1st Transfer: Week 5 ~ Pics! What a Surprise!:)

I totally forgot to send a memory card adapter with Mackenzie so she could send us pictures. One month later we got a few:). It took her a while to receive her box from the mission home then the computer that she uses was too slow to upload pics. She was able to upload a few yesterday and hopefully more next week:). We will cross our fingers.......enjoy her email:).

"I love her....she is just my sister in Jamaica"

Hey mom so this week my companion went on a temple trip to be sealed to her family, therefore I was with another companion named Sister H. She is a Sister Training Leader.

Today we will be going to Kingston to sleep at their apartment with the Mandeville sisters as well so its going to be like a big sleepover! woohoo! We are going there because we are having a big sister meeting with all of the sisters in the whole mission except the ones on the islands, they will be on t.v. watching it. So its been a good week. I took over this huge area and took control of the lessons. I felt like I did really good. I love my investigators and just love teaching them.

The Gardens

So I am trying to send all of the pictures but be patient it will take a while. How is the family? Oh sorry I didn't read your 1,000 e-mails that you sent me because I want to give you the pictures that you have been waiting to see.

I have a lot of amazing stories to tell you and blessings. So I bought things from M's store. M is Sister L's mom. Later for family home evening, she talked about how much she has prayed about needing more money to provide for her family. 

Caribbean Sea

I came and bought from her shop and she told me thank you as well as her Heavenly Father because I came at the perfect time. She feels like Heavenly Father answered her prayers. She then told me that after I came in and bought from her she has had so much success in her store so she thanks me for that to. I told her she needs to thank Heavenly Father mostly. I just wanted some souvenirs(:. I love M and she really loves me. Then we go over to R and T who are the best membersss!! Such strong members and they used to be Pentecostal. They got baptized and are so strong. 

Overlooking the beautiful Caribbean Sea

So we have FHE with the elders at M's and then T and R's house. I love the elders! Elder H and Elder K. They are awesome here. No one feeds us but the Senior companion the H's but that's alright. We're survivors.

S is doing wonderful she is going to teach me how to cook one day. We are dropping T and his friend. His friend O just wants us over for the wrong reasons. I ain't here to mess around its time to work. We didn't have a baptism yesterday, its this coming Sunday and I am very excited for it!! That's the ocean and that's actually in a different area. People live up there and have that view but their houses aren't the best.

Her ride:)

Yes, like I said we have the largest area to cover. In the whole mission. But I just love this area it is the best!

Something I need to mention to you though is that missionaries who go to other countries have to fly back home. You can not come here to Jamaica to pick me up. The mission does not allow that. But once I come home then if you want we can come to Jamaica. (: The investigators love me and it made me feel so good that (as I was taking over this area) they all looked at Sister H and said "Sister J is my friend, and I love her". It just made me feel so good! Like I am doing some thing right. It was nice for me to hear that from all of them. I love them so much.

The Falls

I forgot to tell you I gave a talk in church yesterday. I was stressed out.. but it went really good. (: We were packed for Easter but of course most of them were not members which gave us a good opportunity to try to make them feel welcomed. Yesterday we had a good amount come to church. Here in this Jamaica Kingston Mission, just since I have been here, the work is really hastening... its insane. We got a new stake here and we are getting good numbers. Its awesome. Sooner or later we will be getting a temple :). Mom I really miss you guys but I am also really loving my mission. I can't believe May 12 I will be here for 2 months. That's insane. Time is flying by so fast!

Their "Wata" jug:)

Okay, so funny story.. Saturday night we had a ton of lizards come into our house. (I will make sure to take a picture of it for you, i forgot to take a picture of it) and Sister B hates lizards it freaks her out. They are huge lizards here and anyway we went outside to our Rasta friends and told them to please help us get them out! They all were laughing it was so funny.. they went in.. and killed them! I was like what in the world ? I thought they would catch them and take them outside but nnooooppee they downright killed them. They killed them with the end of the stick of a broom! It was so gross! We both were out of the house so fast! hahaha I was so grossed out and felt so sick inside.. but gotta do whatcha gotta do. hahaha!

We have a CD player in the truck that we listen to as we drive long ways to our investigators. Could you send me some wonderful beautiful music CDs? My companion and I need some good music. If you can't then thats okay. Thanks mom. you are the best. 

