Two Zone Conferences - Curacao & Aruba

Notice both of these signs.....They are both on churches one in Curacao and one in Aruba both in Papaimentu.....it is a fairly new "written" language and so the islands have not quite agreed on some of the writings so it will vary on how it is written from island to island.  

One of my favorite things to do is actually spend time with the missionaries and this week we got to have two Zone conferences (which for those of you who don't know....it's when we bring groups of our missionaries together for some training and giving them some encouragement and try to help them feel excited and uplifted)  One of the things we really focused on this week was just telling them to just talk to as many people as they can.  In D&C 123:12 It talks about how there are many people who are only "kept from the truth because they know not where to find it."  The Lord has given a promise that He will put these people in our path.  Seekers of truth.... but we have to be willing to open our mouths.  I have personally experienced these types of miracles in my own life and it has been so fun this week to have the missionaries share their personal experiences of people they have been led to as well. I had wonderful opportunities to go out and teach again with the sisters and feel the power of the Holy Ghost bearing witness of the truths being taught and see the joy in the eyes of the people accepting the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This truly is the Lord's work and it is truly a blessing to be a part of it.  

Curacao Zone Conference

Back row:  Elder Sessions, Elder Porritt, Elder Weiss, Elder Lopez, Elder Garcia, Elder Parr

Front Row: President Baird, Me, Sister Woolsey, Sister Campbell, Sister Davidson, Sister Cole, 

Sister Burrup, Sister Melendez

 Elder Garcia, Elder Sessions

 Sister Cole, Sister Davidson

 President Baird with our Assistants Elder Marks and Elder Lopez  

They are pretty incredible young men and they have helped us so much in our transition here.  I don't know what we would do without them.  

It was Sister Cole's Birthday on Friday so we Celebrated it together

Elder Garcia, Elder Porritt

 Elder Weiss, Elder Sessions

Elder Marks, Elder Lopez

Aruba

The day after Zone conferences in Curacao we headed off to Aruba.  We first met with all the missionaries.  Then on Friday we had a wonderful Zone conference.  Saturday we got to attend and speak at a youth conference with about 25 youth from Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire.  They only get to meet all together once a year and they love it.  They had spent the morning doing service around the community.  They ranged in age from 12 - 18.  It was amazing to be surrounded by them.  Their love of the Gospel and of each other was contagious.  Some had recently come from Venezuela and it was fun to see them there too.  Most understood English but some needed some translation and the Sister Missionaries helped with that.  I did an object lesson for them.  I started with telling them that one of Satan's greatest tools is keeping good people so busy doing "good" things that they don't have time to do the essentials.  I asked them what some of the essential things in life are.   Prayer, Scripture Study, Church attendance, Family time, Temple.  Then I showed them a glass that represented their life.  I had rocks that represented the "essential things"  Then I had sand that represented all the other things that take up their time....work, sports, school, friends,  (all good things)...  If the sand was put in first the essential "rocks" would not fit in.  But if the essential things were done first all the rest would fit in.  I know this is a true principal.  Matt 6:33 "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and all Else shall be added unto you".   It works in my life.  When I take time to say my prayers and read my scriptures and keep my covenants, life just goes better, smoother and I feel happier.  The Lord is able to guide and prompt me more effectively and I'm blessed with a greater feeling of peace and Joy.  

 Elder Stott, Elder Buxton

              Sister Garcia, Sister Robertson

 Sister Woodbury, Sister Hardy, Sister Robertson, Me, President Baird, Elder McMillan,

 Elder Stott, Elder Buxton, Elder Durfee

                           Sister Hardy, Sister Woodbury                                 Sister Robertson, Sister Garcia

                                                                                                     

 Elder Durfee, Elder McMillan

                           Elder Buxton, Elder Stott                                             Gary (Future Missionary -                                                                                                                      Leaves in August from Bonaire)

Fun story about Sister Robertson

I showed her a picture of my family and

she said "wait, that's Kameron.  I had a 

class with him and his cousin Ty at UVU"

                                                                                                                       Small world.                                                                                                  

 In Aruba you see all these statues of Blue horses.....

 The water here is especially gorgeous!!

One of the Church Buildings here in Aruba... There are two but the other one is a lot smaller.  I haven't seen it yet but we will attend meetings at both tomorrow. 

