May 27, 2013

 Burger Grande!

 Three month cake with Elder Nelson.

 Elder Faimuii and banana cake - YUM!

 My mission father, Elder Hamilton.

Drinking coconut water with investigator, Ricky.

HEY!  Wow, 3 months today!!! Gosh, it totally feels like it, but at the same time I’m 1/8 done, that’s crazy!! Well, this week was great. We did a lot of street contacting. At first I wasn’t comfortable with it at all! I was like gospel retarded and now I’m getting the hang of it and it’s just interesting and really fun to talk to random people and try to help them understand and maybe pick them up as a new investigator! We are starting to teach a Jehovah Witness, we hear they are hard to convert, but I feel good about this one! Also started teaching a 7th day, they are rough too and know the Bible so well, but it’s been fun!  This week we started working with everyone in the Kelly’s yard or Mama Lee's yard. We got in a little fun loving argument that turned around on us and even though joking, they joke with no easement of pain! I got the belt to the face and a stick to the back, it was an intense battle but for the victory or 4 new investigators and getting super comfortable with that yard and letting them know, you know we are real people who have fun and not just teaching, preaching robots!! Taught the lesson in gospel principles on repentance today! They love playing hangman so that’s how we always start and we hung the man. They had a hard time guessing the word-  my words were YOURE AWESOME, haha, but the lesson was so good, haha .. that sounds humble.  But it was full of participation and I read a story at the end, if you haven’t heard it look it up, it’s called  “The file room”. Makes me cry everytime, but brings the spirit so strong! Was a great day! So today being my 3 month mark and forgetting that on celebration days in Jamaica they flour people on their birthday, or on their 3 MONTH marks, I got floured in the shower today!!  Followed by some cake Elder Faimuii and Elder Nelson brought over that my great father, Elder Hamilton, got me with a bag of bag juice!! Haha, pretty sweet dude!!  Oh goodness my finances are just off the wall.  This week was just rough- my bike axel broke had to get that fixed costing $2500, had to buy propane to cook with $3000.  Had to use my card a lot on top of groceries and hopefully survive this week cuz I’m outta money and we have to taxi and spend all Wednesday and Friday out in Kingston cuz Elder Cornish from the seventy is coming to talk to us!! So excited get to see Everyone on the island-  gonna be like Christmas!!  Oh so food this week was like awesome!!  Made A LOT of burger Grandes, and BLTs on pita bread with REAL CHEESE and BACON!!! Sooooo DELICIOUS!!! Also got a little work-out gear together! I got a huge like 10 gal propane tank for lifting, I guess some 6 gal water jugs a curling bar and stuff its super RedNEck. I’ll have to send some pics! But it feels good, being fat just isn’t awesome, okay!! Transfer calls in two weeks?! Gosh it’s crazy, leaders keep coming up and asking me if I’m ready to train next transfer. Hope it’s just rumors, but I don’t know!!! I love mission life, it’s awesomeee!!  Love you all, have a fantastic week!!! 

May 20, 2013

 Maxine's baptism.  Niccola Campbell is the one in the blue shirt.

