Sunday May 12th 2013 Mothers day and our first day going to our new branch! I was so excited to finally meet some members and go to church! We wake up at 7 to make sure we have plenty of time to get to church and not be late. We had already arranged for Jimmy to pick us up and take us that morning so we knew we didn't have to worry about finding a way to get there I am not entirely sure it would be appropriate to pull up to church in a "reggae bus" ( I will tell you more about these buses later.)
We arrive at church and we have to climb a somewhat steep hill to get up to it. but as we are walking up we can see the members and the missionaries and they are all looking at us as strangely as we were probably looking at them. but you would have never known that they didn't know us! I have never been hugged by so many people in all my life! I am pretty sure that every member told me happy mothers day too! LOVE LOVE LOVE these people!
We were able to meet a few people before church started but honestly I can only remember a few names, we did meet one of the most amazing couples I have ever knows! Elder and Sister Bird are there names and they are here in St. Vincent serving a 23 month mission! Amazing people! Elder Birds mother and brother Kim were here visiting them so we were able to meet them too!
Sacrament meeting started and I just love how no matter where you go the church is always the same! It was s nice to have some familiarity in our world of new things. We are still having a hard time understanding the vincy English but apparently at one point in the beginning of sacrament meeting we were asked to stand up and introduce ourselves but we missed the queue I guess and just sat there so the conducting counselor just kept right on going like nothing happened! We had no idea this had even happened until we were at dinner later that day.
Sacrament was great we had a youth speaker and the young woman's president spoke to us about the importance of seminary. When ever someone stands up and says good morning over the pulpit the congregation says good morning back to them so if I do this when we come back to visit just giggle at me its okay! After sacrament meeting was over they served refreshments in the kitchen...our meeting house is just that a house so we use the family room as a chapel and then there are three other rooms in the house so the primary meets in one room for opening exercises/sharing time/singing time and then the youth meet in another room for Sunday school and we have gospel doctrine in the chapel when we rotate to our third block of meetings the relief society meets in the extra room and the priesthood meet in the chapel then the primary kids go outside for class and the young men meet in the primary room and the young women stay in the extra room for young women.
after sacrament meeting was over we were able to meet the other member couple that he is going to the medical school as well there names are Meggie and Brett and they are Awesome people too! Meggie is the young women president and Brett is the executive secretary.
Meggie took me Kohl and I to the primary room and Kohl went right in found a seat and said "see ya later mom, I am good" and off I went. Jacob and I really enjoyed Sunday school our lesson was on the law of tithing and the law of the fast, I don't exactly know how to describe Sunday school it is like being in youth Sunday school I guess is the best way to describe it...the Vincentian members of the church are amazing people but they are not afraid to tell you about there struggles as members of the church which is something other members may try to hide, but the members here are very open to discussing there struggles with the church as far as fasting and paying tithing go. It truly is an eye opening thing to experience, they may struggle with these things but they DO them because they know that is what they need to be doing to gain eternal life and exaltation. I am going to learn so much from these people and I am so excited about it!
Katelyn got a little fussy because it is so hot and we don't have ac in the building so Jacob stepped out with her and while he was outside Elder Bird came to him and asked if we would come over to there house for dinner after church and of course he said yes! We finished out with our relief society and priesthood meetings which were great too.
We were waiting outside for everyone to come out and chat a little and we were able to meet the missionaries serving here right now there is a sister couple as well as the elders and then the Birds cover both of the branches here on the island both of the elders are from Utah and the sister is from Idaho I think....and the second sister is from here on the island she is sort of serving a pre-mission her call should have been here this week and she desperately wants to go to Utah on her mission so I cant wait to get to church on Sunday and find out where she is going!
Kohl had a great time in primary he made new friends and had a lot of fun, after church he came running over to me and said "mommy get your camera you have to come take a picture of this" so I hurried over to the fence and was looking at the view and I was like its so pretty up here and I started taking pictures of the view and Kohl says to me "MOM!! take a picture of that!" and I m like "of what" he points down the hill and says "of the BOBCAT!" he had spotted a construction site at the bottom of the hill and there was a small bobcat machine on the site! I nearly died laughing! I love having a 4 year old that can name every piece of heavy equipment you could show him!
We got loaded up in the car with Birds and they took us to there apartment to have dinner, Kim and Elder Birds mother had gotten home before us and already had dinner made and it smelled wonderful! Meggie and Brett were going to join us for dinner too but they had a few church things to take care of before they made it over so we were able to just sit and visit with the Bird family for a while on there back porch. They literally live on the beach there back yard is the ocean. We had a good visit and when Meggie and Brett arrived we started dinner and sister Bird was "like its just tacos so go for it" there was no "just tacos" about it they were so good they fried the tortilla shells and had chicken and beef and everything you could possible imagine to top it with....mmmm so good I am getting hungry just thinking about them! It was so nice to have something other than ramen noodles!
After we had all reached our taco limit we had a really nice conversation about families and the gospel and life on the Island. It was great to have some veterans on Island life to talk too! Kim brought out his top secret dessert to share with us so delish caramelized sweet and condensed milk I am pretty sure Kohl ate most of what was left LOL! he was a very happy islander!
As we were enjoying our visit on the porch the topic came up of all the food we are missing from the states and I said I couldn't believe we couldn't get fruit snacks here and Meggie said the same thing, Brett loves them almost just as much as Kohl...and Elder Bird got up and walked into the kitchen and when he came back out he said "you mean these" I thought Kohl was going to have to Indian leg wrestle Brett for the bag LOL. So we all sat and enjoyed a bag of fruit snacks FROZEN! I have never had them frozen before but it is a must try if you haven't Jacob and I both agree they are better that a popsicle!
We decided we had better head home to Skype our mommas and talk with our families, so the birds loaded us up in there car and off we went!
It was an awesome mothers day I was kind of sad that I wasn't able to see my mommy in person and give her a hug and that we didn't get to see Granny or Carla in person either but thank goodness for Skype and Facetime! It was kind of neat to be like a "missionary" for the day! I love our moms more than anything in this world and miss them both terribly! However I am super grateful that they raised us to be the people we are today we would not be in this amazing place and having this amazing experience if it wasn't for our dear sweet mommies!! We love you !!
I am also thankful for our new found friend here on the Island Elder and Sister Bird and Meggie and Brett! Thank you Thank you Thank you for making our adjustment a little easier and making us feel so welcome! I can not leave out our new Branch family they are so welcoming and so loving!
I promise I will take lots of pictures this week at church but for now the view pictures will have to do!
No comments:
Post a Comment