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

 

The Lord is truly aware of all of His children

This week went by pretty fast. Before we know it the Transfer will be over. It is crazy how fast time flies on the mission when you lose yourself in the work. The week came with its struggles and challenges, as they all do, but it was also filled with blessings and tender mercies from the Lord. We continue to work hard in our area of San Fernando to bring others unto Christ through the waters of baptism. Thanks for all of your support and prayers for us here. We see answers to prayers, both ours and yours I'm sure, each day. The Lord is truly aware of us and all of his children.

We had the great blessing to witness two baptisms this weekend. One was the baptism of an entire family, mom, dad, and 3 girls, in the Chaguanas branch. Sister Taufu'i taught them while she was in that area, but they have been receiving the lessons for quite a while from different missionaries. Their family was remodeling the mission home, so that is how they came in contact with the church. President and Sister Mehr have taught them in their home on many occasions as well. So, finally they made the decision to be baptized. We got permission to go to it; what a beautiful, spiritual experience that was! I sent some of the pictures I took of them and the sisters who taught them. Another cool thing was that a senior couple that went home a year or so ago, who worked with them when they were here as well, were able to be back visiting this weekend and so the husband was able to baptize this family. It was very special.

The second baptism was here in San Fernando. It the mother of a long time member of our ward. She has been coming to church and activities off and on for years, but never met with the missionaries. Her son, wanted to wait to have them teach her when she was ready to be baptized. He and his friend/home teaching companion have been teaching her, and just a couple of weeks ago, he approached the Elders in his area, and told them that she was ready to be baptized! So, they "taught" her the lessons, she already knew everything, and she was baptized this Saturday. She invited the entire ward as well as many family members and friends. It was cool to see her enthusiasm and excitement to make this step. She was truly prepared! She chose her own date, made her own baptism programs, organized all the food that was to be served after, invited everyone she knows, and pulled together a wonderful baptismal service. The spirit was very strong as we watched her son baptize her! 

The last event of this week was the "Men can Cook, Too" activity that the Elders Quorum put on for the relief society sisters and the rest of the ward. They cooked a fancy dinner and served it out to us while wearing cute chef's hats and aprons. There was a great turnout of members and nonmembers, though none of Sister Taufu'i and my investigators could make it. The ward here is very strong, but can still do better and grow stronger, which I believe that it is. 

Love,

Sister Bratt

Easter Message

The Monday after Easter is a holiday here, so things were closed. We moved our P-day to today. Glad to hear that you had a good Easter. We did here too, even though it was different than I'm used to. What better way to spend it than in the service of the Lord? It really helped me to remember the true meaning of the season. I was thinking about how we didn't have any Easter egg hunt or things like that, but I realized that the hunt we did go on was one of a much greater value and importance; a hunt for souls to save. It was cool to think of it that way and to remember that the message we bring to people is only possible through what Christ did so many years ago just for us. I am grateful for this special Easter that I have had, for it truly was a once in a lifetime opportunity. (btw, we didn't color eggs either. we were going to, but then we realized that all the eggs here are brown...haha!)

Love,
Sister Bratt

Conference, Car Trouble and a Soggy Phone

This week was a good one. We really enjoyed watching all 6 sessions of Conference here at the church via satellite. We didn't have any investigators come which was sad, because we know they would have loved it. We will have to share with them what they missed out on. There weren't very many members there either, the most came on Sunday morning. They do have the ability to watch it online at home, so we hope that those who didn't come to the church were watching it at home. I for one learned so much from the talks that were given! How special was that to have all the women from 8 and up involved in the women's conference! 

Today was a crazy p-day. We had the intention to get going early and get things done so that we could do a bit of clothes shopping after. But, when we went to start the car it wouldn't start. The engine kept turning over. So, we walked to an email shop while we waited for Brother Kotiah to come. He works on all the mission cars here in Trinidad. So we got part of our email time then, but had to walk back to meet him, so now we are finishing up. It turns out that the battery had dried up...who knew that could happen!....I guess more people should, because it would have saved us a lot of trouble if we had been checking it. So he switched us batteries until he can get us a new one and got some battery water to fill it with for the time being. THEN, sister Taufu'i accidentally dropped our phone in the sink while the water is running, so it won't turn on. It is weird not having a phone or knowing what time it is....I forgot to find where I have my extra watch, the one I was using started losing time. So, today has been an adventure! But, hopefully we can still get everything done and have time to relax. :)

Love,
Sister Bratt