Interesting day in Ocho

Yesterday was P-day.  Usually we do laundry but Blossom didn't come into the office so we couldn't get coins for the laundry room and the laundry room was closed because Blossom wasn't there.  Brian worked on the ward list trying to put members into the different areas that cover our branch.  I did a lot of reading.  I finished the seminary handbook and read in my scriptures.  We did go to the store since we were out of bread and a few other items.  During the night, Brian could smell smoke.  It was coming from outside but we never could figure out where.

Today we hurried to put in some wash before we met up with President Lester.  He wanted us to go to the house that he had leased with his mom so that he could dedicate the property.  He had the sisters follow us.
We had a prayer and he had us all bear our testimonies and then he said the prayer.  The house is huge and I am not sure what he is going to do with that much house but he feels like he needs to leave his other home because of the two fires that his neighbor started.  I think watching his home burn to the ground twice really traumatized him and it is depressing for him to be there.  His new home has been vacant for 10 years.  I am sure in it's time it was beautiful.  The termites are having a hay day and there are wasp nests all over the place.  It has potential and he has thought about renting half of it.  I look at the house and think of the thousands of dollars it would take to fix it up but a lot of people here don't think like us.  They are happy to have a roof on their head and they are satisfied with less.  Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of beautiful homes here, but the majority of the people here have very little.

The sisters drove back and we dropped President Lester off at the bank and then went home for lunch and threw another batch of laundry in.  I bought what I thought was laundry detergent gel packs but upon looking further, after having done the wash, they were laundry boosters and I still needed to add laundry detergent to them.  "Duh"  We were suppose to meet up with the elders at 2:00 and the clothes weren't completely dry so we had clothes hanging all over the apartment.

The elders took us to 4 less active members.  They have all been members for quite awhile.  We had a good visit.  I have been showing a video called "Pure and Simple Faith" to the less active and active members. I think it really touches them.  I am so glad I have my ipad for this purpose.  The ipad also has all the seminary videos on it so that will really be helpful when I start teaching.  Anyway, one of the members that we met has his own lumber shop in his yard.  I should have taken a picture.  He was working on some window frames and he is a self taught "jack of all trades."  He does great work.  One of his biggest problems in termites.  They are all over this island.  He had someone give him a down payment on some windows and it was two years before the people finally picked them up and termites had started to get into the wood.  We really enjoyed visiting with him. I did see him at church on Sunday.  The elders have been working with these members trying to get them more active.  We were suppose to visit one more house with the elders but President Lester called and asked us to take him to Brother Barbegies home.  We dropped the elders off at their appointment and we were going to pick them up on the way back but it was about a 30 minute trip to Brother Barbegies and we must have visited for an hour with he and his wife.  He is in the branch presidency and President Lester needed his signature on something.  They were all speaking Patwah so I  missed about half of the conversation.  Anyway, the elders started home without us.  We didn't get home until 8:45.  This was  one night I was glad I had leftovers.

Brian, the sisters and President Lester standing in front of his new home.

Sisters picking mangos from President Lester's mango tree