November 30, 2015

Hi! Hi! Hi!

Last Monday I took the sisters on an incredible adventure. It all started after emailing. Every Monday I give Sister Robinson driving lessons (completely against my will... once again, I will NOT be the one teaching my children to drive!). Anyways, we were driving in this neighborhood we had never been before and we practically drove into the sea. Okay, Sister Rob isn't that bad of a driver. lol. lol. lol. After the lesson we parked the car and walked out to the sea. It is this part of the sea where it stays really shallow for a long way out. Sister Brown and I walked out and on our way we saw star fish and coral and baby fish. The water was sooo clear! It was awesome. Later in the day we parked the car near the bridge on Nassau side and walked over the bridge to PI. We pretty much walked across the entire island in search of a new beach. When we found one we stayed until it got dark. On our walk back there were Christmas lights strung up and down the tourist areas. It was so nice.

Starfish

I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving. Dad sent me a few pictures of the parties and celebrations. I see all of these little kids growing up, and some that I don't even recognize!! I guess I just expect every one to stay the same. I have to say.... my Thanksgiving was AWESOME. This is one reason I love Nassau. They celebrate holidays the same way we celebrate holidays back home (even holidays that don't make any sense for their country). The Thanksgiving festivities started Wednesday night. This member named Sammy made us this huge plate of food for dinner. After Sammy's we stopped by the church for the youth Thanksgiving dinner. It was a beautiful sight to see. Turkey, stuffing, salad, peas and rice ( a little Caribbean added) and of course PIE!!!! And in our last appointment for the night Sister Augustin unexpectedly made us fried chicken and plantain (my favorite Caribbean food... how could I turn it down??)

Food...

Sister Brown sleeping in traffic

Thanksgiving morning started with service for Sister Cheryl. Sister Cheryl runs a catering service from her home. Every year the missionaries help her out on Thanksgiving day. It was madness. I have to say that I just quietly folded napkins for the majority of the time.... We walked away with boxes of food. That night another member fed us. She made us tacos (which were absolutely delicious) Our last lesson was with an investigator in the home of the branch president. We came out of that lesson with a box of pizza. We are still eating leftovers.

The Youte family. I love them soo much

He just loves us so much!

This year I am grateful for so many things. Here is a list of things I am grateful for that I wrote in journal Thanksgiving night:
Family and friends that I get to see in 5 months. Members that do missionary work, the sea, those times you laugh so hard that tears fall, Nassau and the extra time I get to spend here. Easy going companions, I am grateful for health and strength, the opportunity to understand and love other cultures. I am grateful for the message that we share as missionaries. I am grateful for cookies and brownies and new clothes. And I am grateful for goodly parents and awesome sisters and a niece that I have never met.

Walking out

So ya I am super blessed.

Jumping for joy!!

Love these Sisters

Do you all remember the story of Ronale?? All happy and good.... Well lately he has been struggling with some questions and concerns about the church. He has turned to youtube and the internet for information. We saw him about 2 weeks ago and we invited him to read and study his scriptures. We also invited him to pray and ask God, the source of all truth, for answers. He told us he was going to continue watching the youtube videos. Awesome.  So this week we brought a really strong member. And once again my testimony of member missionary work was strengthened! The member addressed his concerns, shared personal experiences, and invited Ronale to do the same 3 things we had invited him to do just 2 weeks earlier. At the end of the lesson he said he was going to read and pray and seek answers for himself. It was one of the most notable lessons from my whole mission.

Princess Samoya

I wasn't allowed in this picture because I am not Jamaican...

Taking Samoya to church

 It was a great week! Christmas is coming and all is well! Enjoy the cold weather... ha. ha. ha.

Christmas lights!!!

I love you all!
love,
Sister Tuttle

Has my hair gotten any longer?

November 23, 2015

Our email time has been sliced in half. YAYA..... So, if you do not get emails back from me it is not because I do not love you. It is actually quite the contrary. I love you very much and we can talk our hearts out in the next 4ish months when I get home.

Setting up Christmas with Jade and Justin

And so the Nassau tri continues. This tri really is not too terrible. I like Sister Brown, she always laughs at my stories (even when they aren't all that funny). I thought covering the entire island of Nassau you stress me, but is actually going really well. We are super busy (which is one thing a missionary loves). Our days are full and we have  a wider variety of women to come teaching with us. I would have to say it is the best of both worlds.

