23 July 2010 Friday

Going home day! Already it is here. But first some things need to be done like mailing the box full of gifts the William family gave us last Wednesday evening as we visited their home for the last time. Also, for the Augustine Family, we took the pillows we purchased from Martha yesterday when she inspected the apartment, some towels, plus two pair of shoes we hope they can use. Dora made the climb to their home which was an achievement in itself. Jane was working but we got to say goodbye to Curtis and the boys, Jamal in particular. As a farewell jester Elders Nielson, Taylor, Rosales and Bowles treated us to a Domino’s Pizza dinner. Elder Taylor told Sister Faux a couple of weeks ago he was going to cook a dinner for her before we left but it ended up this being as close as he could come. But it did hit the spot. Then it was time to load our luggage and drive to the Hewanorra International Airport located in Vieux Fort to check in. Before leaving the apartment we weighed each one of our suitcases and according to our scale they were all within the prescribed limits. However, when we put our first suitcase on the airport scale it was eight pounds over. This is when we were thankful the elders (Bowles, Nielson, Rosales, and Taylor) were with. They carried our luggage to an out-of-the place area where they began sorting though and rearranging various items within our three suitcases. With their expertise in matters such as this it wasn’t long until we were back at the ticket counter with all three suitcases within the weight limits. After handshakes and hugs our final act was to present to Elder Bowles the keys to the auto. There is always a sunny side to everything. In Atlanta we had to change aircraft and by the time we retrieved our luggage, processed through immigration, customs and security we were on a dead run. We made it OK but not with much time to spare. We arrived at the Salt Lake City International Airport at 11:50 p.m. to be greeted by our sons Craig and Jeff and his wife Kris, and their children (our grandchildren) Wesston, Ceci and Hunter; our daughter Amy and husband Raulan and their children (our grandchildren) Connor, Jenna and Riley; and our daughter Becky-and just a few minutes later grandchildren Tascha and Hannah. Needless to say it was fabulous to be greeted by so many family members at this time of night. We rode home with Craig in our nice Buick Lucerne and it seemed so good. Once at home and the visiting mostly done it was 2:00 a.m. when we said our goodnights to one another. We are most thankful for a safe day of travel and especially the opportunity and blessing it has been for us to serve in the West Indies Mission the last seventeen months. We met some wonderful people and feel that we have formed lifetime friendships even if we should never meet them again. They are a beautiful and handsome race of people that we truly learned to love. We pray the good members of the Vieux Fort Branch will stay strong in the covenants they have made so they can be a good example and further the missionary work in that area of St Lucia.
Sister Faux, Yes, we are home from serving our mission in the West Indies on the Island of St Lucia. We had a wonderful time while serving there as we met and learned to love so many great friends. We learned so many new things about the island, the people, about ourselves and the church. We are happy to be home and seeing our family and our friends. We are back in our old ways traveling to our Idaho home, racquet ball and just enjoying life. We miss our friends in St Lucia very much and pray for them each day. We pray they can continue to have a good life and realize how important the church should be with them. What a great influence they can be to others as they stay active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know the church is true and the principles that are taught are genuine and real and help us become better people. I am thankful for the opportunity to have served this mission on the Island of St Lucia of the West Indies Mission.

Our last Sunday in Vieux Fort and needless to say one filled with much emotion. The excitement we feel as we anticipate returning home is somewhat dampened in realizing we will be saying goodbye to the many wonderful people in this area we have become good friends with. We do appreciate them as they have been so good and kind to us from day one. It has been marvelous, and to us a testimony of the gospel, to have seen a number of them baptized and now the strength they are in the branch. And in the same context we have seen some baptized then fall away despite the efforts of the missionaries and fellowshipping by branch members. Our favorite event of the week was Saturday morning as Francisca, a 40+ year old lady, was baptized. She is so excited and can’t keep from smiling. (A note of interest: you step out Francisca’s front door and not thirty feet away is the entrance to the ‘Emmanuel Community Church-but she found the true one regardless). She attended a branch family home evening a couple of weeks ago. After the closing prayer four or five of the branch sisters were sitting together visiting. They included Francisca in their visiting and when it came time to say goodnight they were all good friends. Another testimony of what an inspired program family home evening is and what it can do. Later in the day we drove to Castries to help Sister Treseder celebrate her 70th birthday. But don’t tell her we said how old she is. We had lunch at “The Edge”, a water front restaurant, our table on the patio right at the water edge providing us with a striking view of the bay and the surrounding country side. The Treseders are fun to be with and we had a delightful day with them. For Preparation Day Elder Faux took the elders to see some of the attractions in the Soufriere region. One stop was at the Ladera Resort to take in the magnificent vista of the Caribbean Ocean framed by the Petit and Gros Pitons. The rooms at this resort do not have a wall on this facing so every room has an unobstructed view of this gorgeous panorama. Once the elders have been here they immediately start to ponder the possibilities of spending their honeymoon at this resort. The main consideration is the $$$$$$$$$’s it will take. Once we returned to the apartment Sister Faux had a yummy taco soup prepared, with all the trimmings, for lunch plus ice cream and brownies with a favorite topping for dessert.
