February 22, 2016

Paul and the crazy kids!! I love these people

I really don't have to much to write this week. Be glad that I pulled something together, because it was a bit of a struggle today.

Tuesday we had zone conference in the afternoon. It was the first time on my mission that the meeting was not in the morning. We proselyted for a few hours before the meeting so when we got there my hair was messy and my skirt was wrinkled. Besides that it was INCREDILBE. I got to see Sister Lynn :) She had to come to Kingston for a meeting. We were able to talk for a little bit before she had to go back to her area. The next time I see her will most likely be the week we go home. She told me to bring my fingernail polish and I told her to bring her curling iron. Can you tell we are best friends?? Lol lol After she left I realized we never took a picture together. Bummer.

Anyways, Elder and Sister Zivic were at the meeting. They are so cute and nice. It was really good to hear from them. EVERYONE spoke on baptism. After the meeting they fed us pizza. YAYA. We all sat around and talked. I love being around other missionaries. It seriously puts me in the best mood. As we left my spirit just felt lifted.

ICE CREAM!

Wednesday was a rough day. Remember last week when I said Edward Cullen could live here? Well, he would only last a week here. The sun has been beating this past week with absolutely no mercy. Sometimes as we are walking I just chant, "I love the sun. I love the sun. I love the sun." I think I am trying to make myself believe it. After a long hot day we were walking up the mountain and a car coming down dropped in a pothole full of dirty water and splashed me. NASTY! I was covered head to toe in dirty pothole water. When we got home I turned my fan on like usual. For some reason unknown to me my fan doesn't have a front cover. As I turned on my fan my middle finger got caught in the blade and sliced my middle finger. To be honest it really didn't hurt that badly, but I just started crying.

Sliced finger.

No one came to visit me this Sunday, so it was just a very normal and relaxing time at church. I actually fell asleep during Relief Society....
We have this investigator named Veron. She has come to church the past 3 weeks in a row. She is to be baptized on March 26th. Everything is going well, except the teaching process is slow. She loves to talk about her dreams and what they mean and what God is trying to tell her.

And that is about all I can pull together today.  I love you all so much!!
Love,
Sister Tuttle
Blessed love. Blessed love. (I am not 100% sure what that actually means, but the rastas say it....)

Ken Hills bridge.

That old man was singing to Sister Maenetja. I just stood back and secretly took a picture

An old Plan of Salvation pamphlet in a bus....I wonder if the driver ever read it.

SASHA

Veron

Kerry

February 15, 2016

Here we go again. You know it's funny because as I look forward it still feels long. 2 WHOLE MONTHS?? But then as I look back the time seems to go really, really quick. Can you believe I have been in Kingston for 3 weeks?

Cats

So this past week I was pretty miserable, but some good things... well, actually some of them are not so good.... you will see. The beginning of the week was very normal. Well, except for the rain. I feel like Edward Cullens 2nd choice of location would have been Kingston Jamaica. Do you get it? It's always raining and he cant be in the sun? Okay I know that was lame. Plus it's hard to give jokes over email. But yes it has been raining almost every day. I have such a love/hate relationship with the rain. I am grateful for the cool weather and a little break from the sun, but if there is one thing I cannot stand it is wet shoes. I feel like I have been walking around all week with wet shoes.

Wednesday evening we get a call that we have interviews with President Brown the next morning. Our area is pretty far from the church so we take either a taxi or a bus to get there. Thursday morning we were walking the road to get a taxi and this rasta man starts talking to me. So he goes off with the usual lines. He wants to be my friend, he loves my color, blah, blah blah, wray, wray, wray. So he walks with us all the way up to the taxi park. Sister Maenetja and I get into a taxi and he is still talking to me at the door of the taxi. When the driver says he is going to leave, the rasta decides to get into the car sitting right next to me. For a good 10 minutes the rasta is just whispering in my ear. To be honest I have no idea what he said because I wasn't even listening. Eventually the rasta tells the driver to let him off. As he is getting off he brings his arm around as if he were going to give me a hug and he says "give me a kiss". I pull away and say, "no way." He gets out of the car but right before he leaves he leans back into the car and kisses my arm and tells me he loves me. I sat in shock for a few seconds and then the 4 of us left in the taxi just started laughing. It was a close one though. I am glad he didn't kiss my face.

