(So... Ben Started writing this post right when we got back from our trip 2 months ago... I'm (Maura) going to finally finish it so we can finally write about other things...)We're back!
After a fun 10 days, it was time to come home.... :( By the time we left, even Maura was talking with an accent! I guess I will give a fun recap of our trip.....
First day.....We spent all day Saturday flying and got to Trinidad and Tobago in the later part of the evening. We then found that they weren't going to give me the car rental for the week! Lame....I had been emailing back and forth with the car rental representative to ensure that we could have the car rental. She said we could, even though I am only 23 years old. Looking back, I am glad we didn't get the car rental....People drive crazy in Trinidad! I was holding my breath half the time the taxi was taking us around.
So, our first night, we stayed in the Marriott hotel. It was a good transition for Maura. The moment we step out of the airport, we began shedding layers of clothing. I was drenched with sweat by the time we reached our taxi, 100 yards outside of the airport.
The next morning, we went to Church in a city called Chaguanas. No one knew we were coming, so it was a huge surprise when we walked in the door. The first face I saw was very familiar....He was the father of a family we baptized two years earlier. He is now in the branch presidency. Him and his wife are very active on the church. It was so good to see them. Their little boy didn't recognize me at first, but then he got a big smile on his face and yelled, "Elder Brewer!" (I don't think I was called anything else the whole trip.) It took us a while to sit down, as more and more familiar faces entered the church. It was funny to see their reactions when they saw Maura and I standing there. I think everyone was more excited to see Maura then me! It was fun to be in a tiny building with the church members...about 40 of them. The branch president whom I served with while I was in Chaguanas, is now the first Stake President of the West Indies...well it is actually a stake of the island of Trinidad....the rest of the church members are still under the watch care of the mission presidency.
The cutest part of church, that made me cry, was when a boy named Satysh Deonerinesigh
came walking by, not recognizing, when someone pointed at me and said to him, do you know who that is, he grinned, ran over to me and through his arms around my neck...and he wouldn't let go! He then gave Maura a big long hug...it made us both tear up.
(Maura's insert here: The whole time I was at this little branch I was teary eyed. The faith of these people is incredible. The children were so adorable and the spirit was so strong. The people have simple testimonies, but they are strong. Also, Bro. Ramdath (the first person we saw) asked us to teach the youth class for sunday school after sacrament meeting. That was cool. Everyone loved Ben so much and were so glad he was back. I could tell he did a lot of good in this area.)
After church we went to stay with the Lackin family. They are an older couple in the branch who have a pretty nice house for Trinidad standards. (See picture) We really enjoyed our stay with them. We spent the rest of the day at the Lakins. They fed us so much food on the trip, I felt bad for Maura! When they weren't looking, I often took a few scoops from her plate and put it on mine....Man I sure gained a lot on our trip....The lakins took us to some sightseeing sights Sunday afternoon. We saw the huge hindu monkey god and the Temple in the middle of the sea.
On Monday, I took Maura through Chaguanas. It was fun, but it sure rained a lot......here is a video and some pics for your enjoyment.... Please try not to get motion sickness from the video. We are obviously beginners at video taking while walking.
The next few days we spent visiting other cool places....Maura got eat lots of fun food and meet lots of my friends! This is Sister Verra Doon and her daughter Johanna. Johanna is really Skinny! She has a heart defect that keeps her really skinny. This is the first family I met on the island of Trinidad. Sis Doon was pivotal in the conversion if the current branch president of the Chaguanas branch. When I first arrive in Chaguanas, there was a family named the Gopauls being taught by two other missionaires. They believed the church was true and the book of Mormon was true logically, but they were waiting for the spiritual confermation. The missionaries promised them that if they went to every sesion of conference, they would receive their spiritual confermation. Well, they went to every session. After the last session, they were happy they went, but were a little discouraged that the spiritual confirmation hadn't come as promised. We were there as well with a recently baptized member named Sister Doon. We felt inspired to have the Gopauls give her a ride home. Here is the rest of the story, according to the Gopauls.....We were driving sister Doon home and it was quite in the car for most of the way. When we were a few minutes from her home, we asked her what she thought of coference. She just began to share her strong testimony and belief that she had joined the true church and that she knew that she had just listened to a prophet of God. As we dropped her off, we just sat outside of her house, and we couldn't move. We lookd at each other and said, did you feel that. (They both had.) It was the spirit! They recieved their spiritual confermation. They were baptized two weeks later.
Maura and I had the opportunity to go to a beautiful beach in Trinidad! We went with a family I taught and baptized while I was there. They are called the Ramdath family.
There story is really cool as well! I was just finishing up my first transfer in Trinidad. It was quite ruff. I had been in Guyana the previous 10 months and I was missing it there. My comp and I had just come home from church where we had to investigators there. Any missionary knows that is a hard moment because it feels like your whole previous week was a waste. I was sitting on the couch and really had no desire to go out and work in the hot sun. Elder Gibby and I had a little pep rally and decided to pray to where to go. We received and answer that we needed to go to an area called Felicity. We made a goal to teach every family that we walked past.On our way to geta taxi, I felt a strong impression to walk a different way just before reaching the taxi stop. We walked to an area just behind the church building. There, sitting in their front yard, was the Ramdath Family. We walked up and said, hello we have come to teach your family. They just stared at us and we sat down and started teaching. It was a powerful experience. Missionaries are a lot more powerful when they have been humbled, which we felt after church. When we were done, we commited them to baptizm. Suprizingly, they said yes and yes to a date as well! We then left. Now read this....As it turns out, the Ramdaths had skipped their church that day and where deciding if they should go back to that church or go to another. They were deciding to go to another, when we showed up. Pretty cool huh? The wife was the most dilligent. We taught her and she came to chuch off and on for a few months. The husband was supportive but was progressing very slowly. He didn't have anything to overcome, he just wasn't that interested yet. He became interested in a funny way. It came time for Sis Ramdaths inteview for her baptism. An Elder came and interviewed her and deemed her ready for baptism. So we get to the baptism....There was 20 people, including are the awsome supportive branch pres, who is now the first Stake Pres is Trinidad, a few senior couples who helped teach them, and lots of her friends. So we are about to start, and my comp feels he needs to fill out the baptism record. So he goes to ask Bro Ramdath for his marraige date. And he says, "Oh, we arn't actually married, we just tell people we are." My companion came over and told me....I wanted to crawl up and die. We had to call off the baptism. Man did I feel like an idiot. But when I was explaining to Bro Ramdath why his "wife" cant get baptized, he had a change of countanence. He said, "I want to be ready when she is ready to be baptized." Wow! So I guess it needed to happen. They were all baptized a month later.
I will do the rest in another post....
