Our thoughts are with you as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. We are feeling the true Spirit of Christmas. President Monson has told us to drop the last syllable and make it the Spirit of Christ.
We have had a great week! There were three birthdays this week. Elder Wheeler and Pam and Curtis Kotiah. We decided to celebrate all three by having dinner at the Mongolian Grill on Thursday night. The Kotiahs had a wonderful announcement. Brother Kotiah would be rebaptized on Friday morning after 14 years. He is a great father and husband and wonderful helper with all activities in the Curepe ward. He had a problem of misappropriation of funds and it had taken a long time to repay it. They have reached that goal and are out of debt. The baptism was attended by his family, a friend. his bishop, all of the Mission office staff and the Assistants to the President. It was a tender scene and a new beginning for a good man. He asked Elder Wheeler to confirm him and that was an honor for him. What a great Christmas gift. They are dear friends and this will be a never forgotten memory.
There have been ward and branch parties all over Trinidad. We have heard about a lot of them from others and were able to go to Chaguanas branch Christmas dinner and program on Friday night. It was a traditional Caribbean celebration as it was scheduled to start at 6:30 and it began at 8:15 p.m. It was a good program with great music and a replay of Pres. Uchtdorf's Christmas message. Then we had a great dinner with the traditional rice, coleslaw, chicken and the Christmas ham. We enjoyed it very much. The food presentation was delightful. They have two chefs in this branch. One has worked on cruise ships, great food sculptures. President Judahn gave a spiritual, short Christmas message. His little son Jeremy stood by him, holding his hand and cried a bit and after President Judahn finished, he turned and gathered him up into his arms and hugged him tight. It was a very touching scene. Jeremy is a handsome little 4 year old and is autistic.
On Saturday morning, we went to Maracas Beach with Elder and Sister Childs. It was a welcome stress reliever after an interesting week in the Mission office. We then had Bake and Shark at Richard's, which we will miss when we come home. On the way home, we went to Movie Towne Mall for an ice cream at HagenDaz and to do a little shopping at PriceSmart before calling it a day. This mall makes us feel like we might be in the States. We had a wonderful surprise as they had a 50 piece band and 6 singers performing Christmas songs and other enjoyable music in front of the Movie Towne theater. The percussion section came out and danced through the crowd as their finale. They were excellent and a real delight. We felt like we had been granted another Christmas gift to be able to enjoy such a wonderful day.
We love Sundays as we are getting to be great friends with people in the two branches and one ward where we take turns attending Sunday meetings. We count our blessings to be where we can attend Sacrament meeting every week. The Deonarinesingh family is in the Chaguanas branch and have grown spiritually since we have been here. They have one daughter and four sons. They lost a full-term baby shortly after we came to Trinidad. The father has not missed Church since. They have been working on their home for several weeks now and will dedicate it this Thursday. He made it clear that he wanted us to be there and we decided that we wanted to find where it was before coming home from Church. We followed the directions and found it. It is a very humble dwelling but a refuge to this special family. We knew that we had found the right place because he has drawn a diagram of the Plan of Salvation on the side of the house.
We are being blessed abundantly and feel humbly grateful to be a part of this great work. We know our Savior lives. We know our Father loves each one of us. We know that Joseph Smith is indeed the Prophet of the Restoration. We love the Book of Mormon and know that is the word of God and a guide to bless each day of our lives. We are grateful for a living prophet, Thomas S. Monson and for his counsel to us. May your Christmas be especially blessed.
Joyous Christmas love sent to you all!
Elder and Sister Wheeler
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