August 19, 2013

YO! Good morning! Well, it turns out all of my pics were wiped other than like the first 100 so like MTC pics! Super lame, but it's happened to like every missionary I have talked to, guess that's what you get when your in Jamaica! Ha, no prob though, I mean sent most of them in to you guys! The meeting was good with elder Cornish!  I didn't drive. Elder Odendails license expired so his companion was learning to drive. He had been driving the manual for just a few days and since we were squeezed 7 people in a little L200, I drove clutch for him for the 4 hour drive cuz he was just struggling a ton! So he just had to drive and we never killed it!! Companionship unity!! Wow, I can't believe school is back in either! It starts Wednesday here as well. Before we know it though, it will be summer again!! But speaking of school, I am thinking 'bout it as well. Studying and learning isn't all that bad. I will PROBABLY go back to school when I get home.. MAYBE!! haha ! Well this week has been another slow one concerning the work due to all the meetings and such, but still finished solid!! I made waffles for breakfast every morning this week, trying to eat more healthy and workout! Went to look to buy weights this week, yah right!!! They want $9600 for ONE 25 lbs dumbbell! That's so horse!! But still doing the basics and this week I have already lost an inch on my gut!! I almost made it 6 months without chopping yard, but did on Tuesday!! It is the dumbest thing I have ever done! Took like 2 hours with 3 guys to chop a yard that would take like 5 minutes to mow! HUGE blisters on my hands right now! So dumb! Same day poured rain again, not to miss the fact that it has been raining for 20 days straight now!! It's on and off, but can't go a day with out some!! Wednesday we went and taught Mr. Duejon at his bar. He is an atheist that hates Christians and his daughter and wife are our investigators that we can't see again til we get things straightened out with him! The lesson we had with him was good and he at least trusts us now and bought us some cran-wata cuz we turned down his rum, ha. Interesting, but went well! Thursday we left to the Junction Elder's house where we stayed the night, didn't sleep too well on the floor and it was super cold!!! Got into the high 70's!! But got up early, left at 7 to drive another 2.5 hrs. to Spanish town for the meeting! Had the training meeting first which was good just talking bout some little things and how things are going and the difficulties of the ones training currently and after that meeting we had a district leader meeting with elder Cornish and president brown! They just slammed down on us! Our expectations are terrible and got to step up the work. The goal is 300 baptisms annually and we only have 130!! The statistics were terrible, Jamaica Kingston is like you have to get 39 new investigators just to get one baptism!! Terrible! But they are upping the EXPECTATIONS! But someone has to do it first! Like the 4 minute mile, no one thought you could break it, but when someone did, Everyone Did!! So we will do the same thing in this mission. Our goal is 6-10 baptisms per month per companionship!! Got to step up the work!! Also got rebuked for not wearing tops and bottoms and just lounging around in our Jesus jammys, So Hutt! Then had a 5 hour drive back from the meeting!! Saturday was great, saw lots of less actives and just making up for lost time!! I'm excited for next week, this one was kind of a drag.. still have 3 progressing though. Steve, Kareen and Annyia. Annyia should have been baptized this week, but we are having problems with her mom. Got to get her  permission, hopefully her heart will soften!! Much Love!

 

Probably favorite scripture of the week: D&C 127:4

Favorite quote: So What?! - Boyd K. Packer.

 

Elder Wilkerson

99 Aint Good Enough

August 12, 2013

Hello Everyone!  My waterfall experience was terrible... because we are white they think they can scam us!! We ain’t dumb, they only got 450 but it shoulda been free. We were biking up and this guy started following us on his motor bike and was giving us directions we said we were fine, but in the end he got the money!  Something wrong in this pic! plus they had nothing posted for fees and no uniforms but I did get some cool pics. We didn’t get to go in the caves or anything too awesome, they wanted 1500 each! That’s enough money for a week of food! No Sir!