Yesterday we had no food in our apartment and we were starving! The H's called us as we were driving back home and wanted us to stop by their place to look at some pictures, and then they asked are you guys hungry? I have leftover dessert and dinner! We looked at each other and said YEAH! we were starving! She was prompted to give us food!

But anyway mom we have to go now our time is up, I love you so much and tell the rest of the family that I love them too thanks for all the love and support.  

You family are the best. Tell Adam I love him and am happy for him and the braces thing. That story that happened to him was amazing! Tell Dad I love him and of course little Lauren too. I just hope all of you are doing well. I pray for all of you every night each by name. Next time I will send the rest of the pictures that I have. Love you mom!! Bye :) 

1st Transfer: Week 4 ~ Learning to Recognize the Spirit

Here is Mackenzie's email from this week. Mackenzie and I chat about things pertaining to the email she sends. I've been lucky to catch her on the computer so that gives me the opportunity to ask the millions of questions I always have. I try to put her answers in her email so that you can get the full picture. This is why they are so long. It's literally an hour of communication between us. She does very, very good with her first email she sends. They are always full of information and we love it! I just get more detail as we "chat" with each other. I've tried to fit our conversation in where I feel it will make the most sense. If you see discrepancies in the email that's why. She's having some great experiences! I'm so grateful.  

Hey mom! So, please don't worry at all about the whole donation thing it was very thoughtful of you to do that. They were not mad in any way they were very grateful and you are allowed to do that. President B said he would contact you but i'm not sure if he has yet. 

Anyway, my week was good but a lot of trials occurred. We couldn't see many investigators and members this week because our truck actually broke down. It started to shake uncontrollably like Brittany's horrible jeep did. It reminded me of the time when me and Chandler went on that road trip and her jeep kept breaking down! But actually the truck broke down because we were on Trade Off's and I went to Kingston for one day.When the sisters were driving the truck back from picking me up we needed some gas. So we went to the nearest gas station and there we asked for Diesel because the truck can only take Diesel. He proceeded to fill up our truck and we went on our way. As we were driving it all of a sudden began to shake and then broke down on the road.. while we were going up the mountain by the way. The roads are very tiny but thankfully we met these 2 wonderful young boys and they started to direct traffic for us. We gave them 500 each because they helped us out for 2 hours before the elders came to the rescue. We tried everything. Oil, tried to start the battery, put water in to cool it off. Nothing worked. We all of a sudden remembered about the gas and come to find out the man who put the gas in put in unleaded GAS not diesel so it messed everything up in the truck. So we didn't have a truck for a day. My companion started to cry because we have the largest area in the mission to cover and we no longer had a truck.. we were told that we might not have a truck. So we started to pray and as we prayed I just felt calm. I was never worried because I knew whatever happened it was for a reason...either for us to walk in our area to find new investigators or some thing else to put in our path. So I was calm and before we knew it we got a call and they said that the truck was fixed. We got our truck back and everything is good now! 

Trade offs were fine. I went to Kingston, Boulevard and I was with Sister H. She is another Jamaican sister missionary. It was a very interesting week... we have been having a lot of those lately. It feels like Satan is trying to bring us down every single week.. we have trials all of the time but you know what? It is good for us to learn. We have that unshaken faith in our Heavenly Father and we know He is there protecting us all of the time. It has been so wonderful to serve him. As I have been here I have recognized the spirit. It is becoming easier for me to recognize since I have been out.. so once some thing comes into my mind I say it.. and its such a wonderful experience. Sometimes I don't even know how it pops into my mind but in the very hour.. just like that one scripture says..he will let us know what to say. I am very grateful for the Holy Ghost in my life. I think that's why I am with Sister B..to learn to teach more softly but at the same time when I need to be bold I will be. She said she feels I am with her because of my teachings according to the Spirit. She once said that because of my teachings she sees me working miracles in others lives according to the promptings of the spirit that I feel to say. We have the same thoughts and we know of who to see according to the spirit. For example she would ask me "who do you feel like we should go see today?" we both would think and we both would have the same name pop up in our minds and we would end up going to see them. By us doing that we have helped so many people in need. The Holy Ghost is just such a blessing and we are blessed to have him as a constant companion. We need to keep ourselves worthy so we can know what Heavenly Father needs us to know and to learn. M even said that she was praying for some help because she needed money to provide for her family. Well me and Sister B all of a sudden thought it would be awesome to come to her shop to look and to buy! She mentioned in the lesson last night that the Lord had answered her prayer by bringing us to her shop as well as many others. I just love her. I have seen many miracles since we have followed the spirit :) I love it here. I don't want to leave this area at all. When we come back I will want to take you to see M. She is the BEEESSSSSSTTT! I will be taking a picture with her and her fam so you can see them. One cool experience this week was when we went to go see S and we talked about the restoration. As we gave her the pamphlet she said "I have one just like this" and we were like really? and she said "yeah the exact same one, my grandfather gave it to me a long time ago, its been sitting in my room". Me and my companion looked at each other and we both knew that Heavenly Father led us to her and that's why we felt to go talk to her that day. Because we followed that prompting she received blessings and so did we. She is ready to hear the gospel Heavenly Father has been preparing her for. So it was really cool to see. As for my other investigators we see this great old man. His name is Mr. G and we are actually preparing him to be baptized next Sunday :) He is getting there and he is so excited to be baptized. So he will be my first baptism! yay! He is so cute I just love him. Mr. G is dating a member of the Church. Her name is P and she has been a member for the longest time. She is so amazing. He got interested and started taking lessons. So we taught him! and he loves the church and knows its true. P is happy and they hope one day to be married in the temple together. They taught Mr. G for like a week before I got here so not very long. 

