Farewell to Senior Couples

We loved getting together with the Senior Couples.

Sister Rose Benn, Elder and Sister Carter, Elder and Sister Surujbhan, Elder and Sister Beecher, Sister and Elder Beutler, and Sister and Elder Esplin together on Leguan.  We all served in Guyana at the same time.

When we arrived in Guyana, Melvin and Carol Buetler had been there two months.  They lived downstairs from us until a couple months before we were finished.  We had some great times with them.  We walked together most mornings and bounced ideas off each other and commiserated together,  and planned parties and meals.  Carol was very musical and played the accompaniment for our YSA play, "The Wickedest Man in the Book of Mormon".  When they left in December of 2013 we really missed them.
Elder and Sister Summers (BJ and Marty) were serving in Linden when we arrived and Elder and Sister Treseder ( Bob and Margaret) were out in Canje in Berbice.
Elder and Sister Cook (Val and Marsha) were the mission humanitarian missionaries.  When we went to Guyana, they moved to Suriname and we helped them with projects in Guyana.
The Esplins (Glen and Helen) and Carters (Joe and Lois) came the same time in January of 2013.  They were both out in Berbice.  The day they came Elder Beutler took them out to Berbice so they arrived in the dark of night.  What a terrifying drive - all the people and animals on the road - their first night in Guyana.  The Carters lived in Canje and the Esplins stayed with them for a couple weeks while they looked for a place to live in Bush Lot.   The first place they looked they said no thanks, but after looking for a couple weeks they settled on it.  Neither couple had hot water or air conditioning.  The Esplins got their place fixed up, but they still had lots of frogs and bats and mosquitos.
Then the Esplins left in January after the Buetlers.  We left in March, and left Lois and Joe Carter, the only white couple in Guyana.  The Surujbhans, Sharon and Surujpaul, a native couple, had been trained by the Beutlers to run the office.

Sister Lois and Elder Joe Carter.  We loved getting together.

Elder Melvin and Sister Carol Beutler, our downstairs neighbors.

Elder and Sister Beutler, Elder BJ and Sister Marty Summers, and us.

Our amazing friends, Ed and Linda Sappington, who we replaced as PEF missionaries in Guyana.

President Daniel and Sister Rebecca Mehr.  We loved it when they came to Guyana to visit. They were absolutely incredible - so loving and amazingly capable, creative, and busy!

Elder Richard and Sister Hazie Brown came to Guyana to audit the branch finances.

Sister Margaret and Elder Bob Treseder, Elder Lindorf, and Elder Harry and Sister Connie Vanderbeak.

Elder Val and Sister Marsha Cook, our great pals, the humanitarian missionaries.

Elder Dwight and Sister Marilyn Monson.  We loved it when they came to visit to help with the 2015 Celebration and we were able to visit them in Trinidad.