18 April 2010

As Wednesday was transfer day again, already, we said our goodbyes to Elders Harris and Lundberg and welcomed Elders Brenkmann and Bowles. Since Elder Harris needed to be at the airport at 6:00 a.m. Wednesday morning we drove to Castries Tuesday and stayed the night with Elder and Sister Treseder. Two essentials that can make transfers most interesting is 1) when transferring from one island to another you are entering another country. Therefore it is essential to have your passport and proper documentation, and 2) you are dealing with “Liat -The Caribbean Airline”, it’s most dependable attribute is that of being ‘changeable’. And part of this can be attributed to all the stops it makes at the various islands in route. A couple of times we have gone to the airport to be there for incoming elders only to find them waiting for us. We find out they have arrived fifteen minutes ahead of their scheduled departure time. “The aircraft is full so let’s go”. Wednesday we were at the airport waiting for Elder Bowles 10:30 a.m. arrival. About 10:20 we notice his flight has been cancelled. We check at the desk and are told the next flight will be 2:30 p.m. but they cannot tell us for sure he will be on it. So we are at the airport waiting for the 2:30 flight. When 2:30 arrives and no airplane we notice its arrival has been moved to 3:00 p.m. When this time arrives it is then posted as ‘delayed’. Finally at 3:45 p.m. Elder Bowles arrives and with Elder Brenkmann we depart for Vieux Fort. About 4:30 p.m. we receive a call from the assistants wondering where Elder Harris is. We tell them he was dropped off at the airport at 6:00 a.m. and that we saw him pass through the departure door. With a two hour flight he should have arrived long ago. Also missing is Elder Gilly. One-half hour later the assistant call to inform us Elder Harris has been in Barbados and is now in route but still no word on Elder Gilly. The next day we are told the mission office started making telephone calls and located him at the Trinidad immigration office. We haven’t been told what the matter was but something must not have been in order as he went through immigration and as a result was detained all day in a room, by himself, not even permitted to make a telephone call for assistance. So goes transfer day at times. A little update on our Literacy Class. One sister, Jane, who is in her early thirties, is not completely familiar with the alphabet and tends to confuse the letters ‘h’ and ‘n’ , ‘f’ and ‘t’, and not sure about u, v, w, and x. She is learning to recognize some phrases such as, “I am a child of God” which is exciting for her. Needless to say being involved with this class has been an eye opener. We take so many things for granted.

Sister Faux: One thing Elder Faux forgot to tell you was that Elder Lundberg was going to Suriname early Thursday morning, actually going to Trinidad to get a visa so he could get into Suriname. Anyway he was late to the airport and missed his plane. So many problems this transfer and they were still calling and changing people around late Tuesday night. Poor Sister Ellison, she is the person who takes care of all that kind of problems. I don’t want her job. It is always a worry for me as we send these young men around to all these islands every six weeks. I realize they are sometimes a little wise and sometimes it just makes me nervous. They don’t seem to be bothered by the travel- just us older couples.

Yesterday we took a nice day off and went to Castries to enjoy the day with Elder and Sister Treseder and Elder and Sister Whitehead, the Humanitarian couple. The night before Sister Whitehead’s eye was bothering her and she thought she has a detached retina. They finally decided that it was okay but then yesterday it was bothering her again. She has already has four detached retina’s and so was worried about it. When we left them in the afternoon, and while at the Treseder’s enjoying some ice cream, Elder Whitehead called and said the retina was detached and they were going home- we thought back to Guyana. I just called and they flew from St Lucia to Trinidad and then flew home to Utah at 9 pm last night and she had eye surgery this morning. They had three more weeks on their mission but I am told they will not be coming back. We are so glad they went when they did and pray that everything is okay with them.

Our rain has been wonderful and really brightened up the island. Now the days when it does not rain it is very HOT. Can’t think of anything that is new or very exciting, so will close for tonight. Love, Sister and Elder Faux