Oh and last week I forgot to tell you it was hilarious hahaha! We went to go see Sister H and she called my companion a liar!! hahaha I laughed so hard. She doesn't come to church anymore because she thinks the young men are after her or something? She says that everyone in the church talks about how crazy she is and that every time she goes in the church the priesthood holders push her while she sits down? I tried so hard not to laugh because its not true! Sister B said "sister H we have not seen that and we have amazing young priesthood holders and we have not heard anyone talk negatively about you in the church". and she said "your a liar" HAHA!!!!!! So Sister B got so mad and we ended up leaving because she was in a bad mood that day. But I left with a big smile and told her we loved her. Haha it was hilarious. We still go and check up on her though because we don't want to give up on her. She felt the Spirit as I talked about our Savior. I have learned to be very bold with her. My companion always says its amazing how bold I am in the lessons.. but what I have noticed is that, you need to be bold or they won't listen to you. We teach some guys in their 20's and in the middle of the lesson they would be like "I like your eyes" or flirt with me! That's when I stop the lesson and am like "Do you want to learn about the gospel or are you doing this for another reason?"I want to help but they don't have the faith or they are letting us come for the wrong reasons! This guy we are teaching, O, is 27 or 24 I don't know and he called us one time asking for us to find him a job! The next time I saw him I talked to him about faith because number one, he doesn't even pray. So i'm like "okay we need to talk about faith". I told him that he needs to pray and he said "I do pray I don't get answers and he won't help me find a job" I then said "When you pray miracles don't just come! When you pray you have to pray with a SINCERE HEART and after you pray you need to get off your lazy butt and go walk and look for a job! and then Heavenly Father will help you with the rest as long as you do your part!" Sister B loves it when I am bold. I say stuff like that all of the time. I just don't have time to be messed round with, we are here to do the Lords work. We are on his time and if they aren't doing their part then we are moving on. That's one thing we pray about...if we should keep teaching or if we should drop them. My poor companion.. we have had times where we would get frustrated with each other but after a while we laugh about it. Its really a sister relationship that we have. My poor companion learned real fast that I am "Fierce" is the word she uses haha she said " I don't like getting you mad, I just don't talk when you are mad". She is very sweet..cute sister B. We learn from each other its good. I'm bold and she has the sweeter side. its perfect we balance. Sometimes she can be fierce with the investigators....some times...which is not her! but the investigators get another side out of her. Its so hilarious...she can get aggravated but when we get frustrated with each other (because we had a bad day or something) she knows to not talk to me because.. well you know how I am. She is hilarious but we show each other love all the time. I just love her so much. She really is like a sister to me. (: We talk about everything and we both have the biggest testimonies of the Atonement. I know I am with her for a reason. We learn from each other every single day. She is amazing. Oh and also my companion will be going on the temple trip tomorrow and won't be back til Saturday. Her mom is going to the temple for the first time and Sister B is going to be her escort! i thought I would share because its just so awesome. I am so excited for her to be sealed to her family! so I will be getting another companion in my area til she gets back. 

