Sunday, November 5, 2017

The Parable of the Sower

Mark 4:1-9

1 And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. 

2 And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,

3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:

4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

5 And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth;

6 But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 

7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 

8 An other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.

9 And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage

I am inspired by the teachings in relation to this parable from the book, Jesus the Christ.

"Seed falling in shallow soil, underlain by a floor of unbroken stone or hard-pan, may strike root and flourish for a brief season; but as the descending rootlets reach the impenetrable stratum they shrivel, and the plant withers and dies , for the nutritive juices are insufficient where there is no depth of earth. 

So with the man whose earnestness is superficial, whose energy ceases when obstacles are encountered or opposition met; though he manifest enthusiasm for a time persecution deters him; he is offended, and endure not."

(Talmage, James E. Jesus the Christ: A Study of the Messiah and His Mission according to Holy Scriptures both Ancient and Modern. Deseret Book Company, 1974.)

I find as now we are in our 15th month here, I have to guard against allowing day-to-day obstacles thwart my enthusiasm. As we listen to the young elders and sisters, I am constantly motivated by their enduring commitment. I'm so thankful for each one and want to be more like them and have the zeal they have.

So, one of the frustrations - certainly not of eternal consequence - is the horrible condition of most of the roads throughout the island; we are thankful for the two nicely maintained tollways. We thought we'd share what we deal with on just the road we travel from our apartment. 

  

The photo above shows the size of many of the pot holes when we first arrived.

Below are what we're dealing with now. Yes, in Jamaica, we drive on the left side of the road, but not on this road. You drive on whichever side will avoid the most discomfort 

- which can be tricky during rush hour. 

Above - Looking toward our apartment complex gate. 

  

 

We have even named some of the biggest holes. 

The huge pothole on the bottom right started out as several small holes, but they finally became one in purpose - being as troublesome as possible!

Out and about it is often a game of dodging the holes 

WHILE dodging the other vehicles dodging the holes!

Fortunately, we can ignore some of the irritation of the potholes 
because of the beauty of other sights in our neighborhood. 

  

 Small bananas growing in a yard right around the corner.

We have four substantial projects very close to being ready for submission, so much of our work last week and this week is finalizing paperwork from the Project Leaders and entering everything into the computer program. We are excited and hope to have all four approved by the end of the year. These projects will ultimately serve 1000s of people in various ways. They involve providing equipment for pre-natal care for expectant mothers; laundry and kitchen equipment, and beds at a very-needy parish infirmary; beds at a small hospital; and vision examination equipment at a free vision center. 

Our other welfare services responsibilities allow for choice interaction with members and non-members alike as we continue the processes involved with creating and implementing Member Welfare Projects (food production) and conducting wheelchair follow-up interviews. We are especially grateful for the recent support from the four new Self Reliance senior missionaries to assist members in the training and planning aspects of creating businesses for raising chickens, bees, gardens, etc. 

This week we had the monthly SR missionaries FHE get-together in Mandeville. Elder and Sister Chandler had arranged for us to visit a very interesting museum which is still in the developing stage. When finished, it will be the culmination of many years of hopes and dreams of a newly baptized member of the Mandeville Branch. This brother has four doctorate degrees in various science fields. His main passion is geology. He purchased a 3 bedroom house located across the street from his home and is in the process of creating a 100 room museum by building up and out. We saw all 100 rooms. He has named the rooms after his ancestors to pay tribute to their legacy. He hopes to have the museum completed by 2020, a very ambitious goal. We were amazed by the enormity of this project as we walked up and down narrow stairways to see each room most containing 100s of items. 

    

 This is just a few of the conch shells he has collected over the years. 

We estimate he has over a 1000.

  

  

   

Brother Miller wanted to make sure we all went up on the roof of the building to enjoy the amazing view of the mountains and valleys around Mandeville. 

  

We definitely could feel his love, enthusiasm, and passion for this enormous undertaking to share his love of geology and nature with Jamaicans and all the world. A conference of visiting geologists from all over the world is already planned for 2020. We wish him well in meeting his deadline. With his indefatigable determination and hard work, we trust he will be successful. 

We attended two Zone Conferences this past week and were richly blessed by the teachings from President Pearson and the elders who serve as the Assistants to the Presidents.

Along with his other inspirational lessons, we appreciated President Pearson sharing the following from the recent mission presidents' training by the Area Presidency in the Dr:

• We can connect with Heavenly Father through faithful prayer.
• We can connect with Jesus Christ through faithful study of The Book of Mormon.. 
• We can connect with the Holy Ghost through faithful membership in the Church. 

Until next week...all our love

Sunday, October 22, 2017

 We thought this was a cool, HUGE, old tree. 

It's located on the grounds of the 

St. Catherine Parish Infirmary we were visiting in Spanish Town.

We think this is a Blue Mahoe tree - the National Tree of Jamaica. 

The wood from these trees is various colors - a wood worker's delight.

The craft markets are full of things made from this wood...

like this vase we purchased 

made from three different kinds of wood - 

Blue Mahoe, Cedar, and Lignum Vitae. 

We had the privilege of helping with transfers this week. We picked up the elders from Yallahs (40 km east) and took them to the Mission Home to meet up with their companions. One was picking up a new missionary from Utah. There were only two other new missionaries this transfer - one from Haiti and the other from American Samoa. We then drove a companionship to Junction (119 km to the west). It was another long day of driving, but we always enjoy having this time to talk with the missionaries. 

