Sister Tuttle Jamaica, Kingston Mission: 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.