Ocho

Thursday morning we went to Lime Hall to give Wayne a lesson on the priesthood and to help him with his reading.  We met his youngest daughter, Krista, who lives with her mother.  She had a little friend with her named Apple.  It was funny to watch how the girls would help Wayne read.  After we finished at Wayne's, we made a stop at Tanisha's but she was still in Canada.  On the way home we decided to stop at Juici Patties.  They are famous in Jamaica and they are cheap.  They are like a pot pie only really thin and they are shaped like a turnover.  I think they must use a little cornmeal in the flour because they are yellow.  We were told to get the cheese ones that have a little meat in them.  We were also told to get the cocoa bread to go with them.  The elders like to put the pattie in the middle of the bread.  Brian ate his that way but I just wanted the flavor of the pattie so I saved my bread for dinner.  There was a pharmacy by the pattie store so we decided to check it out.  The sisters told us it was like a Walmart.  It was fun to look around but we decided that the little grocery store under our meeting house was probably cheaper.  There were not very many people in the store but they did have a lot of items from the US.  Later that night we met with President Lester to go over some branch business.

Friday we studied for awhile and then went back to Lime Hall to meet with Humphreys.  Brian wanted to give him the priesthood lesson also.  He has been a member for over nine months now and has not missed a day of church.  He is such a great member.  Since he joined the church, he has been blessed to find work.  He used to drive a taxi and he loaned the taxi to a relative and the relative ran out all the water in the car and damaged the engine.  He is trying to get his car back because he only owes $600.00 on it but the bank won't give him a loan because he has only had a job for 6 months and you have to have a job for a year in order to get a loan.  He will probably lose the car.  Jamaicans are very good at putting old cars back in service.  It is too bad that Obama didn't send all his clunkers to Jamaica instead of destroying them.

Friday night we went out with the elders.  We visited an active sister that lives in Pimento Walk.  It was another one of those steep roads up into the mountain side.  We then went to a discussion.  The elders are teaching the daughter of a less active couple.   The mother has ten children and I think she may have only one daughter that is a member.  The father drinks and maybe that is why her parents are not active.  A lot of inactives also say they do not have the money for the taxi fare to go to church and that could be another reason.  Her mother did join us for the discussion.  I was excited to see the daughter at church today.  Her mother did not come with her.

Saturday we spent the day in Spanish Town for CES training.  The Vances and Brother Britten did a great job.  We left Ocho at 7:30 a.m. so that we could be there for the 9:00 a.m. start time.  We finished at 3:00 p.m.  I was feeling a little overwhelmed at all that needs to be done for seminary along with my other missionary responsibilities.  It is discouraging when you know that reaching the one is so important and that you have 18 potential students and only four of those 18 will come.  Most of the students live 30 - 60 minutes away and that means more taxi fare for the parents.

Today we left the house at 9:30 and did not get home until almost 7:15.  Church was great.  Sister Barbagee and Elder Hall gave the talks and they were really good.  We had visitors from California, New Jersey and England. I asked the sister from California how they found us.  The address on the church web site is wrong and the sign that is suppose to hang out side the meeting house blew off.  She told me that the taxi cab driver knew where to take them.  They stayed for the whole meeting.  Their children weren't too happy about that.  Does that sound familiar?  Elder Egan taught the plan of Salvation for Sunday school and we had a lot of participation.

Relief Society was also good on eternal marriage.  We have a lot of single sisters in the ward.  Two of those sisters had been sealed to their husbands in the temple.  I was really wondering what was going on in the heads of some of our less active sisters but the Relief Society president is one of the ones whose eternal marriage ended in divorce and she said that she realized that for her own salvation that she needed to be active regardless of what happened in her life.  I think it was really good for the less active sisters to hear that.

After the block, we visited with the members and then took the sacrament to Sister Llewellan.  President Lester accompanied us.  We than drove to St. Anns Bay to visit Sister Rose, who is in the hospital there.  She is dying of  colon cancer.  Brian and President Lester gave her a blessing.  Sister Rose's sister was there visiting also so we gave her a ride back to Lime Hall so she would not have to pay for a taxi. We took President Lester and Peter home and then  President Lester gave us some rice and eggs to deliver to a family as we made our way back home.  Feeling rather tired when we got home, I was thankful for leftover meatloaf in the refrigerator.

Cemetery in Lime Hall.  The graves are above ground.

Sister Vance giving instruction at the S & I training in Spanish Town