7 February 2010
The first week of the month and like every other unit in the Church there are reports to be complied and submitted. Our branch does not have a computer system so we prepare them using pencil, paper, and a calculator-the old fashion way. The foremost report was doing a branch audit for the last six months of 2009. Generally someone from the mission office will come to do the audit but this time, for whatever reason, they assigned the senior elders with the island zones to do the audit in their respective branch. Since the Church is not officially recognized in St Lucia it is not permitted to open its own bank account. Therefore the bank account is in President Nicholas’s name and expenditures require only his signature. This situation is not unique in the mission so these accounts are monitored closely. Thus this audit was approached with some trepidation and prayer since audits are not Elder Faux’es forte. Besides he helps somewhat with the weekly donations and expenditures. His concern being could he be objective in conducting the audit as outlined. It took the three of us, President Nicholas, Davis Thomas-branch clerk, and Elder Faux nearly four hours to compile it, which included a telephone call for help to the mission financial secretary. Elder Faux is happy to report that to the best of his knowledge everything checked out A-OK. It is also interesting to note that the Castries Branch tithing donations are deposited into President Nicholas’s account also. This account has a sizable sum in it at this time. Elder Faux inquired as to why this money is not transferred to the general tithing fund. He was told if that much money were to be transferred President Nicholas would be swarmed with government officials wanting to know where it went and why. So it stays where it is until the Church is officially recognized in St Lucia. On Tuesday we drove to Castries for a zone meeting. Since St Lucia is now two districts we don’t see the Castries missionaries that much anymore so it was good to meet in our zone meeting. Elder Prince, the zone leader, had a well prepared agenda that was uplifting as well as motivating. You just marvel when you see these 19-20 year-old-‘kids’ making presentations such as this. Not only the presentation but the knowledge and wisdom demonstrated by the missionaries being taught. For the past month the Cunningham Family from Canada have been attending church. He is a doctor and has been doing some training at the local hospital. Also visiting today were Greg and Julie Hewlett from Idaho Falls. I (Elder Faux) see these folks attending and often wonder if going to church while on vacation, regardless of how many miles from home, is unique with the Latter-day Saints. My conclusion is that ‘it is’. Our testimony of the gospel gives us that desire to attend. And our testimony is strengthened as we feel of the same spirit, partake of the sacrament, taught from the same lesson manuals, and are inclined to visit when we should be going to our next class.
Sister Faux: As usual in a “real” church meeting food always seem to be an important part of many meetings. And so it is here in the West Indies Mission, at least with the missionaries. So following our zone conference we ordered Domino’s Pizza and had it delivered to the church. It is a very good pizza. I have never been a real fan of pizza but it tastes great here. Following zone meeting we shopped at Megs J’s for a few food items (Elder Lundberg still had a good time) then returned to Vieux Fort in time for correlation meeting that evening. Sorry we did not get any pictures of our elders this week- we must be getting lazy. We want you to know they are still working, still handsome and still make us have a happy day when they come to our apartment. I don’t recall if I have told you about the elders we have now. We still have Elder Welch and Elder Morris and they have been here for some time, I am betting that the next transfer they will be moved. That is a pure guess and no one has told me any such thing so we will see. The next transfer is the first week of March.They are good men and good to be with. Elder Morris replaced Sister Cheri Penrose’s battery cable in her car. We were to keep it running while she has been back in Utah since before Christmas. In order to do so a new cable was needed. She just returned today, is our neighbor and a medical student. A very brave student in my opinion. Her husband died a little over a year ago and she decided to come here for medical school. She has four sons and one daughter. Her youngest son is 14 (?) and Is living with his sister in Logan while Cheri is here in school. This week Wednesday and Thursday we are having zone conference, so another exciting week for us. Preparing the food is always interesting. Back to our elders, we also have Elder Lundberg from Logan, Utah. He has been serving his mission for one year and is a nice young man that we enjoy and we are glad he is here. Elder Larson, from Logan also, will be going home in May and is a very polite and nice young man. He did go home a short time ago for a month because he had a bad infection that could not be taken care of here. They both brighten up life and we enjoy each of them. A couple of things the elders say that is interesting are “I love them bad” and “we will be seeing you just now “-which can mean up to an hour.
Sorry not a very interesting blog- will try harder next week. Love, Sister Faux
p.s. While waiting at the airport for Cheri today we met Pastor Brook, a Baptist preacher we have become acquainted with. There are two of them in the area and the other one, unlike Pastor Brook, is very antagonist toward the church. The elders will walk a mile out of their way to avoid him. Pastor Brook is very cordial and we enjoy visiting with him. It just so happened that as we were leaving the airport he was two cars ahead of us. As we reached the toll booth to pay our parking fee the attendant told us there was no charge as our fee had been paid by the gentleman that had preceded us. Is that not a kind gesture?