Another April Zone Conference in Georgetown

Linden's second zone conference was in April. We took our missionaries to Georgetown for the day and even found room for Mark Rodney and Richie Ramdeholl. We traveled over on Monday - our P-day - so the missionaries could do their weekly grocer shopping, then went on splits with the Georgetown missionaries. On our way, we stopped long enough to take this picture! It depicts our goals and the mood of the trip! Sister DeFreitas and Sister Girdharry stayed at the mission office home and were ready to load into the truck early on June 27, 2010 to head to zone conference.

We met at the LaGrange Chapel and went right to work. President Gamiette has lots to offer us and we are all trying hard to learn to become better at teaching the gospel.  President Ricks talked about Prayer being our spiritual tool.  Elder Vi, the district leader, was chosen to conduct the meeting. AP's Elder Damm and Elder Scott, the Assistants to the President, were also called upon to teach.  This was Elder Damm's first conference.

Our new "to be" missionaries were excited about their future.  Helping Brother Moore, Brother Richie Ramdeholl, ElderRyan Ramdeholl, and Mark Rodney in their mission preparations has been one of the highlights of our mission.

Another Guyana Zone Conference

April 2, 2010 took us from Linden to the zone conference in Georgetown. This was General Conference weekend so it was a busy one. We met at the LaGrange Church building where Elders Barton and Scott, President and Sister Gamiette are ready to start. President Gamiette is teaching us all how to become master teachers. The Benns are the new Senior Couple that will work in the office in Georgetown; they are getting ready to go the MTC in the Dominican Republic; they are shown here with Elder Collins and Sister Gamiette. Elder and Sister Ricks are a great asset to our Guyana Area; he is the first counselor in the Mission Presidency.

Trinidad Central and South Zones

The Central and South Zones of Trinidad had their Zone Conference on February 19, 2010 at the mission home where the elders love to be.

February Zone Conferences, Trinidad

On February 18, 2010 the Zone conferences in Trinidad were divided into North Zone on the 18th and the South and Central Zones on the 19th. We were able to move back to the Mission Home for the Zone Conferences, which is such a nice atmosphere.

WIM Helps Haiti

On 25 January 2010, Emrol Gould, President of the Port of Spain Stake, asked for volunteers to help sort clothing and food to be sent to Haiti following a devastating earthquake. President Gamiette gave permission for North Zone elders and four elders from the Central Zone to help with the project which generated many, many bags of clothes and boxes of food.  The United Way people were pretty amazed!!!

Christmas 2009 in Tobago

Sister Leishman (serving in Tobago with her husband) reports: Our Christmas day service project was visiting at a children's home called the SylPhil House, home to 26 children (ages 9 months to 18 years).   Phillip and Sylvia started the home over 55 years ago. Sylvia is deceased but Phil has a daughter, Susan, who helps him run it now.

The Elders decorated sugar cookies and we took 3 dozen along with two boxes of food items and a laundry basket fulled with gifts for each of the children. We purchased crayons and coloring books, reading books, and journals to give to the children. On Christmas Eve, Elders Duncan, Chambers, Linton and Jensen helped us wrap the gifts.

On Christmas morning the Elders came over for breakfast.  Elder Chambers did his best to beat Elder Jensen in a pancake eating contest but Elder Jensen outdistanced Elder Chambers by two pancakes. After breakfast was cleared away, we headed over to the SylPhil House to take our gifts and to sing them some Christmas carols. Turns out, we were the ones entertained by a small band made up of some of the children. There were actually about 10 playing instruments which included recorders, bass guitar, drums, keyboard, clarinets, and the star of the show, the steel pan.

After entertaining us, the children went outside to have fun in the sun. They had a blow-up swimming pool big enough to hold about a dozen of the smaller children. They were shoulder to shoulder in the pool, but they didn't care. It was a hot day so, as long as they were wet and cool, nothing else mattered. The elders were tempted to join them but they obeyed mission rules and stayed out of the water.

November Guyana Zone Conference

 

24-November-2009--Zone Conference already again! Time does go by quickly!
 
The LaGrange Building is where we meet--as you can see, it is a gorgeous place here in this land. In this conference we continued to discuss and practice how to use three different types of questions to teach the gospel--using the scriptures, mainly the Book of Mormon: 1) Search, 2) Analyze, and 3) Apply. We had some one-on-one practices (most of them not with their own companions) and then later in mini-groups--it was quite effective and enjoyable. 

It was an incredible moment, too, when 29 Guyanese missionaries stood among the 40 missionaries at the conference.  When the foreign missionaries were expelled earlier this year, many in the world thought the Church in Guyana would simply go away . . . then these valiant warriors came forward and said, "send me!  I will serve a mission!"

That same evening after Zone Conference, there was a special fireside for the eight Guyanese missionaries who will be traveling to the MTC in the Dominican Republic tomorrow. They are Brother Narine, Santakumar Pitamber, Leon Wilkins, Christina Jaipaul, Marcia Gaspar, Premchand Bharat, Triston Murray, and Henry.