We had the opportunity to visit the small but beautiful Island of Tobago. The church has been there only three years. They have 50 members with only about 20 attending. One of these faithful members, Sister Dookran, never misses church even though she lives up a mountain and it takes her an hour traveling by taxi to get there. We visited Sister Dookran because she is one of our seminary teachers. It was a beautiful drive to her home through mountain terrain of lush green foliage. The last part of the journey we had to leave the car and walk up the grassy hill to her home. We loved getting to know this very special sister and her daughter Linda. They made us feel so welcome in their very humble home.
Sister Dookran teaches seminary faithfully four days a week in her home. Her daughter is her only student but she goes to great effort to make her lessons wonderful. She has very little money. The only money she has is the little she makes by cutting grass two hour a day. She uses a machete. She works very hard to provide the things they need in their home. Since they have no electricity she carries two car batteries down the hill each day to get charged and then up the hill again so they can have enough power to run the TV and lights for three hours. This provides the light Linda needs for her homework.
They also have no running water and no fridge so she also must carry ice and water up the hill each day. The most amazing thing of all was her attitude. She did not apologize or appear in any way to feel sorry for herself. She is grateful for what she has and does the best she can. She taught herself to read by reading the Book of Mormon with the help of her daughter. She has a firm testimony of the gospel. She loves the Lord and is dedicated to do all she can to serve Him.
We walked back down the hill feeling grateful for the privilege of getting to know this faithful sister. Her testimony and dedication to the Lord was inspiring. We look forward to the time we can return.
It was such a beautiful walk back to the car. I felt like we were in the jungle. If you look closely you can see two little children waving good-bye to us.
Later that day we went to teach seminary at the church. This is a picture of the Tobago Seminary students with Elder and Sister Harris. They were a fun group of kids.
We love seeing what you are doing and are chomping at the bit to get to our assignment. We have our house rented out and are in the evacuation process. Thank you so much for putting the burr under our saddle and pointing us to this mission.
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