Dec.5,2010

,

We hear that it is a white world in the Intermountain West. Makes it
easy to have the Christmas spirit. There will definitely not be any
sleigh rides here. We are hearing a lot of Christmas music, lots of
beautiful Christmas lights and lots of people shopping for the season.
Gratefully, Christmas will be a blessed event here.

It has a been another very busy week in the West Indies Mission
office. There are always plenty of things to attend to in order to
keep the business of the mission taken care of. The mission office
system is a challenging program to learn and put into place.
Immigration is also a real challenge and it makes it hard to move
missionaries around the mission as the President would like. We have
been successful in getting missionary permits for some of us serving
in Trinidad and those are the first in about 7 or 8 months. We are
feeling blessed for that.

We have had some members that we know from St. Vincent come to
Trinidad to get medical care for their mother who has diabetes
because the quality of medical care is so poor and outdated there.
Sister Moses has been staying with us for the past two days. The
Church leaders found a member here who will provide a place for her so
we hope that works out. We have been able to help this weekend but
our time is limited during the week to help her get back and forth to
the hospital etc. Most people in St. Vincent have such meager
resources and they are no exception. Bringing Sister John, the
mother, here is a "leap of faith".

We took two young Sister missionaries to church with us in San
Fernando which is about a 45 minute drive, when there is little
traffic. The members there don't see Senior Couples or Sister
missionaries very often and they treat us like royalty. It is so
humbling! The people here are wonderful, loving people. We will
greatly miss them when this experience is finished. We feel so very
blessed to be part of this Church and the great missionary effort.
There is much to do to help build up the Kingdom and help the Lord's
work roll forth. This is such an exciting time to be on the Earth and
see the hand of the Lord in establishing this Church. Surely, the real
strength of the Church is in the individual lives of the members. It
is a great blessing to serve a mission!

You are all in our prayers daily and we send our wish for a Christ
centered holiday season your way.

Christmas love,