March 14, 2016

Hi my name is Sister Tuttle. I forgot my name tag.

Well, I have to say, I still don't know if I had the Zika Virus, BUT I definitely had something. On Tuesday the rash set in. It literally covered my entire body. The rash pretty much felt like thousands of tiny pins pricking my skin all over. IT was especially painful in the sun. There was this moment on Tuesday that I had a major break down. We had no one to see and the sun was so hot. The tears just started streaming down my face. I sat down on the road under a tree and just cried. I wanted to cry harder than I did, but I held it in. TO be honest, I think I was crying for more than just a rash. When I was done crying we got up and continued walking down the road. Just a few houses down this adorable English woman called us over and told us that her daughter is a member of the church. She invited us into her house. She gave us cold drinks and chocolate cake. Also, it just so happened that she was a retired nurse. I showed her my rash and she sent me with some cream to rub on my skin. I rubbed it on my skin for the next few nights and the rash was gone by Friday.

Twinzies

On Thursday the church historian, Brother Turley, came from Utah to learn about the church in Jamaica. Missionaries from the Kingston zone were invited to a special meeting in the morning. It was AWESOME! He did a presentation about church history and then he did a question and answer. He bore a powerful testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. All I have to say is that I know it is true as well. Also, I want to go to the church history museum when I get home. It sounds awesome. Thursday was also incredible because I got to see Sister Lynn!!! YAYAYA We got to sit and talk and eat lunch together and talk. I realized that I feel better when I am around other missionaries. It even puts me in a better mood for the rest of the day. Plus this time I was smarter and I took a picture with her. When we walked out of the church President Watson was there. He was my branch president in May Pen and pretty much one of my favorite men in Jamaica.  We were able to chat for a few minutes and I told him I would add him as a friend on facebook in a few weeks :)

My bff Sister Lynn. Also, please note my foot tan line.

President Watson...and his twin nieces.

People in the neighborhood call them hot and cold iron. One has coolie coolie water running in it. We sit on the cold one for our lessons with one of our investigators. People often cross the gully on the pipes.

On Saturday we were standing in line at the ATM. While we were waiting I had an art student draw something in my planner. He drew an eye and told me no one had ever asked him to draw something for them. I also talked to this doctor from India. He told me that he grew up with a non-christian background, but because of some recent circumstances, he started believing in God. He had some questions about us as missionaries and also what we taught. He invited us to his office and we taught him the Restoration. As we taught he took notes. At the end of the lesson he told us that in the next few days he would be leaving for India for a month. We gave him information for the Gospel Library app and told him about the Book of Mormon.

Hair Salon

The other day our district leader call and told us that President Brown felt that he needed to tell all the missionaries in the Kingston zone to check their fire alarms. Let's just say that I have been carrying around my USB and filled SD cards every day. lol lol

Blue eyed baby

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

March 7, 2016

Good morning! Good morning!!
Can you tell that the quality of my letters have been heading down the drain?? Maybe it is because it is so hot here, or maybe it is just 17 months of writing weekly emails is finally getting to me.
Whatever it is this week is no exception.

We had trade-offs with the STL's (sister training leaders) Monday to Tuesday. Trade-offs have never been my favorite thing especially with this new rule. The way trade-offs used to work is that on of the STL's would come to the normal missionaries area while the other STL takes the other normal missionary into their area. Does that make any sense? Well anyways, the new rule is that both of the normal missionaries have to leave their area and travel on their own to the STL's area. SO we each go with an STL, but we are all working in the STL's area. So on Monday night Sister Maenetja and I packed our bags and took 2 buses to get to Port More. The trade-off was very normal. When Tuesday evening came the STL's dropped us at the bus park. We took a bus back in to Kingston, but we accidentally took the wrong bus to get back into our area. We ended up in the middle of downtown Kingston, in the dark, having no idea where we were. It was actually pretty scary. I have heard stories about downtown Kingston. There I was a little white girl, with a huge backpack on my back, lost. Well, as the story goes someone pointed us in the right direction and we caught a bus into our area.

On Wednesday Sister Wint showed up at the church after our district meeting. I served around Sister Wint when I first got to Nassau. I really love her. We were good friends in Nassau and I was happy to see her. She sat in a lesson with us and then took us out for Chinese food. It was a wonderful afternoon.

We got transfer calls on Saturday. Sister Maenetja is my last companion. I told her she is lucky because she will inherit all of my stuff. She didn't seem too interested...

I have been thinking a lot about my mission. I was thinking about the fact that not matter how old I get on my mission, it still feels like I have forever left. here is an example: When I got to Kingston I had 3 months left. 3 WHOLE MONTHS?? Well, time has gone and now I have 6 weeks left. That is half of 3 months, but it still feels sooooo long. Everyone keeps telling me that these weeks will go the fastest, but I will be the judge of that.

Also, just a side note before I end this letter. I may or may not have the Zika Virus. It started last night. Aching muscles, sore joints, red eyes, slight fever. I woke up this morning and didn't feel too bad so hopefully it will just pass quickly.

Alright, I hope you all have a wonderful week!
I love you and miss you.
Love,
Sister Tuttle.

February 29, 2016

I only took one picture this week...SORRY!

Let me see... I will just start from the excitement....
ELECTION TIME in Jamaica... or in other words... stay inside all day for missionaries. Thursday was election day and we literally stayed inside all day. We did our weekly planning, I filled the area book, we called a few of our investigators, I wrote some letters and read my Book of Mormon. It was a nice and relaxing day up until about 6:30 in the evening. By then I was just plain bored.

There were two parties running in the election. The PNP and the JLP. Thursday evening the results came in that the JLP won the election. Friday morning the people were still celebrating. Loud music, blow horns, dancing in the streets, banging pot covers. Pure noise. So things pretty much went back to normal by Saturday. Or so we thought. Sunday after church we were in a lesson with Beron and our district leader kept calling us. After the lesson I looked at our phone and they had sent us a text saying something about "call us soon, emergency". So we call the elders and they tell us that President Brown has ordered all missionaries to go home and stay in the rest of the night. The elders told us that after a recount of the votes they realized that the PNP actually won by just 2 points. So because of the sudden change a bunch of the JLP supporters were on the rampage. Excitement. Sister Maenetja and I grabbed a bus and went straight home. I spent another evening writing letters. Other than that it was just another normal week of missionary work.

One of our investigators lost her job last week. She had to work every Sunday at that job so she wasn't able to come to church. Even though it is a trial that she lost her job, it is giving her an opportunity to keep God's commandments. She came to church for the first time on Sunday and had a wonderful experience. We are praying that she gets a new job soon, but more importantly that she gets a job where she gets Sundays off.

I got splashed by more dirty pothole water on the way to church Sunday morning.  It's a good thing Sister Maenetja suggested that I change out of my white skirt before we left!

I love you all so much and wish you a wonderful week.
Blessings.
Sister Tuttle

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💜