Like A Boss

Week 5


Well this week was pretty good but not much happened compared to last week. Tyrone is reading like a boss and he is in 3 Nephi last time I checked so he's probably done now. I got a letter from my recent convert Antonia from Trinidad and that made me really happy. She just talked about how the Gospel has given her such clear direction and she is so happy. I also got news from my other convert Roger that he is helping make a dvd for the ward and is on a committee for distributing food for the needy and he loves it. 

I'm excited for this last week we will be getting transfer calls. I'm pretty sure I'm staying and Elder Parisot is moving. President Mehr and the AP's came and visited us this week. I had a triumphant moment. President Mehr asked all missionaries in the last zone conference to memorize D&C 121:34-46. So when he came on Tuesday he asked if anyone memorized it and I was the only one that raised my hand. So he had me stand up and recite it. I did it perfectly and he said "That's the best I've seen." "You get a hug!" So he came over and hugged me in front of everyone it was pretty funny. 

We are focusing on bringing the Priesthood back and as you can see in the pictures below we had a great time with Bro Frazer aka Uncle B. This old man makes me laugh all day. And when he teaches people he always straightforwardly tells them to repent and come to church. He called us the other day to tell us about what he saw on Dr. Phil it was great. Yesterday his chicken got in his house and when he tried to pick it up it pecked him! And he started cussing like a sailor! I won't forget that. 

I hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hale

Memorable Week

Week 4

Well another crazy week.. What's new?? I miss my Trini friends bad I feel like Trinidad is home now that I've been away awhile. I'm sure I will feel the same about here the people are a real hoot(: My heart is gonna be in a lot of places when this mission is done.

So firstly the Aladdin people upstairs are getting tons of people! We saw one of our investigators Mom at our apartment waiting to go in. She promised us to come to church and she still hasn't! She of course claims to be a Christian but like many when it comes down to the wire she puts her trust in the arm of flesh. Talk about Book of Mormon prophecies... We asked her "what are you doing here?" She nervously said " Oh just waiting to meet someone.." Elder Parisot was like "Bummer..." and walked away. haha.

So last week I talked about how we felt the spirit prompt us to stop at this random house..well now there's even more to the story. The man with the hurt knee ended up reading the Book of Mormon up to Omni! And we didn't even teach him. When we came back he started telling us about Nephi getting the brass plates, getting tied up on the ship, finding the liahona, and how the Lamanites are ancestors to the American Indians. He said he has had that question his whole life. The best part was he was talking about his hypocrital born again christian neighbor and he called her a fat Lamanite. haha.

So after that visit we were totally stoked but the only problem was he is supposed to leave back to Georgetown to his work on the 30th. Saturday rolled around and he called us to tell us "It's a historic day!" "Today is the day Brother Smith found the plates!" We looked it up sure enough he was right. haha. He told us he was coming to church on Sunday but when it rolled around he wasn't there which was shocking. So we went and visited him and what happened is his knee cap had slipped out again and in addition to that he twisted his ankle. He is a bit of an older guy so he couldn't move. We had another great lesson where we didn't say a word he just taught our less active member Bro Frazer about the Book of Mormon. I think his knee slipping out was a blessing in disguise because now he says he most likely won't go back to work and he said he wants to be baptized.

So Kassie and Karissa were scheduled to be baptized this Saturday. Here comes a story... They passed their interview and we saw them Friday night and all was well. Saturday day morning we get up at 5:30 to start filling the font. There's no plug for the drain so we had to go buy a pipe with a valve thing on it to fill the font. That took a good while then we tried to make a baptismal program and the printer was out of paper... We went to have lunch at our apartment and when we went back to the church the water had turned off and it was only about a foot and a half deep in the font. We didn't know what to do but we went to Kassie and Karissa's house to make sure they were all ready and they were not home. We went back to the church and still the water wasn't on. We said a prayer and we felt like we should call Kassie. Elder Parisot finally got a hold of her and all I could hear was bad news. Apparently she said she wasn't ready and didn't feel good. Karissa was just kind of following suit. We rode over to their house and I was really nervous cause Satan always does this before people get baptized. Anyways I was praying like crazy and we talked to Karissa and her heart was softened. She promised us she would be there. So we rode back to the church and what do you think happened? Well duh the water was miraculously back on! Karissa showed up and by the time it was time for her to be baptized the font was filled just right. When she came up out of the water it was a split second before she said "I feel really good!" She had the biggest smile on and the baptismal service was great.

We found out later that Kassie probably isn't ready right now and we are gonna keep working with her. Karissa got the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday and she said it felt like a breeze came on her and she felt great. That's how you know someone was ready to be baptized and confirmed when they really felt the power in the ordinances. You could just feel the spirit around Karissa after her baptism there was such a difference.

Well the funniest part of this week was Bro Frazer. We talked to him at his house for a long and he was just making us die laughing with his old man talk. But right as we were leaving I saw a long water trail down his pants and then I saw a huge wet spot you know where! Elder Parisot and I rode our bikes down the street and just died laughing. It's sad yes.. but it's more funny(:

Well that was my week hope yours was good too(:

Love,

Elder Hale

Anaconda guitar strap!

Encouraging Words

Week "Tree"


Hello my Rastafarian friends!!!

This week was quite eventful. I had the opportunity to teach zone meeting. It's different teaching missionaries how to be good missionaries. I'm used to teaching people how to live the gospel. Now the doctrines of missionary work are starting to be instilled in me cause I have the privilege of teaching them. I went on a trade off to another area called Canje on Wednesday. It was nice to see another part of Guyana and meet more members. It was also nice to see that senior couples get to stay home all day and eat ice cream and pumpkin bread!!! I'm all for being a senior missionary one day(: I also got to eat some alligator this week. It was better then iguana. It would make a good burger.

