Family Night With The Welsh Girls

Every Thursday missionaries go to the Welsh family and have family night.  Some times it is only the Sisters, other times just the Elders and sometimes it is all 6 of the missionaries at once.  This week is was all of us!  That makes for a big group.  We love these four sisters and are glad to meet with them weekly.  This week I taught the lesson.  We talked and read scriptures about how Captain Moroni armed the Nephites for battle in a time of peace.  The first armor he prepared them with was body armor, swords, helmets, shields etc.  We also have spiritual armor as we read in the scriptures.  Then the Lamanites copied and made armor.  Captain Moroni had to do more.  The next armor he did was to fortify their cities with high wall and fences.  We talked about how today we need both armors as well.  The best way to remember something is to have a hands on experience, so we put a person representing us on the board and built our spiritual fortress around us.  Each of the building blocks represented things they thought were important to do daily to build our spiritual fortress.  The play dough represented keeping the commandments.  The popsicle sticks represented reading the scriptures, the q-tips represented prayer, etc.  It was fun seeing how differently each person built their spiritual fortress.  Here are a few pictures of their fortresses.  

Elder Little is the first picture.

 Deyonce - 12 years old

 Elder Goddard having too much fun!

 Elder Goddard photo bombing the Sisters picture.  Sister Lapides and Sister Tilby.

 Deyonce with the finished fortress.

 Leana- age 14

 My fortress!

 Oma inspecting all the finished sculptures.  Big sister Diana got home late from work so didn't get to build a fortress.  At least she got a treat!

Diana and Leana were orphaned in Guyana when they were little children.  Their auntie in Tobago has raised them.  They all joined the church many years ago but their Auntie no longer attends church.  I admire these girls so much for being to church every week, catching travel, and coming alone.

Elder Goddard's Land Rover

Every time we would pass this abandoned vehicle, Elder Goddard would say he wants to get a picture of it.  We finally stopped.  There are lots of abandoned cars here, but this one was so unique with it's mold and plants growing on it.  I'm sure it has been here for a long time and will still be here for years to come.  

Sunset

Lasana's Hair

Lasana has been a member of the church for about two years.  He is from Trinidad but has been here working on a government building for a few years.  It was while he was in Tobago that he met the missionaries and joined the church.  In the last few weeks the building was completed or at least his part and we are so sad because he will not be returning to Tobago.  It is also hard for him to leave the branch that he loves and the people who introduced him to the gospel.  We love Lasana and could always count on him to teach classes and be there if he said he would come.  

 I love his long hair!  Had to get a picture of it.

Sister Cupid Gets Her Pension Check

Sister Cupid has been waiting for her retirement pension to come through for over a year and a half.  Finally......the check was issued.  I wonder what the government expects these senior citizens to do during all that time waiting?  They still need to eat and live.  Every week for six months we have been asking her....did it come?  Anyway, we all did a pension check dance and celebrated.  She was able to buy an engine for her fishing boat which will now provide her an income and do some of the things she has wanted to do.  Top of the list was to make crab and dumplings for the Relief Society Birthday.  We picked her up downtown to go and do some Relief Society visits and I didn't know she had in the bag live crabs.  I opened it up and ......it startled me.  She laughed and laughed.  

Piano Lessons

Sister Cupid's hands...... I have loved sharing my love of music with the branch and have found the greatest joy in teaching 6 students to play the piano.  Progress is slow, but most are indeed progressing.  Sister Cupid loves playing the melodies of the hymns.  She does not have electricity in her home, so to practice she takes her keyboard to her neighbors house and hooks a power cord to the electrical box and plays outside in the weeds and grass.  Thank you dear neighbor for sharing your electricity.

 Sister Camejo is going gangbusters and can play some very simple hymns with two hands!!

Spring in Tobago

Well, it's not tulips and daffodils, but here is the closest thing I found to pop corn popping on the apricot tree in spring.  There really is no difference in the seasons here.  It is just hot all the time and certain times of the year there is more rain.  I have a blossom in my hand below so you can see how large the blossoms are.   It kind of looks like pink snow for a day or two until all the blossoms turn brown.  We found yellow blossoms and pink blossoms.