Cooler?

It seems cooler this evening. It is only 86º.....and there is a nice breeze. We are slowly.....very slowly getting to meet with some of the members. It is harder to meet with the men because so many speak Creole and no English. I get real upset with “down” time. I think we ought to be trying to meet with people all the time. I feel especially bad because the elders have people to teach all over the island and they don’t have a car. We have access to a car and it seems it sits a lot.

We went to try and find two people who Lex Olerenshaw told us to contact. One was not interested but said she might be willing to come and teach a basic class on genealogy. She is not a member but works on the church genealogy web page. She is a genealogy buff and had such a hard time finding names for people on the island. But it started her actually working to put names in. (Spirit of Elijah!)

We took Claude to the Bishopric meeting tonight. We like him so much. He always has questions. He loves the church and wants to do everything right. We are taking the missionaries over to Claude’s friend’s house tomorrow. He would like to go to church Sunday....but he needs a ride. Hopefully, some time soon, more will be able to help with rides.

OK....MIKE.... There is this little gray, stray, cat. (There are stray cats all over the island.) I guess some neighbors, who left, were feeding it. I told him about the cat and he said, “We can’t feed one cat or there will be cats all over expecting to be fed.” I said nothing. OK, Stop the story! I know anyone who knows Mike will know what happens next. The next night there was a small bowl of milk out on the deck, the gray cat eating with great joy. The next hour, Mike runs to the store to get food. We put one bowl out and a little calico comes begging, to which Mike runs for another bowl. Well this AM there is a new black cat on the deck and there are three bowls of food. I am sure they will tell all their friends. I asked Mike what we would do if more came. He just smirked. Fridaynight.....Update....there were 7 cats feeding on our back deck this evening.

Mike had a Branch Presidency Meeting tonight. Mike was teaching them about agendas. One of the men stopped and said, “You are my father. You are my teacher.” The first day we were here, the same man told Mike that they had been praying for us to come before we ever heard about the Turks and Caicos Islands. We have felt loved and appreciated before they even knew us.

I was talking to a few non-member ladies about coming to church. One of them said, “Do you want me to come to your church every Sunday?” I said, “Yes, every Sunday.” She said, “ OK, then I will. I want to go to a church where somebody cares about me.” (We will see if she really comes.) I think that is the way with so many of us in this world. We want to be where people care about us.