Island Zone Conference - April 28

Scriptures, planners, and the teaching record - essential tools for successful missionaries


We had a little break in our zone conference tour while President Robison attended some training meetings.

Now we are back at work

The Island zone conference in St Lucia yesterday was fabulous. Those elders were ready to learn!

I love it when the missionaries ask lots of questions - especially hard ones that I can't answer.

I also love it when I am the one that does the most learning.

That happened yesterday thanks to the questions and comments of the missionaries and Marlon - a wonderful prospective missionary.

Here are those great elders at work:

Singing...


volunteering...


learning...


practicing...


and practicing...


and practicing...


and practicing..


and finally - eating


The island zone conference gathers young elders and senior couples from four islands:

Grenada


Elder Ison, the Rasmussens, and Elder Owens

St Lucia


Back - the Collins, Marlin (who plans to be the first missionary to serve from St Lucia), Elder Moala, The Fauxes
Front - Elders Endemann, Rosales, and Muse

St Vincent


Elders Biver and Montgomery (brand new), the Hattons, Elder Sarager, and in front - Elder Fisher

Martinique


French speaking Elders Carlson, Maihota, West and Anihia


This was the first zone conference for the Rasmussens - who replaced the Woods in Grenada.

Island Zone Conference - March 26

We flew from St Martin to St Lucia yesterday (the famous Piton mountains are at the far right)

President Robison interviewed all the island missionaries last night

This morning we had zone conference (actually most of the day - from 8:30 to 1:30)

Tonight we fly back to Trinidad.

So - relaxing on the gorgeous beaches of St Lucia is (unfortunately) not part of the program

But I did get to peak at one this morning out my window


However, we enjoyed an even more glorious sight - the missionaries of the islands


Here they are island by island

Grenada

Elders Macintosh and Tycksen, Elder and Sister Wood (who finish their mission next month), Elders Owens and Youngyen

St Vincent

Elders Muse, Fox, Sarager and Biver (the Hattons could not make it)

St Lucia

Elder and Sister Collings (newly arrived from Trinidad), Elders Fox, Garrett, Proctor, and West, Elder and Sister Faux (brand new) and (in front) Elders Rosales and Nestegard

Elder and Sister Faux will do a wonderful work in Vieux Fort St Lucia


We had two St Lucian prospective missionaries with us

Janiel (Lily) Aimable (baptized last November) and Davey Goddard (baptized about a month ago on Valentines day)

After I took that picture, they said - "We need one with OUR missionaries!"


We had fabulous musical number by Elders Youngyen, Young and Biver


We finished with a nice lunch after (I forgot to take pictures)

The missionaries are healthy and happy and working hard!

Visiting in Vieux Fort, St Lucia

Tuesday my husband and I spent some time in Vieux Fort, St Lucia with Elder and Sister Williamson. They organized interviews for President Robison and took me out on visits.

My first stop was to see Bernardine and her son Glaceson. Sister Williamson helps Glaceson with his reading.




Next we visited the Clovis family who is preparing for baptism. They also have a son who wants literacy training. Sister Williamson does great work with the boys.






We finished with a visit to one more family preparing for marriage and baptism.


By the end of the evening we saw families preparing for baptism, new members planning temple sealings, and men progressing in the priesthood. The Williamsons have done a great work and will leave behind a wonderful legacy when they complete their mission and return home next month.

Island Zone Conference - January

We had our first zone conference in the new huge chapel addition in the Castries St Lucia building. You can't begin to see all the space - but 120 chairs fit in with loads of leftover room.

Here is the powerful group of island missionaries plus future missionary Shannon


There are quite a few new faces in the islands. You see, we have sixteen elders going home April 1st. President Robison does not like to have elders finish their mission as zone leaders - he likes them to end training new elders or serving in the field. So he sent a whole bunch of these great and experienced missionaries to the islands to set them on Fire!