Then we had interviews with President Brown. I had an interview with him about 3 months ago and in that interview he told me I needed to start my 5 year plan. All the missionaries going home are supposed to map out their lives for the first 5 years following their missions. So on Wednesday he followed up with me on how my plan was going. Even with the world's most boring p-days known to man, I still have not started my plan. When I told him no he let me off easy and asked me to do a one year plan. I told him I could probably handle that. Then he started asking for details and honestly my future is so unclear right now. He asked me what my passions are. Do any of you know what my passions are?? Well, let me enlighten you:
Painting fingernails
Hiking (really just being outside)
Making t-shirts
Fashion
Do you see how my passions are a bit unrealistic? He gave me some encouragement though and told me I should write a book. I wrote that down in my planner so if there ever comes a time that I have some extra time on my hands I will remember that my mission president told me to write a book. LOL lol
It's funny though because I think my entire life I felt like I would figure things out on my mission and here I am with just a few months left and I am still completely in the dark.

Then Sunday came. I love Sunday. I have never appreciated Sundays as much as I do on my  mission. So anyways, before the meeting began I sat down next to this lady.  After a few minutes she got up and left the sacrament hall. I was left sitting on a bench all alone. A few minutes later a young man from the ward took a seat next to me, but just like the lady a few minutes later he got up and left the room.Once again I was left sitting on a bench all by myself. The meeting started and maybe about 10 minutes into the meeting a man comes in and sits right next to me. You are never ever going to guess who it was (I bet you are thinking it was the rasta that kissed me... but it wasn't) It was STEPHANO from May Pen!! I was so happy and surprised to see him. Seriously words cannot even describe how happy I was. We sat and talked and he even sat in on a lesson that we had with one of our investigators after church. After the lesson I read him a scripture in Alma 17 about Alma and the sons of Mosiah. It is when they meet back together after quite some time. The scripture says "Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth." I felt like Alma. Sister Dill said she knew he was coming, but I am glad she let him surprise me. I totally needed the visit.

Well I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful week.
I love you!
Love,
Sister Tuttle.
xoxoxo

My bff Stephano.

Just another one.

February 8, 2016

With Sister Dill!

So yes this week was very uneventful. I guess compared to the excitement of Nassau everything seems lame. Last p-day was the first p-day I stayed home (not even because of the rain) for the longest time. I literally just washed and cleaned, I was jamming out to the church music dad just sent me, so it wasn't too bad. Through the week we just did straight missionary work. We taught over 30 lessons last week which is an unusual change from Nassau where we were lucky if we got 20 lessons a week. Other than that I just have a few little stories:

That moment when you have no one to see, so you just sit down on the road side!

The other day we were teaching the restoration to a new investigator. On the front of the Restoration pamphlet there is a picture of Jesus Christ holding a lamb. Sister Maenetja asked the investigator how he thought the lamb felt in Christ's arms. I was expecting to hear the usual, loved. comfortable, peaceful. The man says (as serious as can be) "soft". I just nodded my head and said "true. true." lol lol

The other moment when you buy a bag juice and a spice bun.

On Saturday we took SIster Dill teaching. I am so happy Sister Dill is here. I love Sister Dill with all my heart. As it turns out that once we had Sister Dill with us all our appointments fell through. You know it really irritates me when that happens. It seems like every time we have a member we have no one to see and then whenever we don't have a member (which is more often than not) The whole world is free for us to see them. So we were walking up the hill to take Sister Dill home when I saw a little girl sitting on a wall. She was probably around 3 years old. I said hello to her and randomly she says, "my mommy is inside" So I said, "well go and tell her that the missionaries are here". So the little girl runs inside and comes back with her mom. She invited us in and allowed us to have a lesson with her. She told us she would be coming to church, but she never showed up on Sunday. Sadly, I am pretty used to that. It was just cool that Heavenly Father provided for us in our moment of need.

