Hebrew School, Conacts, and Talents

When Rob was 5, I wanted to look into enrolling him in Hebrew school with some of his Jewish friends. My reasoning was that it would be easier for him at that age to pick up the language. The idea met with some resistance from Rob's siblings, and was never pursued. Who would have thought he would end up regretting that decision? Here are notes from this week's emails, and a few pictures from a P-day excursion to visit a pirate ship docked near his area in Castries: "St. Lucia is treating me well! Here is a link to the video I mentioned last week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wo0mOZ4S7GE. There ya go ;). Home has been hitting me hard lately. I don't know why. :P Johnathan is doing really well. He is smart and working on a foundation of gospel knowledge that will serve him well. And I am learning lots. Like, James E. Talmage says that the seven churches [in the Book of Revelation] were just seven branches of Jesus Christ's church. Only seven of them were still practicing correctly and hadn't fallen into apostasy. I'm sure the number 7 is symbolic of something as well though. I got my hands on a New World translation, so I'm picking that apart and finding some of the faults it has. It's interesting, though. They apparently have scholars that translated it straight from Hebrew texts? I don't know how accurate that is, but ya... you should've not listened to everyone else and put me through Hebrew school!!!! I wanna dissect the original text >.< O well, maybe when I get home I'll learn Hebrew. Or make my kids learn it. Lol. That would make things so much easier! Or maybe we can learn it together. I also wanna read a Quran some time. Deep doctrine is freaking radical. There have been many times I just wanna walk into a church and steal the microphone and just start preaching to everyone. lol. As for our investigators, some of them have kind of fallen off the face of the planet this week. Everyone seems to be super busy, but oh well, we will keep on trying. We met a couple of new people this week that we actually set baptismal dates with in the first visit. It was pretty cool. I've noticed that the Plan of Salvation is one of the greatest contacting tools out there. Really brings in a new perspective, you know? But as far as coming to church, a woman named Christina has been coming to church and is going to get baptized this weekend. And this guy named Curtis has come once, so hopefully that all keeps progressing. Johnathan will receive the priesthood this Sunday. He comes out teaching with us every so often, but everybody keeps falling through when we bring him out, which kinda sucks. But he's really personable and does a great job teaching and breaking the ice with people who think we're just weirdo missionaries. Which is nice, 'cause usually that's my job. lol. I've realized my talents out here are fairly unique, but not all that useful :(. I can make us look like normal people and I can shut down anti-Mormons, but as far as committing people to a baptismal date, I suck at missionary work. lol. Miss you guys and hope all is well!ONE LOVE. Platypus out."

Baptism in St. Lucia!

Rob's district had a baptism last weekend, his first since becoming a missionary. I asked him for pictures, and was not disappointed. In St. Lucia, baptisms are performed in the Caribbean Sea, so the setting could not be more beautiful. And Rob may or may not have tackled his zone leader in the ocean after the baptism. In fact, the pictures seem to indicate they both went down. Here are some of his notes from today's email, and a few pictures from the baptism: "Hey! New year has been good so far! The baptism went really well. Johnathan is a really good kid, and really smart. He came out teaching with us and is already a pro. We don't get many dinner invites here in Lucia, but Johnathan's mom feeds us once in a while, which is super nice! Being a district leader is fun, has its ups and downs. I don't, however, consider anyone working 'under' me, it's a team effort. I'm just here to help others when they need help, you know? The Hornes [Senior missionary couple] are gone, and we won't have a senior couple on the island for about a month, I think. I did recently buy a machete. I got my investigator to shape it and sharpen it and I'm getting a sheath for it that'll say "PLATYPUS" on the side. It's gonna be sooooo cool. [Regarding his previous report on eradicating cockroaches from his apartment:] NO, St. Lucia does not have a branch of Centurion Pest Control out here >.> I hope I never have to deal with that again. Freaking HATE roaches. Lol. [And on a more spiritual note:] Something that has really been inspiring me lately is "The Atonement" video. If you can find it and watch it, you should. It's really good. It's the one that talks about Christ's sacrifice related to missionary work. Henry B. Eyring starts it and finishes it, but Jeffrey R. Holland does most of the talking. It's really good. You should check it out. The knowledge continues to grow out here. I'm only a chapter into "The Great Apostasy" and I'm learning all sorts of cool stuff. Mostly about Christ superseding the Mosaic Law, which helps a LOT, considering a lot of people out here are Seventh Day Adventists. But yeah, things here are good. Just constantly striving to do the best I can, learn as much as I can, but at the same time still counting down the days. Haha. Ok. Bless up! One love."

