May 23rd, 2016

Dear Family and friends,

We have just finished the final stop of our zone conference mission tour that ended in Guyana. Somehow, the last zone you visit, always seems to be the strongest conference presentation.....probably because you have learned so much from the other zones that have gone before. We spoke about the blessings of understanding the temple and it makes us miss the opportunity to attend. Dad did a powerpoint presentation that the missionaries really enjoyed...thanks to Marissa's help! We hope you are making time to attend the temple and gain a greater testimony of eternal families.

We have spent the last five days working with the missionaries, members and holding a multi-branch conference in the countryside of Berbice. The people of Guyana love the Lord and it is obvious when they pray and sing. We had a woman that sang an accapella solo to all of us as we departed the conference because she felt the spirit so strong. It was a gospel song of some sort and she sang every verse of "Sweet Jesus" until we all departed the chapel area. She was so cute! Everyone hugs and kisses each other and made us feel like we had been missed.  We had about 170 attend...some from 2 hours away. The majority of the members take transportation and obviously make great efforts to attend, as no one has a car. It is inspiring! 

We always see interesting things on the road to and from Berbice and this trip was no exception. Catfish for sale, piglets at play, flooded rice fields and a tiny little house that was beautifully painted and occupied by a sweet couple. Never a dull moment. 

We are headed back to Trinidad to have a week before new missionaries and departing missionaries say hello and goodbye. We lose another senior couple and that is always hard. The Avondet's have served in Guyana and Elder Avondet has been Dad's first counselor in the mission. They will be hard to replace! 

Thank you for your prayers and texts and emails. We couldn't do it without you all.

Love,

Trini and Dad

May 16th, 2016

Dear Family and friends,

Dad and I returned from the ABC islands last Monday, just in time to take care of a zone conference in Trinidad on Wednesday, and hop on a plane bound for Suriname Thursday evening. We have been in Paramaribo for the last 3 days enjoying zone conferences and interviews with our missionaries, meetings with members, teaching in the rain, and hopefully having one minute to eat a dutch pancake!

Right now, I am spending time in a classroom at the church trying to catch up on some emails while Dad is conducting temple recommend interviews.We have a leadership meeting and a fireside still to go before we head back to the hotel. The zone conferences have been on understanding the blessings of the temple and the missionaries seem to enjoy it. We hope they will realize how critical temple attendance is to their continued conversion, once they get home. Marissa taught us that!

It has been raining for the past two days and our bike riding missionaries are navigating large puddles as they proselyte. They are a great group of young people and have found out what it means to preach the word come "hell or high water!" Their bikes are halfway submerged! 

Today we went to church in a little branch in Koewarsan. It was in the country outside of Paramaribo. When we arrived at the church there was a box of kittens on the front doorstep. I think someone hoped the Primary would give a kitty to all the children who came. We did find homes for two, but there were still three when I left. It is hard to think about feeding animals when you can barely feed yourself. The people were so friendly and humble. Although it was in Dutch, I tried my best with Dad translating in one ear to understand what was going on. It was pretty funny when he started reading my English scriptures to me in English and said, "Do you understand what that means?" LOL :) 

We send our best wishes to all of you as you are wrapping up a school year soon and preparing for summer fun.

You are always in our thoughts and prayers,

Love,

Trini and Dad

May 3rd, 2016

Family and Friends

This week your mother flew east to Philadelphia to visit two more granddaughters, and I flew north to Tobago to visit missionaries and members.

Last June, when we arrived in Trinidad, it rained everyday and everything was green and tropical. The next week we visited Guyana and Suriname and both countries were flooded. Obviously, we had arrived in the rainy season. It continued to rain, but not as much for the next eight months, until the end of February and then nothing. No more rain, just sunshine. The Dry season had arrived .

In Utah, the leaves change color in the fall because of the longer and colder nights, but in the Caribbean the leaves don't change color, they just dry up, turn brown and fall off. This doesn't happen in September and October like in Utah, but in March and April. The temperature doesn't get colder here either. It is 85 degrees everyday, year round.

The mountains in Trinidad have been brown for the past two months since the trees lost their leaves do to the drought , except for the palm trees. Last week we noticed  that the mountains were turning bright yellow. Our neighbors told us that this is the sign that the rains are coming! The tree is called the Poui Tree which produces not a yellow leaf but thousands of yellow flowers at the end of the dry season.

When we talked with some students, they told us that it also indicates that it is time to take their final examinations. "When the Poui blossoms appear, exams are near" And now you know the rest of the story!

 

Enjoy the pictures of the yellow flowers of the Pouli Trees in the Caribbean.

 

April 26th, 2016

Dear Family and friends,

I am sure by now that you are aware that my companion, Sister Egbert, your mother, left last Friday to visit OUR new granddaughters in Utah and Philadelphia. A Mission Presidents wife is only allowed to leave a mission for family emergencies when approved by the Missionary Department in SLC. The Missionary Department decided that having THREE granddaughters born in such a short period of time would qualify. Mission Presidents, on the other hand, are not permitted to leave their mission for the three year period

Friday we both left for the airport, with mom going northwest to the United States while I went southeast to Guyana. Saturday and Sunday I presided over the semiannual Member District Conference in Georgetown, the capital city of Guyana. Both days were full of meetings with the leaders and members. This would be equivalent to a Stake Conference weekend. At the final Sunday session two of the speakers didn't come, so I had the opportunity to speak for  an hour as the concluding speaker.

