We Are Training Our Replacements

Dear Family and Friends,

Last month when we had couples' conference in Trinidad,  our mission president, President Mehr informed us that there were 10 couples from our mission leaving within the next 6 months and only 3 coming to replace them.  Since we were part of those leaving, we were concerned about how the finances, apartments, elders, etc. would be managed if there was no one to replace us when we left.

Then a couple of weeks ago, our counselor in the mission presidency, President Goodluck suggested that there could be a Guyanese couple serve as service missionaries that could do that.  Last Sunday a couple was called, the Surujbans, and set apart to serve in that capacity.  We are excited.  They are eager to learn and we have 7 weeks to teach them before we go.  They manage apartments and are well aware of the needs of our young missionaries here.

Sister Surujban is the district Relief Society President and her husband has been in a branch presidency and is currently an elders quorum president.  The type of business which we took weeks to learn, they already know about because they have lived here all of their lives. We think that the transition will be very smooth.

We want to encourage any of our friends who are in good health to consider a mission to a third world country.  It is truly a life changing experience.  The couples are so much needed here.  If for no other reason than to teach people, especially young couples, that marriage can be happy and last for eternity.

We enjoyed the week.  We had a new converts night in the Georgetown Branch which we thought was going to be a failure at first because there were only 2 converts there when it was time to start, but within an hour there were probably about 50 people show up.  There were so many children running around, that the elders took them outside and played night games in the parking lot so that the parents could enjoy watching a video of the Restoration.

Yesterday was district training meeting.  I taught the Primary presidents about the Faith in God program and Elder Beutler taught the Young Men's presidents about the Duty to God program. Neither of them have been functioning.  In fact there were no young men's presidents in any of the branches until this year.

Today we went to Linden to train there.  We have an exciting celebration coming up next year.  The 25th anniversary of the church in the West Indies.  There are going to be 3 shows during the next year where young people can display their talents and compete in the fields of painting, photography, jewelry making, handicraft, dance, musical instruments, speech, poetry, stories, singing,  and culinary arts.  They are so excited about the competition.  If there is one thing about Guyanese youth that is readily apparent, it is their ability to perform on stage.

Elder Beutler took his camera to Linden to take a few pictures. With the fact that we will only have a few more weeks to spend with the saints here, we realized that we need to make a few memories in the form of photographs so that we don't forget them.

We were sad to hear about the passing of Helen Robbins and Ron Alexander last week.  That makes three from Dayton, with Odell Andrews at the first of the month.  It will be quite a different neighborhood to go home to with several of our dear friends gone.  We are so thankful for the knowledge we have of the reality of the resurrection, that we will be able to be with each other again.

May the Lord Bless each of you,  Love, Elder and Sister Beutler