We all are a witness to 
God's creations





"I think the world is glorious and lovely as can be.  The birds and bees and blossoms bring sweet messages to me"




The turtle that flies

The Leatherback

The leatherback turtle is considered to be the largest of the turtles.  

Once in the water, the male leatherback never returns to land.  The females come ashore to lay their eggs and they do so several times in a season at intervals of one to two weeks.  They lay about 100 eggs at a time and average about five times a laying season.  500 turtle eggs is amazing - they are about the size of a tennis ball and are soft and rubbery when they are laid.  

Though often tried there hasn't been a successful incubation of turtle eggs.  The guide that took us on our tour of the beach looking for a turtle that has come ashore said that they might migrate thousands of miles over their years at sea.

Instead of a shell they have a more flat rubbery leathery-like shell with front and back flippers that were surprisingly large and powerful.  Their main diet is jellyfish

An adult leatherback turtle weights around 1,500 pounds and is about 6-1/2 feet long.   The largest recorder turtle was over 2,000 pounds and about 8-1/2 feet longl

That's a big turtle

The leatherback turtle is an endangered species. One might think that with several hundred eggs being laid by a mother turtle they would soon fill the oceans.  It is estimated that one hatched turtle in a thousand reaches maturity.  

Surviving in a world full of predators and environmental hazards

On the beach we were taken to, there is a major effort to keep it clean of debris and to make it less accessible to the public.  Many volunteers commit countless hours to monitor the environment so these beautiful animals have every opportunity to populate.  

Our picnic before dark waiting for the arrival of the turtles to lay their clutch of eggs

This little park just off the parking lot is a small island cut out of the dense forest.  Every plant and tree are unfamiliar to me and the variety is astounding.  

Wild vines cover the trees in a leafy skirt

As it grew darker, fireflies came out and as they moved through the trees you had a feeling that in the darkening depths of the glade there were many eyes looking at the strange creatures that have invaded their privacy.

The urge to walk back into the trees was irrepressible but I knew how dangerous that could be. There are many varieties of poisonous snakes on the island and in the fading light with massive vegetation one could easily get lost and spend an unpleasant night or two wandering around.

As it darkened, a conservation officer talked to us about these beautiful creatures that fly in the oceans of the world

It was a starry lit moonless night

We walked through the soft sand half stumbling as we closely following those in front.  The guide led us to a mother turtle digging her sand nest.  She alternated her hind flippers as they took turns scooping out cupped flippers full of damp sand until she had a 12" diameter hole about three feet deep.  The turtle couldn't see the red light the guide used to illuminate her.

The first delivery

When she had finished her hole she began laying her eggs.  The guide said that once she starts laying she is in a trance and flash cameras or touching wouldn't bother her.

It's OK to touch

Nettie taking her turn feeling the smooth soft leathery back

Even stroking her head was acceptable.  As her eyes wept and you gently touched her you couldn't help but feel connected to this wonderful mammal with wings. 

A peaceful delivery

Everyone was captivated by this special moment

Muffed comments of "how beautiful" were expressed by all

Delivery of her eggs 

The hope of future turtles for generations to come

The order and shear beauty of God's creations inspires  

HUMBLE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST

Have you ever wondered about contributions to the temple fund and the many families that are blessed by this inspired program?  

The following is a letter from a  Suriname family that received such a blessing.

"First of all let me thank you for all the help and support both my family and I received from the church to make a dream come through.  Going to the temple sometimes seem for some like a walk in the park but for us it was a step on the moon.  

Unlike most elders I did not had the opportunity to go to the MTC or to the temple before my mission.  I went after at the concluding of my mission.  It just so happened that I was planned to be released on my birthday.  It was the same day I got my endowment.  It was a birthday gift from the Heavens.  It was a great celebration.  Angels attended and the Spirit was just everywhere.  I remember sitting in the temple praying after I was endowed.  I told my Father in Heaven that I was afraid to go home.  I don't know what Suriname holds for me.  What future do I have there I asked Him.  Then in a sudden.  A face came to my mind.  It was the face of a young women.  The Spirit said that she is waiting.  The funny thing about this is that she never liked me before my mission but I came home.  Can you imagine my joy to be able to sit with this same person, at the same spot in the same temple ten years after and being able to be sealed to her and our beautiful children for time and all eternity.  I have no words to describe the joy and the happiness that temple has given us.

