Joseph and Nettie Linton in the West Indies Mission

A WEEK IN GEORGETOWN, GUYANA

We flew from Trinidad to Guyana on Tuesday May 20^th. It’s about an hour flight with nothing of particular note until we were over the South American continent. The tree cover was a vast forest carpet in shades of green with sprinklings of yellow.

Occasionally there was a ribbon of light brown that meandered through the carpet. We were still quite high but you could tell they were muddy rivers, some of them very large.

The Guyana airport was fairly well developed and it was easy to come into customs. The Francom's picked us up and drove us to the Pegasus Hotel.

The drive was very West Indies.

Drivers cutting in and out of their lane with abandon. With left lanes turning right, right lanes turning left and it was another defensive driving course. for the most part traffic lights, stop signs, direction signs and passing obstacles are just a suggestion - everything goes and passing on a blind corner, hill or major intersection is common.

Wares under left arm, in bucket and on her head

Street vendor in the open air market of Guyana

Many beautiful old buildings left over from the Dutch and English occupations

Crowded Streets of Georgetown

They also have horse and donkey drawn wagons on the main streets
hauling building products

and

Even the Mrs. under a parasol

Horses, cattle and sheep were wandering everywhere - even downtown

BLESSINGS

By the time we arrived at the hotel I was dripping wet and there was barely enough time to take a quick shower before heading over to the chapel for blessings. They have a very nice chapel. I was told that there were about 250 members in this branch.

We were a few minutes late but quickly started. There were two pronounced that afternoon and the Francom’s waited and then drove us to their home where we then met the Poulsons. The six of us enjoyed a nice dinner and visit. By 8:30 we were exhausted and the Francom's took us back to the hotel and we went to bed early.

On the 21^st we had three blessings from 10:00 am to 12:30 pm. Two of the young men were from a tribe that I haven’t previously seen. They were both of Indian extraction and I was happy to have had the opportunity to pronounce their blessing. The spirit was very strong and I felt that all three of the young men were the pioneers of the West Indies. I could see in all three of them the next generation of leadership. They each had a wonderful spirit of missionary work and a desire to do all in their service to Jesus Christ. They were all in their early twenties. It was an honor to have been with them and to see such devoted recent converts.

During the five days of our stay in Guyana we had thirteen blessings. The majority of the blessings were administered to missionaries, prospective missionaries or young couples. As said earlier, I was very impressed with the wonderful people here. They truly are a generation of future leaders. With several having received their lineage from a tribe I haven’t previously encountered, I was impressed that these youth were the predecessors of the next generation that would be an army in countries that are just beginning to have the gospel introduced to them.

In saying that, I make reference to Elder Jeffrey R. Holland speaking about the “WONDERFUL TIME FOR THE CHURCH IN ASIA”. “We move steadily into the future. India will be one of our miracles, we will live to see a remarkable work unfold in India. The Spirit of the Lord is moving over this vast area,” he said. “It would be undeniable, it would be impossible not to grasp, not to feel that there is a great work unfolding here.”