2015 Celebration and Transfers

This week has been a hectic one with trying to contact less-active members to invite them to seminary and institute as well as inviting people to Celebration 2015 and helping them to get excited. We were really glad to have the chance to witness the first Celebration show, it was a very wonderful turnout and a great show. The members here truly have great talent. They sang, read poems, and did dramatic readings. It was a fun night. I heard that there were over 500 people there!

So....TRANSFER CALLS! I wasn't too surprised to hear that Sister Herrick was being transferred since she has been here in San Fernando for some time now, but I will still miss her. I'm glad that we are both still in Trinidad for now, so we may see each other on occasion. She will be up north in Sangre (pronounced sandy) Grande. They are the only set of sisters on bikes here in Trinidad! She is going to get a good workout and a nice tan! I am happy to have Sister Taufu'i as my new companion. I know she is a great missionary, and will do well here in San Fernando. She was Sister Herrick's MTC companion, so she is the closest thing to still having Sister Herrick as I can get, haha! She is from Salt Lake, but she is half Samoan, half Tongan. She's a sweetheart. 

I am so excited for General Conference! It is crazy that it is already here again, but at the same time, it feels like forever ago that I was watching it in St. Vincent. Yes, they celebrate Easter here, and most Christians participate in Lent leading up to it, so fish is expensive this time of year and chicken is cheaper, or so we are told. It is because they give up meat for lent. Yesterday was Pagwa in the Hindu culture. That is the festival of colors where the throw the colored chalk stuff at each other. We only saw one person with chalk on them, but we did hear some Indian music playing in our area. Tonight we are going to a members house to learn how to make roti, one of the main foods here, before Sister Herrick leaves. I'll try to take good notes so that I can make it for you when I get home. I feel bad that I haven't been learning to make more things. 

Love,
Sister Bratt

                                  

     

Waking up Happy

We had a great week! We worked hard and were able to find a couple of new families to teach who we are really excited about. We also met a young less-active women that is very sweet and we look forward to working with. We pray that we have met her at a good time in her life when she will be ready to come back to church and remember why she used to come. She also referred us to her friend who lives with her, so we were able to get a member referral that way. I am seeing now how less-actives are truly the gold mine. Even if we can't do much for the less-actives themselves at this time, we can work with those around them who may just be prepared. 

Our investigator is still doing wonderful as well. We were sad, because she didn't make it to church on Sunday, but after seeing her that evening we found out that it was for a good reason, and most importantly that she felt really sad to have missed it. She also continues to amaze us with how willing she is to do what she learns is expected of us and how happy doing so continues to make her. Last Sunday when Donnaleiz bore her testimony in Sacrament meeting she said, "I have been waking up happy and I don't even know why," Our investigator told us that she knows exactly what Donnaleiz was saying because it happens to her too. We talked to her some more about her baptism and she finally chose a solid date to work towards. We still feel she could be ready sooner, but we will take things at her pace. So....April 26th is the date she picked! I don't know the two of us will still be here then, but regardless of that we are so happy for her. 

Yes, we moved to a different apartment. We had the 4 elders here living in the old senior couple's apartment for some time while we had no senior couple. Now that we do have one, the elders had to move out, and the apartment we were in made the most sense for two of them to go to because they have no car, and that apartment is close to where they need to get a taxi. So, we moved to a different part of our area, but we are loving our new apartment so far. There have been a few cockroaches though, yuck! And if you look at my pictures you will see the other fun friend we found on our car last night....I giant beetle! It was gross. We caught it in a pickle jar and Sister Herrick sprayed insecticide stuff in with it to kill it. It was sad, but we didn't want to let it free and risk finding in again. 

Love,

Sister Bratt

                             

                                 

             

Carnival, New Apartment, Ready to Work

I'm still a little thrown off by this crazy Carnival week. I will try to remember back to last week. Our investigator is still doing wonderfully. She came to church for the second time on Sunday for our first hour only fast and testimony Sunday. She felt the spirit and even thought about going up to bear her testimony! She didn't get the chance to, but her time will come. She told a member that said it was good to see her there, "You'll always see me here." So she is doing great! We are very excited for her. 

We moved into our new apartment over the weekend which slowed us down a bit, but now that we are all settled, and don't have to worry about finding a new place to live, we can focus back on the work 100%.

Love,
Sister Bratt

The Power of Conversion (9 Months)

The 22nd was my 9 month mark in the mission! I'm already half-way done, I can't believe it. Before I know it I will be at a year like Sister Herrick, and those last 6 months will fly by. We are really trying our best to work hard so that we can go home with no regrets and a satisfaction that we have done our best in the work. Things can be slow, but we are working hard to pick them back up and keep moving forward. 

