Sunday, October 8, 2017

Luna Sea Inn 

Bluefields, Jamaica

  

Last Saturday night, we stayed at a nice little inn right on the southwest coast. Did you catch the pun of the name?  We arrived about 5 PM just in time to enjoy a marvelous stormy night. Our hostess said the sea was being very boisterous but to not be scared. Indeed, we were not frightened a bit, in fact, we thought it was wonderful. Our ocean view room was only about 50 feet away from the rocky shoreline, and we could hear the crashing of the waves all night. 

We arose early on Sunday to drive about 30 minutes further west to Savanna-la-Mar to attend Church and to participate in a meeting of the Member Welfare Project group there. This group is having a great deal of success raising broiler chickens. During the meeting, each participant had a chance to give an update. We especially appreciated hearing how they were all working together to help one another be successful. That's exactly what we like to see happening.  

 

 

Our monthly senior missionaries Family Home Luncheon potluck and lesson was held on Monday at the Mission Home. Sister Dennis, an amazing senior missionary from Jamaica, was in charge of the lesson, so she asked each of us to be prepared to share a favorite quote from General Conference. Of course, it was hard to narrow down to one for each of us, but we chose our golden lines from Elder Holland's and Elder Anderson's talks. We all could have talked for hours about all the inspiring talks, and of course, we paid tribute to Elder Hales who passed away at his home during conference. His loving, wise council will be missed. 

Elder Robert D. Hales 1994-2017

Our potluck was all Jamaican cuisine - curry goat, rice & peas, stewed peas, callaloo salad, fried bammy,  pumpkin soup, steamed bread fruit, banana bread, zucchini bread, and akee & salt fish. (Peas here are beans - kidney, pinto, etc.)

Callaloo is a leafy green that resembles spinach. 

It is a staple here, hot and cold.

Bammy is a bread made from the cassava root. 

Akee and saltfish is made with akee and, well, fish that's been salted. 

Buddy thinks the akee has the consistency of scrambled eggs. 

He's not a big fan, and I don't "do" fish at all.

Akee tree and fruit

 

We finally completed all the purchasing and assembling of 20 cleaning and 20 kitchen kits to store in the emergency container. We hope these never need to be used, but it feels good to have them ready just in case. 

 

  

 

             

This week, we also had our personal interviews with President Pearson, attended part of a District Meeting, drove to and from Yallahs to transport the elders to a doctor's appointment for one of them, and went to Portmore to inspect the sisters' house. These are the types of things we fit into our other activities, and we love it all. We especially like being with the young missionaries whenever we can. Their enthusiasm gives us a boost of energy. 

 

(Heather, Carly, and Emily - notice the cute LuLaRoe dresses.)

We received the go ahead to write up a proposal for another humanitarian project at an infirmary, and we've started doing follow-up interviews with recipients of wheelchairs. Needless to say, we are never bored. No two days are the same, and no two experiences are the same. The best part is being able to interact with so many wonderful people who are also trying their very best to follow the Savior's admonition to love one another. 

Until next week...

Love to all.

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:  

http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sunken-pirate-stronghold-at-port-royal

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.