Oh so you are going to be so proud.. me and Sister B are going on a "face cleanse" haha. We call it that cause we wear no makeup except mascara and some blush and our faces are clearing up! So we are happy bout that . It's impossible to wear makeup here it will just run down your face. My face is sooo clear so I am used to not wearing makeup. (: It feels so much better! It took like 2 weeks for my face to clear up. By the way...this Friday I will have been in Jamaica for a month!! woohoo! We are allowed to shop on other days if we are in need of things and trust me we are always in need. But we hardly ever shop. What you saw (on my debit card) were the gas stations so don't worry about that..I have no more money on my church card and we needed gas.. so they will pay me back for that. Its very expensive here. I am trying to learn how to budget the money. Oh mom you mentioned the new stake. Yes there will be a new stake but its not for my area. Our poor little Branch.. I wish it was though. Our little branch needs some growing. We are trying our best to hasten the work here and I feel like we are doing great. But the new stake consists of some branches not in our area. They will be combining those and making it a stake. We have the largest area in the mission yes, we are the only sister missionaries and one set of Elders and no they do not live close by. They live in the main street and we live in with the people. 

The boxes were awesomee! I am eating up that food! Thanks for sending it. That reminds me I had an experience where someone made me some thing to eat last week. She made me an omelet and I was like "YES an omelet!!" but then I ate it... and inside there was a butt load of onions, peppers, sausage, tomatoes and FISH. I was so grossed out I almost barfed. I couldn't handle it. It was badddd. But thanks for the boxes. Mom could you please send me some more big bobby pins from Sallys? The ones I have are rusting away from the heat and humidity. I loved the Easter Box!! I was so happy to get all of the boxes. I love how you get carried away. We need a lot of things so it was nice to get your boxes! Tell Lauren thank you so much for helping with the box, I loved it so much! Well mom, hopefully I can answer more of your questions next time. I just don't have the time only one hour because I have to pay. I love all of you and am so glad you had an amazing Easter. It made me sad to know the Lauren cried (when Chandler left).. she is just tired of saying good bye to her siblings. I love her and hate that for her.. when I get home I will play with her every single day and never go to college! haha just kidding.. i would love to do that though.. I just hate her being sad. I'm glad that Adam is there to be with her and with all of you though. Well I love you and hope everything is going good with you guys. I love you mom and tell me if dad gets anymore job opportunities. I am always praying for him and for all of you every day. I am actually going to fast for you and dad so that he can find a job. I just know he will. It just takes time and patience and that's what Heavenly Father is trying to teach all of you. He really has a sense of humor I tell you what. Well I love you mom !!!

-Sister Mackenzie

1st Transfer: Week 3 ~ A Tough Week :(

Mackenzie and I were able to chat again this week. Here is her email along with some other things that we chatted about. I'm really good at asking questions so there is a paragraph devoted to her answers:). Enjoy!


