Updates...

So...Its probably about time we update this thing.

Well, since our trip to the Caribbean we have had some other noteworthy adventures.

First of all, a couple of weeks after our trip we found out that I'M PREGNANT!!!! YAY! We've been trying basically since we got married and ten months later...YAY! I'm due in February. I was getting nauseous on our trip, but I just thought it was a new environment, etc. I wasn't extremely sick or anything, but then it didn't go away after our trip and lo and behold...there's a baby growing inside of me!

At the beginning of August, we moved from our tiny apartment in Provo to what seems like a mansion in Orem. 2 bedrooms, huge living room, kitchen, etc. We still do not enjoy luxuries like washer/dryer, dishwasher or disposal, but the extra spaciousness is worth it. Plus we're going to need the extra room :)

I started my job as a full time music teacher at Amelia Earhart Elementary in the middle of August. It sure is exhausting, but so much fun and exhilarating at the same time. I love sharing my talents in ways that bless the lives of precious children. They are so cute! I teach every kid in the school...k-6 plus 3 special ed classes...about 576 (or something close to that) names, faces, and personalities to learn! I see every class 2 times per week. Wow! It sure is a lot to keep track of...and takes a lot of energy to be doing a song and dance all the time with the kids (literally). Its not like a regular classroom where the kids can sit quietly and do silent reading or quiet work time while the teacher can kind of take a breather from being "on stage"... music teaching is a high performance job, but very worth it.

Ben started his semester...he's applying to his major (Public Relations) this semester and hopes to start the major Winter Semester. He is enjoying his classes and he is still working part-time at LogoWorks (I guess now it is technically Marketsplash by HP or something like that). He now also has a gym membership...he hopes to lose all of the baby weight he's been gaining. I guess he has been having "Sympathy Symptoms" :). No...he really hasn't gained that much weight since we've been married, but enough that he's determined to start working out again.

I got a new calling just a couple weeks into our new ward (apparently the bishopric heard through the grapevine that someone "musical" was coming). You guessed it...Ward Choir Director. So basically, my whole life revolves around music making with people. Oh yeah, did I mention in my spare time I teach piano lessons? Gotta love it! I think Ben is getting a new calling this week...but I'm not sure what it is yet. Someone came over to talk to him a couple days ago about it. We'll keep you updated.

All in all, we're enjoying life, having fun, and looking forward to new adventures.

Sorry for lack of interesting pictures and such. Look forward to pregnant lady pics and other fun stuff! We will try to be better about updating this now that we're kind of settled in and in a routine.

Caribbean Trip

(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....

Long Drives and Lobsters

The rest of Monday was awesome! We took taxis and visited some of Ben's friends. We had Family home evening with the Deonerinesingh family (a family that Ben baptized). Sis. Deo taught us how to make roti...Maura was better at it than Ben. Tuesday, we went with some other friends to the beach! It was about a 2hr drive from Chaguanas to the other side of the island. The roads were covered with pot holes...a real wonder because Trinidad produces 70% of all the world's pitch for roads! The roads were wound around the jungle and through villages. Spectacular sights. We made it to the beach and loved being able to play in actual WARM ocean water...not like the beaches at home in WA and OR. Because we went on a weekday, we had the beach pretty much all to ourselves. We put on sunscreen, but still came home as lobsters...oh well...it will turn into tan, right? Today is our last day in Trinidad. We are going to visit some more people and do a little more shopping. Tomorrow morning we will fly to Guyana...a whole new adventure.

Trip Beginnings

This post will not be too detailed and will not include pictures, but just wanted to keep you posted on what we've been doing.

We arrived safely in Trinidad on Saturday evening. The flights were very enjoyable and didn't seem too long. We were unable to get the rental car that we were assured we were going to get because Ben is younger than 25. Lame. But it has been AWESOME so far. We got a taxi to our hotel and Maheas was our very nice driver. Most all of the cars look brand new and sweet. The driver sits on the right side and drives on the left side of the road. Maybe its a good thing we aren't attempting to drive because it is pretty much crazy out there. Maheas picked us up Sunday morning to take us down to Chaguanas for church. We will post more about our church experience later....it was SO COOL! The Lakans took us in for lunch and Maura had Trini food for the first time. DELICIOUS! We did a little religious sight-seeing as well (more to come).

This morning Sis. Lakan made us sowine, they call it a porridge....noodle things in sweet milk with cinamon type spices. YUM!!! Last night we snacked on some spiced chauna. Today we have been walking the streets of downtown chaguanas being immersed in the culture. We are taking a break at an internet cafe right now. We are planning on going to a "doubles" stand for lunch and then visiting some friends of Ben's. We are hoping to make it out to the beach Tues. and Wed. Today is very warm and humid and rainy. We like it....a lot. In fact, we've decided we're not coming home. So keep looking at our blog to see our life in Trinidad. :) haha.

Maybe we chose the wrong Dentist..........

So Maura and I went to the dentist today for our checkups and cleanings. I have grown to tolerate these checkups over the years. No one really enjoys to listen to your dentist chastise you for not flossing everyday or reteach you how to brush (that one bugs me the most.) In any case, I knew that these checkups need to be done, so we did it. Well, I am regretting that decision now.........

