A Mission for Our Church: Leaving Turks and Caicos

I know this is a l-o-n-g letter. If you don’t have time to read it, enjoy the pictures. Just had so much to say. I know I left a lot out because I have not written in a while..... and so much going on.

Leaving

Sitting in the Turks and Caicos Airport waiting. The flight was 1 1/2 hours late. (Why would anything be different as we leave this island?) It has been almost 2 weeks since I wrote in my journal so I know I will forget so many important things. We have known for over two months that we would probably be leaving here and going to Jamaica. Every week for the last 5 weeks, the mission office has said it would only be a week or two. We were asked not to say anything and to just be patient while they got all the immigration paperwork done so we could go into Jamaica legally. So we did not start a new English class, or push any of the programs that we knew would not continue when we left. It has been hard waiting and not knowing. We really did not know for SURE until yesterday when they called and told us they had reservations. For about 3 days they said we would leave this weekend........

Chaloutte

Chaloutte is a Haitian man (probably in his 40’s). His wife and two children live in Haiti and he is here trying to earn money to send home. He has not had any work that I know of. Sometimes he has been without food for several days before he would come and talk to the missionaries and we would get him a little bit to hold him over until the branch president could get him more. He has been a member for about 4 months and is so faithful. He is at church every week, always there to help clean the church, comes to all family nights, institute, and volleyball. Just a very nice person.....one I want to remember. When he found out we were going, he got in our car and just cried like a baby. I am not sure if he was crying because he loves us or if he is just worried about food. He has called several times to say good-bye. He is a good man. The Haitian people we have met are so humble....easily entreated.

Fast and Testimony Meeting

Sunday the branch president asked Mike and I to bear our testimonies as it would be our last time there. The emotions were so strong. One young (23 year old) man broke down and could not finish his testimony because his feelings were so overwhelming. He has not always been real active...mostly because he lives so far away from the church and has no way to get there. He is planning on going on a mission soon and we are so excited for him. He will be the first missionary sent from Turks and Caicos! We have seen so much change and will worry about each of them as we worry about our own family.

Hit and Run

This island has been a series of emotional events....both bad and good. I know the good outweighs all, and in the end that is all I remember, but that does not erase the emotion in the bad times. Thursday, September 30, we were driving and a man tried to pass. Seeing the oncoming car he cut back into our lane scraping our front right panel. His car actually got the worst end of it. Mike tried to follow him, blinking his lights to get him to stop. We followed him until we had the license plate number, make of car, etc., then we just let him go. After all, what were we going to do? Anyway, we filed a police report. They do not have an accurate registration system so there is no real way to find the car. Chalk it up to one last experience on the island! Oops...have to add one more little irritant. After the car accident we went to get money out of the bank and my debit card won’t work...says there is no record of my card on file. I know it is just some little glitch, but the frustration of being in a foreign country without access to our money in the bank is a little scary. I am sure it will work out....just one more thing!

Cleaning the House

Even though we have stayed in this little tiny cottage, I guess I forgot how much work it is to clean a years worth of dirt. Thought I had it all organized and laid out, but in the end, we were rushed but got it all done. I think every muscle I have is sore. I hate this getting old thing..........

Elders

It was really hard to leave them. On this little island we get pretty close to the Elders. I know they love us and will miss us and the meals we provide.....but they were so excited to get our car when we left, that it outweighed any bad for them. They have been on foot for months, and to get a car is very exciting for them. I think it will help the missionary work. Elder Johnson is a Jamaican .....great missionary, only a member for about 4 years, very dedicated, can’t wait to see him again before we leave. Elder Packard, from Colorado, a hard worker, learning Creole, smart. We will miss him too. We have worked with some of the greatest elders in the church.

One by one

This is a church of individual members, each important, each unique. Claude is ready to go to the temple. He took the temple prep class (from Mike). He is leaving for Haiti to go to school and wants to go to the temple before he lives again in Haiti. He said it is very hard there and he needs the blessings of the temple. To go to the temple for the first time, one must be interviewed by the Stake President (if one lives in a stake) or the mission president (if you live in a mission, like here). President Hendricks made a special trip to Turks and Caicos from Jamaica, to conduct an interview so he could have a recommend before he left. That in and of itself is amazing. When we knew the president was coming we arranged for a Priesthood Leadership Training meeting with him. We called around and visited for two weeks to make sure all the men knew about it and arranged their schedules to come. Well there was a storm and he did not make it on the island until about 10 PM that night....3 hours after the priesthood training session began. Thank goodness President Ockey came from Bahamas for the meeting, and they were able to carry on without the president. We had Claude wait at the church, after the meeting, until the president arrived. We took President Hendricks to the church where he had a wonderful interview with Claude. Then we took him to the motel by about 11:30PM. Then picked them us at 6:20 the next morning to get on the flight to leave. I don’t know if we can blame everything bad in this life on Satan, but I do think that he is very sad that Claude wants the temple blessings so bad.

Relief Society

They had a Relief Society meeting the other night to tell me good-bye. It was the perfect blend of talking, eating and visiting. No matter where in the world you go, you will find women who love to visit and who need each other. We laughed and cried as we watched pictures of our mission and remembered this last year. I can’t imagine that I will ever love a group of people (other than my children and family) like I have loved them. When I think of the heat, the work, the meetings, the frustrations, they all melt away knowing of these eternal bonds.

Out to dinner

A tourist couple from Indiana was here last week and took us and the elders out to eat. Their last name is Rockwood and he is the stake president of the Cincinnati, Ohio Stake. They are wonderful people and we such a delightful time with them. So smart, we learned so much from them (She went to Harvard!) . We have met so many wonderful people that come as tourist and leave a mark on our island, and on me personally.

Scorpion

Thursday I had a bowl of sudsy water in the kitchen sink and I looked among the dishes in the sink and there was a scorpion trying to get out of the sink. It was about 3”long. I wish I had the presence of mind to get a camera.... but I just screamed. Elder Herbert was not there to “save” me, so I had to kill it all by myself. Was so afraid to turn anything over or to do any more dishes for a while. I think it must of crawled up the drain.

We love you all so very much. Elder and Sister Herbert

Pictures 1 and 2 are more members and their homes in the bushes