Yesterday, I drove to Berbice which is the poorest area in our mission and definitely qualifies Guyana as a a third world country. It is located in the jungle area of the northeast coast of Guyana. During the day the 75 mile car drive from Georgetown to Berbice takes over two hours because of the poor road conditions and the animals on the road. Herds of sheep, cows, horses  and goats will just walk to the other side to eat, or just walk down the middle of the road for miles. Some will even lay down and sleep. If you drive at night it will take even longer because the roads are very dark and now you can't see the people, who are also very dark, as well as the many animals.

The pictures this week will allow you to get an idea as to the conditions in Guyana. You will see a portion of the Palm tree jungle, typical houses in the area and wild horses and cows wondering the roads. You will see Guyana's equivalent to our Home Depot . They too, will deliver to your home. Not with trucks however, but with horse drawn wagons.

Hopefully we can begin to appreciate how blessed we are . Our homes have electricity, running water (both hot and cold water), inside toilets instead of out houses, and enough food for our families so that we don't go to bed hungry. But even living in such a country,  these two sisters in the picture return home from school with smiles on their faces. The best clothes that they have are the required uniforms they wear at school. The last picture is where the girls live.

We love you all and appreciate your support and prayers. 

Trini and Dad

April 18th, 2016

Dear family and friends,

We enjoyed a wonderful week in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic at our semi-annual Mission President's Seminar that follows general conference. All eight mission president's and their wives were represented from different areas of the Caribbean. The Area presidency presented the message that they had received from the First Presidency. They emphasized the importance of temple attendance and developing a greater appreciation for our Heavenly Father and how to teach as Christ did. 

There are many challenges in this assignment and after talking to other president's and their wives it was comforting to know that we aren't the only ones in a "refiners fire!" We arrived in Santo Domingo early and were able to go to the temple and do initiatories, sealing and endowments. It felt great to be in the temple again!

But now we are back home with a week of missionary transfers. We have four arriving and seven going home. I have been busy cooking all day and Dad has made a couple of trips to the airport already. On Friday I am heading to snuggle some grandchildren and Dad will leave for Guyana and then to Tobago.

You are in our thoughts and prayers everyday,

Trini and Dad

April 13th, 2016

Dearest Family and friends,

Carlos, who lives in Curacao, was really struggling in life. He had been brought up in a beautiful home,where his mother was a physician and he had obtained an excellent education. But for Carlos, something was missing. He believed in a God but didn't have an understanding of who God was. He also believed in Jesus Christ as far as knowing that he came to earth to show us a way to live. Carlos became discouraged and eventually depressed.He didn't know what to do and felt like he had done so many things wrong in his life. One day he googled "How do I repent?". The first site up was lds.org, and he was soon connected to missionaries on Temple Square. He was touched by what he learned about the atonement of Jesus Christ and expressed to the missionaries his desire to learn more. Now the story gets even better. A referral was sent to our mission office in Trinidad which was immediately sent to our missionaries in Curacao. Within 2 hours of Carlos request to learn more, two Elders were at his front door. Two months later your Mother and I just were in Curacao for meetings and the missionaries told me that Carlos was ready for baptism and asked if I could complete the baptismal interview. We went to his home with the missionaries and met him personally for the first time.His grandmother was visiting from Cuba and your mother spoke to her with the help of the Elders who we're able to translate the Spanish and English. Mom told her that she would learn more Spanish if she would listen to what the elders were teaching her grandson. Her baptism was last Saturday and I was able to be there. The next day when she was confirmed her grandson Carlos received the Melchizedek priesthood. It was a great weekend. I wish Mom could have been with me but there was only one ticket left on the plane and I had to be at meetings so I left her in Trinidad. 

We hope you are all doing well and enjoying the Springtime weather. It is one constant summer here!

Love, Dad and Trini

April 7th, 2016

Dear Family and Friends

It was a wonderful week that came to an end to soon with Jon's family visit. We enjoyed Trinidad for a few days, taking in the beach at Las Cuevas, shark and bake (shark sandwiches with all the trimmings) and the Caroni Swamp Tour, which features the nightly return of the scarlet ibis to the mangrove islands of Trinidad. Jenny was also able to go out teaching with some of our sisters and get a feel for missionary work Trinistyle!

Then we hopped over to Tobago to enjoy conference with the elders and members there on Sunday. We were able to get most of the conference without too many glitches. It was a tremendous boost for the missionaries as well as the members.

While in Tobago, we snorkeled, swam and were able to see a leatherback turtle come onto the beach to nest. She laid her eggs in a fin dug shoot that was about 36" deep. We arrived as she had finished laying and was beginning to cover and camouflage the nesting site. She was about 6 feet long and 4 feet wide and weighed about 1500 pounds. It was about 9 pm and we had to be careful with any light and sound distraction. We stayed about 30 minutes and watched her finish her artwork in the sand and then slowly return to the sea. She will come ashore 10 -12 times during the season and lay clutches of about 120 eggs each time. The nesting season goes from March -August. It was fascinating. We touched her shell as she was re-entering the water and it was as smooth as glass. 

The highlight of the week was the baptism of Bo. He wanted to be baptized in the ocean and Tobago has no font, so his wish came true. It was a beautiful morning and very private. Our Tobago elders were there to witness and support and Bo was beaming. I think you will be able to tell from the pictures it will be a cherished memory.

We love  the gospel and are happy to be serving. It is difficult to sacrifice time away from family but has been wonderful to spend time with almost all of you in our mission. Please remember and study the words of revelation from this past conference weekend in an attempt to improve ourselves, our families and the neighborhoods in which we live.

We hope you are all enjoying some Spring weather and send our love from the countries of endless summer!

Trini and Dad