Life in Ocho Rios

Most Sacrament meetings start at 10:00 am in Jamaica.  A few buildings have two wards or branches but our branch is very small.  We meet in the second floor of a commercial building (a very small building) next to the grocery store.  There are lots of fans and some air conditioning but not enough to cool the place to Elder Hardy's satisfaction.  We are starting to learn a few names and connect them to faces but it is not always easy - especially when you are working with two branches.  Brian and I were both asked to bear our testimonies and I said the opening prayer and right before priesthood meeting, Brian was asked to teach the lesson.  The Relief Society president would rather the missionaries did not participate as they want their members to so we just keep quiet.  They did ask me to show them how one of the songs sounded since we don't have a keyboard player.  That was a little intimidating as I tried to sing the first verse.  One darling little girl has discovered that I have gum and Altoids so she heads right for me when we walk in.  I just might have to stalk up because she also wants one for her 3 brothers.  The children are so cute!!!!

After church, we had missionary correlation meeting which was very helpful.  President Lester, the branch president, wants us to teach the temple prep class.  Between the two branches we have enough to keep us busy for a long time.  We are hoping the sister missionaries will call us so that we can visit one of the less active sisters.  They help us navigate the roads around here.

A little bit about our life here so far.

The Murdocks drove to Ocho with us on Monday.  We stopped at a Jerk Center for lunch and we treated them to Jerk Chicken.  It was very good.  We will do that again.  The Murdocks have been very helpful in getting us settled and acquainted with the area.  After we unloaded our luggage and some boxes of items left from the last missionaries to leave, we went with the Murdocks to get a tax number so that we could connect the internet.  We then went to "FLOW".  They are the internet provider and we were able to sign up for internet service for about $31 a month.  After we left "FLOW", we dropped off Murdocks at their car and proceeded to start unpacking.  We turned on the air in our bedroom but it was not adequate enough to cool the living room and kitchen.  We were grateful for the fan.  There are no screens on the windows in the living room and bedroom so if you don't want mosquitoes, you leave the windows closed.  Needless to say, we felt like we were in a sauna. We were able to get everything unpacked on Monday.

Tuesday we did some grocery shopping in the morning and then waited for the refrigerator repairman and the  "FLOW" installer to get here.  It was after 3:00 when they finally got finished.

Wednesday we went to the district meeting and got acquainted with the Sisters and Elders in our district.  They are great!  Later in the afternoon we went visiting with the sisters and they introduced us to an elderly sister who is blind and has diabetes.  She has been a member for quite some time.  We had prayer, sang, and one of the sisters gave a lesson.  It was great.  We then went to a sister that is suffering from cancer.  I could tell that she was in a lot of pain.  The sister missionaries made her a mango smoothie and then we left.  We headed for the Highgate area and visited with a member that has five children and lives in a small house about the size of my mom's little house in her back yard.  I think this sister's house was smaller than that.  There was a nice breeze coming off the ocean for which we were grateful.  We had a great visit with her.  It was about 9:00 when we finished.  We traveled back in the dark which is a little scary since people like to walk in the roads and the drivers here are crazy.  It was nice to be doing something worthwhile and we were grateful to the sisters for orienting us.

Food is expensive here and I find myself having to be a little creative.  I also feel like I need to soak all my produce in a Clorox bath of 1/2 tsp. Clorox to 1 gallon of water for 15 - 30 minutes depending on what I am  soaking. I even soak the bananas as they say they taste better when you do.  They don't have a lot in the way of greens so no more green smoothies for me.  We have resorted to almond milk and bananas in our protein smoothies.  When we run out of the powder we brought, we will probably resort to oatmeal and eggs.  Peanut butter and tuna are our main lunch meal and we are grateful for the pears and apples that we can buy.  We did buy some mangoes from a man in the parking lot and made an apple juice, banana, and mango smoothie which was very good.  Sister Murdock told us about that drink.

I have grown accustomed to our apartment.  It feels like home even though we might be moving because they want all the missionaries to pay the same rent of $1350.00 and our rent plus utilities are $900.00.  I guess if we are going to pay that much, they want us to get something that is in that price range.  So far, we have not been able to find anything.

I will be very happy when we know where all the members live and can navigate this place on our own.