Cool news from President Mehr!

Elders and Sisters, I have just finished up the Mission President’s Conference in Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. Here Elder Zwick from the Seventy was with us along with the Area Presidency. We have received instructions from the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles regarding the status of the West Indies Mission.

In the next several months, because of the influx of thousands of missionary applications, we will be receiving almost 52 more missionaries into our mission. This is great blessing. The Lord is hastening His work. D&C 88:73 “Behold, I will hasten my work in its time”.

There will be challenges. There will be questions on how this will all work out. The Lord will provide. This would possibly mean that we will have 4 missionaries per unit (branch or ward). This also means that we will need to strengthen the branch and ward councils. In some areas we will even have to help create these councils.

I have felt the spirit of this historical announcement. Now we begin to implement the Lord’s desires from this wonderful miracle in our lives. Be sure to write in your journals what you are seeing and experiencing out there as you participate in the greatest hastening of the work that we have seen since the Church was restored.

We will see many miracles as we work with greater faith and haste. Right now our compliment of missionaries is around 126 and we will be increased to 178. This does not include Senior Couples.

May the Lord bless us as we prepare diligently for the hastening of His work.

I love you all,

President Mehr

Transferred!

So we got our Transfer calls this week and I'm am hittin' the road heading to a place called Siparia! Someone translate that for me.. Anyways it is way down south far from Grande. I hear people really love the area. It is full of Hindus! But that is perfect because the 13th of November is one of the biggest Hindu holidays called Divali. I guess people just roam house to house eating sickening amounts of delicious Indian food! I'm real excited cause they say Siparia is the best for Divali.

Unfortunately Elder Whitlock and I must part but my new companion is Elder "Brock" Hartshorne. He was in my district on the first transfer serving in Arima. He is really cool I have no worries about serving with him.

I was a little bummed we didn't baptize this transfer but the area has progressed greatly! Elder W. will get them baptized.

It's been sad telling people I am leaving. Everyone knows it's coming but they were still shocked when I told them. Kerwyn and Brandon were both really sad. Brandon's Dad actually cried but it was cause he was really drunk..Haha.

Well til next time I love you guys!

Love, Elder Hale

The master teacher, sister Gopaul!

We had a Trini cook-off in our apartment! I made the pumpkin! The rest is stew chicken, curry chicken, curry mango, and dhalpourie (roti).

Cricket!

The Supaul family!

Brandon and Father Mitchell saying their goodbyes (: Yes he is crying hahaha

Teaching with President Mehr

So we are down to the last week of the transfer! Sadly no one came to church this week. But it was a miracle in disguise because the meeting was sooo slow. First the first counselor Brother Phillips got up and stuttered. "Welcome to the latter.....the Jesus...The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We all looked at each other in awe. He ended up giving a 25 minute talk later. When he came to the pulpit he read off his paper. "Our next speaker will be...(pause) "Me!""Malcolm Phillips."

So this week we became teachers at Sangre Grande Secondary School teaching what is basically seminary. One of the members Samantha Harrideo hooked it up. They have all sorts of religious classes that the kids can choose from. We taught 30 kids! And the classroom is unbelievably ghetto! So the first class was a little rough cause the kids are real immature but next time we are gonna get another classroom with only people that are serious. But it is definitely a good opportunity.

The highlight of the week was going out teaching with President Mehr. He came to Grande and we taught our investigators Troy and Debbie. With Debbie we wanted to teach the law of chastity because she is not married but lives with her boyfriend of 20 years Trevor. We have been trying to sit down with him but he is always on the go. They have 3 kids so we never felt comfortable to bring up the issue. We asked President what his opinion was and he told us we will just rely on the spirit. So we went to Debbie's and she was home alone. We began to talk and 5 minutes later Trevor walks in and President got him to sit down with us. It was the perfect scenario! President smoothly asked "How long have you been married?" That opened up the conversation. They began to tell us how they are not married and how they have lots of problems. We ended up having a really good lesson. President Mehr is the man! Trevor is really interested now and Debbie has opened up a lot. So that is the success of the week!

