Jamaican Roadkill - Yallas

Our friends Elder and Sister Daniels are the office/finance couple - plus the Branch President in Yallas - small branch on the far east end of the island. On their way to church last Sunday they saw this roadkill at the side of the road ... pretty neat huh?
They were a little concerned when they realized that they baptize in the ocean a couple miles from this spot!!

Decorations

Now that it is after Thanksgiving - time to decorate for Christmas! When the Andersons went home in August they gave us their 18 inch tree - better than the 8 inch one we had! So the top of the microwave is our decorated place ... Heidi's girls picture decorations didn't come in time last year so I saved them for this year - thanks Lindsey and Kate for contributing to our festive apartment. Kate made the cute Merry Christmas banner - Dad wants to bring it home! Thanks Em for the cute stockings - and the Fromm girls for the snow flakes on the window - I wonder if our neighbors know what they are! oh well!! Have a great month of December everyone - worship the Savior in all your comings and goings.

More RS Meeting

Sister Everette and Sister Nautu applying nail polish to toes! The First Aid Kits were a big hit - everyone needs one in their homes ... the members were very happy to take one home and we made some for the sisters who couldn't come.

Relief Society Meeting

Saturday November 26th, we had a Relief Society general meeting - it was such fun! The sister missionaries talked briefly from the new RS book - about we need each other. They noted that the rest of our meetings activities helped us: 1. take care of our physical bodies -hair and nails, 2. take care of our families - First Aid Kits, and 3. Take care of our spiritual needs - Temple Saving Jars. We learned lots and had fun doing it! By the way - hair braiding hurts! at least old, gray hair!!

Relief Society Meeting

Saturday, November 26th, we had a fun Relief Society Meeting! Our Theme was: As Sisters in Zion - Sister Everette and Sister Nautu (full time missionaries) gave a great spiritual message about how we as women need each other - neat quotes from the the RS book.. they asked us to note from the rest of the activities how we need to take care of our bodies - hair and nails, take care of our famiies - First Aid Kits, and take care of our Spiritual needs - the Temple Saving Jars. We had a great time braiding hair, painting finger and toe nails and eating lunch together. Sister Miller, our member that is on the Police Force even dropped in for a few minutes ..without us disturbing the peace even!! PS - braids in your hair hurt!! at least old gray hair!!

chicks update

You know those cute, fluffy yellow chicks four weeks ago? this is what they look like now! They are growing and soon will be dinner! Such a blessing to our members who live in poverty!

troubles of a missionary - dogs!

When the Humanitarian couple - the Whiteheads, came over on Tuesday - Sister Whitehead got bitten by a dog!! They like to check the places where the chicken coops are going to be built before they purchase the materials so they know how much to order..i.e. if the ground is sloping they need to buy more block so the coop can be level, things like that. So we took them out to where Sister Green wants her coop - next to her mother's house...on the way back to the truck a pack of dogs came running at us!! She just about got into the truck but one dog bit her ankle - yikes! I was running around the truck and after biting her the dogs took off back to their yard ...good thing because my door of the truck was locked and I couldn't get it open!! The trails and joys of missionary service.

YSA Fireside

Sunday the 13th of November we went to Savanna-La=Mar for a YSA Fireside about the conference next year. This is the small church building - twice the Jamaican contractor (different ones) took the church money to build it and took off!! So it is about 2 years old, but not dedicated yet because some things have to be fixed and so it isn't finished yet ... what a mess! anyway - this is the building that a Seminary class was robbed in - during Seminary!!! oh well - count your blessings and pray for Jamaica!! Neat young adults here on the island - we are going to enjoy working with them.

Missionary life

Here are some misc. pictures of our life in Junction ... this mongoose had just been killed on the road in front of us. They were imported from India many years ago to eat the poisonous snakes - now we have no poisonous snakes and way too many mongoose! They haven't got any natural predators so cars have to do that job! They are always running across the road so whatever! The buzzards eat the carcasses really fast also. Here are some more pretty flowers - haven't seen these before. This really old car is at a restaurant on Treasure Beach - Jake's. Look at Elder Hobbs shoes - we had just brought mail to the Mandeville elders from the mission office - he was pretty happy to have new shoes! Love mission life!

Strawberry Hill

On Friday, Nov. 18th, we had another senior couples outing. This time we drove up into the Blue Mountains - highest peaks in Jamaica. This resort is called Strawberry Hill - and we didn't see any strawberries! We had a nice lunch and you can see most of Kingston, harbor, etc. from the deck. It was great to have Pres. and Sister Hendricks with us - and all the other seniors. It is amazing how much love and support we get and give to each other.

Goats!

Here Elder Smith is herding goats to their new home! Never thought that would be part of our Church Mission! Brother Gayle and Brother Lloyd each got 3 ewes and 1 ram - it was pretty fun and a beautiful day for getting goats. They seemed to like their new homes okay.

Goat Pens

This is the first goat pen that the branch built ... much easier than a chicken coop - the goats will be coming later this week. Elder Smith and his 1st and 2nd Counselors and the Elder's Quorum President are all inside talking ... first PEC meeting in a goat shed!! Brother Lloyd built his own two sheds, just needed the fencing posts and wire from the projects ... he is a great builder.

Sister Thomas's Birthday Party

Sister Thomas of the Junction Branch will be 89 years old on November 15th - she is traveling to England to spend the holidays with most of her 10 children...so the branch had a little birthday celebration after Church on Sunday ... you don't turn 89 just any old year!! It was delightful, the Primary Children sang one of the Happy Birthday songs to her, the branch signed a big yellow card telling her how much we all love her...and she was happy about it all. The Sisters helped serve the Spam rolls, fruit cups and vegetables, plus brownies and banana cookies.

Maranatha School for the Deaf

the Mennonite Church sponsors the Maranatha School for the Deaf, just outside of Junction. They have around 30 students and the kids board at the school during the week and go home on weekends. We were able to get them all a LDS Hum. school kit. We delivered them after 3 - spent the morning delivering chicks! and so school was out and the students had changed from their cute uniforms. But they were so happy and fun ...loved having their picture taken. I told them I would bring back copies of the pictures for them. Sure helps you to 'count your blessings' when you encounter such great people overcoming the challenges they have. A young couple from the East Coast live a the school for the church - Mom teaches and Dad is a handy-man - they have a 2 year old daughter and baby son ... good people.

Halloween 2011

Pumpkins are a very important part of the diet here in Jamaica. I love pumpkin soup and pumpkin rice and lots of other dishes...they don't have canned pumpkin much so I have learned how to make my own - it isn't hard and it is so good for us. The pumpkins are not orange like we are used to ..they are green and white striped or motted. Here is a whole pumpkin at the market - they have all shapes and sizes - they cut off how many pounds you want to purchase...note the half pumpkin. The inside is orange! Here are the sisters with their Trick or Treat from us! Last Halloween it was elders in Ocho Rios, this year it is sisters in Junction...missions are fun!