It is Tuesday night and we received word from President Gamiette at 4
pm that we are being transferred to the mission office in Trinidad and
that we are to be there on Thursday. So, we will write again as soon
as we get settled.
- Show quoted text -
Sunday, May 16, 2010
02-may-2010
,
It is Tuesday night and we received word from President Gamiette at 4
pm that we are being transferred to the mission office in Trinidad and
that we are to be there on Thursday. So, we will write again as soon
as we get settled.
It is Tuesday night and we received word from President Gamiette at 4
pm that we are being transferred to the mission office in Trinidad and
that we are to be there on Thursday. So, we will write again as soon
as we get settled.
16-may-2010
Time is flying by and we think of home and our good family and friends
fondly. We hope that this note finds you all doing well and finding
joy in the journey. Today is cloudy and rainy and when we are in an
air conditioned building looking out it reminds us of spring at home.
Things have come back to life there and it is a beautiful time of
year. Enjoy!!!
We have had quite a week. It started with a wonderful FHE with
Kashore, Nadine and family and a golden investigator, Shavorn and her
two small children. Elders Jones and Gordon prepared Kashore and
Nadine to give a lesson on the first principles of the gospel and they
baked brownies and we brought cookies. We had the FHE at the McDowald
's humble home, one small room, dirt floor, no electricity, no water,
no furniture and tin nailed over the windows. As we waited for the
Elders to arrive, we sang hymns and Primary songs with Kashawna, Reon,
Reonique and Shavorn's little girl. As the sun was setting, they lit
a lantern and there was a sweet spirit of love and happiness as they
taught and shared the gospel with each other. Shavorn said that
before the missionaries started teaching her she had no hope for a
better day in the future. After she met the missionaries and started
reading the Book of Mormon, she experienced great happiness and hope
for the future. She looks forward to each day reading the Book of
Mormon and each week attending Church. She will sit for hours on her
porch reading the Book of Mormon and waiting for the missionaries to
come by. We felt so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful event.
The McDowalds are great missionaries, sharing the gospel with their
family and friends. As events of the week developed, we felt that we
had experienced a "tender mercy" from our Heavenly Father with this
memory to cherish. On Tuesday, we had District meeting and Elder
Prince taught that "duty makes us do things well and love makes us do
things beautifully". We can be apart of the stone rolling forth or we
can be on the sidelines and watch. Tuesday afternoon Pres. Gamiette
called and asked us to come to Trinidad and serve in the mission
office, Jim as financial secretary and Jan as mission secretary. He
asked us to be in Trinidad on Thursday. Wow!!! We felt very
overwhelmed as we have limited computer skills and this mission is
very complex. We went to work organizing things so that we could
leave St. Vincent and packing. We spent Jan's birthday packing and
having members and missionaries call and come by to say "Good-bye".
We have made forever friends in St. Vincent. Our flight was at 9 am
on Thursday. We have been learning a lot and have much more to learn.
We ask you to pray for us! There are some dynamics in the office
that need to be addressed and it remains to be seen how things will be
organized. Pres. Gamiette will be back in the office on Monday and
so by next week we will know exactly what we will be doing. We had a
lovely dinner today with the Gamiette family in the mission home with
the couple that have been serving in the mission office and Elder
Hymas who has been a counselor to Pres. Gamiette and is preparing to
return home after serving a great mission with his wife Jeralie.
Things in Trinidad are much more like home with four lane highways and
shopping plazas and a mall. We enjoyed attending a ward today; they
organized a stake here about 15 months ago.
We love you all and love hearing your news. We have faith that as we
strive to "step up" our prayers will be answered. S T R E T C H !!!
Much love,
Elder and Sister Wheeler
fondly. We hope that this note finds you all doing well and finding
joy in the journey. Today is cloudy and rainy and when we are in an
air conditioned building looking out it reminds us of spring at home.
Things have come back to life there and it is a beautiful time of
year. Enjoy!!!
