On Monday (preparation day) the elders thought it would be fun to make another attempt to visit the Botanical Gardens and Diamond Water Fall in Soufriere. You may remember we drove there a couple of weeks ago and our visit was foiled by torrents of rain. This day was a good choice. There had been rain during the night so the foliage in the garden appeared so fresh and colorful and the waterfall as impressive as always. After our visit at the garden we enjoyed lunch at Fedo’s-a little Soufriere neighborhood diner. And we mean neighborhood diner. There is a large sign indicating where to turn off the main road, and then, at least for us, it was asking pedestrians what way to go. We did find it and enjoyed our meal. When we returned to our apartment the elders stayed with us so they could use our computer to do their weekly e-mailing-and take a shower as their apartment was waterless due to the rain the night before (For some reason rain threatens the way culinary water is collected into the system. So the more the rain the greater the chance of not having water). We also took them grocery shopping, fed them their evening meal, and then went teaching with them in the evening. In other words we were together for twelve hours this day-and still enjoying one another’s company. We have been going with the elders each evening to teach Elizabeth, her 11 year old granddaughter Rosealah, and Kava. Just to give an example of what the elders content with: Kava is living with Elizabeth’s son, with whom she has two children and pregnant with the third. She also has two other children from another boyfriend. Marriage is a possibility but she says she is content with the way things are now. One evening the elders gave them an assignment to read the introduction to The Book of Mormon. On our return visit when asked how the reading went Elizabeth and Kava had done a little. However 11 year old Rosealah reported having read the Introduction, The testimonies of the three and eight witnesses, Testimony of The Prophet Joseph Smith, A Brief Explanation about The Book of Mormon, and the contents. It will be interesting to see what happens with these people. We were in Castries most of Saturday getting acquainted with and being trained by Brother Jeorge Alvarado. He was lured away by the Church from his employment with Steven Covey Group to replaced Mission President Gamiette as the area Seminary and Instituted Coordinator. He is also an Area 70, assigned to the West Indies plus the Santo Domingo East Mission. He has a unique role in that as the seminary and institute coordinator he is under President Gamiette’s direction but come area conferences etc. he then presides over President Gamiette. He claims that at the age of 38 he is the youngest member of any of the quorums of 70. Also he and President Gamiette were missionaries at the same time-each of them serving in Florida but different missions. He had a mission companion from Pleasant Grove, Jayson Lemon. I am not sure if it is Marilyn & Mel Lemons son or not. Sister Faux: Sister Faux has caught a COLD!!!! How can you ever catch a cold in St Lucia? Besides that I never or hardly ever catch a cold. I was told it was because I walked in the rain and then went into someplace that was cold. I didn’t know there was a cold place on this whole island. We had our movie night again last Friday. We were excited to do that and all 14 people that came enjoyed it. You never know just what will happen but I think our last movie was not a good opener. Oh well we will try again. A few more things that I have taken note of---Things we don’t have at the church. No phone, no adding machine, no projector, no computer and no air conditioning. Things we do have-A calculator, fans (8), an electronic key board that no one can play-well Elder Lang gives it a try. Elder Ash played wonderful when he was here. If Elder Lang stays long enough he will be good too. We also have a new sewing machine, a ‘Brother’. It seems quite nice and I hope to teach people to learn to sew. In fact today I had people sign up for sewing lessons and three men signed up??? As I have said everything is a new experience. I hope it works and is fun and by next week I hope I am sane enough to tell you about it. I have 16 people signed up to learn to sew. It is fun to be with the elders and hear their plans for the future. Just for instance Elder Lang is going to have 8 kids, if he can find a wife. Or maybe if he lives through the disappointment of not getting enough letters from home and friends in the mail. Every time we go to the post office and he has no letters it is hard to see his sad face. If anyone reads this that needs to send him a letter please do so soon. Thank you. Now Elder Sturvedant only needs one letter from Sara (or Sarah) and he is so happy-- we all are happy. He only has 12 days until his parents arrive to pick him up. How exciting is that!! Another busy week has gone by –we will talk again next week. Love to you. Sister Faux and Elder Faux

I had a few technical difficulties this week. sorry!