Our entire world changed as we started to prepare to attend the temple seven years ago.  Our house rent was too high so we couldn't save to go to the temple.  We prayed about it and shared our concerns with my in-laws.  They suggested we move in with them.  We did that. We had bought a peace of land to build but couldn't continue paying for it and if we decided to stop the payment we would lose all the down payment that we had made.  We didn't care for the down payment because we wanted to go to the temple.  I then had to quit my job because my boss did not want to pay me  I got another job the same day and started immediately.  We had another peace of land we had gotten from the government.  They said if we wanted to keep the land we would have to build something on it.  My wife and I talked about it and took our problem to the Lord.  The Lord listened and then reply, you know what to do.  We let the land go.  

Then suddenly our daughter got sick with her eyes.  We spent two years going to different doctors almost every week, sometimes even twice a week.  After much fasting and prayers she received a surgery on her eyes.  She is still healing from that.  Then one month before leaving for the temple they told us that our children can not go with because they are not Surinamese and will not get a Surinamese passport.  I went to the embassy of Guyana and apply for two passports.  They came a week before our trip, then the embassy said our children are not allowed to travel with those passports unless I cross the border to Guyana and come back.  We had to do so.  On coming back from Guyana it was too late to travel to Paramaribo so we had to spent the night in Nickerie.  We couldn't find any hotel or place to stay so we slept on the floor of a house and attended church the next day.  When we came back our son got sick and needed a surgery.  He did the surgery and we left for our temple trip.

If we had to do it all over again we would.  We have learned so much and have grown so much closer because of these trials we had.  We have felt how much our Father loves and cares for us.  We had an amazing time at the temple.  This is the only church that has the keys that could seal us as a family.  I am so grateful to our Father in Heaven for the blessing of being a member of His church."

Aaron in the back dressed for baptism.  His mother, sister and brothers are being taught by Missionaries Sister Herrick and Sister Jewell.

Mark Cummings who was recently baptized is going to baptize Aaron.

Wonderful Sister Missionaries

The font is outside and the water in it had a rusty tint.  When the baptism is over, the water is drained into the parking lot.

The six missionaries of Chaguanas 

We love the missionaries and the little future missionary in the front.

On Sunday Aaron was confirmed a member of the church and then ordained a Priest.  He is helping prepare his mother and brother to be baptized in May.

Sunday's Gospel Doctrine teacher.  His first opportunity and he was all smiles.

Our home teaching companion.  This brother is a tower of faith and obedience.

A humble branch with wonderful saints that are few in number but large in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

 

West Indies Mission Success Stories

 

 

Elder Anderson and Elder Regis in Tobago 

 

"This week was the baptism of our investigator of about three transfers, Ruthven Duchesne.  He was found by Elder Gines and Elder McClain at his home, and immediately began firing off questions about who God is, and what His name is; he had studies with many different religions and particularly the Jehovah's Witnesses.  Elder Gines and Elder McClain did not give up however, and continued coming.  Ruthven was given a Book of Mormon, which he devoured in the course of a few weeks.  When I arrived from St. Maarten, Elder Gines and I went to see Ruthven and he as usual would fire off a million questions to see what we would say.  As we were leaving, I said 'I don't know Elder Gines... I'm not sure he's getting it'.  Elder Gines was confident and so we pressed forward and continued teaching him.  After Elder Gines left, Elder Regis and I continued to see him, and he progressed by coming to church, studying the Book of Mormon and even the Doctrine and Covenants.  He finally admitted that he knew that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  He agreed to a baptismal date, but was not able to qualify for it due to his smoking addiction.  We found out that he had smoked since the age of seven, and now being fifty-four we could only imagine how difficult it was.  Satan definitely would not let go of him, but we offered a Priesthood blessings and committed him to stop smoking.  I committed him to call me the next time he was going to smoke a cigarette; the adversary responded in the form of his work neglecting to pay him and as a result, Ruthven's phone line and internet being cut.  We prayed so much for him and continued to support him.  General Conference proved to be a powerful catalyst; he came to all four sessions.  that week he finally was able to receive the strength to overcome his smoking, and we finally were able to see him baptized.  After his baptism, he bore his testimony of the truth of the Gospel and said that as he came up out of the water, he heard a voice say, 'at last, you have fulfilled one of my wishes'.  We are excited to have this strong prospective priesthood holder in the Tobago Branch."

