The Trapani's in Timor Leste

There was a large gathering for a funeral Memorial. Some off-duty policeman were in attendance. A fight broke out. During the fight the lights in the area went out. One of the off-duty policeman, who was drunk, then fired randomly into the crowd. 5 people died and about that many more were wounded. This picture was the next day where students protested the police violence. This tragedy took place about 5 miles from our apartment. After almost a year of no budget the parliament passed a budget for the end of 2018. There is still no budget for 2019. This has caused considerable hardship in the country. Many people have gone without wages and many benefits have not been paid. In the middle of this the parliament decided to trade in their used car Fleet and purchase a new Fleet of new vehicles. This announcement caused student protests. The protests are generally always peaceful. The embassy does warn us to stay out of the area. No one ever seems to get hurt or injured. Sometimes ro

 This Monday we cancelled our English class because of the Santa Cruz national holiday. This is a statue about 2 miles from our house that commemorates the event that occurred in 1991.  About 200 Timorese were killed by Indonesian troops in the cemetery. It was one of the pivotal events that caught the attention of the world. Prior to that much of the turmoil in Timor-Leste had gone unnoticed. It is remarkable living in the country where their revolutionary war occurred just a few years ago. Anyone 20 years of age or older remembers events of the occupation and the independence. The tragedy and suffering caused by the events were felt by almost every family here. Last Saturday night we were eating at this restaurant. It is a second-floor open restaurant. While we were sitting by the front railing we noticed that traffic had stopped in both directions on the main road just below us. Just a few hundred feet down the road a fight had broken out on the road. This is an area wh

 These are two of our missionaries in Indonesia. They are taking part in our sacrament meeting via Skype.  These are the same two missionaries teaching our investigator class via Skype. These are some of our investigators. They are all from the same family except for the man on the far end.  The challenge is they don't speak English well enough nor do I speak Tetun well enough to teach them. They do speak Bahasa as their second language. So the missionaries from Indonesia who speak Bahasa are teaching them. As an added challenge Indonesian Bahasa is a little bit different than the Bahasa Spoken Here. The Book of Mormons they have are in Indonesian Bahasa. They are a wonderful family and I want to do all that I can to bring them into the gospel. They are  a very capable family. They have regular family prayer and nightly scripture study. The mother is already spoken in our sacrament meeting. Almost all of the family members have prayed in our meetings. They found us. All