Another one bites the dust

     So last Monday we visited abandoned Ochi in a resort thing (looks like it went bankrupt or something). It was cool and the sisters went with us. It was a major creep level ten and we had some good scares too!

     Okay. I'm going to be positive about this week. This week was good. We didn't get very many lessons and a lot of investigators fell through, but in the end, as missionaries, we can't control what our investigators do, and as long as we do evertyhing we can to invite others to come unto Christ, we have done a good job. Like PMG says, no effort is wasted. Gotta keep moving forward or you don't go anywhere!

 A "harmless" banana spider. This one doesn't have a banana for scale, but is about four or five inches in diameter.

This is a sweetsop. It looks like a bunch of squidward-noses got together for a hulk costume party. It isn't as good as a soursop, which is bigger and a bit more flavorful and juicy. To eat it you break it open and eat the flesh around the seeds.

Rain keeps falling on my head!

     Have I got some pictures for you this week! So we found an investigator at the grocery store last week and it turns out he lives up up up in New Hope. We ended up going way too far up and spent an extra half hour hiking up past his house... We got some amazing views of the entire city of Ochi though!

We went left and it only got steeper and rougher for 30 minutes straight...

 Ochi from New Hope (elevation 8,000 feet above sea level)

Ochi from Limebottom (closer to my house, elevation 2,000 "fasl")

     Here is my first update on cool fruit! This is ginnup. It's a paintball-like outside, with a sweet, mucous-y inside that you suck on until the pit is all that's left.Super good and Elder Gardner and I found a tree and ransacked it for a few dozen!

 Off the tree

 Cracked open

Eaten :)

     Yeah this week we did more service cutting down trees with our machetes, and we were hanging from the trees to be able to swing at the parts we needed to get off. We stayed safe don't worry! It was raining the whole time and the cool wet feels so much better than the hot wet! Yeah its always wet here. I'll choose cold wet any day. A Jamaican yelled at my comp. and I for picking ginnup another time and we thought nothing of it cause it was because we were white. Whatev's. I know how it feels to be a minority now. :P

     Update on Sandy, our one investigator right now! We watched the Restoration video (2002 version hour long, watch it if you haven't!) to familiarize her with Joseph Smith. After the video she said this: "Now I know he is a true prophet. He did the miracles of Christ and he did do all those things. So about my baptism: when and where will it be and what else do I need to do to be ready for it?" WHAT?!?!!? She is so ready to be baptized and that will be the first of August.

     Today we are going to an abandoned hotel resort thing up in Shaw Park it's at the end of a really nice tourist house district and looked way creepy when we found it two days ago. So those pics will be up next week. I'm loving the work and I know this church is true. My testimony grows every day!

Grease lightning, GO grease lightning!

     This week was long. Sandy is doing well, getting ready for baptism and trying to make it to church on time. She is showing a real effort. We got new fans at the house and i finally have one that works well! I froze last night a few times cause the fan actually worked! Hallelujah! We got hit by lightning Saturday night and it was LOUD! Less than 100 yards away from our house. We were planning for the next day and it shook the house and scared the crap out of both of us. Yesterday (Sunday) it rained for two or three hours of church and was so loud I couldn't hear the lessons (tin roofing)!
     My companion and I made mango freezer jam and couldn't find pectin so we used lime jello instead! It turned out really good but looked like puke! We also did more service at the Life Tabernacle Pentecostal church in Great Pond and I took pictures this time!

Elder Gardner mixing mango jello jam

 Finished mango jello puky freezer jam

 These are pics of Sandy's backyard after we decimated it with our Machetes!

 The clear space is where there was bush just as thick as the stuff you see in the back

The finished project!

Oh Say, can you see?

     Yeaaaah!! The fourth of July was fun and we had a simple celebration. In between lessons, the sister missionaries and us got a scoop of ice cream and sang the national anthem very quietly. I got rocky road. One average scoop of ice cream is like 220 dollars! Worth it though! We had a good dinner that consisted of (for me) a burger and fries, baked beans, watermelon, and one can of root beer. It was better than last year up in Arizona even though we had some fireworks then. I don't know why I enjoyed this one more.

