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