 

 



 

 

Elders Anderson and Regis with Ruthven Duchesne

 

 

***

 

 

Elder Friebe and Elder Bybee in Phillipsburg, St. Maarten

 

 

"We had a wonderful baptism of the Henry family.  I have never had more opposition during preparations for a baptism.  I will start at the beginning so that you can get as much of the story as possible.

 

5:00pm Thursday 

 

We had just arrived at  the church building for a Young Single Adult activity and started to turn the key on the hurricane shutter on the front door of the church, but it would not come up.  We established that the power had been switched off and after manually opening the hurricane shutter with a crank from the shed, we also discovered the water had been shut off.  This would have been no big deal accept that we needed to fill up the baptismal font for the Saturday morning baptism.

 

A couple of notes on the font:

1. The font hadn't been used for about six months
2. The drain doesn't work, so they use a submersible pump to drain it.
3. It really needed to be cleaned because there had been some water left sitting in it which caused a bunch of growth on the tiles at the bottom.
4. The water comes out exceptionally slow, and the branch presidency told us that it takes about 8 hours, give or take a couple of hours to fill it.

Okay, no problem right?  We just leave it on overnight.  Wrong!  The overflow doesn't work and the church building has already been flooded once due to this problem.

 

7:00pm Thursday

 

After making a bunch of calls to the branch leaders and finding the water main, we established that the water and the electric bill had been paid but the water main still had a lock on it.  Since we could not clean the font as planned without any water, we decided to wait until the next morning for the water and electric company to open.

 

10:00am Friday

 

Because we were not getting the help we needed over the phone, the member who paid the bill went over to the water and electric company office to see what was going on with the lock on.  Turns out the bill had been paid, but the secretary had placed the payment to the wrong church (the Church of Christ not the Church of Jesus Christ).  Turns out we paid the bill for another church!  That was straightened out and we were told that there would be someone sent out to unlock the water between 3:30pm and 10pm that night.  They would not give us a specific time, and they could not let us know when it was unlocked.  Keep in mind we had a day full of appointments, but no way of knowing when the water would be switched on and we had an immediate need to clean the font as soon as it came back on.  The church building is also a 15 to 20 minutes bus ride out of our working area.

 

3:30pm Friday

 

We discovered the water was still locked off.  After prayer we went outside and saw a water tank overflowing at a business building next door to the church.  We got some buckets and filled them up with water so we could start cleaning the font to get that out of the way.  Just as we were about to start a random guy drove up in an SUV, wearing pedestrian clothes, carrying a tool bag and listening to loud inappropriate music.  He got out of his car without looking at us, walked over to the water main and unlocked it in 5 seconds, got back into his car and drove away.

 

5:00pm Friday

 

We were able to use the running water and started scrubbing the font.  It took us a few hours to put things in order and get the font to start filling.  The senior couple volunteered to watch the font fill so we could get home in a timely manner.  The font took 3 hours to fill and everything seemed in order for the baptism to take place the next morning.

 

8:30am Saturday

 

We reached the church and discovered that despite having a plug in the drain, the font drain actually does work, only very slowly.  The font had drained over half way leaving about a foot and a half of water in the bottom.  This might be enough for an 8 year old, but not for brother Henry.  We quickly turned the water back on to fill it back up as much as possible.

 

10:00am Saturday

 

The baptism program started an hour late due to people in the program showing up late.  The font had reached a reasonable height and the baptism went on uninterrupted." 

 

"It was a vey spiritual service which I will never forget."  

 

 

 ***

 

 

 

 

Elder Dall, Mark Cummings & elder Parisot

 

 

 

 

Elder Parisot, Elder Dall, Mark Cummings and Elder Andrus

 

 

 

Cummings family

Mark, Shenny, Maariye, Maragha & Markie Jr. 

A wonderful and blessed family that we love

 

 

***

 

 





 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes taken during a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

 

 

One of our senior mission couples has a daughter that was in a fireside given by Elder Jeffrey Holland in March.  These are her notes as she took them in abbreviated paragraphs. They are posted not to represent the entire talk nor to interpret the intent of the talk but to indicate some wonderful thoughts of an Apostle of the Lord - I believe you will enjoy this as much as we have.

 

 

The thought that because you're a good person means that bad things won't happen to you is like expecting a bull not to charge you because you're a vegetarian.

 

In Elie Wiesel's "Night" - "he watched the sun going down behind his mother's face."

 

Night is going to come into our lives.  Sometimes they go on and on and on.  Welcome to life.  Welcome to mortality.  Welcome to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  This talk will focus on what to do when the sun goes down, when you keep waking up and it's 3 am - this isn't intended for everyone but it is for you.

