The Trapani's in Timor Leste

We were invited by the US Embassy to tour the US Navy troop transport ship called the Fall River. It was in dock for a humanitarian project in the region. It brought supplies, technicians and Navy medical personnel. The ship is only a few years old. It is made of aluminum so it is very fast and very light. It has a maximum speed of 50 miles an hour. It can carry about 350 personnel. It also has a very large equipment deck. It felt like being on a cruise ship inside. It had a nice big kitchen. It had comfortable lounging chairs. Everything was new and well-built. Of course all the personel inside we're all US citizens. It felt like we were back on our own soil. Even though it is a Navy ship it is operated by a private Merchant Marine company. It was docked at the Port of dili for a few hours to unload and to give tours. Because the port can only accommodate a couple of ships it had to go back out to sea and wander around to clear up the dock after the tour. The ship will be he...

The missionaries are now teaching Janu and Zelia in our apartment. The challenge is that Zelia only speaks Tetun. So the missionaries speak in English and Janu translated into Tetun.  Because the missionaries are speaking in English Cheryl and I can participate.  Like most Timorese couples they are living together without being officially married. Weddings are complicated here. Once they get that taken care of at least Janu will join the church very quickly. We have had Janu and Zelia and some of their neighbors as well as Domingas and her family over to go swimming. The problem is no one knows how to swim. Everyone stays in the shallow area. In this country there are very few lakes and most of the rivers are very shallow. The ocean is very shallow for a long distance and so no one swims. Most of the people are afraid to go too deep in the ocean because of the crocodiles. There are very few swimming pools here and so no one knows how to swim. I am a member of the Unit...

This week we had the midterm test for all of our English classes. The only reason we give the test is that the students want it. I think it makes then feel that the course is legitimate and has value. Test day is always the best attended class. This is a picture of one of the three rooms we had filled with students. We went to Bali this week for our semi annual senior missionary conference. Bali is such a great vacation destination. This super hamburger, fries and a smoothie came to less than $5. The conference was much more of a vacation than a conference. Most of the time we spend sightseeing and just hanging out at the beach. It was hard to return back to Timor-leste. This is a close-up of the sand on the beach. The holes are the boroughs of small crabs and the little balls of sand are the sand that they had dug out. It was all over the beach. These are all the senior missionaries and the mission president and his wife. We attended a Hindu play which required that ...

We had our mid-term field trip for our English classes. Transportation was by two trucks. The first was a smaller truck with boards across the bed for the students to sit on. The second truck was a full size dump truck with no seating at all. Everyone just squished in the back. In addition we had about 20 people ride their own motorcycles. We always hold our breath that no one gets hurt. This is the usual and customary transportation in this country. Our teaching assistant had an old car that luckily Cheryl and I got to ride in. This is the place where we had our activity. It is a large Catholic School. One of our students was a former student here. The place had a large Athletic Field, an outdoor Gathering area, a soccer field, dorms and classrooms. We were able to meet in the outdoor meeting area which fortunately had many trees and was well shaded. This is us when we first arrived. We were rested. We did not leave that way. This is Janu who is are teaching assistan...

Tara will be the first missionary to leave from Timor leste. She received her call to serve in the Philippines Bacolod mission. She reports to the mission Training Center in Manila on May 31st. Her Mission call letter was of course signed by President Nelson. It Was Written in the dialect of the area that she will be serving. Even though she speaks Tagalog her and her mother had to look up several of the words in the letter. Tara and one of the new members Azeni rotate practicing and then playing the keyboard every two weeks for sacrament meeting. When they show up they let us know what songs they are capable of playing and then we write it down so the members that don't speak English can find it in the song book. This is our new member Januaro preparing the sacrament. We each rotate blessing and passing the sacrament each week. When I Blessed Sacrament it is in English and when he does it it is in Bahasa. We pass out written copies of the sacrament prayer to the memb...

This is how we were greeted as we drove up to the Village. The little girl in the center is holding a basket that contains a gift tie that was presented to me After I was presented with the tie these young dancers performed a traditional dance. The dancers lead to this meeting area where school children and parents from the community had gathered. This was all for celebration and thanks for the project that we had funded. Here are some of the children that were let out of school to attend the ceremony. The project involved installing water tanks in two neighboring villages. This water tank had a ceremonial ribbon wrapped around it that I got to cut. This is a picture of one of the finished water tanks. The water tanks Supply water for domestic use and also for their Farm. Both Villages had previously drilled Wells that were ineffective during the dry season. The project involved deepening the wells, installing the tanks and installing piping. The other portion ...

This week was our trip to Bali to get our visas renewed. We love shopping there. Not only do they have most of the things we can find in America but prices are generally cheaper. This is the stuff we bought at the grocery store. Big items for us were oatmeal and the 12 bottles of insect repellent. This time the beach and Bali was dirty. Somehow the tide and brought in a bunch of plastic trash. This was our first Big Mac in 18 months. It actually tasted delicious. The price for the Big Mac and the Icee Coke was $2.77. This was in Bali. No McDonald's in timor-leste  Back in dili this week a Holland America cruise ship came in. As we were leaving church today some of tourist passed by us on the sidewalk. I can remember when I was one of those tourists and wondering what it was like to live in a third world country Some of the members of the new family that was baptized always join us in our taxi to come home. The taxi charges by the trip and not the amount of passenge...

Our trip started out great. About a 3-hour car ride to our lunch stop, which was in a old Portuguese fort in the middle of the country. It was a first world restaurant with Western food. After about another hour's drive we went to the home of a family that have become fish farmers. They grow tilapia fish and sell it to the local schools for the lunch nutrition program.  This is all part of a major project that LDS Charities is involved with to increase the protein levels of children in three districts by adding protein and nutritious vegetables to their lunch meals. When the program is complete it will affect about 10,000 children. With help through an organization we are contracting with this farmer hand-dug a fish pond and now raises fingerling fish into eating size. He received education on how to do this and is assisted by a community consulted who watches over several of the fish farms and has a financial interest in them. In this picture Cheryl is hand-feed...