This is how we spent our Christmas morning. Sparkling water in a private little bay with a strong breeze and soft sun rays warming us. Yet we still consider this, a white Christmas. This was the day that our friend Annetta decided to be baptised. There is no greater gift that she could give our Savior in honor of his birthday. So while we aren't surrounded by white blankets of soft snow, those dressed in white certainly made it a white Christmas, St. Lucian style.

After someone is baptised here, it is tradition that those coming out of the water, raise their hands and shout Hurrah of Israel! This is Elder Hymas' first baptism. What a great sight. We are so glad to be here. We have had the privilage of sharing the lessons with Annetta in our home. We have also been blessed with some great elders to work with. We love being part of this work. We highly recommend it. What a day.

Some of our branch members came along to Anntta's Christmas morning baptism. We are happy to become part of her new family. There is no better way to celebrate Christmas than witnessing a person taking the first step to become closer to Heavenly Father and covenenting to follow his commandments and to stand as a witness of God at all times, and in all things and in all places. You could just feel the angels among us this morning.

This really was a great way to start Christmas Day. We were so glad to be a part of Annneta's big day. She was so anxious to start her new life with the gospel. Great things have already started happening to her. It is so rewarding to see the basic gospel principles motivate people to be better and have more purpose to their lives. Congratulations Annetta. You are a chosen daughter of our Heavenly Father.

AS I was driving along the road, I saw some action and a little outdoor cooking, so I pulled over to find out what was going on. Turns out that these folks were cooking a Christmas cow. They asked me if I wanted to taste some black pudding. Sure I said. I imagined a wonderful sweet Christmas pudding. They took me over to a bucked and pulled out some intestine, cut off a piece and offered it to me. I had to decline. It was not what I had in mind. So they just ate it. Then they proceeded to show me that they cook meat with onions and spices and stuff it back into the intestines. Then they put the intestine into this half barrel of boiling water and cover it with leaves for about 15 minutes. Then eat up! Delicious. I think I'll pass this year. Maybe next. NOT!

This is just a boy in the neighborhood who thought these cow horns would make a great picture. These kids learn early how to prepare a cow and pig for the holiday feast. He's right, it does make a cute picture.

Here is Anthony. He was the gentleman who taught me all about the tradition of the cooking of the cow for Christmas. He has 18 children from 6 different women. No wonder he is hanging out with these people cooking a cow. He was wonderful to share this cow cooking info with me. He asked me to come and bring my husband to visit him after the holidays. A very nice man.

The day before Christmas I was driving toward our home and saw some people gathered. It looked like they were cooking and I saw a head of something. So I stopped to check it out. The tradition here is to cook a cow or/and pig for all to eat for Christmas. So here we have the remains of this poor cow who was hanging in the hood just the day before munching grass. They named him Christmas. I'm not sure where all these kids came from, they just wanted to be in the picture.

Our first Christmas was rather special. On Christmas Eve, we were invited to the Santos/Marquise family's home for dinner. Sister Santos is our RS. president, her husband Lambert did all the cooking, and their four cute children made us feel at home. After a great dinner of ham, mac and cheese, bread, salad and ice cream sandwiches, we played the game pit. They had a blast with the game. The little kids and I played pass the pigs. These are two games that we brought and are glad we did. We can't find them on the island. We had such a great evening.

This month we had a couple of fun evenings baking with the youth. We made cookies and decorated the tree that lives in the church foyer for the month. This is such a happy group of youth. They are dedicated to the gospel and come giving energy, sharing their spirits and expect to be enriched when they come. We love knowing and learning from them. Many of them are the only members of their families and have difficult family situations. Yet, come they do. The young men and young women almost always meet together and many non members come too.

Who said Elder Hymas isn't a help in the kitchen? Here we are having a hot cookie making date. Who knew he had such mad cookie skills. You just have to go on a mission to learn some of these things about the man you have been married to for 30 years. Isn't he cute?

