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Monday, October 2, 2017

Sunday, October 1, 2017

October 2017 General Conference


The amazing talks and beautiful music of General Conference have once again touched our lives and inspired us to be better in all ways - more faithful, more obedient, more compassionate - the list goes on. 

1932-2017
We were saddened to hear of the passing today of our dear beloved apostle, Elder Robert D. Hales. He will be missed. "He lived his testimony," said President Henry B. Eyring, a member of the First Presidency. "He knew God. He knew the Savior, and he loved the Savior. … And he behaved as if God was close, Heavenly Father was close." 

Right after conference, we enjoyed Face Timing with Blake to wish him a happy 31st birthday. 
April 2016
His special day begins a month with 6 birthdays in our family! We wish them all very Happy Birthdays.
This week we held a one day training for the Self Reliance Manager for Jamaica and the four new Self Reliance missionaries to help them understand what we do with members as Welfare Services missionaries. We have two new senior sisters as a companionship and a new senior couple. They are going to be amazing support to the work we have been doing with members of the Church in helping them become self reliant. As the In Country Coordinators for Member Welfare Projects for food production businesses, we work in conjunction with all the Church technical specialists, local priesthood leaders, and member participants on the projects here in Jamaica. The Self Reliance missionaries along with all the other many responsibilities they have will be of such benefit to the members to help them as they begin and progress with their small businesses. Before now, we just haven't had the time to do a very thorough job with the business aspects of the projects, so we are very excited.

A slide from our training Power Point 

For the senior missionaries bi-monthly outing this week, we went to Port Royal just outside of Kingston  for a tour of the historic Fort Charles. We had an entertaining and informative tour guide who shared fascinating trivia about the days of the buccaneers in Port Royal. (As a descendent of the early buccaneers, he made sure we knew to never refer to them as pirates - but always buccaneers - or he'd have to kill us! We're not sure why.) The new sister missionaries recently visited there and mentioned that the tour included some pretty graphic descriptions of life in the ancient port. One of the sisters suggested to our tour guide to give the PG version this time. It was still pretty illustrative. Port Royal's reputation rivals that of Sodom and Gomorrah. 
Fort Charles was the first fort to be erected in Port Royal. It was built in the late 1650-60 and was originally called Fort Cromwell but was renamed Fort Charles. The fort underwent several changes between 1656 -1670. In 1667, the fort had 36 guns and by 1765 it had 104 guns and a garrison with 500 men. It is the only remaining fort. There were 5 at one time, but the other four were destroyed in the major  earthquake and tsunami in 1692.


 




Jamaica’s latitude and longitude are measured from the flagstaff of Fort Charles, the only one of the town’s forts to survive the 1692 earthquake. Originally washed by the sea on three sides, the fort is now firmly landlocked due to the gradual silt build-up.
The Sally Port  
This used to be the way to the boat docks, 
but now it opens out to the sand.

 The Giddy House
We felt like we were in Casa Magnetica 
at Six Flags in Arlington, Texas.

A small redbrick artillery store, the 1888 Giddy House, sits alone just behind the fort. The 1907 earthquake briefly turned the spot to quicksand. One end of the building sank, leaving the store at a lopsided angle.

The Bunker

  

  
This gun weighs 22 tons - no wonder it's never been hauled off.


 
Bunker entry 
There's a tunnel that connected all the gun emplacements along the coastline.

The Museum
The museum has some very interesting artifacts. The  Port Royal Cay is still a n attraction for divers seeking drop offs, shallow reefs, and deep and shallow ship wrecks, but there are restricted areas where only serious archeologists are permitted to dive. Our tour guide said there are still treasures down there. 





There are many online resources if want to read more 
about Port Royal, for example:  

We took a quick trip to Santa Cruz and stopped in Mandeville to say good-bye to two of our sweet sisters who went home on Saturday. At the time, we didn't know we'd actually get to see them as the Pearson invited us to join in with their exit dinner at the Mission Home Friday night. We will miss them and wish them well.  

The two precious sister in the middle returned 
with honor to their homes in Utah. 

We thought we'd close with the tender quote from President Thomas S. Monson lovingly shared by Elder Anderson at the end of conference today. It touched our hearts today just as it did when we heard it at the end of the April 2012 conference. 
"As we leave this conference, I invoke the blessings of heaven upon each of you. May the messages and spirit of the conference find expression in all that you do in your homes, your work, in your meetings, and in all your coming and goings. 
"I love you. I pray for you. May God bless you. may His promised peace be with you now and always."

We love our dear prophet and pray daily for his comfort. We know he is very frail, but we testify that he is God's Prophet on the earth today. If we listen to his teachings and those of all the servants of the Lord on the earth today, we will find peace in the turmoil of the world. 

We are eternally grateful for this knowledge:


God lives. He is our loving Father in Heaven, and we are His children.

Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God and the Savior of the world.
Joseph Smith is the prophet of God through whom the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored in the latter days.

The Book of Mormon is the word of God.

President Thomas S. Monson, his counselors, and the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles are the prophets, seers, and revelators in our day.
Until next week...

We love you all. 

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