Hello again from Christiansted, St Croix. What a pleasant month this has been as far as the temperature goes! The trade wind breezes are blowing each day and cool us off. We like it! The native Cruzans think it is cold and complain about the mornings. We wish it would stay this way! It is interesting to note that the clouds float across the sky from the east to the west instead of west to east. It took us a while to get used to that! Soon enough the breezes will cease and we will be back to our normal sweat.
Our days do not vary much. We teach, then we teach, and then we visit and teach some more. We are learning the hard way how to be more effective teachers. Sometimes it is painful and sometimes the spirit is strong and does the teaching for us. We strive to have the Holy Ghost teach all the lessons because they are always the best lessons when he teaches.
It was a great opportunity to be a missionary and receive a password to sign in to the world wide missionary broadcast a couple of weeks ago. We were taught by Elder Oaks, Elder Bednar, Elder Anderson, Sister Oscarson and three members of the Seventy. What a treat. The emotions in me ran high when Elder Anderson reminded us that our calling is somewhat like their calling as Apostles when it comes to being a witness of Jesus Christ to Heavenly Father's children throughout the world. This is important and serious work. It is exciting to be a part of it. It is also discouraging to try to figure out how to be better missionaries. Elder DeMille relates to Alma. He would like to be an angel and proclaim the gospel.
I wish we could report a lot of success to you in this letter. We teach, but so far we are just planting seeds it seems. We wish so badly we could find a family who has children, has a steady job, and who owns a car and baptize them. The branch really needs them!
Our little branch here is sweet. Sunday has become my favorite day of the week when we attend church and see these people we have come to love. Last Sunday Elder DeMille and I spoke in church. I relayed an experience we had when we were on our Scandinavian cruise. In Latvia in the ancient town square, as we walked around there was a company trying to market its new ice cream treats by passing out free ones. At first we passed them by worried they might be dangerous (like taking candy from strangers) but then we realized what was going on and each tried one. Elder DeMille kept taking one from every person passing them out until he had eaten FIVE! I used this example in our talk that I won't bore you with, but the reason I am telling this is because when we visited members this week, they all had ice cream ready for Elder DeMille. One had even dished it up into a plastic cup complete with a plastic spoon and handed it to us as we went out his door! It has been so fun to see their sweet laughing spirits and that they had fun with us this week. Already I can tell we will really miss them at the end of our mission. AND we got plenty of ice cream this week!
The members are working toward their annual temple trip in October. They have to fly to the Dominican Republic which costs $400-$500 each. There aren't any prosperous members here so they are saving all their branch budget money for the temple trip to help members who can't afford to go. I will never complain again about having to drive an hour to the temple in Manti.
The gospel is in its simplicity here. The members don't have the fullness of the "Church" programs. But they have a fullness of faith in God. Their prayers are humble, matter of fact, and they acknowledge God in all things in their life, even as far as crediting Him for saving them a seat at the church. We have learned much from them of what is important. We have had to shed our ideas of how the church is run in Utah and appreciate what they do have here. We rely on the basics of faith, repentance, baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. Some of them are still working on the enduring to the end part, however. (as we all are)
I am grateful to have this opportunity to serve. Although I didn't really want to do a proselyting mission, I am learning the joy (and discouragement) of it. I love it when eyes light up with the spirit and they "get it". We hope to be useful servants here. Sometimes it is hard to see how we can make a difference, but then we just have to learn to rely on Heavenly Father even more. I have grown in appreciation for all of our children missionaries and what they went through on their missions. I pray every night for all the young missionaries out in the world who make such a difference, one by one. And I pray for all my "old" senior missionary friends and relatives who are serving in such amazing ways. And then, I always pray for all of you, my friends and family who are at home serving as visiting teachers, home teachers, teaching in assignments at church and where ever you are serving. We are all in this together. It is the Lord's work and it is an important work to spread His message to all. Sure do love you all.
Thanks for any letters you email or send. It really is true missionaries LOVE letters from home. It gets pretty lonesome at times being the only missionaries on the island!
Love you,
Elder and Sister DeMIlle
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