Hello my Mother, I just love getting your e-mails. I am always so excited to receive them every Monday! Today I am at Sister W's shop where we are using her computers for free pretty much. We just pay for 30 min. She is so nice. Lauren is still drawing, how freaking cute. She is going to be an artist. I just miss you all and just want the best for all of you guys. Hope the United States isn't getting too crazy while I am away in a different country haha. Chandler came home for spring break? AW MAN so fun!! I just miss that boy. I love him so much he is so hilarious. I am glad all of you are doing okay and I am glad that Lauren loves having a sister out on a mission. Makes me happy that I can be that example for her! I went to the market today before I came to e-mail and I bought things for little Lauren and Brittany and you some thing mom. You all will have fun looking at them but for Brittany's can you mail hers out to her when you get it? thanks.. I haven't mailed them yet but I should get to it during the week. I just got Lauren little dresses from here.. I went to M's store (she is a member here) to buy these things. I just love M. She gave me a good discount. Then I bought some photo albums made out of their famous herb here. So its awesome you all will have fun looking at them and I bought myself some jewelry haha! I might give Lauren a bracelet I got :) Well this week with me has been very tough spiritually.. yes we walk up mountains to get to houses and our circumstances aren't so great but I just love it mom.. I love Jamaica. I have just grown so much love for these people . They don't have much but they make it work.. houses are made out of not the best things and most are without doors and windows. I just love them. We met this wonderful woman and her name is S. We stayed at her house last night teaching her and her brother and we just had so much fun with them. We will be helping her with the wash which is washing clothes with our hands. That's how they do laundry over here and it really makes the clothes super clean I like it. Its fun to wash. So like I said this week was very tough for me and my companion.. I broke down crying last night... because appointments were falling through. We were feeling very discouraged and then we went to go see S. He was my favorite. I thought he was doing great and progressing but he started avoiding our calls one day and just stopped talking with us so we went to his house Saturday night. We waited for him to get him... he came home and we talked with him and he came high.. he smokes ganja and it broke my heart. I felt the love that Heavenly Father has for him and I started to cry and told him how much we love him and we want to help.. but he doesn't want to take lessons anymore.. so we are going to drop him. It was very hard for me. We are dropping K as well. She lives with her boyfriend who is 24 and she is only 16. She just turned 16. He is very controlling and he won't let her be baptized til 2 years time. She is not keeping our commitments so we are dropping her. We will hopefully keep teaching her mother. This week was just very discouraging. We got 16 new investigators this week though so we are working our butts off. The work is really hastening here. They have accepted Jesus Christ but you get those Rastafarians. They don't like how our prophets are white thats it. But they are nice people. We say hey and talk to them, but I don't dare get into any lessons cause they get passionate and don't let us talk. We just let them be. One cool story though, we were talking to a guy named T. All of his friends saw and started to come. T introduced us to them and we ended up teaching all of them. So now they are our new investigators. They're all very interested which is exciting. We find investigators through referrals. We also find them from our area book through the promptings of the spirit. When we walk to our investigators place we see random people and can get new investigators like that to. With the lesson with T, his friends just started coming. Through what they see and hear, others will join in and thus we get new investigators. A lot of people are curious here and will come up and ask us questions so we start teaching. We need to teach the less active members too, so there are a lot of people that we teach and see to get the people coming back to church. We teach on the porch most of the time just cause it is a lot cooler than going inside. We seriously had only 2 families come to church yesterday mom.. and some other independent people.. that's it.. we really are working our booties off here getting the work to hasten here. The Branch president doesn't have a family.. he is single. Most of the families here have one parent.. or no families at all. Prez walks to church every Sunday. As you know I am very passionate about this gospel. Well one guy came up and started to laugh and said "You actually believe there is a god" and of course I said "Of course I do I would not be here far away from my family looking like a fool preaching some thing I don't know with out a doubt that it is true and I know with out a doubt we have a Heavenly Father" and then I went into the Godhead. A lot of people are accepting but some times there are scary situations as well. One night we went to talk to an investigator, A. We got there and we almost left cause we felt a warning we should leave. We ended up talking with him. He was crying and telling us that his best friends brought over a group of guys and one girl. They brought guns and were about to jump him and shoot him because they said that he hit a girl. His family came out and stopped it and they didn't want any witnesses. So after we heard that story we asked if we were safe? and we ended up leaving. We want A to be baptized but he can't cause he is going to court for rape. He is innocent. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I am doing better with following the promptings of the spirit. I promise. I am still learning. Well anyway, I just love these people and I love teaching them. It was a very hard week but we are doing good.

Now to answer your questions....

We are good with food so don't worry about it. We are hard workers and try to eat whatever we can find. It doesn't usually rain alot, but its rained at least twice here this week. I've had a lot of funny experiences with these people but mostly it gets aggravating. Rastafarians are pretty hilarious. They believe in everything black. I have definitely learned that I am not teaching but the spirit is. I have really learned to recognize the spirit and what I need to say. We have gotten 16 new investigators this week and that comes from the Spirit telling us what to say. They have laws but no one listens to them and they do what they want. Yes they need a drivers license. Sister B says weed is illegal but they all still do it. Its really bad here! When we drive we always smell that weed. We can see the smoke at night...it's like driving through a thick cloud. That guy living with K is illegal, but they do it anyway. You can do anything here in Jamaica its a FREE country! They understand English (: they just speak patois cause its faster to say things. Jamaica is definitely real crowded. People on the streets all the time but its all good I'm used to it. Yeah I taught the Plan of Salvation if you have any visuals please send them to me or mail them. No, I don't need anything but you could send more cute stickers for the children tho. They LOVE the stickers (:. Yeah you can come..but I will have to drive here cause it's so dangerous. I can show you around after my mission is over.

