Dear Family,
Happy Pioneer Day! We
hope you all have a fun day whatever you may be doing. There was no mention of Pioneer Day
here. That is a pretty foreign concept!
It has been a couple of weeks since we wrote. Sometimes I feel like there is nothing to
write that would sound interesting to you.
Every day we get out of bed, study, sometimes swim a few laps, get ready
and make our schedule, and then leave in the car. Sometimes when we drive away, we only know of
one person to go visit. The amazing
thing is that our day ends up being filled up for the most part and we come
home tired and happy. It reminds me of
the verses in 1 Nephi 3-4 when Nephi and his brothers return for the brass
plates. On their third attempt to obtain
them, Nephi goes by himself. “And I was
led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.”
(1Nephi 4:6) On a smaller scale, I am learning that sometimes we show our faith
by just going and doing even when we don’t know what to do. If dad and I just sat around in our
apartment, nothing would happen. But
when we go out in the car, every day something pops up and I know it is the
Holy Ghost leading us to places that we wouldn’t have thought about had we
tried to make our own plan or not do anything.
I love the Primary song, “Nephi’s Courage”. The words, “I will go, I will do” has become
a chorus of faith and trust in the Holy Ghost becoming our third companion in
our mission companionship. He leads us
to many places. We just have to have the
faith and the courage to go out and do.
It has been hot here, but occasionally we have a
breeze. I have come to look for and
appreciate any small breeze. I know
where the best place to sit in the chapel for the most breeze. Most days it is so hazy that we can hardly
see across the bay. We don’t know if it
humidity, dust or a combination of both.
I just know I haven’t ever suffered with allergies before, but I have
had a problem with sneezing and coughing here.
Our neighbor told us to enjoy the breezes because next month it will be
dead calm with bright sun and high temperatures. I hope we survive! When I complain about having to miss
Christmas twice while on our mission, dad reminds me, “Aren’t you so glad that
we only have to have one summer here?!”
We have a member who introduced us to her neighbors who
moved in recently. We have been by to
meet the parents and have an appointment scheduled for this week. Their 14 year old son has been to church
twice now. He seems to enjoy it and is
interested. We hope the parents will be
receptive too. Of course, they would
have to get married, but just think how wonderful it would be to have a family
accept the gospel. They also have 11
year old and four year old daughters.
Keep us all in your prayers.
I thought it would be fun for the grandkids to learn about
some of the critters we deal with. Some
of them we can’t see, but we can certainly feel their bites. The islanders call these little insects,
”No-seeums.” You may not see them, but
their bites are really itchy. They are
more itchy for me than mosquitoes (which we also have) but their bites are not
as long lasting as the mosquito bites.
In some homes we are bitten by fleas. They often have pets
or unclean apartments and we know they are fleas because when we leave my
ankles and feet are giving me an itchy-fit.
Dad is glad for socks when I complain!
I try to rub my feet and legs with a Deet cloth before I go in those
homes. But when I forget I pay for it
dearly.
In our apartment we battle little teeny tiny ants. If we leave an unclean dish out overnight it
attracts an ant colony by morning!
Terminex sprays our apartment monthly and that helps a lot. We have also found a couple of big
cockroaches. Thanks again to Terminex,
those are kept at a minimum.
There are hundreds of lizards and geckos that climb all over
our building. We rush to close our door
when we enter our apartment so lizards will not take up occupation. The lizards are brown and the geckos are
greenish. Both of them can climb up and
down the building and jump from the handrail into the bushes. The jumping is the part that scares me! Also, lately our sidewalk has been home to an
iguana (two feet from head to tail). It
is bright green which means it is young and small. But twice I have almost stepped on it. Of course it makes me scream with surprise!
From time to time we have infestations of gongolo
worms. That is what the islanders call
them. They are actually millipedes but
no one here calls them that. We have
them at our apartment, but the church is invaded by them. We think they want to become “Mormon” worms
as hundreds try to get into church. Many
have even made it into the baptismal font.
When Kaitlin and Tyler were here it was our turn to clean the
church. They got a good experience with gongolo
worms that they will not soon forget.
They aren’t poisonous but if you handle them, they will make your skin
have a reaction. When they die, they
stink. Every Sunday we go early and sweep
the gongolo worms out of the church.
Sometimes when we are cleaning the church, we also see
Caribbean centipedes. The ones I have
seen have been in the two to three-inch range, but dad has seen lots in other
places that were about 6-8 inches long. These are poisonous and will send you on a
trip to the hospital if they bite you.
Good thing only dad has seen the big ones or I would have to have a trip
to the hospital for a panic attack. He
is much braver than me.
One critter we have never seen, but we hear plenty of them
each night are the Coqui frogs. They are
so LOUD! When it rains we have a
Tabernacle Choir of Coqui frogs! I tried to post a video of their noise but I can't get it to work! I wonder where they all go during the day
when they are silent?
There are hundreds of Roosters and chickens with their
chicks darting everywhere on the island.
This has to be the place where the joke about the chicken crossing the
road came from. You often have to stop
the car while a chicken and her chicks cross the roads. They are all wild. Not even the islanders will kill them to eat
because of their garbage diet. There are
hundreds of wild cats also, but the islanders often leave water out for
them. They like them as they keep the
mouse and rat problem in hand. Speaking
of mice, we took the mission president and his wife to visit a member. While they were visiting, a mouse kept
running in from the kitchen, looking at us and running back. I had to keep my mouth shut so I didn’t
interrupt the conversation, but my eyes
were glued on the mouse. I’m sure there
are lots of mice in lots of houses we are in that we just haven’t seen.
Hope you have enjoyed our little discourse on the critters
we know and love.
Our new mission president and his wife were here with us on
our island last week. We grew to love
them quickly and really enjoyed spending four days with them. Amazing people and amazing sacrifices for the
Lord so they could be here.
We hope you are enjoying summer. Everything gets so scheduled out that we hope
you are taking time to read the scriptures and have family prayer. Pull your children in close to you and
express your testimonies to them often.
We don’t want to lose anyone!!!
Well that’s about it for this time. Thanks for keeping in touch with us. Most days we do great, but we have moments of
missing you all and wishing we could get some grandkid hugs.
Love you all so much,
Dad and Mom,
Grandpa and Grandma
No comments:
Post a Comment