Mission Update - July, 2008

 

French Guyana:

Since we will be going home soon, Elder Malmrose had to travel to French Guyana for one last visit to do an audit of the two branches there.  It is on the upper eastern part of South America but is still part of France, as are these Caribbean islands. It is a little more primitive, but still an interesting place.  They have a lot of problems with illegals and smuggling from the other countries around them.  French Guyana has gold mines, so that is where some of the smuggling comes in.  It borders on Brazil.

 

As is our tradition, we took Elder Swain (British/New Zealand) and his companion Elder Lines, out to dinner.  Elder Swain is being released, and so we had to have our little Malmrose Proclamation talk.  They are both excellent missionaries, and we really enjoyed them.

Elder Swain

Elders Lines and Swain

 

Here are pictures of the church building in Cayenne and the Kourou rented building with some of our missionaries out in front.  Also, a couple of pictures of our future missionaries.

Cayenne

Kourou

 

Bro. and Sister Magny are building a new house in the area.  They took us to see it.  These are pictures of some of the building going on.  Everything is concrete with wood accents.  They had us over to lunch.  Their dog wasn’t much of a watch dog.

Br. and Sis. Magny

Magny new home

 

We had been told that giant sea turtles come up on the beaches to lay their eggs.  The missionaries took us to find them, but there was a storm, so we didn’t get to see them. The only creature we saw was this sand crab.   Our mission president and his wife, the Robisons, did take some pictures of the event.  Also, they went to see a member who runs a refuge for sloths.  Sister Robison said that they have these big claws, but are gentle creatures that move very slowly (hence slothfully).  She shared these photos.

 

Gwada Youth:

Here are a few pictures of our young men and young women.  They are a happy people.  It was seminary and institute graduation time.  Pres. Gamiette is not only our District President, but he is the CES Director for our area. His boss, Bro. Goodman, attended the graduation and gave an excellent talk.  The youth sang and participated in the graduation ceremonies, just like back home.

 

Gwada Views:

More pictures of what we see everyday.  The tree with orange or yellow blossoms is called a “Flamboyant”, which seems appropriate.  One of my friends said she always loved these trees because they blossom when school lets out every summer.

There are some pictures of pineapple plants.  As you can see, it produces one pineapple per plant, in the center.  We found out also, that a banana tree (actually they are not trees) only produces one bunch of bananas per tree, and then they start with a new one.  We’ll try to get some good pictures of a banana tree farm.

 

Basse-Terre is the capital of Guadeloupe on the south of the island.  It is more tropical in that area and the volcano is close.  It has a beautiful round point with horse statues and a nice boardwalk near the ocean.  We have a branch in the area, so we get to visit occasionally.

 

Elder Malmrose wanted to make friends with our neighbors.  He was friendly, but didn’t want a Book of Mormon.  Elder Malmrose tried to kiss up to him, but it didn’t help.  The mother and child weren’t interested either.  Oh well, that’s the way it goes.

 

Here are some views from our island of Guadeloupe.  We are always glad to come back here after traveling to the other islands because it has better roads and feels like home to us.  The food is good and in many ways unique, although I don’t eat anything with eyes.  We eat a lot of fruit, because it is so good and available all year.  That is one advantage of living in the tropics.  One disadvantage is that there are mosquitoes all year too.  Oh well…..even the Garden of Eden had its’ bad apples.

 

Martinique:

 

Elder Malmrose had to go to Martinique to do the audit.  It was a good opportunity for us to say our goodbyes to those good people.  We went and said goodbye to our friends, the Laquembes in the city of Trinité, where they live.  They were serving as a missionary couple until recently, when he became ill. Some of our earlier pictures are from the balcony of their house overlooking the bay.  What a beautiful place to live.

We attended church in Fort-de-France.  The members are quite happy with their new building and hope to be able to buy land for a church owned building in the future.  The sisters in the Relief Society are wonderful, of course.  One of the sisters served her mission at Temple Square, so of course she speaks English.  That’s always nice to hear.

