Saturday, May 31, 2025

Saturday, May 31, 2025

• Baptism of Cherley Laurenc and a little about her
• Walking Vigie Beach
• Stopped at new lookoff
• My concerns about our baptisms

We were up a little late last night so I didn't get up to early. 

We had a baptism today for Cherley Laurenc. She is a lady the Sister missionaries have been teaching. She has a son and lives with her father and stepmother. The only Lucian at the baptism was Corey and he gave the opening prayer. So it was the Sister missionaries, the Elders and Tina and I. 

We had a talk on baptism and then went to Vegie Beach up in our usual corner. There was nobody there this time which doesn't happen very often, maybe never since I have been here. It was a bit windy and the water was choppy. We found out that Cherley is afraid of water, they really had to coats her to get out where it was deep enough to do the baptism. They finally got her out far enough and the baptism went smoothly and only had to do it once. She seemed pleased.

Cherley is from Haiti, but has been in St Lucia for the past 15 years. She is very hard for me to understand. She said she left after they had a big earthquake there in 2008. She said it totally destroyed her house. In her words, "it made it garbage". Her son is maybe 8 or 9 and he seems to have a little bit of mental issues. Not really sure, but just they way he acts. He is a nice boy though.

After the baptism we too Cherley home and met her stepmother. She happened to be outside in the yard when we got there. She lives right across the cricket field.

We came home and had some lunch then went and picked up some drinking water for the church for the church. We took it down to drop off, but when we got there I forgot my key. We went over to Vegie Beach and walked up the shore line for something to do. It was nice. There was a breeze blowing in that made it cooler.

We then went up to Ciceron area to look at the new lookoff they just built. It is really nice and you have a good view of Castries and the surrounding mountains and the ocean. There were people there selling things and we visited with some of them for a bit. I'm sure they would have liked us to buy something, but I told them we lived here and left it at that. It lets them know we are not tourist. We took a few pictures and then came home. I know we are in the off season for tourism, but I have not seen a boat in the harbor for over 3 weeks. It has to be hurting the people selling in the market that rely on them. I worry about Sister Caren Kennedy, she already struggles to make ends meet.

I seen the lords hand today through Cherley. For her to show the great faith even though she doesn't have much support is amazing to me. It is such a change in life style. We really want to make her feel welcome and help her develop a greater love for Jesus Christ. If she will just make an effort to pray and read the scriptures and attend church consistently she will become a strong member. She seemed to have a light about her after her baptism. She seemed to be happy.

My only concern about the baptism was that we had no members there to support and welcome her. I wonder how they feel when there are not members there for what we tell them is one of the most important steps they can take on their path back to their heavenly Father. We have had a couple of baptisms lately where not many people came, and they have not come back to church after their confirmations. This one did not get much announcement, in fact I don't think there was any at all. We need to figure out a better way to get the members involved.

Left to right Sister Chambers, Cherley, Unique, Sister Nguyen (Winn)

Including Elder Esikia