We have been spending much of our time on email and the phone encouraging local leaders. Our first assignment from the Mission Presidency is to Shepard the Shepherds. We find that previous senior missionaries may have done more of the day to day work of the branch which local members could do. The more local members do the less interruption when senior missionaries leave.
The Island has many small towns around the edge, three or four roads that cut through the mountains across the Island, and two larger centers of population, IE. Portsmouth on the northwest coast and Roseau on the southwest coast about 25 miles apart. There once were two Branches of the Church on the Island, one in Portsmouth and one in Roseau.
The Branch in Portsmouth has a few local members, but, most are U.S. medical students from Utah going to Ross Medical School. Most are returned missionaries. At any one time there are 10 to 15 such, most of them are married with dynamic wives giving great strength to the Portsmouth Branch, but, constant change. The students are on the Island for 16 months max. President Warner, the current branch president in Portsmouth is a medical student and will be leaving in a few weeks.
The branch in Roseau was fairly strong and then some time in about 2008 one Melchizedek Priesthood holder was called on a mission to Ohio, Elder Hipolite. One moved back to England and a couple went inactive. President Alverado took away the branch status and made it a dependent group of the Portsmouth Branch. At the present time the Group Leader, Brother Anthony George, is the only active local Melchizedek Priesthood holder in the Roseau Group. We have a local hospital in Roseau where some Ross students come to do their residency. Brother Dave Taylor is one such student, R.M., and teaches the priesthood lesson while also doing some missionary teaching. He gave his farewell talk in Sacrament
meeting last Sunday. We understand that another LDS student is coming in a week or two.
Being a dependant group is very challenging for all of the Branch leaders. The leader here in Roseau can not accept donations. The Relief Society leader is only a teach and has no authority. A member of the Branch Presidency from Portsmouth must conduct all interviews for Priesthood advancements, welfare assistance, and so on. The Ross students have no vehicles so they take the Transports, vans driven by crazy people, back and forth between here and Portsmouth. The Transports Sunday schedules are very iffy. Because of these problems we have been attempting to convince the members here in Roseau that they can do more than they think to build the group back into a Branch. Sunday we attempted to Skype our group leaders into the Portsmouth Branch Council Meeting. The connection was to slow for good results, but, the Group Leader did a great job of leading a group discussion and we managed to teach the very important principle, "It is sometimes easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission."
So, our second assignment is to find 5 new men who have the potential to be strong, active, Melchizedek priesthood holders. Please, Pray for us and this beautiful island with all of these beautiful brothers and sister. They truly are without the full truth just because they "know not where to find it". Elder Pitman
The Island has many small towns around the edge, three or four roads that cut through the mountains across the Island, and two larger centers of population, IE. Portsmouth on the northwest coast and Roseau on the southwest coast about 25 miles apart. There once were two Branches of the Church on the Island, one in Portsmouth and one in Roseau.
The Branch in Portsmouth has a few local members, but, most are U.S. medical students from Utah going to Ross Medical School. Most are returned missionaries. At any one time there are 10 to 15 such, most of them are married with dynamic wives giving great strength to the Portsmouth Branch, but, constant change. The students are on the Island for 16 months max. President Warner, the current branch president in Portsmouth is a medical student and will be leaving in a few weeks.
The branch in Roseau was fairly strong and then some time in about 2008 one Melchizedek Priesthood holder was called on a mission to Ohio, Elder Hipolite. One moved back to England and a couple went inactive. President Alverado took away the branch status and made it a dependent group of the Portsmouth Branch. At the present time the Group Leader, Brother Anthony George, is the only active local Melchizedek Priesthood holder in the Roseau Group. We have a local hospital in Roseau where some Ross students come to do their residency. Brother Dave Taylor is one such student, R.M., and teaches the priesthood lesson while also doing some missionary teaching. He gave his farewell talk in Sacrament
meeting last Sunday. We understand that another LDS student is coming in a week or two.
Being a dependant group is very challenging for all of the Branch leaders. The leader here in Roseau can not accept donations. The Relief Society leader is only a teach and has no authority. A member of the Branch Presidency from Portsmouth must conduct all interviews for Priesthood advancements, welfare assistance, and so on. The Ross students have no vehicles so they take the Transports, vans driven by crazy people, back and forth between here and Portsmouth. The Transports Sunday schedules are very iffy. Because of these problems we have been attempting to convince the members here in Roseau that they can do more than they think to build the group back into a Branch. Sunday we attempted to Skype our group leaders into the Portsmouth Branch Council Meeting. The connection was to slow for good results, but, the Group Leader did a great job of leading a group discussion and we managed to teach the very important principle, "It is sometimes easier to ask forgiveness than to get permission."
So, our second assignment is to find 5 new men who have the potential to be strong, active, Melchizedek priesthood holders. Please, Pray for us and this beautiful island with all of these beautiful brothers and sister. They truly are without the full truth just because they "know not where to find it". Elder Pitman
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