Little Things

January 25, 2013

Elder Neil L Andersen will be visiting the mission next month, so we are all excitedly making plans for travel and lodging in Puerto Rico.  We will have a Senior Couple Conference, along with meetings with all the other missionaries in the mission.  There is a stake conference on Sunday, February 10.  We will stay over with the Peterson’s until Monday so we can go shopping and look around Old San Juan.  It will be fun and rewarding to get together with some other missionaries for a few days.

We have been helping a couple of young men get their mission applications completed.  They want to be gone on their missions as soon as possible.  Our little branch will then have 6 missionaries serving.  That is more than many wards and more than some stakes.  We are all being blessed by the faithful service of these young people. One of them needed the dental exam done, but he said he could not get in to see his dentist until May.  May?  How could they be that busy?  Anyway, Kim sent my loupes and Mark Lambert donated some instruments, so I put the young man into a chair in our apartment and did a good exam on him.  I don’t have any x-rays, but his mouth appears to be in really good shape.  He just needs a couple of small cavities filled and 4 simple wisdom teeth extractions.  I could do it in 10 minutes if I had the instruments and supplies.  Now he can send in his papers instead of waiting until May.  

The other pre-missionary needs a TB test done.  He has been waiting for several weeks for the public health clinic to get it done.  They won’t do it until they have 10 people sign up.  That might not be until July.  So I went to visit a private clinic and I found out that it will cost $25 for them to do the test. Then it will be sent to the public health clinic doctor who will read it and write the report.  However, when I took him in to that clinic yesterday to have the test done they said they are out of reagent and will not be able to do it until next Wednesday. 

We are working hard to find things to keep us busy.  We teach a lot of lessons, but not any that the bean counters want to keep track of.  No matter, though.  I know Him for whom I am working.  Every one of His sheep is precious and our calling is to invite all to come unto Christ by ... enduring to the end.  Working to retain new converts or trying to bring back those who have temporarily wandered from the shelter is as important as bringing in new ones.  All are alike unto God.

We have a member who comes down here with her husband from Canada.  They sold a business for  a lot of money and they just move from Canada to Tortola as they will.  Sister Hill invites us to dinner regularly.  She showed us her yacht that they have put up for sale so they can buy a bigger one with a crew to sail it.  

Master Bedroom

One of three heads

Living area

One of three bedrooms

The listed price is $700,000. 

Racing Yacht

 They have a racing boat right next to it, made completely of carbon fiber. It is worth about $3M.  There is a lovely 82 Oyster next to them.

  

Minimum crew of three to sail that one.  It is worth about $7M.  There is another life out there that most of us don't even know exists.

I, the great rat hunter, have disposed of three, count ‘em, three rats in the past 4 days.  The first one was clever and ate the peanut butter right off the trigger plate.  I impaled a piece of apple on the plate, smeared peanut butter on top of the apple, and waited.  Well, really I went to sleep.  Next morning, there was the first rat in the trap, the trigger plate all slicked off.  I guess he stuck around to lick the plate clean and that got him (her?).  I threw it in the trash, trap and all.  

The second was the very next morning.  It looked like a youngster, almost full grown.  Every morning I noticed that some of the Coumadin pellets were gone so I assumed the rats have been having headaches, too. This one was not caught in the trap, but the trap was set off and the rat was beside it, having exsanguinated from a wound somewhere.  That one was set with a piece of granola bar tied to the trigger plate with dental floss.  Dental floss has many good uses in addition to removing plaque from teeth.

I did not think there would be a third, but when I looked at the poison bait I could see that someone else had been eating, so I set another trap.  It also had bait tied on with floss. That trap had caught the unfortunate rodent by the tip of its nose.  No matter.  It was dead.  I disposed of rat and trap in the garbage.

Last night I set another trap, but there is no evidence of any more visitors to our balcony during the night.  I think I will keep it set from now on.  This one has a piece of granola bar super glued to the trigger plate.  That is the end of the rat chapter.

Stay tuned.

Next day.  Make it four rats.  Caught another one last night.