We have had quite a week. It started with a wonderful FHE with
Kashore, Nadine and family and a golden investigator, Shavorn and her
two small children. Elders Jones and Gordon prepared Kashore and
Nadine to give a lesson on the first principles of the gospel and they
baked brownies and we brought cookies. We had the FHE at the McDowald
's humble home, one small room, dirt floor, no electricity, no water,
no furniture and tin nailed over the windows. As we waited for the
Elders to arrive, we sang hymns and Primary songs with Kashawna, Reon,
Reonique and Shavorn's little girl. As the sun was setting, they lit
a lantern and there was a sweet spirit of love and happiness as they
taught and shared the gospel with each other. Shavorn said that
before the missionaries started teaching her she had no hope for a
better day in the future. After she met the missionaries and started
reading the Book of Mormon, she experienced great happiness and hope
for the future. She looks forward to each day reading the Book of
Mormon and each week attending Church. She will sit for hours on her
porch reading the Book of Mormon and waiting for the missionaries to
come by. We felt so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful event.
The McDowalds are great missionaries, sharing the gospel with their
family and friends. As events of the week developed, we felt that we
had experienced a "tender mercy" from our Heavenly Father with this
memory to cherish. On Tuesday, we had District meeting and Elder
Prince taught that "duty makes us do things well and love makes us do
things beautifully". We can be apart of the stone rolling forth or we
can be on the sidelines and watch. Tuesday afternoon Pres. Gamiette
called and asked us to come to Trinidad and serve in the mission
office, Jim as financial secretary and Jan as mission secretary. He
asked us to be in Trinidad on Thursday. Wow!!! We felt very
overwhelmed as we have limited computer skills and this mission is
very complex. We went to work organizing things so that we could
leave St. Vincent and packing. We spent Jan's birthday packing and
having members and missionaries call and come by to say "Good-bye".
We have made forever friends in St. Vincent. Our flight was at 9 am
on Thursday. We have been learning a lot and have much more to learn.
We ask you to pray for us! There are some dynamics in the office
that need to be addressed and it remains to be seen how things will be
organized. Pres. Gamiette will be back in the office on Monday and
so by next week we will know exactly what we will be doing. We had a
lovely dinner today with the Gamiette family in the mission home with
the couple that have been serving in the mission office and Elder
Hymas who has been a counselor to Pres. Gamiette and is preparing to
return home after serving a great mission with his wife Jeralie.
Things in Trinidad are much more like home with four lane highways and
shopping plazas and a mall. We enjoyed attending a ward today; they
organized a stake here about 15 months ago.
We love you all and love hearing your news. We have faith that as we
strive to "step up" our prayers will be answered. S T R E T C H !!!
Much love,
Elder and Sister Wheeler
Monday, May 3, 2010
2-may-2010
Another good week here in the mission field, not that there aren't a
few challenges that make the rest of the experience sweet. We
received the newsletter from the Moreland 1st ward and it was great
fun to visualize our home ward. It is quite a contrast between there
and here. We did have good attendance in Calliaqua branch with
attending. There were quite a few that usually come that weren't
there so we could have had the goal of 70. Pres. Gamiette, mission
president, told Pres. Robertson, branch president, that if he could
maintain an attendance of 70 they could build a chapel of their own.
They have a ways to go but it is within reach, the average attendance
continues to increase.
We also have received some beautiful art for the Calliaqua branch,
which we take for granted at home, and Elder Morris did a masterful
job of hanging it. It has made the building feel so much different.
We also received new chairs last week and we have not been able to get
them from customs as of yet. The duty they have placed on them is
prohibitive and a broker has requested to have it cut in half. They
have charged the Church $800 EC just to unload them off the plane. I
guess they realized that they didn't charge us what they could have
the week before for the art. It will be good to have ample chairs and
we hope that we are able to "bail them out" before branch conference
on May 9. We had a great new convert class on Sunday. Sister Tucker,
the teacher, asked a great question that inspired a wonderful
discussion between investigators and new converts about how their
lives have changed since they have received the gospel. They shared
the peace they feel even though temporal things have not changed that
much in their lives, how they are able to deal with conflict in a
conciliatory way and discipline children without anger, the love they
feel when they come to church and how everyone helps in teaching the
gospel. It was wonderful to see their faces light up as they shared
their feelings and experiences. We are so blessed to have the "Good
News" of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Our testimonies are
growing as we watch the wonderful changes that come to those who
accept the gospel. It is amazing that whatever we study is needed in
that week for lessons we give or classes we teach. The Elders also
express that same phenomenon. This is indeed a "marvelous work and a
wonder" that we are engaged in. We are all missionaries by our
example; there are always people watching us even when we don't
realize it. Sister LeBorde bore such a strong testimony on Sunday,
they don't come any better. She just turned 70 and makes me smile
every Sunday as she comes to Church with her hat and smile. We also
had a new member that had joined the Church on a trip to England.