This week we have included a number of pictures of some of the children we encounter. In their own little way they are all so cute and delightful we thought we would share them. At our district meeting in Castries on Tuesday we had our first opportunity to meet Sister Missionaries Camejo and Girdharry. They are the first sister missionaries to be assigned to the West Indies Mission and will be serving with the Castries Branch along with Elders Williams and Cromwell. Sister Camejo is from Guyana and Sister Girdharry from Trinidad. We have been alternating meeting sites between Vieux Fort and Castries but now it appears Castries will be the meeting place as the vehicle Elder and Sister Collins drive does not have accommodations for six persons. After our district meeting lunch (and much to the dismay of Elder Faux it appears his favorite sandwich shop in Castries, Gyro’s, is closed) we took Elder Sturdevant to look at two resort hotels, The Bay Side and The Windjammer, as he is looking for a place for his parents to stay when they come in September. Each was luxurious- gorgeous ocean view and beautiful beach areas. They are more of a destination than a place to stay while you visit around. Just to indicate the magnitude of the tourist trade on St Lucia we were told the Windjammer occupies 64 acres of property. One Thursday we visited the Coconut Bay Resort which is a five minute drive to the east of Vieux Fort. And again we were surprised and impressed with what we saw including the number of guests. We were given an escorted tour of the resort and as we finished we were treated to a complementary Smoothie beverage. One good thing the St Lucian government has done that we think is good is to keep all the beaches public domain rather than let the large resorts, or other entities, privatize them. In case you are wondering we have been engaged in missionary work as well. We have gone with the elders almost daily to visit with sisters, Kisha and Leann. Sister Faux has mentioned them before. It seems Kisha’s biggest obstacle is deciding if she wants to tell her boy friend goodbye or not. Leann’s appears to be her mother, and since she is under 19 that is an issue. Even though mother does not attend her church regularly she is still hesitant about Leann becoming an ex-Catholic. Another young lady, Chevon, is also being taught and she has somewhat of the same problem except it is her grandmother with whom she lives. Her grandmother has threatened to kick her out of the house if she joins the Church, so there you have it. Sister Faux: As you can tell we have been checking out the resort hotels, and if I were coming to visit St Lucia/ Vieux Fort, Coconut Bay Resort would be my choice. It sits right on the ocean, has three swimming pools, wonderful spas, entertainment every evening, and food all day and evening and that is included with the room. The spa costs but I think everything else is included—looks fun. It would be fun to be rich for a few days, oh, maybe not rich, just have extra money. They all are very nice resort hotels. Just a couple of things I have noticed -the elders never wear watches-too hot. Mosquitoes are bad, just for instance I have nine bites on one ankle, miserable. Plus a million, at least, on the rest of my body. Well maybe not quite a million but many. Dave has five on the back of his leg and two are larger than a quarter and three others normal size. One week ago I bought 16 bananas for EC$2.00 and that would be about 68 to70 U.S. cents. This week when we drove to Castries we went the Soufriere (Caribbean) side of the Island. The elders were really quiet but I thought they were just listening to a Truman Madsen DVD we had. I looked back and Elder Sturdevant had his head down over his legs. I thought that they were very tired that morning. After we had arrived in Castries they both said the trip had made them car sick. We took Elder Ash that way and it made him throw up –that was the day he left. Most of the trip is just one ‘S’ turn after another. I thought it was funny but I don’t think the elders caught the humor of it. We went for our walk a different way a couple of days ago this week. The second time Elder Faux said “we will go the opposite way today so it will be shorter” How dumb does he think I am—then he said that the hills were more down than up….It is all the same distance and the hills are just as bad one way as another. He still makes me go and it is hot and humid. It is just over three miles when we go the new walk and we have so many more people to say ‘morning’ to and so much more traffic. However, I am thankful we can still do it. This week President Nicholas talked to the man in charge of all the West Indies Mission physical facilities about getting air conditioning in our building. That would be so very nice. We will have to send some inside pictures of our church building. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints still is the true church. Sister and Elder Faux…Have a nice week

