December 29,2014

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! I am so grateful that I was able to skype! I am also super grateful that skype actually worked! IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!! (If you know Jamaica, you know why that was a miracle...)

Sister Coleman and Sister Mashabela

We had 4 meal appointments in 3 days this past week. ANOTHER CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!! And no one even attempted to feed us chicken foot or cow head and tripe. The Christmas miracles were definitely in abundance! 

Curry goat

On Christmas Eve we had the other sisters over for the night. It was really fun. We FINALLY got our oven working so we made chocolate chocolate chip cookies. yum. We pulled our mattresses out into the living room and had a big sleep over. It felt nothing like Christmas, but we had a good time. 

SLEEPOVER!!

On Christmas day we Skyped...OF COURSE. And it was lovely. I think missionaries should be able to Skype every day. Then maybe I would be sick of all of you and not miss you so much. lol. That is never going to happen, but I can dream right? We went to Anna-kay's (recent convert) for lunch. We waited for a solid hour and a half and it still wasn't done. They just gave us boxes of food and we left for Sister Sterling's. She fed us rice and peas (beans), pork, chicken, mashed potatoes, and veggies. It was sooooo good! To be honest it is probably a good thing we don't get fed very often.....I would gain a lot of weight here. 

Fried Chicken

Christmas night the Elders asked us if we would take them caroling in our area. When they asked who we should go see of course I said, SISTER MCLAREN! We walked all the way up to her house, but she wasn't there. Instead we went to a few other families. The next day we were walking on the street and we saw her. I told her we had stopped by and she told us she had been with her father. I gave her a mint candy and told her Merry Christmas. Yesterday at church she came up to sister Rampersad and I and told us that the night before she had woken up with a terrible stomach pain. She told us that she reached into her pocket and pulled out the mint we had left her. She said as she ate it the mint soothed her stomach and she was able to go back to sleep. I don't really know what this means, but I hope it means that her heart is being softened. 

We would have bought them if they actually fit our heads.....

So for the past few weeks Sister Rampersad and I have been asking this Rasta for a lock of his hair. Every time he tells us next time, next time, next time. We just wanted one to tape in our journals. Lol. I just realized how weird this sounds. Anyways, yesterday we were at Anna-kay's house teaching her sister Donna-kay and the Rasta's mom who is also a Rasta was there. We casually asked her for a lock of her hair and she said, of course! She grabbed a pair of scissors and cut out two locks for us. We were seriously in shock. We gratefully took them and it is now taped proudly in my journal. 

Believe me, seeing a horse in Jamaica is super random!!!!

It rained a lot yesterday and I realized a lost my umbrella a few days ago. I am determined not to buy another one because I feel like I just left it at someones house. I ask everyone we visit if I left my umbrella at there house. I feel so sad that I lost it. They do not make umbrellas that strong in Jamaica. 

Little Abby wearing my glasses

I hope you all have fabulous new years celebrations. I will be sleeping so enjoy it for me:)
I LOVE YOU!!!
Love,
Sister Tuttle

GRAND MARKET!!! Or in other words.....stay off the streets if you want to keep your life.

Rice and peas for days

Cakes and muffins (fingers crossed they didn't have any rum in them)

Manish water (goat foot sweat soup)

December 22, 2014

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!

MAAAAAAANNNNGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSS

So in this training book I have to read it says to not forget special events and birthdays....I am the worst ever! Sooooooooooooo.................
Happy Birthday
Grandma Tuttle
Aubrey
Alex
Lori Pathakis
I love you all so much and I hope all your birthday wishes come true!!

Lol just taking on dad's photo challenge..... unique utensils

So last Monday was the best P-day I have had since being in Jamaica. After emailing and shopping we played ultimate frisbee with the elders. SO FUN. I just felt so good to run and play and laugh. Lately I have been feeling like the mission is sucking all the fun out of me. I have lost my sense of adventure. It was refreshing to play. It also reminded me of when we would play frisbee up at school. Those were the best nights. The funny part was, the next day we woke up and both Sister Rampersad and I were sore as can be. We decided we could never let the elders know though. All Tuesday we walked around like 100 year old women.

Cleaning the church

Sister Rampersad and have started to teach our neighbor Mr. Robinson. He is pretty old, but feisty as can be. He has gone to gospel churches his whole life and has has a hobby of being baptized into as many churches as he can. Every time we go to have a lesson with him we end up talking about catching spirit and speaking in tongues. It is hilarious. We probably would have dropped him awhile ago but he keeps coming to our church! He loves it!