Tuesday was awesome!  We really only had two lessons due to a crazy amount of rain! Steve! He came to church and said I want to learn more. We had a two hour discussion on the restoration. It was so outta order, but following the spirit it was so what he wanted and needed to hear! He learned tons and was shocked we had other scripture! He is just a boss! We learned a bit too! He said something profound I wanna share with you! We are HUMAN BEANS! We have to grow are bean (spirit) to overcome our natural man!! Oh sick! That’s the coolest! Wednesday had district meeting talking about obedience and teaching and finding by the spirit!! Went out and applied it with Elder Groesbeck as we did a trade off!  The worst part is it was still pouring rain, we walked down to get a taxi and they wouldn’t let us in because we were TOO WET! Lame sauce, we had to wait for a hatchback and sit in the trunk for a 45 min taxi ride to white house. Sis. Drummond picked us up there and off we go to her huge house with a Michael Jackson portrait in side! She’s loaded, from England and her grandson from England wants to be baptized so we were teaching him the plan of salvation! Just a solid kid, 2 weeks and 150 pages in Book of Mormon! Came back and taught Marcia. She works in the market. It was so loud, but the spirit was so strong cuz we just all focused up and read Mosiah 5! They got a couple baptisms coming on as do we!!  Thurday we had a great talk with Camille bout p.o.s and she gave like the most sincere like 5 min prayer which is great for an investigator! Wow! Solid family, hope to see them at church this week! Friday Still RAINING! All week! I wanted to say all freaking week right there.. but trying to get that out of my vocabulary cuz no one thought to tell us white people in Jamaica that’s the same as saying another f word! Just great! I don’t know how many times I said that in lessons, no wonder they listened so well. I was so serious, haha! Saturday we took a taxi to Grange Hill to see some less actives! Bro. Williams is one  that sticks out the most. Gotta figure out how to help the guy. He works 12 acres of cane that he owns.. what a tuff job, only get paid annually! I should learn how to budget from him!! But speaking of finance, on top of getting scammed on Monday, Elder Groesbeck got his money stolen bout 10,000 on Monday as well so my spendings might be a little wack this month, gotta help my MTC brotha out!! Sunday went well. The topic was temple work and temple marriage and stuff! Ashlee the atheist has everyone convinced that I speak like Kronk from Emperor’s New Groove! So that is weird, haha, I don’t see it but whatever!! But Sunday we started teaching some Jehovah Witnesses and they are hard to convince with their other bible and stuff, but we found the formula to get them. Haha, picked up 3 new investigators, here it is.. start with a bible bash+ plan of salvation+ temples+ bible and Book Of mormon+ 1 hour worth of time= Bingo!! 3 new investigators that are convinced what we teach is true! They have been studying with JW for 3 years and when questions arose they always told them don’t worry ‘bout it, but we say pray ‘bout it and taught them some answers they were looking for!! Wow, love this gospel. The work is going slow but steady!! Tuesday I’m doing a trade off to Negril, hopefully I’ll get some cool beach pics?! And Thursday I get to go see Elder Cornish again for a training meeting, hmm wonder what that means. Oh, and I might have to drive the truck to Kingston cuz no one else can drive stick and the one driving got in a wreck and got driving privileges taken away! So, uhh, a little scared, but he will make it happen!! Looking forward to this week and hopefully no rain! Took some videos trying to capture the thunder, it is unbelievably loud! Something you just gotta experience! Have a great week yall!!

Love you much

Elder WIlkerson

Nun Tryd Nun Dun! 

P.S.  You can’t trust the computers down here. I think it just threw a virus on my memory stick ,so I’ll try again next week, but it just deleted some of my pics! It’s been happening to everyone. At least I didn’t lose them all :)! Sorry for that, pics are always fun!! Maybe next time. That’s all for now folks!

