Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

• Christmas 2024

Well we spent our one and only Christmas in St. Lucia. It was pretty quiet and we didn't get up any too early. We did not get any gifts as we decided that we were going to save our money this year for a special Christmas with all the grandkids and our kids next year. 

Turns out that both Tina and I surprised each other though. She got me a a Cadbury candy bar and I got her a 1-hour massage with Yohan's wife. 

And we had a bunch of food left over from our Christmas meal last night so we made a couple of plates to take to some of our needy members. 

We took one to Benjamin Joseph who was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. I think he is basically homeless and is going to be asking for help. We had a sack of food from the salvation army that the missionaries gave me and we gave him that and we also took a plate of food from the dinner last night. Turns out he does not eat meat so he didn't want the plate of food other than the desserts and a bread roll. 

After visiting with him for a bit and trying to explain to him the importance of getting a job which he has not been able to do for 7 years. I guess his thought process is that he is going to commit his life to Jesus Christ and he will take care of him. I tried to explain to him that's not how it works and he expects us to have a job but I'm not sure he got that. 

Anyway, we left him and took a plate of food to Darren Barbe. Turns out he had been given food by other people also and I had sent him a food order so that he wasn't going hungry through the Christmas season. So he really didn't need it either but he took it. I'm not sure what he was going to do with it as he doesn't have a refrigerator and if he doesn't eat it right away he wouldn't need to be refrigerated. 

After visiting with Darren, we went over to Rouchell's to wish her a Merry Christmas. They were working hard to prepare food for Friday night's event. Both her and her mother. The people that work hard to make a living. We visited with them for a bit and she gave us some meat that she had cooked up and it was pretty good. 

We left there and we're headed to the church for an afternoon party with the missionaries. The missing president had allowed them to watch one movie so they did that. I can't remember what it was called but it was a cartoon of some sort. 

We did a gift exchange and played a game. The game was pretty fun for everyone. You took a paper sack and bent over and picked it up without touching the ground. With your hands. With each round you would cut an inch off of the sack and it kept getting shorter and shorter. And of course it would eliminate people. It came down to elder Morral and Elder Miner. When the sack got cut down to where there was hardly a side on it, they both were able to pick it up and there was nothing left to cut off so we called it a draw. 

I made it down pretty low but eventually was eliminated. I didn't pull but stretched the muscle in the back of my leg. Trying to get down and low enough to pick up the sack with my mouth. 

We finally left that party and went home to call all the kids and see how their Christmases were. They all sounded like they had a great Christmas. 

Natalie sent us a special video of all their kids which was really nice. 

Calling the kids took the rest of the evening. Sam called about 10:00 and we were talking to him and I fell asleep. I have no idea how the visit ended.