Getting a lock in my hair. Terrible. I took it out the next day.

Okay so remember Allisa? The little girl we baptized a few weeks ago? Well we are still teaching her mom and a few days ago we decided to start the lessons over by watching the restoration dvd. We usually sit outside during lessons with them because their house is so hot, but for the movie we thought we would have gone inside. Instead we get there and they start bringing their TV and dvd player outside. Oh man, we were laughing so hard. As we were setting up a crowd gathered. We ended up watching it with a bunch of other people, it was great.

Settin up the tv outside

During our weekly district meeting we discussed the issues of this branch and we came up with a few ways we can help. They include sharing spiritual thoughts concerning love with the leaders of the branch (thanks dad), also by serving the branch, leading by example. Our new district leader is doing a great job. I really feel like we can help these people now! Thanks for all the encouragement! We cleaned part of the church for Sister Mclaren a few days ago and she seemed very grateful. We will keep serving her.

Cuties carrying our bags

This week has not been too exciting...sorry!
I do hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! I love you so much!
Love, Sister Tuttle

December 15, 2014

We are going to the Olympics with this team! Am I right?

Sometimes I just want to read emails from all you lovely people for the whole 2 hours I have to email. I love hearing from you all. I don't think I could ever tell you over email how much I love and miss you. I LOVE YOU AND I MISS YOU!!!!

Tan Lines

This past week has been a challenge for sure! It is funny that right after Sister Rampersad and I had 2 baptisms everything else just goes down the drain. I don't think we had a single investigator confirm their appointment this whole week. BUT it is okay! We are fighting through!

The one in the green bowl is how I eat turkey neck, and the pink bowl is how Jamaicans eat turkey neck (they literally chew the bone)

One particularly rough morning we went through our entire list of investigators, recent converts, and less actives to find some one to teach, but everyone was busy. So I decided to put the instructions dad sent me on building love in this branch into play. We called Sister _____ who is an older, long time member of the church.We chose Sister ____ because she is usually the one to start disagreements in Relief Society and also because she is always at the church doing work and other things. We thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal to have a little lesson on Christlike love with her at the church. We called her up and she agreed to meet us at the church. Since it is almost Christmas and we as missionaries have been asked to share the He is the Gift video we planned to read the story of Christ's birth, watch the video, and talk about love. So we open with a prayer, read the story, watch the video, and ask her what she thought about the video and what can she learn from it (here comes the bad part...). She starts telling us that she has been a member of this church for 30 years and this video has taught her nothing. She tells us that the video is so simple that it is a insult to her intelligence. She tells us that she has no idea why we as missionaries feel like we have the right to show her this video and that she is going to talk to our mission president. After she told us off for about 10 minutes I thought it would be best to just bear testimony, pray and be done. So I said something like, well Sister Mclaren I just want to bear testimony of Christ and the importance of his birth.... And she just rolls her eyes and goes, Oh geez! The tears started to build in my eyes. Sister Rampersad closed with a prayer and we left.

After we left I could not stop thinking about what went wrong. What as missionaries did we miss? Had we offended her? I just can't figure it out. Any help?

I walked all the way down the street before I realized I was still wearing my sandals.... oooopppss:)

We talked to the branch president about building love in the branch by having testimony meeting centered around peace, love and consideration. He thought that was a really good idea. He also encouraged us to send scriptures about love to the members often. We have done that a few times since. We also had a really good lesson in Relief Society on Sunday that I helped turn to the subject of love. Hopefully the members are getting the message. If not we will keep trying!

My new favorite thing to do is make every one do this to their nose. It is hilarious.

Zone conference was on Friday. To start off we have to take this bus that seats 15 but they pack at least 20 people into it. It is blasted hot. Next, I am most definitely my mothers daughter because Sister Rampersad was wearing this perfume, and it gave me the biggest headache and I had no ibuprofen. So I am sitting through this nice meeting trying not to move too much so my head will stop pounding. They fed us lunch which was nice, and then they had a Christmas program. Missionaries sang Christmas songs and stuff. It was nice (here comes the bad part...). They handed out Christmas packages. President Brown is walking around telling everyone to open theirs, but I didn't want to. I knew what would happen. I decided to open the Christmas card the Wardles sent me (which was beyond adorable by the way) and even that was too much for me! The tears started and I knew I couldn't stop them so I just opened my package. BAWLING. Seriously, I should not have done that! But I did. And let me tell you something, whenever people see a missionary crying they just automatically assume the missionary is having a really rough time and wants to go home. I don't want to go home, but I miss Christmas and all of you! I pretty much cried for the rest of the night and believe me that did not help my headache!!

