November 17, 2014

 Helping recent convert Anna-Kay with wash

Can I just say how funny it is that every single person who wrote me this past week wrote about the snow/cold weather. HA. HA. HA. I can't even remember what snow is. Lol just kidding, I actually miss it. We could use a few feet of snow in May Pen. That would be nice.

Yanique and Shaniqua wearing mine and Sister Rampersad's glasses

This past week we had a sisters meeting in Kingston. It was good, but like every meeting in this church it was long. 8 hours long to be exact. They fed us lunch though so it was all good. We learned about the hastening of the work and having an eye single to the glory of God. There was one sister who gave a talk on forgiveness and towards the end of her talk she started talking about suicide. She said, "think of all the people who commit suicide because they cannot forgive themselves". First of all I don't feel like that was really appropriate to bring up in the meeting, but the worst part was I couldn't stop thinking of Austenland. "Think of all the people who hang themselves and the next day they feel different. Don't kill yourself Jane." I just kept laughing to myself. I am still laughing about that.

Sister Arnet

Baby hands....I mean chicken feet

Anyways, Elder Cornish (a member of the seventy, over this mission) talked to us about loving our investigators. He gave the example of in school do we have the desire to do well in a class where we hate the teacher (Mr. Newton?)... probably not. But what about when we love the teacher (Mrs. Lewis?)... YES! I am trying to show my love to investigators and I hope they feel it. Elder Cornish also talked about how Christ loves us enough to give us opportunities to help ourselves. Our salvation is up to us!

Sister Rampersad helping an investigator keep the Law of Chastity

Because of this meeting I have had such a desire to become a better missionary. I don't want to hold anything back. I want to give all my heart, might, mind, and strength. I know that is what the Lord wants me to do, so he will strengthen me.

On our way to investigator Nickola's house on a rainy afternoon.

Later in the week we were teaching our investigator Donna-Kay. She is super cool and really receptive to the gospel. We always teach her on the porch of her house and there are always goats about. So we were in the middle of our lesson and I feel something pulling on my skirt. I look down and this baby goat was just sitting there chewing on my skirt! Are you kidding me? That would never happen the missionaries in Utah. Lol funny weird things like that happen to us all the time.
Sister Rampersad and I are working to build trust with the members. We volunteered to help clean the church and also to teach relief society. Relief society in Jamaica is interesting... For one thing it is loud in the classroom because of all the fans so it is hard to hear people talking and reading quotes and scriptures. Next, Jamaicans are very opinionated. Everyone has something to say and they will say it! Needless to say it took us the whole lesson to get though about 2 points of the lesson.
That is just how Jamaica is. I have noticed that it is hard to feel the spirit in any given lesson because it is always loud. Dogs barking, cars honking, children crying, tv's, radios, yelling, fans....seriously it is never quiet. We do our best though and the Lord makes up the rest (that rhymed... inspired).
We didn't get to see Evard this week because of the sisters meeting and his work, but we are hoping to see him a few times this week. He works at the grocery store so whenever we go we check out in his line. It feels a bit stockerish, but I guess that is what good missionaries do.

A traditional Jamaican meal. A patty and a bag juice. Yum!

Speaking of the grocery store, it has pretty much everything. We have branched out from tacos to BLT's. Yum. They  don't have crystal light here and I keep asking myself why I didn't fill my whole carry on with a year and a half supply of it. The water is good though. We have a water filter hooked up to our tap, and I really appreciate that. I brush my teeth with tap water, and I even drink water from other people houses. I haven't even gotten sick yet. Fingers crossed for no chickengunya or runny belly!  We go to the market for vegetables and it is the best! We have access to a lot of different fruits and vegetables.

We run around the block every other day, and the other days usually look like this..... 

I love you all! Thanks for the emails, pictures, and recipes! Keep them coming!!
Love,
Sister Tuttle