Hardy's in Jamaica: FHE in Kingston

Sunday we got to hear Shawn Jones give his homecoming talk. We are so excited to have him back in our branch. President Brown was asked to bless a baby for one of his friends in our branch so it was a real treat to have him in the branch also. I am sure Shawn was a bit nervous but his talk was really good. We also got to hear from Sister Garrret. We have an elder from Wyoming that is serving in our branch and he is also an Elder Jones. President Brown did some teaching in Sunday School and Priesthood. He is a powerful teacher and I am sure all were edified. After church we dropped Tracy and Rohan off and then went back to the church. We were there until 6:30 as Brian had some corrections to do on the MLS. Some of our members were listed as non-members on their print off for the tithing donations. He is suppose to start tithing settlement next week.

Monday morning we left for Kingston around 10:30. I mixed up the dough for some breadsticks with the intentions of rolling out the bread sticks when I got to Kingston. It is strange to knead dough when you have used a Bosch for over 30 years. When we got to Kingston, Brian dropped me off at the Whiteheads so that I could roll out the rolls. He went to the mission office with Elder Whitehead to drop our truck off for its 11,000 mile service check. He and Elder Whitehead then went to an appliance place to check out prices for the humanitarian service project at St. Ann's Infirmary. When they got back, we visited for awhile and then went to the mission office for dinner and FHE. The Whiteheads were in charge and Sister Whitehead made lasagna. I should have doubled my breadstick recipe as they disappeared rather quickly. Sister Pearson made a fruit cobbler and she brought cream to pour on top. It was very good. Sister Hall made a tossed salad. The Vances were still recovering from the Chick V virus so they didn't come. The Whiteheads showed pictures from their first humanitarian mission to Jamaica and also pictures of their humanitarian mission to Guiana. It was a fun evening We skyped with the new missionary couple who are serving in the Cayman Island. We spent the night with Sister Wege since the Vance's weren't there.

Tuesday we went back down to the Whiteheads for breakfast and Sister Whitehead and I visited while Brian and Elder Whitehead discussed the St. Ann's project. We loaded the school materials in the truck so that we could take them to Ocho for the YSA activity on November 22 and then headed to Pricemart. After shopping we went back to Ocho. We made a trip out to Huddersfield in the late afternoon and then headed home for the evening.

Wednesday morning I made a banana cake for the baptism that we were going to have at our condo in the afternoon. We then headed to district meeting. We picked Kimoya up at the church and then took her to our condo for the baptism. She wanted Brian to baptize her. Only Kimoya, the elders and the sisters and Brian and I were in attendance. It would have been nice to have a few more members but it is very hard for them to come at the time of the day. Kimoya lives almost an hour from the branch building and she needed to be home at 4:30 to fix dinner for her grandfather.

Thursday was our institute and seminary day. Brian went to the bank in the morning while I fixed some cookies for our classes. The sisters asked me to come to the church at 2:30 so that I could show Kimoya a video from the church website on temples. The wifi wasn't working so we went in the branch office and pulled it up on the computer. My only student did not show up so I listened in on Brian's adult religion class and then taught Tracy and Rohan's two boys while Brian taught institute. Thursdays are a long day and the week just seems to fly after Thursday.

Today we went out to St. Ann's Infirmary to get some information for Elder Whitehead. We then went to the St. Ann's Parish administrative office to tell them about the humanitarian project and to get their permission to apply for the funding. They were very nice to work with. From there we drove to Lime Hall to visit with Humphrey and Wayne. We stopped in to see how Richard M. was doing but he was not there. We drove back home for lunch and then headed out to Huddersfield again to see Sister N. We got a call just as we got there that one of the families in the ward needed some assistance so we quickly visited with Sister N. and then drove back home to get the check book. Brian got the signature he needed and then we dropped off the check and headed for the elder's apartment so that we could pick them up for an appointment that they had with Bobby. It was fun to listen to their lesson. We then dropped the elder's off at another appointment and headed home for dinner.