August 5, 2013

The week has been an eventful one indeed. Wednesday we had zone conference and it was sooo great!! I took tons of notes.  Forgot to bring my highlights of things said, but a lot of them made it to my quote wall! Talked lots about how we gotta be more obedient, Pres. Brown said we don’t have  time for disobedience! And Elder Holland said obedience is the first law of anything! So true! We talked about faith to find, and with that D&C 58: 9-12 talking ‘bout building up a stake first we need the noble, leaders, and the rich! It’s true even though sometimes it’s hard to say! We need the rich first! People bringing into the church and not always taking out, even though those people are the ones that are most receptive to the message. Going to have to put an extra effort on finding the leaders. People who have jobs and can start to build up the kingdom.! But we also talked a lot ‘bout Stakes. Sounds like in the next 6 months Spanish Town will be making the first stake on the island followed by Mandeville district and either Hopeton or Sav! With that we can get us a temple in the next 3 years!! It is obtainable!  A scripture that really stuck out was 3 Nephi 22:1-2.  We are barren in Jamaica, but lengthen the cords, give more, be better, we got stake(s) to build!!! We did role plays for the last hour... I hate roleplays.. BUT after that and President Brown was in our little 4 man group .. I think roleplays are growing on me. It’s not about the acting it’s all about doing it right, getting the bad out!!! Afterwards, we went to KFC!  Favorite time! Not because of the food, but because every other chair you have a missionary and people want to know who we are and what’s going on. We walk out of there with everyone with something to read or study and 30 referrals!! Soo cool!

Thursday we met with branch president Blake and his family for dinner- curry goat and rice! Really good. I realized this week that he doesn’t trust missionaries. He had a terrible experience with them as we found out on Tuesday as we visited a less active that was a reason an elder went home. He was so disobedient, and I realized how wack this mission use to be, but we gained his trust back starting with less actives and talking ‘bout how to help him and what he wants done with the branch and at the end he was like.. “you know, I got some people I want you to see”.. referrals! His brother! A couple doctors and a lawyer! Whaaat!?! Finding the rich, haha, super awesome. 

Still was struggling with the companionship. Friday we had a great sit down and found out he isn’t enjoying his mission and kinda wants to go home.  He doesn’t see the point. Guess I gotta be more sensitive there and see what we can do! Elder Cornish, when he came out, said if you aren’t enjoying your mission you are doing something wrong! But we will see what we can do!! One of the guys we saw at KFC we went to see on Saturday. Jeez, it was a 50 minute hard core bike ride! Glad the Lord blessed us with fully functioning bikes both ways! Seems way solid. We are headed up that way today cuz there is like a cool river waterfall area I guess. We are all gonna check it out! Sunday was great, 5 people showed up without invite and just really shows that He is pushing His work forward!! Excited for another great week in the vineyard! Love you all. Have a Fantastic Week!

Elder Wilkerson

Nun Tryd Nun Dun!

