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 (: