English Class

Dear Family and Friends,

English Class

Every Tuesday and Thursday I teach an English class for 1 hour. Elder Herbert has started coming and he makes for a lot of fun in class. I teach the same rules of reading and writing that we taught in elementary school. (Mike always walks in my class and corrects my spelling/grammer, the same as he did at Homestead). However many of the dialogues and readings we study are not about Dick and Jane....but about Joseph Smith, Nephi, etc. We started with 3 or 4 men but the word has spread. Last week we had 30....27 men and 3 women. After class on Tuesday we hold a Family Home Evening with a lesson, game, and refreshments. Thursday night is Institute where there is a lesson in Creole with and excellent teacher. So the English students usually stay for one of the gospel centered classes. This has been a great tool for the missionaries as they have several in their teaching pool. I think some started coming just for the English class, then stay and are interested in the gospel. This has become the favorite part of my week. Last week as I looked at each of them, I felt the love the Savior has for each. There is no way I can describe my joy being around these humble, sweet people. I am not sure I will ever understand (at least not in this life) how it is fair for some of us to have so much and for others to have so little. But I do feel the Savior’s love and peace here.....amist all the trouble and poverty.

Visiting

The missionaries came with us to visit the other day. We had a wonderful few hours....lots of fun and jokes.....but NOT ONE person found home. It was an interesting day. Our jokes became, “Well, we found where he isn’t.....so that is not a failure.” Many Haitians return to Haiti, or find work somewhere else and it becomes difficult to find them. Most do not have addresses or a permanent residence. So if they do not want to be found, it is easy for them to become lost. One convert even returned to his old profession as a preacher. We have looked and looked for him but to no avail. We know he is still on the island, but not living where he lived before. Transportation to church meetings is a major problem here. Others who know more than I say it is the same problem in all the Caribbean.

Christmas Party....Oh Help!

We were warned....but did not understand how it could be. We have about 60 people in our branch....only about 12 women. People worked all day Friday to cook. ( Ham, Turkey, chicken, lots potato salad, Creole rice). So we stopped counting at well over 100 people who showed up. I felt like I was in the middle of one of those news reports where they are passing out food for starving people.....and the people are going crazy. All part of a learning curve. Then this AM there were about 10 men there to clean it all up. If the Lord calls on me (which I know He does not need me to help HIm) to speak for these humble, sweet members, I will have nothing but good to say.

Mada’s Baptism

It was so fun. She was excited and happy. She and others like her are what make this wonderful experience. When I first met her, she cried every time we talked. For the last two weeks she has smiled and laughed and sang. I know her circumstances have not changed but her heart has changed. I think because she is my age, we have become great friends. Her husband came to Mike during the baptism and said he would tell Mike when he was ready. We so desperately need families in our little branch. At this point her husband works only one day and week...and that is on Sunday. They need the money so badly that it makes it very hard for him to decide to give that up. He is a good man.

Neighbors:

Our cute British neighbors had a huge Christmas Party last night. They invited us up to join them but we were at our own party and did not get home until late. They were so cute about including us. They had several very important people (high rollers) there and there was a DJ...lots of loud music.... decorated to the hilt. This has been a very multicultural experience. Our neighbors include British, Canadaians, Italians, French, those from the Island, and of course, Haitians.

Mike’s Driver’s license... lessons of frustration

Experience #1.... Registering the car.... I can’t tell you how many trips to the Dept of Motor Safety to get this done. Finally and only with the help of a local member, it is legal to take it on the roads

Experience #2

Mike needs to have a local driver’s license. He has made no less than 10 trips to accomplish the task. The computers are down, their copy machines aren’t working, he needs cash and only has a credit card, needs to go to a different office to pay the fees, etc, etc. It took three trips for them to figure out Alaska was part of the United States...so he had to have special signature in order to proceed. Finally after all the running around and days of returning to visit our new (and becoming very well acquainted) friends, after paying the standard $125.00, he has to come back in two weeks to pick it up.

I won’t even go into what is taking for me to get a driver’s license here. For one thing, there is no road manual on this whole island for me to study......I have to pay to take each test....and if I fail...I have to pay to take it again.....

Christmas....

I hope your are all ready for Christmas. We love each of you so much. Thanks for all your influence in our lives and the lives of our children. We have so much to be grateful for, not the least of which is our friends and family. We are so thankful for the Savior and this sacred time to celebrate His birth.

Love to each of you,

Elder and Sister Herbert

Mom and Dad

Papa and Monga...etc..etc...

PS. As for us, we plan of snorkeling on Christmas Day. Eat your heart out, Alaskans.

Knocking the Computer

Last week in Primary a child knocked my computer off on to the hard tile floor. I was sure my nice new computer was ruined. It is dented but seems to work fine. I don’t know what we would do without it. I keep everything on it....from English to Primary, from who we have visited and who we need to visit to our finaces. It would have been very difficult without it. I know it is just a thing.....

Well the floor is clean, all the bedding is washed, the dresser is clean, most of the borrowed things are returned and the house is quiet. Way too quiet. Erin and the girls left this afternoon and it is amazing the hole that is here when they are gone. They filled our lives while they were here. Although I have to admit I am looking forward to sleeping in until 6:30 tomorrow morning. Perhaps now we will concentrate on more missionary work.

The people here loved Erin and the girls (some of the men wanted Erin to give them her picture and we had to make sure they understood she was happily married everywhere we went). I think Erin and the girls were influential in Mada telling us she is ready to be baptized. Mada is a lady, about my age, who has had such a hard time and I think Leah brought life that she had not had for a while. Every time Leah would see Mada, she would run to her, yelling, “Mada, Mada,” and run into her arms. Mada loved our visits with Leah. We have been after her to commit to baptism for the months we have been here. Yesterday, she came up with it all by herself. When asked if she was sure, she started crying. Even Lucien, her husband, promised to come to the Christmas party. We told him he really needed to take the lessons so he would understand what she was doing. Her only child, a 28 year old daughter died last year and she was not able to go home to Haiti for her funeral. This has enveloped her life for the last year and I don’t think she has felt much hope. I have tried to explain that her daughter is learning about the gospel in heaven and that she is waiting to have her baptism ordinance done also. I am not sure Mada understands that yet.

The branch president called tonight and asked if I would speak in church tomorrow. This is the third time I have spoken in Sacrament meeting since we came. (Does that show they are hard up for speakers?!) I read several talks about Christmas and still have not a clue what I will talk about. I should be working on that. One would think it would not be so hard.....to come up with a talk. We love the people so much and they are so teachable. It is important not to waste time with fluff. They need to be taught solid doctrine.....and then taught to have the faith to live it.

Almost daily, someone will see my name tag and stop me on the street and ask me about the church. How wonderful to be in a place where people are searching to find Christ. We love wearing the name of our church over our hearts. I guess we should live so that we don’t need a name tag, but that our countenance would show who we serve all the time.

Walking up to see Mada

Mada , Lucien, Leah and Abby.

Uneventful Christmas

Christmas was fairly uneventful. We did manage to get to the beach for pictures on Christmas day. It was a little windy to actually go snorkeling as we had planned....but it made a good background for our Christmas memory. The elders were at the church waiting for phone calls a lot of the day. They used our computer and Skype to see their family as they talked. They were so excited to talk to family and it was hard when their time to talk was over. They had looked forward to it for so long and then it was time to go back to work. We actually went to the movie on Christmas night,with a friend from the ward and her husband. Sherlock Holmes was funny but I’m not sure it reflected my feelings for the Savior on that special day. We missed our dear family and friends (which would have livened the day for us), but as we visited and thought of our Haitian friends here who have no family, or even means to reach family, during this holiday season, it put so much in perspective. We went with the elders caroling before Christmas day. Many thought it was very weird, never having seen it before. But we had a lot of fun passing around treats and acting silly. The elders always add a touch of life to any activity.

Well the year is just about over and it is a time reflect on accomplishments for the old year and desires for the new. We taught several lessons about the new year.... in church, Family Night, and then again in English. It was fun to watch them listen and go through the process of making goals, writing them down, and committing to make things happen. We are going to our neighbors for dinner on New Year’s Day. They have become such good friends. She did tell me that her husband was worried that I would convert her. I told her I would only talk to her about the church if she were interested..... Now, how do I get her interested?

English class was up to 40 men this week....and one woman. Crazy. Because the group is so big now, I am worried that it is less effective. The span of their expertise is so wide. I don’t have a way to really reach and help them. I have no real curriculum and no means (like tests and grades) to make them accountable. It seems like it is more me entertaining them for an hour. I need to think this through and decide if it is filling it’s purpose.

There is this American guy who runs by the church every day. The elders have called him Brad Pitt.....because he does look something like him. Anyway he has spoken to the elders several times, even offering them a ride once. When I asked why they have never spoken to him about the church, they said they just never really had an opportunity. Well the other day, Mike slowed down our car and talked to him as he ran. Turns out his name is Mike O’Brian. Very nice guy....not LDS, but went to BYU. He said he would come to church some time. I hope he does. He is actually moving back to the states soon.

Love all of you so much.
Elder and Sister Herbert
Mike and Bonnie
Mom and Dad....etc