Today, we attended the Yallahs Branch and enjoyed worshipping with the faithful saints. 

As often happens in the smaller branches, Buddy was asked to teach the lessons in Sunday School and Priesthood. He, of course, did a wonderful job in both. 

The Sunday School lesson was entitled, "The Desert Shall Rejoice, and Blossom as the Rose". We discussed how we have been blessed by the sacrifices of the early Saints and the importance of following the example of these faithful people. 

The lesson for Priesthood was taken from the Teachings of Presidents of the Church - Gordon B. Hinckley,  Fellowship with Those Who Are Not of Our Faith

"Let us reach out to help men and women of goodwill, whatever their religious persuasion and wherever they live." (President Gordon B. Hinckley)

Buddy's turn: Today we talked a lot about the foundation of faith and endurance that was left for us by those saints who built the Salt Lake City Temple. The true account of the temple foundation is a great life lesson for us all. 

Originally sandstone blocks were used and later found to be cracked. The sandstone was too soft to bear up the weight of the rest of the structure. President Brigham Young required that the foundation be removed and replaced with granite blocks. The Lord wanted this temple to last through the Millennium. After forty years of construction, the temple was completed and stands as a monument to the faith of those earlier Latter-day Saints. 

We likewise sometimes have a foundation that, upon inspection, is found to be cracked and flawed. Our responsibility is to replace it with the only sure foundation of Jesus Christ. He is the only foundation without flaw that will never fail. When our lives are built on the Savior of Mankind, we will stand solidly against all of the storms of life. 

Until next week, all our love....

Sunday, October 15, 2017

We had a pretty quiet, non-stressful week. We stayed in the Kingston area and were able to accomplish a good amount of office work. We finally were able to have some communication with the Area Welfare Services Specialists in the Area offices. They have been occupied with disaster relief coordination for weeks, so we were glad to be able to talk with them. We truly appreciate their help and pray for them always. They have so many responsibilities as they over see all the welfare services activities all over the Caribbean. 

We're grateful for our little piece of the Caribbean for which we have responsibility. No comparison! And we are very thankful that all the big storms missed Jamaica this hurricane season. 

As we've mentioned in previous blog posts, one of our areas of responsibility is facilitating the Wheelchair Major Initiative here. Just a quick explanation: LDS Charities sends shipments of wheelchairs to Jamaica. Once the chairs arrive, they become the property of the Salvation Army who partners with LDS Charities in this and many other humanitarian efforts. We had an extensive blog post back in July about the latest shipment of chairs and all the training and clinics held in connection.

This week we did something totally new as part of this initiative. We are tasked with finding and  interviewing 10% of  the recipients of chairs from each shipment. The previous shipment arrived in the summer of 2015. Somehow, none of the follow-up was accomplished for those recipients, so we have been asked to complete the interviews for that shipment too. We have names, phone numbers, and addresses, but unfortunately much of this information is no longer up-to-date. Well, we always like a chance to do some sleuthing. One of the things were able to find out was a location where a group of recipients live here in Kingston. We visited the location wondering why there were so many recipients with addresses on the same street. We found a nice little independent living community sponsored by a nearby rehabilitation facility. At least one resident living in each home is disabled. We were able to speak to some of the residents and set up a time to come back to conduct the brief interviews. We received a warm welcome when we returned Wednesday afternoon. One of the residents helped us find all the others and introduced us as we met the new people. We really appreciated his help. 

Our new friends

  

  

  

We really enjoyed the short time we were able to spend with these delightful people. They were so friendly to us, and their Christ-like attitude was inspiring. This community is located in a somewhat volatile part of Kingston, but we felt very safe, and we were glad to witness the residents concern for each other. 

We were able to see all but one recipient who was out of town. Our visit ended with one of the residents a CD of him singing with his gospel group. We were told they had been an internationally acclaimed group. He even wanted us to have the album jacket to the original LP; he's in the middle of the painting on the cover.  

  

  

Before we left, we had a chance to talk with just these two fine men. In that brief conversation a Gospel principal was shared. We spoke of the amazing blessing it will be when someday we all meet again and will be able to walk hand in hand into the eternities. 

We were also able to locate another group at the parish infirmary in Spanish Town, but unfortunately many of the recipients have since passed on. We have an appointment to go back this week to see the few recipients who are still living and using the chairs. 

Buddy's turn: As Debbie wrote earlier, we have been able to stay in Kingston and work in our office for most of the week. We truly have been busy. Monday we began the official process of project origination by entering the data that we have compiled for two humanitarian projects into the church's humanitarian computer program. We have been working for some time to gather all of the needed information for these projects. One is with a parish infirmary in the northwest coast city of Lucea, and the other is with a Kingston NGO (Non Governmental Organization) helping the blind and visually impaired. There are three more potential projects that we are hoping to add before years end. 

We keenly feel the passage of time and desire to lengthen our stride to accomplish all that we can. It is almost unbelievable to think that we are under nine months to go. There is so much to do. We have come to love these people and desire to assist all that we can. 

Thank you all for your prayers on our behalf. This is the Savior's work. He is at the helm. We find great joy in being instruments in His hands to bless the lives of His brothers and sisters.

With love, until next time.....