Bermuda: Small branch on a small island
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HAMILTON, Bermuda — The Bermuda Branch is one big family that wants to be bigger.
That's the feeling among the 40 or so active members of the Bermuda Branch, who share not only residence on a small and isolated island in the Atlantic, but also testimonies of the restored gospel.
In fact, through their efforts the 45-year-old branch is growing, although slowly. An average of one person per month has joined the Church recently, said President G. Lawrence Spackman of the New York New York South Mission, which supervises the distant unit.
"They are a very close-knit and unified branch," he said. "The branch has been around for a long time. They are good, faithful people who are always going on temple trips. Every time I go, I am always renewing temple recommends.
"It's a great, great island. They're good people."
Bermuda lies about 760 miles southeast of New York. The subtropical archipelago was first colonized by British settlers who shipwrecked here in 1609. The 60,000 or so residents of the British Territory have a middle-income economy based on tourism. A nautical influence pervades the island, no part of which is more than two miles from the ocean.
United States military bases on the island first brought members here. Members serving at Kindley Air Force Base organized a Relief Society in 1953, and a servicemen's group in 1957. For many years the membership was wholly comprised of expatriates from the United States and Canada. A branch was created June 26, 1966.
The first Bermudians were baptized in the mid-1980s. As the base began to phase out in the 1990s, local residents replaced the families that moved away. When the base finally closed in 1995, its closure had minimal impact, taking only one family. Since that time a few other expatriate families and individuals have located in Bermuda, adding their strength to the branch.
The branch is now under the leadership of Robin Mello-Cann, the first Bermudian branch president, a convert who was baptized in 1993. President Mello-Cann, a plumber at Bermuda College, described his conversion:
A friend who was a Church member urged him to hear the missionaries. "One day, I reluctantly said, 'Yeah, I will meet with them.' I found out they were pretty neat young men. We got on pretty well from the first time we met.
"In the second discussion they asked me to pray about Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith. That night after they left, that is exactly what I did. I got on my knees, and prayed to Heavenly Father, and I received my answer. I never felt anything like it: a warm, gentle feeling; a burning but soothing feeling that came over my whole body, from my hair right down to my toes, and I truly believed that was an answer from Heavenly Father, an answer to my prayer, that the the Book of Mormon was true scripture and Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God.
"As the discussions went on, the missionaries themselves were so in tune with the Spirit, quite often they were in tears as they were teaching me. And that also had an impact on me. I also felt the Spirit as well and it helped to confirm to me what they were teaching was true."
When it came time to make a decision to be baptized, he was fearful of what his grandmother, who was active in another denomination, would say.
"I asked the missionaries to pray with me so I would have the strength to face my grandmother and tell her about my experience. I was shocked to hear her say, 'Robby, if you say that is true, and you are happy, I am happy for you.'
"She has supported me and stood by me through it all.
"My baptism was a glorious event. I was baptized [in the ocean] at 7 a.m. Sunday, Feb. 28, 1993, at the Midocean Beach Club. The wind was out of the south. The waves were choppy. It was cold that morning. But as the missionary led me into the water, and as he said the ordinance and immersed me and lifted me back up, I felt so warm inside. I knew my repentance was certain and all my sins were forgiven. That was the happiest I had felt in my life."
A year ago, he and Rowena de la Cruz, a returned missionary from the Philippines, were married in the Salt Lake Temple.
"My family is far away," said Sister Mello-Cann. "The branch is like a second family because the members are so loving."
Living in Bermuda is like living in paradise, she said, but as her husband added, "Sometimes we feel like we are all alone out here by ourselves."
Karen Daniels, Relief Society president, explained, "I love my island, but I get island fever and I have to get off the rock once or twice a year."
The mother of a 14-year-old daughter, Kaurie — the only young woman in the branch — Sister Daniels is determined to have her daughter enjoy the full program of the Church. So leaving the island last summer allowed Kaurie to to attend a girls camp in Utah.
An accountant, Sister Daniels is the financial controller of the Department of Social Insurance for Bermuda. She left an accomplished position at the Bank of Bermuda to help update the government's program.
She first learned about the Church in 1982 while employed for Jim Turner, a Church member. She gained a testimony before finishing the missionary lessons and was baptized Sept. 8 of that year. She attended Bermuda College, and then completed her education as a certified public accountant, with a master's in finance, at universities on the mainland.
"I try to help out [in the branch] any way I can," she said. "Missionary work is tough in Bermuda because there are so many churches and the people are so entrenched in their religions and traditions with their families and friends. The Church has had struggles here."
One of the challenges is transportation. A large proportion of the members do not have automobiles and must ride buses to meetings.
"We do a lot of car pooling, as far as we are able," said Sister Daniels.
Branch members look forward to having a meetinghouse more centrally located than the rented facility now in use. Leaders have said that a new facility is probable in the near future.
"The Lord seems to open doors when He sees that we are striving," Sister Daniels observed. "And we are trying."