Whoa, where did the week go!!?! it feels like Wednesday! Yes, Maxine’s baptism went well. She asked me to baptize and I had to only dunk her twice cuz her foot popped up a lil!  It went so well though!  Her friend, Niccola Campbell, she is the one that referred her to us and she spoke on baptism.  It was so spiritual and I cried.. imagine that.. ha! But yes, it was great! Oh I miss all the sports, even baseball sounds fun right now!! We play games every family home evening on Monday, that’s about all the fun we have for activities, but we did play monopoly after emailing last week and Elder Hamilton tried to get them to work against me, but I’m sorry I haven’t been humbled yet!  That’s my game and I win! :) They held a huge primary fun day for the whole district which we helped prepare while we were filling up the font on Friday cuz it takes like 3 hrs to fill. That was a lot of fun. I don’t remember anything like that back home, but it was a lot of fun out here and just getting to know the branch more!!  Sounds like you guys are having some fun camping!  I don’t even wanna think about camping... along with the mosquitos that are out here they are so much more vicious!  I have new bites everyday! Elder Shurtlif got bit by a spider out here and we had to take him to the hospital and get two shots in the butt (cuz they don’t do the arm out here) to take down the swelling- soooo gotta watch out for spiders!! Next p day we are planning a trip to Ochi so maybe will get some awesome pics there. I hear it is really pretty out there! Not too much new down here! Got another baptism coming up in two weeks, his name is Rick, he is a boss! Studies and asks questions that are so deep -  he’s awesome!!  We are at the point now we need to find some new people.  We had quite a bit and were doing good,  but two progressing investigators moved and one got locked up for breaking his girlfriend’s jaw and stabbing her... Never saw that out of him, he was such a nice kid.  The week has been great. Church was so spiritual yesterday.  The theme this month is on temples and it was just awesome!  We are working with a lot of less actives and it’s really sad -  some we go see and they haven’t been visited by the branch in like over 15 years... missionary work is pointless if we can’t hold the fruits so we do tons there and personally I would be content doing less active work my whole mission!  But in the next 3 transfers we have 25 new missionaries coming in so like everyone will be training soon! And lots of leadership will be opening cuz ‘bout 12 going home that are like zone leaders and district leaders right now! Pretty nuts but exciting! Elder Cornish from the seventy is coming on the 31st to speak so way exciting there! And yah, that’s about it for the week! Nothing too exciting but it was a great week nonetheless!!  Love you all! 

May 13, 2013

We got to skype with Sterling for an hour on Mother's Day.  It was so good to see him and talk to him.  It was a little bit hard to hear him because he had to speak into a mic and with five of us trying to ask him questions it was a bit crazy, but it was good.  We got to see a few of the people from the branch which was cool and we could see the part of the church where he was sitting.  Everyone that walked by him would rub his head!  He says they like to do that because they think his hair is soft.  Most of the people just shave their hair and the women wear wigs. He seems to be doing well although he says it’s hard work – not physically, but spiritually.  He told us that they spend most of their time working with less active members and with referrals.  He said that they’ve only done two days of finding while he’s been out.  The branch has about 400 members, but only about 100 are active. The area is really poor and most people don't have couches or bathrooms. Only about 7 families in the branch have cars.  But most everyone has a cell phone!  Mama Maxine's baptism was delayed for one week so he's looking forward to that this week.  He's tired of ramen noodles and oatmeal so if anyone has easy microwave or stovetop recipes, he would love them.  Food is pretty expensive, especially fresh fruit, but he says they eat quite a bit of mongo (mango- but not too much or you get runny belly).  They just have dry milk and processed cheese.  