 

One of the couples from Church, are the Sillons.  They met in France and were married a few years ago.  He has Sickle Cell Anemia, which has destroyed his kidneys.  He has to have dialysis until he gets a kidney transplant.  He is very helpful with the branch records.  We went to dinner with them at a beautiful restaurant they chose.  We had a delightful evening and even made a contact with one of the chefs, who wanted a Book of Mormon.  We sent it to him later.  The evening was great with these nice people.

 

When we go to Martinique, we always stay at the hotel Yva manages.  It is a gathering place for the missionaries as well as the members.  She is a dear person, and we always have fun with her.  There are always people coming and going in her kitchen, where she is working, as well the other gathering rooms.  I taught her, her first English phrase.  She can now say “Bug Off!”, when she wants to be left alone.  We could hear her using it over and over again.  I may have created a monster.

 

She has several young women living with her, who work for her or who are friends.  Westland is the taller young woman dressed in white.  She is a relatively new convert and wants to serve a mission, when she is old enough.  She is a delightful, fun young woman.  The other young women are also neat.

The Branch President is Charles Louis-Alexis.  He works in security at the airport.  He was a policeman in France, when he got shot.  He has quite a story of how that led him to find and join the Church.  He is in the photo with his wife and us.

 

We got to see our missionaries, Elder McIntosh and Elder Williams.  They are super young men, who work very hard to do the Lord’s work.

 

Yva’s room is often filled with food and people, as you can see.  She is the most unselfish person we have ever known.  She joined the Church after waiting for her long time boyfriend to join, but when he wouldn’t, she joined anyway.  She is still friends with him and we see him often as he comes to drive her around, since she doesn’t drive.  She hopes that someday, he will realize what he is missing and join.

 

Last but not least, are the resident dog and cat.  Even they are good friends, as you can see.  This is a friendly island for everybody.

Martinique branch

The Sillons

Amel & Westland

Amel & Westland

Josette

Yva Jean-de-Dieu

Sr. & Pres. Louis-Alexis

Elder McIntosh

Elder Williams

Yva's good dinner

Roger, Amel & Yva

Dog & Cat friends

Dog & Cat friends

 

Zone Conference:

 

Our mission zone conference comes around every 6 weeks.  Our mission president and his wife always give inspiring and motivational talks and lessons, and we enjoy being with them.  The Platts come from St. Martin with their missionaries.  It is great to work and visit with them as well as with the young missionaries.

 

Our missionaries come in all sizes as you can see from the picture.  Elder Kelley, the shorter one, comes from a family with 13 brothers and sisters.  Elder Temarono is our tall elder from Tahiti and Elder Doumbia is from France.  We have them in all shapes and sizes, but we love them all.

A teaching moment

Elders Temarono & Kelley

Elders Doumbia & Kelley

Platts, Robisons & Malmroses

Band of Brothers

 

Every zone conference, the Zone Leaders ask some of the members to put on the luncheon.  They are always so helpful.  This day, we wanted to thank them for their work, so we called them from the kitchen and sang our thanks to them.

Singing our thanks

Srs. Bastien & Toujo

 

Other:

Elder Doumbia is a delightful missionary.  We took him and his companion Elder Wright, out to dinner to say our goodbyes.  He goes home in November, but has been transferred to French Guyana, so we won’t see him before we leave.  He is one of the happiest missionaries we have ever known and is well liked by the other missionaries as well as the members.

 

We had to say goodbye to Elder Pahio, one of our Tahitian missionaries.  We have grown very fond of him and hope he does well in Martinique.

 

We go to the airport to say our goodbyes and welcome our incoming missionaries.  This is Elder Gray in the middle of our zone leaders.

 

We have been teaching some new members lessons to one of the newer members and her daughter and grandsons.  We go with the missionaries and with our friend Sarah Naine, who is a returned missionary.  They all do a great job in teaching these new members the gospel, and we are happy to be part of it.
 

Elders Wright & Doumbia

Elder Doumbia farewell

Elder Wright

Goodbye to Elder Pahio

Elders Garotta, Gray & Garrett

Sarah, Francoise & Emmanuelle

Michel, Francoise & Emmanuelle