So I have become a bit of a suzie homemaker. Here we are making cookies for the YM/YW activity and our little neighbor girl for her birthday. Can you believe I actually maked sugar cookies with wheat flour? Not the tastiest. Love the dish towel held on with a clothes pin and my name tag? And earlier this week, I was making sloppy joe mix the night before zone conference. We didn't have room in our frig so we thought we would take it to the frig at the church. But when we got there, not only were the elders making pizza for dinner and were in the kitchen, the frig had blown a fuse and we couldn't store the goods in it. So we had to take it home. Along the way, we tripped on the cord and the stuff flew out of the crock pot and landed all over our kitchen floor. Glass and all. In a panic attempt to replace it, we dashed to two grocery stores only to find them closed at 10 pm. Praying that they would have the replacement manwich and meat, we were at the store bright and early at 7 am to purchase the goods and get them to the church to feed lunch to the 20 missionaries we would greet. We found exactly what we needed and no more. But alas, in an attempt to help, someone turned on the stove with the extra sloppy joe stuff and burned it to bits. The real problem was that we were in a closed room with air condition and didn't smell the pot burning, but all the construction workers sure did. Somehow, it all turned out Ok and everyone enjoyed a lovely sloppy joe lunch. Of course we totally forgot the popsicles in the Elders freezer for dessert. Oh well, there is always next month to go for the smooth luncheon. Oh, and yesterday, we were cooking a wonderful meal for company after church. I went to light the gas oven with a match which is how we do it here. I didn't realize that it didn't ignight. A few minutes later, my friend smelt gas. We opened the oven to discover the light was out, so I grabbed a match to start her up. We were met with a huge boom and an explosion that burned the hair off my friends legs and my arm. We will recover. What some people do to not have to shave their legs. I have a little ways to go with those mad susie home making cooking skills. But I'll keep you informed of my adventures in the kitchen..

These are two of our favorite neighbor girls. Their names are Pheobie and Mundea. They have way of conning me into taking them to the beach or on any outting. Yesterday, they came with me to feed a few workers at the church who are finishing up a new chapel on the building. After lunch, we went to the beach to collect shells. They taught me that if you stand ankle deep in the water, you can feel the tickeling of tiny clams. Sure enough, they reached into the sand just under their feet and pulled up bunches of the little things. They must have really sensative feet because I could never feel them tickle mine. We even saw the little feet that clams have to move them around. I'm telling you, I am learning tons from these girls. After our beach exploration, we came home to play a round of the game "Pass the Pigs." We were joined by 2 other neighbor girls to make the game more exciting. It was a fun afternoon in celebration that school is out for the winter break. Mundea and Pheobie come to church with us every sunday. They are great company and we love these girls.

Here are a couple of new kids on the block. Not every neighborhood is lucky enough to see these two jumping around every day. They have been fun to watch as we drive up our gap (street, if you can call it that) or road to our home. About two weeks later, another new kid joined in the fun. Oh the beauties of nature never cease to amaze us. Got any suggestions for names? None of the neighborhood sheep, goats, chickens or cows have been named. So we are taking suggestions for the cuttest twin kids on the block.

We had one of our first district meetings with the missionaries from the southern part of the island. They live in a city called Vieux Fort. We met in the middle of the island and enjoyed a lovely walk in the rain forest before our picnic and meeting. It was nice to have a little girl time with Sister Williamson. The hike took about an hour and was laced with amazing trees, roots and foliage. We never did see the famous colored parrot that lives here. But we were with pleanty of colorful other characters.

The sweet inside of the coconut has a consistancy of a pudding or a custard or jelly. Definately worth trying.

Brother Joseph is counselor to our Branch President. He takes such good care of us. He brings us a different fruit occasionally and teaches us how to use it. This day, he opened up some green coconuts so we could taste the soft inside. It was delicious. Each coconut also holds about 3 cups of sweet coconut water. Who knew you were suppose to eat a soft inside of a green coconut. Ya learn something new every day. Thanks Brother Joseph.

Like a mighty army, moves the Church of God.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we began our day with a high light. A baptism of young 8 year old boy in the branch. There was an elder who served here 1 year ago. Elder Schielder was touring with his family on his way home and he popped in to be here to baptize Carlisle. The day was clear and cool and the water was warm. There was a feeling of pure joy amongst the small crowed that gathered at the waters edge for the special event. What a way to spend a morning. A definate high light of our experience here. "Hurrah for Zion"

So we did have Thanksgiving dinner after all. We got a new elder the previous day and he was so excited about Thanksgiving dinner. But frankly, we hadn't thought of it. It is an American and Canadian holiday. The Lucians don't acknowledge it. So we had RS enrichment scheduled like normal and other missionary activities. But because the elder looked so disappointed, we decided at noon on Thanksgiving day to put a quick dinner together. I have never baked a turkey and today was not the day to learn. So we enjoyed a wonderful BBQ chicken dinner with real potatoes, stove top dressing, my grandmas cool whip and orange jello salad and banana and chocolate cream pie. Look at the happy elder now. His companion is from Guyana, Annetta our investigator, and it was her birthday, and an engaged YM and YW leader couple. It was a great meal. Then we ladies took off to learn about how to give massages. Well, that will be one thankgiving to remember.

