How could anyone feel bad about getting older when you get wonderful cards like these. I feel like a million bucks. They say if you want to gain perspective, just spend a little time with a child. It is sooo true. I love my birthday cards from the girls.

My birthday friends

Here are 3 of my neighborhood favorites. These girls brought me flowers and home made beautiful cards for my birthday. Sister Lee made me a little cake. Who better to share it with than these cute girls? We give these little girls a ride to church each week because they live on our gap. We sit together each sunday in sacrament meeting, and they tell their primary talks as we drive. They are the best. If you ever have a down day, just drive up the gap and they all come running to greet us and visit. We love them. What a way to spend a birthday.

Our Souper Visiting Teaching Conference

These are the sisters of the Castries Branch that came to our first Visiting Teaching Conference. Debra slipped out early and the little gal next to me is a visitor. We had a great time, learning about visiting teaching and loved the fact that it is a wonderful program of the Relief Society (women's organization) that happens all over the world. We are excited to get started and let each other know that we love and care about the women of our branch.

Our First Souper Visiting Teaching Conference

Here are the real movers and shakers of our branch. We had invited them for our first Souper Visiting Teaching Conference. They were not too familier with the concept. And it really wasn't happening in our branch. We explained that Visiting Teaching is the life blood of the Relief Society program and that they were the eyes and ears of our President, Sister Myla Santos. We taught them, that as members of the church, we need to look out for each other and visit regularly with each other. As ladies, we need to lift, encourage and nourish each other. They seem excited to start as they heard who their partners and visitees were. We watched a short humerous visiting teaching video on how not to do it after explaining what a successful visit is. We all enjoyed taco soup, home made buns and rice krispie treats. On the table are handouts in a soup can all about visiting teaching. What a fun enrichment night we had.

We were blessed this week with 6 missionaries from Guadalupe. The french island of Guadalupe has had some protesting these past few weeks. But it finially got bad enough to evacuate the missionaries and send them to Guyana. Lucky for us, they spent a few days in St. Lucia along the way. They arrived on their preparation day, got changed, and came over for a quick lunch. Between the Collings, a BC couple's two laptops and our two lap tops, the four visiting elders could email their families at our home, while the other four played phase 10 cards with elder Hymas. The Collings took a little nap. It was fun to have 8 elders around. Kind of reminds me of having hockey players around, but these young men came here with purpose. Being a little displaced, our elders put them to work. All 8 elders canvased a new city about 30 minutes south of us. It was great. In two days, they had invited over 100 people to come to a little church meeting we plan to have there on Sunday. Wow. What a powerful blessing they were to us. We wish them good luck on their next temporary adventure and hope they eventually get back to their island where they can speak French and renew ties with the members of the church there.

A visit with our Canadian Friends

The Collings are a missionary couple serving on the island of Guadalupe. (Before we moved to Penticton, they lived in that ward) All the missionaries there have been evacuated due to social unrest having something to so with the French. So they are staying with us for a few days until they can be relocated temporarily. But since they are here in St. lucia, they were able to get in touch with the Elliots, who are staying on our island about an hour south of us in Soufree. The Elliots are friends of ours from the Okanagan area of BC. We all met at the Elliots home for dinner last evening and had such a great visit. Funny how we all came together here at this moment in time and are/were all from the same cornor of Canada. In addition to a great dinner, the Elliots sent us home with this delicious bottle of local honey. It looks like its in an old liquor bottle. Probably is. Maybe that is the thing that makes it so good.

Be An Example of the Belivers

The Young Womens theme for the year is to be an Example of the Belivers and we are putting together a new beginnings program next month to share with the Relief Society of Women. The program we are putting together is called Light Keepers. This program comes complete with a script and music for the girls to sing. So we had a little planning meeting at the Viggi lighthouse and discussed the symbolism of being a light in the world and how we are the leaders and examples that will help those around us. We practiced our song and handed out parts. We discussed handouts, decorations, programs and refreshments. We've asked the young men to build us a lighthouse for part of the decorations. Below are their attempts later that evening.

Teddi-Ann (13) and Sarah(16) take a little stroll to the lookout point. What a view! I mean the girls.

So we all decided to join them. This was such a peaceful and relaxing activity. We were missing a few of the girls because we had the activity a little earlier in the day. But it sure was fun.

These were the members of team 1. Their task was to use cardboard to build a lighthouse for the girls new beginnings night. This team, worked really well together, made a plan, had assignments, eliminated distractions and completed the task. Next week they will paint it for the program. Great job team 1

Team two on the other hand wasn't quite as successful. They lacked a bit of focus, a plan and communication. The ladies couldn't stand it and jumped in to help. But there is no fixing the situation, without cooperative teamwork. This lighthouse never made it, but it was a good attempt. We learned great lessons on teamwork and leadership this night. It was a fun evening.

Here are most of our wonderful youth. We have a fun group who loves to get together and have activities. We are just transitioning from joint activities every week to joint acitivities every other week. This means that the girls and boys do their own thing twice a month. They surely do love to get together and strengthen each other. We love these fine youth.

Cameron is alive and still stick handling

Hey everyone, here is evidence that our elder Hymas is alive and well in Pennsylvania on his mission. And look, he even manages to squeeze in a little hockey stick handling in his morning routine. Shower, dress in a suit, personal study, companion scripture study, stick handling, pray and out the door to go to work. Actually, because of his mad computer skills, he has been transfered to the office to work on records and reports for the mission. Sounds as if he has lots of cleaning up to do in the office. But he does get to go teaching in the evenings. Change is good and he seems to be happy to serve where he is best needed. Go Elder Hymas the younger!!!

Zone Conference Friends

We had a wonderful zone conference at the end of January. This is our group. These elders come from nearby islands. We make up the island zone. Aren't we a handsome group? We get to pick everyone up at the airport, feed them and love on them. We love to be part of this team. The couples make up a really important part of this team. Seated in the front are our fearless leaders, Ried and Diane Robison, our mission president and his sweet wife. What great leaders they are. He also doubles as our Stake President. Can you imagine leading 24 couples, tons of elders in 10 different countries and 3 or 4 different languages? And they always manage to have a smile.

Zone Conference at the end of Jan. 09

Here is my angle friend Adrianna and her awesome son Shannon. They felt they needed a little spiritual pick me up, so they came to our zone conference. We all learned so much and they are becoming great missionaries. This family was responsible for our last baptism. Members sharing the gospel with friends is definately the way to go. They really added a special demention to the day. Thanks you two!

Zone conference Lunch

I had to laugh because Adrianna, a Relief Society member who came to help was heard to say "Sister Sherwood, (the sister I replaced) taught me how to cook and I love it. Sister Hymas has shown me how not to cook and I might love that even more." Apparently, subway sandwiches is a rare treat in the Caribbean. Our elders loved it. And no mess! I knew that talent of not being a great cook would come in handy some day.