Have a nice week!

Love, Elder Hale

President Mehr!

We made the Harrideos french toast! This is Samantha!

Salybia Beach

Sister Valere after her cataract surgery!

 
Hello!

So this week was interesting.. There were a lot of set backs. So we had Rishi done with smoking then he tells us his ex-girlfriend Rose wants to move back in. It's really hard for him because he lived with her for years and her kids are basically his kids. But we told him he can't be baptized if he does that. His date was set for the 27th. We made the situation very clear but he just kept say "I don't know what to do!" We said a prayer with him to give him strength but after he said "I'm too weak" There was nothing we could say to convince him, we only brought more condemnation to his soul!

The next thing that happened was these 4 cool Jamaican guys we met got An-tied! One of them called their pastor and told him about our visits and he told him to stay away from us. One of them said "I really think you guys are trying to sacrifice black people" No scripture has as much validity to them as the words of their pastor. They really couldn't give us any good reason. They were really rude and hostile. So we just left.

That being said Elder Whitlock and I took a trip to Salybia beach today. We went and had lunch at a resort overlooking the ocean! The lunch they wanted to feed us was real expensive but I reasoned with them and we got hamburgers and fries for a nice price. It was definitely nice! I needed it!

Love you guys! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Hale

Elder Whitlock and myself (:

Livin' it up!

on the pool deck

me and the waiter

Conference!

So it's half way through the transfer already! This week has been real nice. We met some cool guys from Jamaica that are really interested. They had us come teach them 3 days in a row.

We also played basketball against our investigators. It was us four elders vs. some teenagers from a place called the Coca. Then we played against Carlos and his work buddies. Yep we beat them both.

Other then that all I can think about in this week was conference! If anyone missed it then watch it! They were truly inspired talks! I could only get one of our investigators to watch it but she loved it. I know if more people could just see our living prophets and apostles they would accept the gospel. My favorite was probably Jeffrey R. Hollands talk on Sunday. And that is crazy how girls can serve at 19 as missionaries! And Brock can leave right after high school if he wants.

Right before I came and emailed we went and learned how to make roti, pumpkin, and curried mango. It was one of the best things I have tasted! And I made it! I wrote out all the ingredients and stuff so I'm gonna keep practicing it so I can have it mastered by the time I come home. Well I love you guys and have a magical week! - Love, Elder Hale

Elder Holland's talk from conference:

A Lot of Good

Brandon's baptism

So this week went lightning fast! A lot of good came out of it. We are getting more serious with all our investigators and hoping for a lot of results by the end of the transfer. 

At church yesterday a less active named Allen finally came after weeks of working with him. When we found him he did not know anything about the church even though he was baptized! At church they asked him to bear his testimony and Elder Whitlock said "Oh my gosh!" out loud. Haha. But then it turned out to be great. He said many things about how he loves the church and how he needs to change his life. He even committed over the pulpit to being there every week. It was great!

Roger also came to church and enjoyed. Rishi was too wiped out from his work to come. He had been sleeping on a wet mattress where he was working and they had been putting a lot of pressure on the workers. He quit the job! He said he prayed about it and he felt inclined to find work that will allow him to meet with us more so he can really change his life. So he is doing great!

Yesterday the Ap's (Assistants to the President) came and took us on trade-offs. I really learned the importance of opening your mouth to EVERYONE you pass! Elder Kaelin stopped at every single opportunity. So Elder Whitlock joined and I joined in and next thing we knew we had 17 contacts and a full day of lessons for Tuesday. So that is my focus this week. As I did that I could feel the spirit with me stronger and I was more desirous to share the gospel.

I hope everyone is doing good. I miss you all! Have a great week!

That's brother Supaul on the end.

Elder Whitlock and I cookin some curry!