May 6, 2013

Sorry, pics aren’t working again this week.  The computer lady scanned my flash drive that I put my sim card in and it just doesn’t work anymore.  I don’t know what happened, but will get pics up asap!!  I can’t believe another week has flown by!!  This week has been nuts.  So monday after emailing, we went to send off our packages and the post office wouldn’t allow them without brown wrapping paper so we kept walking into stores and they would direct us to another store to check and we did that for probably an hour.  Then we were headed up to fedex and this guy calls out to us mormons and we turn back of course.  He says something about the book of mormon so we are headed back, didn’t quite hear him so we head back to talk to him and he runs in his shop.  We are like wait, where is he going? and he comes out with a machete!!  So we do what smart people do when crazy man with machete is chasing you.. RUN!!!  Hah, pretty nuts, turns out he is one of many psychos.  We finally get to fedex and let’s just say it’s a joke.  It’s like literally a 10x10foot shop stuffed FULL of Teddy bears.  This lady part time makes gift baskets so teddy bears everywhere, and lotion. So she is super unorganized, after about 3 hours of paper work and stuff we finally get out of there! Ridiculous!!  Haha,  the rest of the week was pretty chill.  Wait!  No, not at all.  You think I was a mean brother, ha, think again.  Walk by places, kids beating each other with the belt, throwing rocks at each other and even watched a sister take a shovel to a boys head!  Rude children!!  So its hurricane season ‘til like October I guess!  It POURED friday, saturday and part of sunday!!  It flooded out some of our investigators. I hope my pics will upload !  It was awesome, we are biking on the roads and well they were now community swimming pools. Taxis would open their doors and you had to be quick cuz the water would flow right in!  We were DRENCHED!!  The worst part was you couldn’t see the pot holes, it was just an adventure!!  Mama Maxine, an investigator, we were up in knee high water, she is preparing for baptism May 11^th.  Hope everything goes well with the interview!!  Also, the rain was so heavy it took down Sis Kelly’s roof so working on getting her a new one!  They need curb and gutter, Dad!  Come let them know what’s up!!  Also learned this month is child’s month... kids have already gone missing.  I guess this crazy voodoo religion thing they take kids, drain their blood, and sacrifice them.  It’s terrible so we don’t see children outside very much anymore, it’s weird…and freaky.  Sundays are just terrible, they are so stressful.  It is not a day of rest at all.  Trying to get investigators out to church!  And everything with the lessons and talks and all, its just not fun, especially on fast Sundays, and you gotta keep working hard and you have no strength!!  But yah, that was pretty much my week!  I really am loving the work and loving the people!  This white boy loves it and would be content staying in Spanish Town all mission, but I’ll go wherever the lord wants me!!  Talking to a cement guy in our branch to see if he can build some weights… need to get working out! and eating better.  I really am getting fat, it’s so not cool!!  Well, headed to shop ,liccamor y'all!  

Flooded at Mama Maxine's

April 28, 2013

Jamaicans really aren’t all that laid back. They are a hard working people, it’s just hard to get work and a lot of them get offended easy.  It’s weird, but some definitely are chill. There is one regular grocery store, but we really don’t have that much time to cook! I made some breakfast burritos the other day for breakfast and Mama Maxine she feeds us like 3 times a week so that’s nice! (Mama Maxine is an investagator, met her on day one, she is preparing for baptism on the 11th of may she has gone through a lot! love her!) Rice and peas(beans) is popular and some kind of chicken, but we just don’t have the time to cook and we don’t have an oven!!  Nothing super exciting this week!  We did have an investigator coming to church and some guy rear ended him, but since he didn’t have a license he got blamed and got locked up for it!  The other terrible part is he had 3 other investigators in his car and none could come to church, all had to go to the station!  We are bailing him out today.   Our new elders are Elder Gurrero fresh from Ogden, Utah and Elder Shurtlif from Bringham and he has been out 13 months.  They are weird.. but it’s nice having a four man house again, I guess. I read a sweet talk this week, it’s by Lawrence E. Corbridge.  It’s called:The 4th Missionary. Sweet talk!  It let me know I need to finish boxing up all my desires I want and all my home desires and leave them with all my physical stuff back home. I can unpack them when I get home but this is the Lord’s time and I need to focus!!  Loved it!   Oh, another food I have had a lot this week is crab! Sis Kelly cooks it and its good!! (Sis Kelly is a church sister she sells crab.) It’s been a rainy week .. but that’s the best time to go visit people cuz Jamaicans think the rain will make you sick so they always stay inside!!  Ha, not much to talk about this week.  We have like 4 new investigators, the work is going solid.  Oh, another thing, my bike got stolen!!!  Haha, luckily for me the kid that stole it was an investigators little brother!!! Haha, got my bike back :) had lesson in gospel principles this week. It went super well talked about the covenant people!  Lots of bike repairs this week.

Sorry, the computers are being weird again and it's not allowing me to upload my pics. Will try the other internet cafe next week, this one just had a bunch of things done to it.

I asked Sterling if he’d learned any new Jamaican words, here's his reply:

Hmm, Jamaican words, not many I know and a lot are just bad what people call us. Just a couple phrases like whong gwan= what’s going on,   liccamor= talk to you later,    whattum= whats happening   People say bumbah!  wha cha!! and my Ute!! alot!  That’s just some popular and what I have picked up!

