Zone Conference

Zone Conference was good. Sister Charters and Elder Fiame were there (they were in the MTC with me), but sister Bennie and I didn't' get to go out with the Sisters because they live too far from where we were staying. We did get to stay with the senior couple there though, the Gartz, and they are great! They are super sweet. President Mehr got dizzy right when he was meant to speak to us, so he had to go lay down. He let the assistants go ahead with their portion, and then eventually they ended up teaching his as well, because he went to the hospital to make sure all was well. It turned out that it was, but they kept him over night just to be safe. So we didn't get interviewed by him either. He will be making a special trip to St. Vincent to do that in a couple of weeks. So, it wasn't quite what I expected, but it was a good little getaway. 

I felt well enough yesterday to go celebrate St. Vincent's independence with the branch members at the beach. We had a good time eating and talking. The elders missed the memo that it was at a beach so they showed up in full procelyting clothes! Lol! They still played games with the kids though, which was fun to watch.

Friday was Sister Bennie's 20th birthday and I ruined it by getting sick. But I did ask our investigator friends to save her some curry and rotti (her favorite food from home), so I don't think it was all bad. ;)

Well, I love you all, thanks for all the pictures. Will is such a handsome little man at the pumpkin patch. What happened to his eye? And AJ and Kaden sure are cute little brothers. 

Love,

Sister Bratt


                                                                     Trip to St Lucia for Zone Conference

St Vincent Independence Day -- Ward Celebration

Serving with Love

Even though we didn't have a very good week in terms of numbers and actual traceable progress, we had a few great opportunities to serve this week. We went to see our investigators on Thursday, and they were busy trying to get their house in order. Apparently the tremor the other week cracked one of the pipes in their bathroom and caused pretty bad flooding under their carpet all throughout the house. So they had to pull up all the carpet which caused them to find a whole lot of cockroaches living underneath. So they sprayed the roaches, cleaned up, and when we got there, they were in the process of painting the floors because they can't afford tiles. So we got the opportunity to help them paint and show that we care. Even though we didn't teach a lesson, it was awesome. 

We also had the chance to visit two less actives in the hospital on Saturday. One is a very old member who has been less active almost as long as he has been a member. He is an amputee which makes it hard to come to church. I hadn't met him before, but we tried to go see him on Friday and found out he was in the hospital for surgery. So, we wanted to go visit him and let him know we care. Then, Friday night, we found out that one of our members, who is sort of less active, was at the hospital with her seven year old daughter who got pneumonia after having the flu. She wanted the elders to come give her a blessing, so she got in touch with us and we informed them. It was amazing to hear about the improvement of the little girl's health after that blessing was administered. She had been there for 3 days unable to eat, sleep, or move because of the pain, but immediately after the blessing, she was able to sleep and the next day was up and walking around; even laughing. The people in the pediatrics unit who had seen how sick she was and how quickly she changed were all amazed. The priesthood is real, and I am so grateful for it. 

I miss everyone, but I know that I have an important work here to do. 

Love you lots!

I'll let you know next week about how St. Lucia is. We leave in a few hours. 

Sister Bratt

                                                    Helping paint the floor after a pipe broke 

                                                       and flooded our investigator's home.

Visiting in the hospital. She is doing so much better after receiving a priesthood blessing!                  

                                                            Our Branch Building

The Church Building in Kingstown

The caterpillars that eat all of the leaves off the trees.

 

Pineapples Growing  -- I didn't realize this is how they grew.

Selling Lobsters on the roadside.

Happy to be Staying in St Vincent

 This week wasn't the best. We struggled to meet with our appointments and to find back-ups the entire week. We weren't very effective in our finding efforts either. It didn't help that we were short a couple of days either, but we did our best, and will pray that the Lord will help us have more success this week. We do have a few great new investigators that we met recently and were able to teach this week, so there is something good that happened. I am trying to improve each day and think of ways that we can change our approach to be more effective. I am learning that we simply have to trust in the Lord and do our very best even when things don't go as planned. 

I was happy though not entirely surprised to hear that Sister Bennie would be serving together again this transfer. The new transfer starts on Wednesday (my 4th!) I am glad to be serving with her, she is a great missionary and a wonderful daughter of God; I love her! We are still getting along great and will be happy to serve together as long as possible. 

So I heard that we will be having Zone Conference in St. Lucia this transfer. That will be a good experience, though I was excited to go see Barbados and to be with all of the Sisters there. I'm sure it will be nice to even see two other sisters though, as well as Sister Mehr and President Mehr. 

We were really sad not to have been able to watch any of Conference yesterday due to not having internet connection. We think that the big storm on Saturday night may have knocked out the internet in the area. I guess the Elders were able to watch some of it in Kingstown, but Sister Bennie and I didn't know they got the internet back on, so we hope to have the opportunity to see it later on. We were really looking forward to watching Conference. It is one of my favorite times of year to hear the words of the prophet and apostles. I am grateful to have seen the Saturday sessions, however, and will look forward to getting the Liahona with the talks if nothing else. 

I love you lots! 

Sister Bratt

P.S. - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON FRIDAY MEGHAN!! LOVE YA!

Storms & Tremors

We will be in St. Lucia next week for zone conference. That will be a good experience, though I was excited to go see Barbados and to be with all of the Sisters there. I'm sure it will be nice to see even two other sisters though, as well as Sister Mehr and President Mehr.  I'm excited for the little mini vacation (lol). It will be a long, but good couple of days. 

This week was a bit better than last week. Sister Bennie and I gave two of the talks on Sunday. It was an interesting day, because we got a lot of rain which kept people from church. When we got there there were only about 15 people there (5 of which were the branch presidency and the elders). A few more showed up, but we decided not to have our other meetings since both of the Sunday School teachers weren't there, and there were so few people. We did end up having a short relief society with the 6 sisters there while the kids practiced for the primary program in a couple weeks. It was an interesting day. The other two branches had really low attendance as well. Was there a hurricane or tsunami somewhere? I heard that may have been what caused all the rain; plus there was apparently a tremor the other night around 10 or so, but I was sound asleep. Sister Bennie felt it, but didn't know if she imagined it until she heard other people talk about it. 

We are trying our best to avoid getting sick. There is a flu going around that I would prefer not to get. I am taking vitamins and airborn to keep my immune system up, so hopefully it helps.

I love you all,

Sister Bratt