts

P.S. Role of the Savior outline:

Holidays vs. Holy Days

-Matt. 1:20-21  Jesus means "God is help" or "Savior"

How has Jesus Christ saved us? Alma 7:11-13

     -pains and sicknesses

     -death

     -sins

Pains and sicknesses

-He got sick too

-He had emotions

-He knows how we feel (Mosiah 14:3-4)

Death

-Adam and Eve; spiritual death and physical death

-Resurrection

Sin

-"save from their sins" vs. save intheir sins

-Alma 11:34-37

-How do we become clean from sin? Helaman 5:10-11

-We cannot expect to be saved if we do not repent

What can you do? Missionary work! Why do we do missionary work? D&C 18:10-14

It was really cool, because Sister Bennion found ways to use Hel. 5:11 like three times later that day. The Church is true! :D <3

Barbados, it's been real

Sister Bennion and I at Bathsheba Beach

 Well, after a full six weeks in Barbados, I am being transferred to The Big Island, Trinidad. I am going to be with Sister Hendricks, who is in Tobago right now. I will be leaving for Trinidad on Wednesday, so more news next week. I am sad to be leaving Sister Bennion and everything here so soon, but if Trinidad is where the Lord wants me, then Trinidad is where I will go. Sister Bennion is going to be training another sister from Kiribati; she's pretty nervous, because this sister probably does not speak English very well.

One of our zone leaders, Elder Free, went into the hospital this week with severe pain, and they thought at first it was because he was eating to much greasy food, but then changed it to a heart problem! They thought he was going to have to go back to the US (with only three months left on his mission) and get a pacemaker (!!!). Then the doctor changed the diagnosis to an enlarged heart, which is slightly less serious. He's in Trinidad right now getting a second opinion. His parents were going to come and pick him up at the end of his mission so that he could tour around, and because his brother also served in the West Indies Mission, but if he has to go home I don't know if that will still happen.

On Friday, one of our investigators invited us to a "crusade," where one church invites anyone who wants to come in to a gathering. There was a "prophetess" visiting from the States. Basically, they might as well have called in karaoke night, because they just played a lot of Jesus-songs from YouTube. We had to leave right as the lady was going up to share the word, but honestly, I don't think we missed much: she felt like she needed drums to get the message across. Everyone was really getting into it, and the music was nice (if SUPER loud), but it was kind of weird, to be honest.

Also, there was a drug awareness meeting/devotional last night that was held at another one of our chapels, and they asked me to play for it. They wanted 'Onward, Christian Soldiers' and 'Battle Hymn of the Republic,' neither of which I know. After a lot of praying, the first song went pretty well, but I completely flubbed the closing hymn. Oh well, everyone kept on singing anyway :) It was an interesting meeting. I'm not sure why they were holding it on a Sunday in our chapel, because that made it feel weird, but it was good stuff.

Our investigator Richie has been trying to quit smoking. He has been smoking since he was 12 (!!!), and he says that the one time he quit for six months was the best time of his life. Sister Bennion and I and another member fasted with him Saturday and Sunday. Richie is very sincere in his desires to become a better person and give up any bad habits he has, so we were really happy that he was able to fast with us. He slept most of the time, but I'm sure it still counts :) I'm sad I won't be here for his baptism (because I'm sure he will be baptised, just now), but Sister Bennion will keep me updated.

Barbados has been great. It is so beautiful here. This morning, we went and visited Bathsheba, which is a beach on the East Coast. It was so pretty. We also visited the Andromeda Gardens nearby. I will send pictures :) I had hoped to get a little more time in this place, at least one more transfer, but I will email you next week from Trinidad. It's going to be great ;)'

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

Chefette is like the Bajan MacDonald's.

Bathsheba Beach

ONE MONTH IN BARBADOS!!!!

Things are great here in the West Indies. New Year's Eve (or Old Year's Day, as they call it here) was quite chill: we are on companion exchanges with the Sister Training Leader, Sister Tongi, so we played Old Maid and then went to bed at 10:32 (I know, so disobedient). The roads were almost empty the next morning, probably because everyone was nursing a hangover. We had a couple investigators tell us they were going to a party. That must have been why no one wanted to meet with us; for the first time on my mission we came in early. There was pretty much nothing to do other than update teaching records.

 

New Year's Day, we went over to the Macintoshes for lunch. SO. MUCH. FOOD. We were not even hungry for dinner. They had ham and steak and yam pie and sweet potato pie and sorrel (a drink that tastes kind of like potpourri) and Sprite. And then there was dessert: fruitcake, ice cream, fruit salad, and chocolate-covered berries. We were all dying. Even the elders couldn't finish. But it was really good food, too.

 

Saturday, before branch council, Sister Bennion and I held a reading class. We only had one student, but he's learning the alphabet. Our investigator Lonnie says that Barbados has the highest literacy rate in the world, but we have met five or six people here who cannot read. We invited them all to the reading class, and I think  we will be holding it regularly, but so far only one person has come. It's based off of a book called 'And Ye Shall Have My Words.' It is published by the Church, and uses scriptures and stuff to help people learn to read.

 

Yesterday was Fast Sunday :) I love fasting. We saw a couple miracles happen because we fasted and prayed. Testimony meeting was interesting: someone needs to refresh everyone's memories on what a testimony is. Sister Bennion gave a wonderful testimony, though :)

 

Something funny: a lot of people call the Book of Mormon "the book of the Mormons." Even after we correct them and say the real name very slowly and clearly, they still say "the book of the Mormons." A member even said it yesterday in his testimony! Also, Richie has been insisting lately that the sea is alive, and that her name is Rachel. He says it's in the Bible, but we haven't been able to find it . . . He says there is a scripture that says "and Rachel will give up her dead," but I remember that scripture a little differently. I don't know if he read it in a different version of the Bible or what, but he is very insistent about it. He asked at least two members yesterday.

 

Anyway, one month in Barbados! I can hardly believe it. Sometimes it feels like I've been here forever, and other times I'm like, "I only have 17 months left . . . ?" Being a missionary is weird sometimes.

 

Love, Sister Tibbitts

Me and Sister Bennion on my first day in Barbados. It rained :)

First Preparation Day!