It's hard to say good bye

As we look forward to our new adventure in Barbados, we have to say good bye to our old experiences in Martinique.  I don't like good byes.  I prefer see you later's.  We won't see some of these missionaries again for a long time.  We will be losing four of them at the next transfer.  These are really great missionaries.  We love them a lot.

Today we had our last P-day together.  We went to the River Alma. 

Then we went to a water fall

Then we visited a member who weaves baskets out of paper.  She is awesome!

And last, we stopped and looked at the ocean with some of our favorite people!

We love them all.  And we love YOU!

Birthday Gifts

It was my birthday this week!  Birthdays are fun!  It's always nice to be remembered.  This year, I wanted to do something for the branch.  Instead of getting a gift.  I wanted to give a gift.  We ordered 25 hymn books in French.  We took 5 to the group in Trinite and the rest to the branch in Fort de France.  It really felt good to give them something that they will use every week.

Grandpa did give me some small gifts that have great meaning to me.  At first, I couldn't figure out why he gave me these things:

Then I read the inside of the card.  In part, it says,"I appreciate you giving us Martinique and I will do everything I can to give you Barbados."  It made me cry because I know how hard this is going to be, mostly for him!  The rock on the left is coral from the beach in Barbados and the pen and paper punch represent office supplies.  He sure is a good man!

He even made me dinner!

And I made dessert.  It's cinnamon rolls without cinnamon and raisins.  But they do have chocolate chips!

It was a great birthday.  I can't believe I have celebrated two birthdays in the mission field!  There is no better place to be!

We love YOU!

It's not all fun and games

It's not all fun and games in the Caribbean!  This picture is a check list of what I have been doing for the better part of 3 days this week.  Every transfer, I make up a 4 page Word document for each missionary who is going home.  This time there are 17.  It takes me about 4 hours for each missionary from start to finish.  Each document has 8-15 pictures in it and a write up of what they have learned on their mission.  I start a month in advance by emailing them and telling them what is required.  I email them all each week for 3 weeks and then call them when they haven't complied.  I spend a lot of time fixing their pictures.  I want their paper to look nice.  I also do a different kind of paper for each new missionary that comes each transfer.  They only take about an hour to make.  We had 11 this transfer.

It's pretty time consuming and I wish I was out with the missionaries, but I am glad I can do this for the missionaries.

Grandpa doesn't like to sit around and watch me do this, so he goes out with the missionaries.  This time it was with the Zone Leaders.  Elders Lewis and Peterson.  They are wonderful and make our job so much easier!  And as a bonus they bring me chicken and bakes at the end of the day.  (Which is 9:30 pm!)

They climbed a LOT of stairs and Grandpa got pretty tired, but he's a trooper!  We are both glad to be serving a mission together, even during the hard parts.

We hope you are enjoying your callings, too.  Even the tedious, not so fun parts.  It is all worth it in the end.

We love YOU!

The calm before the storm...

We went to Barbados this week to get to know the country a little bit.  We also met the District President and he will be very helpful as we get things rolling.  These pictures are of our morning exercise as we walked along the beach.  The water is so pretty here!  And the beaches are soft and cool.  We wish we could have spent more time on them, but we were busy doing other things.

We are so grateful for this mission!  We look forward to when ALL of you get to serve one!  (Or another one!)

And always remember that we love YOU!

The living tree

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the very south end of the island to a place called St Anne.  It is where many tourists go.  We enjoyed a few hours on the beach (but only found 1 tiny piece of sea glass!)

As we were walking back to the car, we noticed this dead tree stump, with a live tree coming out of it!  Isn't it amazing what God can do?  He takes something that looks totally useless and turns it in to something beautiful and vibrant.

We have been praying that He will do the same thing for us.  When the mission President called us and asked us to take on the new assignment of office couple in Barbados, we both wondered if we would be up to the task.  The President assured us that if we were all called based on how well we could do it right now, none of us would be called to anything!  The Lord takes us the way we are.  We may not look like much to others, they might not see the potential within us.  We may not even see the potential within ourselves.  But the Lord does.  And he knows that he can make a green tree out of us.

Psalms 1:3 - And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

Job 14:7 - For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

We are grateful for the faith and trust that God has in us.  That the mission president has in us.  And that you have in us!

Thank you so much for praying for us!  We need it and we pray for you, too.

We love YOU!

And here's a pretty picture of St Anne, Martinique.

Phone call

We got a phone call.  From the Mission President. Last night.  He asked us a question.  He wanted an answer today.  One of us slept like a rock.  The other slept like a baby (woke up every few hours crying).

We made our decision and called him today.  Then I looked at my calendar page for the day.  Seems appropriate!

Call for more info!

Baptism!

We had a baptism on February 28, 2015.  His name is Bryan and he is almost 13.  He has wanted to be baptized for a while but his Mom didn't want him, too.  He has been coming to church and has lots of friends there.  Finally, he asked his mother again, and she said yes!  She signed all the papers and he was baptized!  She wouldn't come to the baptism, tho.  Isn't that sad that he doesn't have any family support?  But it is so awesome that he did the right thing!

I am so grateful that we have a family that supports each other.  We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives!  We are grateful that you show us love.  We miss you!

And we love YOU!