Happy New Year!

We asked Rob if there were any special happenings in St. Lucia for New Year's Day. Here is his response, including answers to other questions: "Nah, we didn't get to do any celebrations for New Years Eve or New Years Day :P, but we had a pretty good time contacting! Haha. [I asked if there was anything more we could do to help him in the mission field, he said:] You guys do plenty of things to help me out! I appreciate everything you do, I really do. It helps me get through my day. I love all the deep stuff you send me, too. I just got the letter talking about how Islam can be related to Lamanites. Haha. That was really good. Never thought of it like that. So we talked to an inactive family that converted to Seventh Day Adventist, and I pretty much went in there and tore their religion to pieces (in a nice, loving way ;)) and they are now going to start coming back to church! haha. It was pretty cool. You would've been proud of me. Basically, I was trying to explain to them that Christ is in all of the Bible. Like, everything in the Old Testament is leading up to His coming. I pretty much told the guy he's being more of a Jew than a Christian. Lol :X But hey, it worked, so no worries. [In response to my question about whether or not he needed me to send more recipes:] Nah, I'm good with recipes. I'm just making stuff up as I go, pretty much. Like the other day I made brown rice, boiled veggies, and tuna with pepper sauce and soy sauce. It was pretty good, and healthy!;) I'm just trying to get in better shape and becoming a better missionary every day. Those are my goals, mostly. I hope I can help bring things to the table here in St. Lucia. Our zone leader seems to think I'll be the zone leader here after he leaves this transfer, but we'll see. I could really care less. haha. [I also asked what he likes hearing most in emails. He said:] Hearing about family stuff more, I think, just because I get spiritually fed all day every day. haha. But new insights to certain things are really good too. [And in answer to my question about his recent move to St. Lucia:] The move was fine. I had to take some Christmas presents to a girl here in St. Lucia, but other than that it was fine. The new missionaries that had just arrived didn't receive a return ticket, so they were held back for a bit. Nothing too interesting, though. The baptism is for sure still going to happen this Saturday! Should be cool! But hey, I'm going to send a bunch of pics so you can see what I've been up to. Love you guys and can't wait to be back home!!!! Oh, one more thing: I would like more pictures of Baxter!:D"

Merry Christmas!

Missionary parents all over the world look forward to hearing from their missionaries on Christmas Day. We were no different - and loved being able to Skype with Rob, ask him our thousands of questions and just listen to him talk about his new area, the work he is doing, and how his testimony is growing "every day." We also heard about how his brief employment in the pest control industry served him well in eradicating the cockroach infestation in his apartment, much to the relief of his companion. He said he's had a lot of crazy things happen, and often stops to think how amazing it is that he is out there in the Caribbean. But his most memorable experiences are his opportunities for service. He has learned that you have to love the people you teach, or you just can't teach with the Spirit. Sounds like he does, and he does. We are super proud of him. Here are Rob's emails from today: "It was great seeing you guys on Christmas - the best part of my Christmas too! St. Lucia is pretty good! Lots of hills. We've got a baptism coming up on the 9th of January, so hopefully things will go smoothly with that. If you could send some prayers my way as far as getting a more solid teaching pool that would be awesome. The people we teach are lowering in numbers which makes it fairly difficult to have a solid schedule :P Thanks! Elder Hardey and I saw these really cool mountains yesterday so we went "exploring" which was cool. We went on a hike around Castries and got to look at some really cool views and met some pretty sweet people! [In response to Roger's note on the return of Sister Oross:] That's crazy that Ashley Oross is already home. lol Seems like she just left! Tell her hello for me will ya? haha. Ya, I will probably miss this place when I finally leave. It was funny how much I realized how attached I was to the people of Barbados before I left. lol. Never thought I'd say that but I miss that place sometimes. I'm sure it'll be even harder leaving here, considering the people are so nice and the views are incredible! The rest of my Christmas went well, everyone brought a lot of food and we got fed by an investigator too which was really nice! haha. We watched a few Disney movies, like Tangled and Aladdin. lol. I had crazy flashbacks watching Aladdin, haven't seen that in forever but I remember watching it a lot as a kid. lol. Love you guys, hope all is well! Poor Baxter. He's so misunderstood."