April 22, 2013

This week really got lost in the work! This week flew for me! Everything came pretty easy but it was hard work!! We had some awesome lessons, thought we would have tons at church, but only 2 showed up. The ones we thought were progressing... aren't really.  We dropped 2 people on sunday and almost a 3rd, she's trying though. I gave a talk on sunday on the atonement and repentance. It was good but different!! The power went out so I was shouting in a dark room, reading my notes using the cell phone for light! I felt like I wasn't speaking to anyone, it was interesting but went well!! I'm getting a hair cut today, it's going to be scary. Like Jamiacans don't cut american style... they shave. I have looked at all the other recent missionary cuts, jeezum they are short.  I'm scared!! But they are cheap, like one bill so like 1 dollar american haha. So I had like an allergic reaction to something I ate this week,  don't know what it was. I woke up and my face was fat and my arms!! But it went away, haha. Should have took a pic but didn't! So I ate something weird but this week sticking to the basics- oatmeal, top ramen, and peanut butter jelly sandwiches, and fried chicken and rice!! Wednesday we get new elders. That will be nice not holding down both areas! It's been rough time to crank out our side. 1st transfer will be over this week, that's crazy! But it totally feels like its been 6 weeks!! Oh, another crazy thing that went down -  we were like a quarter mile away from a shooting. Two guys got shot. They didn't catch the guy that shot them but the weird thing is people acted like it was nothing.. so crazy!! Eh, not to worried though only happens like once a month I guess.. ! We started having family home evening at the church every monday night and we are getting big turn outs there so that's been a fun way to begin teaching people and get them out!! Uh yah, that's bout it for this week! At least all I can think right now! If I left anything out I'll pick it up next week! Love you guys! Keep being awesome!! Talk to you next week!

 How much oatmeal I have eaten!

 FHE at the church.

April 14, 2013

 Motivational wall of good scriptures.   Scripture of the week 1 Nephi 21:16 Christ NEVER forgets us!

HELLO!!  It hasn't rained this week and I don't ever wear the sandals, probably never will! But I wear flip flops everyday in the house. They are good to kneel on and bugs EVERYWHERE!! so yah like always wear them! It's cool to hear about the mission calls! It's HARD work no joke but learning so much!! Kinda got home sick this week! Learned about sincere prayer in zone meeting this week.. Tried it out, it was such a powerful experience cried through the whole thing, the spirit was so strong! Teaching has been rough but it's really not much of teaching, it's testimony bearing just about what you know is true! It's been a rough week with the investagators keep pushing back baptism dates, we might have another one this week! We will see what happens!! So I thought I left the drama all at home, haha NOPE!! There was so much this week with the members and just people in general it was crazy, but got through it!! Saw a Sweet Hummer the other day, probably the only one in Jamaica but haha it was good to see something different! We started working out this week.... bad idea.. so flippin sore! With the biking, covering both areas, and just trying to be obedient and work hard it's been rough! Just going to have to be a fatty for this mission. I can see the pounds gaining, but not much can do about it! It's weird!! Had my first conference call this week with my MTC boys Elder Groesbeck and Elder Bateman. It was sweet to hear them and some of their experiences! Jamaica isn't totally a ghetto place. I have a washer, Groesbeck has hot showers and Bateman has A/C so you get a piece of something great anywhere you go!! Finally got some mail! Got that picture from mom and the camera card! Thank you so much!! And a letter from Sarah! Took, you know, about a month um pouch mail is faster... but the zone leaders still have to bring it from downtown so like every other week. Don't know about packages heard anything from1-3 months! Idk what it depends on! Got a letter from Aunt Amanda but no return address or email address so couldnt write her back if you could let her know i did get that!! You are all in my prayers! Thanks for al the love and support talk to you guys next week!!! <3 Elder Wilkerson