April 4, 2010

,

What a week we have had! We hope that your Easter week has been
filled with good family memories and a spiritual feast with General
Conference and Easter. We had some homesickness that was quickly
replaced with being busy. We were so grateful to be able to enjoy
Conference live and we had a full Kingstown chapel on Sunday.

Our week began with preparations for the Zone conference. Pres. and
Sister Gamiette were to arrive on Monday night and because of his
tight schedule in St. Lucia they missed their flight. So, adjustments
were made and they arrived about noon on Tuesday. That made it so we
had some kick back time with the missionaries from Granada. The young
missionaries spent the morning street contacting and making visits.
We had a nice visit with the Rasmussens who are the senior couple in
Granada. We enjoy them a lot. Sister R has been having some trouble
with her feet so she isn't very mobile right now. We had a great
lunch after the Gamiettes and the Assistants to the President (AP)
arrived. The APs gave us great compliments on the food at St.
Vincent's Zone conference so that was rewarding. Pres. Gamiette gave
a masterful lesson on the oath and the covenant of the priesthood.
Great learning!!! We then went into interviews and branch councils
and again he taught doctrine for the challenges that we are facing.
He finished interviews about 11 pm and we got Pres. and Sis. Gamiette
to the hotel just before midnight. They had to be at the airport by
5:30 am Wednesday morning. Their schedule is just exhausting and
could be accomplished without the promise of "run and not be weary and
walk and not faint". They definitely were weary but were renewed with
a few hours sleep. We had another day at Immigration which went
relatively well. They complained about using a copy of the sponsors
letter even though he was with us. So he now has to fill out each
letter in its entirety for each one of us. It is getting to be an
expected thing that they will find something to complain about. We
had another lesson with the Providence family on Thursday evening and
that is always rewarding. It was also our wedding anniversary on
Friday and we had a great day. It started out with the normal chores
and then our landlady brought us some Easter buns mid morning. So we
had a lovely break with a beautiful view from our veranda and some
delightful Easter buns which are a tradition here along with flying
kites for Easter. We continued with the usual until evening and then
went to the French Veranda for dinner which was absolutely the best we
have had here. Great Caribbean Anniversary!!! Saturday was so
wonderful with all the Conference sessions and a baptism in between.
Arthur Lawrence was baptized. He is 17 years old and the son of
Marcia who was baptized a couple of weeks ago. A year ago, the priest
in the church they were attending wanted Arthur to become a priest and
go to theology college. He is a very bright young man and will be a
great asset to the Kingstown branch and to the mission field in a
couple of years. We were concerned that there would not be many
members come to Conference on Sunday. We were pleasantly surprised
when the Chapel was filled. Conference was such a spiritual feast; it
will be good to study the messages when they are available. We asked,
"Which was your favorite talk?" Everyone had a hard time saying
because they had several that were so good for them. Lots of talks
about family and teaching in the home. We were so glad to listen to
Elder Brad Foster's talk (even though it made us a little homesick).
Great talk that made us glad that we have such a friends thanks to
Richard and Kathy Polatis. Another great week here in St. Vincent.
We have our challenges here which keeps life interesting...you've got
to love it.

We would have had more baptisms on Saturday if the investigators had
been able to fulfill the revised requirements. They must come to
church 3 Sundays in a row and read the Book of Mormon every day for 14
days. Can you say that you have done both of these? The Book of
Mormon is so important!!! Hope you all have a good week.

Much love,
Elder and Sister Wheele