     I'm excited for the crock pot and can't wait to see what recipes I have at my command soon! thank you Thank You THANK YOU mom and dad!!!! :) I've built a small essentials pantry and it is sufficient for my needs lol. Nothing like at home. The food for transfers won't be a big deal, spices and dry stuff get carted and whatever perishables aren't eaten get left. They give you a few days to prep for that.

     The mosquitoes aren't bad, just annoying. Our windows on our house don't have screens and the landlord is in the states. The backup landlord might be dead cause we haven't seen him for months and the yard isn't being cared for anymore...so yeah...we are supposed to be getting screens... We just stay in the fans at home and the skeets aren't a problem. During the day mosquitoes aren't a problem really. I'm doing better and yeah I think it was food that got me but the rest of the missionaries are getting Zika virus from skeet bites. I hope I stay healthy I was just sick last week you know!

     Our power went out this last week on Tuesday. We got home to make lunch and the freezer was off. None of the lights worked either. We promptly called the sisters to pick up our perishables to bring to their fridge after cooking some food and having additional study and hoping that after two hours the power would go back on. So for two or three days we had no fridge food...it was not the worst part though! No power = no fans to cool you down and keep mosquitoes away! We were miserable!

     The last 3 Saturdays we have been helping President Francis's old Pentecostal church build on to their building. Mixing big piles of concrete with shovels and carting it around in buckets and placing mortar and cinder blocks all over, it's hard work. You aren't a man until you do this kind of work. :)

 President Francis in the shot! Elder Gardner on the left.

     The missionary work is slow right now. Our whole district is struggling to find people to teach and our branch is falling apart a bit. We're trying our hardest to get pioneer work done to get a good baseline. We don't have anything to work with really. I have faith that we can bring it up though. There are people out there who are waiting for this message and we just need to find them. I love being out here even though it can be tough at times. The stronger the wind, the stronger the tree, right? Our top investigator is Sandy and she is working toward August 1st for her baptism date. She has learned a lot and is reading the Book of Mormon on her own for her own answers to her own questions. She hasn't made it to church on time yet but soon come. She is great and seems ready for the gospel. Were going to start commandments and repentance soon and we're going over to her house tomorrow morning for some service and to learn how to make banana fritters! I've tried to make them once but don't know how to compare since I've not had the real thing.

Take a Sick Week, Boss.

     What a week! As I got home from my p-day last week, I felt it: I was going to be sick. But I didn't expect it to be most of this week. So to sum my week up, I got sick, had runny belly and a high fever with a sinus headache. On Wednesday we had district meeting in Port Antonio (2 hour drive) and I don't know how I made it there and back. It was awful! We finally went out Friday I think it was. We had one lesson this week and nothing cool happened aside from Sister Luelen calling us Friday morning begging us to come over quickly to save some of her puppies that fell down a small hole.
     Turns out the hole was a small opening in the ground, but was seven and a half feet deep, and opened up into a cavern underground. We tied a cloth to a stick and ended up hoisting the puppies out of the hole one by one. One of them got bit by another dog and died the next day.

The pole and the cavern were four feet deeper than me! (10 feet deep)

Another Week in the Life

     This past week of missionary work was just that. Elder Gardener and I are keeping on and working with some investigators hoping they will act and become progressing. Everyone here has great potantial but Satan realizes this and drags them way down. Each person struggles a ton when they start to progress. Like Girls cheating on them and leaving them, divorce, children die, etc. It's awful... Satan knows their potential in the church and tries so hard to keep the branch I'm in small and weak. But I'm not going to let that happen!
     Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting and talked on Member missionary work. My basis was D&C 88:77,81 and lot of encouragement and ways members can help the two poor busy missionaries (and 3 sister missionaries). We hope to strengthen the branch we do have so when we bring new converts in they have a net to fall into.
     Today Linstead missionaries are coming up to Ochi and were all going to the beach to play in the sand and maybe hit a volleyball around. I'm excited to talk to Elder Johnson, my MTC companion, and catch up with him. Thank you all for those who email me and sorry if I can't get back to you very personally, I am busy like you'd imagine. I love you all and hope you have a great week!


These pics are the North coast so if I swam hard I'd hit Florida! (not!)
On the road from Ochi to Port Antonio

 On the road from Ochi to Port Antonio

 On the road from Ochi to Port Antonio

Flour for everyone!