 

Remember God loves broken things.    He loves broken dreams, desires, hopes, and promises.  Hang on through all the brokenness of things, because God can fix it.  It takes broken seeds to grow. 

 

We shouted for joy - what was all the shouting about?  You remember as long as you live that the first principle of the gospel is for you to have faith and live the way you say you believe.  We live by faith. 

 

Did you ever think about the first person who was told to sow seeds?  They were told to take everything they have and throw it away and that it would return to them multiplied.  But first they had to throw everything they had away!

 

Above all else, God loves broken hearts. 

 

Children of God are always under the covenant to sacrifice.  The angel said to Adam, "Why are you sacrificing?" and he said "I don't know."  We say that too.  Why are you sacrificing this?  "I don't know - I don't want to."  But he tells him it is in similitude of the Savior's sacrifice.  Why are you sacrificing?  Because that is what we came here to do.

 

Don't flee your chance to sacrifice.  When it's your turn to place your gift on the altar, you make your sacrifice.  Hang on like Adam and Eve had to hang on.  Believe that you get this sacrifice back. 

 

That is the meaning of resurrection, that is why it is often called restoration. 

 

Place it on the altar and trust you will be healed and you will get it back.  It wasn't perfect, but it was yours and you loved it and you knew all the pieces of it and now it is shattered.  Don't miss your chance to make your sacred sacrifice.  It is in similitude of the tears the Savior shed.

 

Long suffering.  We're all for it in general, but we don't want it to be long, and we don't want to suffer.  The road to salvation is always through Gethsemane.  Or else I don't know what else discipleship means - we didn't just sign on for the good and fun times.

 

Virgil said:  "Endure - and save yourself for days of happiness ahead." 

 

You've had blessings more than you've had trials.  You will learn first that you are stronger than you thought you were and second you have the seed of divinity within you.

 

You will know who you are and who He is.  We are cavalier and capricious about the atonement.  Okay, I guess we aren't, but I don't think we take it seriously enough.

 

We say we are children of God, but how do we think we are going to get there unless we live a life that will create that? 

 

It seems that much of what God does all day long is forgive people.  So how good are you at practicing that? 

 

Do we think we are just going to stand up on resurrection morning after a lifetime of fun and say, "Okay, Lord, where is my world?  I'm ready!" 

 

We become ready by tasting a small part of what He tasted.  He himself said, "if there is any other way, let this cup pass from me."  We become like He is by facing our own Gethsemane, and not shrinking, as he did not shrink.  By submitting, as he submitted.  That is the only way we get there. 

 

We say we want to be like the Savior, but we don't really want to be like the Savior and live the kind of life he lived, full of sorrow and pain and suffering He didn't deserve.  I don't know any other way to get there.  If you know one, tell me, and I will change my talk.

 

"He being reviled, reviled not." 

 

Finally I promise we come up the other side of that valley and the sun begins to rise.

 

The one thing in these trials that you must never say.  That I forbid you from saying is "I guess God doesn't love me."  This is sacrilegious and blasphemous because of what he has done for you.  You can say you don't love God but never say he doesn't love you.

 

Told the story of the Lord asleep on a boat.  It must have been one heck of a storm for Peter, James and John to be worried.  They grew up on that lake.  They woke him up and said, in one of the scripture's great ironies, "Carest thou not that we perish?"  I like to imagine the look He must have given them at that moment.  He is compassionate, so it was just a look.  But Really?

 

But he arose and said, "Peace be still.  Why are ye so fearful?  How is it that ye have no faith?

 

Don't you think He can fix it?  He can fix it.  He will fix it. 

 

Spring arrives right on schedule.  That's when you learn who you are.  Anyone can sail a ship through calm seas.  The Savior wants disciples who can weather storms.   

 

 

ASA WRIGHT NATURE CENTER

 

 

Most of the roads in Trinidad are crazy and the mountain roads are on steroids crazy.  Every time I suggest to Nettie that we go into the mountains she goes white with fear and I must admit the narrow, steep and winding roads are not to be taken lightly.  It was on such a road that the missionaries had a head-on collision with the Porsche - see a previous blog. 

The Asa Wright Nature Center road was less crowded and slower driving so it wasn't bad. 

 

 

 

Here it looks mild and beautiful as it winds it's way up the mountain.  The foliage is spectacular and the road is canopied by it.  The road is asphalted but the picture above doesn't show how narrow it is.