No I didn't get my box yet...it will take some time cause we live in the middle of nowhere :) I am not sure when I will get it but Sister B said that they should deliver it. If not then I won't get it til 3 weeks or some thing. Sorry mom :( but patience is key! I promise once I get it I will mail you all the pictures. Also.... I would hate to ask for more money.. but just to be on the safe side could I get a couple more dollars or some thing in there? Everything here is very expensive. I just figured out how the money works here. It's hard to get the things we need and i'm already out of money on my church card. How was Chandlers spring break? is he back in school? and tell him that's awesome. Russian is absolutely amazing! I'm glad that he has a goal and that he is reaching it. I heard the people in the MTC speak Russian and let me tell you, its not an easy language. Of course the kids have clothes mother! hahahahaha!!! They are in their school uniforms tho. Some go to school at 7 and don't get out til 5. It depends on the school but yes they have clothes haha! The shoe situation is not good here. The people are just too poor to even come to church. Most of the people here don't drive at all. They only take taxis because they are scared to drive. The roads are so dangerous. I've already been rammed in the back once. I reported it to Prez so its all good. We go real fast on the roads even when their are people around its just here in Jamaica. its hilarious! But I say i'm doing good with the driving. We drive every day because our area is HUGE. We have to drive far to get to investigators but we have to park far and walk up mountains (and dirt roads downhill) just to get to a little shack that they call their home. They are just so humble. It's so funny....when I am driving and see a pack of little kids they will seriously try to get on the back of the pick up truck and try to ride in. I have to speed up so I don't break a rule hahaha! its hilarious. Oh another funny fact bout kids here is that they have no school buses... they pay to ride in taxis to school. weird huh? I'm surprised they can even afford it. Taxis are not cheap. It was funny..one day last week us and the elders had to cram into the taxi to get to our district meeting. We took a picture. Elder H will send it to me so I can show you. It was hilarious. District meeting is in Port Maria but last meeting was here. But yeah.. its hard for them to get to church and we can't drive them cause it is against the rules... which is such a BUMMER :( So another funny thing here in Jamaica is always the honking, which means a lot of different things but taxis always HONK. its so annoying and I finally honked back because this week was discouraging and I wasn't in the mood. my companion laughed so hard! hahaha it was funny. and then earlier today.. I was at M's house getting some thing out of the truck for her and some taxi man honked at me and his window was rolled down so I yelled seriously man. hahaha its hilarious. That's just the culture here. Oh... we are doing a service project helping someone build an outhouse for a family that lives out in the Bush. They literally have no bathroom.

I sent a few pics of Lauren.....

HAHA oh my goodness!! I just miss her Mom! I can not wait to skype with you all on mothers day and I can see that cute little squirt. Tell her that I think her drawings are AMAZING! and that I loved the picture of her in my jammies. She is adorable, I miss my fam! I am not sure where I will skype from just yet, but I will let you know when I get more information. Also Sister B keeps saying she thinks I am going to be a Trainer. I am only with her for 3 months and since I am the only sister who will be here and know the area, I will train the new one here. Sister B trained me and she is younger than me and has only been out for 3 months as well. So its different here in Jamaica. You can't bring 2 new missionaries to an area they know nothing about. It would be too difficult. So more than likely I will be a trainer here. I don't want to be a trainer..I wouldn't know how to teach a new missionary! Its hard to even remember where everyone lives here.. especially since there are no addresses but I will get the hang of it after 2 months. I can't believe I have already been out here for a MONTH! woohoo! I'm a champ! Sister B can speak patois. So she is teaching me some things so I can understand what they are saying. But its goin good! Something I heard here was "Choo Choo" like a train. I was like Sister B what in the world is a "Choo Choo"? and she laughed! She said that when you say some thing here and they agree with what you said they say "Choo Choo". HAHA so that's my new fav. sayin. its hilarious.

I talked to Sister B on the phone Sat. night and Sister L. I LOVE Sister L. She is with Sister P and Sister B. They all live together. Sister L's mom is M. I just love them and I have talked to Sister P as well. They are all awesome! Sister L is serving in J but her fam is here. So she is close to home. We have a lot of Jamaican sisters here so they are all close to home. It's only 3 hours to go across the whole island of Jamaica. Another interesting fact. Sister B (MTC companion) is doing good. We're all having fun and love the mission. I don't know if she is in my zone or not.. I don't even know whose all in the zone or what the zone is, so we will see in zone meeting. The sister training leaders want to do a trade off so I will be going with one of them for like 2 days or something but I will tell you more about that when it happens. They have peanut butter but ground beef? um I'm not sure we don't get meat.. cause they sell chicken foot and other gross meats here so i don't even bother looking. Most ingredients they don't have here in Jamaica. Also the foods from America are twice as much. Pizza Huts pizzas are like 26 dollars here.. while the pizzas in the U.S. are like 10 or something. 

