My Parents' Mission Call

My Mom & Dad received their mission call at the end of last week. They have been called to serve in the West Indies Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They leave in November and will serve for 18 months - which means they will probably come home in May 2013.



Dominica - the island where Todd did part of medical school - is located in the West Indies Mission, so I decided to post a few pictures from our time there. Please bear with me as a take a little walk down memory lane. We moved to Dominica when Parker was 6 weeks old and left when he was 18 months old.



The possibility that Mom and Dad might be assigned to live and teach in Dominica has got me thinking about all our Dominican friends and wondering how they are doing now. Like the little neighbor girl in the picture with Parker above - she's 9 years old now... it's hard to imagine!

Here are more Dominican friends at a church pot-luck:



And the baptism of Josephine (woman on the right above):



She was baptized by one of the medical students (our group mission leader) because there were NO MISSIONARIES allowed on the island at the time:



As her visiting teacher in the months following her baptism, I grew to love this beautiful woman - and admire her testimony as one of the FIRST people in her country to join the church:



Another Dominican we helped teach and baptize was a man named Owen. He lived in a tiny village high in the mountains and no transports ran on Sundays, so he got up at 4am and walked for hours to get to church every week.



Here he is on the Sunday that the then mission president came to visit our little group:



We tried to take a group picture each semester. Here are some of them:







Todd was asked to be the group leader second semester. I found a copy of the form he had to submit to the school so that we could hold institute classes on Friday nights:



My parents actually came to visit us while we were there. Ready to go back to this, Mom and Dad?



I have a feeling your Christmas decorations in December will incorporate a few seashells!



The rest of my pics are just to show my sibs (and anyone else who's interested) a little of what island life is like for the locals. For example, Market Day is a BIG deal:







There will be plenty of beautiful sights (like waterfalls and ocean views)...





...but Mom and Dad will also see lots of this:



...people working very hard to make tiny amounts of money - doing whatever they can to get by...



...and living in very humble circumstances. Here are typical buildings in the villages:







Examples of buildings in the neighborhoods in town:





But don't get me started on the weather - I could go on and on! Here's just one example. We decided to photograph a common occurrence: it would be totally rainy one minute and then bright & sunny the next. This picture was taken from our back door (notice the laundry, bottom left, that is getting soaked):



And this picture (also from our back door) was taken LESS than 5 minutes later:



So, Mom & Dad, whether your mission travels take you up winding roads into the jungle...



...or down to the windy coast...



I pray that the Lord will lead you to the pure in heart. I'm really excited for you because I know that there are so many good people waiting for your love and guidance.