March 14, 2011 - Missionary Work Continues in Belize

We took another trip to Orange Walk to visit the branch.  Elder Pattee spoke in sacrament meeting about the importance of attending our Church meetings, and Sister Pattee taught the young women about preparing to do missionary work.

  Some of the Orange Walk Branch young women

The Orange Walk Branch is really struggling right now.  Many members have become less-active.  A wonderful couple moved out of the branch 18 months ago and moved to Belmopan.  I think Brother and Sister Gomez must have been the glue that was holding the branch together.  The upside is that they are really helping the activity rate in the Belmopan Branch now, which is in the Cayo District.  

We were told that this is a Madrecacoa tree.

We like the almost 2 hour drive to Orange Walk, because we see new things each time.  We especially enjoy the beauty of the trees and flowers along the way.  This week we saw lots of these beautiful trees with pink blossoms. 

We have been trying to teach the importance of family home evenings.  Each week, or as often as we can, we invite a different family to come to our home.  Last week the Jaimie Chi family came.  (I forgot to take a picture.)

The Norbertos are a happy family with a good spirit about them. 

This week we enjoyed having the Noberto Family.  They have 9 childen.  Sister Norberto is not a member, yet.  She has taken missionary lessons more than once over the years.  The missionaries are working with her once again, and she has been coming to church.  We hope this time she will prompted by the spirit to get baptized.

They enjoyed playing the "mousetrap game". 

We also attended 3 seminary classes this week. 

In Belize City Branch, Angel sang "How Great Thou Art" as a solo for the class's devotional.  He has a very nice voice.

President Angel (not related to Angel, pictured above) of the Cinderella Branch (Our Spanish speaking branch) had us go with him to 4 different homes to encourage better seminary attendance.  His branch is going to begin having their seminary classes at 5:30 in the morning.  He is hoping attendance will improve.  We were able to visit and personally invite 6 young people to come.  

We went with Elder Choc and Elder Lunt to a beautiful home where Sister Patnett lives with her daughter (about 8 miles out of Belize City.)  Sister Patnett invited a neighbor, Sharilyn, to meet with the missionaries.   Sharilyn has come to church once or twice.  The elders taught Sharilyn about the great apostacy.  Everything seemed to make sense to her, and she promised to read from the Book of Mormon.  We were both able to bear our testimonies of the things the elders taught. 

We think we might have discovered a fruit similar to the one Eve offered Adam in the Garden of Eden.  It is called a Mammee apple.  It's grown right here in Belize, and it's delicious. 

We also did a workshop this past week for 2 potential PEF loan participants, Rosa and Tashira.  Rosa is 33, so over the cutoff age of 30.  But sometimes exceptions are made.  We will see what happens. 

The weather here continues to be pleasant, and we are enjoying it while we can.  Have a great week!