Monday being preparation day the elders thought rather than using the entire day for preparing it would be fun to spend some time sightseeing. Therefore we selected as our destination the Botanical Gardens and Diamond Falls in Soufriere-about one hours’ drive north of Vieux Fort. Even though it was raining when we departed it was of little concern as typically it will rain for ten to twenty minutes then clear. Not so this day. It rained the entire drive there, it was raining at the Botanical Gardens, and at the Diamond Falls so we took a few minutes to do some souvenir shopping in Soufriere before returning home. Once there we salvaged the day by buying pizza for dinner and enjoying that while the elders did their weekly e-mails. (And by the way the rain lasted until nearly dark). At our district meeting on Tuesday we met for the first time Elders Williams and Cromwell as they were just recently transferred to the Castries Branch. They teamed up to give a well prepared lesson after which we dined at the world famous Vieux Fort KFC. Elder Faux had an interesting visit during the week. He was waiting in the auto while Sisters Faux and Nicholas (relief society president) were doing some shopping for an upcoming social when he began visiting with a fellow parked next to him. He introduced himself as ‘Elder’ Gustave, a missionary for the Vieux Fort area Church of God. For the next few minutes our view points on various beliefs were exchanged. The one of most interest was our view of life after death which was quite dissimilar. He envisioned a heaven of angels whereas Elder Faux spoke of eternal families and reuniting with loved ones. Upon departure he provided Elder Faux with their version of “The True Biblical Lunar Calendar” which places us in the year 2072. They don’t use the names of the days of the week nor of the months because they are of a pagan origin. Rather it is Day 1, Day 2, etc to Day 6 then the 7th is named the Sabbath, our Saturday. The months are biblical names except for the fourth and tenth, and start according to the new moon. Therefore on this calendar, for example, their eighth month corresponds to our August 20th through September 17th. In exchange for the calendar he received a Book of Mormon and the missionary tract “The Plan of Salvation”. Sister Faux:This past week we had a happy surprise as we received three letters!!! That made us so happy, one letter from our friend and neighbor, one from our co-worker at Smith Drug, Mary McKay, and one from our Grandson in Washington DC. It made us have a good week. A few weeks ago I talked about an investigator named Steven who I was hoping would join the church and I thought that would give him a better chance in life. Well to make a long story short he stopped by the other day and things were not going well for him. First his Grandfather had made him move out and he had been to stay with his parents for a night or two. That was a terrible experience. He has lost his job; he was working as a guard. We took him to his old job but they would not hire him back. They called his Grandfather and that was all bad. Anyway he has no place to live, he doesn’t come to church and life is not good for him. I feel so sorry for him and wish something good would happen for him. I think I should tell you about the dogs. Everyone, or almost everyone, has dogs---not a dog but dogs. They are rude and not the best dogs. They start to bark and no one tells them to be quiet, they can just bark for forever. They are everywhere, not good looking and not nice. Then there are horses, many people have large skinny horses that are staked everywhere. People ride them at times but it surprised me to see so many horses. Then we have ants, ant, ants they are everywhere. Very tiny, they do not bite but are so annoying. Yesterday we cleaned the church. When we picked up the elders it was raining so they ran to the car. When we arrived at the church they couldn’t find their keys. After cleaning we went back and searched for the keys but no luck. So to get into their apartment they had to climb through a window. They still have no keys but the president (their landlord) changed the lock on the door so they can get in there now. Yesterday we were called to meet Elder and Sister Collins in Dennery and pick up an elder on his way back to Trinidad. He has been in the field two weeks and started having trouble with his feet. They are sending him back to Trinidad to have a doctor look at them. So we brought him here and had dinner and then the elders took him home after nine and he stayed there last night. Today they brought him to church and after that we took him to the airport. Missionary life is very interesting. This week we went on a walk a different way, it was long and hot but Dave said it was good.??? I think it was just less than three miles but seemed much longer. We had our first successful Relief Society meeting Friday night. We taught them to make apple pie and provided all the supplies there for them. It was so much fun and we had an unheard of number there - 19. So each family made a pie to take home and bake. Sister Nicholas came to our house prior to the meeting and we made a couple of pies together to serve—actually we made three, two apple and one cream pie. I hope this will get them interested in Relief Society. Before we had no one come- not even the RS President. Things are looking up! Just a note about the pictures. The one of the town is downtown Soufriere, you can see how wet it is. Elder Sturdevant and his souvenir hat with Guiana flag on it. He just bought it in Soufriere—looks good on him. Lily, and her friend Chevon, who is investigating the church. Her Grandmother is upset with her and does not want her involved in the church. Elder Faux standing on the sidewalk as we were visiting a church member. Nice fences. Elder Lang, the first time he accompanied the congregation as we sang—we had to sing ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’ as that was the only song (or part of a song) he knew—that was fun. Elder Sturdevant leading the singing, branch president usually asks him to lead. He is willing and happy to lead. We are in our chapel so you can see how it looks. Sister Nicholas and Sister Faux and Oliva, age three, as I am teaching her to make apple pie in my kitchen. Vena, age 15, looking happy as usual. Most of the finished pies. Many of the pie makers. Elder Faux and Boom Boom and another one as he feeds her ice cream. She is a cute baby, very happy. She is Swancy’s god child. You might think all we do is take pictures, but occasionally we do other real missionary work. It is nice to be here; hopefully we can do the things our Heavenly Father would like us to do. Talk to you next week. Sister and Elder Faux

