Our work with the YSA and Youths in Trinidad has started to take hold so we began our outreach to the other countries in the mission under Pres. Mehr's direction. Since over half of the YSA's in the mission reside in Guyana, we started there!
Wow, that's a pretty beautiful airport welcome!
A Guyana roadside grocery store! Not an uncommon site in Trinidad.
Yeah, this was unusual! Cows..... walking in and around and between cars, bikes, horse drawn carriages, goats, and pedestrians.
Downtown Guyana! Prettiest bird we've seen!
Donkeys on the side of the road!
The first night we went to the Georgetown branch building. We dropped into the center and had a YSA activity.
The hotel was nice....just a little short for Elder Monson to be able to shave!
Elder and Sister Beecher in their shiny home! When I showed them this picture, they said, "wow, this looks like a real nice place!" They and the Buetlers were wonderful to us!
The landscape in Guyana was much more beautiful than we expected! We walked in the morning, before meetings and training, either on the sea wall or botanical gardens. At 6:00 am with the Beechers and Buetlers we felt safe on the roads. Great people!
We looked for Manatees which they had seen there, but struck out.
Can you imagine youth in America just liming on the side of the road, watching the cars go by?
I had to get a picture of his hair as we passed!
The next day we had a YSA training meeting
We then traveled to Berbice in a torential downpour!
The rainy season is here with a vengence! We drove through one of the "puddles" that covered the whole road and was about a foot deep!
Passing a very soggy cemetery
An outdoor market where people continued to shop in the rain
How do these houses stay dry in the rainy season??
Or people? It doesn't slow them down a bit.
Here's a Guyana gas station
Where are the windshield wipers?
The national pass-time; same as in Trinidad. Being a man means being a drunk. We see it over and over.
He at least wore a cap.....but no shoes!
We drove for two hours to Berbice. Elder Monson started counting seconds between town signs. The shortest was 10 seconds, the longest was 28 seconds between signs. Welcome to the town of Cottage!
Here's a creative name for a town!
I couldn't help but worry about hook worm that the mission nurse told us enters through bare feet and can eventually destroy the liver.
8 one thousand 9 one thousand 10 one thousand!
Sarah! A town in Guyana is named after you!
Lots of open spaces between houses!
We finally got to the bridge which crosses the BROWN Berbice river and found a resourceful salesman selling Iguanas to EAT!! Very fresh! We saw several sold as we waited, paid for from the window and thrown in the trunk to run around and die before getting home to cook!
Crossing the bridge!
Elder Monson was praying that guy balancing precariously didn't fall off on the bumps, so he'd run over him!
Yeah, the water is solid brown!
We finally found Elder and Sister Carter's home (third blue house on the right after you make the sharp turn) and stayed there for two days as their guests. They were wonderful!
The chapel in East Canje. We had an activity and fireside the first night in Berbice.
This was our first view of the inside of the church. Look closely through the window! Yes, that darkness at the back is thousands of "cockels" (hideous black beetles)
We grabbed some brooms and this was the first little sweep across a few tiles! Unbelievable! I seriously thought of the plagues of Egypt. I've never seen anything like it!
Directly across the street from the church. This was what we saw during Fast and Testimony meeting.
The bishop had to go outside during the meeting because the fence was open and they were all coming in to the church!
The shoe repair shop on the corner where you turn to go to the church. It is the size of an outhouse and this young man is inside working on shoes in the blazing heat and humidity all day long.
Here are the wonderful Elder and Sister Carter with whom we stayed for two days while we were in Berbice! We had an activity, a fireside and a YSA planning meeting while there. For the fireside, I had felt prompted to prepare a message about the false traditions of previous generations and the importance of breaking with false traditions to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ with exactness. I also said that honoring your parents did not mean following false traditions. That everything the youth did should be measured against the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its teachings whether or not their parents were following that straight and narrow path. There were some awesome scriptures included and Richard G Scott's comments on this topic too. Afterward, a beautiful, Indian, 18 year old girl came up to me and said that she had felt prompted to go on a mission, but her mom told her she should get married instead because that was the age she got married. Sophronia said she felt her prayers were answered by the message I shared. She had been very concerned about not following her mother's example, but making a different decision to go on a mission. It was a very sweet reminder that the Lord answers specific concerns and prayers of others. I felt so thankful and humbled to have been a small instrument in the work of the Lord in guiding His beloved youth here in Guyana.
The next day we headed back to Georgetown and passed these girls walking.
Oh good grief! Seriously!
Rush out.....into the vehicle madness along with goats and cows and bicycles! It made driving in Trinidad seem like child's play.
When we returned we came down this road to pick up the President of the YSA committee in Georgetown. She lives on this road.
We heard the fishin was good out in front of her house.
Playing with a friend out in front.
The kids were having a great time! Pretty cool pet, huh?
We asked this young man if he'd caught anything and he held up his trophy.
They also had a really fun guted-out car to play in.
When we returned we had a great planning meeting with the YSA's in LaGrange.
The next day we went to a branch cricket game in Demarara
The branch cheered on the cricket game and was there for support!
We got to stay and see "The Wickedest Man," a wonderful YSA play that the Beechers and Buetlers had been working on for months. They did a fabulous job! The wicked men were Laman and Lemuel, King Noah and Amalikiah! They were awesome. All in all we had a wonderful trip and have such fond feelings for the people of Guyana and the marvelous senior missionaries that serve there!
I hope you don't mind old WIRMs perusing this blog. I served before digital cameras were cheap and common and don't have a ton of pictures of Guyana and other places to show my kids. Thanks for all the effort you put into your assignment, the YW/YM in the WI need great couples like you guys.
ReplyDeleteLooking at your older posts I realized that I knew some of your kids when I lived in Cleveland some years ago; it's a small world in the church.