WIM First Counselor Named

At age 29, Colin Ransford Goodluck has already had more leadership positions in the Church than most have in a lifetime! The newly called First Counselor in the West Indies Mission Presidency joined the Church as a young child in March, 1994 in his homeland of Guyana. At age 19, he was called to serve as a fulltime WIM missionary in Trinidad, St. Maarten and Barbados (2004-06). Since his honorable release, he has shared his joyful countenance and deep love of the gospel of Jesus Christ as Branch Clerk, District Executive Secretary, Elders Quorum President, Branch President, Georgetown District President, and most recently as First Counselor in the Georgetown District Presidency.

As the mission's First Counselor, President Goodluck - also recently hired as the Church's Facilities Manager for Guyana and Suriname - will assist President Gamiette in efforts to "bring souls unto Christ" in those same two countries. He will assume the responsibilities of President Gary Ricks, who will conclude his mission on September 1 after 18-months of “steady leadership” in the mission presidency.

In his very limited spare time, President Goodluck enjoys spending time with his eternal companion Vonella and their two small boys; a rousing game of basketball and classes at the University of Guyana where he is taking a one year sabbatical from his studies for a degree in International Relations toward a future career in government.

WIM Welcomes Sister Galbraith

Barbara Jean Galbraith, a longtime resident of Dayton, Ohio, is the WIM's newest senior missionary called to step into the very big assignment of Mission Travel Secretary in the Trinidad office. She can be reached at wimtravel@gmail.com.

“I have wanted to go on a mission for a long time, but there never seemed to be a right time,” says the retired French teacher and mother of four accomplished offspring. “Then I heard church leaders and others say, ‘Your family will be blessed if you go on a mission.’ Well, my family needs blessings so off I go, I thought, but when . . .? A returned-missionary couple advised me to ‘just pick a date. There will never be a perfect time.’ When my call came to the West Indies Mission, it exactly fit my availability date of October 17th! Then, President Gamiette asked me to come in mid-August instead, so I re-shuffled things and here I am.”

A lifetime member of the church, blessed to be descended from pioneers who crossed the plains, Sister Galbraith notes, “My testimony has always been a part of me, but I believe it took root during my 8 formative years spent growing up near Paris, France where we attended the Paris Branch, among members and missionaries who set a marvelous example of strength in the gospel.”

Sister Galbraith has served most in the Primary and Relief Society, but her favorite – and most challenging - calling in the Church was teaching seminary for 3 years. Most recently, she served as Ward Music Chairman where she gained an appreciation for the hours and hours members invest in preparing a musical number for Sacrament meeting.

A native of Washington DC, Sister Galbraith lived in Germany and France as a child, and in the Salt Lake Valley and southern California while raising her family. She has a BA and MA in French and a teaching degree from the University of Utah, but chose to be a Home Mom for the first 22 years of her married life. When her children were grown, she accepted a teaching position at Wright State University in Dayton where she taught French for 22 years, including organizing a study abroad program so she could take her students “home” to France.

The new travel secretary adds, “the best part of my story really is my grandchildren! They range in age from 2 to 9 1/2. Leaving them is the only thing about my mission I consider a ‘sacrifice’."

Welcome to the WIM, Sister Galbraith!

Goodbye, Sister Ellison

The West Indies Mission will lose an incredible asset on August 8, when Sister Diane Ellison goes home to her family and friends in southern California. Sister Ellison has spent 23-months caring for the health and wellbeing of the “young . . . and a little past young” missionaries in her role as WimNurse. In her other role as WimTravel, she has also pulled off some truly miraculous feats in arranging hundreds of airline flights for transfers, zone conferences and other mission journeys.

The most enjoyable experience of her mission? “Doing things which seemingly could not be done. Seeing miracles happen because I wouldn't believe they couldn't. Being cornered by impossible flight schedules or medical problems, then feeling the flash of insight coming straight from The Source. Getting to know the missionaries. I've laughed with them, I've cried with them, I've learned and grown with them. My love feels no limits when I think of them.”

While she will mostly miss the “incredible tropical breezes,” the WIM will miss this senior missionary's positive attitude, her giving spirit and her infectious laugh, but she is excited for her future. “I am a Red Cross disaster nurse and they are already emailing me and counting the days until I come home. They’ve asked me to up-grade my certification so I can be deployed internationally, as well as nationally. I love this kind of exhausting, heartbreaking and incredibly satisfying work which pushes the edge of the envelope. The assignments are about 3 weeks at a time so I'm not gone from my family long and they love the stories I have to tell when I return. I also plan to be a nurse at summer camp. Because of my connection with the Red Cross I could do all their certification like lifeguard training, water safety, first aid and CPR. Most of all I love the out-of-doors, I love health and I love swimming and teaching children to swim.”

Til we meet again, Sister Ellison. We are better (and healthier) for having known you!

WIM Welcomes Nine

Eight young men - and for the first time in WIM history, a North American sister missionary (see “WIM Welcomes North American Sisters”) – are among 52,225 missionaries currently serving who have answered a call to this noble commission to help the Lord “sweep the earth as with a flood, to gather out mine elect from the four corners of the earth” in 340 missions around the world, including those in the islands of the Caribbean and three countries of South America!

