THE CALL

This week, one of our favorite people in the whole wide world, received his mission call from 50 East North Temple Street in Salt Lake City, Utah.  This call was personally signed by the Prophet of the Lord, Thomas S. Monson.  Ryan Stanisclaus was called to serve in the Dominican Republic, Santiago Mission and leaves on December 3rd.  Having been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for less than a year, his testimony of the gospel is in the beginning stages, but it is strong, and he has great faith that what he is doing is right.  He knows that he will be in the service of the most important Master of all.

The wonderful Sister Kiersten Cragun, who taught Ryan and his friends about the restored gospel over a year ago (and has finished her mission), was present with us, via FaceTime, when Ryan opened his mission call.  This was an emotional time for her.  Needless to say, there was plenty of love in the room!!!!  

The choicest experiences we have as missionaries are the interpersonal relationships between other missionaries and the people we teach.  The result of these blessings are eternal friendships.

Both of our missionaries from the St. Georges Branch in Grenada, Michael and Ryan, will serve in the Dominican Republic.  They will have challenges, but as they press forward with steadfast faith in Christ, there will come into their lives extraordinary spiritual experiences, a flow of confidence, courage and power to overcome, a knowledge that God is with them and that they cannot fail with God on their side.

God has sent them to do His work.  They will be part of the greatest missionary effort that the world has ever seen, to this point of time.  THE FORCE!

HERE'S THE REST OF OUR WEEK

Monday, for P-Day, we took the missionaries out to Hog Island again.  We all love it there!

Can't ever have too much water to drink in this hot country!

Dominoes with Elders Dearing, Wilson, Ramdhanie and Matthew (who is investigating our church)

Sister Grigg having a race with Jemin on the beach

Cecilia braiding Sister Grigg's hair

Roger teaching Sister Smith how to fish with a PVC pipe and fishing line

Chillaxing with Ryan and Elder Witten

Oil down cooked and served up by the experts

Matthew

Cleaning up at the end of the day, Elder Smith and Ricky

This is one gigantic lobster!!

Elders Wilson and Pierson on trade-offs in Gouyave

Elder Wilson in the Gouyave meeting place

Elders Dearing and Ramdhanie

Elders Leany and Witten on trade-offs

Sisters Smith and Grigg

Elders Dearing and Ramdhanie

Our Humanitarian Missionaries, Elder and Sister Moore, came over from Barbados to help us with our Humanitarian Project.

We have been working for well over a year on a hospital bed project for the government of Grenada.

Thursday, we were able to formally present the beds to the hospital with the Ministries of Health in attendance.  Brother Willoughby Branch gave a short speech on why the church does these projects and how we obtain the funds from church members all over the world.  These are sacred funds used for the Lord's work to help those in need.  Ann David-Antoine has been very instrumental in helping us with this project for the government.

Ms. Moleste accepting the donation

We took a tour of Fort George with the Moores.  The sturdy fort was built in 1706 and is still very intact today

There are doors left where they had fallen off their hinges and the stairs were worn from years of footsteps.

Remnants of hurricane Ivan are still very visible

To look out over the ocean from where these cannons sit and try to picture in our minds what the men, back in the day, saw, is amazing 

It was sobering to stand in front of the wall where 17 government officials were shot in 1983 when Cuba invaded.  Those shot included the Prime Minister of Grenada.  The bullet holes are still very visible.

Later in the day, we took the Moores to visit Ricky's garden.  The Moores are fascinated with gardening......

............and Elder Moore also has a fascination with wood.  He purchased one of Ricky's walking sticks (Ricky's Stix) to take home with him.

We like this picture of us on the stripped couch, so we just stuck it into the blog this week!  Ha!!!

Roger took us out night fishing.  This was the picture of the horizon just before dark.  Gorgeous!

We've been trying to think of ways to help our Grenadian friends earn a living, thus helping them be better prepared members of the church, which will help grow the church in Grenada.

We suggested a plan to Ricky...... of forming a business doing something he loves, namely fishing, hiking, cooking and spending time in and around the water at Hog Island.  Ricky and the other boys have taken the missionaries to Hog Island numerous times, so why not make it into a business?  Ricky's nickname is TROOPER, so he is now the owner of TROOPER'S GRENADIAN ADVENTURE!

Trooper enlisted the help of Roger, Andy, Ryan, "Legs", and Jemin

We did some advertising and shortly thereafter Ricky received his first call for a tour.  The boys took their first group out for a hiking, snorkeling, Grenadian culinary adventure Saturday morning for 6 hours

Roger and Andy headed over to Hog Island with supplies in the boat for the adventure

After doing some spear fishing and snorkeling, Trooper lead the group over to a different part of the island where the catch of the day will be served for lunch

Ryan

A squid was caught, to the delight of the tour group.  This fellow is kissing a squid.  OK....

Cooking up lobster and conch (or "lambie", as they call it in Grenada) which was caught that morning

Jemin showing off a squid

Roger captured an iguana!!!  What luck!  The boys will eat him another time!!!

Jason "Legs" with a squid on a speargun

Roger and Andy with their pot full of Lambie, green bananas, okra and dumplings

Ricky cleaning the fish

The guests absolutely loved their food

And were extremely satisfied with Trooper's Grenadian Adventure

IT WAS A SUCCESS!

Sister Kiersten Cragun challenged the boys and us to the "ALS ice bucket challenge".  We had to get the missionaries to help us out with the drenching!

Pretty cool!!!!!

WHAT A WEEK!

We had transfer calls yesterday and we will lose 3 missionaries on Wednesday.  This is always a difficult thing for us to do!!!! BUT, we will get 3 new missionaries to get to know and love!