After Seminary and Institute graduations, and after our responsibilities at the branch, we ladies decided to leave our men to their audits and interviews and do a little island sight seeing. Here we are at Devil's Bridge. And below, Sisters Stecker, Alvarado, Button and myself took a little beach walk to cool our feet. What a glorious day to be out with friends.


This was a cool little old church we spotted along the way. Very old and colorful.
You can't really tell from here, but this is a pineapple field. Pineapples grow from the ground. Just cut off the top bushy part and stick it in the ground and a new one grows. These pineapples are really small and very expensive. About $8 per pineapple. Or pines as we fondly call them in Guyana.

Here are our Young Single Adults that completed the Institute Program this year. Raymond, the Young Man standing on the Right at the front got a 4 year diploma. Way to go YSA. We are thrilled that this group is having their monthly YSA activities. The challenge in this branch is that they have about 10 returned missionaries and very few ladies to choose as eternal mates. So we are working to get a Caribbean YSA facebook page to help expose them to each other. There are some wonderful YSA through out the Caribbean. We just need to get them together.

This particular branch conference day, Scot helped with Priesthood and I taught YW. We happened to get 3 new Young Women presidents. So our lesson was on leadership in Christ's Church. After Branch Conference, everyone stayed for the Seminary and Institute graduation. Here are the youth that completed 80% or more of early morning daily seminary. We hope to have even more this next year. We love to visit seminary when we are in town. Sister Defretis has done a wonderful job this past year.

This branch happens to have LOTS of youth. Elder Button got to teach the Youth Sunday school class. They have Young Women activities regularly on Friday nights, but need to work on the YM program. We have great youth, that just need a little purpose and direction. They are the future leaders of the church. As a church, we are trying to put our best resources toward the youth to help them be happy, successful, gospel centered individuals. Go Youth!

As part of our Antigua Branch conference, each of the mission presidency got to help with the classes or meetings. Here is Hermana Button reviewing songs with the Primary children. What is not fun about popping balloons or using a humming jar during singing time. Sister Alvarado helped out with Sharing time and taught the children the importance of the temple.

In our last general conference, the Prophet asked us to have a day of service in our community. All over the world, saints gathered to respond to this request. As part of that request, each of the branches in our islands found a service project to do. In Antigua, we were able to gather at this catholic church that houses children who's parents cannot care for them for what ever reason. We got to clean the outside of the building and help with a little yard work. There were 3 girls living there at the time. One of the girls was having her 13th birthday that day. With no family or friends to speak of on that special day, we bought a small cake and became her friends for the day. We invited the 3 young girls to help work with us. They jumped at the chance to serve, wear the yellow vests and be with us. It was a really fun day. In the group picture, the girls not in the helping hand vests were our 3 non members. The indian lady who cared for them also finally joined in the fun.

Elder and Sister Anderson from the Caribbean area presidency came the beginning of the month for a mission tour. After meeting with all the stake presidents in Puerto Rico and having 5 zone conferences in a matter of days, they began touring the islands. One of their first stops was St. Thomas. We don't have full time missionaries on that island at the moment, so Scot and I had to hop a plane the night before so cars, hotels, branch leaders and visits were all arranged for the Andersons visit. Next to us is our mission President and his wife, the Alvarados. The Andersons are on the right. We sure enjoyed our day with them.

Earlier this month we had a mission tour from one of the area presidency members. His name is Elder Anderson. We had the pleasure of meeting Elder Anderson once when we were in Guyana. This time, he and his wife were here to tour the mission. He requested a meeting with all of the couples in the mission. We had about 6 or 7 couples that are serving as service missionaries from Puerto Rico in attendance. We had 2 sets of service missionaries from the islands and 6 sets of full time couple missionaries fly in for the meeting. We flew the couple in the day before. They had a little time for shopping, going to dinner and enjoyed a little socializing. They don't get many opportunities to get together. later The next morning they enjoyed Elder and Sister Anderson remarks at a zone conference, went to lunch, had a little personal time in the afternoon, and that evening, came to our place for a little island specific meeting where we discussed the area focus for the next few months, the importance of seminary and institute enrollment and graduation for the youth and young adults as well as some new in field training guidelines to help them teach the lessons of the gospel. It is great to get together. Sorry we didn't have the people in the back stand up to be seen. At this point, the Steckers are in Antigua, the Hadlocks in St. Kitts, the Icelys in St. Croix, the Babcocks and sisters Walthers and Cooper in Dominica, the Vickery's in Tortola, and the Murdocks in St. Thomas. What a great group of servants we get to work with.

These two are the Hanleys. He was just released as the branch president after several years. He and his wife were just called as new service missionaries. Sister Hanly served a mission as a young lady. Serving a mission for her husband has been a dream for a long time. He is thrilled that his dream can now come true. They have been married for several years and just had their first baby a month ago. Lots of new changes in this little family. They will be learning about humanitarian aid projects that can be done on several of our other islands and helping those projects become realities. We are soooo excited to have them serve in this capacity. Their official missionary name tags are in the mail. We had them over for dinner and their setting apart for this new assignment and calling. They will be a great addition.

Baptisms are the best thing. But it is even more sweet when the local members help with the teaching, fellow shipping and participating in the ordinances. That is the gospel at it's best. These two tall Nigerian men will be a wonderful addition to the branch.

Of course the highlight for any missionary is a baptism and we were lucky enough to attend one in St. Kitts on this visit. The couple in the picture are the Hadlocks. They are doing a wonderful job on the island. In addition to missionary work, they are finding humanitarian projects for the islands. Their first mission to Jamaica was as humanitarian missionaries. The two good looking men in the picture were being baptized this day. They are both from Nijeria. One is attending medical school and the other was attending Business school here in St. Kitts. One of them has a brother in Nigeria who had joined the church and so when he got to St. Kitts, wanted to learn more about it. It is sooo great to belong to such a world wide church!