Welcome to the West Indies Mission to Corey Michael Bills (Ontario, California); Derek James Gines (Wendell, Idaho); Tate Cary Meacham (North Ogden, Utah); Jami Butler (Brigham City, Utah); French speakers Talen Nathaniel Barney (Alpine, Utah) and Steven Warren Heiata (Taputapuatea, Raiatea, French Polynesia); and, Dutch speakers Colton Ballard Grange (Boise, Idaho), Philip Scott Warner (Gilbert, Arizona) and Albert Gabino Job (Grotingen, Nederland, Netherlands).

First North American Sisters Called to the WIM

A Black Name Tag upon our chest
We are the ones, the Church's best.
Some may boast and some may brag,
But only a few wear the Black Name Tag.

Twenty-four months without a date,
But we are tough, we can wait.
Our girls at home, they ever brag. . .
Their brave men wear the Black Name Tag.

Back at home our girlfriends wait,
But not for long, she starts to date.
Her interest soon begins to lag,
She then "Dear Johns" the Black Name Tag.

On our return we resume life,
Start our search to find a wife.
But finds are few and efforts lag,
Such is life for the Black Name Tag.

You find a fox, she has her man,
You find a chick, she has a plan.
You find the one, but what a drag,
She wants to wear the Black Name Tag.

She may not yet know the significance of her decision to wear the Black Name Tag, but Sister Jami Butler of Brigham City, UT is a modern day pioneer making history in the West Indies Mission as the first North American sister called to labor here. And, she will soon be joined by seven more sister missionaries - Rachel Ann Brisson (Lorton, near Alexandria, VA); Alexis Grace Fish (Apache Junction, AZ); Elizabeth Sims (Riverton, UT); Kaisha Rae Weaver (Rexburg, ID); Heidi Kelsch (West Jordan, Utah); Deanna Steinmetz (Hempstead, Texas); and, Lindsey Stephenson (Idaho Falls, Idaho) - all expected to arrive from the MTC in the next few transfers.

These young sisters – pioneers in the effort to “bring souls unto Christ” in this part of His vineyard - will continue in the footsteps of many faithful young women who came before them from homes in the islands of the Caribbean and from the South American continent, including Bibi Girdharry, Marcia Alicia Gaspar, Christina Jaipaul, Chennell Marie Camejo, Ronetta Mentore, Freda Touissant, Natasha Phagwah, Naomi Fraser, Tracey DeFrietas, Munda Shrestha, and Weslande Olysse.

Elder Quentin L. Cook, Quorum of the Twelve Apostles noted in his April 2011 Conference address, “the faith of [pioneer] sisters in being willing to leave their homes to cross the plains for the unknown was inspiring. If one had to characterize their most significant attribute, it would be their unwavering faith in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. The heroic accounts of what these pioneer women sacrificed and accomplished as they crossed the plains is a priceless legacy to the Church.”

The same can be said for all the young women who have - or will yet - wear the Black Name Tag as modern-day pioneers in the West Indies Mission.

Six Say Goodbye in July Transfer

On July 27, six spiritually strong, hardworking missionaries - all who have served faithfully and honorably in the West Indies Mission - face the finality of a packed bag. Parting with companions and members. The last interview with the mission president. The knotted stomach. The plane ride home. The reunitings, and the realization . . . their fulltime service to the Lord – for which they have prepared since childhood – has ended.

Brandon Ray Ackerman (Grace, Idaho), Christian Beau Hicken (Salt Lake City, Utah), Austin Kasey Morris (Mesa, Arizona), Mathias Nathan Miranda (Riversaltes, France), Ronetla Malika Mentore (Georgetown, Guyana) and Alwin Jeffry Roepers (Bergen op Zoom, Netherlands) will leave for home this week to begin the next step of their eternal mission.

Each of you will be missed by those who have served alongside you or who were introduced to the gospel of Jesus Christ through your willingness to share the gospel message. You will always be sons (and a daughter) of the West Indies!

Meet the Treseder's . . . Again!

Richard and Margaret (“Meg”) Treseder, of Queen Creek, Arizona, are returning for a second time to the West Indies Mission where they will provide shadow leadership to the saints in Berbice. They were first called to serve in Guyana in March 2009, but were transferred to St. Lucia to complete their 18-month mission, after spending what Sister Treseder describes as “a fun day in the Georgetown jail” along with approximately 30 other foreign missionaries expelled from the country in September 2009 – “a story our grandchildren love to tell to their friends.”

“We really love the people of Guyana and are excited to be back among them,” notes Sister Treseder. “It wasn’t practical for us to extend when we were here before, but we promised President Gamiette we would return.”

Calling their first mission “an incredible experience in both places” the Treseders are anxious to renew friendships with those they knew and loved in Berbice as they “madly try to remember names and places which stretch our feeble minds. But, having been there before is reassuring, although we know it won’t be exactly the same place we left. On the other hand, we are not looking forward to the bugs, mosquitoes, chiggers, and the muggy weather.”

In his working life, Elder “T” – as he was known during their first mission in Guyana - earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering, a Master of Education in Counseling and Psychotherapy, served his country for almost seven years as a Navy pilot (and later in the Air Force – then retired from the Army). He then went on to serve the Lord for nearly 30 years as a seminary instructor. Sister Treseder managed a janitorial business, owned a pet store, worked in a construction office and in a Mexican restaurant while she raised “five great kids who have given us 15 wonderful grandkids, the oldest who is serving a mission in So. Carolina. We will miss them, but are anxious to be a part of the West Indies mission with the best missionaries and the greatest mission President in the church.”

Welcome back, Elder and Sister Treseder, to “the land of many waters.”