Guess what?? Christmas is coming in Nassau!! I am already feeling the Christmas spirit more than I ever did in May Pen last year. People are putting up Christmas lights, I hear Christmas music playing around neighborhoods and every once and a while in stores. The branch choir is having choir practice 3 times a week in preparation for their Christmas cantata.  I think the saddest part about this Christmas season is the fact that I will be transferred half way through December. Transfers fall on December 16th and my chances of staying are pretty much non-existent. I am quietly preparing for my departure. I mean, I already know I will be leaving so why not get a head start?? Anyways, I am grateful that Heavenly Father has allowed me to stay here for so long. I just love it here.

Sorry not many pictures this week

Back to last week. We are working with some AWESOME people. We have been pushing member missionary work in the branch. About 3 weeks ago a member invited her friend from work to church. The friend ended up coming and we started teaching him. His name is Frankie and dare I say it??? He is super prepared. Plus he already has a solid tie to the church so he is more likely to stay. I am telling you there is POWER in member missionary work. Let me give you some numbers:
I have been in Nassau for 7 months. I have met thousands for people. I have knocked on plenty doors. I have given out hundreds of pamphlets and invited just as many to come to church. Out of the hundreds of people I have invited to church, we will maybe see 1 or 2 actually come to church (and on top of that they usually only come one time...) BUT, a member, just a regular person invites their friend to church and... BOOM. Suddenly coming to church isn't that hard. There is something about this name tag that I wear everyday that distances people from me. Even though me and the member are saying the same thing when inviting someone to church, it is way better coming from the mouth of a member. It worked with Cameron and it is working with Frankie. We are working on helping the New Providence members understand that.

We also started working with a young girl named Joy. And oh how joyful she truly is. I have known Joy ever since I got to Nassau. She is the daughter of a very faithful member. My entire time here I assumed Joy was a member. I mean her mother has been a member for years and she always carries her whole family to church. So one Sunday in church, Joy's sister, Miracle, came up to me and told me that Joy has never been baptized. I thought she was joking so I asked her mother. Joy's mother reaffirmed that Joy really has not been baptized. She also told me that because of a family situation, Joy's baptism was delayed. Anyways, now we get to teach her!!! We are hoping she will be baptized before Christmas!

Nassau church yard

Believe it or not, it is getting cold here in Nassau. I find myself wrapping up in sweaters in the morning because I feel so cold. The days are cooler as well. We have been receiving a lot of rain. I told you.... CHRISTMAS IS COMING TO NASSAU!!!

Well, I hope you all enjoy your Thanksgiving break! Eat some turkey and mashed potatoes for me :)
I love you so much.
Love,
Sister Tuttle

Me and Sister Brown

November 16, 2015

Mental note: One week free of excitement is then followed by a jam packed week of pure excitement.

lookout

Monday evening we went out for our usual P-day adventure (because how could you stay home in a place like this). I just realized that one of my favorite things to do is teach people about adventuring. When I first met Sister Robinson she wanted to stay home every P-day and sleep. Here we are 14 weeks later and she is asking me what adventure we are going on today. There is so much more to life than sitting down doing nothing. So yes we drove all the way to the west side of the island to Jaws beach (I may or may not have heard it was the beach the movie Jaws was filmed... I don't know it could be true). It was beautiful! The water was blue as can be and the sand was probably the softest sand I have ever felt before. I was standing in the water with Sister Pace when I noticed thousands of tiny little fish swimming around our feet. Naturally I reached down to try and grab some. After thrusting my hands in the water to grab some fish for the third time a huge group of big fish popped out of no where splashing and swimming all around us. Sister Pace and I ran out of the water screaming. Once we were safe on dry sand we burst out in laughter. It soon became a game between the four of us to get the big fish to chase us out of the water. There was a lot of screaming and laughing.