Saturday night I had the opportunity to go teaching with the sisters.  We met some amazing people.  One lady we taught in her shop that she owns.  She had two of her friends there to listen as well.  The one friend it was the first time she had been able to stay for a complete lesson because of time commitments but she loves the Book of Mormon and has already read it completely through twice.  Each of them already had a great love of the Bible and so reading the Book of Mormon rang so true to them.  One of them held it close and even though I couldn't understand all that was being said I knew that she cherished what she was learning!  It was amazing how strong the spirit was (even in a retail shop)  She even had a couple of customers come in during her lesson and the Sisters stopped teaching for a moment so she could wait on them.  She told them to continue because, "this is more important!".....  The customers browsed for a few moments and left.  I could tell that she was having a difficult time with some things in her life and she said that repentance was hard.  I told her that with God all things were possible.  (Matt 10:27)  We looked up that scripture together.  She said, "I have read Matthew before but this scripture has never been so powerful to me!"  I really think that gave her hope.  What a neat experience.    With the second set of sisters we went to a young mother and her two kids.  That was such a great experience as well.  She has a lot of time demands on her so she doesn't feel like she can commit to coming to church but she still wants the missionaries to continue teaching her.  

Since we have encouraged our missionaries to talk to as many people as possible, Kyle and I are doing the same.  While the sisters and I were in teaching that last lesson, Kyle ran the other sisters back to the church to get their bikes.  Then he came back to the home where we were but stayed outside.  We noticed him passing the open doorway, headed to talk to the neighbor.  The Lady we were visiting asked if that was my husband and said he wouldn't be able to talk to the neighbor because he didn't speak any English.  Well, Kyle knows no Spanish so I figured that wouldn't work very well.  We finished up the lesson and went to look for Kyle.  We called,  "Bon Noche, President Baird"....because we couldn't see him anywhere.  He came out of a building under construction with the neighbor and they were laughing like they had been conversing.  The neighbor started talking to the Sisters and they started translating.  Through hand gestures Kyle and the neighbor had started communicating and he started showing Kyle around the house he was building.  Kyle just kept saying "Bonita" which was the only Spanish word he could think of and he knew it meant beautiful.  That seemed to really please the man.  He was from Ecuador and was building 4 buildings to sell.  (It didn't surprise me that Kyle had found a way to communicate - he is such a people person).  Well, before we left they were good friends and the man had committed to have the Sisters come by and teach him and his family.  (The Lord will put people in our path - we just need to open our mouths). 

Bonaire

Bonaire is just a short 15 minute flight from Curacao.  It's on a small airplane.  Just after we took this picture it started pouring rain....we got in the plane before we got too wet.  Luckily the flight took off on time.

BONAIRE

This is the cute Courtyard Marriott where we stayed while we were on Bonaire.  

There are just 4 sweet missionaries in the country of Bonaire.  One set of Spanish speaking sisters (who also have learned Papaimentu) and One set of Dutch speaking Sisters.  

From Right to left we have, Sister Melendez (from California - she was the only member of the church when she came on her mission, her sister has since joined the church.  Her parents don't know how to use email and don't write letters so she hasn't heard from them - what an example of faith she is.....), Sister Burrup (from Idaho - a pure ray of Sunshine and light), Those are our Spanish Speaking Sisters. Sister Campbell (from Utah, She is one of our Sister Training Leaders and she is so good at teaching and Leadership) Sister Woolsey is on the end (she is also from Utah, she was hit by a car just 2 weeks after coming out on her mission...they showed me a picture of the car and it was a mess.  It's a miracle that she wasn't killed but amazingly she didn't even spend the night in the hospital.  She suffered a concussion and had to have glass removed from her back and neck but she surly had angels watching over her.)  
All of these sisters amaze me on how well they have picked up the languages and how powerfully they are able to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  

 Two of the Young men in the branch.  The one
 on my right is going on a mission in August, The one on my left is only 16 and wishes he could go on a mission right now.  I was so impressed at what wonderful young men they are.  It has been since 2009 since this little Branch has sent a missionary.  They just recently sent one, Gary will be going in August,  one more will be leaving in December so they will have 3 out at once.  Truly miracles are happening here. 

The Branch President, President Albus and his beautiful wife.  They had us for dinner after church.  It was a delight to get to know them and their cute little family.  They have a  two little boys.  They have  a pretty amazing conversion story,  he was made the Branch President only 3 short months after being baptized.  They have been members now for 8 years and this is his second time serving as the Branch President.  They are an absolutely remarkable couple.  He runs a small tour company, so if anyone is going to Bonaire I can recommend a really great tour guide. 

