Week of February 13, 2023

This week had us with our usual P-day, driving the elders around for groceries. Later in the day we took a little drive down to see if we could spot any nesting flamingos from the road (we couldn't) since this is the time when the moms and dads sit on their nest/egg  and keep it cool waiting for the baby flamingos to hatch. We saw a few random flamingos walking around, but the reserve is far away so as to not have people or things scare them. So we didn't see any flamingos en-masse, darn it! We did run into 4 donkeys, and I even got to feed them some carrots which I remembered to bring! 3 of them were together but they were super easily spooked (and looked a bit raggedy/scruffy); the other donkey was a bit more spruced up and looked like a handsome city donkey - and he came right on up to me when I rolled down my window and stuck the carrot out. He was super cool. :)  It's always a good day when we see donkeys!! 

Besides this, it was a big real estate week. We went over to meet with another realtor at her office, and she took us to see CA. This is potentially for our new chapel. We've had so many people coming to Sacrament/church - which is awesome, right? - BUT there is no room for anyone! So the mission president has assigned us with our main responsibility here of finding a new chapel or land for one. So we have been working each week on this. This particular lot has a home on it and would be rented by the church. However, work would need to be done on it to make it do-able. The chapel (living room) would need to be enlarged out to their back porch - and the homeowners may not want to 'ruin' their living room or gardens. It was a very pretty yard - one of the prettiest we've seen here. Lots of beautiful flowering shrubs, and butterflies and birds were all flitting around. But we are already in a house for a church - and our chapel is already bigger than this house/living room. 

We have another opportunity with an existing building (not a house) - it has a large unfinished area that would be great as a chapel. It is bigger than our current church home; and could be finished off. Also we could rent another area within the building. We hope we can get something going with one of the properties soon! 

We've been having 60-72 people attend Sacrament meeting lately. Thankfully the mission president was there at our maximum capacity. It is made for 40 people. We've been sitting on beer crates and on the front porch since we can't all fit inside. We went out and bought 15 folding chairs a few weeks ago so that we wouldn't have to sit on the crates and the tables. 

Oh, this is fun! Lukas's friend from back in elementary school, Courtney, messaged me a few wks ago and told me that her boyfriend would be coming out to Bonaire, and did we have any recommendations for him on what to do out here. So I wrote back and gave her a few ideas. (I taught Courtney and Luke's CTR 8 class long ago in Primary; plus her mom and I were friends + worked together in RS). She wrote to me again last weekend and said he would be at church on Sunday (they both live in San Fran, Cali) and that we'd probably see him at church. So as soon as we walked in, we saw each other and sat next to each other.  He is super nice and friendly. Then he came over to our apartment for lunch, and he FaceTimed Courtney and we all said hi! Funny, small world! Turns out he served in the Rome Italy mission also, just before Lukas and Hanna served there. He had Pres. Pickerd as mission president for just a short time from what I understand. 

We held Family History class #3 last night. It went pretty well! We gave them info on how to start writing their personal history - and handed out a pamphlet with 52 questions to get them started. They were so excited about this!! I just ended up translating with google translate from English - as it was a lot of translating and I didn't want to take up our young missionaries' day translating it. Not sure if it came out super accurately. We cut up veggies and had ranch dip for a snack this time - as we hear many people are diabetics and we keep serving high sugar treats! (of course, the diabetics that we know of didn't come this time). But they must have liked it anyway as most of the veggies and all the ranch were gone! Funny - instead of dipping them into the ranch - they would put the veggies on their plates and spoon the ranch all over their veggies - kind of like a salad. So cute. 

The mission office tells all of us to "Remember the missionaries are just 6 years out of primary." We have to keep remembering this! Haha!

On Tuesday (Valentines Day/Dad's bday) the missionaries were so cute - we walked into the bishop's office for mission devotional and they (one set of elders/one set of hermanas) were all hiding - and shouted "Surprise!" to Brian (Elder Ridd) as we opened the door. They'd hung balloons from the ceiling all over the office, and had written "Happy Birthday" all over the whiteboard and they made him a card. Super cute. Then later in the day we went down to Playa and handed out Books of Mormon down by the main street where it's the cutest (fun colored buildings, Dutch architecture, etc). I made heart-shaped Rice Krispie treats and had them individually  wrapped. They tasted a little different than usual - we think it is because the marshmallows are kind of strange here - a little mushy. Anyway, lots of folks seemed to like them nonetheless - and about 36ish Books of Mormon were handed out. The elders also brought a ukelele and a borrowed guitar to attract attention/people (they're pretty great musicians!). 

Later that night, we all went to an outdoor sushi place, which is pretty good. We had gone there one of the first couple weeks we were here in Bonaire - and we then chatted with the owner, who wanted to learn English. We told him our missionaries teach English, and got his phone number and gave him ours. He has also taken some missionary lessons, along with English classes! Plus, his friends are now coming to both too! So we felt a tug to go there instead of our other favorite spot for the birthday dinner. We enjoyed it even more than our first time there actually. 

This morning I had a virtual Sisters' Conference with all of the mission. It was on a talk by Neal Maxwell. It went really great! We had been planning a little snorkel trip today but then this came up...so I was a good girl and we didn't go snorkeling and I participated - and it was a good uplift. We will snorkel another time! Maybe Monday! 

Saturday is usually our busiest day. We go do Beach Cleanup at 9am; and then come home and get ready to go to Pakus di Pruga - the animal shelter's flea market of sorts. It's mostly fun! Especially if you get some good donations! When we go to put the clothing up on the racks, we get semi-accosted by the ladies who set up shop to stay there all day for their "new collections." Haha. We are usually there from 1-4:30, then back home and get ready for our Young Adult night at 7 at our apartment. And we also have the missionaries over to lunch after church this on Sunday; I think we will make waffles. 

We went to the outdoor movies here on Monday to celebrate Valentine's Day. There's only one theater. You set up a chair and watch the movie on a big screen - it was pretty fun! We saw "A Man Called Otto." We had read the book (Ove) and saw the Swedish movie from a few years ago. We liked it! It was a nice big screen and surprisingly the sounds was quite good too! Only thing is there was a chain smoker not too far from us - we tried to sit where the wind wouldn't blow it our way.