West Indies Mission

Baptisms and Success Stories

Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe
Elder Christensen and Elder Porterfield
• • •
A great testimony of working with members!

Agnes told us that the moment she knew the gospel was true was when she met Sister Abenzoar and heard her testimony of the Gospel and how it has changed her life. Since that meeting she has never missed a day of church.

Point Fortin, Trinidad
Elder Westbroek, Elder Bates
• • •
Sister Sandra Mohammed has been taught by the missionaries
for over a year and a half. She had always struggled to commit to a
baptism date, until the elders decided to fast with her. As they fasted for what day she should be baptized, she selected a date, but then was bombarded with trials in her life. She recognized her trials as a test of her commitment, and even compared it to the life and
experiences of Joseph Smith. She was baptized by the Port of Spain stake president, President Gould, on November 16th, her daughter's
birthday.

Sainte-Rose, Guadeloupe
Elder Glover, Elder Bodily
• • •
We found Alexandrine and her two kids in a miracle of random
contacting our first week. In our first visit, she said that she had met with the missionaries already and knew that the Book of Mormon was true. We had a short lesson to find out why she had told the other missionaries (Elder Baldock and Elder Pavia) to stop the
lessons. She explained that she had received negative responses from friends and family, but that after thinking about it she still felt a desire to be baptized, and had been waiting for the missionaries to come back. We set a date and three weeks later she was baptized with her kids.

Wanica, Suriname
Elder Romney, Elder Beckstrand
• • •
We had a fasting miracle. A recent convert brought a friend to church with her! In Gospel Principles class, she learned about the restoration, and is excited for us and her member friend to come teach her. It's great to get a member referral, and it's even better when you meet that referral in church!

St. George's, Grenada
Sister Cragun, Sister Kime
• • •
The sister missionaries were teaching several neighbors of a recent convert.  One of them, Dianna, was initially against what they were teaching. As the sisters continued teaching this group of investigators, they answered her questions and kept in contact. In
September she finally started showing signs of change. She became a consistent investigator and began opening up, and she expressed a
feeling of abandonment from God and from other churches. Quickly after she began reading from the Book of Mormon she gained a testimony of the Restoration, and qualified herself for
baptism. She was baptized November 24th, 2013.

Port-of-Spain, Trinidad
Elder Jamison & Elder Guzman
• • •
Wayne was contacted by the Elders in Curepe and passed onto the
missionaries in Port of Spain. He had had many interactions with members of the Church in his workplace in Florida, and had even visited Salt Lake City to attend a concert of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He was originally Catholic, converted Buddhist, and had received a multitude of anti-Mormon influences from his peers. When he returned to his home country of Trinidad, he was
having a really difficult time wondering if God was aware of him.
That day he was contacted by the missionaries. Despite his original
opinions of the Church, he accepted the lessons from the missionaries, and as a result of faithful reading of the Book of Mormon and church attendance, Wayne was baptized on
Thanksgiving Day.

Tobago
Elder Petersen, Elder Hill
• • •
Festus is the father in a part member/less-active family, and has been studying with missionaries since the beginning of 2013. He and his son Nathaniel were both studying with the missionaries. Nathaniel was planning to be baptized on the 16th; his father, however, wanted to pick his own baptismal date when he was
ready. Halfway through Nathaniel’s baptismal interview, Festus called us and said "I am ready and want to be baptized this Saturday with my son." On Saturday November 16th, Festus
and Nathaniel were both baptized. And, the entire family has become active and are serving in assignments and callings in the branch.

Christ’s Church, Barbados
Sister Shelton, Sister Hendricks
• • •
Linda Alleyne is a miracle from the fast referred by a member.
We started teaching her but initially she was not interested. She slowly opened up and now loves the Book of Mormon. We are so blessed to be working with her.

Curepe, Trinidad
Elder Beck, Elder Jeppson, Elder McCalla
• • •

Nakeesha was found in Tobago about a year ago by Sister Weaver. She moved to Trinidad in July and finally was baptized. Now she loves doing missionary work with her mom!

"The course of our lives is seldom determined by great, life altering decisions. Our direction

is often set by the small, day-to-day choices that chart the track on which we run. This is the

substance of our lives -- making choices."

President Hinckley

Letters from home

 Families are forever

Sarah on the left with cousin Grace, sister Jane and Grace's little sister

Our dancing missionary Sarah in green

From our granddaughter Sarah serving in Argentina

12/2  Hermana Pinnock 

Exciting, exciting news!  Hermana Hansen (my old companion from Yuma, Arizona) just emailed me and four of our investigators were baptized!  Holy so pumped for them!!!  I love them so much!  Also Javier is on date for the 21st which is so exciting!!!  It´s nice to know that some of my work there came to a great end!  Hermana Hansen is an amazing missionary!  Miss them all.

