January 12, 2015

“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
~Winston S. Churchill

“We cannot change the cards we are dealt,
just how we play the hand.”
~Randy Pausch

I finished the Book of Mormon here in 5 weeks! What a perfect book! What a perfect week! 

Monday= we spent cleaning the house that the sisters will be moving into. We also split the areas again, and the sisters will be taking the bulk of our investigators. They are taking everything from the meadows of Irwin towards Lucea. It will be great for the branch though to have sisters and they just bring a special spirit to the work! One of them is named sister Wilkinson. I think President Brown was sick of mixing up our names so he banished us to this side of the island! Haha. But the other 2 coming in as well are power house missionaries! 

Tuesday we did a split with Elders Kuehn and Laffyette in their area to help them build up a teaching pool since they are in a new area. It went really well. We did lots of contacting and talked to some very successful people. It was good to just boost everyone’s faith and have some fun. I went with Elder Laffyette. One of the more cool stories was we stopped to talk with these gentlemen...moments in we find out some are taking meth. But minor details, it’s quite common... but we get talking to them and this one guy is trying to shut me down... and I never have felt like the spirit had given me the answers as fast as they came at that moment, I felt like Elder Holland for a minute. And eventually this guy just eases off and says " I believe you. Ya, I believe you. You know true Christians don’t judge and run off just cuz we smoke. Respect, I want to learn about your church" and puts out his spliff and the other guys do too. I don’t know where they will go, but just another faith building experience. They come in all shapes and forms! 

Wednesday= we traveled to district meeting in Sav to meet the Sav and Negril elders there. It was a great meeting, mostly about comp unity, and then we went to a dentist appointment for Elder Henderson afterwards. I am scared to find out what has happened to my mouth after the mission, even though I have no problems now. I feel like it is a gift of the spirit, to not feel pain.. haha! We had some good lessons that night, one of which was with Natanya’s sister. She had studied out the plan of salvation pamphlet and loved it, too bad the sisters get her now as well. Haha, oh well, one work this!!!

Thursday= since we moved the elders in with us, we had to paint their old apartment for the 3 sisters coming in. Took about 6 hours, but looked great of course!!  At night we did quite a bit of contacting in Ironshore (our area) a part we haven’t spent much time in! One guy we talked to walked out and said he had to go look for his other 3 wives... ha, not funny, I caught him in his joke. But he was interested to learn for some reason. People are funny. 

We also got to meet with 2 other potentials in... you guessed it, the sister’s area. They are great! One named Nadeen and one named Mack. Both very interested in the gospel. One drives taxi and the other cleans cars, haha. 

Friday= Friday was a shock! Michelle had read like 10 chapters in the Book of Mormon! and retained it all! Very cool. Just got some minor things to work on with the family, but wants to come to church. She is in our area, haha! We also got introduced to a man named Kevin by Pres. Allen. He is 27 and is an accountant, but has a terrible smoking addiction. We have been working close with him, and he’s making some progress. President gave him a blessing.. it was just really cool for me to see how much members care about their friends and helping them. I look forward to doing that with some friends back home! We all should -this restored gospel is the only way for happiness in this life and the eternities! 

Saturday= service for Sister Brown moving chalkstone... boy, I’m sore. New Year’s resolution.. get back in shape. It’s not going well. We did like 30 an hour and was dead!!!Bbut soon finish it!

We also got to go see a recent convert who lives by a less active that is quite frankly against the church. The other elders said they were quite rude in their conversation. Different story when we went. Elder Henderson is a powerful missionary and the spirit is sooo cool! Tender mercies and blessings seen make you want to work that much harder to guarantee that spirit will be there to back you up!! The ones that are rude just walked out cuz of what they felt and the recent convert we got to talk about missionary service more seriously, good experience for all I think. 

Sunday= church was great. Kevin came and is working towards 22 Feb baptism. We went and saw Michelle again with Tyrone, Sis. Chensang, and Bro Sterling. Then we went to see Patricia's boy, Karby. He is a strong Rasta, but nothing caught his attention more than we are a non-paid ministry. we was very interested in the Book of Mormon. We had some deep talks, but I think more than anything it was cool to see like a flicker in Pat again, that maybe this might be something amazing if Rasta man is convinced!! Very cool. 

We were dropping people back at home and saw the elders heading to a recent convert’s house. so we thought we would prank them and say we told them we would teach Jennifer today... they acted confused, but did see the truck and blocked our tires. They left a note on the windshield. It basically said the wiggers will never win! Well we had a spare padlock so we changed it before we went up to see Kevin and wrote them a rap in a chastity pamphlet and taped it to the door. Coincidence again, we saw them heading home after Kevin’s and took a back road home and parked at the neighbors one road up and watched them find out they got pranked! Haha, missions are fun, lots of hard work, but fun as thrilling and spiritual uplifting as well. 

Well, I love you all once more. Keep up the good work, remember to add God in your setting of goals and making plans, and account to him daily. He is diligently involved in what we can become. Bless up and nuff love!

Elder Wilkerson