Castries, St. Lucia

We received our first email from Rob in his new area, Castries, St. Lucia. He sounds great - enjoying the beautiful scenery and looking forward to our Skype on Christmas. I told him I'd been pronouncing St. Lucia incorrectly (Saint Loo-CHEE-ah) and asked for confirmation on the correct pronunciation (Saint LOO-sha). Here is his email: "Hey, it's called Castries, St. Lucia and it's freaking beautiful! Holy crap, this place is gorgeous. I never wanna leave. haha. Things here are great! Mostly the scenery and the people. Super cool environment to work in. I love it. So my companion is like super missionary, fresh off the boat, wants to, like, not sleep and just do missionary work. It's pretty exhausting, but it's good! I'm glad I'm with someone who is eager to serve, ya know? But ya, this place is MOUNTAINOUS! But it's SO cool. Like, people live ON the mountains in the middle of a forest! They are hard to get to cuz the hills are really steep, but once you get to a house they always have this amazing view. People here are a lot nicer as well. I'm thinking we're gonna be very successful here. I'm hoping Barbados was just the refiner's fire, you know? Haha. We'll see. It's pronounced Saint Loosha. haha. Can't blame you on that one, it's spelled weird. Kinda like how tire is spelled 'tyre' here. haha. Everything is good here, just trying to plug away and forget about time. Thank you so much for the Christmas package! Everyone got a good kick out of the platypus, considering it's my nickname in Barbados. I have a couple of people I served with in Barbados here in St. Lucia with me, so that's pretty cool! I'll get to teach my first district meeting here tomorrow, so wish me luck. Skype is all set up for Christmas. I'll be Skyping from the church. We're gonna have a Christmas get-together as well, so that should be cool. We share the video "A Savior is Born" a lot with people. We mainly have pass-along cards that direct people to the site, making it REALLY easy to get in contact with people. Although the branch here seems to be a lot smaller than the Christ Church Branch in Barbados, the few that are here seem to be very unified. I think a lot of the unification has to do with people being not as prideful like all the Bajans. haha. Good people, just very prideful. Anyways, miss you guys and hope all is well. Tell Baxter I miss him the most!! And that I'm pretty sure Matthew 5:14-16 refers to him and his gloriousness ;). Bahaha. O, Baxter, what a good dog."

St. Lucia

Rob is heading to St. Lucia today and will be serving in the capital city, Castries. Note: his snail mail address has changed. You can find the new address in the column to the right, under his picture. St. Lucia is similar in size to Barbados, but it is a volcanic island, with more dense rain forest and more mountainous terrain. Above is the flag of St. Lucia. The colors and symbols of the flag carry cultural, political and regional meanings. The blue field represents sky and sea. The black and white allude to the harmonious relationship between the two cultures that dominate the country. The yellow symbolizes the sunshine, as well as prosperity. The two triangles represent the Pitons, which are twin volcanic cones located in the southwest part of the island. These mountains, Gros Piton and Petit Piton, are a national symbol of Saint Lucia. One last picture from Barbados. Rasta Mon.

Leaving Barbados

Rob is leaving Barbados. Not the mission, just the island nation of Barbados. He will travel to St. Lucia this week and begin a new adventure in a new district. He's been saying good-bye to Bajan friends, and took pictures with some of them. Yay! Here are notes from today's email: "It'll be nice to get out of here, even though I didn't particularly want to go to St. Lucia. It sounds pretty touristy. But it'll be cool to have that experience. Everyone's been telling me all about St. Lucia and how people will feed me a lot and how there are a LOT of bananas out there. Apparently there are a lot of hills and the taxi drivers drive CRAZY like on the edge of the cliffs on the coast. haha. But I guess they know what they are doing, right? Maybe I will get my dangerous mission after all! ;) Just kidding. I'll be fine. Got the email from James Ellsworth. Sounds like he had it more rough that I do! But it's nice to hear from someone who's actually been through that, you know? Helps a lot. This week Tonya came to church again, along with Angela and her two kids, and Kira - a woman that Elder Kuru and I contacted when I first got here, who we teach every once in awhile. Haha. Never thought she would actually make it out to church, but she did! Pretty wild, eh? Anyways, I'm stoked that they made it. Been taking a lot of pictures with everyone before I leave the island. It's funny, cuz for the first few days I'm like, 'Ya, I'm stoked to get off this rock!' And now I'm like, 'Wait? I'm leaving? SHOOT!' bahaha. But o well, I knew it was going to come to an end sooner or later. Well, I'm excited for the Skype call on Christmas. Hopefully everything will go as planned! Love you guys. Take care. Talk to you next week!