Sunday, March 19, 2017

For those of you who are still dealing with winter weather, 

just remember, spring will come eventually, 

OR 
you could come visit us in sunny-getting-warmer-every-day Jamaica. 

   

Notice the bamboo rafts? 

We're going rafting on the Rio Grande this week 

with some of the other senior missionaries. 
We'll be sure to post some pictures next week.

After being so busy for three weeks, it was nice to have a bit more time this week at the apartment office to get caught up. We were able to work on proposals for a couple of new potential projects. The process isn't really difficult, but it can be time consuming. We did have one long trip on Monday with stops in Linstead (central), Montego Bay (NW coast), and Mandeville (SW), and then
making a full circle back to Kingston.

During this trip, we took a large generator to West Haven Children's Home. This is the last big item to deliver there, so now we just need to finalize overseeing the installation of all the water tanks for the project to be complete. 

We were excited to see the laundry area cleared of the usual piles and piles of laundry.They're finally all caught up thanks to the new washing machines and water tanks. 

       

   Before                                          After

Newly installed water tanks for the laundry room.

On Saturday afternoon, we enjoyed attending the baptism of two fine men at May Pen. They actually both attend the Old Harbour Branch, but because that building does not have a font, the baptism was held in May Pen about 20 minutes away from Old Harbour. All the young missionaries from both towns were there; it's always a treat to be with them.

   

  

  

Stony Hill Road

Today we made one of my least favorite drives because of the rough, windy, narrow roads through the mountains, but one of the most beautiful drives because of the scenery to travel to Port Antonio on the NE coast. There has been a great deal of rain up in the mountains, and we saw several landslides and a lot of standing water. We attended all the regular meetings, and then we held a training for the members of the Branch Council. Under the direction of our Area Welfare Manager, Elder Acosta, we are training all 25 units' councils in the mission to help them create Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans. The Church has great resources for us to use including preparedness.lds.org (check it out). 

You know how sometimes people will post Pinterest "nailed it" or "failure"? Well, we had a Jamaican cooking failure. We tried our hand at rice and peas - so yummy made by other people - so yucky made by us! Yesterday at the grocery store, we ran into one of our dear Jamaican friends who works at the Mission Office. He was accompanying the two administrative office elders showing them what to buy, and then he was going to teach them to cook. We were lamenting our awful results, and he assured us he could teach us how to make the best rice and peas ever; we bet he can. Yay! Jamaican cooking lessons. We'll let you know how things turn out, and if we get really good at it, we might even cook something like this for you when we get back. 

Rice and peas with a Scotch bonnet on the top.  We've been warned to not puncture the Scotch bonnet.

From our study this week:

1 Nephi 19:18 "And I, Nephi, have written these things unto my people, that perhaps I might persuade them that they would remember the Lord their Redeemer."

What does it mean to remember the Lord?  

How do the scriptures help us remember Him?

President Henry B. Eyring taught, "We keep our covenant to remember Him every time we gather our families to read the scriptures. They testify of the Lord Jesus Christ, for that is the message and always has been of prophets. Even if children do not remember the words, they will remember the true Author, who is Jesus Christ" (Ensign, May 1998).