14 December 2015

Dear Family,

Saturday we got transfer calls. I will be staying in Couva with my new companion, Sister Buckhave, but Sister Leishman is going next-door to Chaguanas. She's really sad about it, but I know she will do great there. It's been a great three transfers with her as my companion. I love her to death. Yesterday the ward had a Christmas lunch right after church. Consequently, there were 81 people at church! (which is literally twice as many as the last few weeks.) The food was good and we had a really good time. One of the elders' investigators came, Justin. He's getting baptized on Saturday, and he's really starting to fit in with the ward. It's funny because he was a district effort: Sister Leishman and I found him through his friend, Sister Lapides and Sister Galea'i taught him, and now Elder Ahanonu and Elder Barlow are baptizing him. Yes, district unity! :D

Since she is leaving on Wednesday, Sister Leishman and I opened our Christmas presents this morning. I got her a new nightgown and some earrings, and she got me a pair of pants and a new watch (my own was getting pretty nasty to wear). I will really miss this sister and the fun times we had.

Hope everything is well with you all! Excited to see you next week!

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

7 December 2015

Dear Family,

Sorry I did not have much time last week: We had a Thanksgiving lunch at the mission home and a sports day, so we did not have much time to do other things. The dinner was so good though! Sister Egbert had to cook for 65 people, but she did a good job. 

Had a trade-off last week with Sister Watson in Chaguanas. We were visiting this guy, and he asked us if we wanted to see an alligator. Well, what were we supposed to say to that other than yes? He took us by this water-hole type thing and said he saw a 'gator there the other day. Then he pointed on the other side of the road and said, "You see those holes in the tall grass? There were two alligators fighting there the other day." So, we didn't actually see any, but it was a pretty interesting experience.

The Caribbean Area Presidency had a broadcast the other day where they said they wanted to focus on being converted through sacrament meeting attendance, temple attendance, etc. Those are things that everyone has been really focused on recently, because (I don't know if it's just here) they are struggling with it. Hope that you all are striving to be more converted through those things as well! :D

We had two investigators at church yesterday! One, Stephen, is a young lad whose grandmother is a member. She really wants him to be baptized, so she has been teaching him to read through the Book of Mormon. :D Problem is, his dad is not really supportive . . . so we will have to work on convicing him. The other one was named Steve, an older guy who has investigated before. He's such a cool guy who loves it when we come over and share with him---and he's even keeping the Word of Wisdom since we taught him last week

So, good week. Love you all!

Sister Aida Tibbitts

Burning Shoes and Thing - 23 November 2015

We had zone conference this week. President Egbert and everyone else who spoke talked a lot about working with members and the ward council. We role-played a ward council (I was the Primary President) and the first time it was just great! Elder Rowley was a great bishop and everyone participated and wanted to help. A lot got done. And then President invited one of the senior sisters to replace Sister Leishman as the Relief Society president and our next roleplay was . . . more realistic. It was pretty sad; we felt so accomplished but well, it happened how most ward councils we are used to actually go. As missionaries, we can't do everything, but we want to be able to help our bishop and support him in making Couva ward. President has asked that we aim for twice as many baptisms next year as we had this year, so we are going to have to work harder and more diligently. Just looking for some suggestions here.

Celebrated my year mark! Tried to burn a pair of shoes that I can't wear anymore because they smell too bad . . . but they wouldn't catch fire so I burned a skirt I inherited from my trainer's trainer's trainer (yes, it's that old). That burned just fine, so it was cool :) Yay, one year!

We had a ward party the other night. We've been trying to improve unity in the ward, so I think it helped. A lot more people showed up than we thought, so that was good. We watched The Testaments and played a lot of games. I learned how the play solitaire.

We had a good success yesterday. One of the less-actives we have been teaching for a while, Brother Belfon, came to church! He has been a member for a long, long time, and hasn't been to church in the while, so we were happy to get him there. Now just to get him to stay there . . .

Anyway, a lot of things happening. Hope all yuh had a good week!

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

Diwali Pics

Our first meal appointment on Diwali!

....aaaaaand our third.

Henna!

 

Deeyas

 

A member let me try her sari :D

One Year! - 16 November 2015

Dear Family,

This week is a pretty momentous one in a missionary's life; I officially celebrate one year since I put the tag on and became a full-time missionary in the West Indies. It feels like about two weeks, but I have loved serving the people of the Lord here in the Caribbean. I have grown as a person; I'm not the same person I was when I hugged you goodbye at the curb, Mom (thank heavens). I have grown in my love for people and my desire to serve them. I can actually talk to people now! If you will believe, Sister Leishman told me that she would never have believed I used to be shy. If that isn't a miracle, I don't know what is! I really didn't know what I was getting myself into when I sent those papers off, but I don't regret doing it. I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store for me these next six months (!!!!). Hopefully I change even more.

