Jan. 3, 2010

It has been a quiet week because of the holidays. We were busy except
for New Years day which is the first day since we got here that we
spent the entire day in our apartment. We felt a little
discombobulated. Things have definitely picked up since then as we
are preparing for the first zone conference ever here in St. Vincent.

The highlight of the week was having a Home Evening with Lydia and OJ
and their six children. They live below us and are our landlords. We
asked Lydia a few weeks ago if they would like the missionaries to
come and share a message with them and Lydia politely said they were
not interested. Elder Wheeler then talked to her about our Family
Home Evenings and asked if we could share a Monday night with them.
She said they would like that sometime. We had not said anything more
about it and she was in our apartment last week and asked us when we
were going to do the family thing with them. We set it up for the
next Monday. We thought we would be going to their home but they came
to our apartment and brought the food. It was a wonderful evening.
OJ expressed his faith in God even though he does not go to church.
His father insisted that he go as a child with his mother and he has
very good values because of that blessing. Lydia is from a family of
10 and has always gone to church but it is an off and on thing for her
also. We had wonderful responses from the children to our lesson and
their youngest, Asharia, 2 years old, sang a great song she had
learned in church. We had printed off some Primary songs for them to
sing with us that went along with the lesson about how we can tell our
Heavenly Father loves us. We played a game and then shared the food
they had brought upstairs from their home. They stayed and visited
for awhile afterward and it was a good experience. They are a
wonderful family and are definitely not the norm here in St. Vincent.
We expressed our gratitude for living here and Lydia talked about
listening to her heart when she stopped and asked Elder Wheeler if the
missionaries needed another place to live. We feel that it is no
accident that we are here and we are building a very good friendship
with all of them. Matthew, 6 years old, just asked me if the guys
that come here are our sons and I was able to tell he and Lydia about
the missionary program. Lydia was quite surprised at the sacrifice
that is made for us to come on missions. To be continued!!!

We have not eaten out much since we have been here. We found a place
called Surf Side that serves an expensive but great hamburger and
fries and we had dinner there last night. We have made a friend with
one of the servers there and she also is one that we are praying for
the right moment to happen in the near future. She has been so kind
and friendly to us. We watched the sun go down and took a deep breath
and then went back to work. You gotta love it!

Sunday meetings in the Calliaqua branch are like a box of chocolates,
you never know what you are going to get! Today proved to be another
adventure! They have a tendency in their testimonies to get a little
pentecostal and you hope they don't stand up, clap their hands and
shout. We love them and know that the Lord will lead them along.

We love ya and hope 2010 is very good to you all. It is wonderful to
know that the Father's plan is for us all to be happy and to find joy
in life's journey.