May's New Elders

Elders Jensen, Jones, Hill, Lish and Linton

Five new elders arrived from the Provo MTC Tuesday night (three more will arrive later in the transfer - Elders DeMasters, Stewart and Gossai)

They reached the mission home in good time - around 9:30pm. Some elders have arrived as late as 2:00 am when problems come up in immigration.

We fed them a snack and sent the tired elders to bed (they were up and traveling by 4:00 am).

The next day they got to try President Robison's famous sour dough pancake breakfast. Then they had group study with Sister Robison and interviews with President Robison.

Next it was off to see the baptism of a couple from the Curepe Ward. During the service two of the brand new elders were handed a slip of paper asking them to teach a short version of the restoration lesson while the couple changed clothes. I hear they did great.

They learned that West Indies missionaries can teach "anyone, anything, anyplace, anytime" - that has been our motto for a few years.

Then the new elders got to sample a Trinidad favorite food called 'doubles'



It may look a little scary but elders love doubles. It is a curried chick pea filling inside fried bread - usually with mango chunks and served with pepper sauce (very very hot in Trinidad). Doubles are cheap but reasonably nutritious food sold from early in the morning until late at night.

Then, off they went to work in Trinidad, paired up with the assistants and other experienced missionaries. They contacted and taught until dinner time.

At 5:30 they were back in the mission home where they found me just finishing up a chocolate whipped cream cake for their supper.



Sitting on the counter was the frosting bowl - who can resist?





We had a nice dinner that included some great local dishes - in hopes that the new elders will learn to eat more than cereal, ramen noodles and peanut butter during their mission.

Doris, who helps in the mission home, cooked up some plantains - so good!



I also made callaloo (local greens) and curried pumpkin for them to try, along with a few more American style dishes (just so they wouldn't go into total food culture shock).

President Robison conducted an informal 'white board discussion' at the end of dinner to address questions about the mission.

We finished with a formal devotional and testimony meeting.





Here's something that is kind of fun:

We think there are a few interesting 'look-a-likes' in this new group

Elder Jones and Elder Scott (both have the same dad/trainer - Elder McNeal by the way)



Elder Lish and Elder Hoosen (both French speakers)




This final pair is what got this thinking started - everyone that sees Elders Linton thinks Elder Heslop is back!