I pray for you all every single night and day. Hopefully dad will find a job. I will be praying for that as well. I love you and I'm glad all of you are doing good. Tell the family I love all of them and always am thinking about them! Well Love you I gotta go, keep praying for me! and I will talk to you on Monday mom. Love you (:

1st Transfer: Week 2 ~ "I Have Been Touched By These Wonderful People"

Here's what Mackenzie had to say yesterday! I always watch the computer on my Missionary Mondays to make sure that I don't miss her. I got used to "chatting" with the boys and don't want to miss out on that opportunity with her. So here is her email and some of what we "chatted" about........

Love and miss you all so much, everything is going great here. I love Jamaica now. It was just so different at first. I miss every single one of you. Some times I think "hmm.. wish I could lay in my parents big huge comfortable bed and not have to worry bout bugs" or "hmmm wish I could go in the fridge and get some yummy food!" hahahaha but everything is going good. I have been touched by these wonderful people. Such a humbling experience....what we have at home.... it's like we live in a mansion compared to here. They seriously have nothing. Its really sad to see. Everyone is good and nice here :) I am still alive ahaha. I can't wait to get the cord so I can send you all my pics. I had a good experience my first night. I was excited to be in Jamaica. I stayed at the mission home and it was good. President B interviewed me and I bore him my testimony. Of course I have a strong testimony of the Atonement. That's something that me and Sister B have in common :). Pres B is wonderful. He is very loving. I just love him. He made me tear up because he just carries the spirit so strongly. I ate rice and broccoli my first night. More rice .... yayyyyyy.... The next day I got my companion then I drove to my first area. Sister B is from Mandeville . She is wonderful. Her father passed away when she was 15. She is one strong companion. I just love her. Everyone drives like 100 mph. Its like there is no speed limit and they always honk. Honking here means a lot of different things. Sometimes I get annoyed and want to honk back but I don't haha...so far. Since I drive a truck, when I pass kids they tend to run and jump in. So if we see kids we have to speed up or they will hop in the truck LOL. That's a funny little fact about Jamaica. We have a washing machine but no drier. We hang them up to dry. Our house is full of bugs.. and I mean a lot of bugs. There was a HUGE ROACH that woke me up one night. That's a funny story about me and my companion. I literally woke her up so she could kill it but she missed it and its still alive somewhere in our house. We have lizards, big ants and baby roaches in our house as well. It's just a lovely experience that we all have with gods creatures. They just love to be with us HAHAHA! its horrible and so gross but anyway.. I will take a picture of our house and show it to you. You will think its awesome. Our neighbor made us dinner thank goodness and she brought it over. We were literally starving so thank goodness for her! :) We don't have dinner appointments so we starve here. Everything we eat here is served with beans and rice except for pizza hut and burger king. Beans, rice and chicken.. and they keep the bones in the chicken. But i'm used to beans and rice. It's fine we are survivors. I have looked at the star apple but have not tasted it yet. It stains your mouth and you use the peel to clean your mouth. It's a clear foamy mess that you get on your mouth it looks gross. When you open it its a legit star inside with a lot of seeds. But I will try some and have my companion take a pic of me eating one haha!! They machete down their fruits from the trees lol. Also we don't get ensigns here.. but we get what is called Liahona? which is a magazine like the ensign. But you are more than welcome to send me ensigns that would be good to. Well this week here in Jamaica was different and I will tell you bout the experience I had haha!! Okay so we were walking down the streets and a guy stopped us and he said "what church you from"? We told him and he said "Oh okay" then he continued to say that he is a messenger to all of us and that he will assign himself 12 apostles. So in other words he thinks he is a prophet. I got so frustrated with him. But my companion and I left and LAUGHED so hard bout it! I have been teaching so many investigators and they are just wonderful. One person I just love and adore is this guy named S. He's my favorite. He is 22 years old and he confessed to us that he is addicted to ganja (weed in the U.S). I have talked to him so much about how he can become better . We have been working with him on that and he is now down to smoking twice a day.. which is such a BIG THING! He will soon have a priesthood blessing and I know that once he has that blessing miracles will happen for him. He has such a great desire to be baptized. He knows the church to be true so I am very excited for him. He will get baptized and he will be such an amazing member. He is awesome. For service last week we washed