Also, the Martinique elders came to join us. They usually go to Guadeloupe but there is a terrible strike going on there right now and no one can get in -including us. We were supposed to have a zone conference there tomorrow but that will be postponed until the strike is settled. All the missionaries are fine, but their work is limited right now.

We had a wonderful Island zone conference. The elders are ready to go out and get it done.

Here they are - island by island

Martinique plus two

Elders Maihota, Vogel, Procter, Temarono (heading to Guyana today to serve as a zone leader), Terea, and Garret (in front - now serving in St Lucia)

St Vincent plus one

Elders Fox, Williamson, Lubberink, Rosales (used to be in St Vincent but is now in St Lucia - thus the odd number of elders), Sarager, and the Hattons

St Lucia

Elders Hymas, Rosales, Nestegard, Clark, Williamson, Garret, and Sisters Hymas and Willamson

Lonely Grenada - the Woods (missionary couple) couldn't make it to conference

Elders Hamilton and Stebbing

Today's visitors

Shannon and his mother, Adrianna

All those couples

Hymus, Williamson, Hatton, and us

The Williamson family - finishing their mission in a few weeks


to lunch




Here is a fun story.

Sister Adrianna (member for 2 years) helped set up today's lunch.

She said, "I learned how to cook from Sister Sherwood (previous couple) and it was great."

"Then I learned how NOT to cook from Sister Hymas (current missionary couple) and that is even better! No sweating, no washing dishes."

Lunch today was from Subway and it was delicious.

Adrianna also said she didn't think she could possibly like the new couple after growing so close to the Sherwoods - but that changed very quickly. Now she loves them both!

Couples make such a difference in this mission and the blessings go both ways - couples who serve go home changed forever and their families receive special blessings and care from above.

Tuesday in St Lucia (Dec 9)

Here is how a great group of missionaries prepares for zone conference

On the Monday before zone conference the island elders (St Vincent, Grenada, St Lucia) volunteered to help clean up the Red Cross building near the Castries church in St Lucia. Someone there called the news who came and filmed the missionaries at work. The clip has been on TV twice already and many St Lucians have seen it and are impressed. Sister Hatton alertly grabbed her camera and videotaped and captured it for us.

(I just checked this video and couldn't get sound to come through. I will try to fix it today - let me know if it magically starts working)



As they were doing their great work last Monday we flew from Georgetown, Guyana to St Lucia, with a quick stop in Barbados. Tuesday morning we gathered for zone conference. The day went very well.

It was exciting to see the chapel extension almost competed. What was once the small Castries Branch has had almost 50 people baptized the past 18 months - so they just don't fit in their little meeting room any more.

Doesn't the new room look great (and huge)?



It is fun that Elder Beute (in his last transfer) is training Elder Lubberink (in his first transfer) - they are from the same branch in the Netherlands and wondered if they would get to see each other during their mission.


This is fun too - but not the greatest shot of everyone (sorry). Everyone in the picture is a Williamson. In the center is Elder and Sister Williamson serving a couple mission in Vieux Fort St Lucia. On the left is their son who is serving in St Vincent and on the right is Elder Williamson (no relation) serving as an assistant.

Into the Water

Sister Sherwood made this beautiful slideshow about the baptisms she and Elder Sherwood saw while serving in St Lucia (to see full screen click on the lower right corner icon.

This will give you just a glimpse of the joy that comes to those who serve couple missions



Feel free to share this with anyone who is thinking about serving a couple mission.

Island Zone Conference - October

It was small (10 Elders, 5 couples) but powerful. We receive wonderful instruction from Elder Vinas.

Here is the group - Hurrah for the Islands!


A little closer:




Island Couples with Elder and Sister Vinas (second couple from the left)


We had to say goodbye to Elder and Sister Sherwood - they made a huge contribution to establishing the church in St Lucia


They helped get a new building rented and now an extension because the church is growing so rapidly in Castries (Vieux Fort is growing as well!)


Won't this make a wonderful chapel?


Elder and Sister Hymas arrived Friday to replace the Sherwoods. They will be great!