July 29, 2013

Whoa, what a week, what can I say?! It was kinda a drag? Very slow, nothing like Spanish Town but soon come!! Really working with the branch to get them motivated to be missionaries and Sunday we got a lot of referrals and see the results picking up a bit! We just need to be one D&C 38:27! Wow, hit 5 months this week, can’t believe almost a quarter done, seems almost too quick and that summer is almost over!! It has been raining like crazzzy and the thunder is unreal. Knocks the power out like every time and the roads are a wreck. And my companion won’t go out in it... which is ridiculous. It ain’t that bad, but it’s something I am trying to work with when trying to get along with companions!! I thought roads couldn’t get worse than Spanish Town but they are terrible! And on top of that no maps, no street signs, and no addresses.. great for finding less actives and anyone in general!! Haha, but it’s great fun! I’m starting to get the area down! There is one-ways everywhere, can’t imagine driving through it!! Sav is close to a tourist area so I sometimes see white people, it’s weird! I sometimes forget that I’m white and also outta place, hah!! With the rain it has been cold the last few nights, wish I had a blanket. We curl up in our sheets, tempertaure is getting down to 80! Ah, freezing ha! Finding some solid investigators! My comp was trained just to find solid people to work with, which makes sense. We want people who will build up the branch, not tear it down or go less active right away, but it has been a hard adjustment from trying to help everyone and see what they can become not what they are to sorry if you don’t come to church a couple weeks we are dropping you! Whaat! Didn’t think you could do that, but man, probably had more dropped lessons in this 2 weeks than I have my whole mission! But we still are finding some solid people.. mostly through referrals, members of the branch which really is where the work is at!! Love it! Zone conference this week, it seems to roll around at just the right time when you need that encouragement and such! I’m having a hard time remembering names and some are just peculiar names so I started making up names like Zig and Zag.. much much easier!! So we had a funeral for a strong member named Sis Scott, just passed away. And long story short, Elder Groesbeck made this ring tone that wakes him up from his nap at lunch and forgot to turn it off and it went off during the service!! For example, it’s like a yoda voice saying "it’s a spicy meatball" went off like 3 times -  moment ruiner, haha, good memories though!!! Found this sweet Book of Mormon study guide thing explaining all of it in detail and what prophets have to say and stuff.  Man.. sorry to say I have been tricked all these years... I love to read and study!  I have learned soooo much and so much has sank in so deep! Example: like sacrament, it "clicked" which is terrible it didn’t before.. but if you don’t partake you are out of the covenant. You don’t get a remission of sins and don’t get the privilege of the spirit! A sweet quote I also came across that has changed my prayers and hopefully can help everyone else evaluate their’s! Donald L Staheli said: "when we become hurried, repetitive, casual or forgetful in our prayers, we tend to lose the closeness of the spirit, which is so essential in the continual direction we need to successfully manage the challenges of our everyday lives. Family prayer every morning and night adds additional blessings and power to our individual prayers and testimonies. Personal sincere involvement in the scriptures produces faith, hope, and solutions to our daily challenges. Frequently reading, pondering, and applying the lessons of the scriptures, combined with prayer become an irreplaceable part of gaining and sustaining a strong, vibrant testimony!” Great quote! Learning so much and study time is to short! Well, that’s kinda the wrap of my week and what’s on my mind right now! Much love to all.

Elder Wilkerson

 Nun Tryd Nun Dun

dj godfrey (recent convert) works the music at friday night activities

July 22, 2013

Good Day! District Leader ain’t bad.  I get a great opportunity to serve the missionaries around me and understand more thoroughly how I can be helping them and serving them so we can all grow together! Responsibilties are just a few, collect numbers at the end of the week, do follow-up calls and check on their top two investigators which really just gives me an idea when they will have an interview needed to be done for baptism so I can prepare for that and be able to do some trade offs to lift the missionaries, give support and encouragement and also meet these progressing investigators so we can see any problems or concerns we can/need to resolve before the interview!!  My new companion Elder Wignal! He is just great! We get a long super well. He is a convert but 4 years now. Just baptized with his dad and uncle.. humble, hard working guy! The area we are pretty much starting from scratch but have 2 investigators right now and 6 recent converts moving slow but steady! But shore hope to really pick up the pace these next few months!! The area is great! A lot hotter than Spanish Town.  We wake up at 5:00 to do insanity with the other elders (which is great cuz I’m at 190lbs now- 35lbs gain)  and it’s flippin 95 Degrees!! Super hot and super flat, like no hills anywhere!!  But the people are great. Our house is on the 2nd floor so we get to carry our bikes upstairs and we got hot water and another washing machine! So good things there!! Sunday was different.. no one plays the piano so we listen to a loud recording of the hymns, the building is nice but the chapel can only hold like 100 people, will need an addition here in a bit!! Don’t have a microwave at the house so no more oatmeal, haha! And we live pretty close to shopping centers and stuff.  The email shop is a lot bigger! Has instead of 4 computers, like 40! So definitely striving a little more up here! Well that’s kinda the wrap on things today, will try to get more of the spiritual notes down for the next week, but you can guarantee I’m having them! This mission is the greatest thing I could be doing right now. Learning so very much!! Have an awesome week everyone! Much Love!

Elder Wilkerson

Nun Tryd Nun Dun!

Our house - top left side is our living quarters!