This is what my Christmas looked like.....tissues and ibuprofen

I did love the package though! I am a little sad you didn't send a letter or a Christmas card with it:( I thought you were going to send me the family picture we took before I left. Oh and by the way.... that email we got about Jamaicans not getting stuff for Christmas is not true. Every single Jamaican in my zone received a HUGE Christmas package. Seriously.

Lol I put up the decorations! 

I am so sorry to hear about grandma. I do pray for her every night, but now I will pray extra extra hard for her. Tell her that I love her so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so much!

Dad, I am learning patience every single day. Sister Rampersad quite frequently points out the fact that I am not patient enough. I am really trying though. It is so hard when every one is always late for everything, even us. It drives me crazy sometimes.

Well I gave it an honest effort. 

Well, as the weeks go on I continually wish I hated all of you so this wouldn't be so hard, but reality is that I love you all so much and that this is hard. Thank you for the many prayers. I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season! Remember Christ is the true reason for Christmas. I love Christ and I am incredibly grateful for his life and sacrifice. Where would we be without it? I don't want to know.

LOOOK! I made haystacks!! my new favorite dinner!

Bag juice! Blue is the best....of course

You know those grapefruit chewy candies around valentines day? Liquid form.

I LOVE YOU!!!! XOxOxOXOxoXo

Love,
Sister Tuttle

December 8, 2014

HIIII!!!

Puppy!!

Happy 2 months!!

As I read emails it sounds like this past week was a long one for everyone. It was a long week for me too! Sister Rampersad and I have been a bit sick this past week with sore throats and upset stomachs. We are good now, but this past week was a bit of a struggle.

Sister Rampersad and I teach a lot of lessons at the church. It is nice to have the church so close to the town and our area because it is one of the only places in all of Jamaica where it is semi-quiet. Last Tuesday we were at the church to teach a lesson and President Brown was there to interview a member of the branch. When he finished he asked if he could join in on our lesson!! Of course we said yes, but we were terrified! It was actually a really nice lesson. President Brown is an incredible teacher and I learned so much from him in just a 45 minute lesson with an investigator. I learned that we need to be more precise with our teaching. We need to slow down and explain and ask questions about what we are teaching to make sure our investigators understand. I have a long way to go, but I am working on it.

In order to get to our house we walk down this little dirt road track thing (it sounds a bit sketchy, but it is really not bad!). Anyways it was dark and we were just minding our own business and all of a sudden out of the corner of my eye I see this man sprawled in some bush. Sister Rampersad didn't notice him, but I grabbed her hand and when she saw him we both just started walking fast. Once we were out of the track we just started laughing. We had no idea if he was just passed out or dead. The next day he was gone so he was probably just hung over or something. The weirdest part is, these random, crazy, weird things that happen all the time are starting to seem normal.

Yes. That is a bottle of rum.

A ladies husband in our branch died a few weeks ago and the funeral was this week. We went to visit her the other day and her family from England was there. They told me they were from London and I asked them if they knew President and Sister Jordan. THEY DID!! They said Sister Jordan does activities every Tuesday night for them. How small is this world??? Seriously how random is that? I told the lady to tell Sister Jordan hi for me.

This kid is not as cute as he looks. He beats me up every time we go to his house!

Did you watch the Christmas Devotional? We watched it, but because of the time difference it didn't start until 8 o'clock. It was okay though, it was so worth it. It is so weird to see Christmas decorations because it really does not feel like Christmas time. It was really nice to see. I loved the story about the kids who got a dill pickle for Christmas. The fact is that a lot of the children in Jamaica will have similar experiences this year for Christmas. It is really sad. Speaking of sad I bawled during the story of the boy with cancer. That neighborhood sounds so nice. I miss nice neighborhoods.

My tooth is kinda bothering me... should I go to this dentist??

I have not gotten the package from Grandma Tuttle yet. I will probably get it at zone conference this Friday. The office is holding everyone's packages until then because of Christmas. My clothes are holding up really well, and despite the teasing I got from some people I am incredibly grateful I brought so many clothes! Yogurt is pretty expensive here so I just put ice, water, frozen fruit, and this powder flavoring in the smoothies, YUM!

I love you people with all my heart! Will you send me more pictures of your beautiful faces??

Love,
Sister Tuttle

December 1, 2014

We were walking down the street and this little boy just grabbed my hand. We walked him to school and the whole time he held my hand. It was kinda adorable. 