Probably a past investigator

On Wednesday at district meeting the office elders told me that they would be giving us a car soon. I told them to give the car to someone else. Our area is definitely walkable and to be honest I really don't want to deal with the stress of driving a brand new car around Jamaica. I will gladly allow some other missionary in this mission deal with that. I do kinda wish that Sister Maenetja would ride a bike with me, but as for now I am enjoying walking the dusty roads of Kingston Jamaica.

Jamaica

I love you all and wish you a blessed week.
Love,
Sister Tuttle

February 1, 2016

Good morning! Good morning!
Wow. Last week flew by. I am thinking this is probably how it will go for the next 11 weeks. Flash.

ANNA-KAY!!

So yes, I have to say I am so happy to be back in Jamaica. Last Monday as we were planning for the next day I kind of had this surprising sensation pass over me. I was planning for people that I didn't know!! Not even one! Do you know how long it has been since that happened?? 9 months! It is actually pretty exciting being in a new place and I am going to be happy here (except that p-days are now lame as can be... no more beach pictures).
There were two things that are still blowing my mind now that I am back:
1. Mountains. I keep saying to Sister Maenetja, Look at these Mountains!! THEY ARE HUGE!! Well, I guess compared to flat, flat Nassau, every hill or mountain is going to seem huge.
2. Men wearing tight pants. In Nassau men wear clothes at least 3 sizes too big. Not here. I am telling you, The men wear TIGHT pants here. Every time a man wearing tight pants passes I turn to Sister Maenetja and say "did you see how tight his pants were??" I think she thinks I am crazy, but seriously it is blowing my mind.

My new bff

So Sister Maenetja and I walk everywhere. We are supposed to use bikes, but Sister Maenetja is scared. This was the first week in almost a year that I have spent so much time in the sun. Let's just say my skin was like... WHATT?? Instant tan lines. I will be buying some sunscreen today!

Speaking of walking, some unthoughtful person picked a missionary house on top of a mountain. I am not even exaggerating!!! I think when they picked the apartment they thought the sisters in it would always have a car... Well, they thought wrong! I mean, sure the house is safe and secluded and it's the second nicest missionary house I have lived int (Nassau being the first because of it's nice nice couches) But the mountain kills me. Every morning we hike down the mountain and every night we hike back up. Every time I am tired I just think "this is preparing me to go home and hike every Mountain trail I see!"

Lunch at Sister Dill's house with Marcel from May Pen. I AM IN HEAVEN!! Seriously, these are some of my favorite people. 

So I am actually serving in a ward right now. It is actually pretty hard to switch from saying branch to ward. The ward is wonderful though. It feels alive! Return missionaries, missionaries preparing to serve, self reliance classes, seminary, institute, callings, fellowship. I really love it! Plus Sister Dill is here:)

In terms of missionary work here, things could be better. I don't think I realized the differences between missionary work in Jamaica and in Nassau before, but now I see it. You see, people in Jamaica are nice. In fact, so nice that they can't tell you no. Even when they are completely not interested they will still give us a return appointment. Bahamians are more straight forward. Sometimes so straight forward it is rude. Either way no one is really serious. Here or there. Our days are full and busy, but the quality of those we are teaching could be better.

The neighborhood kids. 

Before I got here the sisters were teaching this couple. Jodi-ann and Ricardo. They were progressing really nicely. They were to be married this month and baptized in March. I had one lesson with them and the next day they stumbled upon some Anti-Mormon videos. It was a whole Ronale situation again. Sometimes, I get really sick of those stupid videos. They ruin everything. Something I have noticed about the videos is they don't answer questions. They only create more questions even to the point of doubting God. Can you imagine? Well, I have seen it over and over again. Well, Jodi-ann and Ricardo dropped us the next day. Sister Maenetja is taking it really hard. It has been a few days and she is still not over it. I know how she feels though.

So yes, every thing is good. I am here just getting tanner and larger calves every day.
I love you all so much and hope you have a beautiful week!
I love you!!
Love,
Sister Tuttle

Waiting out the rain. 

MARCEL!!

Anna-kay, Donna-kay and Wendy from May Pen came to visit me on Sunday. I was so happy!!!!!

May Pen people💜