Ok so this week in Argentina was a winner!  We have some really solid investigators!  Santiago is one of them and he is amazing!  He has so much faith.... more than I´ve ever seen in any investigator.  

When we were walking up the street he came to us and said he wanted the discussions and that he believed our church to be true.... it´s been smooth sailing from then on.  He loves talking about his baptism and says that his son is going to serve a mission!  He is super stoked on the priesthood and loves church!  Everytime we teach him I realize how unworthy I am to be a teacher.... I am so unqualified but he is soooo amazing!  

We also have a family that we are teaching.  It´s a set of grandparents, Carmen and Artilio and their son Orlando.  They are so funny especially Carmen.... she´s not all the way there.  Last time we visited them Carmen had bleached her hair blonde and insisted that I help her put in earrings.  One of the earrings went in really well but the hole in her second ear grew in but she told me to just sick it through her ear..... I might or might not have pierced her ear.... By I might have I mean I most definitely did.... hahahahahah so funny!  Don´t worry I told her to clean her ear every day!  Haha after that all she did for the rest of the lesson was look in her hand mirror and say "que lindo".

It was the end of transfers this week and Hermana Rozsa transferred which was sad because she is one of my favorite humans!  When we get home I will probably be with her a lot!  We just laugh all the time!!!  I love her.  

One of the best parts of the mission is you get to meet the most solid people!!!  All of these sisters work so hard and have such a great spirit!  I love them so much!

I´m learning a lot everyday!  Heavenly Father is truly at the head of this work!  There is no way it would work without him!

xoxo Hermana Pinnock

Favorite quote of the week:  

"Happiness leaves no bad taste, it is followed by no depressing reaction, it calls for no repentance, brings no regret, entails no remorse.  Pleasure too often makes necessary repentance, contrition, and suffering.  And if indulged to the extreme, it brings degradation and destruction.  True happiness is lived over and over again in memory, always with a renewal of the original good.  A moment of unholy pleasure may leave a barbed sting, which, like a thorn in the flesh, is an ever present source of anguish.  Happiness is not akin with levity, nor is it one with light minded mirth.  It springs from the foundation of the soul, and is not infrequently accompanied by tears.  Have you never been so happy that you have had to weep?  I have."  Jesus the Christ (3rd best book)

Joshua on left front with sister Jane

Cousins Elsa & Emma on top

Joshua on right embarking on a covenant of service

12/4  Anziano Pinnock

Well about the boy who backed away from baptism last week - the problem is that he had to seriously go out of his way just for
lessons and then for church he had to buy a train ticket because he
lives about 40 kilometers away from Verona and buses don’t run on
Sunday. We want him to come with us to a lesson so that he can feel important.  He has a great testimony but because of health problems he has a really hard time making it to church in the morning.  So we want him to feel like he was to come to church for another reason other than us.

Then this last week I got my new companion.  He is a ginger
from Utah and his name is Anziano Johnson.  He is really ambitious and loves to laugh.  He is a huge change from my last companion. 

They do the work in a completely different way so now I can learn how to adjust to other ways of doing things.  The thing I like the most about him is that he laughs a lot and he loves riddles.  The riddles are super hard and drive me insane but they keep my mind thinking so its going to be a sad day when he runs out of them. Hopefully they will last at least this transfer.  

Here is one that I had a lot of trouble with, "when it’s forward it’s very heavy, when it’s backwards it’s not.  What am I?" Good luck.  

We are going to people’s houses a lot more (casa).  It’s funny I don’t like doing casa contacting but he doesn’t like doing strada (street contacting) so we both just suck it up and do both.  

We have gotten more investigators and they are all Africans which means that two of the three don’t have a job. They are super open and religious and open to learn more but are slow to keep commitments.  

They are so nice and are just happy to speak english with someone because most of them never learn Italian.  Our third one is a 21 year old soccer player and he just had an injury which means he can’t play anymore so he coaches.  It is a miracle because if he didn’t get injured he couldn’t come to church but now that he can’t play he has a chance to come to church and proceed. Plus he is smart, has a home, and speaks Italian so we call him a legitfrican because he is legit african/italian.
  
We are hoping that all three of them will become progressing investigators and be willing to change their lives.

Found out that Verona is one of Italy's best cities when it comes to
Christmas so that will be the best.  