We had another great lesson with our investigator yesterday. She hasn't really gotten a strong conviction in the past that Joseph Smith was a prophet, so we were inspired to bring the Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration movie to share with her to help her to visualize better the events that made up the restoration of this gospel. However, we didn't know how truly inspired we were to bring that video until after we showed it to her. She became emotional during a few parts that really struck her and had her feeling the Spirit the most, and afterwords she thanked us for bringing the movie. She told us how she has been praying for some sort of sign or confirmation that what we have been teaching her is true, and that she felt in her heart during the movie that it is. She knows that it was an answer to her prayers, and that God does love her, something she was unsure of when we first met her a couple of months ago. It was a huge step for her on the path of conversion, and we were blessed to witness it. This gospel has already changed her so much. I can tell that she is more happy and at peace in life just since we met her. I know that she has truly been prepared for us to bring the truth to her at this time. We are truly humbled to be witnesses and instruments in her conversion.

Carnival week is coming up the first weekend/week of March. It is already crazy sometimes with people partying and gearing up for the big event. Last night we accidentally drove through an area that had apparently just finished it's children's carnival, and it was madness, with people everywhere, but we made it through eventually. We will be staying inside on Monday and Tuesday of next week, so I will email on Wednesday so don't worry if you don't get an email from me on Monday. We will also be changing apartments on Saturday this week so it is going to be busy. 

Love,

Sister Bratt

Answers to Prayers

This week wasn't the greatest. Sister Herrick was still overcoming her sickness the first of the week, so we didn't get a lot done. She is doing a lot better now. We had a really low day on Saturday, when our only progressing investigator randomly decided to drop us, and we realized that we had no one to work with. That was hard for us both. However, through prayer and the Lord's help, we had a much better day on Sunday. He really helped us see that we aren't at a complete standstill in the work. We had a surprise in the morning when our only other real investigator, showed up at church for the first time since we started teaching her a couple of months ago. She only stayed for sacrament meeting, but enjoyed it and I think she felt the Spirit. We visited her later that day with our recent convert, Donnaliez, and they really hit it off. They have a lot in common and were able to relate well in their situations. Our investigator expressed that she will "definitely be at church next week" and that she will be staying the entire time. She also excepted a baptismal commitment for her birthday in April. All of this truly was a miracle and an answer to our prayers, because we had recently been questioning whether she was truly prepared and interested at this time; we got our answer! The Lord had to bring us low so that we could be humble and see how blessed we really are with those we are teaching. I know He will continue to help us find those like our investigator and Donnaleiz who are prepared and searching for this gospel. We will, with His help, get the work going again here in San Fernando. 

Love,
Sister Bratt

Staying in Sando

This week was slow. Sister Herrick has been sick this weekend, with what, we aren't sure. Probably just a virus. We are hoping she get's better soon. But at least we found out that we will still be together next transfer, so we have plenty of time to get her back to health and to get back to work in our area. :) We were happy when we heard the news on Friday that we are both staying. There were a lot of changes throughout the mission this time, so we were lucky to stay together.

Have a great Valentines day and know that you are all my Valentines! Haha!

Love,

Sister Bratt

It's a Small World

We had a good week here in Sando (San Fernando). Our investigator is still doing well. We got to see her Sunday afternoon and she had a friend join in our lesson. She seemed to like what she heard, so we are going to try to teach her as well. That was a great blessing. 

There were a couple of cool things that happened this week. Sister and Elder Bird were here on Friday, and though I didn't get to see them, I talked to Sister Bird on the phone for a bit and got to catch up on whats happening in St. Vincent. They met our senior couple for lunch by the mission office and Sister Bird told Sister Bateman a crazy story to relay to me. It requires a bit of background information. So, when I went to the hospital in St. Vincent and was waiting so long for my IV to be hooked up, there was a man who was rushed through the ER with his arm dripping blood. They took him into a room for a long time, but since I was there waiting so long, we saw when he came out. Sister Small was with us, and she asked him what happened to his arm. He told her at he and another man were fighting over a women and it resulted in his arm being chopped up with the other guys cutlas (machete like knife they use for everything here).  So, flash forward to Sister Bird's part of the story, She went to church in the Kingstown Branch sometime after that incident, and saw a man and his family who she hadn't met before. In talking to them she found out that they had recently gotten baptized. Well, she noticed that his arm was bandaged or scared (I'm not sure which) and came to find out that it was that same guy! He won the girl he was fighting for, and they were married and then baptized! I don't know how much time elapsed between all these event, because I heard the story second hand, but it was really cool to hear! Small world, huh?

Anyway, another thing that showed us how small the world is was when we met a man who has been living in Florida for years with his family. He saw us on the street and knew immediately who we were because his family was all baptized in the States except for him. His youngest daughter went to BYU for a couple of years, and the missionaries come to his house all the time in the US. He said his wife goes out with the Sisters in his area to help them teach because she speaks spanish and english, so she helps them teach. It was really cool to talk to him and see what has held him back from joining his family in the church. I wish I could say that we were able to have a greater impact on him than we did, but he has his own views and isn't really ready to budge on them yet. He is a really nice guy. I feel sad for him that he is missing out on the blessings of this gospel, and especially sad for his family who are waiting anxiously for him to join them so that they can be sealed together in the Temple for all eternity. It reminded me of how important this work is and what is at stake if people choose to reject what we share. They may not see the importance, but we do, so we have to try to help them as best we can. 

I love you all
Sister Bratt