July 4, 2010

It is a strange experience not to be home for the celebrations on the
Fourth of July. We miss it and you all very much. Truly, the United
States of America is a chosen land where the Gospel of Jesus Christ
could be restored. Other countries are delightful to visit but there
is no place like home. We recognize how much we have to be grateful
for. Both Kory and Megan expressed such gratitude for America after
serving their missions in Brazil and England and we are feeling that
way also.

This has been another busy week. We learn so much every week. The
next two weeks will be extremely busy with new missionaries coming
from the States and from countries in the West Indies and transfers.
Getting everyone on planes and into the countries they are going to is
a daunting task. We don't find out till maybe 5 days before transfers
who is going and who is staying and then it is a blitz to get
everything arranged. We also are experiencing a lot of illness with
some of the missionaries. One that we served with in St. Vincent from
Tonga and have such love for, Elder Vaea, is currently having a
serious bout with an aggressive parasite. He is unable to keep any
nourishment in his system for very long. He is amazing in that he has
slowed down but is not "out-straight" with this malady. We flew him
and his companion to Guyana this week for a medication that is only
available there. It has not helped yet. He has trouble keeping it
down. We have thought about sending him to the States for treatment
but his Visas make that almost impossible. The miracle is yet to
happen but we have faith that it will. We decided to invite the
missionaries who live in our complex, the Office Elders and the
Assistants to our apartment tomorrow afternoon for a barbecue to
celebrate July 4th. Elder Vaea and his companion, who have been
staying in the humanitarian senior couple's apartment for the past
week, will come also. The Angus are so generous with their apartment
when needs arise; they are currently in Guyana working on humanitarian
projects there. Anyway, when we talked about getting together and
still have the missionaries ready to go to work at 6 pm, we decided to
start at 4 pm and then invite the rest of the people who live in
Valsayne Villa to come to the pool area for singing and light
refreshment about 6 pm. Elder Vaea has been so ready to get back to
proselyting and is excited about this event. So, we will be
celebrating tomorrow! Elder Wheeler and I have had the responsibility
of arranging for another apartment for the CES couple who will be
coming the end of July. Mr. Juman is the owner of Valsayne Villa and
has been remodeling one of the apartments in our building. He is a
very sharp businessman and when Jim met with him to rent the apartment
with our list of things we thought (hoped) should come with a
furnished apartment, he was not very accommodating. Well, we met with
him again on Friday in the apartment and he had done much more than we
requested. He was excited to show us what he had done and Johnny,
the manager, told us his wife had even come to put things away. It
will be a good place for the Harris to "hang their hats". Johnny and
Mr. Juman both thought that we should move into the new apartment and
let the Harris move in our apartment. Too much to do to think about
moving again. We attended church in Chiguanas today. Brother
Baptiste gave the lesson in Sunday School and he wore his love for the
Gospel in his countenance. Great man! I took a chocolate sheet cake
to their "Linger Longer" and there was not a crumb left. So, best get
cookin' for tomorrow!

We love you all! We are so glad to be Mormons and citizens of the US.

"God Bless America."