 

 

 

 

Part way up the mountain you start to appreciate the grade that they had to cut through the hillside to make the road.  There were a couple of turns where a warning sign was posted "dangerous curve".  One of the few signs we saw.  In Utah we are alerted by every curve left, right or switchback.  And of course speed limit signs.  Trinidad doesn't believe in signs.

 

 

 

 

When we came into a clearing we saw rolling green mounds and on closer inspection we saw that they were vine covered nets supported by posts.  The vines formed a green canopy.

 

 

 

 

Still hard to see in this picture.  You had to be about 4 to 5 feet tall to walk under it and the underside was a mysterious green tent with hundreds of stick poles with the beautiful green netting of vines.  Under the vines was a green squash-like fruit about the size of a real fat cucumber with a dark green skin.  I suppose they are more like a small green squash with a very deep green skin - nobody could guess what they were.  We have had several new and unusual fruits since we've been here and I suspect this is something we haven't tried before.

 

  

  

 

Very steep and somewhat dark and mysterious down there under the canopy.  We didn't see any workmen harvesting the fruit.

 

 

 

 

There could be a dozen workmen under there but you wouldn't see them - the ground is about 5 feet below the green carpet.

 

 

 

 

A little bed and breakfast cottage in the Asa Wright compound of buildings.  We think it would be a good place to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary in September.

 

 

 

 

Lipstick flower or Columnae Scandens

 

 I bought a flower guide but with so many varieties it's difficult to name them.

 

 

 

 

Heliconia or Lobster Claw

  

Even the visitor's center was brimming with exotic cut flowers. 

 

 

 

Green Honeycreeper

 

The birds were all around us but almost impossible to photograph.  A few of these we took and some of them had to come out of a Birds of Trinidad website.

 

 

Yellow legged honey creeper or Blue Dacnis 

 

I really don't know for sure - hard to identify clearly.  I understand that bird watchers come from all over the world to see the birds of Trinidad.

 

 

.

 The birds were no less colorful than the flowers.

An amazing array of every color you can imagine.

 

 

 

 

Heliconia from a bright red/yellow to soft pink white

 

 

 

 

Lobster claw Heliconia

 

 

The guide called this a pineapple flower

 

When the flower is gone and it is in seed it does look like a pineapple.

 

 

 

 

I believe this is a Bananaquit

 

 

 

 

The Tufted Coquette 

 

Bee-like in size humming bird and impossible to photograph. 

Had to take a picture off the web to appreciate it.

 

 

 

 



Tufted Coquette

 

Spectacular little humming bird.

 

 

Green Honeycreeper

 

 

 

 

Bananaquit

 

There were numerous humming birds which were impossible to photograph

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the flower colors are in shades of red 

 

 

 

 

We were deep in the rain forest when I took this one.  The forest floor was covered with dead vegetation and here in the middle of it was this spectacular flower. 

 

 

 

The petals are very stiff and waxy and the flower head was about 8 inches

 

 

Pineapple flower with the base turning to seed

 

 

 

It probably seems like we spend a lot of time looking at birds and flowers.  We average around 9 hours a day in the office and the few trips into the mountains have kept us sane. 

 

I picked up an auditor from the Dominican Republic today and she is going to spend the next four days going over our financial procedures and writing a report.  I don't look forward to it and I suspect by the time Saturday comes I'll be exhausted.  We are still recovering from conference weekend.  We spent Saturday and Sunday in the Chaguanas Branch.  It was too far to drive so we were there for the sessions and the two hours between plus the driving time to get there and back.  I took my laptop and a projector and we were able to watch conference in their little chapel.  There weren't too many there but about five investigators attended and those that saw it were grateful for the opportunity. 

 

The Friday before conference we went to a protected beach and saw a giant leatherback turtle lay her eggs.  I will post the pictures of that on a future date.  We are more adjusted to the area and can now get around without too much difficulty.  We will move into our new apartment next week and we are looking forward to leaving where we currently are.  This Saturday, Steve & Markie will paint the living room and kitchen - I need to be more critical of their keeping a tarp on the floor and furniture.  The two bedrooms they painted look much better but despite my telling them to use a drop cloth, the carpet and blinds also got painted.

 

The trees are now beginning to blossom and hopefully I can catch some pictures of them.  When we were going to the office this morning, one huge tree that overhangs the road was raining pink blossoms.  The road was blanketed with delicate pink flowers.