Sunday, April 29, 2018

Our hearts are so full of love for our precious new granddaughter, Lucy Gwen Price, born April 29, 2018 to Carly and Kegan Price of Stansbury Park, Utah. Mommy and baby, Daddy and 6 very excited siblings are all doing well. 

  

Sammy (12) and Lucy                     Maddie (10) and Lucy

Three sisters were thrilled to finally hold their precious new baby sister. 

Kallie (4) and Lucy

  

We love Lucy!!

(Carly and I always enjoyed watching reruns of I Love Lucy.) 

It seems like we say this almost every week, but we truly did just have an amazing week. On Tuesday, we attended the Spanish Town Zone Conference. 

Early on Wednesday we drove to Ocho Rios (north coast) and stopped in Linstead on the way back to inspect elders' apartments. 

The mighty elders of Ocho Rios

         

How handy - a banana tree right in their front yard

Fortunately, we were able to get back to Spanish Town in time to attend a very special baptism. The man who was baptized is the father/grandfather of a family we feel a special bond with because we were at the Panama Temple with them for their sealing last fall. 

August 2017 

The beautiful Harrison family at the Kingston airport 

waiting to fly to Panama.

 With Papa Harrison 

 Papa Harrison calls Elder Cederlind his hero and new white son. 

This brother had "gone through" multiple sets of elders until finally being touched by the Spirit in just the right way to want to enter the waters of baptism to begin his journey back to Father in Heaven. 

Father and Son  

Andrew Harrison was so excited to baptize his father. 

Andrew and his son, Dondre - the future Elder Harrison

Thursday found us in Montego Bay for the North Coast Zone Conference. It was a long but fantastic day. Besides attending conference, we also inspected the elders and sisters apartments and then drove a set of elders back to their home in Ocho Rios. We put a lot of miles on the truck and were so glad to arrive back at home safely and pretty much fall into bed.

 With Elder Harrah, 

one of the Assistants to President Pearson

Everyone loves his smile. 

The members of leadership of the mission usually wear the matching Jamaican ties at Zone Conferences and other such meetings. 

Sister Pearson and the darling young sisters of the North Coast Zone

We love attending baptism, so this was an extra special week. Saturday we traveled on one of my least favorite roads over to the east to Yallahs for the baptism of a young adult who is the son of another recent convert whose baptism we also attended. 

 One of our enthusiastic elders who enjoys leading the music

 We met once again in the shade of this huge mango tree 

in a Yallahs Branch members' yard.

   

A little wind-blown but happy as can be for this mother and her son

We just hadn't been in the truck quite enough this week, so we travelled to attend the Junction Branch (about 2 1/2 hours away) for Sunday meetings. One of the mission elders serves as the Branch President and is doing a great job with this small struggling branch. After the regular block of meetings,  training on their responsibilities as leaders in the branch was given to the branch council members. We then stopped at the elders apartment before heading home. We had dropped off a big crock pot of stew, rolls, and dessert at their apartment before church so they'd have a nice meal to come home to. We made it home before dark and then the fun began as we anxiously awaited every little update until Lucy was born. 

We have another wonderful week ahead of us with the expected visit of a Major Vision Initiative specialist and his wife to hand over and offer training on a new piece of vision equipment at University Hospital of West Indies here in Kingston. 

Dr. Jesse Hunsaker 

We've included the link for the recently released

2017 LDS Charities Annual Report. 

https://www.ldscharities.org/bc/content/ldscharities/annual-report/2017/LDS_Charities_2017_Full_English.pdf?lang=eng

Until next week...all our love. 

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Another beautiful plant found in Jamaica - 

the Fringed Rosemallow of the hibiscus family.  

This past week found us busily engaged attending two Zone Conferences, inspecting and updating first aid kits in seven missionaries' apartments, and continuing with - as we say - hunting and gathering in connection with our current humanitarian projects.

Kingston Zone Conference

Elder in his element presenting an inspiring session of training on the importance of involving members in missionary work and especially how vital members are in the retention of new converts after baptism. 

Two great smiles on two of our lovely Sister Training Leaders!

 Mandeville Zone Conference

The darling, valiant sisters of the Mandeville Zone

President and Sister Pearson love singing the glorious hymns of the gospel.

We see some pretty interesting things while doing apartment/home inspections. This is the living room of the elders' home in May Pen with a strange looking stairway leading to nowhere. Most likely the owners will add on a second story some day - that's planning ahead.

