Birthday P-Day

Thanks for all the Birthday love from all my family and friends! I love you all dearly, and am so grateful to be a part of your lives.

Sorry this will be short, but I took up too much time savoring all the great messages and emails people sent wishing me a happy birthday. So far, it has been a wonderful day! Sister Wilson is soooo sweet. She got up early to make me pancakes and muffins for breakfast and to decorate our study room with paper "balloons" she drew, and a sign on our white board. Today we are going to the mall with Sister Herrick and Sister Hendricks to eat, shop, and get ice cream. The mall has Bluebell! So, I'll probably treat myself to a little piece of home for my birthday. Sister Wilson has also been trying to sneakily plan some sort of surprise with the other missionaries in our zone and all the sisters...as far as I've gathered. Haha, I've been trying not to ruin the surprise by hearing things I'm not supposed to, but it is hard when we are always together for anything to be a surprise. It's a very sweet thought though. I love her lots!

***My blog editor has not been keeping up very well the past couple of months. She has promised to go back and catch up on some of the missed posts. Stay tuned for more updates :)

D'abadie

D'abadie is going great! Sister Wilson and I get along well, and are working hard to help those we work with to progress. This area is so unique to those I have worked in before. The members are wonderful and willing to do missionary work alongside the missionaries. Sundays are fun to witness as the missionaries all scramble to reserve the members to go out teaching during that week. We are working with a lot of great potential priesthood holders right now; more than I have ever taught before. It is amazing! The Lord really knows our need for strong men and is blessing us with those who are prepared. I know that the Lord is very aware of us and is helping us each day. 

This week, on Saturday, we were able to have our monthly less-active visits with the Branch. We split up with a few members each and went out seeking the wandering sheep. It was a great experience. Of the people we visited, members of two of the families came to church the following day, and another family said they would come next week. The members were really able to connect with them better than we can as missionaries. They felt the love that the Branch has for them as well as their desire for them to come back. 

Some fun things this week: We taught a guy and his cousin at a covered table in the middle of their soon-to-be petting zoo! There were ducks, geese, peacocks, and goats wandering around us, as well as rabbits, a parrot, and pigs in pens. That was fun. We also are teaching a young man who is 14 and has great questions, understanding, and desires. While we were teaching him the other day, he hurt his finger and swore, but immediately realized his mistake and asked, "was that a bad word?" He went on to ask whether we ever say things like that if we get hurt and we told him no. Later we came back to travel with him to our Friday night activity, playing football (soccer) at the church, and he stubbed his toe pretty good. We could hear that he was in pain and he yelled out, "Sister Wilson, what do I say?!" It was so funny! He ended up just groaning and grumbling a bit, he didn't swear though! Haha. He is a good kid.    

Today we had a sister activity and all met up in Port of Spain to go to the Zoo. It was a small zoo, but still fun. We took lots of pictures and got to hold snakes and pet a parrot. :) Now we have a lot to do to make up for lost time this morning, but it was worth it.

Love,

Sister Bratt

 

                                                                  

Happy Mothers Day

I am in my new area, but everything is still really new. I will be able to tell you more about it next week.

It was so nice to talk to Mom and Dad yesterday for Mothers Day! 

Here is the link to a wonderful Mothers and Daughters video by M. Russel Ballard that I sent my Mom.

 http://www.mormonchannel.org/youth-videos?v=2816251288001#.U2enyHZO2rs.email

I hope you can access it. Enjoy! And send your love to all our wonderful Moms!

Love,
Sister Bratt

         Friends Forever!!!

Transfer

I have some big news!! I'm being transferred! I will be leaving another area after 6 great months there. This time I will be staying on the same island though....if you can call Trinidad an island, haha. It doesn't feel like it sometimes. I will be going to an area north of San Fernando called Arima. And guess what....no more car! Yes, I will be "roughing it" on foot and will have to take "travel" (the taxis and maxis a.k.a. vans that run as the public transportation here). This area just opened to Sisters 2 transfers ago, and my companion, Sister Wilson, was the one to open it with her last companion. Sister Wilson is also the sister training leader for a couple of areas. The STL is like a zone leader or district leader in a way, except for sisters. She does companion exchanges with the sisters to train and check on the sisters in her assigned areas. The areas and islands that she is over are Sangre (sandy) Grande (where Sister Herrick is! I'll get to go on exchanges with her and ride a bike!), Tobago and French Guiana (but I won't get to go there most likely, usually she goes alone and I would stay with a member on splits....at least that is what I heard). Sister Wilson is a really great missionary and is super sweet too. She was my STL back in St. Vincent, so I went on exchanges with her once there. She only has 2 transfers left, so I will most likely "kill" her (be her companion at the end of her mission). Who knows, maybe I'll spend my last six months in the same area just like the last two 6 month periods. haha. Way, only six months again on my mission, boy! (Just a taste of Trini language for you! ;) ) 

I'm so excited to skype/video chat with Mom next Sunday! Unfortunately I don't know anything about times since I am going to be in a new area, but I will most likely email or call before.

Love,

Sister Bratt

Saying Good-Bye