You might say this has been a busy week for us. For starters on Monday evening the branch held its monthly family home evening. It was pleasing to note the number in attendance. A lesson was presented on “Loving Your Neighbor” and following the lesson the elders introduced a game to play entitled “Do You Love Your Neighbor?” It is a lively and fun game and the whole flock really got involved. We will not try to explain it but we wouldn’t be surprised if many of you have played it with a different name. As Elder Welch was still without a companion Elder Faux filled in all day Tuesday as such. During the course of the day we found a married father and mother with three children that we taught and were asked to return again. So an event like this brightens the whole day. On Wednesday we drove to Castries to pick up Elder Welch’s new companion, Elder Thomas, from New Zealand, and straight from the Dominican Republic MTC. Because of a visa misunderstanding he arrived at 6:50 p.m. rather than 10:30 a.m. so we were quite late returning to Vieux Fort. Elder Welch is thrilled however, to once again have a full time companion. A plus for Elder Thomas was being able to participate in the baptism Thursday morning of Duite Lionel, a 23 year old single man Elder Welch has been teaching. We are all excited for Duite as we know he is going to be strength in the branch. Thursday afternoon, along with branch President Nicholas, we boarded a British Airways Boeing 777 jet for a 40 minute flight to Trinidad to attend a training meeting conducted by the missionary presidency for all branch and elder quorum presidents, mission couples assigned to these branches, and the corresponding zone leaders. The mission presidency put a lot of thought and prayer into the preparation of this training as it was well organized and really focused on strengthening the leadership in the branches. In our first break-out session on Friday the missionary couples were told if they held a calling in the branch of any kind, i.e. teaching a class/seminary/primary, conducting the singing, playing the keyboard, a member of a presidency, etc., we were immediately released and if the branch did not have someone as a replacement the calling would remain vacant until a member was found. Our role is not to have a calling but to train the members in the callings they receive. One senior sister asked if it were OK if she continued to play the keyboard for the singing and was told No! Until a member is found to do so they will need to use the discs with the recorded hymns. Therefore the theme of the training was: find, train, and perform; and was most instructive. The opportunity for role playing, question and answer sessions, sessions for just the elder presidents separate from the branch presidents was provided. On Saturday Elder Alvarado, an area seventy, joined with us (at age 38 he is the youngest of all seventies and lives in Puerto Rico). [He and President Gamiette served missions in Florida at the same time but in different missions]. As Elder Alvarado and President Gamiette (age 41) stood at the front teaching you couldn’t help but be impressed with these two brethren, their calling, their testimonies, and their dedication. The Caribbean area is in good capable hands. Our flight back to Vieux Fort was not until Sunday evening so we had the opportunity to spend the day with Elder and Sister Collins. We attended church in the Trinidad Stake Arima Ward. After church we accepted an invitation to have lunch with Elder and Sister Palmer. He is the mission executive secretary and she is the mission office secretary. Along with the business of the two days we enjoyed our time with President Nicholas in addition to meeting other couples who up to now had just been names. We are thankful to have had this opportunity to visit in Trinidad. It is much larger than St Lucia, almost as pretty, and most of the time does not feel like an island in that we drove on three lane highways and experienced some extended traffic delays.



Sister Faux: Today is Monday afternoon at about 4:30—we are enjoying a nice bright day, full of bright blue sky and beautiful fluffy clouds and a warm temperature. So you can tell it is a lovely day here in Vieux Fort. Our elders have been here today doing their email and also a couple of them doing their wash, as their washer is broken. Right now they have gone to town for a few things and I didn’t go so they have a bit more room in the car. We arrived home last night after our few days of training in Trinidad; we were tired and glad to get back to our apartment. We had a wonderful time as we were taught and trained. A little surprised about being told we were “fired” but know if we follow instructions we all will be blessed. We will have to meet with our branch president to find out what to do about seminary, elders’ quorum, and a few other things. Who will do FHE and our movie night? We have only three temple classes to teach and so plan to finish that up and have some people ready to attend the temple. That is a very interesting concept and makes you do some extra planning and preparing. For our trip we were met at the airport by the two assistants, Elder Palmer (my relative) and Elder Wright. They took us to the mission office and that was nice to see and meet some of the couples there then off to eat at KFC. We stayed at Norma’s Bed and Breakfast, which is in a nice area and most comfortable. It is landscaped very pretty and in a nice neighborhood. The breakfast the first day was very interesting as we were served fresh fruit, watermelon and pineapple (sprinkled with salt) in a small dish, very good. Then the main dish was cut up hot dogs (they called it sausage) in a red sauce with onions. You should try it sometime when you have a strong stomach….Oh, we did have two nice rolls that were tasty. The next two breakfasts were good-one morning scrambled eggs and an omelet the last day. We stayed at the same bed and breakfast as Tony Leishman’s (Dave’s college friend)cousin and they took us to the first meeting and home again that night. At the meetings each day they had snacks and catered dinner one day and lunch the next---I don’t want to sound ungrateful but they were probably the two worst meals I have ever eaten!!! The first day they had a piece if bbq chicken, potato salad with breadfruit (I think) baked beans and served on a bed of rice. The next day it was all of items I did not recognize or have any desire to eat, and so I did not eat it. Many others were talking about how bad it was so that made me feel better. We were happy to meet so many couples and enjoy their company and especially to get to visit with the Collins. Well, wish us luck for all the changes in the mission as it will be interesting as we try to be obedient ---some of the things we cannot do is transport members to the meetings using Church assigned vehicles. Members should attend meetings by their own means; it is contrary to church policy to pay for transportation to meetings. We have picked up the William family almost every Sunday since we have been here. Have a nice week, sorry we are late. We send our love, Sister Faux.