Merry Christmas, when it come!
That is the typical Jamaican Christmas greeting. If we say, "Merry Christmas," a Jamaican will answer, "Thank you, and Happy New Year, when it come."
Jamaicans love Christmas, and even though there is no crunching snow, we have heard a lot of silver bells and enjoyed seeing lights, lights, and more lights. It is especially interesting to see palm trees decorated with lights.
Shopping Center in Montego Bay
I remember sharing pictures of beautiful poinsettia bushes last year, but in case you missed seeing our blog...this particular bush is right around the corner from us.
This month's Senior Missionaries Family Home Evening/Christmas Luncheon was held at the Mission Home on December 4th. Sisters Baird and Hunter, Self Reliance Missionaries, shared a beautiful Christmas lesson. We all tested our memories of Christmas carols to compete in a sisters vs elders game of Hey, Team, Guess What Carol I'm Humming. It was a lot of fun.
The week after our last post on Sunday, December 3rd, was a busy one. Elder and Sister McBride, the Caribbean Area Member Welfare Technical Specialists from Canada, arrived on Tuesday, and we hit the road right after picking them up at the airport to start visiting wards and branches around the island who have members participating in current and potential Member Welfare Food Production Projects. We were in Yallahs, Ocho Rios, Kingston, Santa Cruz, Mandeville, and Savanna-la-mar to visit with Priesthood Leaders and participants. We figure we traveled about 800 kilometers (almost 500 miles); it was a very productive week. The highlight was visiting a sister's home in Savanna-la-mar on chicken slaughtering day!
Two of our faithful, diligent, hard-working elders were right there elbow-deep in chickens from 5:30 AM until after dark.
The regularly scheduled Kingston Stake Conference was the weekend of December 9 & 10. We enjoyed attending meetings and receiving inspiration from wonderful talks and music.
We love and appreciate these righteous men
who so faithfully serve all the members in the Kingston Jamaica Stake.
who so faithfully serve all the members in the Kingston Jamaica Stake.
The Jamaica Kingston Stake is really quite young. This stake, the first and only one in Jamaica at present, was formed in 2014 when Elder Jeffrey Holland visited the island. We try not to compare the workings of a long established stake in the U.S. with this budding stake filled with faithful Latter-Day Saints.
We hosted Sunday dinner for the new senior missionary couple, the Osbornes, who arrived early Saturday morning and our visitors from Canada, the McBrides.
We hosted Sunday dinner for the new senior missionary couple, the Osbornes, who arrived early Saturday morning and our visitors from Canada, the McBrides.
Just like last year, all the elder and sister missionaries were treated to a wonderful Christmas dinner this month. We have 5 Zones of missionaries covering all of Jamaica and the other islands of the mission. Each had their own day to meet at the Mission Home. Even all the missionaries serving off-island - Bahamas, Cayman, and Turks & Caicos - were flown in.
The Senior Missionaries presented a feast for the missionaries each day. The menu consisted of smoked pork chops, chicken, Christmas potatoes (aka funeral potatoes), mixed vegetables, stuffing, rolls, raspberry butter, brownies, and strawberry cheesecake. Our contribution was to prepare the smoked pork chops, mixed vegetables, and our requested strawberry pretzel cheese-cake dessert. We prepared our dishes and delivered them before noon each day. On two of the days we stayed to serve and clean up. It is a good deal of work, but we loved doing this.
Another fun activity at this time of year is wrapping and, this year delivering, all the missionaries' gifts.
Full tummies & plum tuckered out
Another fun activity at this time of year is wrapping and, this year delivering, all the missionaries' gifts.
Even Santa's elves deserve a break.
December 17th, we attended the Port Antonio Branch up on the NE coast. As a member of the Mission Presidency, Buddy was asked to speak, and then he invited me to share my testimony. I mentioned our love of Jamaica and how this Christmas it was a bit easier being away from family, but I admitted, when our children and grandchildren have shared their family Christmas activities, I have been heard to say, "Next year..." .
The week before Christmas, we were busily engaged in further preparations to make this a great Christmas for all the young missionaries. We had one more wrapping session for the last minute packages that had arrived, and we also put together packages for those missionaries who hadn't received anything from home. Several families of missionaries kindly sent extra gifts, families who knew the Pearsons or had some other connections with the mission also sent boxes of goodies, and lastly Sister Pearson had gathered some fun things for us to include in these gift boxes.
Along with the many responsibilities Buddy has in his new assignment in the Mission Presidency, he also serves as the Jamaica Public Affairs Advisor for the Church. We attended the first meeting of the Public Affairs Council and have great trust and confidence in the sisters who are serving as the Director and Assistant Director of the National Public Affairs Council. They are quite knowledgeable and helped Buddy understand his role as the Priesthood Advisor. One of the first assignments he had was to support the #Light The World activities in Kingston and Spanish Town. Unfortunately, we had previously scheduled meetings, so we weren't able to participate. On two days during heavy morning traffic, LDS saints in the two locations gathered at busy intersections to hand out #Light The World cards.
Here is the link to the video of the activity. I'm not able to include it because of the size.
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In addition to our regular travel for projects around the island, we put a lot of kilometers on the ol' sleigh this week as we delivered packages to the Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, and Port Antonio missionaries. I tried to get Buddy to let me decorate the truck, but he vetoed my suggestion.
"Christmas is a perfect time to rededicate ourselves to living the principles taught by the Savior."
President Thomas S. Monson
All our love...
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