I have been reading in the Book of Mormon everyday in English and Italian and right now in english I just finished reading about Abinidi.  Holy cow he is the best prophet ever.  He wasn’t afraid to die but knew what he is doing was super important.  I don’t think that the painting of him is accurate.  I think he is a twenty-thirty year old not an old man.  Just think about that and how much cooler it would be.  Also he didn’t baptize a single person and he didn’t know if he changed any lives but because of him a ton of people were later baptized and came unto Christ.  Abinidi rocks.  

This is about all for this week.  I’m glad thanksgiving was good with the fam.   Ours was good too.

Thanks for everything and have a good week.

Anziano Joshua Pinnock

Sarah, Josh, Jane & David

The Lord's plan of happiness

 Diwali in Tobago



Arrangement of diyas on Diwali night

The Tobago Missionaries were invited by the Ramkissoons, who are members of our branch to join them in celebrating Diwali.  

Sister Ramkissoon is from a large Hindu family.  Her father owns a lumber store where they held the celebration.

Not knowing what Diwali is, I looked it up in Wikipedia where I learned that Diwali is a five-day Hindu festival of lights.  For Hindus, Diwali is one of the most important festivals of the year and is celebrated by families participating in traditional activities.

The family was very kind and friendly and we had a wonderful time enjoying the unusual but delicious food and the traditional Hindu culture.  Sister Ramkissoon's father took me on a tour of the lumber yard and I was stunned by the volume of exhotic woods of teak, mahogany and cedar.

Diwali is called: The Festival of Lights

Diyas are an oil lamp, usually made from clay, with a cotton wick dipped in ghee or vegetable oil

Diyas and decorations on the stacks of exhotic wood and lumberyard floor

I asked the owner of the lumberyard if he was worried about starting a fire in all of the lumber.

  

He didn't seem concerned

Split bamboo arches with diyas.  We walked under the arches as we came into the lumberyard

The delicious food was served on banana leaves and eaten without utensils

Top left is bread of puri used to pick up the food.

Left side bottom is chana.

Right side top is katri.

Right side middle is nutrella vegetable meat.

Right side bottom is mango chutney. 

All vegetarian - Meat isn't served during Diwali

Sister Schindler with one of the family members dressed in a traditional Hindu gown

A picture with Sister Linton

A beautiful young Hindu girl in traditional clothing

Mother and daughters/nieces

A darling girl that wanted to make a special pose

Another adorable child

And another in pink

All of them loved having their picture taken

Beautiful child

and 
Her mother in the lumber yard



Scorpion Orchid

It was in the yard of Brother Campbell who is an investigator being taught by our sister missionaries.
He told us to pick one - Sister Reddy put it behind her ear.

Sister Reddy, one of our West Indies Missionaries, is from Fiji
The orchid suites her well

Sister Reddy brought her indian salwar kameez clothing that was given to her by her grandmother before leaving on her mission

Sister Reddy dressed Sister Schindler in the red sari that Sister Linton purchased in Trinidad from an Indian store

The companions trade clothes - a Diwali dress-up day at the Linton's apartment

February 16, 2013

Festus & Nathaniel Chadband Baptisms

Sisters Reddy and Schindler, Elders Hill and Petersen

Sister Schindler and Elder Petersen  were both transferred to Trinidad  the following Wednesday

In the process of changing into baptismal clothing

 

The Williams family enjoying the wonderful Caribbean weather prior to the baptism

Elder Linton, Festus Chadband, 

Elder Petersen, Nathaniel Chadband, 

Elder Hill and Rocky Bowens

 Three elders 
with the Williams and Chadband Families

Elders Petersen and Hill

  Two fine elders who taught the two baptismal candidates

Portraits over and it's time for the baptism

This is the Tobago Branch baptismal font

Elder Linton preparing to baptize 

Festus Chadband

Festus is baptized and 

he thinks the 80 degree water is cold

Rocky cheers a successful baptism

Rocky congratulates his future father-in-law

Rocky prepares to baptize Nathaniel

Rocky is a bit nervous and asks for assistance

He is carefully instructed

Another successful baptism

  Nathaniel is out of the picture enjoying the warm Caribbean Sea

A baptism day is a beautiful day in Tobago

Festus wore a white robe over his baptism clothes.  I told him he looked like an angel!

Nathaniel on my right and Rocky on my left

Nathaniel is so happy.  He had asked several times over the past couple of months when he could be baptized.  He was very prepared for the occasion
 

Anderson is playing in the sand, oblivious to all around him

Sherlon, who  visits our home regularly, was baptized four weeks ago.  Everybody that sees him says he is a different boy. He knows the Linton's love him.  He decorated our Christmas tree