Let me explain the scene for you. So..... I drive up to this apartment complex in provo that has a sign for a dental office on the bottom floor. Fair enough, they are a modest joint. I walk in to find that I could see the entire dentist office from the front door....even the patrens having their teeth worked on. That definetly bugged me a little, but I am not one to back down, and I had already made the appointments, so I stepped two feet from the front door to the front desk. Immediately I had an urge to use the restroom. I asked where the restroom was and the receptionist pointed behind me and said "down the hall on the left." Well, I turned around and almost ran into the bathroom door! Yah....down the hall....What hall? After using the bathroom/closet space...I proceed to the chair, in an open room, to have my teeth cleaned. I was met by an overzelous recent graduate of the BYU dental program. She talked like she knew what she was doing so I was ok with being worked on only 6 ft from the receptionist desk. (I'm not kidding!)

Over the next 45 min., I continually cursed in my head for ever even calling this place! At the very beginning, she stuck something in my mouth that I had never seen before. It was a super scraper that squirted out a solution that was basically salt water. I tried my best not to gag or cry as she gouged my gums till blood was running out the sides of my mouth! Only five minutes had gone by at this point..... I then got talked to like I was five years old...she proceed to chastise me for not using a "soft tooth" brush and that my medium tooth brush was "ruining" my gums! I then was re-taught how to brush my teeth! lame......I was then told that I probably had a high fever when I was kid, because my bottom teeth were grown in all weird. Thanks, I said.

Anyways, she finally stopped scraping me with this nasty salt shooting thing... I can still taste the salt in my mouth. During this time, she asked me every five seconds if I was Ok. You'd think that the twitches and horrified looks gave it away that I was NOT even close to being ok. After this brutal attack on my teeth, she then used that standard scraper thing. Somehow, she made sure that the scraper thing was a painful experience as well. By this time, my nerves were shot and I wished that Maura was there to take me away. The dental hygenist said that the visit was almost over and that all she had to do was floss my teeth and polish them before the doctor took a look at my teeth. What a relief I thought........WRONG! Wrong ! WRONG!

I have never been more humiliated and violated in my life.

She proceed to shove this floss down to the roots of my teeth till blood filled my mouth. Oh yah, she made me hold up a mirror up so I can see her torture my gums. It was sick! I could see blood squirting out of gums. She kept saying, "don't worry, after a week of flossing like this, your gums will build resilience and won't bleed." DUH! That cause by then I will have bled to death!
Man, after that flossing, my teeth hurt so bad. Thankfully the doctor came in soon after. He was like an angel in the day light. The "evil" dental hygienist stepped away, and the gentle doctor took a look inside my mouth. He was so gentle and nice the entire time. After that, my turn was up and Maura was ready to take the hot seat. I couldn't bear to watch....to make a long story short, she came home and could barely move her mouth. We tried to eat some string cheese, but it was too painful to chew....String cheese....after ONLY a cleaning! COME ON! They asked us when we wanted to set up return appointments......I began to hear the cursing again in my head. No Thanks, I said. Now it is late tonight and Maura and I are now enjoying solid food again.....

Oh, one more thing.... Poor Maura had a Typhoid shot as well in her arm almost immediately following the dentist. She has been incapacitated this whole evening. Poor thing!

Graduation, Trips, and MORE...

Wow! I really need to update this thing! So, I'm finished with my student teaching! My first block of student teaching was in a 1st grade classroom and my second block was in a music classroom for K-6 music classes. I loved EVERY MINUTE of it!! Then April came and I had NO finals! YAY! My parents came down from WA and my Grandparents came up from St. George to see me walk across the stage in a blue cap and gown and pink tassel dangling off of my cap.
It took me five years to get my Bachelor of Music with a dual certification. I can now teach an elementary school classroom or an elementary music classroom!
Ben has been very supportive through it all. We still have another 2 years until Ben gets to wear the awesome cap and gown...so another while in Provo!

Graduation was awesome! Commencement was in the Marriot Center. President Uchtdorf received an honorary degree and addressed us! Elder Nelson also spoke. Both gave very uplifting and inspiring speeches. This is why I LOVE BYU!! I got to learn at the feet of the Prophets and Apostles of the Lord all the time! For convocation for the school of music, we were priviledged to learn from Elder Oaks! I was sitting directly behind him on stage (with one person in between). I could have leaned over and touched him if I wanted! It was a very cool experience.
So, After graduation, and even before, I was feeling somewhat "lost" as to what to do with my life. The only logical thing to do was to apply for teaching jobs and teach! But I didn't really know whether I wanted to jump right into teaching...I wanted to explore my options. Well, after exploring, an opportunity basically just fell into my lap...so I am going to....TEACH! I got offered a job at Amelia Earhart Elementary School in Provo as the music specialist! I had an interview with 4 principals at once and less than two hours later, I had a job offer. One interview= job! Hooray! So I start sometime in August. Until then, I'm just relaxing and taking it easy this summer!

After graduation Ben and I drove up to WA to visit our families and help them out with some house work. It was nice to see so much family within 2 weeks! Ben and I celebrated our 1year anniversary in the car on May 3rd driving back to UT from WA. But we were able to make a visit to "our" spot back home on the waterfront!We are gearing up for our trip to the Carribean in about 2 weeks! AHH! We are so excited! The day we get back is the first day of InterMuse...a summer workshop program I am attending to get more music teaching credits/certification. It lasts two weeks and is intensive 8am to 6pm classes everyday! I will be SO EXHAUSTED after the trip and this conference...but then I can just CHILLAX the rest of the summer until I start working!

All in all...Ben and I are LOVIN' life and soaking it all up!