Sister Faux: As Elder Faux stated we did have our LAST Sunday service and it turned into a tear jerker. It is hard to say goodbye as we have learned to love the members very much. They are good people and sometimes life is very hard for them. I was called on to speak but Elder Faux was not- I think he worked it that way. It was a nice Sunday and we sang “Called to Serve” and also “God Be with You Till We Meet Again”, so my heart has been full today. I am sorry to leave our elders here also—they are fine young men. They make my life better each time we see them. I know I have said things like that before, but it is true. They are not invited to eat with the members; I think rarely they are offered any food… so who is going to feed them??? I don’t feed them that much so it is always fun. Thursday was our LAST Relief Society meeting. We had a great time and everyone was happy and enjoyed visiting together. I made an American picnic for them and they happily ate everything. We invited the elders and they came just as we were finishing and I told the sisters they were coming or they would have eaten everything. I made sloppy Joes, no one had eaten that before, potato salad, green salad (they eat that without any dressing) baked beans (a problem with the beans: I planned to bake them two hours or so but after they had been in the oven an hour I checked them and they were still cold, gas tank was empty) and so I improvised and set them outside in the sun. It was not quite the same but they didn’t care. We also had chips and strawberry short cake for dessert. I felt that was successful and a good time was had by all. For entertainment I took most of our missionary clothes, like 9 skirts and blouses and a dress, three pair of shoes and Dave’s 3 white shirts, shoes and stockings, 2 pair of pants. Then I had a table of elders clothes that had been left in the apartment and Sister Williamson left some of her clothes. I also had many plastic dishes from the kitchen that they snapped up. They took everything except a small shirt and one pair of white socks (threw them away). It was so successful and so we have only a few things to wear this last week. Our LAST visit tonight at the William home. These have been delightful evenings for us and they have taught us so many things about the islands. This is the home where Boom Boom lives, except she was asleep tonight. They have been very kind and helpful to us. Evans is Elders Quorum president and Beverly is Relief Society president. They have been members about 1 ½ years so they still have many things to learn but they take their callings seriously. We always enjoy our visit. One sad note, my tomato plant…It had a blossom, no tomato and it has been very sick. I had it sitting out in the sun and it rained so hard that it was about drowned. It is looking a bit better and I took it to Evans tonight and hopefully he can revive it. I really did think I would have tomatoes before we left...A little sad. Yesterday we took our LAST trip to Castries for Sister Treseder’s birthday. Very nice day with them. On the way back home I started to count the abounded cars that they park along the road or in their yard. I counted about 55 and I know there were many that I missed. If they leave them for a long enough time the vines and shrubbery will cover them and there is no way to see they are there. It looks very bad but I guess they have no way to dispose of them.
I am very anxious and happy to be returning home, but it is so hard, as I said to leave our friends. I have learned many things about this island, the people and their customs. It has been an opportunity to serve another mission. I know once again more sincerely than ever that we belong to a true church. I have received so many blessings as we have served here. It is nice to have the time to study the scriptures and be involved with new members of the church. It is wonderful to be with these elders and to watch them in action as they work hard and influence so many people. I know they are very blessed and very good young men. I will miss talking to them and watching the things they do. It has been great to serve with Elder Faux, What a good man he is and so very kind. We have been happy together. I will bid you farewell and hopefully write one more blog after we arrive home and get connected to internet. It has been a pleasure to write this blog each week. Last time I looked we had had 315 readings for the week. Thank you for your interest. Sister and Elder Faux