     This week's missionary work was exhausting but the week went fast anyway. We saw a lot less people and taught very few lessons because everyone is so "busy". It's frustrating sometimes when we have this amazing message and nobody even bats an eye at it. They just don't seem to care... We'll get 'em though!

     Tracy's birthday was a few days ago and we floured her and her family then ate cheesecake and cake! That's Sister Barlow on the left, she is from Idaho too! I'm figuring out some good food recipes! I'm working on balancing my budget to have enough food and money at the end of the month, and we'll see how it goes! Jay's baptism fell through when he got offended during the baptismal interview the day before. We're gonna keep working with him hopefully to get him in water by the end of the month. He is so close but needs to learn some more. Sorry for the short post but not much happened this week that was real noteworthy. Our investigators are in a state of rest I can say. We hope they will start acting soon.

Corn Rows?!

     Oh BOY! This last week was crazy! It went super fast and we got a ton of missionary work done. I went on my first trade-off and it went badly in the sense that none of our appointments were aware that they were appointments and they all fell through. In the light I got to talk a lot with Elder Zeck from Canada. He's a cool guy and really nice. He's one of the two zone leaders and they spent a few nights at our Ochi house. I kind of want a four Elder house, it seems a lot more fun. I like only doing my own dishes though and its nice cause our house is clean most of the time. We hit a record of five investigators at church yesterday and have a lot of almost progressings! The work will speed up soon I can feel it!

Anyway here's last weeks promise, me with corn rows!

 And Here is my District and Zone leaders! From left to right, Elder Jernigan(redhead and zl), Elder Muirhead (black), Elder Zeck(way in back and Canadian and zl), Sister Barlow(pink in front), Sister Mashabella(Front and center!), Sister Penaydo(shrugging on right), Elder Gardner(my companion to my right), and Elder Evans(back right).

First pictures and some cool stuff

 This is next to my area this is Mansfield Heights. The road you see is a downward 30 degree angle and out to the left is the bush. People build concrete houses in the bush and live in the bush. There are hundreds of people here, sprinkled in between the trees and such. It's a close feeling but poverty is obvious.

 This is a Book of Mormon we gave to a contact named Trevor. He seemed really interested and we knew he could use the Gospel. He wanted a copy of the book so we committed him to read. He is on vacation for a week and here's where he left the book. Right where we met him in front of his house. A few days had passed and it rained a few times. Bugs were also feasting upon the words of Christ.

This is Rohan!!! He loves going out with us to teach and his conversion story is cool too. He's such a sweet soul and I love how much he has taught me about the gospel and Jamaica. His patois is medium to medium heavy, and gets worse when he talks to other Jamaicans.

Ochi here I come!

    HEY WAGWAN! (what's going on?!) I think I'm finally careening into a normal schedule now. Today is p-day because of the holiday yesterday. But I've settled in to the little apartment with Elder Gardner, my trainer and companion. He's cool. Ochi is on the north coast and a bit to the right from the center. The people are mostly warm and friendly, but we have been yelled at a few times. I don't have a camera cord yet so pictures will come later. I've already had the chance to chop bush with a machete for service and climb up onto a tin roof to chop a tree as I balanced off the corner of a wobbly roof! lol It wasn't that bad, I was safe. I have met with some awesome people already like Bobby, who is a rasta and a member, but needs to let go of the rasta ways before he can get the Melchezidek priesthood. Rohan and Tracy and their family of Jovani, Raheem, Jaleem, and Quiania (kiki), are my favorite. they live around the corner from us and Rohan goes to teach with us a lot. He is super cool.

     The island is tropical and beautiful and hot. I'm always sweating through every pore on my body. But I'm getting used to it slowly, the weather that is. I don't think I'll ever get used to being sticky and sweaty all day. Being in a house with only my companion has perks, and downfalls. I get lots of quiet time and the dishes don't pile up, but I'm lonely at times. I liked the support of more people at the mtc. Lots of the aspects of missionary work are awesome and I see the blessings already, but it isn't easy. It may take me a while to find my own little rut when it comes to what food to buy and how much, and time management where it's important.

This is Pimento Walk. Notice how the houses are built everywhere all along the mountainside. Probably a hundred if not more houses in this picture. (from July 10th, 2015)