Sunday, March 4, 2018

We welcomed more visitors to our lovely island. Vickie and Dan Overpeck from Albuquerque, New Mexico area, Debbie's sister and hubby, arrived in Montego Bay on Saturday. We plan to share some of the beauty of Jamaica with them over this next week. We stayed at a nice bed & breakfast in Montego Bay with a gorgeous yard including all this vibrantly colored bougainvillea. 

On Sunday, we attended the Montego Bay Branch and had the fun coincidence of meeting some visitors from the tiny town of Shelley, Idaho where Blake's family now lives. Another it's a small world experience.  

Sunday evening found us all enjoying 
a beautiful sunset in Negril. 

This last week we attended two wonderful mission meetings. First, Mission Leadership Council (MLC) on Tuesday, and then Kingston Zone Conference on Friday. Both of these meetings were filled with powerful counseling together and enriching teaching and testimony building experiences. 

MLC is such an important meeting because of the profound impact this time of  counseling together has on the effectiveness of the mission leaders, the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders, who can then continue to train the missionaries of their zones. 

Elder M. Russell Ballard offered ...

"...among the leadership assignments in the mission, training is the one that requires the most trust from you and the blessing of the Lord.

“An effective leader serves others with love. Mission leaders who are friendly, effective, and hard working are able to inspire, train, counsel, and help the other missionaries to succeed.

At each MLC, President and Sister Pearson and the Assistants to the President have opportunities to train while involving all the other missionaries in attendance in the council format. Then at Zone Conferences, we witness the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders take what they've learned and experienced through MLC and once again counsel together with all the other missionaries to plan and prepare to fulfill their mission purpose: "...to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end (see Preach My Gospel [2004], 1).

We are excited to be a part of this great work and specifically here in the Jamaica Kingston Mission. 
As we say at most meetings...

"It's a great day in Jamaica. 
Yah Mon!"

One of our recent tasks is to add more cleaning and kitchen kits to the emergency container. Recently, on a P-day, we enlisted the help of some of our hard-working elders to assemble 20 cleaning kits. All of us working together got this done in half the time it would have taken the two of us old folks. We "rewarded" them with a good ol' home cooked pot roast lunch. They were so appreciative. Even though it's usually delicious, the missionaries do get a little tired of eating so much chicken here in Jamaica. 

  

We just finished another 3 months reading of the Book of Mormon and will start again tomorrow with "I, Nephi, being born of goodly parents..." (1Nephi 1:1). We echo the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. who said, "The Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” Correct in this statement refers to the correctness of the book because it contains the fulness of the gospel. Just as promised by President Russel M. Nelson in a recent General Conference talk, our study of the Book of Mormon does help us make better decisions and the windows of heaven do open to allow us to receive answers to our questions and direction to our lives. We can be immunized against the evils of the day. 

Until next week...all our love.