Mango Mango Mango

Fresh fruit and vegetable stands are all over St. Lucia, selling everything from the strange bread fruit & Dasheen to tomatoes. With all the variety we have become especially fond of mango's! When we first arrived here, we thought that because of the climate, mango's would be in season all year long and we were in heaven! But then came December and every where we went to buy mango's the little ladies would say, "It Finish", which means there are no more mango's! Well that lasted for a couple of months and now there are mango's everywhere again, only these mango's are a different kind and not nearly as delicious as those we enjoyed last May. We are anxiously awaiting the new crop of Mango Poi's, the best and are very much looking forward to May!

Licia JnPaul

Last December 19 year old Licia JnPaul was baptized. As we taught her about the church she soaked it all up and couldn't get enough! 5 months later she is serving as 1st Counselor in the Young Women and she is still on fire! Doing whatever she is asked to do and doing it better than you can even imagine! When she speaks in Sacrament Meeting it is as if she has always been a member. She is bright and articulate and has an amazing understanding of the gospel. As I keep giving her more and more responsibilities, she takes the ball and rolls with it! Licia will graduate from college this year and plans to teach school in her home town of Soufrierre, but says she will take a bus to church every Sunday so she will be there to fulfill her calling! We love her with all our hearts and know that the future of the church lies in the hands of the amazing youth here like Licia JnPaul! How blessed we are to know and learn from Licia!

The Adelaide Home

Every other month we try and visit the Adelaide Home with the Castries Branch Youth. It is a retirement home just for ladies, and since we have been going for a while, we have become very attached to those sweet ladies! This time when we went, the Young Women painted their finger nails and they enjoyed that very much! After visiting with them, the Youth try and find out all they can about their lives. Then we all sing songs with them, they especially like "Amazing Grace", "How Great Thou Art", "You Are My Sunshine" & "He Has The Whole World in His Hands"!!! It's funny how universal those songs are. Then we always listen to the Ladies and our Youth sing their National Anthem, those sweet ladies stand right up, even though they can hardly stand at all! It is really touching to see them sing every word! They may not remember their name or their children's name, but they don't ever forget the words to those beloved songs! We give them all a treat as we leave, there is something about receiving a treat...you never get to old to enjoy it. As we leave, hugs and kisses are exchanged and a few tears are shed as they tell us not to wait too long before coming back!
On one of the walls in the Home has a large mural of a black Savior. Most everyone in St. Lucia is very religious! They believe in Jesus with all their hearts and soul, even in the grocery store Christian Music is playing loud and clear, and everyone is singing along with it!

Beginning our Blog! I am excited!

We have been serving in St. Lucia for almost a year. I have wanted to start a blog for sometime! So, here goes!!!

What has the mission done for me? It has made me appreciate clean straight streets! When we first got here I stayed car sick for weeks! The roads are very winding and narrow! But I have been very blessed to have almost gotten over the car sickness!
At first, we decided that we were going to clean up St. Lucia one street at a time! Well, we have become a little more realistic and now we just want to clean up the trash around Pigeon Island. We have had several youth service projects and filled countless trash bags and still the trash around Pigeon Island is just awful the day after we have cleaned it up. We have not given up
and will continue to pick up trash. But, now I will never pass a clean, straight road without noticing and being thankful!