Elders Going Home

We have a great group of elders going home tomorrow - we have known them the whole time we have been here - and we love them and wish them the very best of everything! Several are going to attend BYU in Provo or Idaho so we will get to see them every now and then....yay!

Birthday Cup Cake Cones

It was one of the office elders Birthday on Monday - I couldn't find any cupcake papers in the store so I bought cones and made the cup cakes in them - everybody liked them..especially Elder Hobbs!

Growing Bananas

We have some banana bushes in our front yard ... look how the purple bulb thing peels back and has the small 'fingers' of the bananas - they call the whole bunch that is together a 'hand'. It is fun to watch them grow a little bit more each day.

Last of the sidewalks ending

Here are the last of the 'sidewalk ending' pictures - the last two are of the sidewalk in front of our driveway - notice the homeless man laying down on the cement wall - the sidewalk raises at the end... pretty dramatically but hard to get a picture of.

More Sidewalks ending

A few more sidewalk endings - we walk about 2 miles is all - and several roads don't have any sidewalks - those that do - - they end!

Where the sidewalk ends!!

When we work 8+ hours in the mission office every week day - it is a little harder to find interesting things to blog about...so on our walk Saturday - that's our preparation day so we walk further and a different way - I took pictures of the endings of the sidewalks! Shel Silverstien would be happy about that! Anyway - as you can see they end at stop signs, fire hydrants, trees, and just end!

Sister Lynch

On Friday, June 22, one of our good friends from Ocho Rios traveled to Kingston to board a flight to Barbadoes - where her fiance lives. His mother works in the government there and has a job for her - they are planning a civil wedding in November. They left Ochie at 6:00 on a bus, Sister Lynch, her sister and niece and our Seminary Student last year -Anika Johnson. The flight left at 12:45 - and Sister Lynch wanted to be sure she had enough time. They called us from the bus and we met them at the airport - except the Jamaican Police thought Sister Lynch had swallowed drugs and wouldn't let her on the plane - they had to take her to a hospital in the city and check - she was of course, telling the truth and they let her on a plane at 5:00!! Because she flew to Barbadoes in March and back to Jamaica - when she landed that time at 11:00 in the morning they kept her all day and took her to a hospital at 8:00 that night - what gives? anyway - she called Saturday and had made it okay - what a hassle! Here is a picture of us in the airport - love and hugs to Alicia and Jason!

Concert - University Singers

Friday evening we attended a wonderful concert at the University of the West Indies. The group was the University Singers and wow! they were so talented! Singing and dancing and just pure entertainment!! It was fun to be with the other senior couples and Pres. and Sister Hendricks -- just before the concert they said no photos so I took a picture of the stage - and the program! Don't they know I need to blog?

South Africa Net Ball Team

The former office couple would purchase a newspaper from a street seller each Friday on their way to the office. We come down the same street and he asked us a week ago where his other friends were? We told them they went home to Arizona. He is really nice and not pushy so we decided to get a paper each Friday also - they are only 50 dollars - about 50 cents. So we got our first one this Friday and it had this article about the South African Net Ball women's team coming to Jamaica for a three game series. It was interesting to read - Jamaica Sunshine Girls are ranked 4th in the world, and South Africa is ranked 6th - I'm not sure there are 10 teams in the world, but whatever! So at the end of our long trip around the end of the island we stopped at a Grocery store for supplies for Sunday and in the parking lot was a broken down small bus and several blond girls sitting on the curb...we noticed that it said South Africa on the back of their tank tops - so I wanted to talk to them. Elder Smith went into the store but I went over and it was the South Africa Girls Net Ball team - I asked if I could take their picture and they all agreed and jumped up - then one said I needed to be in the picture also and I said I will look too old and short! Aren't they cute? They had lost the Friday game to Jamaica by 15 shots, and they play again today and then on Tuesday - i told them to win Sunday to make the third game more exciting!!

Elders in Port Antonio

Just when I think I've mastered how to do this blog thing - it changes and I no longer know what I'm doing! I used to could 'edit' and now I can't - oh well. Here are the elders in Port Antonio - Elder Rush and Elder Ostrin - we had lunch together. Also a red banana that Jody has growing in her front yard - very sweet and yummy. So there are three parts to our trip about the East end of the island.

East end of the Island

On Saturday we drove to Yallahs, then to Darvey to help out a Church member - then we had to go to Morit Bay to pay a doctor bill - so we decided to just continue up the coast all the way to Port Antonio - we took some mail to the elders there and then continued on to Ocho Rios and then back to Kingston - took from 8 - 7 but it was lots of fun. Here are some pretty flowers we found, two huge palm trees in Morit Bay and some old sugar cane wagons parked in a cane field. This rocky point is the far East end of the island - beautiful! All in all a great day.

Eli's Baptism - long distance style

We were so happy to have Eli and Heather skype before they left their house for Eli's baptism....At least we are in the picture at the bottom of the screen! Eli is so happy and so are we --- missionaries love baptisms!! especially family members. Keep the promises you made, Eli, and you will have a happy life.

More Streets of Kingston

There are usually people selling things in the middle of the lanes of traffic - pretty scary. Here Elder Flake is buying a bunch of ripe bananas - 100 dollars - about 85 cents US - this is a Kingston Strip Mall! notice the bars on all the doors and windows - all the shops and most of the houses have those.

Street of Kingston

It is a lot harder to find interesting things to blog about when we are in the mission office 8+ hours a day...so I found some of Sister Flakes 'streets of Kingston' pictures and will recycle them! Here is a guard at the Armored Car with his shotgun - they are always there when money is carried out. These are preschool children going on a field trip - "hold on to the one in front of you" - seems to be working okay! Next is a typical street shop - this one near the harbour - to many of these to count!

Wenatchee High School

More of the computer pictures of Wenatchee High School Graduation - June 8, 2012. It was exciting to see the happiness of the graduates - and you know some of them barely made it!! I loved the hugs from favorite teachers and the Principal - and the kids hugging each other. The world will be a better place with wonderful young people like these in it. Thanks to technology we got to participate from an island in the Caribbean Ocean - so grateful!

Sydney's Graduation

We had a great time watching Sydney's graduation from Wenatchee High School from Kingston Jamaica!! Here is Nina with the other foreign exchange students, plus getting her certificate - sorry about the pole in the way! We watched from 10 - 12 midnight and enjoyed being a tiny part of the celebrations. I think we found Sydney walking in with three friends, one is taller and has red hair - Allison? any way - I liked how there were four together and they were ALL GRINNING!! The talks were good - the band okay - the song nice - the throwing of the hats was perfect! Was there fireworks? It sounded like it on the audio but we didn't see any - these kids will make their own FIREWORKS!