What are the people like?

Good question from Grandson, Ryan. The pictures here are typical of the church members. Physically, they are very beautiful. Racially, they are African black, East Indian, Indian, and then Chinese, Indonesian, Lebanonese, Dutch. They are warm and friendly and hospitable. Some of the little ones come up to touch our skin because we are so white. Women greet other women with a kiss on the cheek and everyone shakes hands with everyone.

The church members have fervent testimonies of the gospel. They want a stake here so that eventually they can have a temple. The priesthood holders love the church but they work long hard hours for very low wages. Even the educated ones do not make much money. The only way to make money is to have a business of your own. The first counselor in the Demerara Branch presidency has a job as a security guard. He works 12 hours a night six days a week. That doesn’t leave much time for church work. He shows up on Sunday, his day off, with red eyes. Sister Veronica is a teacher and explained that the best teacher’s college in the Caribbean is here in Georgetown. But even these teachers are not paid a wage they can live on. The result is that if anyone gets ahead at all, they leave and go to the U.K., Canada or the U.S. There are a lot of vacant houses where people have gone elsewhere.
There is no “th” in their speech. This makes it a little hard to understand them. They speak English, but – it’s “dese, dem and dose”. They say “tink and tank” for “think and thank” and “father” is “fadder” and “mother” is “mudder”. When they give a scripture reference, I cringe when it is “turdy-five” or worse “turdy-tree”. We have trouble in the store understanding how much we owe because of the “th” issue.

Students finish high school when they are 17 and many drop out to get jobs before then. This creates a problem for seminary graduation. On the other hand, we have under-aged seminary students who have perfect attendance and are doing 100% homework. We are trying to get permission to enroll them properly so that they will have all the credit they need when they finish. We have to convince the powers that be that Guyana, in fact the whole third world, is different than the developed nations. If we can get seminary into them before they go off on their own, they will be better prepared and be stronger church members.