Greetings from D'abadie

Greetings from D'abadie! This week was the first of a new transfer which made it a good week, but also a busy one. It was a holiday weekend as well, Thursday being Trinidad's labor day, and Friday was Corpus Christi, a Roman Catholic holiday. That meant that a lot of people that we are teaching were either home, or out of town for the weekend. So some of our days were good, and others were slow, but we worked hard. We also did service at our Branch building on Thursday morning, less active visits on Saturday afternoon, an a missionary fireside Sunday evening. Not too many members came to help clean the church, but the ones who came worked hard, and it payed off. Less-active visits were very successful. Our group was able to see almost everyone on our list, though some of them didn't have time to sit down for a lesson. We were very pleased with the turnout of members at the fireside! Unfortunately, the investigator turnout wasn't so spectacular. I think it was good to get the members to see how great the firesides can be so that next time they will invite more people. We are going to start early to get them and our investigators excited for the one next month. We are putting together a video to share with the members who didn't come to let them see what they missed out on, and we will give those who came an opportunity to share their testimonies about what they learned. Our fireside was about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we used Lehi's vision to teach it by doing an Iron Rod experience through the church complete with yarn (the rod), obstacles, tempters, the Holy Ghost, and plenty of blindfolded members to walk the "not-so-straight-or-narrow-path" along the rod of iron. Everyone who came, including us, learned a lot from the experience. The spirit was very strong.

We are working to build up our teaching pool again. We have some plans for this coming week to work with members to get more people to teach so we can keep the escalator moving upward. The Lord is aware of our needs and sees our desire to help his children, so people will come through our diligence and hard work.

Love,

Sister Bratt

High Hopes

There are some great individuals and families we are working with in our area presently that we have high hopes for. I know that not all of them will be prepared right now to be baptized, but it has been a pleasure knowing them and working with them on the path to salvation. We have two baptisms scheduled for this Saturday that we hope and pray will work out, but if not there will be some coming up soon. I love witnessing baptisms. It is such a special spirit that is felt there as someone enters into a covenant with our Father in Heaven. The leaders had a special conference with President Mehr this week, which meant that Sister Wilson was out of our area for a few days. I was with the sweet Sister Dinah Duff, who is preparing for her mission in Ogden, for those days working hard. Sister Wilson and I worked really hard the rest of the week and had a lot of success. We had a full day on Friday especially, going on splits with members and such to get more done; it was fun, though tiring.

Well, I love you all a lot. Give everyone there my love!

Sister Bratt

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