It's been an interesting week. I know I always say that, but really. We celebrated the Hindu festival of Diwali this week. Basically they make A LOT of food and then say prayers and light little candles (called deeyas) to symbolize the Mother Goddess chasing away darkness on the darkest night of the year (something like that). People gave us so much food I was almost sick, but luckily we got a little respite. It rained a lot that day, so most people had to light deeya the next day. One of our investigators put a little henna design on our hands.

Also, we had our international day of service the week before last. Everyone was saying that they were going to be doing a Mormon Message, but I don't know about that. I do know that one of our YSA reps posted a lot of pictures on the Mormon Newsroom Facebook page, so I think if you go on that page you can see pictures of our service day.

A lot of rain this last week. Rainy season is coming to a close, but we are just now getting a lot. We've had more rain this week than there usually is in a year in California, but people say we even get more than this usually.

Thanks for all yuh!

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

Visiting Teaching - 2 November 2015

Dear Family,

The real miracle this week has been visiting teaching. We took Anne with us a couple times to visit women in the ward, and it seems like we had a great experience each time. The first time, Anne was working in Diego Martin that day, which is quite past Port of Spain. When she tried to get a bus back to Couva, it broke down and she had to walk all the way into town to get a taxi. She thought she probably would not make it for our appointments, but she determined to do her best, and so she was able to come with us and share her testimony with a few of the sisters. A couple days later, she almost got bitten by a snake and did not sleep the night before and still came out with us. She is a great example to living the gospel righteously and having faith no matter the circumstances. Other people would have called and said, "Rain falling, I cannot go," but she stood firm and came anyway. Thank you, Anne. We hope this will help us reactivate and keep strong the sisters in Couva.

We received our transfer calls on Saturday. Sister Leishman and I are staying, but Sisters Lapides and Galea'i are going to other areas and we are taking over their area. It will be difficult because we are very busy in our own area, but we will make it work.

Hope you have had a good week!

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts

26 October 2015

Dear Family,

It's been a pretty crazy week. Sister Leishman got pretty sick on Tuesday and we had to stay in for a couple days, but she is doing better now. Everyone says she has "the virus" that has been going around. Other than that it was a pretty good week. We met with a couple new investigators: Steve has met with missionaries before and even come to church, but something happened and he was never baptized; he is very open to the gospel though and wants to read the Book of Mormon. Shane and Samantha are a married couple who are in an area where we already have a lot of investigators. Samantha didn't say a lot in our lesson, but Shane asked a lot of questions about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He's interested in learning about other religions, though he's not sure he would say that there is "one true church" as yet :) Sunday, our investigator Vijay did not come to church (possibly he slept away), but Richard, who is the boyfriend of a member, did come unexpectedly. The ward was having the Primary Program, and so his girlfriend's daughter convinced him to skip work and come listen to her speak instead. We were very happy to see him there, and he stayed for two hours. Hopefully this will become a more common thing :D

We took one of our recent converts, Anne, out with us to go visiting teaching the other night. She shared a really good visiting teaching message with the two sisters, and got into a conversation with one member's mother. As we were driving home, she was telling us that if that woman could just have fellowshippers her age, she could be brought into the church. Anne had a breakthrough that night about the importance of member work. She realized fully that while it is the missionaries' job to teach, the members also have a great responsibility to fellowship and teach as well. I love that woman: she is so in tune with the Spirit.

So, a bit of a busy week. The Hindus in the Trinidad are preparing for Diwali. Last night they were making loud noises like fireworks using only pitch oil, bamboo, and a cloth. It was pretty interesting to watch. Right now in the savannah they are putting on Ram-Leela (however that is spelled), a reinactment on the story of Ram and Sita. We were able to peek at a bit of it from a member's house right next to the savannah.

I really liked Mosiah 11:12 this week. It struck me how King Noah was building something high and mighty next to the temple itself, when if he had simply worshiped in the House of Jehovah, he would have received something even higher and mightier---and he would not have had to worry about watching the land round about because I am sure Abinadi would have warned him. Oh well.

Hope you guys have a great week. Love you all!

Love, Sister Aida Tibbitts