Traveling to San Pedro with the Martinos and many San Pedro Branch members on the water taxi.
The life jackets are often stored on the ceiling.
Mercedes was one of the baptisms performed right after district conference. She lives in San Pedro.
San Pedro Branch meets in a rented building that is right on the beach. Many LDS tourists visit here while they are on vacation. This photo was taken after the meeting was over. (Elder Pattee and I were surprised to see our doctor--Dr. Durrans--and his wife from Provo at this meeting.)
We stayed overnight at the Sunbreeze Hotel.
This was our breakfast view the next morning.
Since this was our preparation day, we were free to enjoy the amenities. Senior missionaries can go swimming if they wish.
The 8 of us rented 2 golf carts and drove around the island as part of our activities.
The Church owns property on the island, which we visited. It could use a little clean-up.
Inspecting the site. Perhaps a prefab chapel will be built here sometime in the next couple of years.
At 12:30 we left on the water taxi for Belize City. The Martinos and the Lopezes had a flight for home to catch. What a great week!
* * *
I like to think of that old van as the "miracle van". It transported us and the younger missionaries many places. Even though we had 6 flat tires in the first 4 months we came here to Belize, we were never stranded on the roadside. This included going to Lamanai twice (with the van full of missionaries), and that is one of the roughest 30 miles of dirt road you'll ever see. (And 30 miles back.)
We noticed the first flat tire as we were leaving home one morning. Even before Elder Pattee could get the jack out, a Creole man stopped to help change the tire. The second flat conveniently happened right next door to a tire store. (It was good to know where a good tire store was, as we ended up spending quite a bit of time there.) The third flat was at the airport, and 2 Chinese men tried to help (until it started raining cats and dogs). The last three flat tires happened around town and were also quickly taken care of.
One by one the old tires were replaced with new ones. Part of the problem was that someone had put 4 ply tires on the van instead of 6 ply. We count it a great blessing that we never had a blowout while we were traveling full speed down the highway.
Then the old van became a bit tempermental about starting. It stopped while the zone leaders were on the way to the airport to pick up our mission president, President Lopez. Elder Pattee called a member, who went out and helped them get it going. It refused to start for us a couple of times, also. Both times the missionaries were able to help give us a push.
When we took it to the Toyota dealership for repairs, the van started right up. They said nothing was wrong with it. Since the new van was expected any day, we decided to not use the van, unless we absolutely had to.
We borrowed this car for a couple of days while waiting for the new van to arrive. It is owned by the Church, but will soon be sold. It is not usually available to us, anyway.
We were happy to see the new van arrive. It is almost like the old one, but hopefully more trouble free and dependable.
It is mango season right now. A nice member, Sister Munoz, gave us several kinds from her trees. They are delicious!
The month of May has been pretty hot--supposedly the very hottest month of the year here. As we continue to serve our mission in Belize, Sister Pattee notices the heat and humidity much more than Elder Pattee.
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