Who invited Elder Hymas to Enrichment night???? Oh, where there is food, there will his heart be also. This was a cooking class for the ladies. Sister Maria Joseph was teaching us how to make salt fish cakes. We also learned how to fry plantain. She was dressed in the traditional creol plads, as it was a special holiday here. We are still not sure why Elder Hymas thought he needed to learn this skill, but he was really into it. Good thing the ladies all enjoyed his company. He is a great sport. And so are they. They are anxious to see what I can teach them to cook. I'd better figure that out soon. Any recipes you want to email me would be appreciated. The pressure is on.

Our awesome young women

This is one of my favorite pictures. Ladies enrichment night was one of our first nights here. The ladies learned to make a bread like patti called bakes and salt fish cakes. At the end of the evening, the young women did some traditional dancing for us as entertainment. They were wonderful. They had bussles under their skirts and danced with brooms. They were so funny. They made us all smile. These girls are the back bone of the YW and the cream of the crop in St. Lucia. They have strong testimonies and really do stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all places. Samara, is 14 and investigating the church. Kacy is 18, leads the sacrament meeting music and is a counselor in Young Women. Rosy is 15, Jonelle is 13, D'Anne is 16 and her best friend Sarah is a 16 year old newish member. These girls are fun and happy and bring so much joy to everyone around them as they strive to live the Young women values.

Here I am with some of the Vieux Fort members. We raise our fists and shout Hurrah for Israel on this island. This is tradition, especially at baptisms. The RS president of the branch is 19. I have been so impressed with the members here. They are all relatively new in the gospel and yet they are willing to take on leadership positions and do their best. I'm learning that all it takes is the spirit, a testimony and desire. It really is just that simple. Go and do.

The day after we arrived, the Sherwoods took us to the southern part of the island called Vieux Fort. There, we met the other missonary couple the Williamsons who we will be working with. The Sherwoods spoke in church and we had a wonderful munch and mingle afterward. It was great. We enjoyed the saints in that branch. After we ate, we just sat around visiting and sang hymns. It was kind of a rocking special day. Here I am next to Sister Williamson and Sister Sherwood.

We were met at the airport by Branch President Debeauville and his cute wife Justina. They are the best and are the strength of the branch. Not only that, they made us feel soooo welcome as we all shared a wonderful dinner with them and the Sherwoods. Sister D manages to phone me every other day to see how I am getting on with my adventures. She is teaching me the town and the culture. She has a heart of gold. They're kids are pretty great too. Wait till you meet them on my blog.

We spent our first week with this great couple, the Sherwoods from Gilbert Arizona. This is the couple we will be attempting to replace. Although we learned right away that we will never replace them. They have done so much for the branch. They will be sooooo missed. Especially by us. They were so fun to be with and made us feel so welcome. In our one week together, they introduced to both branches, brought us to the branch beach party, let us help prepare the food for the zone conference, showed us where members lived, how to drive on the other side of the road, introduced us around to business owners around town, took us out to eat, gave us the city tour, gave us insights to each of the members, taught us about paper work and reports, cooked for us, helped us get our cel phone taught us the local terms and generally took such good care of us. They are so loved and will be so missed. It is up to us to keep going what they have worked so hard to establish here. We have big shoes to fill, but we will give it our best shot.

Just outside the batik factory and view point we met a steel drum player. He told us that he made this drum and that it is a common Caribbean instrument, but this is the only place we have actually seen anyone playing it. This fellow was actually very good. I wonder if we should consider lessons? Maybe a trade....... drum lessons for gospel lessons????? It might be worth a try.

During our first week here, the couple on the southern part of the island, the Williamsons took us to see this great view or our city. Castries is the capitol of St. Lucia and this is the bay where all the cruise ships come in. We are taking a picture of this view from a lovely little shop that shows tourist where they tie dye and print batik on fabric. It was a lovely little spot.

So there is a God and He knows Scots every need. Who knew that our Branch President is a distributor for Coke all over the island. Elder Hymas considers this an answer to his secret prayer. This really is paradise!!!

We enter the MTC

We were so excited to finally enter the MTC after selling our home in Canada, and traveling over 2000 miles to visit family and friends. We entered on Oct. 20 and hit the ground running. We enjoyed 5 action packed days as we met great couples, fantastic teachers, attended spiritually uplifting meetings, attended classes, had homework, got a few extra immunization shots and ate all of our meals with so many young elders and sisters. It was so fun to visit wtih them and learn where they were from and where they are going. We really felt as if we were part of a royal army. We absolutely loved every minute. I wish we could have stayed just a little longer, but I think Elder Hymas was ready to roll to St. Lucia.

Turtles