  

We cease to be amazed at the missionaries creativity in finding clever ways to hang clothes to dry. 

Who knew this is what a 

gas cylinder and a broom are for?

And we certainly never knew a bed spring could make such a nifty drying rack for socks. 

Yes!! Smiles all around as they "pass" inspection. Some of the elders' don't quite have the flair for homemaking skills yet, but we try to be pleasant when giving them suggestions and recommendations, and we usually take them a little treat, so we don't think they totally dread our visits. Mainly, we want them to be good stewards and to be safe and healthy in their surroundings. 

Santa Cruz Branch

We weren't able to attend this baptism at the ocean in the Santa Cruz Branch, but this is the best photo of the great joy felt by the elders and their new eternal friends.

Kingston Sisters and Elders sang at the Boulevard Ward baptismal service

We attended a baptism in the Boulevard Ward here in Kingston on Saturday and plan to attend another baptism on Wednesday in Spanish Town. The missionaries described these investigators to us as really old - like 66 or 67 or something! In other words, our age. The missionaries actually are usually surprised, or at least they act surprised, when we tell them we're 67. They'll say, "No way!" We'll take every compliment we can get. 

We have two more Zone Conferences this next week to attend. We love these opportunities to be with and learn from the young missionaries. I think I'm going to miss that the most about the mission - well, and the amazing Jamaican people and the beautiful tropical island, and...

...but not the roads and the crazy drivers; I guarantee!

Until next week...love to all.

Sunday, April 15, 2018

We are in our 21st month of serving in Jamaica and find we are busier than ever. We have so many irons in the fire, as the old adage goes, but we truly prefer it this way. Being busy means more needs of the wonderful people of Jamaican are being met. 

This past week we travelled to Montego Bay and then on to Lucea on the northwest coast to make  additional purchases in connection with the project at the Hanover Infirmary. We made a quick visit to the facility and were pleased to find a recently purchased stove delivered and ready to install. We know this will make a huge difference in the kitchen. 

Hanover Infirmary's new stove

We were also had the opportunity to visit the Golden Age Home a large facility for the aged and disabled here in Kingston to interview seven recent wheelchair recipients.

Golden Age Home

Physical Therapy Clinic

This is one of the most rewarding aspects of the work we do. Our hearts are always touched as we get the chance to interact with amazing people who in the face of so many challenges exhibit such positive and grateful attitudes. 

  

In addition to our humanitarian projects, another fun opportunity we have is inspecting missionaries' apartments. We only had the responsibility to inspect two apartments of sister missionaries up until now, but because there are so few senior missionary couples right now, we are doing the personal inspections of almost all 33 apartments during this transfer. We're tying all this travel in with attending the four Zone Conferences and our other tasks around the island. We learned very quickly the benefit of dove-tailing travel especially to cut down on time and distance. With President and Sister Pearson also nearing the end of their mission, there is need to make sure these inspections are completed before the four of us leave and the mission is placed in the loving, capable hands of the new mission presidency. We're also using these visits to update all the medical/first aid kits for all the companionships. It is a big undertaking, but we really enjoy visiting the missionaries' homes; it's going to be a great couple of weeks.

 We loved seeing one companionship 
keeps track of their investigators and goals.

Be it ever so humble...

...and creative.

We were in Port Antonio on the northwest coast this past weekend for Buddy to do some extensive training of the branch president and the branch council. We fit in a couple of apartment inspections and had a couple of hours to go check out the Blue Lagoon. 

We took a short boat ride into this beautiful lagoon.

Monkey Island

We'd like to go back and spend a little more time in this gorgeous part of the island; that may or may not happen with time growing short. 

So in closing, this isn't a spiritual thought at all, well except maybe about the value of using ones God-given abilities...

Any fans of Shel Silverstein? 

                                             THE SILVER FISH

by Shel Silverstein 

While fishing in the blue lagoon

I caught a lovely silver fish,

And he spoke to me. "My boy," quoth he,

"Please set me free and I'll grant your wish...

A kingdom of wisdom? A palace of gold?

Or all the goodies your fancies can hold?"

So I said, "OK," and I threw him free,

And he swam away and he laughed at me

Whispering my foolish wish

Into a silent sea.

Today I caught that fish again,

That lovely prince of fishes,

And once again he offered me—

If I would only set him free—

Any one of a number of wonderful wishes...

He was delicious!

Until next week...all our love.