St. Vincent Couple Receive Mission Call

President Verrol and Sister Helen Young received their mission call to the West Indies Mission. They will leave for the MTC in the Dominican Republic on June 24, 2010! They are excited and it sounds like they will be serving in Guyana--they are scheduled to arrive there about July 2 or 3.

They have lived on St. Vincent for quite awhile. President Young has banana orchards on the NE end of the island. He is currently the Elder's Quorum President and she is the president of the Relief Society--they will be missed in the Calliaqua Branch!

Elder and Sister Collins had the privilege of delivering their call on Monday, May 31, 2010. Sister Young knew we were coming and greeted us with a huge smile! Then Elder Collins handed them their call letter. "Who shall open it?"..........."We will read it together."

 

They are excited and ready to serve! Such a fine couple; Elder Collins and I knew him as a Branch President 21 months ago when we served in St. Vincent before.

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.