Playing in the sand

On Tuesday morning we had a lesson with this new investigator,  Simoya (we actually met her while finding with President Brown). So we were sitting down talking about the Book of Mormon when all of a sudden Sister Robinson jumps out of her chair holding her nose. She manages to tell us that a fly just flew up her nose. Oh. My. Goodness. I had one good laugh about that one. She was running around trying to blow the fly out of her nose. She even tried to make herself sneeze with black pepper, but it didn't work. For the rest of the day she kept telling me ridiculous things like, "half of my face is numb" "I think my eye ball is going to fall out" "I wonder if I swallowed it".

Wednesday I taught district meeting. I taught about using scriptures during lessons. It was one of my favorite district meetings I have taught so far. Half way through the lesson Sister Pace started feeling a lot of pain. She has been sick for the past 6 weeks or so, but it hasn't been too bad. She took a trip to the hospital when Sister Lynn was still here, but they couldn't find any problem. She had actually gone to the hospital on Tuesday and they had given her some medication to ease the pain. Anyways, long story short we ended up taking her to the ER that afternoon. She spent 4 nights in the hospital. They ran some tests, but still couldn't find any problems. President Brown wanted one of us to be with her during the days and since I am the only other driver Sister Brown and Sister Rob took turns staying with her. I cannot tell you how many times I took the Doctor's Hospital elevator to the 4th floor.

Taking Sister Pace to the hospital 

So excitement within excitement:
Sister Pace took sick during district meeting and she didn't think she would be able to drive the car home. So all four of us drove in our car to the hospital and we left the other car at the church. So now this created a problem. I am the only driver and we have a car stuck at the church. We left Sister Pace and Sister Brown at the hospital and Sister Rob and I dropped our car at the house. We were planning to catch a bus, but right outside our neighborhood Sister Rob felt thirsty so we used our bus fair to buy juice. We had to make the journey by foot. Well, at least we had juice.

Juice over Bus... 

They released Sister Pace from the hospital Sunday morning. She came home and started packing for home. When I say home I mean HOME HOME. Like off the mission home. I guess between her and her parents and President Brown they decided the best thing for her would be to go home and get better. We dropped her to the airport early this morning.

Chilling in the hospital

So here we are 3 missionaries covering the entire island of Nassau for the next 4 weeks (three weak cheers for tripanionships).

At church on Sunday this member asked me where I was from. When I told him I was from Utah he was surprised. He said I have an accent that doesn't sound like Utah. Apperently I say ax instead of ask..... lol lol

Even with all the excitement these past few days, some good has come out of it. With all of our trips in and out of the hospital we became good friends with this security guard named Ricky. We had a lesson with him Sunday evening that went really well. He has a lot of potential!

But as usual all is well with me. I am enjoying missionary life. I am loving Nassau. Things are just good.
I wish you all a wonderful week. I will send some sunshine your way!🌞
Love,
Sister Tuttle

Can you see the baby fish??

"Sister Rob, take a picture of me jumping in my sand castle"

November 9, 2015

Nassau Sisters one last time

Do you remember Augustin? He was the one with the excitement re-baptism back in August. First of all I just want to say that I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that has allowed me to get to know Augustin. Second of all, he is doing so well. We go to lessons with him and he asks us questions like. "who is the brother of Shared (Ether 13)" "who wrote Hebrews?" "what is the difference between a Jew and a Gentile". We always tell him we are going to take his questions and study them and answer them when we come back. By the time we come back he has already studied the scriptures and found the answers for himself. He graciously allows us to share our findings before telling us that he already found the answer on his own. He is so great. Plus last fast Sunday he bore his testimony. It was so cool! Brother Saint-Natus stood at the pulpit for him and translated his whole testimony. It was powerful. He spoke about gaining a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said once we gain a testimony we should be willing to give anything for it. He gave the examples of Abinadi and Jesus Christ. He talked about how they gave their lives for the gospel because they knew it was true. 

Mad because it was Sister Lynn's last P-day in Nassau

chillin in Nassau

We have this new rule in the mission that we are not allowed to visit anyone of the opposite sex unless a member of the same sex is with us in the lesson. I am not going to lie. This rule was pretty hard to take under the circumstances of Nassau.
Here are the circumstances:
About 95% of the people teach are males
Everyone in Nassau works all day every day. So in other words it is hard to get members to come teaching with us (especially woman!).
So we changed our focus. Our focus is now on woman and families. Also it has given us an opportunity to work with some members that I have never worked with before. We are building new relationships and it is super fun!

