Dear Family and Friends, December
2016
Merry Christmas! We love all of you and miss you! We hope you
are having a great Christmas with your family and enjoy celebrating Christmas
on Sunday. How amazing is that?
Our family Christmas letter is
different this year as we are away from our family. We have to mention,
however, our two sweet grand-babies born in the family this year: #19 Elle Charlotte, born to Parker and
Chelsey in March; and #20 Cora Kristy, born to David and Alison in October. We miss everyone, but especially miss hugging
and kissing those sweet baby faces.
Since we are the only
missionaries on our little island of St. Croix, we get to do EVERYTHING! We teach investigators and teach follow-up
lessons to newly baptized members. We introduced
the #LIGHTtheWORLD program to the branch and pass out as many pass-along cards
as we can. We assist the members in
their callings and teach them in their homes.
We visit and teach the less actives (and there are LOTS of those). We
visit the sick in the hospital. We drive
a member to and from physical therapy three times a week. We teach Seminary
temporarily. We search for potential
investigators (everywhere! even at the DMV) We drive members to church, activities,
and YM/YW. We fill in wherever we are needed on Sunday by teaching lessons or
playing the piano. We study a lot. We plan a lot. We worry (a lot). We pray a lot. We HOPE a lot that we will be able to help
turn hearts to Jesus Christ.
We have enjoyed getting to know
St. Croix. We were shocked when we first
arrived to see the decay and poverty. The
longer we are here, however, the more we see the beauty of the island. Although it is a small island, it takes us a
long time to get from one end to the other.
Most roads are curvy, pothole ridden, and overgrown with thick jungle
growth. No one travels any faster than
about 30 mph. We drive on the left side of the road (except when you have to
dodge potholes). There are no street signs and if you ask someone where they
live, they don’t know an address to tell you.
Most of the time we don’t remember we are on an island because of the
dense growth. Whenever we catch a
glimpse of the ocean we are surprised!
At night the sound of croaking and chirping frogs is deafening and in the
morning we would like to shoot the hundreds of wild roosters that roam
everywhere and begin their strutting and crowing somewhere around 4:30 AM.
Sister DeMille makes Elder DeMille lead the way out each morning as the
handrails and apartment walls are home to several lizards that can jump two
feet to the nearest bush. (FEAR that one may jump on US some morning!)
Most people are very
pleasant. When you pass by someone or
they enter a room, they will say, “Good Morning,” or “Good Afternoon.” Everyone else in the room answers back with
the same greeting. When we are waiting
to make a turn on a busy road, often they will stop and give you two honks on
the horn which means, go ahead and turn and they will wait for you. Everyone is
very polite, EXCEPT the clerks in the stores or at the DMV! Customer service is a phrase sometimes not
understood here.
The branch members are very
patient with us. They often remind us,
“that’s Caribbean life.” (In private I
think they roll their eyes at us). They are slow and easy going with their attitudes
about family, church, and work. They don’t like change. We have a sweet little building where we meet
for church. Each week, I grab the
dustpan and broom and sweep up the abundant gongolo worms that also like to attend
church. EEEWH!
This is a good Christmas for
us. It has been nice to take a break
from decorations and the frills of the season and focus on serving our Heavenly
Father. Jesus Christ truly is “the light
of the world.” We testify that He lives and that He is waiting patiently for us
to turn to Him.
Merry Christmas and much love to
all of you who have influenced our lives so tenderly. Our hearts are full of gratitude for the
wonderful surroundings and gospel tradition with which we have been so blessed.
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Elder
Tristan and Sister Kristy DeMille
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