Ocho

Monday started out very busy for Brian.  I did the typical P-day laundry and defrost of the refrigerator freezer.  It seems to be a weekly thing.  I have gotten a little smarter with the defrost.  I unplug the refrigerator, take all the frozen items (not much because of the size of the freezer) out of the freezer and put them in the cooler.  I take two pans of hot water and put them in the freezer and then close the door for awhile.  We have one of those refrigerators where the freezer is inside of the refrigerator.  One half of the freezer freezes really well and the other side not so much.  I find that this method of defrosting also helps keep the refrigerator cooler.  Since Brian turned the knob up to the highest it will go, the refrigerator has been working.   I am sure our land lady is happy about that.

Brian worked on branch business all day.  I read the scriptures and did odds and ends around the apartment.  I made some oatmeal cookies so that we could take some to the Port Antonio Elders.  I didn't grease the pans for the first two batches, which was a mistake.  I had to scrape the cookies off the pan.  I greased the pan for the third batch but that didn't help either.  The cookies were more of a crumble and would have been great on ice cream.  We did make a trip to the store and played a game of shanghi for FHE.

Tuesday was a very busy day.  We left around 7:30 for Port Antonio so that we could catch the elders before they began their day.  We met them at the church and we would have taken them to some less active's homes but we got a call from the Ocho elders and they had arranged to take us to several less actives starting at 1:00.  Since it takes almost two hours to get home, we decided we had better leave.
We picked the elders up and loaded their bikes in the truck.  I am sure they appreciated the air conditioned truck and the fact that they didn't have to bike up the very steep hill where some of these people live.  They took us to three members that we had not met before.  One sister committed to coming back to church.   She is 72 and has been a member for a while.  One of the other sisters has been going to the Seventh Day Adventist church.  She was offended by one of the branch members and probably hasn't been to church in 10 years.  I hope she will come.  The third sister used to teach gospel doctrine.  I am not sure what happened to her.  We also visited one of my seminary boys.  He is such a sharp kid and he is the only member in his family.  We visited with two sisters.  One regularly attends church and the other does not come at all.  Brian gave school blessings to both sister's sons.  It was a nice experience.  We stopped at two more member's businesses.  They are little buildings about the size of a shed where they sale cookies, bread, drinks and candy.  You see these all over the island.  I bought some cookies at one shop and bread at another.  The elders also invited us to join them for a discussion with a new investigator.  We really enjoyed that.  This investigator was out to church on Sunday and seemed to be very interested in the Liahona magazine that the elders had.  He even gave it to a friend to read.  We dropped the elders off in Pimento Walk and then headed for home.  It was close to 7:00 when we finally got back to our condo.  I really enjoyed all the visiting that we did.

Today we headed out early to get a signature from Brother L.  His son, P, was home.  P was really looking forward to going back to school but I don't think his father has the money right now to send him.  It is so sad. I don't even know if he will have the money to come to seminary.  Now that they have moved to a better home, they live too far away to walk to school or the church so they now have to rely on taxis.  I think they don't have the budget for this home and Brother L needs to find a job. Afterwards, we drove to Lime Hall so that Brian could give H some  Melchizedec Priesthood instruction before his interview with President Brown this Sunday.  Brian is getting him ready to be an Elder along with R.  Since W lives up the street from H, we stopped and gave him a lesson also.  He is close to becoming an elder but Brian wants him to bless the Sacrament a couple of times before he advances him.

After we left Wayne, we went back home for lunch and then drove to Brother Barbagees to get a signature.  Brian visited with him about some branch business because he was the first counselor in the branch.  I showed his wife the video “Only a Stonecutter” while we were waiting for our husbands to finish.  We then went to the branch to get a few items and then headed home for the evening.