Sister LaFayette James, a member in Calliaqua, is her friend and Shera
Baptiste had never shown any interest in the Church until this trip.
She would ask LaFayette questions on the phone and LaFayette told her
one day that she should get on the net and find the Mormon
missionaries, which she did. She was taught by two lovely sister
missionaries and baptized on her birthday before returning home to St.
Vincent. She is going to be a great strength to the growth of the
Church here.
Well, for not having much to say, you got a load. It just bubbles
over!!! We love you all and know that blessings are coming as we
strive to live the commandments and share the "Good News". May the
study of the Book of Mormon prepare you for sharing the gospel when
the opportunities come, be bold. We can be happy even when life is
hard.
few challenges that make the rest of the experience sweet. We
received the newsletter from the Moreland 1st ward and it was great
fun to visualize our home ward. It is quite a contrast between there
and here. We did have good attendance in Calliaqua branch with
attending. There were quite a few that usually come that weren't
there so we could have had the goal of 70. Pres. Gamiette, mission
president, told Pres. Robertson, branch president, that if he could
maintain an attendance of 70 they could build a chapel of their own.
They have a ways to go but it is within reach, the average attendance
continues to increase.
We also have received some beautiful art for the Calliaqua branch,
which we take for granted at home, and Elder Morris did a masterful
job of hanging it. It has made the building feel so much different.
We also received new chairs last week and we have not been able to get
them from customs as of yet. The duty they have placed on them is
prohibitive and a broker has requested to have it cut in half. They
have charged the Church $800 EC just to unload them off the plane. I
guess they realized that they didn't charge us what they could have
the week before for the art. It will be good to have ample chairs and
we hope that we are able to "bail them out" before branch conference
on May 9. We had a great new convert class on Sunday. Sister Tucker,
the teacher, asked a great question that inspired a wonderful
discussion between investigators and new converts about how their
lives have changed since they have received the gospel. They shared
the peace they feel even though temporal things have not changed that
much in their lives, how they are able to deal with conflict in a
conciliatory way and discipline children without anger, the love they
feel when they come to church and how everyone helps in teaching the
gospel. It was wonderful to see their faces light up as they shared
their feelings and experiences. We are so blessed to have the "Good
News" of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Our testimonies are
growing as we watch the wonderful changes that come to those who
accept the gospel. It is amazing that whatever we study is needed in
that week for lessons we give or classes we teach. The Elders also
express that same phenomenon. This is indeed a "marvelous work and a
wonder" that we are engaged in. We are all missionaries by our
example; there are always people watching us even when we don't
realize it. Sister LeBorde bore such a strong testimony on Sunday,
they don't come any better. She just turned 70 and makes me smile
every Sunday as she comes to Church with her hat and smile. We also
had a new member that had joined the Church on a trip to England.
Sister LaFayette James, a member in Calliaqua, is her friend and Shera
Baptiste had never shown any interest in the Church until this trip.
She would ask LaFayette questions on the phone and LaFayette told her
one day that she should get on the net and find the Mormon
missionaries, which she did. She was taught by two lovely sister
missionaries and baptized on her birthday before returning home to St.
Vincent. She is going to be a great strength to the growth of the
Church here.
Well, for not having much to say, you got a load. It just bubbles
over!!! We love you all and know that blessings are coming as we
strive to live the commandments and share the "Good News". May the
study of the Book of Mormon prepare you for sharing the gospel when
the opportunities come, be bold. We can be happy even when life is
hard.
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