S's clothes. They don't use washing machines we washed by hand. So that was a great experience! Sister B told me that she feels that I came here for S, because of his addiction. She doesn't really talk with S but I do. I do my best to help him out. He has such an amazing spirit and I can see that, it makes me angry that Satan is doing the best he can to destroy him but we are not gonna let that happen. He is going to be baptized after this addiction is gone and done away with! Every time I give lessons here I tear up when I bear my testimony because I feel horrible seeing them in their situations and I just want to help them. Its just that I feel the spirit so strong in what He wants me to tell them. I tell them and I tear up. They listen and they feel good after I leave but that's some thing that is common for me here. I always tear up in my lessons.. well.. most of them. I begged this guy to better his life and I teared up and bore my testimony to him.. just like the Sons of Mosiah. I care for the eternal welfare and it saddens me to see them stuck in Satan's trap. I want them to endure this life to be with our Heavenly Father. That guy i talked bout was the guy who thought he was the prophet but he really listened... and he said that he knows we were supposed to bump into each other so that was a good experience even though he was such a weirdo lol. We go see this lady who is a less active and she is hilarious! She thinks everyone is after her. She says that people blow smoke in her window while she is sleeping? BUT she lives in a house where its all GATED round her whole house. There is no way people can get in. I just love these people.... and such wonderful children here. They just come up to me and hug me! I hate that I can't pick them up! dang it. Lots of crazy stories and it is hard at times.... but I keep pushing through. I go forward with faith in Christ and in my Heavenly Father. There's not a lot of people in the branch..it's small. We have like 5 families here that come to church...if that.....i don't know. Most of them are inactive because they have no way to get to church .. either they are too poor or they don't have shoes so its really hard for us as missionaries cause we are not allowed to take anyone to church. They believe the church to be true but they can't go to church. Its very hard for us to see that.. hard for us to see their living situations.. and hard for us to see them not coming to church. We always visit the church members in their home as well as investigators to keep them active. We just keep encouraging them to come no matter what the circumstances. Faith is a big thing here.... they just need FAITH. The church is not a church building. We don't have pews. They are more like picnic chairs. The branch is above a grocery store and the primary room is up in the attic. It's not a building! It's small. We all suffocate its so hot.. so we have fans all over the place in there. Testimony meeting was good. I bore my testimony. It's not big like ours but it was a testimony meeting. We just have a microphone and a little stand... that's it. There is no stage for the bishopric to sit on. Just our President L here who is our "bishop". I was able to watch general conference however, in our small little branch above the general foods here, we watched it on a small t.v. about the size of Adams new t.v.. Of course they didn't have a HUGE monitor that we could watch it on like back at home. Sometimes it would pause cause of the connection but hey, it was still a good conference. Okay, so today for P-Day we went to the falls and gardens with the senior couple, Elder H and Sister H. They are just so wonderful.They are awesome and so fun. They make me feel loved and at home. They are like my grandparents here. It was a blast. It was a fun day but very hot! lol!! The birds just flew all over us!! They had a ton of birds. It is definitely kind of like Okinawa. Both rain foresty and a lot of banana spiders! We couldn't climb falls dangit. In order for us to climb them we would have to be in the water and we can't get in the water cause we are missionaries but the senior couple could. We went over there to their place (the H's) for women's conference as well and it was wonderful. You definitely need to watch that. The elders are really nice. We are pretty close here. We all joke around and hang out. It's funny cause you see the missionaries in the u.s. and they are so quiet and sweet. But here we do all the activities. They all love us missionaries. It's just funny how we get used to the different cultures. How are all of you?? tell me all about it. So here are some Jamaican for you guys back at home. "Mecca gwaan" is "let us go", "Wagwaan" means "wats up" and when someone asks you about your day you say "everyting is everyting" haha! It's hilarious. I have gotten used to the country. I drive every day so I am used to the roads. Its a piece of cake now! This place is a third world country.. but its great I love it here. Yes I have mastered the language here as well lol!! I can't wait to Skype on Mothers day! Well hope everything is going good back at home. Love you!! and tell everyone I love them too.