I think that we were kidnapped!

Okay so no we weren't kidnapped for real but you never know what will happen when you fly in the Caribbean. One day we had a flight scheduled from Martinique back to Barbados. We arrived on time to the airport and went through security only to discover that the flight was delayed. Delayed flights are part of our lifestyle now but after waiting four hours for the flight to depart we finally got into the air. After 20 minutes the flight attendant came to Kent and I and asked our destination. Surprised, we replied, "Barbados." He stated, "Not on this flight. This plane is headed to St Martin." When he saw our surprise, he said that he didn't understand why we weren't told before we got on the plane. We were thinking the same thing. We had spoken to the airline attendants at the gate many times asking for updates on when the plane would leave, but they never said anything about the change or gave us the opportunity to make a choice about getting on the plane. There were only 7 passengers on the plane and only one wanting to go to St Martin. The rest were going to Barbados. The airline had decided to not travel to Barbados because of the delay and just head to St Martin which was supposed to be the plane's final stop for the night. We arrived in St. Martin around 11:00pm, the airline put us up in a hotel and gave us a $20 food voucher for the hotel's restaurant. I asked if the restaurant would still be open as we hadn't had any dinner (most of the airports are small with not a lot of options), we were told, "No, it is closed." We had to be ready at 5:30am the next morning to catch the taxi back to the airport and obviously the restaurant did not open that early. One of the passengers became very angry and expressed his anger quite vigorously. The airline representative calmly looked at hime and stated, "Please do not swear at me, Sir." He was upset because he needed to catch a flight to Miami from Barbados and would miss that flight. The airline offered him no help. He had to buy another ticket and fly from St Martin to Miami instead. I was worried as I had scheduled a hair appointment (those are always hard to get) and was hosting the district Relief Society for an activity, but the Lord always provides and we were able to catch a flight home in the morning (with some difficulties...) and be able to be on time to everything else. Here is a photo of the hotel room. Kind of random.

Another time, we flew on a 22 seater plane to St Vincent from St Lucia. Right before the plane took off. Two airline workers told us that due to the wind two passengers would need to take a flight later that day. Two passengers graciously accepted their offer and left the plane. When we arrived in St Vincent we discovered that not only did they need two passengers off of the plane but they also took all of the luggage off as well. There was no extra plane that day but fortunately we only had to go 24 hours without our luggage. That was a blessing indeed. We recently finished five weeks of travel. We started our regular tour of the mission and zone conferences for a week and then flew from Guadeloupe to the Dominican Republic for another mission leader seminar. The area presidency took us to a golf resort on the coast and we had three days of meetings and touring the area. There are 13 missions in the Caribbean area including Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Puerto Rico, Haiti and many missions in the Domincan Republic and Venezuela. This time the mission leaders from Venezuela were able to attend. It was so nice to meet them in person but more than half of the mission leaders only speak Spanish and though we try to communicate with them, we tend to hang out with the English speaking leaders. There are several who started their mission the same time as ours and so it is so nice to see them again and share how are missions are doing. The trainings are in Spanish and English. They have translators and sometimes it goes back and forth from Spanish to English so it is quite a challenge for the interpretors. The are presidency and their wives are very kind; Elder and Sister Zeballos, Elder and Sister Cordon and Elder and Sister Stanfill (he will be the new Canadian area president). Elder Zeballos is going emeritus in August and Elder Cordon will take over as the new area president. The trainings were all very good and motivating but I have to say that being compared to spanish speaking missions who are generally very high baptizing missions is tough. Kent keeps saying that no one will pass us because we are always last in the statistics and that may be true but not for a lack of trying. The good news is that up to date this year, our mission has more than doubled (almost tripled) the amount of people who have accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ and have been baptized compared to this time last year. Our missionaries try to implement what we teach and we follow what the missionary department and Preach My Gospel teaches. It is tough here though. We have a lot of challenges and the most common one is people coming to church. Most of the people the missionaries teach do not own a vehicle and often public transportation doesn't exist on Sundays. Mission vehicles are not to be used to transport anyone but missionaries due to insurance purposes but it is tough. Despite that rule, miracles have been granted and people have been able to find ways to come to church with the help of the missionaries and the members. Here are some photos of the mission leader seminar:

The worst part about the seminar was that they gave us matching white golf shirts to wear when we went as a group to a maze and a cave. It was so strange to all be in matching shirts, like a senior's travel tour . . . oh wait that's what we were . . . I am getting old. Haha!

After the seminar, we returned to Guadeloupe and met up with the AP'S who flew in from Barbados and then coninued on for another three weeks of zone conferences, interviews and visiting members. At the very end of that tour, our passports were completely filled with stamps and we handed in our passports to the Canadian High Commission (in Commonwealth countries it is a high commission rather than an embassy, a high commissioner rather than an ambassador) and received new passports in two weeks. We will probably need to get new passports two more times in the next two years. This mission is full of adventure that is for sure. The best part though is when we see a missionary grow into their role, stop focusing on themselves and really embrace their missionary purpose or when we see a friend be baptized, become strong in the gospel and a real help to their branch. We recently were in a branch where a young mom of two beautiful little girls gave a wonderful talk about the plan of salvation. I thought that she was a recent convert to the church but no she hasn't been baptized yet as she and her soon to be husband are waiting for official legal documents from Guyana so that they can be married. It was such a great talk. Yesterday, she invited us and the AP's for lunch. Elder Espinal was one of the missionaries who found her last Fall. She was so generous but has a great hunger for the gospel. She asked many questions about the temple and shared her conversion story. She has told us that whenever we are in Barbados that she wants us to come over so that she can feed us. She doesn't have much but she gives all that she can. She said that she is sorry that she doesn't have a fancy home and I told her that her generosity is such a gift. She is wonderful.