We held our monthly branch family home evening Monday evening and even though a little after the fact we talked about the 24th of July in Utah centering our program on the pioneers. Without going into too much detail we traced the progress and growth of the Church starting with Joseph Smith receiving the Golden Plates, the subsequent publication of the Book of Mormon, the Church being organized in Fayette, New York, then moving to Kirtland and the building of the Kirtland temple with the various heavenly visitations that took place therein. The trials and tribulations in Missouri which resulted in the move to Nauvoo and finally the Nauvoo exodus to the west. We had a rough outline of the United States so as to trace the moves and the distances involved. We then talked about the Church in St Lucia and particularly the Vieux Fort Branch. The first four missionaries to St Lucia arrived in November 1983 and the first convert baptism occurred 2 September 1984. In 1986 the missionaries were asked to leave prior to a visit by Pope John Paul II and were not allowed to return following the papal visit. A branch that had been organized in Castries in 1984 was discontinued during this turmoil to be reorganized in April 2003. In May 2004 the Church started petitioning the government for recognition-which is still in the process-and missionaries returned sometime in 2005. The Vieux Fort Branch was organized in early 2007. We then indicated to the members they are pioneers in every sense of the word in their own country. They are paving the way for others that will follow just as the ‘Utah pioneers’ did. Branch members, Sister Carine Cotter, the first to be baptized in St Lucia (as previously mentioned), and Sister Jeanette Thomas, the first Vieux Fort Branch baptism, 23 June 2007, each took a few minutes to relate their conversion stories as well as their testimonies.
Sister Faux: Our FHE was successful although when it was time to start not many there. That bothers me and I would like to buy everyone an alarm clock and have it go off about ½ hour before each meeting. I guess it is just part of the cultural to be late and the members are very good at being late. Our program went well and Dave presented some interesting information. As part of the program we ask the elders to sing “Come, Come Ye Saints”. They did a nice job and both have pleasant singing voices. I wonder how many hymns they sang as Aaronic Priesthood holders, maybe more than most, anyway they sang very well. Then we ask Brother Thomas to sing a solo. He was very reluctant but finally did. He sang a jazzy catholic song and livened up the place. We will try to have him sing often. One thing we do each time is to have a mystery guest, just someone in the audience that I describe and they guess who it is. I always start out describing a person—this person has black hair, this person has brown eyes, this person has a nice smile. It is funny because that is how they all look. It goes over well and is fun. After the program we taught the dance “The Alley Cat”. Our old time Manila Ward(s) members will remember this dance as it became a “must do” at any dance we ever had in our Manila Wards---fun. That is one successful thing we have done while being here.
We did not have District Meeting Tuesday because it was transfer week. Our elders both stayed but the Castries elders moved; Elder Endemann went home to California and Elder Moala was transferred to St Vincent. We have enjoyed these elders as they added zip to our good times with them. We have traveled with the elders most days this week and that is always interesting. They are teaching Keisha (again), this is the third set of elders that have taught her. She was ready for baptism until her boyfriend came back the night before the scheduled baptism. She would like to be baptized but the boyfriend is the problem. She is a nice, pretty girl with two children, and never been married. She would marry the boy friend but… Her sister Leanne is also being taught, age 15. The Mother said she would come to church tomorrow. It is all a wait, wait game.
Thursday I made a couple of apple pies and took one to the branch president, he claims that is his favorite thing in life. We had the elders stop by on their way home later in the night and had pie alamode. It turned out okay. I will tell you a bit about the pictures except I do not know the order they will be in. One of me and member Gloria Crick who we have just met. She has been less active since we have been here; Dave is her home teacher and hopes to get her to come. One picture of Elders teaching the 10 commandments, Davey is the member below the presentation- very effective to watch them teach this lesson. Then a picture of them singing-great job. Brother Thomas singing- it was so good. A Shell Station especially for our neighbor, John Spotts, who worked for Shell forever. Sister Cotter, first member of the church in St Lucia, and Sister Thomas, first member in Vieux Fort Branch. Leann and wild hair- she is just going to fix it. Elders teaching her. The lorry Brother Hippolyte drives to church occasionally. Hard working Elder Sturdevent on our couch. They walk all over and I don’t know how they keep up. Day or night it is the same, we have gone with them at night and it kind of bothers me. Well I better close for now. We send our love, Sister and Elder Faux