The Trapani's in Timor Leste

We are attempting to get one more projet approved before we leave.  The challenge is that it exceeds our budget by about $20,000. The project will bring water to a village of 300, a Catholic Church and a school.  The project is of added value because it is desired and it will be visible to the national government. We always place a higher priority on projects that align themselves with the government's desires. I received preliminary approval to write up the project and submit it. It will be interesting to see if I get it through the final committee which includes a member of the area presidency.  Because our congregation is so small and has very little of the typical congregation organizations it is sometimes difficult to find meaningful responsibilities for all of the members. We try and be creative and resourceful. We discovered that some of the new converts like to sing. This is the first Sunday where we had Januaro sing. He sang the hymn God be with you till we mee

 We start off by getting on the mekrolett about two blocks from our house. It cost $0.25 each. It's route takes us almost in front of our first grocery store.  This is our first stop for grocery shopping. We get most of our produce here. It has the largest selection. Overall the stores here have about one-fifth of the variety and selection then we have in America. Usually all we can buy these whole chickens. Occasionally we can buy chicken breasts. When we do find those we buy about 6 packages so we have a stock. All we've had for the last three months are these whole chickens. The problem is there is not so much meat and a lot of Bones and waste. They come Frozen from Brazil.  The challenges is the labeling. Usually you can tell what the product is from are the picture. If there's any mixing or ingredients involved it becomes very difficult.  We walk inside of the neighbouring mall and visit this grocery store. We pick up whatever produce we couldn't get

 During the mission presidents visit here two months ago Januario  asked him if he knew how much guitars cost in Indonesia. He is interested in buying a new one. The prices in Indonesian are substantially less than in timor-leste. During this last visit president Mackay brought him a guitar as a gift. Of course Januario was very grateful and appreciative. It is difficult mixing the American culture and the Timorese culture together because of the vast differences in wealth. An American salary would be 10 to 20 times more than a Timorese salary with the same skills.  There is a natural tendency to want to buy them stuff because they have so little and you have so much.  This is my mission president, president Mackay. He is a marathon runner. He has run about 20 of them. Whenever he comes out we go for a run together. He usually is stuck running in Jakarta Indonesia with the air pollution in the traffic. He loves it here. This was an 11 mile run up the river bed  This is Saul