Hello Friends,
This past week we had the opportunity to visit "France in the Caribbean": the beautiful island of Guadeloupe. This is the "island hopper" aircraft we're boarding. On the way there, we stopped at St. Lucia and Martinique. On the way back we stopped at Dominica and Barbados. Direct flights don't happen here! When we landed in Martinique, we had to get off the plane, go through immigration (even though we never left the airport), and then get back on the very same plane in the same seats!
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| We're getting on that? |
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| One of the pirate ships used by Captain Jack Sparrow, currently moored in St Lucia |
We spent a good part of our travel day in St. Lucia and did some training with the Seminary & Institute teachers there. There are two branches of the church here, one on each end of the island.
Guadeloupe is called the butterfly island because it's actually two islands smooshed together. That's not easy to capture in pictures so I've included an arial view.
Here are the Bennions. I wanted you to see how easy it is to be happy when you're a Senior Missionary! Behind them is the rain forest of Basse Terre (lower island).
We visited a river and waterfall in the rain forest. Since I take most of the pictures, you get to see a lot of Sister Lindorf. She's the star of the show but if you look closely you'll see me by the waterfall.
One of the most interesting dynamics of this visit was that everything was in French. I was able to understand and communicate better than I thought I would after 40 years! (France, Paris Mission 1969-1971). This is one of our French speaking Seminary classes with our S&I coordinator, Hector Alvarez in the background. His native language is Spanish. He also speaks English (as a second language) and a tiny bit of French.
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| Pretty in Pink |
If you've never played Crows & Cranes then you won't understand what's going on here!
This is not a post card. We really did have the pool to ourselves.
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| Where's Waldo? |
Can you find the iguana in this picture?
Sarah, on the right, is our S&I secretary for the Mission. She also teaches this Seminary class once each week.
It was amazing to be able to go to the boulangerie and buy real french bread and pay in Euros. Guadeloupe is not independent like many of the other islands. It actually IS part of France, so its culture is very different from Trinidad and other Caribbean islands.
We are happy to be serving in this part of the Lord's vineyard. Everyone we meet is very friendly (even the French)! Our Seminary students are gaining a love for the scriptures and a love for the Lord as a result. We are truly blessed!
If you or someone you know would like to volunteer to come to the West Indies Mission, we could use twice the number of couples that we have now. Until next time.....
Elder Lindorf