July 15, 2013

Good morning! Well jeez, today is mixed feelings and such!  Packing up the bags and getting the journal signed! I’m off to Savanna-la Mar to serve with Elder Wignal! A real Jamaican! Haha! Also get to live in another 4 man house with another washing machine! Get to live with my boy Elder Groesbeck! It was really tough bearing my testimony and saying good bye to people yesterday! This is my home town, I’m gonna miss it a ton!! We have some awesome things happening as well!  Along with splitting the area, Elder Strickland is getting pulled away from our investigators as well!  Maxine #2 is getting baptized next week and both of her missionaries won’t be there for it! Ha, good faith tester I guess!  We met Wega Williams last week!  Just a solid guy!  Works on cars, reminds me a lot of Grandpa Wilkerson and kinda black like him as well ;) (grease) haha.  We kicked off real well and he has read the whole Book of Mormon. We had one lesson with him! I’m excited to hear what happens to him, just going to be a solid Priesthood holder!  We need a few in Spanish Town!  Only have about 10 elders, working on it!! We started a class this week for the potential Elders cuz we have so many recent converts!! Zone meeting rocked! President Brown reminds me of Elder Holland. He speaks with convincing power to your heart and soul but does it with such love! Amazing work is going to go down in Jamaica!!  God really is hastening the work you can see it everyday if you keep your eyes peeled and sometimes, actually a lot of times, you don’t have to look, just focus up and you’ll see it! I love Spanish Town. I’m going to miss it like crazy!! I’m excited to be serving in Sav, but also a little nervous. I’m going to be a district leader for practically elders all way older than I! It’s  going to be a great growing opportunity!!  We had some super awesome lessons this week! Not a ton of lessons!  Lots fell through, but the ones we had we made count!! Sister Blake fed us on Sunday. We ate dog tripe, I’ll send a pic, it was great ;) Ha, well excited to hear from you all next week.  Love you!!  Oh and a shout out to Scott Pearson.. found a Scott Pearson in our directory in Spanish Town with a 801 number so gotta be my uncle! Weird!  Liccamor!

NUN TRYD NUN DUN

Me climb fi tree ta git drink!.

-Elder Wilkerson

Sis Williams grandkids drinking some jellies!

Dog Tripe

July 8, 2013

Gosh, this week has seemed long but it shore was a good worth while one!! First highlight I would say is Sam. Sam can’t read, but we gave him a Book of Mormon the 2nd time we saw him and his eyes lit up so big. Not a lot of family love, he is like 40, but we are now reading with him and he is just so sincere and the spirit is so strong when we just are reading the most simple things, it’s tight!!  Next day we had a sweet lesson with Melinda. Now that school is out there are parties all over... let’s just say Satan is working hard in Jamaica.  Anyways, the visit was so sick! She is a less active return missionary and even with the party floats and buses just around the corner, we just like somehow blocked it out and  focused and had a great lesson and she wanted to sing a hymn after, it was just so amazing!! Perfect lesson! So we got 2 more elders coming to Spanish town! Gonna have a 6 man party/work house!! 10 missionaries in Spanish town!!!  We picked up a couple solid referrals from x-man (Xavier). Gary is one, he’s just solid, asked some sweet questions. Whenever we talk about the temple and baptisms for the dead it always weirds people out, but for Gary he was like WHAt! Really? How do you do that?  Just solid! Can’t wait to teach him more!! Sunday was just a ahh yah moment day. Recent converts just going to work! Rick and Kimani passing sacrament, Jhaniel and Jason giving lessons and all rc's showing up on time!! Yahoo!! Been watching the broadcast in sacrament the last week and that was just powerful for priesthood and relief society! Totally pumped the branch up to spread the gospel and just open their mouths. We had like 10 referrals that night! Just sweet to watch how the work is progressing!! Makes all the blood sweat and tears worth while, haha! Not too much blood and tears but that transfer over to the sweat category!! Work is just going great, excited to see what will happen with transfers this week! All’s good ,just keep on keepin on! Much love to all!

Mac man is all done.

Painting with Xavier and kids.

Rode a cart! The old man that owns it is named Marvin, haha