Byee Sister Lynn see you in a few weeks!!!

Saturday was NATIONAL SERVICE DAY!! I remember last years national service day. I was in May Pen and I had been on my mission for about a month. We went to the infirmary and tended to some people. Can you believe that was a whole year ago???? It blew my mind just a little bit. This year we went to a children's home and planted trees and a garden. Someone interviewed me about the work so watch for when I become famous. Right before I leave here I want to go back and see how all of the plants are doing....

Mormon helping hands

Sister Saint-Gilles and me plalnting plants.

President Brown called us Wednesday afternoon and told us that he would be flying into Nassau Saturday afternoon. After the service we picked him up from the airport and he told us we had him for the afternoon. We had a few people planned, but of course they all fell through. We ended up finding. The first person we talked to allowed us to sit and talk with her for a while. We talked about the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon. President Brown knows how to teach. Sometimes I think about how crazy it is that Heavenly Father allows all of these children who don't know anything to go out and do his work. It is humbling.

The coolest teaching crew around.

The group

We had interviews with him that night and he told me I would be leaving Nassau at the end of this transfer (which I pretty much already knew). I am really grateful for these up coming weeks though. Something great is going to happen. I know it.

People say she is my mom and I say...yep:)

Some of my favorite people

On Sunday this random man just walked into church. He said he had told himself awhile ago that he would come and visit the church and God had reminded him of that promise that same Sunday morning. He came to church and participated in all the classes. People were asking him if he was sure he was not a member of the church. It was awesome. We sat and talked with him for a long time after church. We talked about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. He is moving to New York this week, but he told him he can get in touch with missionaries there. God is so great.

More service

More Service

I hope you all have a fabulous week filled with tender mercies from our Heavenly Father.
I love you so much. I really do!
Love,
Sister Turtle

November 2, 2015

I know you are all dying of anticipation. WHERE WILL SISTER TUTTLE GO NEXT?? Jamaica? Cayman? Turks and Cacios?
Ha. Ha. Ha. you were ALL wrong!
We got transfer calls on Saturday annnnnd.....
I AM STAYING IN NASSAU WITH SISTER ROBINSON!!!

Nassau

Another 6 weeks of this

This might not mean very much to you so let me put it in perspective. Missionaries usually stay in areas anywhere from 3 to 6 month. Companions usually stay together 6 weeks to 3 months. Alright, so I don't know if you remember, but I came here in May. That was almost 6 months ago. I got Sister Robinson in August which was 3 months ago. Plus I became the district leader in July which was 4 months ago. 

NASSAUU

Okay, so that means I will be spending 7 1/2 months in Nassau (which is the same amount of time I spent in Jamaica before coming here). 4 1/2 months with Sister Robinson (YAYAYA honestly no sarcasm. I love Sister Rob). And 6 months as the district leader (which means I have to plan 6 more district meetings.... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO). It also means that I will only get 4 more months in Jamaica. 😿

Hanna road...they forgot the H

Yes. Yes. Yes. The great thing is... I am happy! I am so excited to stay in Nassau for another 6 weeks. I told Sister Robinson that we have so much more time to adventure together. 

The saddest part about transfers is the fact that Sister Lynn is being transferred back to Jamaica. She is my best friend on the mission and Nassau will not be the same without her.

MY BFFFF

Adventures with my bff

Nassau Sisters

Wheelies

Remember when I told you the tiniest bit about Celson last week?? I should not have done that. He was supposed to have his baptismal interview on Saturday, but when we went to see him Friday night we felt like he needed a bit more time. He was REAALLLY sad. We were planning on extending the 22nd of November to him, but we never got the chance. To be honest I don't  really know what happened. He didn't come to church yesterday and we are having a ridiculously hard time meeting with him. 

Ahh missionary work

Cameron was baptized on Sunday!!!

CAMERON

Nassau Sisters + Cameron

I am really sorry this week was very average. No excitement. No stories.

The Augustine family. I LOVE THEM

kinda blurry, bu I love Rayshawn

Alton

Alton and Destiny

Jordan

Channa and family 

Camillot

Tahan and Brea

I hope you all have a fabulous week!
I love you. And you. And you.
Love,
Sister Tuttle

P.s. Is it snowing there?