Referrals, Avocados, and Cave Teaching

Wow, well this week seems to have flown by! We have stayed very busy this week. I'll start right off with it. On Monday we received a media referral for a lady who lived in an area called James Hill. We had no idea where that was so we looked it up and it looked way far away. We called the lady and set up a time to go and see her Tuesday morning. We had to take two different taxis to get there. Altogether it took an hour and a half to get there 1 way. We went way to the middle of no where! It was great! That was about as much in the country as you can get. From the looks of it I wouln't be suprised if missionaries had never been there before, most likely not to the very specific area in James Hill where we went. It was a fun little road trip. The lady's name was J. Her husband went to Gyuana and met missionaries there. He gave the missionaries her phone number and then they sent her as a referral to us. Missionaries from the referral center in Salt Lake had been texting her a little bit. When we got there we new that we wouldn't be able to come out there very often cuz it cost us $800 to go and come for each one of us. We had a How to Begin Teaching lesson with her and taught the restoration and the Book of Mormon to her. She liked it a lot. She had heard about the Book of Mormon from the missionaries texting and calling her and was excited to recieve one. She doesn't have internet at her house so in order to teach her we are going to have to just call her and have lessons over the phone. We left her all of the pamphlets so that she had them when we are going to go over those lessons. It is going to be nearly impossible for her to come to church, she can't even afford to send a couple of her kids to school. She sends like 2 one day and then the other 2 kids the next day, and that's only like $100 for one kid instead of $800 to come to church. She also said that she would want to bring her kids to church if she came which would be like $4,200, almost $40 US to come to church for one week. I'll let you know how our phone lessons go with her.

 

On Wednesday we went into Mandeville for zone meeting. Zone meeting was alright this time. I ended up staying in Mandeville for a trade off with the zone leaders, Elder Stewart actually. It was a great time! I was actually there from Wednesday morning to Friday afternoon. I fell in love with Mandeville hard! That is an amazing area. First, I have always heard Jamaicans and other missionaries say that it gets cold in Mandeville, and I would always say no, it does not get cold anywhere in Jamaica ever. Well that first night we waited for a baptism interview to get done and we were just out by the truck... and I got cold. I was really cold actually. It was only in the 60's but I think the humidity made it colder.  That's the only explanation I have cuz it's not that I am becoming a wimp! 

 

We also had a cave lesson with their investigator who was actually baptized just on Saturday. There are caves right behind the area where he lives so we went there on Thursday night and and walked down into the caves. Went as far as we could which was probably about 50 or 60 yards and had a lesson. We took our little portable DVD player and watched a talk by President Monson so that he could get familiar with President Monson. It was so cool cuz the cave was just pitch black dark. There were bats in the cave too. Elder Ashworth was saying the opening prayer and in the middle of the prayer he got pooped on by a bat, it was so funny! I'll send pictures of the cave lesson hopefully.

 

So the bad part about Mandeville being cold is that the water is freezing like ice. Hence since we don't have hot water heaters, showering was awful. Plus they live on the 3rd story of the apartment complex so there is just a little trickle of water all the time so we had to take bucket showers. Well it gets better, I had to use a measuring cup to dump the water on my head cuz they didn't have any cups in their house. But the best part is, smart one Elder Stewart couldn't find his soap and shampoo, so we ended up having to use dish soap to shower with. #Jamaicaprobs  

Avocados grow like weeds there too. This member gave me a bag of like 20 huge avocados to take back with me. She has like 15 giant avocado trees in her yard and she can't give them away fast enough. Here they call avocados pears, IDK why, but I have had pear smoothies, pear and bully beef, pear plain, pear and bread, pear and noodles, pear and eggs, pear and crackers, guacamole, pear and bulla, pear and mac n' cheese, pear and hot dog, and pear and chicken and rice and peas. It's great. I love avocados, and they cost like $80 a piece here in May Pen.

The zone leaders got hit by the police last week while driving and so for the trade off we had to do a lot of paper work and running aroung between the police staion and the church to get documents and signed stuff and send stuff to the mission office. I felt like an office elder for most of the trade off, but it was still fun. Leave it to the police to get in an accident with lol.  

So this chickungunya virus is spreading so quickly. Prez Brown said that for the past month an average of 2 missionaries have gotten it per day, and there are no signs of it slowing down. Sacrament meeting numbers were way low and it is because of this virus. So many members, investigators and missionaries have it right now... it's like the plague. Everyone in Jamaica is going to get it at this rate, it is spreading like wildfire. It has been hard to see people because so many people are sick.

A. came to church and met with our branch president. It looks like the wedding is going to have to take place in December, it's a long ways away and stuff but IDK why it has to be that long away yet since they just talked yesterday.

 

Well I hope that everyone has a good week. The new ward boundary changes look interesting, that should be fun. Change is great!

 

Have a good week! Enjoy the cow hoof soup Devin!

 

One Love.

Elder Colton Harris

Colorful Mandeville Apartments!