Awesome Experience, Special Day - July 18, 2009

Yes, we are a motley crew, but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Nevis are growing! Today, the newest member of our branch was baptized. I'm proud to say that it was my good friend and neighbor Mickey Singh. It all happened this morning at Pinney's Beach, on Saturday, July 18, 2009 at around 8 a.m. Mickey asked me to baptize him. I was sincerely humbled and honored. I love Mickey like a brother, and I know that we will be life long friends.

Pictured here at the far left is Sister Allen, the Relief Society President, next to her is her adorable grand-daughter Alecia, but she likes to go by Leesy, behind her is the hamburger loving Elder Dixon from Longview, Texas, then in the middle is Mickey, and Elder Ted Murdock from Salt Lake City Utah is behind him, and I'm next to Mickey, then the Beautiful Sister Murdock is next to me, and then stoic Elder Hadley from California / Utah is at the far right. Becky and Mia are taking the pictures.

Here is a picture of Elder Dixon, Micky, Me, and Elder Hadley...notice the sailboats in the background...it was a beautiful morning. (Nice shot Becky! xoxoo)

Here are some more shots of me and Mickey.

I'll have to say that the gospel of Jesus Christ has brought so much happiness into my life. Because of it I have a wonderful marriage, a beautiful daughter, and I get to associate with some of the best people in the world. When I was pondering all that I have to be grateful for, and seeing the hand of Heavenly Father in my life, and in the life of my family and friends, I became a bit emotional and realized that my cup of joy has been overfilled.

I really hope that all of my friends, and family, and those that I have associated with will know that I am proud to say that I am a practicing Latter-Day Saint...maybe I need to practice a little harder at times, but I am proud to say that I am a Mormon. I hold my testimony dear to my heart. I want you all to know, that I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, and that we have a true and living prophet on the earth today in President Thomas S. Monson. I know that Jesus Christ lives, and that He atoned for our sins. The gospel of Jesus Christ has brought so much true happiness in my life, and I know that true happiness, really true happiness, is found only in living the principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I hope you all check it out.

love,
Dave

I've got the Powah!!!

I have learned to thank God for the little things in life. I was reading through a 6 month old Parent's magazine the other day, and saw some coupons in it. Oh, how I miss coupons. They became an addiction for me. I got so good towards the end of living in the U.S. that I could get all of our bathroom stuff for nothing (i.e. toothpaste for free...$10 for $10 sale at Fry's, with a .75 coupon that they double up to a dollar = free... which costs $7 US here). I know it doesn't sound like much, but it sure adds up. And when you're saving $80, $100, $150 a month, it's big time! Anywho, I'll stop with the nostalgia now.
Back to the little things. Like running water, electricity, coupons, decent grocery stores, a mall, a movie theater, fast food, driving on the right side of the road...oh wait, I meant the little things. Let's just take electricity and running water for now.
Sunday night at about 8:30, the power went out. Not unusual for Nevis. It usually goes out at least 4-6 times a month, and stays off for anywhere between 5 minutes and at the most 4 hours. Up until this point, I haven't been too affected by it really. So when it went out on Sunday, I was bummed, but not annoyed really. Dave and I have decided that Sunday night will be our game night. We never really see each other anymore, so we thought that this would be a fun bonding activity. We were just beginning to play Uno when we lost power. Of course I get grumpy and complain saying that using a flashlight won't work because I wouldn't be able to see the colors. Dave gives me a hard time for this, so I sucked it up and played. Wouldn't you know that not five minutes later, he's putting greens on blues saying he can't see the colors. Hummm....
So we play for a bit, and no power. We decide to go to bed, still no power. Now the room is getting stuffy and hot. So we open the window and try to get comfortable. As mentioned in previous posts, Dave is the craziest sleeper...with A/C. Take that away, and it's worse. Way worse. By 10:00 he's thrashing and complaining, and finally decides to lay on the tile floor to cool himself down. Have at it.
11:00 pm. Listening to Dave move around the tile trying to find a cooler spot to sleep. It's really starting to burn up in here.
1:00 am. Still no power, and completely silent. Starting to stress about all the food in the freezer/refrigerator spoiling.
3:00 am. Starting to understand why we were told that living here is like glorified camping.
5:00 am. Shocked (and grateful) that Mia slept through this. Still no power.
6:00 am. Alarm...good thing we have battery clocks and alarms everywhere. Still no power.

So Dave heads off to school completely tired and worn out, and I'm here in this lovely stale house with no power. I don't want to open the freezer because we just bought $150 US worth of meat from the meat guy (DUMB thing to do during Hurricane season....), and I just know we've lost it all. After rescuing Mia from touching a "I don't know if it's poisonous caterpillar" inching across the floor and then stepping on a cockroach and losing it in the dark creepy corners I can't see with no lights on, we ran out of the house and headed over to my friend Brook's house. She has two little boys and we just sat and laughed about this whole thing. She has a pool, so that was perfect. We cooled down, kept checking to see if the power was on, put the kids down for naps, swam some more, and then headed home when our hubbies returned from school.

Still no power. By 6:00 pm (almost 22 hours without power and counting), we were ready to head for the hills. I was done. We started calling all of the hotels on the island (they have generators), trying to find a room. We made a reservation, packed a bag...DAVE EVEN PACKED HIS OWN STUFF, and started heading out the door.
Power finally goes back on. Maybe we should have headed for the hotel the night before and it would have gone on. Hum. I timidly opened the freezer to check on everything, and unbelievably it was still all frozen. We hadn't opened it once, and we keep tons of ice in there, which had started melting, but kept everything else frozen. So lucky.
Oh ya...the water went out too. Why you ask? Because it's pumped electrically. Smart. I'll leave it at that.

Morals to the story...
1. Don't buy meat in bulk during hurricane season on a tropical island.
2. Do keep lots of ice at all times in your freezer.
3. Don't open your freezer/fridge at all when power is out, you don't know how long it will be out.
4. Be prepared. Have a healthy water supply.
5. Have non-perishable food that only needs water added to eat.
6. Hope and pray that your husband passes and we can get home soon.
7. Be GRATEFUL FOR THE LITTLE THINGS!