I have been designing a ring for awhile and I got to pick it up from my buddy Kahn on Wednesday. He does a great job. I just used a ctr shield and decided to put the angel Moroni on the inside. Kahn did a boss job!!! It's fun to get stuff like that here cause it's unique and they are always so grateful that you are giving them work.

We had sweet spiritual experience this week. We were searching for this less active on this long road. He had a high lot number and we were probably halfway there when Elder Parisot just randomly stopped and turned around. He had a prompting to stop and we went up to this small wooden house. Without hesitation the lady inside invited us in. We found that her husband had a really bad knee injury and she wanted us to pray for him. We taught her the Restoration and she was super receptive and I definitely felt the spirit in the lesson. And we will be going back to teach her again this week.

We had some new neighbors move in upstairs from us and they are from India. They were putting up flyer all over our apartment for palm reading, astrology, getting rid of black magic, and all other weird things you could think of. My comp was not happy to say the least and we might end up moving cause it was advertised on tv and now people are starting to show up at our apartment for this genie in a bottle crap.

One of the less actives we reactivated Sunita confessed to us she has some stuff she needs to get rid of. She lifted this curtain that covered a shelf full of Hindu pictures and little idol statues. She gave us all of it in a bag and we dumped it in the river! haha.

We went on splits this week and I got to ride around with my favorite old man Brother Frazier (Uncle B). The guy is hilarious cause he comes to church here and there and then he comes and chastises people for not coming it's great.. We went to see an investigator and Bro Frazier totally backed up into his car. It didn't even phase him. haha. Luckily no one saw... We went in and had a good lesson and when we were back in the car he said "Encouraging words..." "Encouraging words" "That's what I love you for.." haha

On Sunday Kassie and Karissa came to church and they are all set for their baptism this Saturday. I'm excited for it(: It's always interesting to me how when these people get close to their baptism and keep the commitments like reading/praying; you can really see a difference in them. At the beginning they were super shy and giggly and maybe even a little disinterested but now they ask really good questions and listen intently.

Also on Sunday I was the victim of a drunk riding accident. . . I was riding my bike down a dirt trail and this guy was on the other side of the road and just turned head on into me. My bike has no brakes..(I'm in Guyana...) so his handlebars ended up smashing my fingers. I just looked up and smelt alcohol and this guy with this sleepy looking smile on his face. He said sorry so I gave him mercy. haha. So that's was about it for this week.

Love you all!

Love,

Skyler

Bro. Frazier

Less-Active Hunting

Week 2

Welp another week down! Just another week of hard work and finding new peeps! We do a good job at finding through the members. We taught a lot of people's friends and we go less active hunting. The members have been real good about coming out with us. The strongest part of this branch is the women. I wish they could hold the priesthood cause this branch would be in great shape. We are trying to bring back a lot of the priesthood holders before this branch falls apart. It's kind of the same story almost anywhere you go in the west indies. The Branch President is doing everything and there is no men to help. Our most progressing investigators are Kassie and Karissa. They are both in Highschool and they have a baptismal date for Sept 21st. They came to church on Sunday and apparently they were answering all the questions and they had a great time.

 

On Friday we got really sad news that a 14 year old Boyo Karen in our branch passed away. I guess he had an argument with his Dad and he went and drank poison. It's really shocking cause he was a really good kid. He would help us teach people and he actually got a few people baptized. We went to the Karen's house and it wasn't really nice to see Sister Karen crying her eyes out. They are a bit less active so we hope this might help them get more active.

 

One thing that has been good in this area is we have reactivated a lot of people. The Darsen family hadn't come to church in a few years and they have come back the last two weeks now. But other then that not much else has happened this week except missionaries keep getting moved out of my zone for disobedience. One went home this week after 19 months of serving): But there's only obedient missionaries left now so were doing good.

 

Hope you all have a great week!

 

Love,

 

Skyler

African Food in the White House

Week 1

Yes my family and friends!

Well this week we had the charge from president Mehr to teach these peeps about fasting and paying a fast offering because no one is doing it in the Caribbean. So we went to tons of members and clearing taught them and invited them to fast with us to be able to find or think of someone that they could share the gospel with. President Mehr made clear that a fast is 24 hours without food or water and anything less is disobedient besides those with health conditions. Also without the fast offering it's not complete. So on Sunday we had less actives that hadn't been to church in 6 months fasting and paying their fast offering. Our branch President's shirt pocket was full of envelopes! That was definitely our biggest success of the week.

We did a lot of less active hunting but the people we were looking for were either long gone or nuts. We met this rasta guy and the first thing he told us was that he shook Wilford Woodruffs hand and he gets visits from all kinds of bible characters all the time. At that point we just looked at each other and had a little fun with the guy. He was clearly high out of his mind. He played us all these songs on his keyboard. One of which was called "African food in the white house" hahahahaa Later I said to my comp jokingly "I don't think we should focus on that guy"

After church on Sunday we broke our fast with some curry iguana at the branch presidents house. It tastes like chicken but looks like godzilla... This transfer I am learning a lot of local food and I am gonna eat tons of provisions like these people do. Like every black guy here is buff with a six back cause all they do is hard construction work and then eat things like sweet potatos and rice. Even old guys! So I'm gonna give it a try. haha.

Love you guys! Have a good week(:

With love,

Elder Hale

scenery

Orphanage

"African food in the white house"

me and my iguana