I made it a point to sneak a little snorkeling in between meetings. See my catch of the day?

Brimstone Fort

We have been doing several branch conferences on the islands lately. Earlier this month, we were on the island of St. Kitts. While Scot was in meetings, I asked Sister Hadlock, the senior sister, if she would go with me to see Brimstone Fort. I was told it was really great and lucky for me, she had a pass for us to get in at no charge. We had a lovely afternoon exploring the Fort and enjoying the views. Here are some of those pictures. I had lots, but this gives you the idea. There is a lot of history in these islands of forts that protected the islands. Sometimes they were possessed by the British, sometimes the French. For some of the islands in the Caribbean, the Dutch and Spanish fought for possession. St. Kitts was won by the British.

The Flower Show

One day, Sister Edwards, who works in the Employment Center, took me to an annual flower show. Here we are enjoying our Pinapple colatas. A sweet highlight. We were on the street enjoying the flowers and atmosphere. But in so doing, we didn't even realize we missed the real flower show that was held indoors a huge hall. We had a great day none the less. Orchids everywhere.
We tasted this little weird fruit from Asia. It was great. It was soft and sweet.
Orchids are plentiful here. They even graft them on trees and they bloom for months. I have never seen so many kinds and colors. It was a wonderful day.

Tarpon Fishing Day

On their last day, Cameron our fisherman of the family REALLY wanted to go fishing. So we found a local fishing boat and went tarpon fishing for half a day. We were in a salt water lagoon near the airport. There is a beautiful bridge that is lined with flags that where the family fished. Again, it was a beautiful place to fish and it looks like everyone got a bite. Of course all the fish lived because it is a catch and release thing. That's how we do it in this family.Cameron is our ultimate fisherman. But if it is big action, Nathan is in. Thanks Cam for the idea.
Even our beginner, Megan caught a tarpon and really seemed to enjoy the day.

Swinging through the Rain forest

We found an outfit that met us at a central location and drove us 1/2 to a rain forest in Caguas. There, we geared up and started a little hike up through some water falls. It was beautiful, cool and so refreshing. After hiking up some lovely little falls, we repelled down this 82 foot waterfall drop. It was about a 30 second repel, but was easy and refreshing. Once at the bottom, we hiked 5 more minutes to a few zip lines. Wow, what fun. At the conclusion of our jungle adventure, we were treated to a typical Puerto Rican lunch of chicken, rice, beans and flan. Ziping, and a waterfall repel were among the highlights of the day. Pretty adventurous, eh?

What a great way to see the rain forest and be together in this beautiful place. Here is Nathan doing a little rope climbing. Above is what we saw when we hiked for 10 minutes. Our kind of hiking.

Vieques , Puerto Rico

We visited the island of Vieques. It is a small island East of Puerto Rico, yet is part of Puerto Rico. We took a 50 minute ferry ride in the evening. Once we arrived, we checked into the Casa La Lachita, a lovely little hotel on the beach a 5 minute drive from the ferry. The hotel owner picks you up at the ferry and takes you to his place, where he rents you a car, provides snorkeling, launday facilities, maps, sets up tours, and recommends places to eat. They are lovely suites with kitchenettes, and a great pool. After dinner, we took the famous Misquito Bay Bioluminescent tour. This Bay has the perfect balance of temperature, salt and protection for these micro organisms to thrive in. We gathered at the bay and Kayaked to the center of the lagoon. We jumped into the warm water and moved our arms to find the water glow. When we lifted our arms, sparkles trickled down our arms. It was the coolest thing. Best done on a moonless night. It was just our luck to have one. But the sky was full of stars. It was definitely a highlight.
The next day, we played around at the most gorgeous beach. Unfortunately, this does not do the color justice. The water was as aqua as that pool in the picture above. Here we are at Red Beach

Enjoying the ferry ride from Fajardo and arriving at our charming hotel on the beach.

We declare, Megan, the Kite Queen for the Day!

Afterwards we went to Recies to eat. Not such great food, but terrific and authentic Puerto Rican atmosphere.

Everyone had a fun time with the kites. Cameron's had a mind of its own and Megan seemed to have the longest success. We'll have to do this again sometime. If you ever go to El Morro on a Saturday or Sunday, you will see 50 plus kites flying in front of the El Morro. Always a wind.

Before leaving El Morro, we decided to do a little kite flying on the beautiful lawn fields out front.

El Morro

I love the old arch ways that lead into what we thought might be the Sleeping QuartersCameron taking moment to enjoy the view from the fort. You could see forever

Would you look at the size of these cannon balls? And check out the size of this cannon.


The first day that the parents and kids were here was great. We toured the National Park, El Morro. It is a historic fort here in Puerto Rico. It was better than I thought it would be. It had 3 levels and great views, a movie and even cold water. I couldn't get enough of it.

Family Vacation in June

Here they are on Father's Day with this serious Chocolate Cake. Check out how tall it is!


June was a terrific month. One of the reasons for this is that our parents and 3 wonderful kids came for a visit. The parents were here for 3 days before the kids came. We visited Old San Juan, explored the Camuy, the world's largest radar radio telescope, and enjoyed hanging out. Then after a few days, Nathan, Megan and Cameron joined us for more fun. We enjoyed church together on Fathers day and really enjoyed Toms favorite Chocolate cake from Costco and Scots favorite, Tacos.