HAMILTON, BERMUDA
For many years, Amy Trott noticed, but paid little attention to, a sign bearing the name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as she rode a bus past Bailey's Bay, near the tourist feature, Crystal Cave, on this small island.
She was born in that area and felt a sense of interest in it. Even so, noticing every small sign isn't unusual for the 60,000 residents of this British subtropical island, located about 800 miles southeast of New York. The 13-mile-long island, shaped roughly like an open fisherman's swivel, is veined with narrow roads that file between rock retaining walls and then open to ocean views that are spectacular to tourists. In few areas do cars — or the preferred method of private transportation, motor scooters — travel much above 30 miles per hour, so for slow-traveling residents, ocean views are so common as to make the signs interesting.
It is indeed a scenic island where tourism is the primary source of income, bolstered by regular dockings of five-story cruise ships, a couple of which can carry the equivalent of half the population of Hamilton.
Besides tourists, Bermuda abounds in churches. Catholic and Protestant congregations are located throughout the island, and many of the residents attend services weekly. Often, the church buildings are historic. Up and down the prodigiously foliated island, these old white Victorian buildings with traditional steeples stand at the head of pastoral hillside scenes.
So Amy Trott noticed the Church sign. The only time she paid any attention to the building behind it was many years ago when a hurricane blew its roof off.
A knock on her door changed that.
"The missionaries came and spoke about the gospel, and everything like that, and they made sure they let us know it was the restored gospel of Jesus Christ," she said.
Now she is one of the regular attenders at the Bermuda Branch — in the rented building behind the sign. The Bermuda Branch, part of the New York New York South Mission, has been in existence for many years but formerly thrived with American military personnel. Since the base closed, local residents have joined and carried on in their place.
"A lot of people are getting to know the Church, but that is not to say that everyone is going to jump for joy at joining," she said. "There are a lot of churches here."
Sister Trott, 74, a descendant of many generations of Bermudians, and her daughter, Donna, were baptized in 1987. Donna was baptized first.
"The elders wanted to know why I wasn't baptized at the same time, but I told them I had to learn a bit more," she said. "I had to find out for myself what the Church stood for and whatnot. Then I was fascinated by reading the Book of Mormon, and I decided to be baptized."
Sister Trott has the distinction of being the first and, at present, the only, branch member to have served a full-time mission. She said that when she was asked about serving a mission "I had to think about it because of my age, but it was not really a difficult decision." She accepted a call to serve in the Ohio Cleveland Mission in 1995, and one of the highlights was to visit the Kirtland Temple.
"It was really a great mission," she said. "I learned a lot."
She enjoys attending the branch, though it is a challenge to travel across the island to the rented meetinghouse.
"Even though the island is small, a majority of the members have difficulty traveling. I have to catch two buses to get to the site. Of late, since I recently had a heart operation, one of the members has been picking me up."
One of the highlights of her week is having the missionaries come over for dinner.
"The missionaries are so friendly, and so willing to do anything to please a person, I just started having them over for dinner, knowing they don't carry a whole pile of money. They are always helping others."
And helping others is something Amy Trott knows all about.