Goodbye Elders - Hello Sisters

Greetings from sunny Bonaire!

   

We are having a lot of "firsts" here in the church on Bonaire. 

Last October Bonaire participated in the first ever ABC Islands Temple trip to the Santo Domingo Temple. 

July 1st the ABC Islands became part of the newly formed Trinidad/Tabago Port of Spain (English/Dutch speaking) Mission. Consisting of the ABC Islands,Suriname,Guyana and of course Trinidad and Tobago. Mission President Gregory Egbert (from Sandy Utah) - actually Granite) 

At the first of July we had the first ever ABC Islands Youth Conference  held in Curacao, 

They created the first ABC Islands District in July, and

This month we had the first ever pair of sister Missionaries on the island.

Everyone has been all a twitter and delighted to have Sisters here. 

This meant however that our two Utah boys were transferred. Elders Harsh (Murray) and Walker (South Jordan). We have loved all our Elders and our Elders love Elder VV.

One day they said, ".. Hey when we get home from our missions we will be able to hangout with you guys!  We'll get to see you even more than we do now since we live so close!" I thought....More than we see you now? could that be possible? We have you to dinner every Sunday, go fishing every Monday on p-day w/ Elder VV, play basketball every Wednesday with the branch members, and that doesn't count all the other times we gave them rides and went on appointments with them and when they come and help us with the computer mysteries. We help them with their flat tires and broken bikes, sewed their ripped pants from the dog attacks! etc. I just wasn't sure there was enough time in a week to see them more...but it made us feel loved and appreciated.  The Utah boys were fun because we had so much common ground and familiar reference points. 

Now this week we are having two more Elders come to serve on the island. One is from El Salvador and Belgium and speaks speaks Dutch and Espanol and English.  The other is from the Netherlands and speaks Dutch and English. They were sent here to find Dutch people who are ready to hear the gospel. Both the sisters speak English and Espanol and will take care of the Spanish and Papiamentu population.

We love the missionaries!