We are here!

After a very inspiring week at the MTC, we arrived in Jamaica around 7:00 pm on Saturday.  Before we landed, we were given a customs document to enter the country.  Brian was given a paper at the MTC showing the address we were suppose to list as our residence.  Unfortunately, we had the address for the island of Turks. (1st red flag)  Because our last day at the MTC was July 4 (holliday and post office closed), we did not have our work permit authorization papers. (2nd red flag).  Needless to say, we were in the customs office for 2 hours.  We called travel services to get President Brown's cell phone number and he was able to go to the office and fax over the work permit.  President and Sister Brown picked us up and delivered us to the Murdocks (another missionary couple) to spend the night.

Sunday we drove to Ocho Rios to attend the Sunday services with the Murdocks..  We will be living in Ocho Rios.  It is a two hour drive from Kingston.  Elder Murdock drove.  Sister Murdock showed me how to navigate the GPS.  It was a good thing that they accompanied us or we would never have made it to Ocho Rios.  Even now, after making the trip twice, I worry about making it back to Kingston on our own.

It was fast and testimony meeting in the branch and I was impressed with the members.  Elder Hall taught the
gospel essentials class and did a great job.  My biggest concern was remembering  the names of the members.  The Relief Society president taught the lesson and encouraged the sisters to fellowship the new converts and those members who are not coming.  Most of the members do not have cars and some of the members live as far as an hour from here.  The Murdocks were going to show us our apartment but they left the keys in their truck so they showed us where we would be staying and then we went down to the pool area and ate the sandwiches that she had packed for the trip.  Brother Murdock had Brian drive back.  Considering that they drive on the opposite side of the road and the steering wheel is on right side of the car, Brian did pretty good.  However, I was glad to get back to Kingston and I was dreading the drive back to Ocho the next day.

Monday morning we headed to the mission office to turn in our passports and pick up our phone and other essentials.  We then drove to Price Mart (Jamaica's Costco) to get a few items.  From there it was onto Ocho.