Hellllooo (in my best Lindsey voice),

So reading letters today made me cry. Everyone's Thanksgiving sounds so nice.  I made pizza for a late lunch on Thanksgiving day so for dinner Sister Rampersad and I just had smoothies. Holidays just come and go here like any other day. It is kind of sad. I just tell myself that I only have to miss a few and I have the rest of my life to celebrate with family. Right now all that really matters is the Lords work. I miss being with you though.

School children

This week has definitely been an interesting one. It started Tuesday morning when we walked out of our house and this man walked up to us and asked us if he could use our car to jump him. We told him that we don't have a car and started walking down the road. He started walking with us and complimenting me. Telling me that he liked my name and my skin color. Then he said something really inappropriate and rude so Sister Rampersad told him that he needed to leave. I was so taken back, but the words "forgive them for they know not what they do" came into my mind. About 15 minutes later we were stopped by a lady we had met in the market the day before. We had bought a few little things from her around the time she was about to close, and did not think anything of it. When she stopped us she told us that before we had come in she had made no money that day and had no money to taxi home. She told us that the stuff we bought was enough and more to get her home. I was so touched as we walked away my eyes filled with tears.

Redy and Jue Jue

I read in Our Search for Happiness that we always remember that we have agency, but we so easily forget that everyone around us also has their own agency. God can never control how people chose to act, but I know God is truly watching out for me.

Tacos have been one of the number one meals that I make here and a few weeks ago the grocery store we always go to stopped selling tortillas. I was not going to let that stop me. I have made tortillas before and I was going to make them again. So for the past little while I have been making the tortillas (it is actually a lot cheaper too). We went to the store to get the black beans that we mix with the meat, and believe it or not they were completely out of canned black beans. Sister Rampersad and I just stood in the aisle and pretend cried for like 2 minutes straight. We are so attached to our tacos that we decided that we could just soak and cook our own beans (true Jamaicans right here). Sister Rampersad put them in some water to soak over night and we wake up and the had soaked up all the water. And they were still hard as rock. We spend all of our study hours, lunch and half our dinner hour boiling the beans. In the end they were mostly soft so we just ate them. Every Jamaican we tell that story to laughs so hard. They just absolutely cannot believe that we do not know how to soak beans.

Dad, you will be happy to know I finally had bread fruit! Anna-kay made a curry chicken and breadfruit! YUM!

We had zone meeting in Mandeville on Wednesday and after we all went out to lunch. We went to this place called Star Grill. Man, I thought Domino's was the best food place. I was so happy in there. It was so clean and modern. The whole time I was thinking, if I ever bring my parents to Jamaica we would eat here. Also the food was super good.

Star Grill!! Sorry for the dark picture. A clueless elder took it....

Speaking of food a lady in the ward fed Sister Rampersad and I cow head and tripe yesterday. All I can say is.... runny belly.

We had transfer calls on Saturday. Of course Sister Rampersad and I will be staying in May Pen. I can tell that Sister Rampersad is getting sick of being here (she has been here since August). I love it here though. I know I always talk about how much it smells and how this whole place is pretty much a garbage can, but I love it. I love walking. I love the people. We have a huge teaching pool. I love having the church so close. It is just nice and as of right now I really wouldn't mind spending my whole mission here (also I just don't want to think about packing my stuff up any time soon).

May Pen town

Yesterday Sister Rampersad and I had two baptisms. Stephano and Allisa. Stephano has been taking missionaries lessons for the past 8 months. He has an amazing testimony and is meant to be a member of this church. Allisa is just an adorable little girl. She had  a count down to her baptism and every time we saw her she would tell us how many more days. They are both so great and it was a wonderful day, up until the third hour of church. 5th Sunday right? Relief society and priesthood meet together and you better believe it was out of control. It started with the fact that they didn't even plan to have a lesson the just planned to talk about cleaning the church and Friday night activity. Bad news. People were yelling and blaming each other and calling other people out. It ended with one of our recent converts leaving in tears. It is hard to see people who are supposed to be converted to this gospel act like that. It is also really frustrating because I feel like there is nothing we can do. Jamaicans are strongly opinionated and they always have to have the last word.

Allisa

Stephano

As for Christmas, Sister Rampersad are planning to Skype at the church. We only get to Skype for 45 minutes though:(

Sister Rampersad and me

Our district is made up of all of Clarendon. It is actually pretty huge. Sister Rampersad and I are the only companionship over the May Pen area. We are also the only companionship in the house. It is super nice.

In a bus on the way to Mandeville

I hope you have a fantastic week! I love you all
Love,
Sister Tuttle

November 24, 2014

Walking in the rain

HAPPY P-DAY EVERYBODY!!!  I hope your Monday is fabulous!
This past week has been a long one. It wasn't necessarily bad, it just seemed to drag. Oh well, I guess that is how it goes sometimes...
Every three months missionaries are to have interviews with President Brown. He came to May Pen and interviewed the missionaries here. Except for me because they were really behind schedule, and I just got here so I guess it wasn't really necessary. Sister Rampersad told me that President Brown told her to train me to be ready to train as soon as my training is over....EEKK! Then Munchie had an interview with him (even though she is not a missionary yet, she is feeling pretty overwhelmed so she talked with him). President Brown told her that her trainer will most likely be some one she already knows... EEKK! What if I train Munchie?? I would absolutely love that!

Waiting for our investigator Stacy

Remember Evard? Ya he is pretty much gone. I don't know what happened! We had a few really spiritual lessons with him, he came to church and seemed to enjoy it. Then he just stopped answering our calls and texts. We still see him at the grocery store, but he wont meet with us anymore. Sad:( I guess that's just how missionary work goes. The Lord is blessing us with a lot of new investigators though. Reynae and Donna-Kay are our two most progressing investigators. They both are coming to church, reading, and praying. We are working really hard to keep them on this path.

Picture perfect kitty

So it is tradish in Jamaica to flour people on their birthday. Flouring just means you just dump a bag of flour on someone head. It's pretty great. It was Sister Coleman's and Sister Mashabella's (the other sister companionship in this district) birthday this past week. Sister Rampersad floured Sister Mashabella on Wednesday and I was planning on flouring Sister Coleman on Friday. Everything was ready I had the bag of flour sitting next to me and I was just waiting for the perfect moment. When I went to reach for the bag, it was gone! I look around and Munchie had taken it and a few seconds later she dumped it on Sister Coleman's head. I guess she thought I wasn't going to do it or something. I was kinda sad, but people have birthdays all the time.

Flouring Sister Mashabella

Sister Rampersad and I walk along this one road (sevens road) every single day. Every day we pass this school (May Pen Centeral). There are always security guards standing in front of the gate and lately there has been this Rasta man sitting in front of the gate too.  The Rasta always calls out to Sister Rampersad and I. He calls me pineapple and Sister Rampersad champagne. The other day we were walking by and one of the security guards askes us to share a scripture with him. Before we opened our scriptures all of these kids from the track team ran over and started listening. Sister Rampersad shared one from the Bible and I shared one from Nephi. We literally shared God's word with like 10 high schoolers, a Rasta, and 2 security guards. We were laughing pretty hard as we walked away. Of course we invited all of them to church.

Our District

It was the primary program here in May Pen too. The Mullings are a family that we are working to reactivate. Shanekea was given a part in the program and Sister Mullings asked me to help her write it. She is 9 years old and she has a slight learning disorder so it is hard for her to read. I drew pictures for her. It felt like something Dad would do. Whenever we saw her throughout the week she told me she was practicing. It was so cute. Sunday rolls around, and they didn't show up for church. I was pretty disappointed. It just doesn't seem fair that she practiced so much and then she didn't even get to say her part. The program was really good though. I think May Pen Branch has more children in their primary than Mueller Park 2nd Ward.

Sometimes I play with the Plan of Salvation puzzle during companion study

After church this one man came up to Sister Rampersad and I and asked us if he could draw us. We were like....Uhh we have to teach a class right now (the missionaries take turns teaching mission prep). He was like, it's okay I can do it during class. Weird. Awkward. I am telling you the weirdest stuff happens here!!

The YSA had an activity on Saturday and we jokingly told Munchie to bring us some food back for us. Well she actually did! At church she pulls out some crackers, nuts and a muffin!! I was really excited. When we got home I pulled it out of the bag and realized it had rasins. Ew. Of course I wasn't going to let it go to waste so I was picking the rasins out of it. I took a few bites and thought it tasted really gross. Then we went to visit Anna-Kay (recent convert) and she said she brought one home for her daughter, but her 7 year old daughter didn't want to eat it because there was too much rum in it.... MAN! I am way to innocent for this place.

Rum and raisin muffin:(

I hope you all have a fantastic week! I love you all soooooooooooooooooo much!
Love,
Sister Tuttle