This is Bonaire's small little airport

Curacao Adventures......

Guests Joining us for Breakfast...…

We went out for breakfast and had some company (right downtown outside our Hotel).....these Iguanas are everywhere on the ABC Islands.  you can even find them on many Menus....

             THE MISSION HOME                

The Mission home has been moved from Trinidad to Curacao.  The home that has been purchased is beautiful and in a very beautiful location.  Unfortunately it is not quite ready for us to move in yet.  There are wooden shutters throughout the house which allow for a wonderful breeze to blow through but there is no glass or screens on any of the windows or doors.  This allows the dust as well as bugs to blow through so we are looking into getting this taken care of.  Also, because of that, when the pictures were taken off the walls and furniture moved from the previous owner you can see exactly where everything was because of the outlines on the walls caused by the dirt freely blowing through the house.  So it needs painted.  All of the furniture arrived from  the home in Trinidad (which was a larger home - so there is more furniture than what this home will need).  It's really nice furniture so we didn't want it to get ruined being exposed to the elements so we left it boxed up until after the windows are fixed and the house is painted.  We hope that can be arranged to happen soon but between going through the process of Church and the "no hurry" Island ways......it could be a while.   

We had an excellent crew of workers that helped unload the pod with all the furniture in it.  The guy by the pool was hilarious.  When I wanted to get a picture of them he wanted to see on my phone what his picture looked like.  Twice it wasn't good enough.  (He wanted to look "stylin'")  Finally he did this pose by the pool and decided that it looked good enough.  He was pretty excited when I told him I was going to post it on my blog.  They did a wonderful job.  I hope the moving company sends out the same crew when we finally get to unload all the boxes and set it all up.  (They were going to do it this day but we didn't want to do that before the painting was done.)

This is what the house looked like as we were leaving...…...maybe someday we'll be in.

Dinner With New Friends

This fun family is from Midway, Utah.  (Yes, right close to where we live and we met them in Curacao).  They are Jake and Wendy Reni.  (Jake's mother is originally from Curacao and she has offered to help me learn Papiamentu- the preferred language on the islands. I'm going to try.  I'm understanding a little of the Dutch and a little of the Spanish but I'm really slow....praying for the "gift of tongues") They have come all the way here to try to adopt.  It has been a long process for them and we are hoping and praying that they will be successful!! 

I know I've posted this picture before but I needed one to go with this....

I had the opportunity to go and teach with these wonderful sisters this week.  It was such a great experience.  We went to the home of this young man who joined the church a while ago and had not been coming for a while but has shown some desires to serve a mission.  He is the only member of the church in his family.  When we got there the sisters called to him.  This is one thing that has been very different for me.  Here you don't knock or ring the door bell, you call.  "Bon Dia!"  or "Bon Tardi"  Depending on the time of day.  And people will just come out.  Well, he didn't come out.  They called again....he didn't come..  Then they knocked (which they don't usually do)…..no answer.   Knocked and called again.  "Andre, Andre, Bon Tardi…...It's the Hermanas.  We are here for our appointment".  They kept trying for probably 5 minutes.  I was starting to get uncomfortable thinking we should just leave that either he wasn't home or he had changed his mind and didn't want to meet with them.  He finally came to the door, looking like he just woke up.  I couldn't understand much but I got the general idea that he works nights and had been asleep.  He sat down and asked me to start with a prayer.  That surprised me because I knew he wouldn't be able to understand mine but I know that the Spirit can speak to us in any language so I did.  Then the sisters proceeded to give him the message they had prepared.  I didn't get much but I heard him repeat the words "Andre, Andre....." and I knew he was talking about when they were calling him.  I could feel the spirit so strong and knew how much he wanted to follow Jesus Christ.  It was amazing to me how He was simply soaking in everything the Sisters were telling him.  He was so eager to learn all he could.  When we got back to the car the Sisters shared with me that he said when he heard them calling for him he felt as if the Savior was calling him to "follow him" and he knew what he should be doing.  He invited them to come back the next day.  I was so grateful that they were persistent and didn't give up calling for him.  (It was my instinct to just say "oh well, he's not home") but they didn't....and I know he was grateful too.